“Almásy: …And then there is the... the harmattan, a red wind, which mariners call the sea of darkness. And red sand from this wind has flown as far as the south coast of England, apparently producing... showers so dense that they were mistaken for blood.
Katharine: Fiction! We have a house on that coast and it has never, never rained blood.
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I appreciate a good curmudgeon.  Sarcasm. A sharp tongued wit. A cynical world view usually born from age and experience. And a calm, far from easily impressed, practicality. When mixed with a certain grumpy charm, it’s a personality type I tend to click with more or less instantly. All for the best, really, as I have been working for and with a ( Read more... )

One of the many things I admire and enjoy about the Central Coast and parts inland is how creativity and artistic personalities just seem to thrive there. I realize that not everyone is an artisan - that would be impossible. But strolling through farmer’s markets, tasting and barrel rooms, galleries, mom and pop stores and events, it certainly ( Read more... )

I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting here every few days or so, so this is just a run by post as we return from vacation. I think there are still a few folks on LJ who visited the old Yosemite Cabin. Well, sadly it was killed off by nefarious falling tree, roof crushing action and ensuing rain damage and mold back in 2010. And here is ( Read more... )

Mortgaged and I are staying at the Yosemite cabin this week. Walking through the park and taking in all of the beauty - for even the dryer, stony beauty of October is almost to gorgeous for words - always leads to an odd mélange of musings in my sometimes too busy brain.


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Running errands earlier this weekend, Mortgaged and I passed a newer Corner Bakery, one of the ones with the name on the building itself and a protruding sign that is almost entirely logo.

Me: I swear Corner Bakery’s logo looks like a Soviet propaganda poster from the 20’s and 30’s, like the baker should be moving coal instead of buns and modeling ( Read more... )

The Cooking Channel has way too few commercials, such that they repeat them over and over, and over and over, and over and over, aaaaaaaaaand...you get the general idea. Look, I’m prone to making up snarky responses to things as it is but, with this, who could help themselves?

Anyway, an especial favorite is the commercial about the newlywed who ( Read more... )

This morning - early, early, early this morning - I glanced at my Twitter timeline and saw that several of the college students I tweet with were busily agonizing over late night paper writing, due dates at a more traditionally morning hour later that morning, and the need for more ramen…Taco Bell…pizza…fill in your college-y late night study food ( Read more... )

The Olympics always put a smile on my face. I no longer have the time to watch most of it - do any of us once we’re out of school and no longer have summers free? - but I watch a fair bit in the evenings. And, of course, I love the gymnastics and the swimming. The track events. All the bigs. I could watch the athletic prowess of the likes of ( Read more... )

Things they don't tell you about different nuances and effects of identity theft - ugh! A while back there were five families including us, who shared our extremely common last name all living in the same 180 unit condo complex. This is not surprising. Like I said, it's a common last name. So common in fact, that I there is usually another person ( Read more... )