Spring time is for flowers

*It is 693 steps from Castro Station to my front door.
*Tonight I registered for a KICKBALL team! WAKA

Damnit

I know it's not in any way fair for me to feel this way, but I do, I so do. I guess all I can do is pray about it and nurse my heart with words written, spoken, sung.

Thank you Ryan and Liam, it's like you just know. Keep telling me.

I think I need a run. Or a bath.

From Bilbao to Portugal, March 15-22, pray for bikini weather.

Found in the extreme south of the country, Faro Portugal is the capital of the cherished Algarve region. It was the last region to be taken by the Portugese king from the Moors in the late 13th century. Exceptional architecture such as chimneys, terraces and whitewashed homes are left behind by the Moors as remnants of the past and add much to the appealing nature of the region.
Excellent Portugal beaches and fantastic nightlife are both within reach in Faro Portugal. The Ria Formosa which is a beautiful natural lagoon can be found in Faro as can the ever-loved pink flamingo, often seen taking off from th different beaches. There are also numerous islands that are a favorite of visitors. Ilha de Faro is connected to the mainland by road. There are some amenities there such as restaurants, a scattering of beach houses and a few other facilities for travelers. Ilha de Barreta is the most loved of the island with its calm and peaceful atmosphere. There is no ferry connection so tourists must hire a boat to get there but it’s worth visiting this undisturbed location in Faro Portugal even just to have the beach almost to yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro,_Portugal
http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/algarve/index.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/48-hours-in/faro-portugal-453270.html

You and I Sunday driving

Just for kicks I peaked through Craigslist to look at MGs. This one is for sale in Novato. If I had a garage space, I would sell Ruby and buy this, or another, and live that dream. In a heartbeat, no questions. To do so, I would not mind having a car in the city. It would be worth it, especially on a perfect day like today.

Oh how I still long, so very much, to have, work on, and drive an old European roadster.

Top down, scarf on and sunglasses on, andare per un poco azionamento, ciao. Yes please.

Abba.

I want to be the woman I was designed to be.


Last night I spent time with a dear friend and her dear friend and was blessed so significantly. It was a truely a needed evening and well apreciated. He knows what I need and when I need it most.

I leave March 12!!

Experience Bilbao & the Basque Country

Time in Bilbao may soon need to be identified as BG or AG (Before Guggenheim, After Guggenheim). Never has a single monument of art and architecture so radically changed a city -- or, for that matter, a nation, and in this case two: Spain and the semiautonomous region of Spain known as the Basque Country or by its official name, Euskadi. Architect Frank Gehry's stunning Museo Guggenheim, Norman Foster's sleek subway system, and the glass Santiago Calatrava footbridge, which allows pedestrians to all but walk on water, have all helped foment a cultural revolution in Bilbao, the Basque Country's commercial capital.

I'm going to Portugal via Bilbao. I'm bookending Faro with a little time in Spain to see Sheila's city, the Guggenheim, and hopefully San Sebastian. I have a night-long layover in Barcelona on the way home, hopefully I will be able to work it out to leave the airport and dance in the fabulous enchantress that is Barcelona, even if it's for just a few hours.

ahhh, so that's how it is.

It's a harsh realization when you've been phased out of someone's life. I don't know if it ever gets less disheartening to discover, no matter how pleasantly you thought things had been left.

Tartiflette

Tartiflette au Reblochon

Tartiflette is a French dish from the Savoy region. Historically, the tartiflette originates in the valley of Aravis, home of the Reblochon cheese.

However, it is not a traditional dish and was in fact invented and launched only in the 1980s by the Trade union of the reblochon in order to increase sales of the cheese.

Different valleys in the region have different methods of producing Tartiflette and there may even be one recipe per village. One example recipe is shown below.

