New Years Eve Eve

4:57 p.m.

 Thanks, Anne & Peter, for the music, the bubbly, the cheese, and, and, and ...

Merry Christmas, It's the Easter Board Book!

Look what came in the mail today! That Easter book over there on the right will be out in a board book version on January 24. I love board books because they're compact and shiny and so substantial you can use them for lunch trays.

There are no endpapers, though, and I miss that part. But they run two bucks less than the hardcover: only $6.99. Can you believe you can buy a new book these days for $6.99?

Heavy Sky

6:51 a.m.

When I woke up this morning the sky looked like a kid had drawn it. There it was, crowded against the top of my screen. Underneath it was a big blank space. Then on the very bottom were houses and trees.

5:12 p.m.

This evening, foghorns – one of my very favorite sounds.

Out of the Kitchen

5:03 p.m.

Merry Christmas

Step Two

12:02 p.m.

Did you notice there are quite a bit fewer cookies shown than there were yesterday? Mari says in her book, "Although I make mistakes all of the time and I like to incorporate them into the overall design, there are plenty of occasions when I've made a mistake that I just couldn't keep. It's a good thing cookies are edible!"

Step Two seemed harder than Step One. Mari's book says: "Always bake in a good mood. This ensures that love goes into what you're making." If you hear yourself muttering, "I'm going to stab myself," over and over, does that mean you're in a good mood?

Step One

Today I made Mari's basic sugar cookie recipe. One thing I really like about her new book is that it only contains two cookie dough recipes. The rest of the book inspires you to decorate those cookies like crazy.

In honor of Mari, this is the first time I've ever followed instructions. I could not imagine why I was using something like parchment paper to line the cookie sheets with. I had never dreamed of rolling out cookie dough between two sheets of wax paper. Wouldn't it stick? And why lemon zest and lemon juice instead of vanilla?

I didn't have a wire cooling rack, so I put newspaper over an oven rack. And when the space ran out, I just used newspaper. Otherwise I followed Mari's instructions to the letter. One thing I can say is that I'll never bake again without using parchment paper, and I'll never use a rolling pin without making a sandwich out of wax paper for the dough.

I had some trouble with this part: "Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until they brown around the edges."

When the timer would go off at 10 minutes, the cookies would look as pale as they did when they first went into the oven. So I would set the timer for 3 or 4 more minutes and wander off to do something else. When the timer would buzz again, the cookies would be very brown around the edges. I did this over and over! I learned that there's a thin line between unbaked-looking and burned.

Blue Christmas

5:23 p.m.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Before the P.O. Opens

Found

Mari's Book! It's Here!

I thought it would never ever ever arrive. I waited outside by the mailbox for days. It is gorgeous and funny and instructive. The book is called the coolest cookies on the planet and it's by our own Mari Pfeiffer, with photos by her husband Wolf. Here are just a few of my favorite parts:

Did you notice? I always use electric colors: electric blue, hot pink, lemon yellow, bright orange, electric green and fire engine red. It's a personal preference, obviously, and you may not want your decorated cookies to look as zany as mine. That's okay. We can still be friends.

When I started baking on a regular basis, the most common mistakes I made were: not carefully reading the recipe ahead of time, not having all of my ingredients or not having all of them in the required amounts, and not understanding the equipment necessary. Because I have this insane belief that I'm so clever, I substituted ingredients here and there. And then I cried when I didn't get the results I wanted.

My friends – and especially my right-brained friends – baking is a science! You really need to follow the directions carefully and do as you're told. I know. Hearing that just makes ya wanna holla. But trust me. As much as I hate to listen to orders and follow rules and regulations, I learned that:

When it comes to baking, do what you're told.

But when it comes to decorating, do whatever you want.

And here are just a few nice little tips to ensure that your cookies will come out just right:

• Always use butter that's at room temperature.

• Always fluff up your flour before measuring.

• Always mix your ingredients until just combined.

• Always measure your ingredients carefully.

• Always add ingredients in the order the recipe tells you to.

• Always bake when you're in a good mood. This ensures that love goes into what you're making.

