Sky in Our Window

I saw the sky reflected in our window, and zoomed down to the beach to take a picture. Then I drove to Walgreen's for our New Year's Eve supplies: Kleenex, vitamin C, miso soup, and a movie. Tom got a cold today.

Luckily just this I minute got an e-mail from Dr. Mercola, who asks: Can Alcohol Really Help You Beat a Cold? I hit the link and here's what the doctor said: Brandy, whiskey and other alcoholic beverages have long been recommended as “just the thing” to treat a cold. That's as much as I needed to read. I'm opening a bottle of champagne now. Happy New Year!

Some Presents I Like

Aggles made
this purse.











Susan made
this hat.











Pete tied
this fly.
















Sally posted this story.

Mom and Me

Bye-Bye, Pacific Sky

Off to TN to visit Mom for 7 days.

Merry Christmas to Me

It came! It came!
Step over here. You still have 12 days to get one for yourself.
Banana for scale only.

Swept Away

Everyday Life

This picture is a non-photo, snapped this morning just to make sure my camera was still working.
Page 1, today's San Francisco Chronicle:
Moments pass in silence. As the sunset deepens, she turns to the window, gazing out. "You know, I miss shopping, and cooking, and eating, and cleaning up," she pauses. "And shopping again."
–Diane Middlebrook at Cal. Pacific Medical Center two weeks before she died of cancer, in an interview with Heidi Benson. Diane Middlebrook wrote Anne Sexton: A Biography and Her Husband: Hughes and Plath, a Marriage.

I'm lucky for sure, but I like my everyday life so much more than holiday life or travel life or lots of times even vacation life. I understood what Middlebrook meant when she listed the things she missed. Those things really touched me, even though I usually will do anything to get out of shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. Not anytime soon I hope–but the things I'll miss will be making coffee, watching photos as they download one by one, going for a jog, putting on my new boots that are soft and warm. What about you?

Juno / Sundance / Boots

This evening I decided I had to try out the Sundance Kabuki Cinema. Its grand opening was last night. I chose to see Juno. To get the full experience, I ordered my ticket and reserved my seat online. (Single aisle seat off by itself–typical–last row.) Being that there were only 57 seats in this particular theater, it turned out to be a great seat. With its own little table.

There's a bar in the theater (above photo). You can order drinks–and dinner, too, if you'd like–and sit up in the balcony to watch your movie. From my photo it looks like I ordered a number of drinks, but actually I didn't even have one. I already had my doubts about ever relocating the Ford Nebulous after the movie.

The desserts sound wonderful, but since I'm drawn to salt and fats even more than sugar, I thought I would share the cheese plate menu with you:

CREATE YOUR OWN CHEESE PLATE 1/ $5; 2/$9; 3/$14
MOUNT TAM, Cowgirl Creamery – smooth, elegant, organic triple cream
RED HAWK, Cowgirl Creamery – fully flavored triple cream aged 6 weeks
CROCODILE TIER, Prather Farm – deep and tangy goat cheese
HARD CHÈVRE, Harley Farms – fresh, tangy, bright lemony notes, earthy finish
POINT REYES BLUE, Point Reyes Farmstead – classic California handcrafted blue
MANCHEGO, Spain – sheep milk cheese aged 6 months
MONTGOMERY’S CHEDDAR, England – sharp and fruity hard cheese aged 14 months
GORGONZOLA DOLCE, Italy – rich, spicy, cave aged 3 months

I recommend the movie. It's engaging and refreshing and loving, with fun music throughout.

Last but not least: Imagine how I felt walking into the Sundance Theater wearing my new boots.

A Successful Psychotherapy

I've mentioned a couple of times the fact that I have a wise therapist. Yesterday we had one of our most productive sessions ever.

My therapist keeps an electric heater by the couch. I usually ask if I can turn it on. Halfway through the session, he usually asks if I would mind turning it down a little.

Yesterday I happened to mention a pair of fake UGG's. I had thrown them into the shopping cart at Nordstrom Rack. But then I regressed, returning them to the shoe counter instead of proceeding up to the cash register with them.

Me: I don't know ... UGG's were all the rage a couple years ago. I didn't like them. But I tried this pair on yesterday, and they were so warm.

Therapist nods encouragingly.

Me: Would you wear them?

Therapist: Me? No. But I think they'd be fine for you.
(Glances at the heater, which is glowing red.)

