The Ladies of the Needle

We have a knit/crochet club at Berkeley Friends Church that meets once a month, and I'm once again learning to crochet (my friend Felice tried to teach me once, many years ago, but I didn't keep at it and never learned much). One of our sometime attenders in this club suggested that we call our selves "The Ladies of the Needle," which has a certain ring to it but also sounds a bit like a knock-off of a John Le Carre novel.

Anyway, today Dorothy brought the quilts that her mother had made to show us, and they were so amazing that we all started taking pictures. And here they are:

This one is all done with Hawaiian print fabric squares.















Detail shot of same.














Dorothy shows us the second quilt she brought.













This one is actually laid out on the first one, the peach and dark blue that look like borders on it are the borders from the first quilt.












Detail from the second quilt. They were both totally awesome! I have a couple of quilts that my grandmother Strait made, but they are not in good repair. I actually used to use them as quilts - imagine that!

CAKE!!?!??!?

Ah, Red Velvet Cake. It holds a special place in my heart, because, well, because it holds a special place in the folklore of me and my friends. There's the B.W. Red-Velvet-Cake-vomiting story (in which scenario he gets drunk, eats red velvet cake, vomits it up, and his friends insist on taking him to the hospital, not realizing that the reason for his velvety red vomit is, in fact, red velvet cake), the J,-and-M.-order-red-velvet-cake-for-dessert-after-breakfast story (after which Brian waits at least a full hour, until we're alone, to turn to me and exclaim, "CAKE!!?!??!?." And, if that weren't enough, there's This is Why You're Fat, with it's chocolate velvety balls.

So, imagine my joy when I saw this at Yogurtland (self-service frozen yogurt, 30-cents and ounce!). I hate to say it, but that particular flavor of frozen yogurt isn't that great, and not even particularly evocative of red velvet cake (though maybe it is of the batter, which I've never sampled). Still, as conceptual art, it can't be beat.

Oddities

Every day has it's share of oddities. It's only when they come one after another that you start to notice them.

I went to San Francisco today (DSW gift certiicate for Christmas - thanks Dad and Chris!), and what a beautiful day to go shopping; it was a glorious, sunny day even in clammy, foggy, SF.


Anyway, while I'm grooving on the Muni Bus with a MacDonald's ad in Vietnamese...













...suddenly I find myself in the middle of a quite massive anti-war rally.













I hang with them for a while, and then peel off to go to the DSW, where I have the odd pleasure of being able to stop in the middle of Geary Street downtown and take a picture, because the police have traffic stopped and no cars can go through.










So, I spend my gift certificate (thanks again, Dad and Chris!), hit the Body Shop on my way back to BART (where I stop, of course, at Beard Papa's for a chocolate cream puff), get on the train and go back to the East Bay. I get off at MacArthur, and - honest to God - there's a guy busking (am I spelling that right - as in playing for money?) on an upright piano. He's going to town on some very bombastic classical piece - it might have been Rachmaninoff, but I'm no expert - and people are practically throwing money at him.




I go home and decide to take Morty out for a quick walk. We see our good friend, the long-haired cat Sylvester, who lives at the end of the block. This is quite a treat, because we haven't see him in a few days and were starting to worry (well, at least I was). Turns out on the kids in the family that owns him tried to trim the huge mats he had behind his ears and accidentally cut him, so they had to take him to the vet and get him stitched up (and, thankfully, get the mats trimmed - they really were bad). Poor guy is sporting several stitches in blue surgical thread; it looks like someone tried to cut his throat (though he really didn't want to let me take a picture of it, and my cameraphone probably wouldn't have been up to it anyway).

So Morty and I continue our trek around the block, and we find this outside the house of the Chinese family that owns that dry cleaner around the corner from our house.











They're big drying racks, enclosed in mesh, and I think it's chicken strips that they're full of.













And poor Morty went absolutely nuts, because he couldn't find the meat! I guess it just goes to show you that everything evens out in the end. Some days you find a half a brat on the sidewalk, and other days you just can't find the large quantities of chicken strips hanging right over your head.

A Little Taste of Winter

Had a lovely few days in Chicago recently, working Columbia College Chicago's Spring Open House. Temps in the 30's (that's below zero in California!), dirty snow, good food, good friends and I get paid for it! The only downer was that I only got to see my dearest friends (and perennial hosts) Jason and Mike for a few minutes. I guess they'll have to come out here so we can catch up.

Here's are some photo highlights of my visit:

Sunrise over Lake Michigan.














In the new Media Production Center at 16th and State Streets













In a flower shop on Broadway, buying flowers for my hosts













Saw The Hurt Locker on Sunday afternoon (just in time to be able to feel a totally vicarious thrill when Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar the very next night) at the Logan Theater, two blocks from my very first apartment in Chicago. Clearly they have not redecorated since the last time I was there (and several decades before).









Same view as above. One day you can see practically all the way to Indiana, and the next day you're in a Star Trek episode. Heavy fog off the Lake; I kept expecting to look out and see faces pressed up against the glass.









