Mark Ronson, too clever by half

adorable - adjective

Loving this quote from CS Lewis

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.

The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly save from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

- C.S Lewis
The Four Loves

Excerpt from tourista advice email

A new friend from Austin is coming to visit San Francisco in late December. Here is an excerpt of my email to her, describing some places to go see. Just posting it here so I can remember these same things if anyone else asks!

There are truly a bazillion great things to see and do in the SF bay
area, but here are some ideas for you from the local girl perspective:

1 - Union Square, San Francisco. It should wildly festive during that time, great shops, people watching, lots of places to eat. The dopey thing I love to do is saunter into the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, act like a hotel guest and head for the guest room elevators at the far back of the lobby. These are glass elevators - punch the button for the top floor and enjoy the free (and great) view! From there it is just a couple of blocks to walk into the world-famous Chinatown (which is a bit touristy but still pretty interesting). While you're in that part of town, I would check out the SF MOMA.

2 - Drive up to Point Reyes. This is a full day's trip, but one of my favorite things to do ever. So incredibly beautiful. If you have the time, you could drive out to the lighthouse and see if you can see whales, then circle back to check out the very cute towns of Inverness and Point Reyes Station. The latter has fantastic art galleries and restaurants and a funky old bookstore. I like to send people to the Cowgirl Creamery.

If it were me, I'd leave from Berkeley, drive out Sir Francis Drake Blvd through Fairfax to Point Reyes and then take Highway One back from Point Reyes through Stinson Beach, over Mount Tam, down into Mill Valley and then back to Berkeley. It's a peak time for whale watching.

If you are even a little bit of a bird watcher, this would be the day to bring your binoculars along. Actually, you'd want them for the whales too.

3 - Check out Berkeley's 4th Street - just a nice local's shopping street with a Peet's coffee, great local bookstore, an OUTLET of Crate and Barrel, and so on.


4 - If you are going to go to Green's for breakfast or lunch, it makes a very nice morning to stroll along the marina. If you're up for a bit of a longer walk, you can keep going all the way along Crissy Field to the Golden Gate bridge (about a mile and 1/2) and stand on that spot where Kim Novak falls (throws herself?) into the bay in the movie Vertigo. :)

ferrets!!

Help ferrets who have cold noses!!

Trek to Austin

Austin was pretty good - mostly work and very busy, but beautiful weather and improving relationships with the Austin office folks. I'm going back again Nov 5 - 7 and Nov 11 - 16, so am planning to do a bit more than just hotel to office to hotel next time. I've started using Priceline and am getting some great hotels for tiny prices, too. Oakville Grocery opened a satelite store in the fancy new mall just across the street from the Austin office, so I walked over there for lunch several times and had broccolini salad and chipotle chicken and such.
I'm again giving serious thought to moving there. I'd abandoned the idea when I was feeling uncertain about work, but things have improved quite a bit. Boss keeps backing me up and increasing my role and visibility, he walks his talk, and my one-on-one with our CEO also gave me a positive read. It's also exciting to be on the brink of going public. When I'm out there, I get so much more done - amazing the difference it makes to be at HQ in person. I am in my lease at my current place through January, so wouldn't probably make a move until after then. Austin truly is a fun, creative, dog-friendly, artist-friendly, affordable place to be, so why fight it? I do loathe the packing and hauling part of the whole moving thing though, ugh.
Right now, I'm house and dogsitting for P, sitting on her humungous couch with a dog snuggled up to me on either side (and snoring!) - very cozy and lovely. My painting class starts at 9 am at College of Marin, but it's so cold that I'm not sure I want to stick the dogs in the backyard to go paint. Argh. I wish I could leave Lulu inside, but she still chews things up when she gets bored, which is pretty quickly.
Laura's mom is still hanging on, but barely. She's been moved to a nursing home but is not expected to live more than a few days - although that's been the prognosis for weeks. Luckily, Laura was able to get her on Medical (or Medicaid or something) so some of the financial burden is relieved.

What chimp are you?

HSUS MySpace Page | Take the Quiz!

one of those days

OY

Here is how it goes sometimes. Came in to my office at 8 am for a meeting to discover I should have been here at 7 am instead, but failed to note properly.

Then, at our 8 am meeting, I discovered that the project file I worked on for 5 hours yesterday got corrupted somehow when I sent to my boss last night. So when he opened it, it looked like I'd done no work. To his credit, he tactfully said,

"I don't quite understand this file."

And then it turned out that about 1/2 of the assumptions I needed to make in creating the project file last night were overturned or invalidated in that 7 am meeting. Which it turned out I myself had scheduled in the first place, telling the Austin team cheerfully, "Oh I have no problem with early morning meetings."

How do I de-doofus my day?

Where is the "re-do" button?

silliness from P

I removed ones that were just boring results or too much personal info:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Charlie CRV (hmmm, not very catchy)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Cherry Garcia Ginger Snap

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Pink Dog (I don't think I'd hire a detective named Pink Dog, personally.)

4. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),
The Green Americano (bleah! gross!)

5. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers),
Dwight Warren (or Warren Dwight) Funny how that matchs P's, eh?

6. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy),
Burberry Brit Hot Tamales (wee hoo - I may have to legally change my name now)

7. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ),
Wait, I can't tell you or else you'll find me when I enter the program!

8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter),
Houston Hartford (I can't remember who my fifth grade teacher was, isn't that sad? So I went with my fourth grade teacher, who I adored.)

9. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
Winter Agapantha (Not sure how incognito I'd be with that moniker...)

10. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Tangerine Blousey

11. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Banana Shake Coastal Oak (grooooovy)

12. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather + “Tour”),
The Painting Thunderstorm Tour

Well, I'm sure the time I spent on this forwards world peace, so I can rest easy that I'm not just putzing about.

Dudes of 1975

My dear friend Stacey sent me this gem, a page from a 1975 JC Penney catalog. Wow, too much sexiness all in one place!

more muppet magnificence

My Triangle - muppets at a rave??

Speaking of mojo pirates

OK, so my last post was about my buddy Carl in Napa and his story of how the computer stole his mojo. I have since been thinking a lot about that and feel like I can confidently state that the television has either already stolen my mojo or is trying to.
I had a little funny moment this morning when I was actually thinking that, boo hoo, someone who's had her mojo sucked out by the television was also thusly incapable of mustering up enough hutzpah to call Comcast and say "turn it off!" Sad, sad. Oh the limpness.

I think this must be where drugs are actually helpful. Drugs, in my case, being Peet's coffee, which I am now able to enjoy again in moderation after 6 months of quitting all coffee. I had a nice big mug of this wonder beverage and then actually did call and tomorrow at 8 pm, the television will be kaput. They don't even have a term for "undoing just the TV part but leaving on the Internet and phone" at Comcast because, I assume, they really don't want to think about that reality.

The thing that sent me over the edge (in addition to the coffee) was finding myself searching out places to go travel and get away from "it all." The prices were not what I wanted and I didn't want to spend time in a car or a plane to get to anywhere, not matter how lovely. And then I realized that I could create a perfect vacation replicant at my own home if I gave myself the breathing space to read a book and the permission to eat grilled cheese sandwiches. So that will save me several hundred dollars as well as that nagging 'rat race' feeling.

Free time, computers and mojo

I'm starting to think that 'being rich' for someone who wants to do lots of art is equivalent to having loads of free time, not necessarily loads of cash. At least that's how it feels at the moment. Nearly everywhere I look I see an idea for a project that I don't have time for and feel frustrated. I guess that's better than not feeling inspired.

What I did have time for was to plan out a new "traveling journal" using a Ning group (and inspired by an existing Ning Project called Artbook Coalition.) So far, I have signed up 3 friends to participate via Ning invite and 1 friend via good old-fashioned word of mouth. In fact, this friend was very funny about it. I was asking him if he'd like to take part and if I could contact him via email. He said,

"Oh no! The computer stole my mojo. So I gave it to the Salvation Army." I laughed and told him I'd get him the traveling artbook by hand.

"I do have my mojo back, by the way," he said.

"Oh, that's very clear. We can all see the mojo," I said.

We also agreed, sadly, that the television is also a bad mojo destroyer, but I am having a hard time getting to the "atom bomb of step one" around TV watching.

my personal DNA

brit wit

I have a word of the day for you! I have been listening the news
about the release of journalist Alan Johnston. His fellow journalist
was interviewed about how much Alan was enjoying talking with his BBC colleagues just after his release (after having no one to talk to for 4 months of solitary confinement) and that he was still the same humble, funny and mordant conversationalist.

Ok, so sad mental note #1, can you imagine an American journalist using the word mordant in normal discourse?

And slightly cheery mental note #2, at least we have the Brits.

mordant

Pronunciation: 'mor-d&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French, present participle of mordre to bite, from
Latin mordEre; perhaps akin to Sanskrit mrdnAti he presses, rubs
1 : biting and caustic in thought, manner, or style : INCISIVE

My buddy Beth's comment (on receiving the above in email this morning):

Speaking of mordant, especially after such a painful ordeal, he said
he immediately got rid of the haircut with "that just-kidnapped look."

wee mee

i love joe strummer

I always forget how much I love everything he ever created. Somehow listening to his tunes the past couple of days has been saving my sanity at work, which is still quite weird.

Johnny Appleseed is the one with the most "juice" right now. Brings out that kick-ass confident eight-year-old in me.

But I also appreciate his ability with language (poetry!), his humble attitude, his sense of humor.

