Category: local color

  • Upon A BBQ Heading Into The Night, part 1

    Drove up from Pacific Grove Friday morning. The fog was super heavy. Dad would always warn us, that if we were bad he would send us to Castroville. It is a pretty good-bad city, in that regard. It’s the closest town for most of the farms nearby, and therefore great for transient workers- and almost…

  • The Long Weekend

    I headed into this weekend with an amazingly great bottle of wine, a splurge, enjoyed with my mom and a friend, on the roof of my apartment, before teaching mah jong for four hours in Caffe Trieste. My friend Lauren goes, “We are the local color.” Draining, but it’s great training friends so I can…

  • Old Friends, Lower Haight

    Met with an old friend (Beth, link on right) in from NYC, and she dropped a huge bomb on me: She’s started a publishing company. And she had a reading series, and it’s now huge. And she compiled an anthology, and wrote a novel. And, and, it was all so great! I was in super…

  • Random Tidbits, Goats, and Doocing

    So I’m sitting at work desperately trying to get one last thing done, and I realize I’m quasi-doocing, the act of blogging while at work. Well I’m not blogging about work. Because it’s boring, and I’m not that dumb. Though I do want to take a photo of the Sanka sign above the coffee maker.…

  • Impatience, Anger, and Frustration

    Things that are just hugely, hugely pissing me off today. 1. Cafe Columbus, who I have touted on various Yelp & SF Metblogs, has not only re-named their schwerma item some cheesy Italian name- The ‘Joe DiMaggio,’ which will come up again- but also ratcheted up the price one dollar. “We haven’t changed our prices…

  • The Smell of Grass

    There was a moment, sailing this weekend into Sausalito harbor, when I could swear I smelled that dark, sweet golden smell of California foothills. I wonder if it was the Headlands wafting down the hillside from the West. It has something so distinct to it. Combination of sea-air, and that dry grass, maybe.

  • Useful Things my Dot Com(s) Gave Me

    – sticky silver labels: Reflect. I got a roll of these from a cosmetic company, Reflect, when it got the shaft from Procter & Gamble. I use these stickers on almost every gift I give. They’re bright and fun! These were the customized labels on the cosmetics, and caused the company a lot of grief…

  • Open Letter to Ladies in Gym Locker Room

    Open Letter to Ladies in Gym Locker Room I go to the gym, and do a full workout. When I get back to the locker room, the same two people that were there from the start. That’s an Hour. Lady #1: naked, doing soemthing to look busy but basically just nude. Lady #2. talking about…

  • Nostalgia

    Nostalgia It’s over 75 degrees in San Francisco and you know it’s headed for a scorcher in San Jose. How can places so close to each other vary in temperature, without an altitude difference? It’s amazing. I headed down the peninsula this morning. Total clothing crisis: I just don’t have summer clothes for SF. Because…

  • Revenge of the Tourist

    So when I went into the precinct on Vallejo, North Beach, to give them the surveillance tape (above, inserted amazing photo), I lent a pencil to an Australian tourist who had his back pocket pick-pocketed. His wife showed up a bit later. I wonder if it’s the same couple mentioned here. It is amazing that…