best burger ever!

I know, I know...I've probably said this before, but really and truly,
THIS is the best hamburger in the world. Of course it costs $15 and
that's a lot, but you'll see, it's superb. We have a new bowling alley
in the Mish (17th near Mission) and it was filled with hipsters, but
we sat on the roomy "front porch" (behind that screen in the above
photo) for an early supper and had such a nice time talking and
people-watching and just plain loving the burger.
a glorious time talking and watching the people.

animals and sunshine

Yesterday the SPCA and other animal rescue groups joined forces and it
was a huge success, I'm sure. Most of the cats were inside, but business
was brisk because they didn't charge the usual adoption fee and there are
soooooooo many new kittens this time of year. Always more, it seems.
The SPCA travels to surrounding shelters and gets more inventory when
theirs runs low. It continues today, so drop by and pet a cat, dog, bunny,
chinchilla, etc. Better yet, take one home!

new photography exhibit

From Alec Soth's "Niagara" series

The deYoung isn't known for fabulous photography exhibits ~ SF Moma
is usually the place to go for those. But yesterday Real To Real opened
with 110 outstanding works from the Traina Collection.  It's fabulous ~
lots of Soth (above) as well as Friedlander, Arbus, Winogrand, Gursky
and McGinley.  Well worth a visit. Through September 16th.

Museums teach us to develop the capacity for reflection.
(I read that somewhere. Nice, no?)

one more remote

Yesterday we installed the Roku® because even WE realize that the end
is near for DVDs. Of course it took us all morning and the usual false
starts, but we stayed cool and it's now done. It's a tiny thing, as you
can see, and we haven't really used it yet, but it seems pretty simple.
Our house is awash in remote control devices. Lordy.

A walk in the afternoon, meeting the Plotniks for coffee and catch-up,
and then Tiapos last night. Our writing group heads off in all different
directions in the summer months, so it was almost a goodbye party
featuring Chef P's yummy peach tart.

rare June sunshine!

Big news day on The Embarcadero

Blue, blue skies

What better seat for a latte?

My friend KC

My friend Barack

What a glorious day in the city, despite snarled traffic, because the President
was in town for a few hours. But perfect and fun and one of those days
when I was sooooooo glad to be living here that I could barely stop smiling.

I met KC for lunch at Mijita and we were able to sit outside and play catch-up
after 20 years. We were co-assistant managers at the now defunct B&N out
in Colma and like all big retail it was constant and hectic and horrid. He
now lives in NYC and is very successful in the computer/advertising world,
but admits that it's just plain hard to live there a lot of the time. He still
misses the Bay Area and is spending two weeks of his vacation time here
seeing old friends and relaxing.

After lunch I stood on the curb and watched all the excitement as Obama
picked up a cool 2 million from people with a tad more influence than
this blogger who will send $25 or so from time to time to his campaign.
And today? More sunshine ~ picnic time!

banksters beware

Back in 2008, my then-boss and friend had his condo foreclosed. I will
never, ever forget how horrible that was and I think what bothered me
the most was the bank's refusal to even talk to him or consider any
negotiation. Remembering that, and our own dealings with Wells Fargo
when we re-negotiated our mortgage and how they lost almost every
paper we faxed, re-faxed, delivered by hand, mailed or emailed, I
am, shall we say, anti-big-bank?

So I half-assed joined Occupy Bernal because they focus on helping
citizens fight foreclosures. All I've done so far is call one bank
manager and leave a message that perhaps they would want to talk
to their customer before they take the family home. But I love this
group of neighbors helping neighbors and plan to do more to be of
service to the community.

Then in today's chronny I read that our mayor, along with other NoCal
mayors, are requesting the 5 largest banks to halt foreclosure proceedings
on some of their customers. It's a start and the best news I've read
in a long time. In the meantime, I plan to get more involved with
Occupy Bernal and will keep you informed.

people first, then cats

Dancing Jen and Corry

Muppet and Chic

Ooooops, I failed to write down his name. Gorgeous will do...

Salsa

Delilah

Well, we'll start with cats after all. It had only been a few days since my
last visit and only Fluffpuff (with white eyeliner) had been adopted.
Plus about 123 kittens, of course. Lots in, lots out ~ hurry for best selection.

Then I met Jen and Corriander for lunch at Limon on Valencia Street.
That is such a fabulous restaurant and really quite reasonable for all
the delicious food we enjoyed.  I was surprised that it wasn't busy
and they sat us in the prime window seat so we could lure in other
customers for them. And we did. Try the truffle mac and cheese and
those spare ribs ~ yum!

Today is glorious and sunny, but there was some actual rain yesterday.
But still, a walk on Valencia St. is always delightful.

did you say Iceland?

