Beauty of public transit

Now, the SF Muni system has its share of woes. But let's take a moment to look past the budget shortfalls, schedule delays, rising prices, stinky riders, and the overall petri-dish-of-bacteria feeling you get when you step onboard. I take public transit everywhere, commute on it every day to work, and rarely ever drive my car. It's pretty convenient actually. And the monthly passes are so pretty--too pretty to toss out--so I used them to decoupage a cheap table off of craigslist. Then I went to a glass place and had them cut and finish off a 16"-square piece of glass to go on top. I had enough passes to do the top tier of the table with a few left over. Who knows, maybe in another two years I'll have enough to do the bottom tier.


1. craigslist table, painted light gray; 2. Laying out four years of passes; 3. Good ol' Mod Podge! 4. Pretty colors.

We're havin' a heat wave...

... a tropical heat wave. Last week we had some serious highs--it was like living on the face of the sun! All right, so there was no humidity and it really never got above 90 in the city, but this is San Francisco and we can't take the heat. It was quite balmy though...

Bright sunshine and blue skies might make for great people watching at Dolores Park, but warm weather is not fun for pigs. It was 85 degrees inside and with no fans and no breeze, the poor little creatures were in the hot seat. Here they are relaxing (on our new couch!) with some frozen water bottles. (Better pix of the couch to come...)


Last pic: That's Rusty cooling down his backside while he noses into a paper bag. Silly, smart, or just plain gross?

We've been keeping a close watch on Oliver lately. He still goes into the vet for monthly toothtrims for his malocclusion. He also seems to have chronic breathing problems/wheeziness, which are related to his teeth and the way he eats. Dr. Herman believes that he aspirates bits of food from time to time, causing bacteria to develop in his lungs. He's had several bouts with pneumonia and fluid in his chest over the past year because of it. He's on a new kind of antibiotic called doxycyclene, as well as a diuretic (furosemide) and an anti-wheezer (aminophylline) when/if he needs it. Dr. Herman thinks Olive is a bit of a mystery, but she's practicing good medicine on him and the BF and I are very attentive Food Guy and Pig Mom, respectively. Being a Pig Mom is hard work, and part of that means I worry about him all the time. He's just the sweetest, gentlest pig. And for the most part, he's happy, energetic, has a good appetite and loves spending time with Russ. Rusty continues to entertain us with his spunk and to amaze us as a butternut squash on legs. His last weigh-in: 1435 grams, which means he actually lost about 25 g! (For perspective, Oliver is a slim 1140 g.)

Miles and a Milestone

On March 15, I finally got off my pasty arse and ran my first race. It was the Emerald Across the Bay 12K (which is about 7.5 miles for us metrically challenged). The course was a fantastic tour-bus route around SF. It started across the bay at Fort Baker, went over the Golden Gate Bridge (epic!), through Chrissy Field, past Marina Green, and ended up at Aquatic Park/Ghiradelli Square. Pretty awesome. I felt great, had my iPod blaring, and soaked up the scenery... with "soaked" being the operative word. It rained the entire time! Everyone was drenched and freezing before we even boarded the buses to take us to the starting point. Puddles, mud, rain pelting you in the face--it was a soggy, sloshy mess and I had a blast! No pictures of me will be posted at this event, obvi. Thanks to the BF and fam for coming out to support me!

Happy birthday Mom!

April 4: It's not every day that yo mama turns 60. We all surprised her at dinner at an Italian restaurant, then went back to Steve's place for dessert. I wanted to make something special, but couldn't decide between something chocolatey/different and something fresh/fruity and seasonal. Since it was my mom's birthday, I thought it was appropos to employ one of the life lessons I learned from her when I was in my teens. [Picture this: you're at the mall and can't decide what to buy: the Hypercolor tee that changes color with body heat, or the fluorescent pink sweatshirt with "totally rad" on it. Mom's sage words of advice: Get them both.] Above are pics of the finished desserts. Spring cupcakes with lavender icing a la my hero Martha Stewart (left), and enormous individual strawberry shortcakes, recipe courtesy of celeb chef Michael Mina (right). I was a bit of a whirling dervish in the kitchen (naturally I overslept that day and was pressed for time!), but still managed to snap some pics of my progress:



1. Letting the shortcake dough rest; 2. Chopping; 3. Whipping; 4. Best part about whipping, licking the beaters; 5. Cooling; 6. Icing (and appropriately dressed in Culinary Academy apron!)