Check out these lyrics, for example, off the Global A-Go Go album:

Bhindi Bhagee

Well, I was walking down the High Road
And this guy stops me
He'd just got in from New ZealandAnd he was looking for mushy peas
I said, no, we hadn't really got 'em round here
I said, but we do gotBalti, Bhindi, strictly HindiDall, Halal
and I'm walking down the road
We got rocksoul, okra, bombay duck-ra
Shrimp beansprout, comes with it or without - with it or without
Bagels soft or simply harder
Exotic avocado or toxic empenada
We got akee, lassi, Somali waccy baccy
I'm sure back home you know what tikka's all about - what tikka's all about
Welcome stranger to the humble neighborhoods
You can get inspiration along the highroad
Hommus, cous cous in the jus of octopus
Pastrami and salami and lasagne on the go
Welcome stranger, there's no danger
Welcome to this humble neighborhood
There's Balti, Bhindi, strictly HindiDall, Halal and I'm walking down the road
Rocksoul, okra, bombay duck-ra
Shrimp beansprout, comes with it or without
So anyway, I told him I was in a band
He said, "Oh yeah, oh yeah - what's your music like?"
I said, "It's um, um, well, it's kinda like
You know, it's got a bit of, um, you know."
Ragga, Bhangra, two-step Tanga
Mini-cab radio, music on the go
Um, surfbeat, backbeat, frontbeat, backseat
There's a bunch of players and they're really letting go
We got, Brit pop, hip hop, rockabilly, Lindy hop
Gaelic heavy metal fans fighting in the road
Ah, Sunday boozers for chewing gum users
They got a crazy D.J. and she's really letting go
Oh, welcome stranger
Welcome stranger to the humble neighborhoods
Well, I say, there's plenty of places to eat round here
He say, "Oh yeah, I'm pretty choosy."
You gotBalti, Bhindi, strictly HindiDall, Halal, walking down the road
Rocksoul, okra, bombay duck-raShrimp beansprout, comes with it or without
Let's check it out
Welcome stranger to the humble neighborhoods, neighborhoods
Check out all thatPor-da-sol, por-da-sol
Walking down the highroad

Michael Tolliver lives!!

Armistead writes another love letter to San Francisco! How exciting!!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/11/DDGVKQBQGR1.DTL&hw=maupin&sn=005&sc=257

little beach

A couple of times now, I have taken Lulu out to a very tiny beach near my house. So few people go enjoy this little park. It's a shame, but it's nice to have the place largely to ourselves.

In penance for letting Lulu off-leash, I bring out a plastic grocery bag and fill it with trash I find on the sand, in the rip rap and seaweed. I hope for fascinating flotsam or jetsom worth keeping, but so far no big finds, just sea glass.

Now that Lulu is a swimmer, I had the wonderful experience this morning of tossing a piece of driftwood out into the gentle surf and watching her go eagerly out to get it. This dog is just divine.

All the walking I'm doing with her is also reaping good benefit too.

Swimming! Egret stalking!

Today Lulu finally made the leap from wading to full-on swimming as she went for a tennis ball in the canal at Point Isabel. So exciting. Oddly, none of the folks hanging around there were the least bit friendly about my excitement. I have really had a culture shock coming from the fabulously friendly Allston Park in Napa to the markedly reserved souls at Pt Isabel. I'd say about one in every 50 people actually returns my smile or 'good morning.' I seem to be breaking some protocol. Too bad, cheer up you East Bay people, relax and just say hello, it won't kill you. Maybe someday the attitudes at Point Isabel will match the setting and features, which are extaordinary and energizing.

Soon after Lulu started swimming, she spotted and gave big chase to an egret. An egret! Lulu was in heaven and I was a little worried she'd have such static in her brain due to bird lust that she'd follow the dang bird out into the ocean. Luckily she heard me and swam back, albeit quite reluctantly.

funny? sad? logo kerfuffle

A tempest in a teapot? You decide. The new, controversial logo for the 2012 London Olympics is gaining many critics.

More Lulu

bff

According to doggie day care, Lulu has a 'bff' (best friend forever) in Matilda, another all-black young energetic dog who started at Every Dog at about the same time as Lulu.
Very cute. This morning, the Every Dog staffer told Lulu,
"OK, Lulu, Matilda's already here and she's got your whole morning figured out for you, let's go!"

videos of Lulu

here is basic cuteness at Point Isabel with Lulu

here is Lulu enjoying the bay breeze in her face, doing a sit beautifully when asked too!

Lulu loves the water too

Weekend "make" projects from Make Magazine

this is a great one:

nice little video about Point Richmond

core doggie curriculum

My coworker Shawna sent this to me with a note - "Important lesson for Lulu. This is part of the core doggie curriculum; I just want to be sure she knows it."

So sweet! And funny.

more blather

Got Lulu and I all signed up for a six-week dog training class on Saturdays just up the road from Point Isabel, so hoping to meet some more nice dog people and make sure I'm doing all the right things for the pup.

People just warm to Lulu right away. Her vibe is so solid and mellow. She has a ton of young dog energy but it's not chaotic or spazzy. At doggie day care, they continue to give her stellar reports.

Susan is coming to stay with me this weekend, very excited for her to meet Lulu. Nice three-day weekend too. We chatted about going to a beach of some kind, and now I'm remembering that I should think up some beach that doesn't involve a lot of windy roads. Susan doesn't do so well with the windy roads and my driving.

Last night on a little walk near my flat, Lulu and I met Annette and her black lab mix dog, Angus along with another neighbor whose name I didn't get. She had a black dog also and said, "Welcome to the Point Richmond black dog club!" Annette turns out to live just around the corner from me. I was surprised at how reserved I was about chatting with them - there was a time I'd be telling a new person my whole life story and trying hard to get them to like me right away. Now, I seem to measure my energy and willingness to take on any new people. I'm the one who first says, ok, then, we have to go, nice to have met you. Is this a healthy thing or should I be more open? Do I have bad habits of protecting my space from when I was really depressed and not able to deal? Or is this just better maturity?