A woman at work honeymooned recently in Iceland, so there was a lot
of discussion of that country and this book was recommended to me.
It was written in 1946, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.
I think I tried to read it once before and couldn't, but this time Independent 
People is resonating with me. Now I wonder if my friend Anna at Dutch
Hill Farm has read it? It's the story of a determined sheep farmer who
lives a harsh life and values freedom more than anything.

I found a brand new copy for $5.98 in a used book store. It's not the
kind of novel that one would want to e-read, that much I know for sure.

Livewires beat Kitties!

RR plays second

Livewires and coaches after the game

RR's Game Face ~ not Moody

RR's very first at bat

Sweet statue at snack bar

I had a fun time in Pumpkinville yesterday and the Livewires won (5 to 2)
and RR was stellar as a batter. There wasn't much action for her at 2nd base,
but she is learning the basics and I was impressed with the coaches and
how much time and care they give to the little players. Of course they
stress teamwork and of course I wanted them to WIN, because I am a
baseball fan. The Giants also won yesterday in another v. close game.
And yes, the coastal fog finally burned off, but it is June, and that's just
how it is here with our natural air conditioning, as people say way too often.

remembering what's important

Today is RR's debut as a Livewire and I will be driving down to Pumpkinville
to cheer and whoop and get some photos for commano. I look forward to
seeing Mr. and Mrs. Blogmaid and also RR's older purple sister and teacher,
Claire. Husbando will clean house as he does every Saturday. Don't they all?

Speaking of which, our Giants (the other team) are chugging along, mostly
winning by one run. The blue scumsucking Dodgers have lost five (5)
in a row and we are now only 4 out of first place. Catch the games today,
they are all wearing scratchy 1912 uniforms ~ our game is at 4:15, so
I'll be home to a clean house with a camera-full of treasures.

This sure beats working.

falling for The Fonz

Anonymous kitten

Griffin

More new kittens

Alicia ~ 3 months old

Fonzarelli

It had been 10 days since my last SPCA visit and there were a lot of
adoptions to make me smile. Even my favorite Tahoe-the-Restless has
a new home. I used to visit her first. Here are the adoptees ~ celebrate:

• Rudy
• Windixie
• Godiva
• Inky
• Pizazz
• Gracie
• Lil Bear
• Phoebe and Claire (Siamese Twins)
• Tahoe (sniff)
• Tons of kittens

Fonzarelli is my new favorite and I think that means his imminent 
adoption. He's 8 years old and chatters without surcease, in a quiet,
intelligent way, of course. It was a fine morning, why weren't all my
jobs this rewarding?

HBO does it again

Nicole Kidman and Clive Owens

We both were impressed with Hemingway and Gelhorn, especially all the
history and how they traveled to Spain, Finland, China, Cuba, Poland,
etc., to chase adventure as war time correspondents. Fascinating stuff. We
guessed that Hem was pretty much an alkie misogynist, but still it's not
easy to watch him self-distruct. Martha Gelhorn was his 3rd (of 4 total)
wife and she is an inspiration to all career minded women. The Flix® will
have it soon, I hope, for you non-HBO people.

flammable indeed

A Behanding in Spokane is playing until June 30th, and even though it's
a bit grisly, it's great fun ~  90 minutes of thrills and tension. Usually
I'm the one to yelp in movies and plays, but last night even Husbando
did the "oh no!" kind of screech. Rod Gnapp is one of our favorite
actors and the playwright Martin McDonagh gave us the wonderful
film In Bruges, so we knew we were in for a treat. We both recommend
this play, you won't be disappointed!

the lost souls

(sometimes I wonder what happened to all the big city crazies who used to

come to Borders to sit for a few hours ~ Buttercup, The Captain and

Tenille, Road Warrior, Perfume Lady, Neck Brace Woman, the Guy With

Carefully Tied String Around His Belongings ~ those who screamed and

cursed and those who never spoke a word. So sad, yet so difficult to

have to deal with on a daily basis.)

 

All Dharmas Are Marked with Emptiness

I'm talking now about the destitute and the wild-eyed, I'm
talking about the lady who made the head of the Virgin Mary
out of cut up pieces of magazines and broken glass and a
can of carpenter's glue—and then there's the girl I know
who works in the supermarket, who printed an entire anthology
of poems on a single eight-and-a-half-by-eleven sheet of
Xerox paper and folded a hundred copies down to wallet size
and passed them out to anyone who dared look her in the eye.
You know what I mean: there are all those lonely, desperate,
weird minds—yours among them for all I know—and the
Dharma is everywhere, books and words and people thinking,
beat-up notebooks from the dollar store, scribbling the world
into them—a man has a mystery, a woman has an adventure,
the kids are banging rhymes together like tin cans full of
old nails. Where's it all going, this clatter, this wonder,
this rant against anguish? I tell myself to stay calm. I tell
myself to step back and take a breath. I twist and shift in my
tall black chair. I can hear the city coming in through the kitchen's
window-screens. Night birds, crickets in the unseasonable heat,
some might say dead souls keening in their rivers of fire or
choirs of angels out in the eucalyptus trees, but beyond it all you
hear nothing but the deep nothing—or maybe that's the far-off roar
of a motorcycle: If the night is just right, if the moment is perfect,
you know as well as I do that you don't need to tell the difference.
Frank X. Gaspar

