Stuff

In the morning it’s easy enough, I get the 7:30am bus which leaves from about 10 minutes drive from the house and it’s straight down the car pool lane for an hour and dropped at the door of where I’m temping. Coming back though it’s a different story because the bus doesn’t go all the way… So first off it’s the bus to Fremont (an hour), the BART (Bay Area Tubey Thing) for half an hour then walk to where I parked the car in the morning then 15 minutes through the rush hour back home. And somehow it gets longer every day. I narrowly avoided making it a lot longer today because I was sound asleep when the bus got to the BART station, but the stellar driver woke me up ‘cos she recognised me before driving off to god knows where.

So there you go. My commute.

Today Hillary or Obama gets decided. 6 of one and half a dozen of the other I reckon.

The past weekend was also all American what with watching the Superbowl on the telly. Meg took pity on me halfway through and looked through my photos and made very encouraging comments so that were grand in the end. Talking of which, we went to the Alameda antiques fair which takes place on the first Sunday of each month, and since it was a mixture of brass monkeys and drizzle it was free to enter. Usually you have to pay; lots if you get there early, 5 bucks if you’re late and miss the bargains. Anyroad, it’s in an odd location that made for some nice juxtapositioning of antiquity/ modernity. I’m most pleased with this one:

Got to go, belgian endives are burning…

Well, what with having bought another car and signed a 12 month lease on our apartment, we’re here for the long haul. So I took advantage of the miserable weather we’re experiencing to yet again overhaul the business side of life at AgaveWeb.

I’m quite pleased with how it’s looking and having the design portfolio in the form of blog posts makes it easier to update and more intuitive to navigate. I hope. The Spanish side is still out of date, but that’s not a huge priority for the next week or two since I’m still working at Yahoo! all the hours god sends.

Anyroad, if you like looking at websites, have a peek and comment your thoughts. And if you didn’t know our new address, it’s there in the middle column. It’s vaguely Harry Potter-esque, 1010 ½… and might disappear soon depending on how paranoid I get.

I liked this short educational video about what happens to bad gummi bears… Here comes the science… Also, turns out there is a lot of Charlie Brooker on YouTube if you find yourself in a dull moment.

Anyroad, It’s been a quiet day today. Raining off and on, not really photo weather. I just managed to get out and walk the dog and take a couple of pix before the heavens opened again. Last night was grand though, T and J came round and we had a scrabble session and had veggie lasagna and T’s trademark dish, fruit sponge pudding or torte (sp?). We even dusted off some fancy plates from Tonala.

Also did a bit of E-shopping thanks to me sister giving me an Amazon.co.uk voucher. Life on Mars series 1 and 2 should be winging their way over the Atlantic as I write. Marvellous, thanks Beth. Also, Mario, I’ll pass them your way once I’ve seen them.

Obviously mere ingredients and cooking instructions can’t quite express how good Tanya’s torte is but here you go:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
[generous bit of vanilla – say 1 TBSP]
plums [or apricots, or pears, frozen works if fresh is unavailable]

toppings sugar, lemon juice

preheat oven to 350 deg F
cream butter and sugar in a bowl. add flour, baking powder, salt and
eggs. Beat well
spoon batter into a spring form pan of 8, 9 or 10 inches
place plum halves, skin side up, on top of batter.
sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice
bake 1 hour. remove and cool. refridgerate or freeze if desired.
serve plain or with whipped cream. (to serve a torte that was frozen:
defrost and reheat briefly at 300 Deg F

… but the free minibus made it much easier. Miserable weather we´re having at the moment. Cold. Rain. Cold. However for the first time in ages I live in a house with a bath. So I´m going to have a soak and make a start on Wintersmith which I suspect is a Terry Pratchett novel aimed at children.

I sent this link to a friend who´s expecting today. Pass it on to anyone you know in a similar position.

Also, have a picture of the view across to South San Francisco from our little island.

…long commute. Definitely taking the bus tomorrow.

Atticus made it through the day without problems (pending reports from neighbours), so to celebrate we´re off for a walk.

Meanwhile, does your computer screen need cleaning? *Edit* that link’s not working any more. Try this one for a variation on the theme.

So I walked to the sea, or rather ocean today, and followed the coast around a bit. We´re about 10 blocks from the South shore. It started off okay with various species of fowl hamming it up for the camera, then got gradually more and more overcast and the harbours and upscale housing turned into warehouses and pedestrians made themselves more and more scarce until I felt I was on the set of I Am Legend (4 stars) especially what with the massive gert war ships moored there. Then the rain started. Then the wind. Then when I´d all but given up on taking more photos there was a semi spectacular rainbow, by way of an apology from Tlaloc, Aztec god of rain.

