I went up on my roof today. I've wanted to for a while. But since you need a 14' ladder (which I don't have) to access it, today was my first chance.

Luckily I had anticipated the possibility enough to have my camera ready when the roofing guy asked, "do you want to come up?"

Confronted by the ladder, I wasn't so sure. But my previous intentions bolstered me enough to say yes. And once I was up the ladder, sheer momentum (and Victor's outstretched hand) got me past the scary moment of stepping sideways over nothingness to make that last step onto the roof.

Going down was not so easy. Stepping up over nothingness when you're almost to solid roof is one thing. Stepping down over nothingness to maneuver onto a ladder rung is quite another. I tried to talk Victor into moving the ladder down far enough so I could go down over the top of the ladder instead of doing the mid-air sideways maneuver. He didn't go for it.

For a minute I thought about having the fire department rescue me like a cat in a tree. But they probably would have left me there until I got hungry enough to come down on my own. That's what I would have done.

I made it! And I even have pictures to show for it.


My place is right on the fringe of downtown. You can see the dome of City Hall on the right, and the Transamerica pyramid on the left.


Downtown is impressive, but I really like the view of some of the neighboring Victorians.


Oh yeah. I discovered another tenant innovation. I should probably figure out how to work this since this will be my bathroom when my family comes to visit next week.

OMG. My step-mother Jean is so organized.

Hello Everyone,

I would love your help with a project that may be fun for you also. I am compiling a pictorial recipe book. An outline is attached. It is meant to collect your favorite recipes that bring back memories of shared times with friends and family. Ideas for menus, great parties (for kids and adults), holiday traditions and decorations. Anything you would like to pass on to each other and future generations is what I am seeking. I hope to also include pictures and some bio info.


A Collection of Recipes, Family Fun Ideas, Decorations, and Holiday Traditions from Friends and Family
including pictures and a little history about the people, places and items submitted

Purpose: Produce a journal of family and friend's recipes and traditions to pass on to grand children and interested family members and friends.

Process: Most likely a two or three step process. First, collect the contents; second, do a draft and insert photos; third, have the first printing done by Christmas, 2006.

Timetable: August-September- collect information
     October-November-design and production
     Early December-finalize first printing and run off

Outline of Possible Ideas, Content:
Favorite Recipes with notation as to who submitted, who they are, a picture of the person or how or when the recipe is best used. Example: Lemon Meringue Pie- Mom Alden's recipe with a picture of her and how she used to make it for Sunday dinner, usually with Chicken Fricassee'. Include recipe for Chicken as well.

Holidays-
Family traditions, menus, recipes, decorations
Example: Alden Family Thanksgiving- Pop Alden wrote a humorous account of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving along with a Blessing which I have. This will be included along with other memories of "Alden Thanksgivings", traditional menu and some favorite recipes.
Example: The description of the Wist/Olsen family tradition of a Danish Smorgasbord including the story of rice pudding and the nut.

Decorations: How to make something special-centerpiece, wreath, candles....anything unique.

Celebrations-
Celebrations worth remembering and sharing. Ideas, recipes, menus, decorations for Birthdays, Anniversaries, Super Bowl, 4th of July etc.

What I am asking for: Send or e-mail what you would like to share. Or, send your phone number and I will call you. I can scan and return photos, or accept them over e-mail. I will format everything. Things may be handwritten.

How to reach me:
         email: so&so@blah.net
         address: Misty Cove, SC
         phone: 864.555.5555
         cell (Verizon): 864.444.4444
(I love that she mentions the carrier so you know whether you get mobile-to-mobile minutes. I for one appreciate that.)

come to think of it - how many days did it take? Don't answer that.

Thanks for the encouraging words (e:Libertad) ! I could use them!

Wish I could fly you out here to help me. But if suburban Buffalo is too far to be enticed, I'm guessing I can't afford to entice you here. Or maybe I can't afford not to?

Anyway, two more pix:


Fluffy, we hardly knew ye! Unless you're the one who peed on my carpet. In which case we knew ye way more than we wanted to.


By chance I took a look inside the oven today. Guess they didn't do much baking!

No horse or cow, but I believe I see a camel.

Description of Problem:
I can't get a dial tone any more. I rebooted everything and I have an internet connection, but no dial tone.

Best Time to Call Back:
RIGHT NOW!!!

The title came to me while I was trying to decide whether to risk dying from PFOA or LDLs when making my omelette this morning. I take inspiration wherever I find it.

There is so much to catch up on, but still no time. Anyway, I responded to a craigslist posting, and who might the poster be but [inlink]twisted,260[/inlink] Stevil! Small world. We're going to see Soul Asylum on Wednesday.

So much more to say! I wish I could do my title justice. Oh well, maybe next time.

My upstairs tenants have moved out. They left me a few momentos to remember them by. No where near as bad as I expected though. I'll probably give them their full $200 security deposit back.


Coal (?), broken glass, paint and other debris along the front stairs


For some reason they kept a bail of hay in the bathroom rafters. I'm not sure why they would do that, or why my bathroom would have rafters.

I just spent the morning doing a first pass clean up, and pulling up two layers of carpet. There's still 1 layer left in most places. You can't imagine how gross it is. But the good thing about carpet and linoleum is, it doesn't really matter how gross is it, since you're going to tear it out anyway.





Same thing with painting walls. I wonder if I should save any of these phone numbers? I'll get a shot of Fluffy's epitaph now that I've cleared off my digital camera. Fluffy rated a spot over the fireplace.