Ingredients

• 1-3/4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (5 or 6 medium-sized ones, all the same size) or waxy boiling potatoes
• 5 or 6 ounces slab bacon, or salt pork, cut into lardons about 1" x 1/4" by 1/4"
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion (about 6 ounces, peeled), finely chopped
• 1/4 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
• salt and pepper to taste, probably at least 1/2 teaspoon salt, possibly more
• 1/2 of a 1-pound Reblochon cheese

Procedure

1. Use potatoes that are all the same size so that they will cook evenly. Boil them in their skins for exactly 20 minutes, until they're just beginning to get tender. Do not overcook! Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.
2. While still warm, peel the potatoes with your fingers, then use a large, very sharp knife to cut them into slices about 1/3-inch thick. Then cut the slices into rough cubes.
3. While the potatoes are cooking, slice the slab bacon or salt pork into slices about 1/4-inch thick. Then cut into lardons about 1/4-inch across.
4. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan, then cook the lardons over medium-high heat until crisp and golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the bacon fat in the pan.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Cook the onions in the bacon fat over medium heat, stirring often, until wilted and slightly golden. Drain in a strainer, pressing with a spoon to remove as much fat as possible, and leave them there.
7. Pour off the fat in the pan, return the bacon and onions, and add the wine. Cook over high heat until the wine is nearly evaporated.
8. Add the diced potatoes and cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly until all the ingredients are well mixed together.
9. Add the cream and salt and pepper to taste. Try using a little more salt than you might think is necessary, at least 1/2 teaspoon. Stir all the ingredients together for a minute.
10. Lightly butter the inside of an 10- or 11-inch earthenware baking dish. Add the potato mixture and smooth the surface.
11. Cut the Reblochon in two down across the top so that you have two pieces in the shape of a half-moon. Put one of the pieces away for another use. Use a sharp knife to lightly score the crust of the remaining half-cheese about every inch, including its side. Then carefully slice horizontally through its center so that you now have two half-moon pieces.
12. Place the two pieces of cheese crust-side-up on top of the potatoes so that they form a circular cheese again. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour.
13. Remove the foil and stir the cheese, including the crust, into the potatoes, mixing well.
14. Place 5 or 6 inches under the broiler and cook until golden brown on top.

Skip the bacon, and the bacon fat, the butter works just fine, add another 1/2 C or so more white wine to the potatoes before adding the cheese. YUM. You'll want a salad to balance it out, and perhaps some mandarins for dessert.

Marco!! (polo)

I finally adopted some new pets. Meet Marco. (like polo the water game? HA!) (--so I walk in the room and yell "Marco!!" --HA again!!)
ALSO ---unnoticeable in this photo is Sam, a tiny little snail. He was a GWP! (HA AGAIN!!-- oh man.) He is really very tiny, and I often have to really look for him.

Marco is not nearly as fat as I was hoping, he is a more common-ish goldfish, not a perscale, but I know that it's not kind or confidence-building / friendly to compare someone to their predecessor, so we'll leave it at that, and say one last time how much I loved Steve. What a great trooper he was, moving with me three times, once in a water bottle in the cup-holder of a U-Haul. Love you buddy, sorry I couldn't keep you alive.

I think Marco is finally getting adjusted. It's been two and a half days now, and he is finally starting to swim around, instead of just parking on the rocks at the bottom of the bowl and making me think he is dead and sunken.

I hope we will become good friends.

WELCOME MARCO AND SAM!!

Lust.

Serious.

Moschino Signature Platform Pump

Hot. I'm a 38 if you're feeling generous. If I only had an extra $450 budgeted for shoes, and was not saving for a vacation, or anything else. I need a sugar daddy. They would be so perfect underneath white wide-leg trousers, or a cobalt blue dress. Hot.

Girl About Town

I went on Domino's site today to change Courtney's subscription address, and saw that Rita Konig (Girl About Town) is coming to San Francisco to do a shopping trip, and was looking for suggestions of where to go. Of course I have suggestions! Here is what I sent in:


Hooray for San Francisco!!

I love Nest (on Fillmore), The Apartment (18th at Mission), and Flipp (on Green at Polk).

***You absolutely CANNOT miss 826 VALENCIA.*** (Valencia at 20th).
It's a pirate shoppe in front, and a writing workshop for grade students in the back, put on by the fine folks of McSweeney's. Be sure to check out the fish theater and to grab a few books. Little Otsu is across the street, and also worth a gander while you're there for great cards and paper goods. The Apartment is around the corner, and there are tons of great boutiques on Valencia, both home and clothing. X21 Modern is great, and Monument for mid-century / modern, and I love Architectural Elements. Also great is Dog Eared Books(all on Valencia).

Have a pastry and coffee at Tartin (NY Times calls it the best bakery in the US), and then head up to Fillmore for more fun, great boutiques and shops, including Jonathan Adler and Benjamin Moore.

