The moving van comes tomorrow, everything’s pretty much packed. As long as it doesn’t rain I reckon it’ll be fairly straightforward. Took a break from the boxing to see what the annual Berkeley Marina Kitefest is all about. Kites mainly. Took a few pix, but it wasn’t the best weather for pix. Good weather for kites in fact.

Everyone else is doing it, so I thought I’d join in, here’s wordle.net’s word cloud of the last 10 posts or so… Atticus figures largely…

In other news, Somerset police have started sharing their best 999 calls with youtube. I’m torn for favourites, but it’s either “I’m not bein’ funny but… There’s a squirrel with no hazelnut trees” or “My wife’s left me two salmon sandwiches”. If this kind of minor internet celebrity doesn’t get them more prank calls I don’t know what will.

Gives the Welsh bloke inquiring about the bright white thing in the sky a run for his money mind.

is both a blessing and a monumental waste of time.

On the plus side I now know what a bunch of people are up to who I thought I’d never see again and I can stay more or less au courant on which of my mates are where, and every now and again another blast from the past issues from my inbox. All that and the internet opium that is Scrabulous (Challenge me. Please.)

On the other hand I can’t keep up with the requests for any number of fun looking applications. Some are dismissable out of hand, 3x Bumper Sticker requests but I’m sorely tempted to let applications like “Narco gifts” access my info if only because instead of “Accept” is says “Orale, compa” on the button. Anyroad, before I clear through the pile, here’s a look into my facebook world…

Sold the sofa this morning 😀

Leather sofa and dining room table anyone?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/fur/763943226.html

25% discount if you arrive with a print-out of this post…

The telly’s up for grabs too, what’s a fair price for a 32 inch GE CRT?

Saw Batman last night with Drsita, Liz and Josh and it did not disappoint on any level at all. I didn’t know what the running time was going to be so I kept expecting it to end, but instead it just kept getting better and better. Thoroughly recommended. Best superhero film since Batman Begins.

(image from Alberto Mont, found via Othaner’s blog)

On Saturday we tried to go to SF on the Alameda ferry, but it was running late and the ferry terminal is just next to Rosenblum’s free wine-tasting warehouse, so that proved a more enticing option. I blame drsita saying she didn’t reckon the ferry was coming. And when you say you don’t believe in ferries… Yesterday though I queued up in the morning and spent a couple of hours wandering round the north end of frisco (which nobody calls it) and though it looks like I’ve got dust on the camera’s sensor again there’s a few passable pix.

Full set here.

Today, webbery, & packing. A bientot.

One year late I finally got round to watching the last three (brilliant) episodes of Doctor Who series 3, with Sam Tyler and all that. Now “Here come the drums” has displaced Fleet Foxes in me head. Which means I’ll probably get more done given its frantic pacing.

Spoilers contained in this here youtube…

Righty, I’m off to walk the dog then we’re taking the ferry from Alameda to SF for a wander. tara

if these red sweetcorn things don’t poison us first… I’ve seen them used decoratively, but Drsita just picked up 6 from Lucky’s and 4 of them were red.

Wish us luck.

(Post-prandial EDIT)

They’re not as tasty as the yellow ones, but apparently according to several wise Mexican friends on flickr, they make great tortillas…

Abuela desde Guanatos sent me a whole myth about them, I’ve been translating all afternoon so while I’m in the mood…

It all happened before the Spanish arrived, when the earth belonged to those who worked on it, when nobody fought to live, because living was easy, and men were happy just to sleep, eat, love and grow.

In this particular year there was much happiness. The rains had fallen in abundance; the moon had illuminated the crops.

The Indians sowed the grains of sweetcorn, as white as a girl’s teeth on the well-ploughed earth

A few days later, the ground was covered with little green shoots which grew and grew as they drank up the water.

The goddess Sucuxi, so beautiful, so pure, so good, pondered the work of the Indians from the hill and wanted to reward their efforts by giving them the biggest harvest.

Susuxi came down from the hills to the sweetcorn fields, whose leaves blew in the wind. Thorns pierced the brown soles of Susuxi’s feet and from them fell red droplets of blood.

The goddess fled back to her house, dripping blood onto the kernels of a sweetcorn cob.

The kernels drank up the blood and turned red, as red as the blood they had drank.

Days passed… and the Indians harvested…

The strangest thing: They found a sweetcorn with red kernels.

Spanish source

The story lacks closure. Like then the next day the conquistadors arrived or something… and also maybe kernel’s not the right word, but I’ve been installing ubuntu all afternoon on my laptop…

Anyroad, there’s a blog post for you. They’ll be scarce again this week, no internets yet in Downey we’re told.

…and it looks like it’s going to be just the right weather for it, 97 degrees and scattered thunderstorms.

Normally I’d warn you that I’ll not be blogging much, but given recent posting rates you’ll probably not notice anything amiss.

Took the car for a checkup today. Should be ready any minute along with the bill for 360 bucks. Deciding whether to drive there or fly involved some complex maths with factors such as mileage, price per gallon, car rental, flights and schipperke boarding costs. We’re driving, staying with Sudarat and ‘Cus is coming with us, for the record. Email’ll be checked occasionally. See you in another ZIP code…