make mine Corian®

Scott and Nancy at Original Joe's (in a  bad photo)

Chef Sarah and Nancy both have and love Corian® (four samples above)

How fortunate I am to have step daughter Nancy and her husband Scott
here. He is a contractor and Nance knows all about this stuff. They arrived
late yesterday and I rushed them to Home Depot in Daly City and we
all worked on the kitchen counters trying to figure out my crude measurements.
Luckily I had photos on my iPhone and we three worked well together. Of
course nothing is simple and I need a new sink, faucet and garbage disposal.
But that's OK. We return this morning to finalize the deal. And no rain
today (maybe).

Our reward was dinner at Original Joe's in Daly City. So grateful. Nance and
I both hope that I will start cooking again with the beautiful new counter tops.
But at least I'll have a pretty new kitchen...

personalizing the war

World War I ~ one hundred years ago. They Shall Not Grow Old is
a disturbing movie, of course, yet fascinating because of Peter Jackson's
work restoring and building the film. The most touching scenes to me
involved the Brits capturing the young German soldiers and realizing
(once again) how ridiculous war is. I met Doug and Barb at the most
delightful Alamo yesterday and we had lunch while watching the
young men march and kill each other. Rough. I can't stop thinking
about this movie now.

a short film, but wonderful

Oh, yes, I highly recommend this documentary which is now on Netflix.
Period. End of Sentence. A small town in India where women (and men)
learn about menstruation and we see the beginning of a sanitary-pad business
there. Sometimes it is the basics that help set women free and this film
is so inspirational that I am featuring it on NoMoreCommasPERIOD
today. Watch it!

Green's with grand daughter

Ceci and her friend Zack were here yesterday and since she is a vegetarian
I figured we should hit Green's again. Very nice lunch. Her mom Nancy
and dad Scott will be here on Wednesday.

I so enjoyed the Oscars last night. Green Book was my favorite movie
too and of course I'm a huge fan of Olivia and her speech was so genuine
and truly touching.

And a new week begins. We can do this thing.

a walk on Alabama Street

urban sprawl ~ the good kind

After listening to the ball game (!) yesterday I decided to walk up
to Starbux on 18th Street for a latte and some LindaKindle4 reading.
I walked back home down Alabama Street with appreciation and
my iPhone camera. Our famous Victorian rounded windows must
be a pain in the ass to replace, but quite wonderful to observe.

a cold February night

This beautiful poem is from one of our daily writing partners.
Andrea's husband died three years ago and she has been an
immense help to me.

A little lost tonight, cold February,

I’m watching the sky turn colors,

a few late birds flying overhead.

There is no word for the feeling

of being watched with love by 

the dead.  Besides, no one would

believe me.

Yet, watching the sky I smell 

their scent - aftershave, black

shoe polish, baby powder.

I can feel hands guiding mine

as we nail a strand of string

for the sweet peas to climb.

I can hear footsteps in heavy shoes,

a happy gait strides across the 

room.  I hear the laugh of a child

and the thwack of a rag as

it buffs the life into old oxfords.

The night brings our memories

to life, allowing the dead to put

their gentle hands upon us as 

we commit to sleep and the 

beginning of another day.

~~ Andrea Piercealla

tea and bullets

I had admired Al Farrow's work at the de Young a few years ago and did
not realize that there was an exhibit over at the Craft Museum on 3rd Street
until Frances suggested we go see it which we did yesterday. Farrow uses
guns, bullets, cartridges, etc. to build churches, synagogues and mosques
and somehow this all makes sense and there is great beauty and emotion
in these pieces. Frances came for tea first and of course she had to admire
Annabelle while we caught up with important chit chat. A good day.

special birthday dinner

sundown and our Golden Gate Bridge

Marsha was the star

Last night we celebrated Marsha down at the wonderful Green's
Restaurant ~ completely vegetarian, as you well remember. I had
a great time catching up with Larisa (not shown) who is going
home to Moscow for a visit next week. Marsha, Larisa and I
worked at the museums. It was a fine evening with great food,
laughter and friendship.