For food, Luella in Russian Hill on Hyde, and Zazie in the Haight/Cole Valley, at Cole and Carl. Also over there is a really great cheese and wine shop Say Cheese (on Cole at Carl), and there are great dress shops on Haight.

For music, the be-all-end-all is Amoeba, where the litany of a hundred people all flipping though rows and rows of cd's fills your ears. It's very Nick Hornby.

This is one of the very best cities, and I hope you enjoy your time here!



Maybe she will email me and tell me to be her tour guide, it's true, I should.
Unfortunately I posted it twice, because my computer was acting up. DANG. Hopefully they will delete one so I don't look like a dolt permanently.

let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once.

And on to 2008, the year of kindness.

I hope for these things:

*to do the best at where I am.
*to learn to save, to learn to deny myself.
*to be financially responsible.
*to continue to have adventures.
*to take a real vacation.
*to learn to truly love, and to appreciate the love I've been given.
*to better keep in contact with those I love.
*to spend more time outside.
*to create more.
*to dance.
*to work on my body.
*to not have my heart broken.
*to pursue a degree.
*to get zero parking tickets.

everybody put your best suit or dress on...

So the past year was a little shook up, and here's to 2007:

*New Years in a new country: I saw, loved, befriended, dined, danced, imbibed and conquered Amsterdam, Vire, Mont Saint-Michele, Paris, and Barcelona.
*I said goodbye to the best apartment I may ever have, packed it up, and left my car behind
*new city, a new job, new friends, and a new life.
*visiting and falling in love with Portland, a next best city. --also including Spanish Coffees, and Fujiya and Miyagi.
*good music, good times. top ten highlights include: Bjork (vip), Gunther, The Decemberists, Pretty Girls Make Graves (for the very last time ever), Hot Chip, Arcade Fire, Ryan Adams, Mr. Benjamin Gibbard (front row), Wilco (with aftershow party) and David Bazan.
*six different room-mates
*losing a previously ever-present hope
*4th of July without fireworks
*three different positions in three different Nordstroms
*losing and discovering what could be great love
*I stood up as witness for two of the best girls while they changed their names and lives forever, in a year that included many more in that vein.

*I visited Point Reyes, and hiked to a waterfall in Roseville over Memorial Day weekend
*new relationships with my family
*I grew my hair out "long"
*creative cooking until payday
*I chatted with Ben Gibbard.
*wine-tasting in Napa
*I bought nine bus passes, and only maybe that many tanks of gas.
*I went to a Giant's game, and a Warrior's game, (but not a single Padres game)
*I watched the San Francisco Opera perform Samson and Delilah while under blankets and stars at the ballpark
*I crossed 4 of the bay area's 7 bridges (9?)
*I danced with Matt in San Francisco --video up July, 2008. www.wherethehellismatt.com
*I turned 26 and was surrounded by a wonderful combination of old and new friends, with deliciously decadent cake, champagne, dinner in North Beach, and drinks at Bourbon and Branch, and it was a very good day.



I made friends, commitments, and mistakes, and learned lessons, learned about love, joy, myself, and a new city.


While 2007 comes to a close, I can only conclude that it was a tough and toughening, but good, year, and that as always, I am a work in progress.

wanderlust.

I wish I could travel more. I sometimes feel like it would be worth it to take out a big loan and spend time living and traveling elsewhere. Even if I had to spend the rest of my life paying it off, while I have the time and non-responsibility of being single and childless and without serious commitment like a career I've worked way too hard to bail on, or a mortgage or anything, to just go. But yes, I ache for adventure and travel, and really at this point, i think I have nothing else to really satisfy me the way that other places do. Maybe if I DID have those commitments, those responsibilities, I would be equally happy to be wherever I am, and everyday would be an adventure, learning about a husband, about having a family, about those new responsibilities, then I'm sure I wouldn't be lonely for other places, other adventures, the hope of meeting new people to share them with. I think sometimes I use adventure as a substitute for a partner. When in a relationship, I'm content to just be cozy and go on living in the day to day, and when I'm somewhere else, I feel proud of myself for being there, I do all kinds of things, and the new city is my friend, that maybe I've made with someone, maybe i've met alone, but then, it's okay to be alone. Is that absurd?

This is only the beginning.