Me: OK, good. One more question. You and I both know that light tan is really the correct color for these boots. But I like the black ones. What do you think?

Therapist: Black is a good color.

Me: I mean, I know those boots look clunky. But they're so warm. So you think I should buy them?

Therapist: Yes. Would you mind turning down the heater a little?

Miracle

I don't even know why I'm telling you this, because you're not going to believe it. First of all, by now I'm sure the news is out that I won the prestigious Name the Squab Contest. Out of 96 entries, I came up with the winning name: James Brown. My prize, which arrived parcel post, is the beautiful hand-painted chicken wearing a bathrobe pictured above. I immediately named him James Brown, Jr. and set him on my desk.

With his right arm permanently extended like that, it looked as if he might be bestowing a blessing. This morning I had an idea. I set my broken camera beneath his right arm. I thought I would try one more time to download my photos before I wrapped up my camera and sent it off to:
Canon Factory Service
1440 Chase Ave.
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

For the 14th time I plugged the Canon USB cable into my computer. I removed my camera from beneath James Brown Jr.'s blesséd hand and connected it to the other end of the cable. There was no hesitation. iPhoto opened right up, and all 67 images from Monday downloaded like a dream.

I thought: This is a miracle. But how could I ever prove that James Brown Jr. cured my camera? My sister's camera hasn't arrived yet; I had told her to send it slow boat FedEx. I was dying to take a photo of my camera under James Brown Jr.'s hand to show you how he blessed it, but how could I? I would need a second camera. And that would prove nothing. So this evening I decided to take a photo (with my cured camera) showing James Brown Jr. bestowing a blessing on today's paper, with the date to prove that it is indeed December 13th.

Another interesting thing I read in the manual while trying to fix the camera myself over the past two days, without James Brown Jr.'s help: Caution: Do not sit with the camera in a back pocket as it may cause the camera to malfunction or damage the LCD monitor. No one had ever told me I couldn't sit on my camera before! This evening I took it out of my back pocket before I sat down in the car.

From: aggles
Subject: James Brown, Jr. redux
Date: December 15, 2007 7:57:16 AM PST
To: linda
Have you tried putting your credit card under JB's blessing arm? Maybe he would heal your credit card balance.

Aggles to the Rescue

From: margaretm
Subject: Camera
Date: December 11, 2007 5:44:44 AM PST
To: linda

How ‘bout I send you my camera? I never use it. I musta just bought it knowing that you’d crash yours to the ground. I can FedEx it tomorrow.

Aggles is my sister. When my parents first brought her home from the hospital and I thought they weren't looking, I casually tried to pull her fingers off. And now she's sending me her camera! She's an angle. (That's how I used to spell "angel.")

Crash

I came back from my jog. I was happy. I'm going to put up our blue Christmas lights! I announced.

I slammed the bag with my running shoes down by the front door like I always do. The only problem was, I forgot that my camera was in the same hand. It crashed to the floor.

It doesn't work anymore. I can't download the photos I took this evening. So this is an old gray photo from the past. Does anyone have a camera I can borrow?

Beach Bird

Spotted at 5:19 on Ocean Beach

From 4:30 to 5:30

Tired Santa

© Linda Davick

Hungry Santa

Tom walks by my computer: That Santa looks depraved.
Me: I know. He's scary.
Tom: Where is he?
Me: On Fillmore. Every year he shows up. But this is the first year I've seen him with a pizza.
Is he ... too depraved?
Tom: Too depraved for what?
Me: My blog.
Tom: Nothing's too depraved for your blog. And you can quote me on that.

Computer Love

© Linda Davick

Under the Table with Carmen

Three months ago I posted a sad question:
Say you had a beloved dog and that you had lived with your dog for fourteen years. You walked with your dog for an hour or two every day, you worked with your dog lying beside you, you cooked nice things for your dog sometimes, you slept near your dog. Then your dog died. What's the best thing a friend could do to bring you comfort? Would it be possible for a friend to bring you comfort?

Three weeks ago my friend adopted another dog. This dog had just had puppies and basically had been abandoned when her owner's mortgage was foreclosed on. Carmen and her new parents came over for dinner last night. Carmen's gained about 15 pounds since we saw her a couple of weeks ago. Anne, on the other hand, was wearing a new pair of jeans, size 0. (zero.)

Everyone was happy.


Carmen's puppies found new homes too, and so did her boyfriend.