look at the damage i did today. i bought five dvds.
g made me do it
i also got glasses. i bought two pairs for $2..., well, a lot of money. it's my attempt at looking sleek and blending in with the hip urban folks. it will take a week for them to put the lenses in. i can't wait to look like i spent a lot of money i don't have. next up, cosmetics!
yesterday i took the bus! yay! that's the fourth form of public transportation i've successfully employed! ferry, bart subway, muni light rail, and, voila, autobus! i depend on the kindness of strangers figuring out the stops, getting on and off, etc. that's the one thing i can't complain about the city: the people are always so kind!
bus number ten at 9:12 am
crossing the golden gate
with some help i got off the bus at market street. look at what i saw when i went underground!
little old asian persons make me happy
doesn't he look cool? i took several pictures of him but all turned out blurry. anyway, i went ahead and met janeen on the bart platform and we went directly to ikea!
interesting assortment of swedish dessert
i love ikea. i didn't buy much though, mostly because i didn't want to have to lug them around all day.
ceramic birds of some sort
the best purchase of the day was a bunch of fake flowers i got at a craft store. i ripped them off the stems and mounted them on aligator clips.
decorative dust collectors
today while i was out driving around i noticed the low fog moving over the hills toward sausalito. i love low fog. it's probably the best thing about living here. it's always shifting in and out around the bay, particularly the bridge. see how interesting it looks concealing one tower and not the other.
tomorrow i'm going into the city to meet ta, that's short for thai an. we're going to paint japantown red!
friday i went into the city and met jg for lunch. it's the first time we had lunch together on a weekday since he started his new job. back in good old sb, we met for lunch daily. yes, still stuck on sb.
after lunch i went to hang with jg at spa where he made me a real cappuccino.
i'm... to sexy for this cup...
at around 2 pm i went downstairs to hang at the urban knitting studio. i was to meet ta at four so i sat and knitted until she showed up. then we walked up past saint mary's cathedral to japan town. our destination was the (in)famous bookstoree kinokuniya.
except on the way we stumbled on the dollar store. i have no idea what it's called. i bought a whole bunch of fun stuff, everything from super fragrant foamy candies to bamboo ear picks!
schmeebot loves ear picks
gross, huh? well, you aint asian. you know what confucius says: one isn't truly asian if one can't imagine enjoying a good ear picking! you have to admire the japanese though. only they can make the tools for little disgusting habits look cute.
we found kinokuniya and went straight for the craft section. we took turns flipping through all the knitting books they have. very cutesy and colorful. i just loved how the patterns have explicit how to sketches. i had a lot of fun looking at the models. the girls all have big round anime style eyes. and the boys all look pretty.
some hours later jg met us for dinner. we went to a restaurant inside the mall called mifune, i think. we all had udon. by the time we finished the yummy food, all the fun shops had closed. so we window shopped.
good looking plastic food
interesting menu item
yum, kitty burger
that's all the pictures i have worth showing. wish i had taken more. around 9 pm we went to catch the ten bus home. ta kindly waited and saw us off. i'm set to go back to japan town sometimes this week. i heard that the hardware store there is fascinating. we'll see if me and my wiley camera could capture some of that fascination for you.
for now, here's a picture of ta just so you don't think i made her up out of thin air.
i spent the entire afternoon in little osaka yesterday. i got home at 8:45 and look what i got!
postal goodness from ucsb
not at this address?! wtf? my mailman was totally holding out on me! but i forgave him because i had been hoping all day that i'd get some mail. regardless, thank you very much, ecm!
yesterday i didn't head over to jtown until 1 pm. i met jj there and we had lunch at mifune because she had always heard of it but never tried. now that i've had their udon twice, it's safe to say i have had better.
i was very excited that i got to go to the stationery division of kinokuniya. that's the store where i took the picture of the kitty burger last week. guess what? someone bought it! there was just an empty space on the display. i need to know more about kitty burger because it seems to be a popular thing in that store. i so love that store. it's a miracle i escaped with just a $25 purchase, that's enough stationery for at least two generations. look.
cuteness all over the place
this one reminds me of me in college:
w L squared over eight snore z z z
enough fun+games, let's finish up yesterday's photo journal:
bus ten dropped me off at kabuki theaters for $3.10
post street approaching little osaka
wish i knew what the sign says
tanabata festival celebrated inside the mall
as anticipated, i hit the hardware store. inside was like an implosion of east and west: tea sets and duct tape, paper laterns and craftsman tools.
attn g: we carry electric hello kitty pencil sharpeners
wiley interior shot
we shopped some more after we left the hardware store for mostly food items: green tea ice cream, mochi, pastry, gumballs, etc. then we walked some six blocks over to hayes valley and ended up at that darn yarn store waiting for jg.
from there we walked two blocks down to market street. jg and i departed from jj at the civic center bart station. we surfaced at embarcadero and walked to the ferry station.
