Pretty, ugly, and the rain...

I would never have thought that I would be writing rain updates in late May! But there is just this odd disturbance rumbling through, producing a few days of scattered showers.

So, if I can return to rain blogging, then I can take a few new images in my industrial series. Today's theme: color. I continue to find new parts of the Bayshore neighborhood that I haven't been through. It's strangely comforting to drive around in the early morning light.



But life is not ALL rain and graffiti. It is spring, after all. So, I present here three springtime images. The first is of one of Jeff's favorite orchids...this one smells like chocolate! Jeff has four orchids in bloom at the moment. The third image below is of one of our lemon trees, which is now producing enormous lemons. So, I'm making lemon-butter grilled shrimp tonight :)

Butterflies on our snowballs...

Jeff and I spent our Saturday running errands for our vacation, which starts on Wednesday. Naturally, a portion of the preparations was in the garden. Most everything in the garden is watered by a drip irrigation system that I installed last summer, but when we buy new plants, they tend to sit in pots for a couple of weeks while we decide where to put them. So, today, we ran drip lines to all of the new plants.

During our garden time, Jeff noticed a visiting butterfly. He flitted around the garden, following the intermittent sunbeams. I caught a couple of photos, including one of him sitting on our snowball bush.

The butterfly has the colors of a Monarch, but the patterns don't match any photo that I can find. So, a free latte for anyone who can name this guy correctly. (I'm guessing that either Buddy or my dad will have the edge on this one.)

[FYI, in the spirit of full disclosure, I discovered that our snowball bush is NOT a Japanese Snowball as I announced a few weeks ago. Instead, I believe it is a Common Snowball.]

Friday with sprinkles on top...

Well, I'm back from the Land of Tassel Loafers. Something about a conference brings out the worst in fashion. But no, I did NOT take any more photos of bad shoes...although these would have been even better. It seems that when it's 90+ degrees outside, the leather tassel loafers are worn with shorts and without socks. Lovely.

So, I amused myself in the waning parts of the conference trying to find the oddest give-away at the show. Light up pens and kitchy paperweights are the norm (and people line up 10-15 deep for a tee shirt)...but those are boring.

So my choice for Best in Show was the Waste Alleviation and Gel kit. I think everyone on my flight home had one, since the plane smelled like a men's room.


Anyhow, I am home. The air was cool and refreshing last night as I slept. Today, we had an odd May visitor: a light rain. (This will ready us for Europe next week, where there are scattered showers all over the forecast.)

Must sleep...

This was a day on my feet. I got out for lunch and made a daytime trip to the Alamo. The harsh afternoon sunlight made for horrible photos of the building, so I stuck to some of the plants in the partial shade.

Tomorrow, I fly home. I am homesick and ready to return to normalcy. I am also just worn out and tired...good night :)

Two roads diverged in a wood...

If things just don't work out with my current line of work, there is always the Texas Jail Association next door in the convention center. I'm SURE there is a satisfying option for me there!

Other than hedging my career bets, it was a normal day here in San Antonio. Show prep. Hobnobbing. Making the world safe for the next generation. (Cliff, that's for you! :)

I snapped a couple more shots of the Riverwalk. How serene. My coworkers and I had dinner and drinks along the river.

Oh, and my quote of the day (overheard at dinner): "What? You have never been to P.F. Changs? You have GOT to go to P.F. Changs. We HAVE to go while we are here." Now, I have eaten at P.F. Changs. The food is very tasty. But it is NOT acceptable to hop in a car and leave unique local cuisine behind to find the nearest P.F. Changs.

Its all for James...

This is for those of you who are curious which photos sold in the photo show this weekend: one from my latest Bayshore series and one from my Venice series. Two of my very favorite images ever. Its flattering that someone else agrees :)

Glamour...

How many AAA stars do you get if you find two finger/toenails on the nightstand?

I have said many times that business travel is only glamorous to those folks who don't do it...or have enough money to only stay in five star hotels.

Frankly, as far as business travel goes, I have it pretty good. I fly the airlines I want, which allows me to build up some status. And I stay in nice business-friendly hotels with amenities--avoiding the two-star "traveling salesman" hotels with the shampoo in tear-open ketchup packets.

But still, business travel is not all champagne and chocolates. For example, although my hotel is sitting on the Riverwalk, MY view is in the opposite direction and is of the local Denny's.

