6:48 p.m.  A slightly windy walk down the Great Highway. Ten kite surfers!

6:56 p.m.  from the Great Highway

Huevos Rancheros Vegan Style

That's me and Deborah Underwood chowing down at Herbivore

After Peter introduced me to Deborah's books, I emailed her to ask if she would give me one school visit tip. She gave me ten. And then she told me she lived right across the park!

Finally. I was able to wrangle her into having breakfast with me this morning.

Sonoma

Tom and I decided to switch our Friday and Saturday around this week so we could drive up to Sonoma today. A Breezehouse in Sonoma was open for viewing. Seeing the Breezehouse was fine, but nothing nothing nothing compared to lunch at El Molino.

Sonoma was an oven: 30 degrees hotter there than it is here.

And hotter inside than outside, Kristin!

Our Pal Sal

She came back! Pat's here for the Apple Developers Conference, so I got to have pizza with Sal yesterday. She knows the city better than I do, and where all the good shoes stores are.

I took a picture I'd been working on to show her and she gave me an incredibly helpful critique. She could tell at a glance which of the two characters in the drawing were the ones nearest and dearest to my heart. She wondered if the line weights should vary; she wondered if the lines should break in places; she wondered if I should let some white show through between the line and fills. She reminded me of what Milton Glaser had said about how the time allotted to a project produces a certain expectation of how refined a design should be.

Then I remembered: "Duh! She recently got her MFA from the Hartford Illustration Program." Why haven't I shoved my pictures under her nose before?

Book Review by Baby Beatrix

"Simply Shocking!"

6:31 p.m.  The sky changed color this evening.  

Summer weather

My First Mature Poem

If the writing's not always top quality at TIAPOS, the snacks are. One sample from last night.

Prompt: SCUM

A long-legs took up residence in my bath. 

A peaceful daddy name of Greg. 

All day long he’d sit up in the corner by the roof.

At night he’d amble over to the tub, 

Lower 

himself

in

Not to rinse his legs off I’m afraid–

But to gather bits of scum up for a snack. 

And then he’d wobble back.

(To you that won’t sound appetizing

But for a spider, not surprising.)

I didn’t want to throw out Greg.

I’d learned my lesson well 

Last time around:

I’d grabbed a daddy by one leg

And hell! It broke right off, 

And then he fell.

Traumatic for us both!

You can argue, “He had 8!”

But losing even one limb can’t be great.

I unrolled some tissue then,

Escorted out the rest of him.

Then this one came along.

He even had a name! I let him stay

Until the day I saw a second spider on the floor. 

Though life with Greg had not been bad

–I know the math does not compute–

Somehow now two spiders 

were too many and not cute.

Tired and overwrought I squashed them both.

My sorrow was profuse.

“I hope you guys come back as someone great!

A mogul and a fashion plate.”

It was no use.

Greg, he wasn’t happy being gone.

His spider soul accosted me at dawn

Hovering near the heater grate: 

“Was it something that I ate?”

7:31 p.m.  down jacket, gloves, ear muffs

5:36 p.m.

Thank you, Anne and Peter

Another celebration complete with ice cream and tamales!  Ice Cream Cone by Anne Herbst

A major treat was a visit to Anne's studio to see an ocean of new gorgeous work.

Peter unleashes a masterful rendition of Happy Birthday.