I have the feeling I need to just put this one in the God box and let the answers come as they will. In the meantime, it feels nice to have such friendly neighbors and yet also a little sad that I may be moving. If I could just wave my magic wand over housing prices in this area, that would fix it all.

Austin looks great, but moving house is a royal pain. I just got unpacked! I do really like my job though, and feel pretty sure that the only way to do it well is to be at HQ in Tejas. But again, no need to make any decisions today.

Through the dog training sign-up, I found a nifty new dog web site: Dog Star Daily. Check it out.

a lulu of a trek

So here is a bit more about this latest adventure:

Monday - got to work super early so that I could duck out at 3 pm and head up the highway. It was beautiful weather and an easy drive to lovely Weed. At a truck stop on Highway 5, I heard this hug truckload of cattle complaining about their quarters (and, probably, the heat). I was reminded about why I want to be vegetarian and am so sad when I fail. How come it seems so much easier for Alicia Silverstone, anyhow? Dang.

Tuesday - looked over a map of Oregon during breakfast and changed my route so that I could see all the scenery around Bend. I was lucky enough to have been a camper at Camp Tamarack every summer from age 8 to 15, usually for an entire month. The mountains and lakes were just spectacular. I am pretty sure that Oregon is so blase about all of its magnificent beauty that they don't see any need to put in places for motorists to pull over and take a photo. Because I sure did not see any.

Had lunch in Sisters, and then took a detour to Lake Creek Lodge to see if Velda was there. She wasn't, but I left one of my furperson cards for her. I was tempted to drive down the dirt road to Camp Tamarack too, but the drive was taking longer than I had planned.

Arrived to Big Table Farm at last and got to meet the adorable Lulu, who was still pretty much thinking of herself as "Shadow". So wiggly and sweet. She and Clementine played together, running up and down the big old hill. I met the llama, the goats, and Chief the horse. Brian had some friends over and they set up a table outside to enjoy some incredibly yummy homemade smoked salmon and duck prosciutto along with bread and garlicky pesto dip. Clare arrived soon from the airport and soon we were eating at, indeed, a Big Table. Again, more great food and interesting conversation over dinner. I was tuckered and crashed out early.


Wednesday - In the morning, I could hear all sorts of birds and critters making noises. What a cool way to wake up. Clare had made some delish smoothies for breakfast. Farm chores ensued (by others) and then there was some solid napping (by me). Clare, Chief and I went up to a horse training place just up the road from Big Table, where this great horse / rider therapist (I forget her name, but she was great) did a session with Clare and Chief. Totally intriguing.

In the afternoon, I loaded up the darling Lulu dog into the car and headed back down the road to Weed. She looked a bit anxious as we drove out the gravel roads, but by the time we got to Yamhill (just about 10 minutes), she had curled up in a ball in the back seat and was snoring away.

I just barely sneaked into the Medford dog park before the sun set. It seemed much, much longer to Weed than I would have expected. Dang, I thought, Oregon is a big old state.

Thursday - Get up early and hit the road toward home. Lulu had no accidents or issues with staying overnight at the hotel. She's already learned "wait" and doesn't jump out of the car until I say "ok", which is a huge safety thing I like to nail right away.

Stopped over at the lovely little dog park in Redding near the private airport. Noticed that Lulu's potty business was kind of runny. Realized with dismay that I had forgotten to take some of Lulu's old food with me to mix in with the new, and so had now committed the rookie error of giving the poor pup the runs. Ack ack. Slapping forehead.

Arrived to the Bay Area in the afternoon but headed straight to Point Isabel park. Lulu was great off leash and did lots of "come here" when I called. So thrilling to have a dog who acts like a dog and is eager to please. Gave her a bath at Mud Puppies, headed home. The whole 'runs' business had me sleeping in my clothes and walking Lulu around the block at 11 pm, 1 am, 3 am, 5 am, and 6 am.

Friday - Even though I was totally fried, I screwed up some energy and concentration so I could make a non-horrible first impression on my new VP. Luckily, he was totally down to earth and also an animal person. His wife has recently rescued some little kittens that have to be bottle fed. "So she has 'sucker' written on her forehead, too?" I asked. "Oh yeah," he said.

At 11 am, Lulu passed her temperament evaluation at Every Dog Has Its Daycare with flying colors. In fact, the women there just raved about what a great dog I'd gotten. I told them that, yes, I knew it! I didn't go into all the gory details about my former doggies, who didn't ask to become as damaged as they were.

Visited the glorious Gardner and introduced Skip to Lulu and visa versa. They hit it off right away. I napped on Gardner's couch for an hour while she watched a soap. (Thank God for friends that are this easy-going!)

Got our flea meds and heartworm test at the vet, along with some antibiotics just in case the diarrhea was caused by a bug of some sort.