It's like Xmastime or somethin'

Yay the holidays. Since it's our first year in our new condo, we were especially excited to set up a tree and decorate. So we went down to see our friends at Delancey Street, where we've gotten our Xmas tree for the past few years. As soon as we walked into the lot, I saw our tree:

"This one," I said, pointing.

The BF, a little hesitant, "Uh, it's nice, but it'll never fit."

It is 7'8" tall.

"If you can get it through the front door and haul it up the stairs, it'll be perfect."

And it is!

1. Our lonely tree in the lot; 2. Our naked tree at home.

This was a problem: a naked tree? We needed ornaments. Sure, we had some from years past, enough for a smaller tree, but they looked pretty skimpy once we put them up. We got a few boxes of new bulbs from a non-profit shop down the street. Still, we needed more. But with the recent purchase of our condo and the economy as it is, I decided it was time to get thrifty and creative. I went with some extremely simple, but festive ideas. No real explanation necessary for the candy cane ornaments. Everything came from Walgreens and probably cost me about $6 for 25 hanging canes. (Yes, I ate one!)


The next simple project involved our old clear bulbs from Target. I don't know WHY we bought these last year. They look kinda cool in the box, but completely disappear once you hang them on the tree. I mean, they're CLEAR. Duh. I needed something that was lightweight but full enough to fill up the bulbs. A smart and crafty coworker of mine suggested feathers. Thank god for smart friends! So I swung by our local Cliff's Variety and picked up a bag of red feathers (only $1.50!) and stuffed them inside the bulbs. They looked pretty cool up on the tree. At least, they were visible!

November flew by

And not a blog post to be seen. This entry is dedicated to the dearly departed November (and the end of October).

First of all, we celebrated a couple of important birthdays: Rusty's and the BF's. Whose was more important, you ask? Ohh, you're not going to catch me answering that one! But I did only manage to take photos of RUSTY's party... The piggies weren't the only party animals. We had an awesome pre-Bootie birthday party for the BF and our friend Nortie. It was also a mini-housewarming slash come-up-and-see-the-new-pad for our old friends from the Coop. Good times!

(1. The birthday boy! 2. On the menu: raw-food, vegan lettuce wraps; 3. Oliver, always dapper in fancy hat; 4. Brothers share.)

Oh yeah, and in November there was this tiny, teensy thing called the Presidential Election. Ya mighta heard about it. I have to admit that I've kinda gotten into politics lately. I mean, I used to just watch the Daily Show and thought that was enough, you know? But now I'm habitually reading the Daily Kos and Huff Post (Mainstream and popular, yes I know.) But you have to understand that before this I considered "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" as NEWS. (You are witnessing a serious, applause-worthy shift in priorities, people!)

So anyway, I kept hearing/reading that because this is such an historical election, people decades from now are going to look back and share stories about where they were on Election Night 2008. It's kinda like how in the Bay Area people ask, where were you during the '89 quake? (In high school. Working on a homecoming float.) Right. So. Seeing as how my Quake-of-89 story completely blows, I really wanted my Election-08 story to kick a$$. I was gearing up for it; I plastered our new pad with Obama/Biden and No on Prop 8 signs, and I just knew there'd be massive celebrating in SF--and I was going to be there, partying and celebrating, able to tell my grandnieces and grandnephews all about how crazy Auntie got back in '08.

And what ends up happening? Dude. I end up having to work TWO all-nighter shifts at the office on Sunday and Monday night for a campaign pitch. (As in, go to work at 8pm, leave work after the sun's already up and normal people are getting IN to work.) I got home Tuesday at around 10:30am, staggered across the street to my polling station, voted, then crashed. I woke up in time to see the polls closing and the results coming in. By then, I was in my jammies and curled up on the couch. And I could hear people celebrating in the streets outside my window, honking horns, whoo-hooing. There was even a big street party a few blocks from my place, and what did I do? I slept. I was too pooped to party (!?!), and anyone who knows me at ALL knows that that never happens. Sigh. Still, I was/am elated about Obama and enjoying this feeling of hope. Way to go people! Yes, we did! And for this I am thankful, which catches us up to last Thursday. (See how I did that, all nice and tidy-like?)

Last days at the old apt.

Our last few days in the old apartment were pretty hectic. We did manage to pack up 67 boxes and about 5 suitcases worth of stuff. We got everything neatly labeled and wrapped up in packing paper... for the most part. There was, of course, the last-minute "sweep" where we just took all the straggling odds and ends and swept them up into a garbage bag. Not necessarily the recommended way of packing, but hey, the movers were coming in 20 minutes!

