Sunset over the Bay

Sunset came and the flight of gulls stopped me in my tracks.

A congregation paused to see...

... the pink and yellow haze that held us for a moment before the night.

Random post

It's raining... so I played with photoshop today... look I'm under the ocean... and my skin is perfect!



Ah, sorry nothing exciting to post today, but I'm tired of the old photos being at the top.

a winter sigh

What happens when I have much more time than money on my hands;

My room explodes

My closet becomes organized

My socks get darned (again)

My friends' clothes get fixed
(no picture available)
I cook more... and spend time wondering if I've ever seen carrots with holes through them before...


I'm planning on painting my walls (on the landlady's dime), sending out resumes to new people, and actually making my own clothes (which is something I claim that I never do). Shaggy is coming to visit me next week but fortunately he is just as poor as I am, so I think there will be redwoods hiked in, beaches combed, windows shopped and DVD's watched...

It's really not so bad. Everything is slow, like I'm in a hibernation. I have time to reflect on where I'm going, what I'm doing and how to improve. I get the chance to reorganize and rest. During these slow patches my taxes get filled out, my paperwork is purged and I get the chance to read all of the scripts for plays I'll be working on in the coming months.
Time seems to slow down especially on the dreary rainy days that fill the early months of the year. I actually pine for the next tech crunch and the next deadline that makes me want to scream. I get anxious that things will always stay like this but I must remind myself that the spring will come, the frosts will melt and the meadows will be filled with flowers again as they are every year. By the time this year's holiday season rolls around this slow season will seam like a distant dream until it turns the corner back into another wintery lull and I sigh deeply as I do now.

Stinky swans

I have been fortunate this week to find a little work. I've been helping with the final push towards tech and opening of Swan Lake as a stitcher. If you want to get an idea of what my job was like today you can do this simple experiment;






1. find a really old shirt that has been worn so many times that the body odor is never coming out.
2. turn on your iron with lots of steam
3. iron the arm pits, steam and take a deep breath

Now imagine doing that all day with the whole room full of stinky shirts.

I'm beat! But I'm grateful to be breathing fresh air now.

Super Tuesday!!!

I don't like to discuss politics but today I will keep it brief...



Don't forget to vote.

I h8 txting!

Y do I h8 txting? I despise wasting time searching for the correct letter on the keypad of my phone. I hate how long it takes to type a single word because each key represents three or four letters. I hate that it reduces language into the most easily abbreviated words and boils down personalities into :) :p :( smilies... I loathe that it allows people to be fully false about how funny things are, and dismissive of when things are upsetting or sad. Instead of the joy of listening to your friend's unique laughter, all you get is "lol" (Laugh out Loud) or one that makes my skin crawl; "roflmao" (rolling on floor, laughing my ass off) which is most frequently false. " Rolling on the floor" sort of laughter is so rare that it is beyond cheap to even have a full abbreviation for it. I dislike that it allows people to be distracted at any given moment; in the car, at dinner, at the theater, at the movies... Texting becomes a substitute for making any time for people because you can slide in "attention" while you're commuting or doing something else. It is impersonal, inefficient, and irritating. That my friends is my official stand on why I hate texting.


... and now for your amusement...

My favorite places to eat in San Francisco

Many San Franciscans claim that there are more seats in our restaurants than there are residents in the city. Weather that is true or not is not something I cannot verify. I can confirm that there are many great places to eat here. I have mostly been restricted to restaurants within my finances and near places I've lived or worked so those are the places I am suggesting here.

#1 Chin's Sushi Bar
4406 California St.
(near 6th Avenue)


This is my very favorite Sushi bar. The fish selection is seasonal. In general everything is toothsome and well balanced. The rice, the miso, the maki, and the prepared fish dishes are all delicate and flavorful.
I recommend the stuffed shrimp.
**near Green Apple Books

#2Nagano Sushi
3727 Geary Blvd.
(near Arguello and 2nd Ave)



The rice and the miso at this place are very commonplace. If you want maki, this is not the best place. However if you want to cut to the chase and just eat fish this sushi bar has the most variety of fresh sashimi I have found. They have a variety of Japanese beers and several desserts (I usually don't order dessert at sushi bars but they are on the menu). The atmosphere is pretty good, the customers are usually mostly Japanese and Koreans and the music is usually top 40 hits.

#3 Gordo's (Mexican)
1239 9th Ave.
Between Lincoln and Judah
This is a local chain. Very popular.
I love the Chicken Quesadillas. The menu is only; burritos, tacos, and quesadillas. Basic and well done.

#4 Taqueria San Jose
2830 Mission St
(between Valencia and 16th st, a quick walk from the Mission and 16th st BART station)
I find I get better service if I order in Spanish... it's all good, I heap a lot of their green salsa on everything.

