These bony over-the-knee-highs were a present to me from my sister Karen (thank you!) designed by Betsey Johnson and perfect for November 2nd. Today is a special day of the year when Mark and I usually try to mingle with groups of people wearing powdery grey and white zombie-esque makeup. We accidentally miss the parade and end up somewhere very dark where the bar patron's faces look like skulls. We like it.
Today we all honor those who have left the living. We are still here, so we are still dancing. And try, we try, to happily remember.
Obvious as it is, eating better actually works. I've been roasting a lot of vegetables in many colors and gradually learning to fend for myself in the kitchen. We have a fabulously laid-out kitchen here, it is imperative to put it to use.
Friends still talk about how our last kitchen in San Francisco had one drawer. The house had its charms, but nobody made the kitchen functional in 103 years. That one drawer was over-painted wood and it stuck, so I only put candles and matches in it. People would open it, expecting to find knives or forks, and just shake their heads at the absurdity.
Not anymore. Now we have cabinets with nothing in them but air. I even discovered 2 cupboards in the guest bathroom under the sink, "These are doors? And shelves?"
And now, back to my greek yogurt + honey that's so good, sometimes I can't believe it.
Here's last year's jack o' lantern from a Halloween party at the workplace. See the South of Market brick and windows?
To figure out my carving, I was inspired by some insane "lace" jack o' lantern images found via Martha Stewart. How did they do it? Lasers? They're fabulous!
Since we no longer live on a crime-y San Franciscan street with 3 registered sex offenders (yes, Nick once sent me the map of their addresses) we'll consider handing out treats in Austin this year.
We have a pedestrian-friendly well-lit entry from the street, so it's a safe be that people will be dinging our doorbell. And since we keep classic fun-sized candies in the man room anyway, Halloween could be doing us a favor.
Conversely, there's some parade going on downtown and I'm told that in Austin, you can actually wear a costume without covering it up with a big old coat. Who knew? Maybe we'll do both.
My visit to San Francisco was a sweet, jam-packed week that started with a parking ticket (you're welcome City of SF, you've always been good to me!) and ended with me empyting out a storage space that we never needed and didn't know it.
In between was a brief yacht club hang session, the wedding that Nick officiated at the Presidio Chapel with a lovely reception at the The Golden Gate Club that's built just below the chapel. It was all so beautiful and the weather complied.
As always, there is never enough time to do all that you wanted to do and see everyone that you wanted to see -- but I got in some precious hangtime with my nearest and dearest -- and that means so much.
Upon arrival, I headed to Baker Beach, and just like the last time I was there, I spotted a tanned, naked Gerard Depardieu-type standing around on the sand.
And the first place I took Nick to when he landed (at SFO the day after me) was Farolito for quesadillas and that green hot sauce that I often think about, regardless of where I am. Nick thinks that the secret to it is cucumber.
But the biggest suprise was me not having to "hit the reset button" upon arriving at the Austin-Bergstrom Int'l. airport. I was happy to be home and happy to keep exploring my life here, where I left off.
And now, a long hot bath in my even longer jacuzzi tub.
This looks just like Estro, ha! Yesterday when asked about whether it's too soon to get another dog, I said I'll be in San Francisco for a week, so we're going to wait at least until after that.
Maybe before Christmas, it depends on when we meet our next furry soulmate. I'm sure that we will know, just like we knew with Estro.
"We're going to wait for the 3 of us to agree."
"Who's the 3rd?"
"The dog!"
It's sunny as can be right now, but this is from a rainy yesterday:
Wonderful Love - Creeper Lagoon
Miss You - The Rolling Stones
Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello
I Know it's Over - The Smiths
Love My Way - Jon Auer
Chasing a Bee - Mercury Rev
Vienna - Ultravox
Shout - Tears for Fears
When the Grass Grows Over Me - George Jones
You know how when you intend to call someone, you pick up the phone and find that you just answered their call? That happened today; it was from my hairdresser, but I'll take it.
I'll take any positive sign, any coincidence, anything pointing towards the universe being all right. That nature is doing exactly as it intended. It makes perfect sense to me.
Even the 4" jerk wasps that fly into our house have a place, they eat smaller bugs. At first we laughed with our 20-foot long bug spray, "Harry the Hornet is dead." But so many Harry's have come in that I started counting, we're at 13.
Today's flowers are from a few houses down and I keep seeing them everywhere.
We got some great pounding rain early this morning and it's still coming on in sprinkles. It's the time when everything leafy gets really bright and intensely green.
