My ALA Adventure

Friday night dinner with Beach Lane buds at the sweetest place: Local Kitchen. We missed Allyn. 

I tried to get everybody to cry for the group shot so we could send Allyn a picture letting her know

how much we missed her, but people seem to resist crying for photos.

The book-signing was fantastic. The line never let up. When my time slot was 

over, all the books were gone! I was stunned and ecstatic until Kristin 

informed me that the books are free to the conference attendees as long as they 

stand in line for a signature. Then I was super-stunned. You mean I lost all that
sleep for naught? Still, what a blast.

Kristin had promised to buy two of my books if I could sneak her in to hear Sarah Vowell.
There was no need for me to sneak her in at all now, having discovered the books were free.
But she was adamant. Sarah Vowell is phenomenal! Her book-signing line was miles long,
and Sarah would sign a book and shoo her reader away, sign a book and shoo her reader away.
When Kristin stepped up, Sarah stopped to chat. I finally slunk up and laid my book on the table
as Kristin walked away but Sarah yelled after Kristin, continuing their conversation as she signed
my book and shooed me away.

The same-sex marriage ruling passed Friday and there
was a slight traffic jam on the way to the Simon & Schuster party
Saturday night honoring Ashley Brown.

Ashley led us in shouting, singing, and hugging. He brought his pal Nikki Giovanni along, too.

You aren't going to believe this. Somebody flaked out on the Newbery Caldecott Wilder
Awards banquet on Sunday night. When I was asked if I'd be interested in attending in her place,
I said yes immediately. And I then read the details. The banquet is a formal occasion. Again
my anxiety level shot through the ceiling but I dug my most formal baseball-style dress
out of the closet and zoomed over. Here I am with Sylvie. The people at my Simon & Schuster
table were the best, the food pretty good, the waiters surly, the speeches inspiring for the most part
––though Kwame's was beyond exhilarating.

Passing by the Caldwell Snyder Gallery on my way to meet Rubin for breakfast Monday morning.
Pancakes and eggs. We had such a fun meeting, planning and drawing on the white paper
tablecloth at Cafe de la Presse.

How many man-agents do you know who will stop into a shoe store with you on their way
to the airport? It looks like Rubin's trying to convince me to wear something other than
sneakers, but actually we're thinking of Allyn and wondering which Fluevog she'd prefer.
(The one on the right for sure.)

Say Hello to Me!

I’m so excited to be signing books at ALA this Saturday. If you’re coming to the convention I’d love it if you could come by my table. I’ll be at Simon & Schuster booth #1103/1104 between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. My time slot falls right between Gloria Steinem's talk and Sarah Vowell’s talk (!) with plenty of time to spare.

On My Screen

My Dad

Aggles' dad too.

I made my dad help me earn my photography badge during my short stint with the Girl Scouts. Here he is modeling for me. We had to title our photos, and on the back of this one I wrote Dad Sitting.

He loved taking pictures so much that he built a darkroom right in the middle of his and my mom's bedroom.

This photo was taken one year before he died.

On the Coastal Trail   6:42 p.m.

Found Art

walking to Eats for Huevos Rancheros

San Francisco Summer

from the Coastal Trail   7:18 p.m.

What I wore: a base layer hoodie with a long-sleeved t-shirt over it, a light down jacket, ear muffs.

Yatatoy

LOOPIMAL from Lucas Zanotto on Vimeo.
I love this app by Yatatoy! It's supposed to "teach" kids looping, sequencing (making music), but it's much more fun than the description sounds.
via

Another Neighbor We Love

––photo by Deb Perry, aka the Cricket (who lives right across the snicket)

Luck

Sheer unadulterated luck to have landed next door to John and Em.

Amazing Day

A too-quick visit to Anne's studio in the morning... (Detail from Fingerlings)

At Bernal Star msmasmushly didn't make me eat outside.

I love Siri. After I left Anne's, I raced to the car because Msmasmushly was treating me to birthday lunch at Bernal Star.

Suddenly I realized had no earthly idea how to get over to Bernal Heights from Anne's. I almost called msmasmushly in tears to say I'd be 15 or 20 minutes late. I knew it would take me at least that much extra time to figure out where to go.

I appealed to Siri. "Siri," I said, "Please give me directions to 410 Cortland." Siri was calm. Her voice guided me to Sunset Blvd. and on down to Brotherhood Way before I caught on that my phone had turned into a TomTom! I could see clearly where I was headed, and Siri's reassuring voice led me all the way across town to the doorstep of the restaurant. I was 10 minutes early.

As I told msmasmushly, this experience was a milestone. Like getting my driver's license or having sex for the first time. After today I will no longer be a shut-in due to my lack of directional skills.

A walk on the Coastal Trail in the evening. Still foggy––but some bright spots along the way.

Cartoons

It was like pulling teeth, but I finally pulled together an animation page for my new site. This is a clip for Whistlefritz, an amazing company that produces language immersion videos for children.

You Never Know

You never know what you'll find along the Coastal Trail.

Me and Lucille

Lunch time.

A Brand New Bag. Finally.

When I heard that Poetry Magazine was including a free tote bag designed by Milton Glaser with each subscription, I whipped out my credit card. I received an email that said:

Thank you Linda Davick,

We have received your subscription order. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. 

I looked for the tote bag in the mail every day. In this day and age nothing takes 4 to 6 weeks. Yesterday marked seven weeks and yesterday I finally got a copy of the magazine in the mail. But no tote bag. I threw the magazine into the recycling can. Did they really think I wanted to read poetry? Where was my free Milton Glaser tote bag?

This afternoon my tote bag arrived. See how handsome it is? I pulled myself together and retrieved the magazine from recycling. I stuck it in an envelope and mailed it to Jane. I toted the tote bag from room to room, hanging it on doorknobs and cabinet pulls. I took 39 photos of it.

I styled the tote bag with some books I got at the library today, but I won't actually use the tote bag to tote things for a long time. It will hang on the wall for at least 4 to 6 weeks, maybe longer.

Watercolor Applied with H2O from a Jar

That darker edge around a shape is the watercolor effect I've tried over and over––unsuccessfully––to get on the computer. It's called "pooling."

It was exciting and scary when Cricket gave me the set of watercolors and the brushes. Today when I was in my studio all alone, I decided to see if I could achieve this "pooling" effect.

I googled "watercolor pooling." Imagine my surprise when I found out pooling is considered a problem by most watercolorists! I read:

Solve the problem by reducing the amount of paint you put down at one time. Work with a drier brush, wiping it on a dry cloth before you pick up new paint. Pull some of the water out of your brush before you put it to the paper ... Don't add extra water to paint already down on the paper.

So I did exactly the opposite and am terrifically excited with the results.