Xmas at Gina's

me, Gina, Meg

Bean soup with crimini mushrooms, Italian kale, onions, Italian sausage. Pate, Afghani-Italian filled bolani, bread, cheese, carrots ... biscotti and wine.

Gina made the mosaic on the mantel.

Footnote: Gina lives in San Mateo. If you're born with no sense of direction, this is how many maps it takes to get to her house, even if you've been there before.

Another Enchanted Glutinous Evening

From: Anne
Date: December 14, 2011  10:12:14 AM PST
Subject: Cheese Ravioli, ... Bread Pudding

Just got this Linda. Do you want to join us? My treat.

From: Linda

Date: December 14, 2011  10:12:15 AM PST

Subject: Cheese Ravioli, ... Bread Pudding

HELL YES! What time? 

I wasn't expecting the food to be so amazingly good. It was. Chris, our server, was extraordinary, too. It was not the Bistro I remembered at all. (This is the upstairs part of the Cliff House, not the fancy downstairs part.) Soon as Tom gets back, I'm driving him straight there from the airport. Thank you so much, Anne and Peter – the best pleasure is having your company.

Me gusta comer pastel.

The fifth in the Whistlefritz Spanish for Kids series is out. The illustration and
mouse-terful Flash animation is by me.

5:19 p.m.

Gluten Fest

Tom is not able to eat gluten. Tom is out of town. So Saturday night, Anne and Peter had a gluten party. Pizza was on the menu – something that Tom and I never eat. What would I bring?

I noticed a BAKE SALE sign in front of Sunset Co-op Nursery Saturday afternoon. The perfect opportunity to buy some glutinous substances for the gluten fest! Not only were there cookies and gingerbread houses and little trees to be decorated, there was a bar set up on the 2nd level for grown-up children. That's my idea of a progressive nursery school.

I ordered a vodka with cranberry juice, and hightailed it over to the bake sale table where I bought a raspberry pie for $10.

Help! The Moon Got Stuck in the Windmill

4:56 p.m

Write about a ritual (today's prompt)

A ritual I love is this: About a half hour before the sun goes down, I stop working and put some sunblock on my face just in case a ray of sun might hit it.

Then I change into my grungy pants with big pockets and put on an Eddie Bauer hooded under-thingie.

I comb my hair back and put on my baseball cap. (Light yellow for now.) A disgustingly filthy 6-year-old light wt. down jacket goes on next. Sunglasses?

I grab my shoe bag and an extra pair of light wt. wool socks because my shoes are too big. Then I turn on the porch light, lock the door, and drive down to Taraval. That way, during the first half of my walk the sun will be behind me, and when I'm coming back it will already have set – but there will be plenty of light still left to walk. In other words, I won't ever have to be walking directly into the sun.

I park down by the rest room. I pull off my UGGS and change into my filthy running shoes. I plug my earbuds into my phone and set Pandora to the Beatles and hit the beach. The best treasures (glass, shells, rock) are down this way. I walk north to the Beach Chalet, then turn around and come back. Tonight the moon was full. (In fact, it was so full it got stuck in the windmill.) It was almost dark by the time I got back to Taraval.

5:12 p.m.

The violence

I get to be part of the Writing Salon's Round Robin this week! I'm substituting for somebody who left town in a hurry. Today's prompt is The violence. We write 10-12 minutes from that prompt, and email it to our partner of the week. I cleaned mine up a little for you:

✍

I'm having two books for five-year-olds published in 2013. This means that soon I'll be able to say I'm a writer. Every day I've been opening up Publishers Weekly, and imagine how exciting it was this morning when I saw a link to this article:

12 Holiday Gifts That Writers Will Actually Use

Oh boy! A list of gifts people could buy for ME some day. I clicked right over.

#1 was A CHEESY NEW BESTSELLER. Thanks, but no thanks. Unless it's this one.

#2 was GOOD LIPSTICK. Yes! That's a good one! But how would you know what color? Everything I apply to my lips or face turns orange. So just in case you're wondering what color to get me, it needs to be something with lots of blue in it, because blue neutralizes orange.

#3 was FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING SOFTWARE. "Most writers wish they knew more languages," the article claimed. Ha, ha, ha, ha! I'm laughing myself silly over this one. I've never learned my own language and I have to look up any word longer than 6 letters. Plus, I never leave my neighborhood.

