i took that picture last week during my stay at mariko's. portland was not kind to me; it decided to throw a surprise thunderstorm to prevent my plane from landing. but i survived. so, it decided to be rainy and/or gloomy for my entire visit. of course, it cleared up on the day i left town. alas.
despite the terrible weather, i had fun. i got to meet mariko's mom and brother, visit my old college roommate, and experience my very first facial. i took a load of pictures and posted the decent ones to my flickr. you'll notice that about half of the pictures are of deedles. pictures of friends and places are merely incidental.
that's my favorite shot from last night, when jg and i went to suppenkuche to meet megan (a local) and sashi (mariko's crazy brother). sashi is here from portland to crash parties. see if you can spot the trouble maker in red.
sashi: i've been walking around town with two lap tops!
the crazies with spaetzel and sauerkraut
(for eggie)
i've been blue lately. the waste of a weekend i just spent in bakersfield didn't help. so i thought i'd bake today to cheer myself up. i went for terrific cookie recipes given to me by mariko and holly.
neither green nor tasty
except i totally fubard. i followed the green tea cookie recipe word for word but they didn't turn out anything like the ones mariko made.
sugar doesn't make cardboard taste any better
the only ingredient i missed for the ginger cookies is one teaspoon of cider vinegar. they turned out tasting like pulped cardboard, nothing near what holly made.
on the bright side, i didn't burn anything. even so, i don't think i should attempt baking anything else. another batch of abysmal cookies may just be the thing to push me into a bottomless pit of depression.
that's jg doing a weak belly flop. he and i spent father's day weekend in bakersfield. if there is one place on earth that can make san francisco look like high heaven, this would be it!
i made the best of it by taking over 300 pictures. no easy feat when it's over 100 degrees outside. these are the only ones of interest.
typical house dealership
free balloon with every purchase
the view is to die for
heart healthy breakfast
heart healthy dinner
rose, baked before it could bloom
dusty miller
dead or alive, hard to tell
boy, am i glad to be back in the city bottomless pit of fog. there, i said it.
just in time for my birthday. i'm hoping for a big ticket birthday present, like a convertible bmw. but, given the price of gas, i'd probably be a lot happier with these:
the weather was possibly the best i've ever experienced in san francisco. i had a great weekend even though i had to attend a dreadful eight hour seminar on sunday. i got a load of pictures. these were taken on saturday.
making like a dune bug at ocean beach
two can play this game
yes, we are aware that these hats make us look very uncool. but we obviously don't care. because we enjoy matching. plus, looking good is overrated.
hot hat
thirty cents left of a sand dollar
jg and i spent hours walking around but i didn't take that many pictures. the beach was flooded with people lying around sunbathing. something about half naked people that does not motivate me to use my camera.
i got a lot more pictures sunday, when i was away from the ugly sun worshippers.
seen on lunch break from seminar
i was rather grumpy after eight hours of lecture. i needed to go for a walk so jg took me to my favorite hike in the marin headlands.
once again on the coastal trail
blooming reed
tall grass
suspicious crow
that crow hovered above me for some time before it came to a perch. it continued hovering over me well after i passed the rock. it was a bit eerie, but i was glad that it did not poop on me.
orange riding hood
orange tabby male
not another nose shot
am i dreaming?
that last shot was taken saturday morning. everything was perfect, the clouds, the light, the warmth, and absolute lack of wind. i couldn't stop staring out the window. at one point i had to ask jg: are we in san francisco?
i'm going to visit my mom for the day. i would like to thank her for having let me infest her body all those years ago. and for having had the sense of humor to take this precious picture of me.
andrea sent me that camera for my birthday,* complete with 35mm film rolled on 120 reels. kelly from cnsf helped me load the camera saturday night. by this morning, i'm already done with the first roll.
i won't be able to unload and reload the hawkeye until later today. in the mean time, i'm running around taking pictures through the viewfinder. this trick is like another new camera in itself. whee!
*andrea actually sent me three cameras. quell the surprise!