Late Rapturous
Autumn House Press

everyone loves our bridge

Shoes represent the GGBridge suicides ~ 1598

75 years of grandeur

Impressive fireworks last night

We could see the tall fireworks from our back window last night, but
the celebration from Crissy Field had to be spectacular. The Golden
Gate Bridge is universally loved and admired for its durability and
amazing beauty. Sorry to put the shoe pic first, but it has to be painful
too, because our bridge is a magnet for suicides. And odd, the jumpers
always face the city when they leap. But yesterday was an all-day
celebration and people from all over came to marvel and enjoy the
75th bridge birthday.

extended until July 7th

We went to the very civilized 5pm show at The Marsh yesterday to
see Brian Copeland in his show entitled The Waiting Period. This is
a powerful funny/sad one man performance about his depression and
almost-suicide. Things that need to be talked about. Here is a quick
poem I wrote this morning for the Robins:

Prompt: PHOTO #5 (smears of red on glass, it looks like blood, it's eerie)

Suicide is on my mind
this morning as I sit here
looking out at the summer fog ~
not my own death, I quickly add,
but others, too many others

How can it be that while
most people fight, fight, fight to live
for another day, week or month
in hospitals or home sick beds
you want to end it all, just like that?

The pain, the depression overwhelms
yes, we do almost understand misery
still, hang on we say to you, oh do,
because it could get better
tomorrow, or maybe Tuesday next

Please, we beg, avoid the bridge,
the gun, the rope, pills, that fast-moving
train, the suspicious car crashing
furiously into the deadly wall of fate
oh, please, do hang on just for us,
just for one more difficult day

before computers

I've been spending some of my new free time cleaning and organizing
some of the stuff that I inherited from my parents. This loose leaf
personal financial system is a treasure trove of information and
memories for me. My mother had money, her family owned the
D.L. Clark Company, so of course our home was filled with Clark
Candy Bars, but we all preferred See's Candy, and still do. Growing
up, I never, ever heard mother refer to "my money" and looking back
I have to admire her tremendously for this. My father kept track of
all this stock stuff in his beautiful handwriting and then mother's
scratches appear after he died. Daddy was the first house husband
and we all benefited from having him home with us 24/7.

There are lots of loose envelopes and notes in here as well. My
grandmother's death certificate and will from 1931~ all typed out
and we remember that there were no copy machines then. Oh,
the joy of carbon paper. But I guess what has always surprised me
the most is the generosity of my parents. They loaned thousands
of dollars to their friends and from what I can tell, they weren't
always paid back. This was never part of our dinner table talk, and
I believe money was considered off limits as a topic back then.

(It looks like D.L. Clark was sold to Beatrice Foods in 1967, and I
do not miss those Clark Bars at all.)

ah, the revolution

Posters of the 70's

1968 ~ the War

1968 ~ the reality

There are two excellent exhibits at the Oakland Museum. The first just
concentrates on the year 1968, when we took to the streets in huge
numbers. Opposing Vietnam (that waste of a war), and then finally, it
seems, women and minorities found their voices. The Poster exhibit
is one man's vast collection and includes some of our favorites
including Fuck Housework which Ginger had on display in her garage and
lots of the famous psychedelic music group posters. I highly recommend
both of these shows ~ 1968 is detailed and really quite sad, the posters
are reminders of how much further we have to go. We didn't quite
achieve that Revolution, alas.

After the museum Ginger, Husbando and I lunched at the Joy Luck in
Oakland's Chinatown. Lots of pretty good food and quite inexpensive.
A really fine day and always that puzzle as to why/why/why our
neighboring city looks so unkempt when it has so much to offer.

more tea, anyone?

Glenn Close is so brave to play Albert Nobbs, a man working as a butler in
a swanky Dublin hotel. It's brand new on the Flix® and we both enjoyed it
because Glenn is so brave and one of our other favorites, Janet McTeer, is
also in the movie. Some nice twists and turns to the storyline ~ rent it!

where do they get those names?

I'm not wild about musicals, but this one is a don't miss if you
ever get the chance to see it!

The Naming Of Cats by T. S. Eliot

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover--
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.