New Orleans trip

Here I go again trying to post photos -- why does it never seem to work the same way twice? Tomorrow I'll try the same thing with the photos from my iPhone.

Me by the riverfront -- it was so cold I had to buy a sweatshirt to add under my windbreaker and over my sweater and socks to keep my toes warm!

Art everywhere -- Donna and Julie admiring local art near Jackson Square. Julie bought a lot. I restrained myself, but somehow spent all my money anyway!

It is required to have coffee and beignets here, but once is enough. 

My most interesting breakfast was a baked sweet potato with pecan syrup and powdered chocolate at the French Market.

Lots of walking. These are Donna's and my happy shadows on the moonwalk near the Cafe du Monde.

Steve and I went on a Eco Swamp Tour -- saw gators, wild canaries, snakes, turtles, a giant spider and a great blue heron, but you had to be pretty fast to get a picture of any of them.

This fishing boat was blown up  the Pearl River from the Gulf by Hurricane Katrina, and is still there seven years later. We also toured the lower Ninth Ward, but it was too depressing to take pictures.

Shrimp boat -- I ate a lot of seafood: shrimp, crawfish, crab, and a fish called Drumm, and tasted mussels -- I wasn't quite brave enough to try turtle or gator sausage.

We were told this was near the place where they filmed Beasts of the Southern Wild, athough it looked pretty tame!

Swamp wildflowers. We learned the difference between a swamp and a marsh and a bayou and a slough. It was beautiful and creepy and mysterious.

I'm glad I didn't have to find my way around.

Cypress trees and their "knees" (actually part of the roots.)

This great blue heron was called George by the boat captain, totally unfazed by passing tourists.

April weekend

Rio Del Mar Beach with Margee and Joey -- a beautiful day, not crowded despite the fact that it is Spring Break week. 

There were a few shells and bits of beach glass, if you were willing to wade out a bit to get them. but the biggest surprise was a ladybug on the beach!

 

The cats are happy to have warm sunshine, and I discovered all of them taking advantage of the chaise lounges and cat beds in the backyard, which smells of a bumper crop of wisteria blossoms. 

Looking down at Alameda Creek from the bridge

Little Yosemite -- not much water, but a lot of rocks, and yes, those are people down there!

Another successful hike.

I went on a short hike to the Little Yosemite area of Sunol Regional Wilderness with the Singleaires. 

There were lots of wildflowers, given the fact that it has been a dry year: California poppies, several varieties of lupines, johnny jump-ups, popcorn flowers, sticky monkey flowers, virgin's bower, wild hyacinths, globe lilies, yarrow, and something my expert companions assured me were called blue dicks!

March 31, 2013

I'm not very comfortable with "entertaining" but at Noelle's suggestion, I agreed to host Matt's 29th birthday/Easter/Game of Thrones Third Season Opener Party. I may have gone a bit wild with sigils, decorations, themed foodstuffs, costumes, party games, prizes. Exhaustion! Here are a few pictures from my iPhone (I was too busy to take all the pictures I wanted to -- maybe there will be some good ones from other people's cameras.)

Iron Throne -- butter knife version

Wight -- they must burn to truly die

Ser Matthew of House Hively

Dish Garden Making  Margee, Channah, Noelle, Matt

Lin as Catelyn (taken by Channah!)

Margee as Melisandre

Flaming Castle Nameday Cake

Clash of Vegetables Stew

Guest of Honor on Iron Throne -- cardboard version

Eddie, Ian, Margee at the Feast

The Great Cats vs. Dogs Debate

I subbed last night for the Advanced ESL teacher -- she had assigned them to prepare for a debate on Which is a Better Pet, Cats or Dogs? What fun! There were about 15 people on each side (I don't think they necessarily reflected their true opinions -- only one student actually had any pets at the present time, and she had one of each.) I had to repress my own opinions, of course. Good opportunity to generate real communication and interesting vocabulary (drool, litter box, vermin, loyalty, obedience, purr)! 

Margee's Joey at Davenport

Inky helping me at my computer

I learned about packs of wild dogs in Mexico City and lizard- and snake-catching cats, folk remedies involving cat saliva and the warm cat cure for backaches. Some of the students came armed with extensive internet research. Some shared childhood experiences. Dogs say different things in different languages (wong-wong, how-how, kow-kow) but all cats say meow! 

Owen, Scarlett and Marylin at Davenport

Twinkletoes on the patio

I had to call the debate a draw, although there seemed to be more good AND bad things noted about dogs. I don't think you can say one or the other is a better pet for everyone -- it's all a matter of individual needs and personalities. More movies have been made about dogs, but more internet videos about cats!

