Translation

Driving over the bridge in the dune buggy we passed this van, which when combined with our vehicle formed the Scooby Doo fleet... It was kind of a marvelous feeling. Wouldn't it have been cool to just follow that van through San Francisco like a kind of mini-parade for those in the know?

Every day is sunset season

Lucky for me I see the sun set over San Francisco almost every day. Tonight's was especially spectacular: just at the end this cloud lit up and caused a blue rift across the orange sky.

Wee Grub

Two days ago a wee grub hatched from an acorn I'd collected months ago. We found him crawling around on top of an old parmesan container. The way he moved looked as though he were stuck in a sleeping bag. We gave him some cabbage leaves to eat and he spread them around, but after a while his creeping slowed. I thought he should be archived (as any mortal should) and I began to take a video with my camera. He scootched, scootched, and then went straight out of exactly the top left corner of the video. It was as though he and I had prearranged it: as though I knew beforehand where he would go, or as if he knew I was filming it all. The video lasted thirty seconds. Afterwards I took him outside and put him in a potted plant, so at least he had a little more control over his own destiny (and diet). I took a single photo of him outside before he disappeared forever.

Found Still Life

Edward Weston is alive and well

Okay, well, maybe just in my head.

Tower Real Estate

Many people are looking for real estate to purchase these days, whether it's their first home, an investment or a vacation property. I found many new multi-dwelling homes opening up right outside the tower where I work after recent rains. I was impressed by the many options available.

Here are apartments located in an industrial area. Very good rental property:

This one I'm saving for Jamie Schulte, who doesn't mind living in small studio apartments. Desert location, south-facing windows make it a good place to grow avocados and basil.

Comes furnished with a small upholstered ottoman.

Homes with large lots, good for gardening and sharing tools and tea and gossip with your neighbors on adjacent properties.

I think they did a lovely job with this remodel: I love the dusty browns of the exterior, don't you?

New parents: there are several playhouses on this property, and very nice high ceilings so you can have tall Christmas trees.

If you are looking for a property in a planned community, this would be your best bet.


An aerial view of the property gives you an idea of how spacious these lots are.
Here you see that you can easily move between the living-space and the outer cottage bedrooms without leaving the sheltering roof.

Reusing Tea Tins

I hate to throw away those nice little round tea tins, but haven't found them very useful for holding anything else since I can't ever tell what's inside... I finally figured out that you can just wrap them quickly in brown paper and then write what's inside and the date. Then when that stuff runs out, I can cross out the old writing and write something new. In this way I can use the same brown paper for years! Alternately you could use pretty paper to wrap them (wrapping paper, newspaper, art store paper...).

To do it quickly, I just rolled the tin along the edge of the paper and drew a little dot where I wanted to cut the paper. Then I used the book as a straight edge and connected the dots. I cut the paper and then used that as a template to cut a few more sheets. I used Scotch tape to attach.