Monday, May 31, 2010

22:01 on our last night in Tahoe...

 ...and all the girls have their tea mugs in hand, and the dishwasher is humming, and the house is quiet...after a day of bbq'ing and board games and enjoying the warm sun and clear mountain air, we're settling into our books and our beds...

It's been a good weekend.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Out of town visitors, birthday brunches, and an Anza craft-o-bonanza

It's been a crazy whirlwind of activity around here lately; there's so much fantastic-ness happening it's a bit impossible to breathe at times. Mostly from laughing, though, so it's okay.

The group from last Sunday's birthday brunch with Cassandra. All three of these girls will be part of the upcoming Tahoe Girls Weekend in honor of my almost-birthday! (June 6, in case you were wondering. And yes, if you insist, I WILL accept a present.)

The past two Saturdays have also marked the launch of The Farmer's Table, a little something that Alison and I are doing at the Farmer's Market involving fare from the market (think local cheese, bread, chutney, fruit, and sparkling Drinkwell's Soda) and all the friends we can hold at our table. It's been an absolute blast so far; I hope to have proper photos up soon.





And last week my favorite newlyweds were in town from Dublin, Ireland! (There is a Dublin, California, in case you thought my specification was unnecessary.) We went EVERYwhere: Bissap Baobab, the Monk's Kettle, Grace Cathedral, Nob Hill Cafe, and of course we inadvertantly crashed a party at Macy's while looking for the restrooms...Jessica got 'lost' trying to find us after she had used them and by the time she 'found' us, she was carrying a cosmo in one hand and an empty chicken skewer in the other. And this is why I love her.
And let's not forget Craft Day with the Anza Girls! We all met at the market, shopped some produce and tasted everything we could, and then headed to Stacey's for an afternoon of crafting, sewing, collaging, and other such creative things at which I was hopeless. (Thank you again, Stacey, for making my wonderful new lunch tote with matching picnic placemats! They looks AMAZING and EVERYbody thinks I did them. I correct them, of course...)





I'm just now going through my photos from all of these events, and while most aren't likely to see the light of day, I'm so glad I have them--if nothing else, they serve as a means of holding onto the memories. And now that my dementia is kicking in, I'm going to need them someday...

I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs,
Sharona

Monday, May 17, 2010

A song, a poem, and a sunset

Three little quiet, Sunday gems from a dear University friend, Ana Maria Correa, who is a never-ending scholar, artist, poet, and translator of languages...

A song. Please listen.

A poem:

For the first time
you'll be aware of gravity
like a thorn in your heel, 
and your shoulder blades will ache for want of wings. 
Call yourself alive? I promise you 
you'll be deafened by the sound of dust falling on furniture.
~ "Temptation", Nina Cassian (translated by Brenda Walker and Andrea Deletant)

And an interview with Jorge Luis Borges. To take a brief quote from the page:

“The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory… The work of a poet never ends...he's always working, even when he dreams.” In the same clip, Kral, standing outside Borges’ apartment in 1998, recalls visiting the writer there many years before. “Borges, who had so intensely loved books and for whom literature was alive, advised us not to read any book we didn’t enjoy,” he says. “Reading it by force did no good to the book, the author or ourselves.”


I hope you had a lovely weekend; I miss you.
Essss


Ocean Beach, sunset

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

On temping, pork, the polish, and ELENA CAMILLE!!

 
You remember back when I temped at the Opera, and how awesome that was? Yeah. That was AWESOME. I could've danced all night at that place. Not that my current temp job isn't awesome. Because now I can harass my roommate all day, and that's rad. And I get to do loads of fun stuff, like populate slides, and test logics, and that's pretty...oh, wait.
In other news, Dinana has recently sent me a link to The Great and Secret Thing, which is this, and particular she wanted me to see this, and it is about Our Hero the Traveler. He is amazing and I now love this site and I think someday I may want to have blog-babies with it.

As you may already know, last week was Cinco de Mayo, which--much like St. Patrick's Day--is in the top Holidays of Other Cultures that San Franciscans Love Because It Means Drinking a Lot and Eating Awesome Food. And in classic style, it involved lots of conversations about where one was celebrating. I--as is my wont on such occasions--headed straight for the homestead, where Sara was slow-cooking the BEST PULLED PORK ON THE PLANET for the Tacos From Heaven. Have I ever mentioned how much I love living with a professional chef? I don't know if I have. And then the night after that, she made her own Carolina-style bbq sauce (vinegar-based with brown sugar, butter, molasses, and red pepper flakes) for THE BEST PULLED PORK SANDWICHES ON THE PLANET. 

Yeah. 

And then she grilled some sausages I got at last Sunday's Polish Festival, where the accordions were as rambunctious as the dancers, the sausage selection was rivaled only by the sauerkraut, and I got a jar of pickles the size of my head. It was wild, I tell you. WILD.


Almost as wild as this guy's mullet. I KNOW.

He's all business on the left...

And then...WHOA! PARTY ON THE RIGHT! My girlfriends and I were utterly mesmo. We couldn't figure it out: did it start as mohawk? a rat tail? a mohawk with a rat tail?  Either way, AWESOME.

And last, but not definitely definitely definitely not least: DEEE HAD HER BABY ON SATURDAY!!  That's right: the day before Mother's Day. WELL PLAYED, BABY GIRL. Please welcome with me to the world Elena Camille, Deee and Brian's little seven pound, eight ounce gem. I hope to have photos on here soon of her--if not ones that I've taken, at least ones that Deee has sent. I'm so thrilled she's here!

Hugs, 
esss

Thursday, May 6, 2010

On More Books to Read, Volcanos, and George Michael

So I'm (inadvertantly) (still) on the (e)mailing list of a creative arts group I was involved with in London-town, and they've recently voted on reading two books together. In the interest of (e)involvement, I decided to join in. Of the two they chose, the one I wanted wasn't available at the library (at the time I stopped in), so I got the other: Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. This is a book I've avoided for some time (what with it being by Eggers), but since I couldn't get the one I wanted, and there were like fifteen copies of Zeitoun on the shelf, I was like, 'Okay, fine. It's free, no harm done.' And so I got it, and it reads like a Reader's Digest Drama in Real Life, and every night I'm like, 'Where's the Humor in Uniform?' and since there isn't any, I'm really over it. And just now I looked at my library holds list, and lo and behold! The book I wanted is ready! So I'm going to try and head over maybe tomorrow after work to pick it up: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, by Philip Pullman. I'm psyched.

In other news related to London, Yotam Ottolenghi has published a new cookbook and it looks AMAZING.

And in the interest of volcano popularity, check out these pics of the Chilean Chaiten from a couple years back. I don't know how I missed these on their first run, but HOLY FREAKY ARMAGEDDON. This might replace tornados on my 'I know I should be frightened, but I'm sickly drawn' list.

And because anything involving a Bluth gets me every time:



Next time you see me (and ideally for more than two and a half seconds), I have news of an Asparagus Festival, a Polish Festival, a Weekend with the Babas, a new job, and Friday Night with the Girls. In no particular order.

OH! And Deee is so overdue, it's fantastic.

Hugs!
esssssssssssssss