Spring is the Season of....

  -->

South Africa on the Succulent Globe

I could probably manage something this size

ocotillo

I had a pretty full weekend – I seem to be out of my slumpiness. On Saturday I went to the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show with two friends. It wasn’t as awesome as in years past: the only things I was wowed by were the Succulent-encrusted globe and the Great Wall of Paper Tubes Filled with Succulents. But it was fun to see and smell all the plants and talk to the artisans who created and sold cool stuff.

Lunch at the top

On Sunday I went on an actual hike! One of my caregivers’  support-group friends had recently met someone in church – she called this “lightning striking twice in the same place”-- and it occurred to me that since I’d met Greg on a Sierra Club singles hike, that might be a good place to meet new people. Not that I’m looking for another husband: I’ve had my share, I think. But hikers are more likely to be healthy and to have common interests and politics, and it’s a test of my own improved physical shape.

Me at Eagle Rock (on the way DOWN!)

So I joined an “easy” hike in my local Alum Rock Park (site of such adventures as Greg’s rattlesnake bite and his “John Doe” fall and injury, not to mention numerous Cub Scout and school field trip outings). It was a beautiful spring day, wildflowers everywhere, 18 people on the hike, most of whom were friendly without being overly so. My legs, lungs and heart all performed well. However about ¾ of the way through, my feet began to burn! I guess I need to invest in new hiking boots if I’m going to continue with this. 

After I got home and took my shoes off, I got on the computer and made the reservations for my trip to New Orleans in April. I’ll be joining brother Steve and sister Donna and niece Jenny in the French Quarter. I’ve never been there (or anywhere further south than Fayetteville, Arkansas, not counting airports). Something to look forward to! Different scenery!   

A curious calf (the others ran and hid behind their mamas)

Snaky looking oaks

Barbed wire everywhere

I like the way most of the cows were in the exact same pose.

Who would have thought -- heart-shaped bullet hole!

Eucalyptus bark is always photogenic.

Well-positioned cow

Four wild pigs were running so fast I could only get one photo -- didn't have time to switch over to video.

Calaveras Reservoir in the background, couldn't drive much closer because of locked gates

I guess I didn't look like the person who brings the hay

Goats on the hillside...

hurried down to check me out...

but i didn't bring them anything either. Next time I travel with carrots!

Up at the Peony Garden/Llama Ranch

Cows & calves

Heading back toward the valley

So close to civilization

I've been feeling kind of blue and unmotivated so after breakfast I decided to drive home the scenic route, along Calaveras/Felter/Sierra road and take pictures along the way. I didn't have my camera! So I used the iPhone. Lots of scenic cows, horses, goats, a few llamas, and a small pack of wild pigs!

Super Sunday

I feel like the only person in the Bay Area who isn't watching the Super Bowl. The only time I ever followed football was in high school, and that was because I knew all the guys and had a hopeless crush on the football captain (sigh). In college (Michigan State) I lived in the same dorm as all the football players, but they had their own dining room and weren't in any of my classes. Games were free, so I did go to some my freshman year. At the University of Wisconsin our team had a several-year- long losing streak. My grandfather and aunt watched football on t.v. with my grandmother's scoffs in the background: "All they do is run and jump on each other, run and jump on each other." My mom was an orthopedic nurse, so she never would have let my brothers play football -- she'd seen too much.  I watched my best friend's son play for Piedmont Hills High School a few times -- the fans were the most interesting part -- but as a parent, I winced every time anyone fell or was tackled.

My dad preferred baseball, and I was an avid Detroit Tigers fan in fifth and sixth grade. I was fascinated by the stats, having just learned to divide and do percentages. I've been to one or two A's games since coming to California -- that was more about the companionship than the game.  At least, having played softball in gym class, as a perpetual left fielder who prayed the ball would never come my way, I understood the lingo. The sound of the play-by-play on the radio still brings back the atmosphere of kid-summers.

Ice hockey is another matter. If tickets weren't so expensive I'd go to the Sharks games. I remember going to one hockey game in Toledo as a kid, but I really became a hockey fan at the University of Wisconsin, where tickets were cheap for students and I used my season tickets to drum up dates! The 1980 Winter Olympic team was packed with names I knew. Hockey players seem more human to me, less bulky. I also like the speed of the game, no long time-outs or leisurely inning switch overs. And the "show" in between periods is a Zamboni! For me, the gracefulness of ice skating and the way the players get up in one motion after falling down seems magical. When I fall, I lie there!