Saturday - More big long walks at Point Isabel. Then headed over to Alameda, visited a cool doggie store on Park and got a glamorous pink polka-dot dog collar. Met Laura and Tom at the Alameda Dog Park and threw the ball a bit. Lulu doesn't quite get how to bring the ball all the way back to the thrower just yet. She seriously gets along with every dog she meets.

Sunday - introduced Lulu to India and again, it was big doggie love fest. Had breakfast and good conversation with Porter and Joseph. Later in the day, ridiculously thrilled about seeing a firm poopie come out of Lulu. Drove up to Napa to fetch the dog crate out of my storage unit. Visited Alston dog park but didn't see Trudy or any of the other friendly regulars, probably due to the time of day.

Set up the crate in the living room and put the bed in there - and instantly, Lulu settled right in and loved her new space.

I just can't believe how responsive and dear this little furry thing is! She's a true joy.

Everyone loves La Lulu!!

lulu-closeup-may-18-2007
Originally uploaded by pamplemousse2007.

Drove to Oregon to get the delightful, sweet Lulu this week. More detail later when some of my brain cells regenerate - Clare and Brian were awesome hosts, loved seeing their farm, and the weather and the scenery could not have been more magnificent.

Click on the
"lulu closeup" photo to see a few more shots from the trip and several more from today at Point Isabel in Richmond. Lulu loves the bay breezes and the wide open spaces!

i heart code monkey

I stumbled on this, which has now become my favorite song (of all time? maybe?) - looks like several someones (you can find more on YouTube) have created their own videos to the tune, probably with the blessing of the very web-savvy songwriter / singer Jonathan Coulton.

Interview with Coulton:



and if I weren't already converted, check this genius thing:
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/primer/flickr

how berkeley can you be?

Overheard at lunch at a little Chinese food place on Telegraph Avenue:

"I don't know why they would send the sarcophagus to her."

like the art, need a lower price?

Try a t-shirt!


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

great quote

"You can’t take the evil of slavery out of the world and abolish it without making the world more just. You will never prevent people living in bonded labor or from getting caught up in sex trafficking while they are so desperate that they have no other choice but to sell themselves. As long as we in the West crave ever more excess, we conspire in their desperation, exploiting it and make ourselves sick in the process."

- Clare Short, Member of British Parliament and former Secretary of State for International Development. She resigned from the latter post over the U.K.'s involvement in the Iraq War.

britain has its own version of the funny Mac ads!

http://juliezilla.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-love-apple.html

dog dog dog dog dog dog DOG

I have been working at patience around getting a new dog, and I think it's been quite healthy to take these several months "off." When it started looking like May or June would be a great time, I spent some hours (ok, days) looking up dog breeds and thinking about what kind of dog would really be great for me.

On Sunday, as we were driving to a lunch up in Napa, I told my sister that I'd finally figured out what to go look for:

• could go hiking with me


• loves water (Silver Lake beckons and Austin has tons of great water spots for dogs and their people)
  
• great personality like a labrador


• an adult but not senior (since I've just been through a couple of senior dogs and would love to have a dog for longer this time)


• big enough to be slightly a deterrent to a would-be burglar


• uber-dog friendly so I could bring him/her to doggie day care while I am at work and so I can enjoy all the social niceties of Point Isabel and other great dog parks.
  
  So I get done with this whole laundry list and my sister slowly says,
  
  "Well... we were trying not to tell you about this dog."
  

(See Clare's story.)

--------------

Did you read Clare's blog about Tallulah? What a very nice post.

Now Lulu dog - isn't she gorgeous? Aren't I lucky? Can't wait to get up to Oregon and see her in person. I feel enormously blessed that Clare and Brian are the people taking this dog on - I know Lulu will get a great jumpstart on training and get a big (much-needed) dose of lovin' from those two.

Current plan is that I'm going to head up to their farm on May 15. I haven't seen the farm yet, so that too is pretty exciting. I can't believe how many critters they have going on. I set up several days off so I can get Lulu and I all sorted.

Sketchbook

I think I'm going to need to scan in my sketchbook pages, since I don't think the photos of them are working out too well. No scanner in Austin, so here's what I've got.

IF : Fortune

Rudy painting finally gets to Susan

When someone really loves the painting I've done for them, there is just no better feeling. I was so relieved and happy that Susan responded so enthusiastically to the portrait of her cat Rudy. She even tried to pay me for it again! I took a half-day off from work yesterday, enjoyed driving over to Tiburon in the gorgeous spring weather to drop this off. Visited Blackie's Pasture briefly too, where I intended to sketch the Blackie statue, but there was an impromptu softball game taking place right then.

Susan is such a sweetheart - very genuine and kind. I feel lucky that fate threw us together in this venture and hope I'll know her a long time.

Sandra & Karl also loved the painting of the cat I did for them, which I got to drop by to their Sonoma pad last Saturday after painting in Napa. It was funny - I'd painted it with their cat Twinkleberry in mind (since she is very sick right now), but when Sandra saw it, she was positive that the painting was of their other cat "Big Boy." So Big Boy it is! And I got some good reference photos from her to start in on her several other fur persons too. Got to meet Hoyt Smith but missed out on his wife Jackie who was napping after a very long flight from Singapore. Turns out that Hoyt is actually a bear cousin, which is fun. Makes it even more enjoyable to listen to him now in the morning as he hosts on KDFC.

More good news - it seems that Twinkleberry does have a good shot at surviving her kidney disease after all.

cat series

april-cat-1
Originally uploaded by pamplemousse2007.

I am working on creating 20 of these small (6 x 6 inch) paintings of cats. So far, it's quite fun!
See more of these photos (on Flickr) by clicking on the photo here in the blog.

Super smiley India

Super smiley India
Originally uploaded by pamplemousse2007.

I got to borrow my sister's dog today and took a walk up from San Anselmo along this great open ridge, lots of wildflowers. India (the dog) was a very happy girl, as is evidenced in this photo!

Painting every day

Love this blog:

Paintings for $100 and just gorgeous stuff.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Berkeley watercolor blog plus more!

Found this - great peek at someone's sketch process: http://janabouc.wordpress.com/

Which led me to a blog where this guy has asked several people to draw/paint a portrait of him from the same photo. It's great fun to see the results: http://thistimeforreal.blogspot.com/

For those who may not have already discovered it - the classic fab illustration blog spot: http://illustrationfriday.com/

long time no write

I've been happily very busy with work and more travel to Austin lately.

Now settling in to the new company and carving time out again for artistic pursuits.

Going on Saturday to sit in on Gary's class and FINALLY get a start on the commission I have for the cat.

Also signed up for a Life Drawing class at Richmond Art Center for Wednesday nights. Body, body, body. It's the word du jour.

Was noodling around checking out artist residency programs and stumbled on a couple of artists web sites that I really liked:

http://www.wuongean.com/about.htm - narrative, soulful, slightly funny and disturbing at the same time

http://www.christinebourdette.com/ - seems to be very aware of physicality, feminity? I love this statement from the artist herself: "I seek to express the familiar, but with undercurrents that are dark, peculiar, elemental, or funny. For me, this expression reflects the ornery illogic of the human condition, its strengths and frailties. It remains a fragile circus, unlikely and charishable."

Austin, day 2

Sunday was as gorgeous as it gets and several locals reassured me that this is, indeed, the best time of year for weather in Austin. I figured out how to escape the whole crazy freeway system and drove around the University of Texas and then down along Duncan Park on North Lamar Blvd, where I saw lots of people out and about, dogs romping in the creek that ran parallel to me as I neared Town Lake. Dogs offleash enjoying a creek! It's a miracle!

I passed a huge REI and Whole Foods and then crossed a bridge to South Austin, where I had read that the 'weird Austin' lives strong.

There were lots of people out in kayaks and canoes on the lake having what looked like a purely delightful time.

South Austin looked like a lively, colorful mix of Chico (little bungalows) and South of Market (artistan things, funky restaurants) and Todos Santos (the color, the Mexican influence). I visited a strip of funky fabulous stores on South Congress and had a lovely lunch. I was hoping to buy some boots at Allen's, but the prices were serious, so I decided to wait until a later date. But the boots were divine. I think I may have drooled when I saw a tan pair with amazing pink detailing. I just couldn't justify $400 for them, despite their charms.

I think my favorite store was "parts & labour", which stocks things made by local artisans - handbags, melted LP bowls, jewelry. I like supporting that kind of enterprise. I fell in love with and acquired a vinyl messenger-style bag with a funny robot on it, but had to leave behind the purse with an authentic Dodge "Swinger" emblem on it. Sigh. The artisan who made my bag is Milinde Lawless.

Drove back up through downtown and saw what I found out later is the very recently imploded Intel building. (As in, they set off the explosives this morning!)

Got totally frustrated trying to navigate back to my hotel. I think the freeway up in North Austin should get a D minus on usability.

I had my lovely leftover ribs for a dinner with the Oscars, although I had to wait for them to thaw. Somehow my little refrig in the hotel room was jacked up high and froze everything. After waiting an hour or two and eating cold ribs and beans, I then of course discovered that all along there had been a microwave cleverly hidden in the cabinet above the refrigerator. Doh!

