a temperamental chef

We both really loved Seared yesterday at the SF Playhouse. It's a new
play by the talented Theresa Rebeck and it's the story of a small,
successful restaurant in Brooklyn. GREAT acting with Brian Dykstra,
Rod Gnapp, Larry Powell and Alex Sunderhaus. The chef actually
chops and cooks on stage ~ it's pretty amazing. We have seen Rod
Gnapp in so many productions and here he plays the worried "money
man" behind the restaurant. Wonderful, as always.

the joy of texting

Dancing Jen texts me every night after her day sightseeing in Great Britain.
Above we see a street in the Cotswolds and below is my favorite bridge
in London leading straight to the Tate Modern. I have a funny one of her
itty bitty seedy hotel room in London, but I will save that until she moves
on to Inverness. I'm enjoying this trip a lot!

SOMArts Cultural Center

Monique's exhibit ~ all hand made and gorgeous

and all this too!

I went to Dia de los Muertos last night to enjoy the pageantry and color of this
exhibit, and I did. For sure. Then I ran into some ex-museum people and Carlo
showed me "the back room" which I had completely missed last year. Wow,
filled with art from Open Space exhibits beginning (I think) this weekend.
This is at 934 Brannan Street, right behind Trader Joe's, so Muni makes it
easy. This was a great experience for me, despite missing some of game #1,
because I left thinking, "hey, this is still a city filled with artists and people
who love art." I met Mrs. Paul Madonna and told her that my Fevered Brain
friend went to her husband's exhibit in Paris. She was so pleased. Do you love it?

It's come to this...

(I am re-cycling this from my very own blog post of
10/06/05 ~ thankfully Mr. Ferlinghetti is still with
us, but so are the damn Blue Angels. They seemed
louder than usual yesterday when they practiced over
my city. Happy Fleet Week, everyone.) 
Grrrrrrrrrr...

This is Fleet Week. I hate Fleet Week. Here is what
Lawrence Ferlinghetti has to say about this noisy
and difficult weekend:
And for another destroyer of poetry and peace, how
about those killing machines, the Navy's Blue Angels, who
have just carried out their annual attack on the City? But
the poetic life requires Peace not War. The poetic life of
the City, our subjective life, the subjective life of the
individual is constantly under attack  by all the forces of
materialist civilization, by all the forces of our military-
industrial perplex, and we don't need these warplanes
designed to kill and ludicrously misnamed the Blue Angels.
They dive upon our city every year, in a frightening
militaristic and nationalist display of pure male testosterone.
I've seen old Vietnam ladies in Washington Square diving
under the benches! Do we really need to be reminded yearly
how our planes have bombed Third World countries back to
the Stone Age? In San Francisco, of all places, do we really
need "bombs bursting in air to prove our flag is still there"?
What would Saint Francis say?

a WIN in NYC

Mad Bum just pitched another beauty last night and we beat the Mets 3 to 0
on Gillaspie's 9th inning home run. It was such an intense game and now
we head to Chicago and isn't this fun? Well, baseball is fun this morning!

here we go (again)

Cost Tower is orange and I am worried about the do-or-die Wild Card
game tonight. We are playing the Mets in New York ~ not an ideal
setting. It starts at 5pm and Mad Bum is pitching for us and maybe,
just maybe, our bats will be hot the way they were over the weekend.
OK, go Giants, let's all just breathe deeply and stay positive today.

October memories

History

Our life stories are scary and droll,
Like masks children wear on Halloween
As they go from door to door
Holding the little ones by the hand
In some neighborhood long torn down,

Where people ate their dinners
In angry silence or quarreling loudly,
When there was a knock on the door,
A soft knock a shy boy makes
Dressed in a costume his mother made.

What's this you're wearing, kid?
And where did you get that mask?
That made everyone laugh here
While you stood staring at us,
As if you knew already we were history.

CHARLES SIMIC

The Paris Review 
Fall 2016

the FINAL retirement event

Yesterday I met Blogmaid and Sabine at the Chit Chat Cafe in Pathetica
and we listened to the radio because our Giants were playing a really
important game and yes, there will be one more game Wednesday night,
the Wild Card in New York with the Mets. Thank you for the fine
retirement lunch, dear Blogmaid. How about all that foam in top photo?
Very pretty walking along the ocean as Sabine sniffed and socialized.

such brave grandparents

Mission Pie Shoppe

Thanks, Mr. Bittman

G. dot Ceci and her friend Tim are both chefs who went to the Blues Festival
in GG Park yesterday (and today). Our job was to feed them, so we started
at the Mission Pie Shoppe for apple/berry pie (not shown), then made
Mark Bittman's salmon and red potatoes. Salad first, of course. Parsley is
such a help, and candles and, yes, we made it! They left early (7:30-ish) for
yet more music in Mill Valley and Ceci arrived home quietly and today
will fix breakfast. Husbando and I did dishes and complimented each other
on what great and smart grandparents we are and collapsed with TV.

