Nancy and I have been working on last night’s event “Light in the Grove” and today’s World AIDS Day event at the National AIDS Memorial Grove. For Phil and I all things AIDS are at heart about our good friend George Richard, an artist who slowly wasted away, became blind and finally died while living with us on 11th Street. So who do I run into first walking home after all that emotional celebration? Michael, George’s best friend and his wife Drew, who none of us have seen in years. I told them I had to take their picture, or no one would believe that I actually saw them!

Mirror bought at school auction for New Traditions Colette’s Kindergarten year 2000 reflecting part of a drawing by me on plywood. Tile box made by my mom when she was in a TB ward when I was 8—9. Best hair brush ever given to me by Beth Ross at my second baby shower hosted by Simone Simone. Detangler comb given to us girls by Phil on wise recommendation by Jenny du Pont. Beautiful handheld mirror given to me by my friend-since-Kindergarten Polly on her trip to Polynesia, basket contains cool skull given to us from Jeanne and Richard on our 100 year party.

Basket holds hysterical photo of Colette and Laine that I will always hold as ammo from La Cocina’s streetfood event, the “to mom” frame holds a photo from Laine’s preschool that presages her melancholy. The empty frame was a gift from my great friend from Paris Beaux Arts days, Maya Maria Raymoundi Popantonopolis, who I recently heard from her brother Sotiris had died.

My childhood guitar “Goya” but made in Sweden, a dresser home-made in the 50s for my dad by his friend. I painted it white as a kid and then stripped it as an adult. The silk scarf is from my dads regiment in Japan WWII. My dad died in 1968. The wooden bowl a gift from Nancy.Phil’s glasses case looks like a minimist cartoon snake.

Headboard: annoying clock from Wallgreens purchased by husband, pinecone from an amazing pitch by Colette in her baseball days, the last remaining gorillas from a glass jar full of them from Sarah, a previous 11thst tenant, smarties and further out of view murder books and cocktails.

Spy Laine and friends.

Halloween, AKA an excuse for teenage girls to wear vaguely  inappropriate stuff

Unleashed on the neighborhood, Phil and I home with cocktails and the game. That’s what’s called win-win unless we lose.

Grove Street Farmers Market

Maisie looks like she’s on crack with that one eye big thing. She acts like it too. hmmmm.

Recently we had the window open since it’s now summer in SF and hot. In the middle of the night a neighborhood cat snuck in that looked EXACTLY the same as Maisie. When I got up in the morning I picked up the cat thinking it was Maisie and put her on our bed, she ran away but then the real Maisie was there on the other side of the bed. And I was doing the huh? senior tripping moment thing. Luckily Maisie has that one white whisker. And the one eye bigger than the other. So I knew which one to put outside.

They closed the streets  to cars in our neighborhood. Lots of bike action. For some reason this is the only picture I took. Pie and ice cream at Green Chili and Marty Feldman dual eyeball effect achieved (off camera). Great day.

Dublin. CA that is

Sanju, Hisuk, Phil and I at Bar Agricole. Waldorf based! Not the salad, the German School philosophy guy. Two blocks away from our old place on 11th st. Great place—food, drinks, service and space. Not so expensive considering all you get. PS Hisuk was not harmed in this picture, he is merely channeling philosophy.

Thanks to the Dargans, this guy and everyone for another fabulous Labor Day!

I wondered who ate at this new mexican place on Divisidero, now we know, total bachelor pad.

We bought Laine’s lunch for tomorrow from this cart on Divisidero artwalk. They need to work on their marketing, I can’t find them on Google. Anyone know who they are? Good stuff.

We miss you! Hope your trip back to Paris was smooth sailing.

Otherwise no way would we have made the effort to get out on this gorgeous night. Also the Giants won big time tonight and all the lights look like those “we’re number 1” foam thingys.

in response to drawar. Hey that rose in the foreground was made with actual duct tape! um but not by me but Laine as was the sephora monster and the other cool thing in the background. The cool lemon bar graphic is by j otto. In fact my only contribution, is the glass of wine. Which, alas is hobo in vintage.

This Party Blows @ Art Murmur in Oakland. J. Otto’s tiny truck filled with art reminds me of those cartoon houses that look tiny on the inside but are biiiggg when you walk in. The outside is customized each time. This month it was all lemon bars, with actual lemon bars but I couldn’t take their picture because we already ate them. Some had secret ingredient.

J. Otto and daughter Amelia in front of tiny truck.

Phil inside, see looks big, huh?

I liked this painting by Amelia.

How does this bff friend of mine always manage to look so fab, even rendered horizontal when her back goes out? For revenge I told everyone, “it’s OK, she just drank too much”  :)

Phil loading up to go to some motorcycle thing. OK by me, makes him happy and he looks cute in the outfits.

Making the cheese, so cool.

Hog Island for oysters, clams and mussels. With my lame old iphone you can’t hear the music.

also too bad you can’t include the smell, nothing like it.

After remorseless plying from conniving but skilled child lobbyists for over 7 years (see above Colette circa 3th grade) we relented and adopted Maisie Bardot (shelter name: Left Over). There were better looking kittens, but she had  the loudest purr and the requisite maniacal tail chasing, and so yeah.

What can it mean?

Filmyard on Divis—Even though we are lame at returns and always owe them a lot, I don’t mind so much as I would if it was Blockbuster.  This week we got old Starwars, Trimph of Love (better than expected, Colette thought she was getting a random lame chick flick and it was, only in a fun twisted Bertolucci way) and Camille Claudel, which I still like, but didn’t age so well editing-wise.

Colette noticed this poster first and took the picture, but since it was my iphone and I gave birth to her I’m claiming it. um yeah, :).

A while ago the girls and I took off walking like we do sometimes and this is what we ran into in the alley behind SFMoMA:

Artcarts [in this case Mike Shine’s] are even more fun than foodcarts because you get to go inside.

Soft landing no one hurt. Bonus: not MUNI’s fault this time! Photo by chef Phil

Chef Phil rides his (motorized) bike to Hog Island Pt Reyes and brings us back fresh oysters and mussels.

Yee Haw!

I steam up the mussels to perfection and as usual totally incinerate the garlic bread

While C snarfs oysters fab, mussels best ever

The entire grounds of the Nation of Ding Dong can be taken care of with one of these—wearing a skirt, flip flops and drinking a cocktail.

Love that someone is decorating random Muni stops, this one has Plastic AND Reticualted flowers.

Seriously, it sounds weird, but this is really fun. You spend a couple of hours a month with Marine biologists and assorted lay people mucking about in the marinas searching for this invasive kelp that can grow an inch per day.

La familia Straw/Aro are OK at finding it, but the best is Annie, someone also from our neighborhood, who shows up in high heels and fashionable skirts. She risks life and limb and gets even slimier than Laine.

The count is down, so we have already made a difference. For now we’re limited to searching the piers, but soon may be moving up to scuba and kayaks. Read about it here

Later we have lunch, with the real mayor of Java House.

floragrubb.com

London

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Bath

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Paris

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Normandy

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