we like lake

Check out the blue sky again. I hadn't been back to Stow Lake since Bill
died, it was one of his favorite spots too. Yesterday Neti and I had a fine
walk, too early for the baby ducklings, but lots of other creatures including
a blue and a white heron and brand new turtles. I'm not a fan of the big
geese, pushy things, but they have multiplied also. The air is so clear
and it was lovely to be back with all those memories and current catch-up
chit chat with my long time friend.

enjoying the rain break

I have missed my walks. Yesterday I first admired the sign in the lower
left hand window here, then I stepped back to study the house ~ the
colors and the architecture. In SF we try to avoid the tyranny of beige.
Oh, and note the beautiful blue sky. It was cold but clear and the
air cleansed all that might be bothering me.

happy year of the pig

They were busy decorating in Chinatown yesterday for their big New
Year Celebration next weekend. I had a delightful lunch with Dancing
Jen at our favorite Star Restaurant where we are treated like royalty.
We had much to discuss and then walked on to downtown, happy to
have the blue sky and sunshine after so much rain.

the return to repose

I tried reading Angle of Repose back in the 70's but got nowhere. I
think if takes a degree of maturity that, god knows, I now have. Wallace
Stegner's famous novel is Connie's choice for next month's book
club and it is perfect reading for me now.

the tea report

looking out at the rain (note hanging tea cups above)

looking in at yet more tea type details 

Last Wednesday the book club met at Lovejoy's, a tea shoppe near my
home. All six of us attended, which is rare. I'm not a fan of tea spots but this
one has improved since my last visit a few years ago. Now they even serve
coffee, but I forced myself to stay with tea and I must say that the scones
were the best I've ever had. We had a good discussion about the Scottish
memoir and Connie selected next month's book. I'm on it already.

the pond in the rain

The Monet exhibit officially opens tomorrow, but Marsha and I reserved
for the preview and it was all quite wonderful and one never tires of
this artist in his later years in his garden. (Monet hired someone to dust off
his water lilies everyday.) Then I spent some happy hours walking in
Golden Gate Park ~ the rain can be tiresome, but everything is so lush
and green and clean. A really fine day for this blogger who is learning
how to be a single woman. Ups and downs, but marriage was like that too...

there was love, lots of love

I've been cleaning out my office as well as Bill's. Tossing important old
mortgage and insurance papers and keeping all these notes. Bill never
bought a greeting card but I would find the love note and often a cassette
tape on the kitchen table for Valentine's Day and other holidays. I'm so
glad I saved all of these but just seeing his really bad handwriting and
"art" still hurts a lot. Now I will practice gratitude as I get ready for
my day. I wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day and please know that
I am fine, getting stronger.

more Kleenex, please

I came home from grief group last night and watched Beautiful
Boy which is a true, sad story about a very special young man
with a horrible drug problem. Fabulous acting and highly
recommended, but rough/rough/rough. Netflix rocks...

faraway friends

Linda and Tom are permanently in Albuquerque and loving it

Carlini is in Philadelphia for three months and not quite loving it

making us proud

Now it begins. Our new Governor Newsom is going to do battle with
Trump by pulling most of the National Guard from the Mexican border
to save them for "real threats" and I applaud this. He used to be our
customer at the Big Box Borders store when he was our Mayor and
he was always so very pleasant and respectful to all of us. You go, Guv!

writing workshops rock

Five students and one excellent teacher named Steve who was just rejected
by the New Yorker for a short story he wrote. But he is a real writer and
it just felt so good to be back with a group of writers in this small, warm
space as the rain came pounding down right outside. The all-day class:
Write What You Don't Know: A Fiction Workshop to Stretch your
Imagination. Yes on parking and yes on stretching ~ all in all a very
fine time was had by all. More, please...

back to school day

It's been a few years. Too long. I need a push so I'm taking an all day
writing class and I am happy about this. I'm packing a lunch, filled my
Thermos with coffee and will climb into my best jeans for school. Bill is
smiling down on me for this today, that much I know and he will help
me find free parking around Balboa and 22nd Streets.

