i'm going through my picture archives. again. first i was backing them up to an external hard drive. now i'm transferring to a new computer. it's a never ending task. anyway, i'm finding a lot of neat pictures that i had never shown off before, such as this one:
23 feb 2007
the funny thing about that picture is how much waffles hated getting picked up, especially by erkan. she would go wedge herself in a corner to prevent him from putting his arms around her. but every so often, when she's distracted by some chew toy, he would succeed scooping her up.
anyway, i have so many pictures of waffles! i think i'm going to start posting them to apad. she's a lot better to look at than anything here in fog hell san francisco.
jg and i went to sb for the long weekend. being in sb used to be a lot of fun for me. now, it's sort of depressing. it didn't help that we had a long list of tasks. but it wasn't entirely wasted. i got to spend half a day shopping with g. and she cerainly knew how to cheer me up.
g and the cupcakes
doesn't g look patriotic? anyway, i heard about crushcakes from eggie months ago. i finally got to experience it for myself. g picked the strawberry and i picked the grasshopper (chocolate mint). the frosting was dreamy. the cake part, not so much.
they have a slogan painted on the wall that says: you never forget your first crush. i guess it's true, especially when the cupcakes are three bucks each.
anacapa at arlington
jg and i actually celebrated independence day this year. we had a bbq in our back yard. jg grilled a tri tip and some corn. i was responsible for the appetizer.
insalata tri colore
i was also responsible for serving watermelon, possibly the most difficult task of the weekend.
around 9 pm we walked up eucalyptus drive to see the fireworks. i got these two neat shots while waiting for the show to start.
looking west over sb
dust stars
the haze you see in both pictures is the smoke from the goleta gap fire. ironic that something so nasty should photograph so well.
there was a massive technical difficulty with the fireworks; it stopped cold about half way through. the show started back up some fifteen minutes later, well after the majority of the crowd had dispersed. if it wasn't for jg, i would have given up, too. look at the odd shapes we saw during the second half.
peculiar fireworks
(spliced from four different pictures)
the rest of the pictures were taken at random through out the weekend.
morning glory leaf through fence
waffle is missing
dog napper
that flyer was pinned outside the men's room at shoreline park. it must be some sort of a joke. or a cartoon.
i hope you had a pleasant weekend celebrating america's 232nd birthday.
jg and i spent our entire saturday around oakland and berkeley. first we tried to see the birth of the cool exhibition at the oakland museum of california. we got there right when it opened but we were already behind two bus loads of students. adding insult to injury, the show entire museum was a let down.
together, apart, and closed
i might have liked the museum a bit better had i been left alone to enjoy it. one of the security guards kept following me around and harrassing me about my backpack. first he wanted me to wear it in the front as if i'm pregnant. this made it very difficult for me to read the text heavy exhibition. ten minutes later, he wanted me to hold the pack in my arms. and not five minutes after that, he wanted me to hold the bag so that it hangs to the floor.
don't i know it
that was taken in the natural sciences wing, where cameras are allowed. anyway, there were loads of kids with huge packs on their backs and women with huge ass hand bags around me. but i was the only one he hassled.
jg thought he'd cut the losses by going over to the uc berkeley art museum.
schmee with calder
jg did not know what was on exhibition at this museum; he just wanted to see the building. right after we paid the $16 entrance fee, we were told that no pictures are allowed. not even of the building.
i checked my bag and made an obligatory trip through the museum. the exhibitions were truly disappointing. i left in less than ten minutes. i waited for jg outside, where i saw two guys make out on the lawn just below the calder sculpture. it was better than any art i saw all day.
the only decent find on the whole trip was a building on the uc berkeley campus. we stumbled on it by accident.
hargrove music library
the best entryway ever
but it wasn't open.
my saturday was a complete bust. my sunday wasn't any better. i sure hope your weekend was better than mine.
that's the latest acquisition to my wobbly art collection. my friend julia painted it for me for my birthday. i love everything about it, the subject, the mood, even the canvas (a plywood box). i brazenly begged her for another painting next year. i'm hoping for a birthday series. and she has agreed!
that's me and jg on lassen peak. we hiked up saturday afternoon. actually, jg leisurely walked up the trail while i got my ass kicked. this is how i looked after every ten steps:
downward dog schmee
isn't it embarrassing? it was the only way i could catch my breath. i nearly fell over several times. but i didn't care. i figured that if i dressed like i was going to starbucks, no one would notice how out of shape i am.
shirt should say: i'm colorblind
that picture was taken at about a half mile into the hike. i was not very happy at all at this point. there was excruciating pain on the back of my right heel. i kept adjusting the laces thinking i had tied them poorly. at one point i folded the cuff of the sock down over the heel to double the cushion. it was still painful. i knew i was in trouble.
peak within sight
it was a bad idea to wear a skirt on this hike. the constant wind caused me to moon everyone all along the trail. jg was very embarrassed for me. but i didn't care. look what i had to deal with!
switchbacks at 15% grade
jg: i would like to snowboard down this glacier notch.
too bad we couldn't see very far. everything was obscured by the smoke from the forest fires. we met a regular hiker who said it isn't any worse than usual. supposedly, the entire lassen area gets bombarded by smog from the valley. not hard to believe.
that was taken in one of the valleys in the crater on lassen peak. a very harsh landscape. i was disappointed to find snow packs instead of steam vents and fumaroles.
view of crater from peak
the hike down was relatively uneventful. it was already past five but there were still loads of hikers going up. sunsetters, i guess. not sure how enjoyable it would be with all the smoke. and constant wind.
jg yielding to the moonlight expedition
(baby in tow)
jg back at trail head, dusting off
i enjoyed the hike despite the wind and the strenuous grade. the visibility could have been a bit better. i wouldn't mind going back on a clearer day. i wish the park wasn't four hours away though.
source of excruciating pain
my $40 pair of boots has finally made its worth known. nasty, huh? anyway, the rest of my lassen pictures can be found in this flickr set in case you care to look.
saturday my brother let me tag along to the capitol drive in flea market in san jose. it's about twenty times bigger than the one at alemany. i didn't see spinning wheels or granny square afghans, but i did find loads of cool stuff. it took extraordinary self control to keep from buying everything i liked.
i paid $5 for the viewmaster set, 4 viewers and 19 reels, most of which is of national parks. i paid $2 for the 2+ pound box of scrapbooking supplies. it's almost entirely stickers. i like that there were random photo booth pictures in the mix.
the find of the day was the pinhole camera. i have always wanted one. now that i have it, i'm afraid to mess with it. i may have to send it to the collector.
i saved the best find for last:
i wanted to see if it's spelled the same on each of the labels. but i didn't dare pick anything up.
