Looks like I’ll be scarce around here for the next few days. My sister and her husband are in town, but it’s not to visit me (or not only). My brother-in-law had surgery on his back over Christmas of 2007, and it proved so popular that he’s having more done. We knew there were problems, [...]

Tiny pic of my parents on their wedding day, December 5, 1959. Standing at the front door of Dad’s childhood home in Coulsdon, Surrey. It was, of course, a beautiful cloudless day as I headed toward the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge yesterday. It is not lost on me that one has to pay for the privilege [...]

When I was thinking about resolutions for the new year, I knew one of them should be “Clean out Mom’s storage”, but I didn’t want to commit to it, since I was pretty sure I wouldn’t actually get around to it. And then I’d have to admit it to my adoring public, and you might [...]

Bleah. Last night, I woke up at 2:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep until 6:30. I lay in bed reading The New Yorker and the New York Times* as the cats slept peacefully and cutely and I envied them. Kitties: what is your secret? Oh, yeah – having everything done for you and not [...]

On Saturday, I went to orientation at the shelter where I spent my day of service last week (why does it seem so long ago?). I had such a good time there that I wanted to see what else I could do to help. It looks like I’ll be going twice a month to read [...]

While I was making egg salad today, it occurred to me that it was basically eggs with egg sauce. Also that it may be the only food which is ever served with, as it were, a sauce of itself. Not just egg salad (eggs being an important part of mayonnaise), but Hollandaise*, too, the most [...]

Well, our local hero came home to a hero’s welcome today, though his speech was characteristically modest and short. Remarkably, another local pilot also had to bring a crippled plane down on water. And if you thought the Hudson River was bad…try the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as night began to turn to day, [...]

It’s raining a little more now than it was earlier today, and I was happy to see Henry curled up in his blanket on the couch when I closed the blinds for the evening. I wish he’d actually get under the blanket, but I guess having it at all is better than the way he [...]

It’s a beautifully gloomy day today. I even had the lights on this morning. Normally, I hate the rain, and I really hate having lights on during the day – it seems so sordid and depressing. But with the record warm weather and what is supposed to be the rainiest month of the year nearly [...]

This may be the funniest piece of junk mail I have ever received!

Well, well. We got ourselves a new President. I set the alarm last night with anticipation – I could hardly sleep, as if it were Christmas Eve and I were five years old again. Crawled out of bed in the early morning darkness. The kittens stayed in bed, not even bothering to bother me for [...]

Thanks to the Doc for this shot of Bush Street and Montgomery Street, about a block from my office. As you can see, Obama replaced Bush a little earlier here than he did on the East Coast!

How could I not heed our near-President’s plea to join him and his family in a Day of Service to commemorate Dr. King’s 80th birthday? And I’m so glad I did. I chose to lend what little skills I have to Oakland’s Elizabeth House, the culmination of one woman’s – one woman! – dream to [...]

Kathleen, the belle of Motown, has gifted me with, among other things, the letter T. I have to write about 10 things I like that start with the designated letter. If you want to keep this going, and/or were too late to celebrate Delurking Day on January 12 (like I was), let me know in [...]

I’ve had a pretty inspired week as far as cooking goes. Though I live in a city of nearly half a million people, and my sister lives near a town of 400, we both have pretty much the same situation as far as take-out and delivery in our immediate vicinity: none. In her case, it’s [...]

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood yet again. It’s beginning to make me a little nervous, frankly, as if I’m somehow going to get punished for wearing short sleeves and sandals in what should be the coldest and rainiest month in the year. When we get unusually nice weather, sooner or later people [...]

There isn’t usually live entertainment on the bus. When I’m not reading The New Yorker, looking out the window is usually amusing enough. Going home from the gym, I wait near Lake Merritt, with many busy birds to watch. Canada: If you’re missing your geese, they’re right here. The bus passes several amusingly named businesses: [...]

Of the many things you could say about Oakland (so completely not San Francisco; 5th most dangerous city in the country), “boring” isn’t one of them. As I greenly boarded the bus today after a session at the gym, which is located beside scenic Lake Merritt, but is also a parking nightmare, I seemed to [...]

An email from a friend yesterday bemoaned the horrors of looking for a bathing suit for an upcoming trip to the sunny Caribbean. Is there a girl alive who hasn’t suffered the indignities of bad lighting and mirrors that magnify every flaw? Bathing suit shopping in its current form should be forbidden under the Geneva [...]

I had a conference call at 6:00 this morning, so I staggered out of bed in the early morning darkness. As I made coffee and tried to remember the dream I had so summarily been yanked out of by the alarm clock’s shrill voice, I noticed that the screen door of the porch was flapping [...]