DNA doesn't lie

For many years the Blogmaid has wanted to discover who my birth
parents were. Yesterday I finally gave her permission to start
digging and I gave myself a month or a year to get used to this
idea. Unlike many adoptees I have never been consumed with
curiosity about my lineage, although I do think every person needs
their health history. Anyway, in about three hours the Blogmaid
wrote that I have two "close cousins" who are probably half sisters.
I wrote one of them this morning through Ancestry.com. Oh, hello.
Stay tuned...

Edward Albee's Seascape

Two humans, two human-sized lizards. Thanks to a gift certificate from
Dancing Jen (grateful) I took myself to see "Seascape" yesterday at ACT.
I loved this play about a couple newly retired. They were bickering on
a beach when a lizard couple pays them a visit. Albee said that there are
really only two things to write about: life and death. Once again he finds
a way to show the joy, pain and absurdity of our world.

women in white

This woman, Speaker Pelosi, makes me especially proud this morning
as she sarcastically gives a clap-back to the Orange Monster during
the State of the Union address which I missed on purpose. I loved
that so many of the women wore white to honor the suffragettes who
fought for our right to vote.

my next project

This is not my kitchen. Not our kitchen. I/we need a new countertop and
I have been poking around online. Soon I will measure the counters and
head to Home Depot with a 15% discount that they snail-mailed me. I
asked Chef Sarah and step Nancy and jotted down their ideas and thoughts.
Nancy and I reminisced about when we had the kitchen painted white
and we both tried to convince Bill to get a new countertop then. He could
be stubborn and he said, "No." So ~ many choices now: marble, granite,
quartz and about fifty strange combination names that sound sleek or
cozy or just plain weird.

born and raised in SF Chinatown

Playwright Lauren Yee knows and appreciates her upbringing in our

Chinatown. Her father is head of the Yee Fung Hoy Family Association

and she writes about him and their relationship with deep love and

lots of wonderful irony. It's a glorious play full of all kinds of twists

and turns ~ music and dancing too. Neti was my date and we had a

good time yesterday, missing the Super Bowl. (Blogmaid said the

football spectacular was like watching Ambien. Ha ha.) I would

urge everyone to go to the SF Playhouse to see King of the Yees

and I'm so glad we spent a long afternoon there instead of in front

of the TV. 

a poem for the weather

This has been the rainiest winter in years and years. Of course we need
it and I'm so lucky to be able to stay in most of the time and not worry
about going to work or the hospital or even school in this mess. I do 
like this rain poem:

Rain

By Don Paterson

I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face;

one long thundering downpour
right through the empty script and score
before the act, before the blame,
before the lens pulls through the frame

to where the woman sits alone
beside a silent telephone
or the dress lies ruined on the grass
or the girl walks off the overpass,

and all things flow out from that source
along their fatal watercourse.
However bad or overlong
such a film can do no wrong,

so when his native twang shows through
or when the boom dips into view
or when her speech starts to betray
its adaptation from the play,

I think to when we opened cold
on a rain-dark gutter, running gold
with the neon of a drugstore sign,
and I’d read into its blazing line:

forget the ink, the milk, the blood—
all was washed clean with the flood
we rose up from the falling waters
the fallen rain’s own sons and daughters

and none of this, none of this matters.

for the book club

This is one of Gini's favorite books and her choice for our February
meeting. A Childhood in Scotland by Christian Miller, written in
1980, the author born in 1920. I'm just starting it now on this rainy
morning. It isn't available on e-books so I'm feeling a bit old fashioned
and of course my eyesight is less than perfect with the tiny type.
Perhaps this is why god, in her infinite wisdom, gave us magnifying
tools. But I miss my LindaKindle #4.

back to San Leandro

San Leandro BART station

Well, you can see from this photo that it was a grey yesterday. This lovely
statue looks better with a bright blue sky background.  I had a long and
terrific lunch with Meriel, Barbara and Julia at Paradiso in San Leandro
and didn't get back home until almost 5pm. Whoosh. For dinner I had a
cup of tea and some Whoppers.