Surprise Package

Barbara, thank you for the 3-D Graffiti (above). But thanks for the cookies especially. Express mail fresh.

Very Busy

Kristin had a dental appointment in San Francisco so she drove up from Half Moon Bay. We decided to have lunch. She wanted to get some Valentine presents for Ryan. I told her I knew the perfect place to get little treats, but that I was very busy and I wouldn't be able to take a long time.

So we walk into Kawaii Corner, this tiny hole-in-the-wall on Geary that is in reality a treasure chest. Charms, tattoos, stickers, keychains, tiny rubber cookies and pies and . . . you get the idea.

Kristin looks around and finds some great stuff. "Are you ready to go?" she asks.

"No, not yet. Are you?"

"Oh no. Take as long as you want."

Doesn't she know I'm very busy and can't take as long as I'd like? We look around some more. Kristin is ready to go, I can tell. But I haven't seen everything yet! My phone is unadorned, and I keep losing my house key because I don't have a key ring and isn't Chinese New Years coming up?

By the time we leave Kristin's bored and I've only started looking. There's barely time for lunch.

Spaghetti

Bookmark This

Remember Jean Gonick of San Francisco Chronicle fame? She's back. And she's better than ever. (Or worser than ever, in her case.) Read her here right now and laugh yourself silly. And then cry and wring your hands because you know you'll never be able to write like that.

Our Sweet Bridge

from the Coastal Trail this evening.

Do You Need a Valentine Card?

Our friend Mari, the mad cookie baker, has taken some of her winning cookie designs and painted them on canvas. Then she's created cards from the paintings. Here's my favorite. You can order yours here, but don't delay, order today.

Below is the cookie that inspired the painting that inspired the card.

Sun and Wind and Pretzels

I got out the sunscreen for the first time since November. We usually don't get out until after 5:00, and this afternoon the sun was still bright at 5:15. When we started out, the sky looked like this. By the time we turned around down by Pacheo, it was cold and rainy and the wind was against us. But we made it back, and now we'll have to drink some champagne whether we like it or not. And eat some chocolate-covered pretzels.

Braggadocio

Hey, everybody! Janet Schulman wrote this book called 10 Trick-or-Treaters and I drew the pictures. I just found out that it has sold 89,374 copies!

Achtung!

Imagine a novel in which a woman took in a stranger who was unable to walk or talk or even eat by himself. She fell completely in love with him at first sight, fed and clothed and washed him, gradually helped him to become competent and independent, spent more than half her income on him, nursed him through sickness, and thought about him more than about anything else. And after twenty years of this she helped him find a young wife and move far away. You couldn't bear the sappiness of it. But that, quite simply, is just about every mother's story. And it's also the story of every human community–every constellation of mothers and fathers and socially monogamous mates, every group of siblings and babysitters and [alloparents]. It's not so much that we care for children because we love them as that we love them because we care for them. . .

Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby

"Attention is the most concrete expression of love. What you pay attention to thrives."

Limoncello: Step Three

Wash the lemons and then peel them. (Dee doesn't zest them; she says you need to make sure you don't include any of the white part, because that will make the limoncello bitter.)

Put the lemon peel in the alcohol for 11 days. See you in a week and a half!

Limoncello: Step Two

You'll need some pure alcohol. Dee's recipe calls for 190 proof Everclear. When you go to BevMo and ask for this, they'll act like you're a criminal: "We're not allowed to sell 190 proof in California!"

"Where can I get it then?"

"There are only 2 states in the country that allow it to be sold!"

Tom made it clear we weren't going out of state, so we settled for 151 proof. Still, the label warns Extremely Flammable Handle with Care so maybe it will work.

Sky Walk