Did everyone know that Elvis Costello has a cable show now where he jams with and interviews other musicians, dressed as a hillbilly fop?












Flight out of O'Hare delayed? It's time to treat yourself to a spinach salad with baby beets, and a nice glass of wine at Wolfgang Puck's. Celebrate that extra hour in the Windy City!

Better Late Than Never, Right?

Sure, we moved in September, and even allowing for settling-in time it's a bit late to be putting up pictures of our new house, but (see post title). For a refresher on how it looked before, go to my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21380180@N08/. The outside looks pretty much the same so far, that's a project for the future!

Very happy kitty, in a pillow fort, in the master bedroom or our new house.













The living room...













... the dining room...












...and the guest room (working on an application process, in the meantime, if you'd like to stay with us please send us the dates of your proposed visit, the names and phone numbers of three personal references, and a damage deposit of $100).











And now, for a few random shots not of our new house:

Christmas lights in our neighborhood (honestly, Berkeley didn't exact impress with its Christmas light efforts - we saw much better in my sister's neighborhood in Austin, and we didn't even make it to 37th street this year).











No, it's not a UFO, it's close-up of the very silly lighting fixture in the Starbucks in San Antonio, Texas.











I must admit I have a fascination with the inexplicable lighting displays you see in airports and other public spaces (like Starbucks). Maybe it's because they're so shiny! This one is in the Denver airport, where we spent many hours on our way to Texas for Christmas.










Lastly, here's my favorite storefront in our new neighborhood. I have never seen a business like this in my life. My favorite is in the little white spot near the door knob that you can't read in the photo - it says, "By Appointment Only."

NotWinterNotSummer

Here in the East Bay we don't really seem to have seasons, we just have weather. During the "winter" we some more cool rainy days, and in the "summer" we have a few warm days (and the occasional day that one might be tempted to call "hot" if one didn't know better). But that's about all the difference there is, as far as I can see.

Take Thanksgiving weekend, for example. Thursday was beautiful - sunny and not quite warm. Friday was cool and rainy. Saturday was sunny and very windy and again not quite warm. And Sunday - oh, wait, that's tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see.

Brian's family is here for the holiday, and it's great to spend some time with them. Point Isabel and Golden Gate Park yesterday, Point Reyes today, and they'll all be taking off tomorrow so I hope they enjoyed themselves. Looking forward to seeing my family at Christmas.

Realized when I looked at the blog today that I still have not posted any pictures of the new house since the repairs and redecorated have been (mostly) completed. Promise to do so soon. In the meantime, here are some recent pictures from my wanderings in Berkeley and a trip to Chicago in early November:

My two new favorite products. Quake Hold because it holds stuff in place during an earthquake (or at least it makes you feel as if you've done something meaningful to prepare for one), and Potty Mouth, because, well, look at that package!









Yes, it's true, the check-cashing place on San Pablo and University actually has the nerve to call itself a "community service."













Morty looks out the window during a recent outing to Cesar Chavez Park (we've seen Burrowing Owls the last three times we've been out there - very cool!











Someone has painted these shadows around the fire hydrants on Alcatraz Avenue. I only walk there after dark with Morty on our last walk of the day, and they fool me into a double-take almost every time.










Evening foliage and streetlight on Belmont Avenue, on my way back to my friends Jason and Michael's apartment after working a long day for Columbia College Chicago.











Early Christmas lights on State Street in Chicago.














The floor of the elevator in Jason and Michael's building. I guess I have a tendency to get distracted by shiny things.












Seriously, who would feed the pigeons on the corner of Wabash and Van Buren?

The Boxes, the Boxes!

Yes, we still have lots of boxes in big piles, in almost every room (the kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom, however, are now box free). Had some trouble getting all the curtain rods back up, which has prevented us from reassembling our bookshelves, which would enable us to unpack and shelve the books, which would allow us to get rid of most of the remaining boxes.

I promise to post pictures of our new house as soon as it's presentable. I know it's gonna be worth it, even though the past few weeks have been quite the rollercoaster:
Morty actually sits nicely on the lap of our neighbor, Venesa, so she can say goodbye (you might not know it, but he's NOT a lapdog!).












Our other, neighbor, Miss Dorothy (President of the Frank Mugsy Mordecai McWhinesalot Fan Club), puts on a brave face on our last day on 7th Street...












...and actually poses for a picture with me!














We visit the friendly puppy on our last official walk in our old neighborhood (we think her name is Xena, but we're not sure).











My favorite picture of friendly puppy Xena from the day.













Morty and I shop for drapes at Bed Bath and Beyond, where they let you bring your dog inside as long as he's in a cart or being carried (Morty was not very happy about this, but bore it reasonably well).








Getting used to being a commuter again (crossing San Pablo to at dusk in this shot).













This is the block I work on, about 7:00 p.m. on a recent evening. We're looking towards my office, which is half a block down on the right.












This odd guy is actually inside the door, stuffed between the push bar and the glass at the futon shop on San Pablo. I'm not sure what he's supposed to be doing there, but he's very eye-catching.