But #4 was the killer: A BATHROBE.

"...As Ann Beattie recently revealed, and as a generation of bloggers already knows, most writers wear awful clothing while they are working. Help your writer friend out by giving her a beautiful robe to cover up her bizarre ensembles."

The violence of that assumption!

I stopped reading and stomped into the other room. Then I glanced in the mirror.

I was wearing orange striped bed socks with UGGS. A pair of 10-year-old size large pajama pants covered with different types of faded sushi. A turquoise mock turtleneck that smelled bad. On top of that was a dirty discount sweater that had never worked out. The left side hung down 8 inches past the right side because the buttons were buttoned not ONE-BUTTON-OFF, but TWO-BUTTONS-OFF.

In case you're interested, here's the link to the Holiday Gift article.

p.s. #7 and #10 are great ideas.

The Joy of Socks

New socks! And earbuds. (Alongside the past week's collection of sea glass.)

Remember those track lights from Home Despot? The ones that almost drove us to check into the insane asylum? We returned them today and got a refund. We took the money and ran across the parking lot to TJ Maxx and bought socks and new ear buds – and white elephants for Emmy's party. I hadn't partaken of a shopping mall-type experience in so long, it was simply exhilarating. Holiday music. I was daffy with happiness.

I also bought new running shoes and some tights, but later I came to my senses and returned them. The shoes were just too unsightly, even though they felt good. It was the opposite story with the tights. They looked great but after I left the store and pulled them out to admire them and I realized they had control tops. I was afraid that if I was able to get into them that they'd get stuck on me and I'd never get them back off.

I just found out I get to be a substitute for the Writing Salon's Round Robin all week this coming week. I've really missed that class so I'm looking forward to it.

Playing Hooky

DAVe Warnke   Color Critters    Marker on 6" x 4" Martha Stewart paint chips 

This afternoon I kissed my computer goodbye and headed downtown. Helen Steele and DAVe Warnke both have art on exhibit this month at Hang Art Gallery.

The pieces above were drawn on Martha Stewart paint chips. Sometimes the name of the color influenced what DAVe drew (for instance the ice cream cone, which is drawn on the "Lemon Ice" chip.)

I met Helen at Fort Mason where we were taking a class in how to make repeat patterns. These particular paintings have got to be the farthest thing from repeat patterns I can imagine. Her work has been hung in the place of honor: right by the big front windows.

Helen has another opening at Room Gallery this Tuesday, December 6 at their new location in Mill Valley.

Helen Steele     A Moment in Time     Acrylic on canvas 36 x 36 inches

Gale Force Winds

Anne and Peter think we're wimps. We only walk on the beach when the tide is low, and only when it's not sleeting, and only when a tsunami isn't in the forecast. Anne and Peter run six miles every night no matter what.

It was incredibly windy this evening. Tom and I started out before the sun set. We parked down by Taraval and headed north. Walking was nearly impossible! Of course coming back was a breeze.

But suddenly we realized it was perfectly calm – that the wind had stopped. That's when we ran into Anne running north, with Carmen on her leash.

"Anne, your timing is perfect!" I said. "There were gale force winds when we began." She looked around. All was peaceful. "Oh, really?" she said.

Merry Christmas, Be Mine!

Today Publishers Weekly ran a nice review of 10 Valentine Friends. The book will be released on December 27.

Will Work for Cookies and Wine

Lucille tutors kids of all ages who have dyslexia. I tutor Lucille. She's 87. Her goal is to get a reading program for dyslexic kids into the school system – a program that works. She wants to start her own blog to talk about this particular teaching method that works. I basically just sit beside her while she figures out how to put the blog together.

It's fun visiting her because she always has cookies in the oven and wine in the fridge and books to loan.

And the clothes she wears!

Star and Bird

4:19 p.m.

 Line break

4:41 p.m.

Gulp!

I gulped this book down. (This is the back cover of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.) From the book:

Simplicity isn't just a visual style. It's not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it's manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential. 

...Design was not just about what a product looked like on the surface. It had to reflect the product's essence. "In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer," Jobs told Fortune shortly after retaking the reins at Apple. "But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers."

