finally gave in

and bought these silk blend patterned feral childe leggings. i'd been looking at them for weeks down at curator. they were on sale and i am over my cold. that's all.

last day

today is friday and my last day in london, tomorrow morning i'll be in a taxi to heathrow at 7:30 am. wednesday morning we decided to go back to the east side because i really wanted to eat at the albion cafe, and leigh said their fish and chips were really good. since our first attempt for some didn't look so hot, we made the trek and it was definitely worth it.


we ordered a side of mushy peas with mint and lettuce hearts, and tried to stuff it all in. we were disappointed that we didn't have room for pudding after we saw the sweets in the next room.


we had lois so the morning was pretty full getting over to albion on a few trains and after strolling the streets for a little bit we decided it was time to come home. we grabbed some groceries for me and lois because leigh and andrew had a date and a babysitter for the first time in months. lois went to bed, i watched a little tv and hit the sack. i've been so pooped every day, leigh is doing a good job at wearing me out like she said she would.


thursday lois had another full day of school and leigh and i headed over to islington. i wanted to visit toast and we wanted to walk along regent's canal.

we found some great shops and both loved smug. there were a lot of things in this shop that we both wanted but my suitcase is already too full and i'll need a 2nd piece of luggage or a box to ship home.


leigh and i really loved these woolen blankets at smug, and thought they would be really expensive. lizzie, the shop owner told us they were only £18 (we thought she said £80 which still sounded like a deal to me), and were made by the afonwen woollen mills north wales from recycled wool. i snapped one up even though the thought of this wool blanket anywhere near me in the current weather sounds awful. it will look great on my bed at home.



our last stop was at the elk in the woods for lunch. this place is very cute inside with lots of interesting wall decor -- from skulls to beautiful wallpaper.




since we were without lois we decided we needed a cocktail. i ordered an elderflower martini and leigh had a grapefruit mojito, and they both sort of went with our lunch of beetroot and walnut spread, peas and leeks, and calamari with sugar cane dipping sauce.


after lunch it was time to hit the road back home, we both needed another nap. we've had many early mornings with lois, this morning she was up around 5:30 so it won't be hard to wake up tomorrow to head out for san francisco. leigh, andrew and lois, thanks for a wonderful trip. i've had more fun that i imagined i could and i'll miss you all!

home stretch

holga

i'm almost done. three more weeks of school and just two more papers to go along with the regular stuff. i'm tired of writing, i'm tired of metadata schemas, and i'm tired of not reading for fun. just 2 or so more years! i'm finding small escapes every now and then. last week i read about camera bag on leigh's blog and used it at flora grubb over the weekend. take a photo, apply a filter, and your shot is transformed.

lolo

instant

this break brought to you by my fried brain.

stable

there is a great article on dwell.com about stable cafe. i haven't been there in a while, but it's so good and i love the space. i knew there were some other businesses using the kitchen inside this historic building, but now i know it's actually an incubator for other food folks. they've added the patio since i've been so i really need to get over there with a textbook and hang out in the sun. i love knowing a little more about how stable was born.
photo dwell magazine

hittin the green

i'm really excited for green11 to open here in n.v. i just can't deal with rainbow any more and this will give me a great excuse to take a walk. if all goes as planned it will be open next week!
photo courtesy of Green 11

sleepy time

tonight we're heading back up for what will be our third weekend at the cabin. we planned on tiling behind the wood stove, but al is on call this weekend so i don't want to get left behind to finish the job on my own. we'll do it when we go for our long weekend at the end of the month. i've been really sleepy this week and my sleep is irregular up at the cabin still. it's hard to fall asleep in a new bed for me sometimes and it's so warm up there now it's even harder. this time i'm packing my ear plugs and taking some herbs. maybe a nightcap would help, too. rita, chad and gang will be camping for the weekend really close by so we are going to be able to hang out with more friends up there. happy 4th everyone, be safe and enjoy the sun if it makes it out where you are. probably foggy here in sf, as usual.

luncheon

i think i may have found my latest food fancy. lauren told me about outerlands a month or so back, and i've been twice in the past 3 days. al and i went for a post party breakfast on sunday morning and it was so good. he had baked eggs with outerlands' homemade bread and a small salad. i got the sweet dutch apple pancake (they had a savory option as well), and we both got some coffee from trouble coffee and coconut club as outerlands was having a coffee issue that day. today caroline beeler took me back there for lunch. more homemade bread lovingly housing some grilled cheese and a salad with sliced apple and house cured sauerkraut. caroline b enjoyed the salad and a bowl of buttery carrot soup with sliced almonds. i could go back tomorrow, but it's location out at the beach means it's 20-25 minutes drive away, so it's some carbon footprint action for lunch for sure. worth it?

cyclo

after i grabbed everyone from the airport yesterday we took a drive out to cheap pete's to pick up the game fish cyclopedia. it's quite massive and there is really only one wall in the entire house it will fit on unless we hang it in the really dark hallway. the bamboo frame looks amazing and it's really impressive on the wall. it's hanging too high now, needs to come down about a foot, but we needed a safe place for it to rest and we had a nail in the wall already. once al got home we took off for some dinner at pot de pho, then headed to north beach for some dessert at stella pastry & cafe. we dropped the family off at their hotel and al and i came home to look at furniture on craigs list and ikea.


i hope to go grab this quartite creative corp lamp after we eat some breakfast, visit the de young, and stroll over to the rose garden in golden gate park. there is a great looking estate sale today, i hope i can talk them into going.

sleepy

aurin, mom & dad arrive today at noon and i couldn't sleep this morning thinking of what i want to get done and what i need to get done before heading to sfo. also, word is the cabin is almost ours so i've been thinking of what we already own vs. what we have to buy and started a spreadsheet to track it all. i've also been looking at different treatments of rooms with wood paneled walls and found some really gorgeous stuff. time to hit the estate sales hard.


our paint by number clipper ship will probably have to move up north.

cabin fever take 2

i tagged along with al to the golden gate park casting pools this week. he practices there using his vintage fenwick fiberglass rod, scored at an estate sale. i usually take a book and sit on a bench while he casts, but this time i got a few photos of the anglers club because the light was nice and everything is in bloom. this club must have some pull because it's one of the nicest city maintained buildings in the park. i find it really charming and wish he would join the club so i can get inside. it was built on feb. 22, 1938 A.D. according to the front door plaque.


it reminds me of the cabin we saw up at russian river saturday. we have high hopes.

the visit

floridian front yard portrait, 1987

my parents (and maybe aurin, too) are coming to visit, and words cannot express how excited i am! it's been years since they've been out to the west coast and my list of places to take them is exhaustive. eating & drinking establishments alone could take up weeks: zuni cafe, bocadillos, hotel biron, anchor oyster bar, fish, kiji, the church key, broken record, hangar one distillery, tosca. as far as sights, i've got mine set on: the marine mammal center (a behind the scenes tour with tony), the academy of sciences, the de young, heath ceramics, the conservatory, free concerts (student recitals) at the san francisco conservatory of music, the alemany farmers market... let's see, so that's the plan for friday. i wonder what the weather will be like, better start checking obsessively on that.