It looks like our Giants are heading into a Wild Card game. I have nerves
of noodle again, yesterday's game was OUTSTANDING with a rookie
pitcher named Ty Blach. Thanks to Notthat for his help unravelling all
this baseball "who's in? who's out?" news. Oh, my...

book talk

I read the Eggers book while traveling to/fro SB and just started the Patchett
book when I returned home. Dancing Jen is reading it too and that warmed
my little heart. Heroes takes place in Alaska and that part was fascinating
~ all about a single mom and her two kids escaping the past. Commonwealth
is absolutely amazing with superior writing and an outstanding plot. Love it!

living in the present

Ok, ok ~ I'm a San Francisco woman and yesterday I hopped on the always
colorful #14 Mission bus to meet Dancing Jen for a delicious lunch at Teo
at 7th and Mission. Chinese food, obviously, and it was yummy. But the
best part was seeing Jen before she leaves for London next week ~ she
will have a delightful time and of course I am traveling with her in spirit.
Thank you for lunch, DJ and I look forward to your texts, emails, etc.

a quick look back

This was last Saturday morning. Top: that house that I love from across the
street. Sweet. Bottom: the Farmer's Market where every vendor gives out
a dab or slice of their product and then when you buy something ~ eeeeeek,
very high prices, but that's probably true here too, we just don't shop that
way anymore. Fun though, out in the sun with tons of people to watch and
music, strollers, carts, dogs. Ginger bought fresh and delicious mussels and
I bought bread and garlic cheese ~ all worth the $$$$$. (Time to add again
that I love my iPhone and the ease with which I can take photos.)

Bliss, Blister, MissBliss, Blissterooni

The thing you REALLY need to know about this 11 year old me-firster is
that she is really the Princess of the all-female household. Her right ear is
usually "open" and she is always hungry. She loves the sun and sleeps
under blankets in the warmest weather. The life of Bliss in Summerland
is everything her name indicates, maybe even more. (Thanks, Linda!)

Emma and Hillary

sunset from Ginger's front room

Well, it was HOT yesterday and we took the dogs down to the ocean again
so they could cool off. Then we got ready for Debate #1 and of course HRC
knocked it out of the park. Emma came over to watch so now you have
seen all the dogs that I grew to know and love. And now I'm home and
happy to be here and it is cooled down. Yes!

all dogs welcome

Hoan and Happy

Lulu belongs to Lizzie

Most of Ginger's friends have dogs so there are usually four here. Tonight
Emma will join us for the debate and I will snap a photo of her for you.
Currently I am sitting in the Summerland Cafe, just finishing breakfast
while Ginger bikes to her tennis game. We will take the girls to the beach
later, as we did yesterday. Even the 14 year old pup needs her ocean
time. I had tea with Hoan yesterday afternoon and we discussed writing
as she has published two books and is working on her third. She showed
me her writing space and a whole shed-full of papers in boxes for her
research. She is a serious writer, but we tend to fill whatever space we
have, don't we? Hoan lives in a spacious home in Montecito ~ G, H and
I were friends at the Univ. of Colorado several (ahem) years ago.
P.S. It's hot here! P.P.S. Husbando doing great ~ it's hot there!

apples and pickles

First to the Farmer's Market where nothing costs under $10, or so it seems.
Santa Barbara is a wealthy, all-white area. But still, beautiful, and so very
relaxing. Then to check-out Pickleball, the newest sport for those over 60.
Smaller courts than tennis, paddles and a larger green plastic ball. It just
started in our Golden Gate Park and it does look like fun. Then our other
college friend Joan came over for lunch with her dog (Happy) and we sat
outside on the back deck and that was great fun.

two women, three dogs

downtown bus station ~ 5:30 am

You can barely see Bliss, the little dachshund, but she is always here with us.
Ginger picked me up after my very successful bus trip (I arrived early) and
we went walking before we came home and soon it was dinner and then
three episodes on TV of Longmire on Netflix®. I'm the first one up so I
am being quiet, here in the back room before coffee. Key word, that.

change is good

Yesterday I switched from an afternoon coffee latte to a chai tea latte
and felt a bit smug about how adaptable I am. I am sitting in Santa
Barbara right now, relaxing with my friend Ginger after walking
her three dogs and I want to report that I LOVED the AmTrak bus
down here. Six smooth hours, lots of room ~ easy, easy, easy. But
when I tried to post from the bus wi fi they categorized my blog as
porn. Hmmmmm, I better re-read everything I've ever written here.

a welcome Wednesday

daytime ~ a trip to Lucca's Deli

nighttime ~ Tiapos meets at Suzy's home

for Tiapos tonight

Here from Next Draft ~ a very special daily email that the Great Plotnik told me about. It's free and well-written. Anyway, I got pissed off when the Wells Fargo CEO blamed the workers (who else?) for all the phony accounts. Working retail all those years and you had better take full responsibility, the workers hate/hate/hate these pressure tactics that never seem  to let up. Go get 'em, Senator Warren. So I will add my 2¢ for our gathering tonight. BANK SHOTS "I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices .... I apologize to all of the American people and our customers, and I will make it right." Those were comments from CEO John Stumpf who was taking major heat from the Senate Banking Committee over the millions of bogus accounts opened in customers' names. + Senator Elizabeth Warren didn't pull any punches: "You should resign. You should give back the money you took while this scam was going on and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission."