I’m Loki. Welcome to my world.

Sydney Photos are up under “My Albums”

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 18:35:19 -0800

Brief explanations:
1) I thought the face on the satyr couldn’t have looked more like an Aussie, which is why the pictures.
2) There are a lot of pics of Cockatoos. Ok, could I get over wild cockatoos? The other featured birds are on the berry branches, and they are rainbow lorikeets. Also, couldn’t believe the bats. These are called flying foxes. They are BEEEEG.
3) The two flowers, the ginger and the bat flower, were so trippy I had to take their picture.
4) I took the ferry to Watson’s Bay for “The Best Fish and Chips in Australia.” The pics from Watson’s Bay are from that trip (including the lorikeets.)
5) Victoria Market is a 19th century mall. Posh at the top, not so much at the bottom, but it takes something like this to get me into a mall on vacation.
6) The Blue Mountains are part of the great dividing range. I hiked for about 4 hours before I came out of the forest desperately needing food, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but one of the finest restaurants in the area. I had a Visa card and I knew how to use it. I had braised rabbit fettucini followed by a perfect steak sandwich with homemade fresh tomato relish that was god-like. That pic was a raspberry peach tart with spiced pineapple sorbet. It was a vacation of eating fresh fruit tarts. The picture of the restaurant I took shows the chef working in the back. I damn near kissed his feet.
7) The tree sisters is a rock formation, the aboriginal dream story is that a chief turned his three daughters into stone so they wouldn’t be captured by the opposing tribe during a battle, but he was killed in the battle and nobody knew the spell to turn them back.
8) The barracks is the original prison, Australia was started as a prison colony and when they finally built a building this was it.
9) The rocks is one of the last original working class districts, saved from “urban renewal” it is now chi-chi shop and tourist central. They have a FANTASTIC weekend market feature Australian craftspeople, off price books, you name it.

Enjoy. Next and last is Cairns.

Back From the Land Downunder

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 21:01:52 -0800

So much things to say.... still tired so I don’t know badly I want to start telling stories quite yet. However I have posted the first set of pictures, unedited and uncropped. Clearly I spent a lot of time with critters. The Melbourne set consists of pictures from the Zoo (including the new baby elephant,) the Healesville Animal Sanctuary (where you get REAL close to the critters,) St. Kilda, the beachfront suburb (including the jellyfish which is why I didn’t go swimming.... there was a “bloom” going on. Serious comment from an Aussie woman “well, I think they’re relatively harmless.” From someone who lives in a country with jellyfish that kill in 60 seconds, “relatively” wasn’t going to cut it.) St. Kilda also know for a street of “Cake Shops,” we call them Pastry Shops. Does that fruit tart look as yummy as it was?

Although I expected different animals and different birds, what really tripped me out were the different birds. Wild Cockatoos everywhere (I only saw the yellow ones wild, not the black or pink ones.) Rainbow Lorikeets (pics to come,) redheaded parrots, monster-sized bats (ok, mammals, not birds, but they fly....) Even the Ibis which were everywhere. I also took an antique narrow-gauge steam train called “Puffing Billy” which is run by volunteers and choogles 2 hours through the Dandenong National Forest and back. Enjoy the pics for now, and yes, that IS a Dingo, and a Tasmanian Devil.

Is there a better word than “platypussary?”

The signs with “dream stories” were common. “Dream Stories” are the stories the Aborigines tell, very similar to Greek mythology, in that it explains part of how they perceived the world. The stories went much, much deeper, and included all their knowledge and system of law. There would be a story to explain why a particular river was dangerous during a particular season, to explain why it should be avoided. Rather than try to remember the stories I liked, I just took the pic. Other notes: 1) the pictures with bird? do not mean I question whether it is a bird or not, its that I don’t recall the name of the bird. And the Aussie ducks aren’t really ducks, they are an ancient precursor of ducks, geese, and something else, which is to say that in the land of Oz, it may walk like a duck, quack like a duck, and not be a duck.

Enjoy the pics. More tomorrow.

Off to the Land Downunder

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:09:43 -0800

Which has nothing to do with the picture, which is the camellia I planted five years ago THAT HAS FINALLY BLOOMED!

Loki’s off to camp. Just like a boy, he runs into the kennel and hardly looks bank. Very ADD, he always wants to be doing The Next Thing. I’m sure at some point he’ll be a little bummed that he’s sleeping alone, but he’ll live.

Actually, I probably have more separation anxiety than he does. I really don’t like it when he’s not here.

Packed, ready to go, have 3 printed books and 3 downloaded books to entertain me. flight leaves in 4.5 hours so I’ll probably think about heading to the airport in an hour or two. No posts here, as I can’t updated apple blogs w/o their software.

Ta.

Random Notes

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:55:27 -0800

So, now that Mervyn’s has closed, where the hell do you buy a pair of jeans in SF? Seriously. DON’T tell me to go to Macy’s, I won’t do it. Once upon a time you bought jeans at Miller’s Outpost. Then, for basic jeans, you could go to Mervyn’s and the “wall-o-Levis.” What now? I figured someplace like Sears or J.C. Penney’s, which required that I hold my nose and head to “The Shops at Tanforan.”

Sorry, if you don’t live in the area, you don’t get the humorous sarcasm of “The Shops at Tanforan.” I don’t even know if I can explain it. Suffice it to say that its the cheesiest low end mall masquerading as something besides a cheesy low end mall. And only short people shop there.

Huh?

Seriously. I went to Sears. I went to Penneys. I couldn’t find any trousers with an inseam greater than 32”. They had Levis up to 44” waist, no longer than 30” inseam for that one. A guy who would fit in trousers like that would be, simply, round. Were those humpty dumpty’s pants?

No disrespect for people of size. None intended. But, what about us people “of size” whose size includes a shank longer than a toothpick?

So I’m in Sears, Daly City, on a Sunday (see Margaret Cho’s early records for what THAT’s all about), plowing through one rack of pants after another, thinking about ALL THE THINGS I WANT TO BE DOING BESIDES LOOKING FOR A SIMPLE PAIR OF 505’S THAT ACTUALLY FIT, KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT THE SIZE NEEDS TO BE, AND THAT SHOULD NEVER BE A PROBLEM..... noting the five clerks standing around yammering to each other in Tagalog, nobody considering helping the honky with the freakishly long legs, and apparently one of the gal’s jobs was to market home renovation projects by conducting a “survey.”

Commence that squeaky little girl voice thing that seems to tragically be popular with the young.

“Hello sir (squeak) I’m taking a survey and I was wondering (squeak) if you were going to be considering a home renovation project today what would you be considering and can you tell me which of these eight pictures (squeak) represent your project. (tee hee.)

At which point, God help me, I try not to let this happen. I fight it. Winedog knows I fight it. But it happened. I turned into my Mother. And that silly bitch didn’t know what hit her. The following is almost verbatim.

Home improvement project? Seriously? I’m standing here in the mens department looking for trousers and the only person in the whole damned store to come help me isn’t asking me if they can help me find men’s clothing but asks me about home improvement? If I was thinking about home improvement I wouldn’t be in the men’s department, I would be at Home Depot. Seriously. THATS how you sell shit? Don’t help find the stuff in the department that the guy’s in, but hit him with something else entirely? Does somebody want to help my buy a damn pair of pants? I’ll help you out. I’m looking for an inseam of 34”. You have nothing over 30” Why is that? Is this the Lillipution department? Sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you, you’ve never read Gulliver’s travels have you? Here, this is the ‘Land’s End’ section. They make this shit in Wisconsin. You know Wisconsin? Bunch of tall blond guys wearing cheese on their heads. You don’t get that either do you? Here, lets make it simple, can you “get” me a pair of 34” trousers? NO??? This isn’t your department? Then why are you here? Oh, right, you want to know if while I’m searching for a pair of trousers I’m actually shopping for a new roof. Or aluminum siding. Seriously? Siding? You still sell that shit? Oh, only ARMIN can help me? Why don’t you send ARMIN over to find me a pair of trousers. Wait.... come back......

Grr.

Next topic. Dog. There is a theory out there that when you’re dog misbehaves, you have to correct them immediately because dog’s don’t have the ability to remember something they did was bad. Or something like that. And it’s crap.

Know why I know this? Here’s this weekend’s story. I’ve mentioned that Loki like’s butter. He especially likes the expensive Irish butter that comes in foil. He also knows that he’s not supposed to eat the butter, especially the expensive Irish butter that comes in foil.

So I come in the kitchen, Loki’s with me, nothing special. Then I look on the counter.

The butter isn’t where it’s supposed to be.

The butter seems to be, well, smaller.

As I stare at the butter, 70 lbs of Doberman attempts to disappear. He actually tries to shrink, or crawl inside himself. Skulking away is step two of he doesn’t successfully disappear.

It’s at this point that I realize that he unwrapped the butter, ate about 3/4 of it, and then, brace yourself, wrapped the butter back up in the foil so that I barely noticed that it had been touched. If he had only eaten 1/4 of it, I might not have noticed it and served dog-licked butter for breakfast.

He KNEW he’d done wrong. He knew he’d been busted. But really, all I could give him was a quick ‘bad dog,’ because his misbehavior was so cleverly executed, and I did name him after the god of mischief, so I guess I deserved it.

Final topic, got the raspberries pruned, moved the rhubarb and hope it survives, and the garden will survive 2 weeks.

Ya Gotta Have Friends

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 06:45:00 -0800

The angle is off somewhat, because Max looks MUCH larger than he actually is. He’s about the size of Loki’s head. I’m babysitting for a few days, and that little black energizer bunny wore my dog out. He wears out his brother Leroy, and I gave Leroy a break by bringing him over here. Normally Max has a 5 year old to play with, and poor Leroy just wanted sleep. Max started out interested but somewhat terrified (“jeez, are those things in your mouth TEETH? I could fit in there...” Loki plays hard but safe with little dogs, and Max decided to step his game up. it’s pretty funny, watching 8 lbs of fur standing up to the jaws of death..... Loki likes him enough to let him up (grudgingly) in his chair. Or maybe fighting about it wasn’t worth the effort. Result?

Why he was in Deep Kimchee this morning

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 17:54:38 -0800

That there is one aggravated dog. He’s been intensely growling and barking at something outside since last night. I even took him outside to show him there was nothing going on. Then this morning, he was barking and snarling at the left window (odd). Until I looked out the window to see what he was staring at.

Updates - and Loki in the rare spot of sun.

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:27:55 -0800

I really need to update this silly thing more often, but sometimes daily existence is so mundane I can’t imagine anybody besides me would give a damn. So here’s some updates:

1) The pantry was remodeled, and it is fabulous. Maybe a picture to come. There are empty shelves. Got that? I got all my shit back in with space to spare. Do I know how to organize or what. God bless Elfa (tm)
2) We had some fun with the neighbor dogs. The neighbors went on vacation (truncated, as illness struck one of the travelers as they were going through security) and the dogs were left in the care of me, the dog walker, and their contractor (their house qualifies as the Winchester house of San Bruno Avenue, but it is going to be Architectural Digest quality when they’re done.) Little communication confusion, the baby fur ball took a dump in the house (about 1 hour after I let him out) and the contractor wasn’t sure whether I was letting them out and feeding them or not, called the neighbors, panic ensued. We then figured out that Max dumps on the floor as a matter of course. All was well, and the three dogs (the old yeller lab, max the furball, and Loki bonded in a big way. Max learned to play hard with a big dog, and Leroy, the fun monitor, stood their and barked his annoyance at the whipper snappers.
3) been working like a dog on three appellate briefs. That’s just not sane.
4) SO ready to go to Australia. Neighbors and workmates have been kind enough to ask “have you lost weight?” Makes those hours on the stairmaster and the breakfast celery seem worthwhile.

That is all.

On Another Note....

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:12:32 -0800

RIP Teddy Pendergrass. I miss the days when soul didn’t have to be sung in falsetto.

All that needs to be said.

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:49:16 -0800

Most humans have nothing but sympathy for Haiti. Most Californians think “there but for the grace of God.....”
Of course, the pinheads in the SFGATE comments section couldn’t wait to try to use the Haiti earthquake to slag on the President. Of course, they had no good arguments, so most of them resorted to blatant racism. SFGATE is like that, as most of us believe it is a focus of the wingnuts across the nation who want to pollute SF’s paper with their drivvle. But somehow suggesting that Obama cared more about black people in Haiti than white people in Eureka is beyond legitimate discourse (um, need I mention how many people died in the Eureka quake? Zero as best I can tell? And Eureka/Ferndale are still in the wealthiest state in the Union, even if its government can’t get its crap together....)

