Fog, the County Fair and the Free Table
August 20th, 2008 Comments Off
I love summer in San Francisco. Its so off-kilter from the way summers are experienced throughout the rest of the country. Foggy nights and cool, breezy days. Crazy.
Made our annual trip up to Grass Valley for the Nevada County Fair. Some highlights:
Won some goldfish (that died within 48 hours… sucks). I was gonna name one of them Chester.
sheepies
horsies
piggies
… and other barnyard characters!
But our favorite part of the fair is always the art show!!!
That bear in the back is like I CAN HAZ HONEY???
seriously awesome
I wish Gary had wings
Does your fair have a recorder quartet? I THINK NOT.
So yeah, typical county fair stuff. Corn dogs, cloggin, and mullets. Couldn’t find the Bingo Tent unfortunately. We did go to town for a bit of shopping, and came back with lots of bird books and records (I scored some real finds like Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain, the Box Tops, Lou Reed’s Transformer, Leadbelly, Sly & The Family Stone, an Aislers Set 12 inch, Rufus, and a copy of Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book). It was nice to be somewhat out of phone range for awhile. I picked up a copy of the Watchmen last week, so we’ve both been reading that (we couldn’t find our original copy). We spent the rest of the weekend vegging out and watching the Olympics. The opening ceremony – oh my god! So amazing. I think I had my mouth agape half the time. It really was a wonderful display of China’s history, culture and future.
We’ve been really busy, per usual. Had dinner with my aunt & cousins at Angeline’s in Berkeley — really authentic Louisiana cuisine. I had crawfish etoufee, fried catfish, hush puppies, sweet tea, bread pudding etc. And yes, Abita Root Beer!
Also, I made the big switch to contacts. So far, so good! Its a little weird having to actually touch my eyeballs twice a day, but the lenses are super soft and comfortable.
Updated the Free Table last week. This stuff just keeps getting better and better!
Our kids’ names will be Tikka & Masala
August 3rd, 2008 § Leave a Comment
The end of summer is drawing near, and so we are trying to take advantage of the long days and sunshine. School starts up for me in the fall. Just ordered my laptop, packed with CS3. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Dolin and Matthew got married in a tiny schoolhouse at History Park in San Jose, which is a collection of restored historic buildings:
Olivia stenciled peonies on the chalkboard (I did half of one). Afterwards, they rode off together on vintage bicycles. Srsly cute:
Small dinner that night, followed by boozing & marriage license signing at Original Joe’s. The next day, Karen Jon & I explored San Jose a bit… hit up Big Al’s Record Barn were I scored a Hall & Oates album for Olivia, a Dixie Cups album for the happy couple, and an Irma Thomas mix for myself. Saturday night was the larger reception, which was superfun. More boozing and lots more food. I briefly dj’d the krazy dance party in the living room. Later, I fell asleep on the front porch.
Other things that have been going on:
- streaming photos from my phone almost constantly
- Grass Valley next weekend for the county fair – YEEHAW!
- added a new entry to the Free Table
- House of Shields got a fitting plug in SFBG’s Best Of The Bay (Best Urinal???, quirky live music)
- working on the new HOS site
- listening to Little Dragon (a rec from a wedding client. the girl sings with Jose Gonzalez)
- Olivia painted an owl and a redpoll
- new season of Mad Men
- after being inspired by Jay, I’m going to start carrying around a small sketchbook (so that hopefully my skills will develop past drawing ducks, chickens and pineapples)
- issue 5 of Yeti magazine
- fascinated by BBC’s Wild China