Many thanks to the trio of movers from Pat Ryan Moving. They showed up at 8:30am, loaded up the truck, drove to the new place, unloaded the truck (depositing each box and piece of furniture in the correct room), and were done and outta here by 1:30pm. Let me tell you this: I will NEVER move myself again. Hiring movers is more expensive than renting a U-Haul and coercing your friends to help you out, but it is so worth it. Those movers were working hard--my back hurt just watching them!

Ahhh. Watching our humans scramble around packing up really IS a lot of work. Time for a little doze in the sun...

More ketchup (and ice cream)

The following weekend, I volunteered to scoop ice cream at the Slow Food festival. Slow Food and the ideas behind slow food are pretty cool. There was an interesting article in San Francisco Magazine about how SF completely missed the boat on the purpose of slow food, making it elitist, yuppie and inaccessible. I dunno about all that. I'm not really into food. I mean, I like to eat, but I'm no foodie. That's more the BF's arena.


Ok, so back to volunteering. Here's the thing. It was fun and all, but the next time I'm anywhere where VOLUNTEERS are handing out food, I'm really going to think twice about eating it. Don't get me wrong. Volunteers are lovely people, yes, yes. And I try to volunteer at least once a month. It's awesome, can't say enough good things about volunteering (except that I don't do it often enough). Not only am I "doing good" (and contributing to something bigger), I meet tons of great people and I have fun in the process. THAT being said... at this event, some volunteers were simply lazy. Others were just plain gross. I could kinda handle the gross ones if they were earnestly trying. I get it: things can get a little hectic if there's a long line of people and ice cream is in demand. So they're slobs and have a messy workstation, so what--at least they have a good heart. Licking your fingers or the scoopers and then handing the ice cream over to a customer all while sweating profusely... now that's just straight up sick. Gross, right? Wait. It gets worse. So the booth had those typical ice cream freezers, the kind where you've gotta lean over a little ledge in order to reach the containers? One lady (a fellow scooper) was reaching into the freezer to scoop, and there were some already-scooped dishes of ice cream sitting on the ledge that she had to reach over. I swear her pits touched the top of the ice cream in those dishes. And she was wearing a tank top! Honest to god. You'd think I'd lose my appetite after that, but I still somehow scarfed down at least eight scoops (which I scooped myself thankyouverymuch!!)



1. Fort Mason, all prettied up. 2. The booth. 3. MMM pre-pit ice cream! 4. My blister from scooping.

Happy 5th of July!

Mmm. There is no tastier way to celebrate the 5th of July than with cherry pie. Emma made these gorgeous cherry pies from scratch. Twelve pies in three days (oh, all while taking care of her three-and-a-half-year-old son and three-month-old daughter). She's so fancy in the kitchen. Knowing better than to attempt this on my own, I stuck to what I'm good at: tasting. And man was it good! Thanks Em!! (As I write this, the BF is currently on his second piece...)


I will leave you with a shot of Ocean Beach taken today--surprisingly not foggy!

Sprucing Up in the TP

It takes a lot to get me out of bed before 9am on a Saturday. Hell, me being up before noon on any given weekend is just shy of a miracle. So if I'm going to get up, it had better be good. And for a good cause. And I'd better get a free bagel out of it too, dammit. Well, every so often, the unlikely happens and I wake up early. Through Hands on Bay Area, the BF and I get a chance to do good and spruce up our neighborhood. Twin Peaks is the second highest hill in SF, draws a lot of tourists at the lookout area up top, and is literally our backyard. HoBA volunteers team up with REI and the SF Recreation and Park Department to clean up and restore the hilltop, which is the indigenous home to lots of plants and wildlife, but most notably to the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. Basically, we spend about 3-4 hours pulling weeds. The first time we did it, it was cold, wet, and extremely windy. My hands and feet were frozen and my knees were soaked and muddy. This last time was the polar opposite. It was unseasonably hot weather and, tugging at those roots, we were sweatin' big time. The BF even busted a shoe. It sounds miserable from the way I've described it, but it's actually a lot of fun. We learn a lot about the local animal, bird, and plant life, and we get to meet cool people who live in the area too. It's a pretty satisfying feeling--toiling away and then taking a look around you. You get to see how much you've accomplished and how different the landscape looks. Definitely worth getting up early for on a Saturday morning.



1. Snapped a few of the other volunteers; 2. Tugging at those pesky radishes; 3. Filet of sole (the BF's busted shoe); 4. Looking up the hillside.