Catching up

Well, once again I've fallen off the blog wagon. With everything else in my life, I get very very excited about a project at the beginning, then have a hard time following through with it in the end. Not really a trait that I'm proud of...

So, last time we talked was awhile ago, I guess. May. And a lot has happened since then that I haven't written about.

Mom, Dad, Sister and Devin all came to visit for a weekend. And we had a busy, jam-packed, fun-filled time. Actually, the weather was kind of crummy, so my visions of playing in the water at the beach were turned into huddling in jackets at the beach, but it was still nice. We rode all the public transportation for Devin. The Muni-underground was his favorite, even though he got to ring the trolley bell at the end of the ride. We went to Golden Gate Park and Devin spent a LONG time on the concrete slides in the Children's quarter. We ate at Pacific Catch and Polkers and dad declared the Polker's burger one of the best burgers he's ever eaten. I concur. We had a wonderful breakfast out on the back patio of the Squat and Gobble, and Devin finished off a huge pile of whip cream and a few bites of waffle.

We went to see the Sea Lions at Pier 39 because Devin was dying to see them. I don't think they were quite what he had in mind. He said, "They smell ugly." Boy is that the truth. And they sound ugly as well. We drove down the windiest street in the world. I think Devin was more impressed by one of the steepest hills in the city, Fillmore street. After we drove down that, he said, "maybe we should drive down that big hill again." We went to Ocean Beach which was cold, then we drove 20 miles south to the little beach that Neil and I discovered, in the hopes that it would be warmer. It was not. But it was less windy and still fun.


Isn't my nephew adorable? We stopped at the Golden gate bridge and Devin discovered a fear of heights. Then we ended up back in our neighborhood where it had been sunny all day long. Ah well...timing. The next morning I took Sister and a very sleepy Devin out to the airport via BART. We were on the bus and a white man in a suit got on. Devin pointed to the man and said, "Look mom, it's the president". She said, "no, honey, it's just a businessman." A few blocks later, a black man in a suit got on the bus and Devin said, "No, actually there's the president." *smile*

After that whirlwind weekend, we had a few days to rest, and then another whirlwind weekend day was upon Neil and I. The CA Academy of Science is having free days for certain neighborhoods on certain weekends, and our neighborhood was Saturday. All you do is show up with a bill or something that has your name and zip code on it (to prove you live in the neighborhood) and complimentary admission is yours!

I love getting in places for free. Especially when the adult price is $24.50. Yikes! The most exciting part of the Academy (in my opinion) is this large globe that encloses a re-created rain forest. It is just beautiful, and there are birds and butterflies flitting freely about inside. You walk up ramps along the outside of the globe, to each level of the rain forest. And each level also has little displays full of all sorts of interesting critters and creatures.

Here are some of the fun, creepy, crawly critters that we saw:

I think this centipede is truly one of the scariest things I have ever seen! It was a good 7-8 inches long, just to freak you out even more. Imagine waking up with one of these crawling on you...

Strawberry poison dart frogs: I was hoping they didn't have a long jumping range, as these were about 3 feet from us, in the open.

After the rainforest, we went down into the aquarium, which was your pretty standard aquarium, but we still saw fun stuff:

After the aquarium, that's pretty much the Academy, so we watched the planetarium show which was ok and then viewed the living roof, which is a super-cool idea, but not really all that much to look at:

Then it was time to rush home for a quick nap (ahh, I love naps) and then off to the ballpark for a Giants game! It's always fun to be at a baseball game live. And Neil's been more interested in baseball lately - he bought a hat. (not seen in this blog post)

Unfortunately, the Giants lost, but it was still fun. And Neil bought a $9 beer. Wow.

I can't even remember what we did on Sunday - but I think it involved a lot more napping. We had a pretty mellow week and then Saturday night we went to see a band play - an old friend from Seattle is in it. They are called The Maldives and they are really good live - they have kind of a country/rock type sound and there are 8 members in the band, including a fiddle and a banjo, so pretty interesting. They were opening for a band called Or, The Whale which is a local San Francisco band and they were really good, too. But the real gem of the evening was, in my opinion, the first opening band. They were called Built for the Sea and they were just phenomenal!! I bought their album and their EP at the concert for $15 and they are just SO good. And I don't know if I've been to a concert where I liked all the opening bands plus the headliner equally. It was a fantastic concert.

Then, Sunday morning, Neil got on a plane and went to L.A. with some classmates. And I went to a bi-yearly meeting of my community garden. Twice a year they hold this meeting for the garden, where we talk about things and vote on things that will happen in the garden. I assumed it would be a nice friendly 20-minute meeting where everyone happily fellowshipped and then we all went home in a lovely, sunny mood. Wow, that was a little off the mark. These community gardeners are SERIOUS! There was debate, voices raised, eyes rolled, sarcasm, fighting. I had no idea that there were deep philosophical rifts between gardeners and what they expect from their community garden. For instance, we were voting on adding more plots to the garden since we have a really long wait list now. My thought - more plots sure, sound great, add em in, the more the merrier!! But the discussion soon devolved into an argument between the people who want to build more plots and the people who want to preserve open space for "community" food - fruit trees and stuff like this. It all came up because one of the spots they identified for being a good, sunny plot currently has a plum tree planted in it. Half of the group said "screw the plum tree, make a plot" and the other half said, "Save the plum tree, screw the plot!". It was quite a contentious argument that ensued. And lasted half an hour. In the end, the plum tree was saved (for now). When I thought we were safely through the arguing, another topic came up for discussion - whether to charge a $25 annual flat fee for new members who join, no matter what time of year they join (the current process), or to pro-rate based on the month that they join. Wow - it's only $25, who cares!! But people really really cared! There was discussion about whether the garden should be making money, and putting aside money for a rainy day, or to buy stuff. People got really angry. Fingers were brandished, voices were raised. Over a $25 dollar fee. After 2 hours, we finally had everything voted on and we adjourned. Believe me when I say I felt lucky to get out of there after only 2 hours!! These people mean business - it's not just gardening to them, it's a life philosophy. I just want to grow a little lettuce. :)

With Neil gone, I can again try cooking things that he won't eat, such as macaroni and cheese, which I tried last night. I have been on a lifelong quest to find a decent homemade macaroni and cheese recipe. I was brought up on Kraft and have probably been ruined by all that fake cheese, but I just can't find a recipe that tastes as good. They are almost always too bland - no flavor. So last night, I tried the America's test kitchen recipe and it was really interesting. It called for evaporated milk, eggs, mustard and tabasco sauce (?!!) to make the base of the sauce. Then I bought extra-sharp cheddar to put in, cause I thought that would really give it a flavor punch, which has always been lacking in the homemade mac'n'cheese recipes I've tried. Well, it ended up being too MUCH flavor this time. Way way too cheddary. I think the recipe is still salvagable, but it needs less cheddar, or maybe just less sharp cheddar. Maybe a mild, creamy cheese mixed in there would be good, too. Like a Fontina or something. Anywhoo... it was edible but not fantastic. Good thing Neil was gone.

Whew - so there you have it. The last three weeks in one post. This weekend we head for home!! YAY! Portland, here we come!