dust clouds, blues, freeway madness

Update from this week's trek to check out Austin, Texas (where my new company is headquartered): There was a massive swirl of reddish brown clouds over the Dallas-Fort Worth airport today, where I was supposed to land around 1 pm and then transfer on to Austin. It looked like the sky had spent a summer at Silver Lake and picked up that fine volcanic dust all over. I was reading Kinky Friedman's " The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic: A "Walk" in Austin " which had me chuckling to myself. We circled DFW for about 1/2 hour but then my flight became just one of 400 that were canceled in and out of DFW today and we headed over to land in Houston. It was muggy and hot, but the people were gracious and lovely.
On the advice of the friendly locals, instead of sitting there for 6 hours waiting for a flight to DFW and then another flight to Austin, I grabbed my Hertz rental car at the Houston Airport (instead of Austin) and headed to Austin by car, which folks told me would be about a two and half hour drive. Houston has some seriously funky circle roads but I did find the highway heading west at long last.
The country-side looked a lot like California's central valley, although I saw more guns shops than I see at home and there was no friendly fringe of mountain range anywhere in the distance.
My favorite road sign was just a little green road sign with an arrow and the name of the town, to help one turn right to get to "Dime Box."
As I got closer to Austin, I started getting some stellar radio stations. I loved KUT (University of Texas), which was playing some fantastic old rhythm and blues music. Made me feel like I was in a movie, driving the big open Texas road and having a blue-sy funky day.
Sadly, I then got lost as I got into town and shot right out of Austin southwards toward San Antonio, but not before I got to see the lovely capital dome glowing in the night. They have some very weird freeway methodology around here. You can exit the freeway but you can only then (seemingly) enter a side road going the same way as you were going on that freeway, so if you pass some place you want to visit, god help you. It made me nearly scream. But I am finally here at the elegant La Quinta Mopac North, next to the glamorous IBM Building in the Austin neighborhood that most resembles Silicon Valley. I've ordered some BBQ ribs to be delivered to my room and that should help take the edge off the whole getting lost freak out.
I had this image of Austin being much smaller and never imagined these crazy freeways going every which way. Hopefully I'll find some nice walkable spots tomorrow.

They just delivered my baby back ribs dinner and it's like HALF A PIG! Seriously, no one could eat eighteen ribs for dinner, could they??? Dear Lord, I might be in Tejas.

(20 minutes later)

By the way, I almost ate that whole half a pig. I can now understand how the feeding frenzy based on the massive deliciousness could just take one over.

If only I was here with a buddy, here's where I'd go tomorrow - Stubb's for their "Gospel Brunch!" I've never heard those two words go together but it's bee yoo tiful.

I work with engineers

... and here is proof. Behold what happens to a big bunch of promotional cardboard coasters in their inventive and restless hands:

Also delicious fun on the tech front - the new "security" Mac ad. CANCEL OR ALLOW???

My favorite of all time is the networking one.

anthropology gets sexy

this is inspirational and makes anthropology look all sexy and stuff.

Funny freecycle posting

I just received this from a fellow member of Berkeley Freecycle:

The unopened notepad (70 sheets) is in the shape andlikeness of Hello Kitty’s discontinued friend, Keroppi. The green clipboard is 5” wide and 6” tall.

---jeffrey, near UCB in Berkeley :vJ

So sad to have a discontinued friend!

Double-dog dare ya!

So my sister and I were laughing about this blog challenge to list out a favorite ten things beginning with a given letter of the alphabet. She said something about how mean it would be to tag someone with the letter "Q". To which I said,

"No, Q would be easy and fun. Wait, no. It would be really hard. Don't give me the Q." And then a minute later:

"No, Q would be easy!"

So, sis decided I was simply ASKING for it to be tagged with that Q no matter what I said from there on out. And a double dog dare oftens works on me, I'm afraid to say.







1. Quilts of Gee's Bend
Every time I see these beautiful quilts. I remember one of the quilters saying, "We did the best we could with what God gave us and we enjoyed ourselves."


2. Quiet
Sometimes I think the reason I haven't had children is simply because I absolutely love peace and quiet when I get done with work, for time to regroup, meditate, read, draw.

3. Questions
Where would all the philosophy majors (like me) be without them? I ask you?

4. Queen Elizabeth
God bless her for encouraging theater during Shakespeare's time!



5. Quiche Lorraine

Real men eat it.

6. Quercus lobata - (a.k.a. Valley Oak)

This tree reminds me of many wonderful places in California and some stunning paintings of those enlivening spots.

7. Queue

This word reminds me of Britain and the endearing character of its people. In addition to being articulate and wryly funny no matter if an aristocrat or a lorry driver, they are also deeply civil and know how to queue correctly.





8. Quirky

My favorite type of person. Say, for example, Rene di Rosa.










9. Quail

Also a lovely reminder of childhood in California.




10. Quiver
...in anticipation.

Kick-@(*#& ad - God Bless the Boomers

http://www.doveproage.com/

They played just a teaser as the television ad and pointed viewers to this URL to see the full imagery. And spicy and lovely it was! Love the message that Dove is not "anti-age" but "PRO age!" It's like I've been thinking for a while: the baby boomers are going to make getting old the best thing yet and just in time for me to get there! I can just hear the Sex Pistols rocking out the cafe in the retirement home now. Although I'm sure they will no longer bear a name like 'retirement', which suggests being supine.

But again, I don't even need to worry about that. The best marketing Boomer minds will figure it out before I even get my first AARP magazine!

sadly, a Napa arts initiative a bit too late for me...whinge alert :)

I got this intriguing email from the Arts Council of Napa Valley today including a press release on an initiative to establish a cultural plan for Napa. Here is a key part of it (the emphasis is mine):

"NAPA, California, February 7th, 2007: In the last five years, donors and funders in Napa County have invested close to $150 million dollars in the arts – without an overarching plan. The result?