I´ve still not cleaned the sensor on my camera so there are some spots in the sky that could do with a bit of photoshoppery but not for now. I´ve been occupied fixing wine glass racks and bottle holders to walls and there´s yet another trip to Target coming up for some more home DIY touches before I start my latest gig tomorrow down Santa Clara way.

…We bought a toaster second hand for 5 US dollars. And some more shelves. And a wifi router. And a multiregion DVD player. And some salt and pepper. er. Salted butter. Yep, it’s quality posts like this that keep you coming back to agaveweb.com/blog.

To try and salvage this entry, Mum gave me a book of collected Charlie Brooker articles this Xmas and I’ve finished dipping into it. I think I’ll extract bits to pep up boring posts:

As far as I can tell, fashion is nothing more than a handy visual system that gives people with no personality some palpable criteria to judge each other by.

And have a look at what pouring concrete down an ant hill for 3 days, then excavating it will get you. Skip to 2:50 for the good bit.

Thanks, ants. Thants.

I took a day off from moving yesterday (more or less) and played (and lost) a couple of rounds of (FR)isbee g(OLF) with Matt (pictured), (and happy birthday!). There’s the record for parentheses in a single sentence broken. “Sport” continued on the playstation in the evening and we investigated a couple of local pubs, but one was too full and too bright and the other was too loud so we adjourned back to the house and watched Futurama.

Sita’s back today after her Sonoma trip and it sounds like a good place for a photo expedition one of these days. Misty valleys of vineyards and I’m making a list of more stuff to buy… a multiregion DVD player and wireless router top the list.

…and 2 big telly’s worth of cable rubbidge. Furniture’s more or less in the right place. Sita’s got the Huey Dewey Decimal system going in her office. And the dog seems to get on with the neighbours. All is well.

Had a moment when we couldn’t get the shower working, mind. But it turns out you just have to pull the nozzle on the bottom tap down. Remember that if you come and stay, cos washing your hair’s a veritable bugger otherwise.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes again. I’ll reply individually once I get back from t’shops. And Starbucks (7 blocks away), there’ll probably be a nearer one soon enough. We had a luvverly curry last night with co-birthdayee Meg and other Oakland celebrities.

doesn’t mean I can’t post a link or four.

Courtesy of R@yPG : Reuter’s 2007 pix of the year

I’ve a suspicion, these are a viral attempt to sell more postits. “Office prank”

Shakira’s on Jay Leno’s pig of a show singing her little heart out on YouTube. It’s a new song from the latest adaption of Love in the time of Cholera, which I’ll go and see because it combines my two favourite Colombians, though I wasn’t blown away by the book. Not the best quality clip, but augers very well.

And finally, this one’s for you Sita and Cousin F (though you’ve prob’ly seen it already): Tom Cruise interview on his misguided beliefs

Atticus, not so much.

33 tomorrow…

I’m flying back to LA this avo to bring as much of our stuff as possible back to Alameda tomorrow in a Uhaul rental truck thing. Including a certain excitable black doggy that answers to anything from Asparagus to Madthu (sp?). Details of our adventures to follow, probably on Thursday.

Internet is getting plumbed into our house on Friday so we’ll probably move in then. We’re also getting cable. I’m not quite so excited about the whole telly thing though… It’s less a source of entertainment and more a means for US pharmaceutical companies to invade your living space and endlessly advertise cures for such dubious conditions as Restless Leg Syndrome and for hawking SUVs with names like the Ford Behemoth or Jeep Stars and Stripes every 3 minutes…

So I’ve downloaded 8 hoursworth of podcasts to keep me entertained on the road and a few songs for me and the canine to howl along to. If all goes according to plan tomorrow afternoon I’ll be back in the Bay Area unpacking boxes and keeping Siamese cats and schipperkes separated. Wish us luck.

We went shopping for basics for the house and got to put our trolley on a special trolley escalator thing. Which (almost) made up for spending an hour or so in Target. Life´s what you make it.

Trolleylator? Cartelevator?

Here’s a few photos from our new abode. So far we’ve bought 3 shelves, two computer desks, a sofa, an armchair, a dining table and are in the process of connecting the house to the interwebs. Once they’re up and running we’ll be moving in. We also met the neighbours who seem a very nice bunch and seem amenable to energetic little black dogs.

Anyroad, we’re off yard saling. A bientot mes amis.

and signed the rental contract today.

It’s in Alameda. Details and pix to follow 🙂

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Monica’s gatos, doin’ what they do. Yesterday during a sunny interval.

… lost a couple of games of boggle and then embarked on a news round up.

Inspired get-out-of-school antics in Mexico .
If we don’t find a place soon, here’s plan B
Watch your screws in Germany.
Complete your American Dream Kit with a Taser/mp3 player

It’s raining. Santa Cruz tomorrow, possibly.

As you were.

Clarkson