Don't worry (e:Paul) I will have this all cleaned out by the time you get here. Although probably not by the time Dad and Jean get here August 30. They want to spend two of the seven days they're here working on the house. I know it's futile to argue with them, and I could use the help. But I better get the gross stuff done before they get here.

It's not all bad. The layout is way better than the middle unit, which really should be the first floor for one big unit, but I can't afford that.


Living room upstairs, should look like the middle unit [inlink]twisted,292[/inlink] some day.

Just don't go into the kitchen.

It has been a crazy week. I wish I could go into details, but here are some highlights.

Biking into work on Thursday, (well, actually it was biking home from a sleepover in Alameda Wednesday night, which would have positioned me quite advantageously for my ride back into work on Thursday (assuming a borrowed change of clothes), EXCEPT for the fact that my ex-boyfriend, Mark, had borrowed my car the day before and parked it in a Thursday 8a.m. street cleaning zone. (NOOO!!!!) So I had to bike to BART at 6:45 am, BART into the city by 8am, move my car (after finding my spare set of car keys AND my car), then shower, change, and BART back to work. Ok, I know I've lost you by know.

But one of the interesting things I encountered was "Project Homeless Connect" at the Bill Graham auditorium when biking back into work on Thursday. What is "Project Homeless Connect" you say? Glad you asked.

So I'm reading this article about the imminent opening of a 1.5M sq foot megamall downtown (not quite as bad as it sounds - preservationists prevailed and even though they're tripling the size, they're restoring thousands of the original elements, including the glass dome).

But forget about all that. This paragraph jumped out at me.

Some retailers are using the expansion to introduce new concepts. For instance, Gap will open its first Forth & Towne store in San Francisco, aimed at women 35 and older; Bebe will open Bebe Sport and Neda; Abercrombie & Fitch will open Ruehl and Hollister; Gymboree will open Janie & Jack; and American Eagle will open Martin + Osa.

Forth & Towne? Ruehl and Hollister? Ok, Janie & Jack I can get (although I wouldv'e gone with "Jim 'n Marie" for Gymboree, get it?). But Martin + Osa? That's supposed to scream American Eagle? What's up with all that?

At least the rotunda is cool.

Ok, so my cell pic looks as craptastic on the big screen as it did on my little cell screen. Only difference is, now I can't look up and see the original. That really is the UC Berkeley's Bell Tower, and the lights of the Bay bridge in the background.

Anyway, in looking online for a photo to do it justice, I found this interesting article:

Ok, maybe it's only interesting to me, so I'll include the gist of it here (with the better pic) and save you trouble of clicking.



UC-Berkeley's Greek Theatre is the home to a great summer concert series, and when musical acts ranging from Radiohead to Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris to Death Cab for Cutie take the stage this summer at the Greek, they'll be playing at the first major music venue to commit to offsetting the carbon emissions of the whole concert season. Clif Bar, Inc. has partnered with Another Planet Entertainment to purchase carbon credits and to implement a whole range of environmentally-conscious practices at the outdoor amphitheatre:

"In partnership with NativeEnergy, Clif Bar is purchasing enough renewable energy credits or "green tags" to help build new wind turbines that will offset all of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced during the 2006 Greek Theatre concert season, which runs June through October. The carbon emissions associated with the 8,500-seat Greek Theatre result from all of the electricity used to power and light the venue.

Clif Bar's purchase of renewable wind energy credits is equivalent to offsetting 88 tons of CO2 emissions, or the amount of carbon dioxide created by 176,000 miles of car travel. Electricity produced from clean, renewable wind energy displaces energy that otherwise would have to come from burning fossil fuels such as oil or coal, which create CO2, the leading cause of global warming.

"We're excited about joining with Clif Bar to spread environmental messages to a diverse audience, in a fun and approachable setting," said Gregg Perloff, C.E.O of Another Planet Entertainment. "The music industry can be a very positive force for the planet."

In addition to the carbon offset purchase, the Greek will also feature printed materials made from recycled paper with soy-based inks, biodegradable utensils and wine cups for concertgoers and artists, and an Organic Cafe with organic food choices. Recycling stations with educational materials will be located throughout the venue. Clif Bar will sell NativeEnergy Cool Tags at its booth so concertgoers can offset their travel to and from concerts.

p.s. - I should probably mention who I was there to see. Bloc Party, with Broken Social Scene. Tonight is The Contractions, and Monday is The Editors.

Excerpted from The Chronicle

This most recent revival of live-work startups is powered by young do-it-yourselfers who are taking advantage of better, faster and cheaper technology to bootstrap their young companies rather than take on investors and give up a greater stake in their vision.

Living and working together around the clock certainly accelerates the breakneck pace of innovation, the Meetro entrepreneurs say. They want Meetro to become like MySpace for neighbors, where you can meet and make friends with people on the Internet who live near you.

"The Internet is a cold place. There is no feeling of physical place. This gives a face to the neighborhood. You can see photos of people near you, chat with people," said Vincent "Vinnie" Lauria, 26, who left a job at IBM in New York to take the startup for a spin.

The Meetros are their own most avid users. After they first moved to Palo Alto, the guys used their new service to find their nearest user, who lived four houses away, to borrow a vacuum cleaner after theirs broke.

And they believe their dedication is paying off. Founder Paul Bragiel, 28, says Meetro now has nearly 100,000 users around the world, all of whom have signed up through word of mouth. Their goal: to be able to use their own product anywhere they travel in the world.

"We think we have a big idea," said Bragiel, who bankrolls the startup, including $2,000 a month in rent and frequently stratospheric electricity bills. "Why else would we slave like this? We are here to make this happen. We think in six months that we will increase our value by a great amount."

Meetro.com