hurried shot of jg+trolley in plaza across the street from the ferry building
check out the best find of the day:
closet violinist
jg and i were waiting for the last ferry home when i heard music fading in and out. i looked around like an idiot trying to find where the music is coming from. it sounded like it was coming from a door that's propped open with a trash bin. i thought, gee, that can't be. that's the janitor's closet. but i kept walking toward it and sure enough, there he was! tucked away from the wind and out of sight, warming up his violin.
little old musicians make me happy
we chatted for a little before he stopped warming up and started playing amazing grace. everyone waiting for the ferry kept looking over at me grinning at the closet. i felt special.
sunday jg+i took a day trip to the wine country. first we visited jg's uncles in sonoma where we had a late lunch at a fancy restaurant with a long italian name which i forgot. i had yummy grilled meats: rabbit, duck, and pork. it was the first time i had rabbit.
jg+uncles
around 3 pm we hauled ass up to the hess winery to see their modern arts gallery. we were introduced to it over two years ago and were thoroughly impressed. these were taken right outside the winery.
welcome canopy
bronze tub
fish pond leading up to entrance
obligatory close up
we were hoping that donald had rotated his collection but alas, he hadn't. not entirely anyway. about 90% of the pieces seems to be on permanent exhibition. here are two of my top favorites, the only ones i could take pictures of:
eucalyptus leaves suspended from wall with pins
flaming typewriter
if you've never seen the hess collection and you're a modern arts enthusiast, make sure you find this place the next time you're near napa valley. it's a bit out of the way but the three floors of exhibition will make it worth your time. open 10-4 everyday, free admission.
overall, it was a good day. look at what we discovered. on the way up we saw this from the road:
is that tree... blue?
so on the way back we made a point to stop and see what it's all about.
it was almost 6 and i was very pleased that it was still open. we found a big empty parking lot and a few signs pointing to empty buildings still under construction. we followed the arrows that said open.
jg's shadow on glass mulch
schmeebot loves lowercase
lonely store entrance
the store was packed with stuff but jg and i were rather disappointed that nothing in the store was true to its name. things were neither well designed nor salvaged. everything was trendy, overpriced, and sparkling new. we left in less than five minutes. we walked out the door at the other end of the store and, whoop, there it was!
isn't it the coolest thing ever?
except we got denied
damn that fence! i was hoping to see the tree up close. i hope they'll remove the fence once the entire mall is up and running. i'll check back, for sure! i mean, fashizzle!
earlier today i was looking for a specific picture i took a while back and it took me almost an hour to sift through a gazillion jpegs! most are pretty lousy but there a handful of neat ones. i'd like to post them although i don't quite remember when and where they were taken.
as the next few weeks will be busy for me, i've decided to curb the rambling and just show you the good stuff. i'll post a few decent pictures at a time until the entire back log of digital goodness is exhausted. i'll do my best to give them descriptive captions. when i can't remember anything about a picture, i'll be sure to make some stuff up.
i'll begin with last friday. i took these at jg's office. i'm not a dog person but look at that lovely coat. it's schmeebot brown!
that's nicky. she's six and bisexual. she likes to catch pigeons when she's not playing dead.
i'm keeping very busy these days. i went camping in big sur again this past weekend, except at a different campground than usual. it was a bit hectic because we didn't have access to all our gear. but i had a lot of fun. it was good for me to get out of the bay area.
we made it back last night around 8 pm, when the thick low fog had already moved in over sf. half way across the bridge we could see that the fog had spared sausalito. we drove straight up to the outlook point to catch the last glimpse of the sunset.
jg at second vista point on conzelman road, 18 july 2004
isn't it awesome? there's something very overwhelming about the fog. even the immensity of the bridge can't compare. the best thing about the whole scene was the fog horns. they were sounding off incessantly from various locations, some duotone, some monotone, all very loud. made for a very grand experience.
today i went all the way over to livermore. i crossed the bay bridge and drove half way to stockton. over 110 miles round trip. i picked up jg afterwork and we went to clement street for dinner. then we walked around and shopped at a few choice stores. we ended up with over $150 of books and a box of mangos among other goodies.
we crossed the bridge home around 7:30. the fog was inferior tonight so i'll leave you with my favorite shot from yesterday.
the weather is still crazy here. the hurricanes are less frequent now, only six times a day intead of every hour. the low fog still moves in daily and all hopes of warmer temperatures are dashed.
jg's brother is back in town. he just returned from a nine months stay in florence. the last time we saw him was september 2003, when we were in rome. he now works just eight miles from sausalito so we see him pretty often.
last week we went down to fort baker for a new perspective of the golden gate. we spent the late afternoon among crab netters and people with gnarly cameras that made mine look like a mere toy. but i wasn't intimidated.
rock versus dungeoness
errant crab
view from below
and behind
closer
the brothas
hi mom!
g is coming up to visit me this weekend. yay! i've got a packed itinerary ready. i can't wait!