But before I could get my rant on, Olbermann took it to town.

Holiday Wrapup

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:00:28 -0800

That up there is my first Dresnder Christstollen. Seriously. Mother traditionally makes this every year, but I wanted to try it. It’s a fruity bread, not overly fruity, and this one came out beautifully after a little bit of drama.

The drama being that my house is too cold in winter to raise yeast dough. The recipe said it may take 3 hours for the first rising, I came back in 3 hours and there was a chilled lump of solid dough in the bowl. Oopsie. This meant I started the process of turning the oven on and off every 10 minutes until it reheated the dough and started rising. I made the dough at 2 pm, it was finally out of the oven 10:30.

Second bit of drama was having nobody, including Trader Joe’s, stock ladyfingers over Christmas, making the Christmas trifle a little hard to make. I call Winedog to vent on this one Christmas eve morning, and she tells me there’s a little bakery in Oakland called “Ladyfingers,” and maybe they make them. I call and ask. “This may sound like a silly question but.....” The woman on the phone tells me not only is it not a silly question, but 1) how many would I like? 2) would I like them separated or joined 3) what time will I pick them up, they’ll be boxed up and ready.

Have I mentioned how real customer service makes me all warm fuzzy and giggly inside?

So the menu was

1) Roast Beef Tenderloin with a beef/merlot reduction with caramelized shallots and mushrooms
2) Green beens with bacon
3) mini-potatoes
4) 3 color pearl onions sauce mornay gratine.
5) trifle.

And it was good.

Winedog gave me shaving stuff from The Art of Shaving, which I would never buy for myself, but now I have it. I went back to the store and bought some of their other stuff, which gives me the opportunity to discuss the jargon phrase which must be eliminated from the English language.

Take it to the next level.
I’m so sick of the overuse of that phrase. Meaningless Tony Robbins Dilbertesque crapola, The use in this case was the woman at the store (who otherwise provided excellent customer service) informing me that the shaving brush “takes your shaving to the next level.”

Great, the return of something classic that was only eliminated during the mass consumerism of the 50s and 60s now is wrapped in the icky robes of 21st century crap-speak.

It is officially phrase-a non grata.

Currently spending whatever spare time I have planning the Australia trip. All my hotels are booked, I got a great 85 dollar a night deal in Melbourne to finish things off. so its 5 days Melbourne, 5 days Sydney, 4 days Cairns, and the last weekend back in Sydney. Cairns is essentially booked up, because there will be one day on the barrier reef, one day in the rain forest, and probably 1/2 day or full day doing the old train to Kuranda thing. My b&b is also right next to the north beaches, which are apparently the best, although you can’t go in the water (???) because of these nasty critters. Apparently the city has built a slightly inland lagoon where you can engage in all your swimming and ocean sports without getting stung and dying in 60 seconds.

Next, I’ve begun the next house project, redoing my pantry. I’ve hated my pantry since I’ve had the house, its small (can’t fix that,) but the shelves are so deep that its inefficient. Each shelf has three levels of storage 1) accessible; 2) inaccessible; 3) future archeological find. Every Christmas, I check it looking for what I need, and every Christmas I buy stuff I already have, meaning I currently have about 5 boxes of brown sugar, 3 jars of molasses, and God knows how much Karo.

And its the Elfa sale. Say no more. I demoed the old stuff last night, to find that I have a lot of repair work to do in the closet and will have to repaint it. Fine. I can do that. Fortunately I’ve done this enough to know that a 2 day project is actually a 7 day project. Don’t stress it. It will have narrower shelves and baskets in a U shape, so that hopefully everything is accessible. Spices and things like that will be in narrow baskets on the side walls, and there will still be lots of shelves. Stay tuned.

And finally, because I sometimes find things so damned funny. Winedog teed off on hypocrites, wingnuts, and religious fascists the other day. M-kay, no argument, but I wasn’t ready to get my panties into a bunch. Then some news started to break last week, culminating in my RSS fees and email literally blowing up with comedy. First, allow me to introduce you to one Iris Robinson.