Another part I remember from the first few pages:

Even though they were not fervent about their faith, Jobs's parents wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to the Lutheran church most Sundays. That came to an end when he was thirteen. In July 1968 Life magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra. Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church's pastor. "If I raise my finger, will God know which one I'm going to raise even before I do it?"

The pastor answered, "Yes, God knows everything."

Jobs then pulled out the Life cover and asked, "Well, does God know about this and what's going to happen to those children?"

"Steve, I know you don't understand, but yes, God knows about that."

Jobs announced that he didn't want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church.

Happy Birthday, Anne

Dear Anne,
An excerpt from one of my favorite bloggers (posted today, on your birthday):

This morning during breakfast Harriet asked me for the name of Theseus’ wife and I went up to my bookshelf to get my eighth grade book from Mr Shoemaker’s English class, Mythology and Me. (This is unrelated but I want to tell it anyway… Yesterday, she asked what albaricoque meant and on the title page of my old Spanish-English dictionary I found that there is still a drawing of a purple heart with”Trinidad y Ana son amigas” written inside. That could have been written yesterday. Time is meaningless.) After she left for school I sat with my coffee and opened up the mythology book to the middle and read:

Creativity is one way people free themselves from the limitations of conditioned responses. It is a means by which people free themselves also, of ordinary choices. It enlarges the universe by discovering new dimensions. It also enriches people by enabling them to experience these dimensions inwardly … There are some conditions or attitudes under which creative endeavor thrives. One of them is, surprisingly, aloneness, or being able to be alone without being lonely. Other circumstances that seem to promote the creative process are inactivity and daydreaming … In order to be creative, we must put what we have discovered into action.

I think this might be one reason we are such good friends: We value our aloneness.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

Hey, my husband has a new website. Take a look at some of his beautiful work, photographed by Larry and Barbara. I put the site together, and in exchange Tom ran errands and made meals and cleaned up. A win-win situation.

Little Man, Little Man

Did you know that James Baldwin wrote a children's book? I didn't.

Katy sent it to me. It's not like any children's book I've ever read.

Drugs, alcohol, violence, despair. Friendship, sweetness, and loyalty.

And the illustrations! Loose and free as can be.

Wondrous Beach Finds

4:56  Right before sunset I almost ran over these snowflakes on the beach.

Maybe someone made/photographed a Christmas card and left their art for us?

This is actually the one I saw first.

This little stash of shells was nearby.

My Dinner With Lucille

On Nov. 09, 2011, at 2:27 PM, Linda wrote:

Hi again, Lucille!

Just checking in to make sure tomorrow around 4:30-ish is still a good time for us to have a drink.

I think I'll bring champagne (California) instead of martini paraphernalia. We can celebrate.

Casual dress? I'll bring some more tattoos, too, just in case we feel like tattooing.

On Nov 9, 2011, at 3:37 PM, Lucille wrote: (she's just one of those people who writes things like this)

Every day's a celebration when I see you, Linda. 4:30ish sound good. I have the cheese and crackers. And maybe some dinner?

On Nov. 09, 2011 3:41 PM, Linda wrote:

Lucille, actually dinner sounds good!

Cheese and crackers is a good dinner for me ... But should I pick up something else on the way? I'd love to. Just say what.

Hooray! Just bring your dear self and the bottle.

Lucille! I just remembered. Tom made some vegetable soup last week. We froze a quart or two. Should I take it out of the freezer tomorrow a.m. and bring it?

I never say no, Linda. It will be delicious, knowing you. First course - followed by an entrée.

When I got to Lucille's place, we ran out on her balcony to take a photo before the sun set and then popped the cork. We sat down for a while with the cheese and crackers. Then Lucille jumped up and poached some fish. She stirred up an incredible sauce from the Sunset Cookbook. Suddenly a sweet potato pudding appeared next to the fish.

She sent me home with The Corrections, a jar of peanuts, and some malted milk balls.

Thank you, Lucille. I loved spending the evening with you. I'll be back soon to help you set up your blog.

Moon Up, Moon Down

5:14  (Strange! Same time as yesterday's photo.)