- World-class venues, but not enough local audience to fill them
- Numerous arts organizations, but a tough financial climate: at least 12 galleries and theater groups have closed since the fall of 2004
- A wealth of individual artists of all disciplines, but few who can make a living in Napa County
- Committed and passionate arts supporters, but significant fatigue and uncertainty within the donor pool
- 4.7 million visitors per year, but most of whom don’t know about all we have to offer in the arts

To address these problems and opportunities, Arts Council Napa Valley, in concert with arts organizations, community members, and civic leaders from across the county, is creating a road map for a healthy and vital arts and culture sector that represents what the community wants to see, hear, and experience through its local arts. This road map is called a cultural plan. Cultural plans, and the cultural planning process, have been successfully used in communities large and small across America to create strong, vibrant, exciting arts sectors. This plan will be by the community, and for the community. To accomplish this, Arts Council needs Napa County residents to get involved and speak out for the arts. "

I responded to Michelle (whose art planning blog is here), who I was fortunate enough to meet a few times in Napa and found to be lovely and bright.

Here is my email back to her:

Hey Michelle,
I checked out your blog (great idea!) and left a comment there. This initiative looks so exciting, but sadly a bit too late for me. I think that one way to better support the arts in Napa would be to encourage industries like software and high tech. Many of us can't support ourselves full-time doing art and are earning livings as programmers, project managers, graphic designers, animators. But those jobs are few and far between in Napa.
I would also say that Napa needs to lean further to the left and positively embrace / celebrate minorities and gay people before the tipping point to 'artist-friendly' county could happen. I am (as you know) fishbelly-white and straight, but really disliked living in a homogenous, conservative, old-boy-network-heavy community. When working as a fundraiser in Napa, any energy I expended that reeked of "new kid in town" was received with either hostility, derision or plain old passive-aggressive attitude of "let's ignore her until she goes away." The folks running government and key organizations need a serious shift of belief - they need to truly feel that new ideas might be a help instead of a threat, that a rising tide will raise all boats.
I gave it a serious try to stay in the county but just couldn't do it for the reasons noted above, among others. I would have LOVED to help out with this kind of effort but feel like Napa wasn't set up for me to make a success of it.
Just another two cents for your group to consider / forward to the powers-that-be.
Thanks and very very best of luck to you all,

hidden city

I'm all moved in to the new casa and loving my very much shorter commute! I will be happier still when I get all these boxes sorted out. I'm finding that there are a lot of things I must've packed out of sheer exhaustion (or I've had a shift in values), because as I open boxes, I think "Ew, I don't even like this thing - straight into the Goodwill pile with you!"

Apparently, my new little town of Point Richmond is also referred to as "the Hidden City" - when Tom and Laura visited me on Sunday, we strolled downtown and had an EXCELLENT meal at the Hidden City Cafe. As it turns out, the Pixar crowd enjoyed the cafe too (back when they were located in P.R.) and they put it into the movie Monsters, Inc., which I have now pushed to the top of my Netflix queue so I can check that out!

I had a Niman Ranch roast beef hash with horseradish sauce and eggs, Laura was able to select a 'vegan special' (which prompted her to tell the waiter that "Kate is allowed to stay here") and Tom had some great-looking eggs and bacon. The OJ was fresh-squeezed, too.

"Is that France or Mexico?" we asked the waiter, pointing to a large flag on the rear wall.

"France," he said, "Well, actually, that's a wall."



_____________________

Today I am grateful that enough crazy drama is settled that I could notice the geese on the bay this morning as I drove to work;
I am grateful for the kind lovely people at my work;
I am grateful that tonight there is a nice little meeting just one block from my new house;
Today I ask God to let me focus on the next right thing.
____________________


Great local raptor photography from Glenn Nevill: http://www.raptor-gallery.com/

____________________

Great foodie-licious blog entry from one of my FAVES, Anthony Bourdain: http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/02/guest_blogging_.html

rain, fried chicken sandwich, boxes

After much trekking up and down the stairs (5 hours worth), the fabulous Layne and Juan got all my schtuff out of the POD and into my new home in Point Richmond. Toward the end, the skies really opened up and they got soaked. But I tipped well, so hopefully they are happy campers.

I can't believe how many boxes there are. Who bought all this? Why oh why? I think there will be another solid round of tossing stuff. Makes me feel a bit sad and wasteful, but better I send it along to its next owner and feel the pain of my past behavior than store it and be haunted by it hovering over me always.

Anyhow, I unpacked some of the stuff, read a few pages of a Dick Francis mystery and fell sound asleep around 4 pm. Woke up briefly at about 8 pm and enjoyed some breakfast cereal before zonking out shortly thereafter until 7 am this morning. Guess I was a bit wiped. Yeah, just a tiny weeny itsy bitsy bit. I'm sure part of it was the relief of getting the move finally done. It was lovely to discover that my new place warms up nicely with the gas heater and stays that way, thanks to the fab double-paned windows the landlords just put in.

Today, my lovely coworkers included me in on a lunch place secret and now I think I have found my new favorite food. I thought maybe I hadn't heard him correctly when Jim asked if I'd like a "Fried Chicken Sandwich" from Bakesale Betty's. But, lo, it was true. This little bake shop on Telegraph offers a sandwich to die for, stuffed with the aforementioned chicken and also some delicious coleslaw-type stuff. Heaven.