#5 The Stinking Rose
325 Columbus Ave.
(between Vallejo and Broadway)


This place is expensive, I've been here twice. The first time my bill was covered and the second time I spent about $35 on my plate including wine, it's easy to spend more if you order appetizers and dessert (or lobster). Like the name implies, Everything in the restaurant has garlic in it. It is heavenly Italian-American fare that should be enjoyed with a dry glass of red wine. You can order a garlic martini, a garlic-vodka shooter and garlic ice cream but really the main dishes and appetizers had plenty of garlic for me, I found no need to venture into novelty.
**near City Lights Books

#6 My final reccomendation I don't know the name of the place
It's a Korean Hot Pot Restaurant
On the corner of 10th Ave and Clement St.



Here you pay a buffet price for a huge bowl that you fill with meat,vegetables, noodles and sauces... then you take it all back to your table and cook it there either on a sautee surface or in a big hot pot of broth. It is very filling, a great place to sate a large appetite.
**also near Green Apple Books

I have found that downtown by the courthouse and opera food choices are poor except for on days when the farmer's market is in the plaza. Also Japan town has good sushi but generally it is priced more than it is worth.

This blog is especially for the Blaschkos who are celebrating Sarah's marriage this week. Congrats to the happy family. If any of you need anything while you're in town give me a call.

the newer old homestead

So after the family (John Wallace's desendants) left Castle Craigie to disintegrate they got a new castle that they named Newton Castle. I can't find much info on Newton castle except that it doesn't even have ruins anymore... perhaps it was burnt down like a few of great-grandpa's kitchens (Hey Mom, was that great-grandpa a Wallace?) Then the family moved into a much bigger and posh place; Cragie House.


It looks like the heating is probably a little better than the old place. How is it we are related to people who had/have a castle like this? Where's my castle? Trust fund anybody? Ach! There are a ton of Wallace's we'd probably end up with about ten pounds sterling each... Sigh.

the old homestead

Hey Ma,
Look at what I found. We Wallaces had a castle and this is what's left of it. Because it is in ruins it's hard to find much information on it... It sounds like it's out in the middle of the countryside near a tiny village... I think I'm actually more interested in the place since it's in ruins than if I had discovered it were in perfect condition. We'll see if I can't dig up more info from the library. ooh ruins are cool!

Quote of the Week

"I feel like the Pope at a strip club"
--Michael Kors

Painting the dank out of dark and dank

Well I'm not quite done with painting my work space, but since I'm not going to get that chance for another few weeks I thought I would at least post my progress for proof that my "dungeon" is looking more like a real room every day.

Before;
Bare drywall, bare wood, messy and dark


After;
Painted walls, painted shelves, less messy, better organized (trust me on this)
I don't think these pics fully show how much better the room feels to be in, but before I could only work in this room for about an hour before I'd had it and needed to get out. Now I can put in enough time to accomplish something.


Sigh! I love fresh paint.

Eating like a hippie

When I embarked on this no-dairy experiment I did so with a great internal sigh. Picky eaters are so terrible. When I worked at a restaurant I was always irritated by the people who would order something like penne primavera; "but could you take out the zucchini, and use manicotti instead of penne?". Even worse are the people who go to some place like McDonalds and ask for "a hamburger happy meal, but make one of the hamburgers a cheeseburger,only three pickle slices, and give me extra fries with no salt and an extra toy". I'm not exaggerating, I've met these people, they are the ones who hold up the line in the grocery store telling the baggers how to bag their milk "in plastic and then in paper but not with the ice cream!". That is a little how I imagined a diet with a major restriction to turn out. Not eating dairy for a month (and still going) has reinforced the fact that Those People are just difficult and disagreeable and it has nothing to do with any kind of dietary restriction. It's pretty easy to just say "hold the cheese" and not make it into a theatrical production.
What is hard, but will probably get easier, is grocery shopping. Shopping is slowed significantly because of the necessity of reading through ingredients trying to spot "whey" "casiene" "vanilin" and other code words for "Milk". Today I finally just went to the Berkeley Bowl (a mega-hippie supermarket with the most amazing produce section ever). I bought soy milk, soy butter, soy creamer, a few products labeled "vegan" and a ton of veggies.

The new diet has forced me to think harder about my food choices. Just look at how many veggies I ate tonight;

I also bought a book called "The Joy of Vegan Baking" which I love. The recipes are fairly simple and explain how to "veganize" any baking recipe. I tried using these recipes with eggs instead of egg substitutes but they weren't as good. The most surprising egg substitute that I loved was in the muffins I made today. Instead of two eggs you whip together 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of water, e voila!

For a dozen muffins I used a half cup of sugar and a third cup oil. Those were the only not-so-good-for-you ingredients, everything else was flour, flax, seasoning, fruit and nuts... actually they're really tasty. You'd never know that they're made with twigs and dirt.

So I'm accepting that I'm not becoming a terrible picky eater, I'm just being a more conscientious eater. Thank God I don't have to do this in Ohio.