In any case, my positive adventurous spirit will prevail, and I will have some NEW fun photos tonight.

A warm night in San Antonio...

I left San Francisco right after noon today and could see the low coastal fog streaming in through the Golden Gate. So, I'm assuming Jeff is a bit cooler tonight.

We banked southeast and headed for San Antonio...well, San Antonio by way of Phoenix. I'm in San Antonio for a few days attending a conference, and my hotel is located along the Riverwalk, which is a lazy sunken river walkway that winds through downtown San Antonio. FYI, this is the #1 tourist stop in Texas. Sucks to be the Alamo.

Speaking of which...I saw the Alamo as well. Its a couple of blocks off the Riverwalk. Its iconic, and cool to see at night. (I'm sure it is REALLY annoying during the day, since directly across the street from the Alamo is a Ripley's Believe It Or Not and a wax museum and an IMAX theatre.)

Now, speaking of oddities of commercialized America: Hooters. Las Vegas is continuing to explode with new growth, and the town is DEFINITELY re-introducing the Sin in Sin City. One of the latest hotel's is the re-branded Hooters Hotel and Casino. U.S. Airways in-flight magazine had a full page ad consisting primarily of a photo of a traditional, busty Hooters waitress. Well, what made me laugh was the inset photo showing a young couple on their "romantic getaway" at the Hooters Hotel.

Oh, please! Give me a break.

The original is always the best...

After a long absence from the Tribulations scrolls, Elena #1 makes a very short, heartfelt return to our lineup.

This is short letter. Just to say you hello and to send kiss to you. I am fine. Also I have hope that I can soon get all necessary to trip to you.

Ah, it makes the warm sunshine even brighter :)

Fireworks and other things...

Saturday night, Jeff and I joined friends John and David and their other guests for a fun evening of fireworks on their sailboat. Every year, John and David sail across the Bay from their regular berth in Richmond to a popular marina near the Giant's ballpark. A local radio station (KFOG) throws this free event called the KFOG KABOOM! ... before the real summertime fog sets in.

The air got cold last night, but we had a fun time chatting, laughing, and watching some spectacular fireworks set to a rock soundtrack.



On Sunday, the sun continued to bear down and push the temperature to near 80 in our backyard. So, we took off for a drive in the Marin Headlands. I'll leave the Marin pictures to Jeff on his blog, and I'll post a couple of pictures from our garden, and a fun tunnel picture from our drive.

Photo show recap...

Our "Natural Acts" photo show this weekend at Ft. Mason was a success. I think my work really came together nicely, and my friends who were able to stop by had a fun time. I even sold a couple of pieces, which is just icing on the cake.

Here are a few images from the show, including one of my friend Susan showing her latest series. Our opening reception Friday night was well attended. I think its partially the artists...and partially the free wine :) Jeff and I capped off OUR Friday night with a really yummy dinner with our friend Chris.



Saturday was a truly amazing day. Ft. Mason sits right on the waterfront and includes three historic piers that are now used for events. The Bay was FULL of sailboats taking advantage of the big breezes and bright sun.

Bad days and Ryan Seacrest...

Well, there is probably no better way to top off a beautiful sunny Friday in San Francisco than to revel in the fact that I am NOT on the front page of the newspaper for aledgedly providing inferior concrete to the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm sorry, but there is no good way to spin this sort of headline, nor any worse mom-and-apple-pie symbol to jeopardize. Good luck with this one.

Speaking of defacing public property... So, I'm walking innocently to grab a sandwich, and this freakish live-size cutout of Ryan Seacrest catches the edge of my vision and scares the crap out of me. It is truly freakish.

Ooooo, I wonder if mentioning Ryan Seacrest three times in my blog will create Google hits on my site, and all those Idol fanatics will descend on my and spam my blog! Well, I've been looking for a replacement for all those Elena stories :)


[Interesting note: Blogger spellcheck thinks 'Seacrest' should be 'scarcity'. Wishful thinking? And no, I have nothing against Mr. Seacrest, who now has FIVE mentions on my blog, and should be cutting me a check now.]

No, no, no...

I don't consider myself a voyeur, but the benefit of having a camera on my phone is that I can snap discrete photos of things (or people) that annoy the heck out me.

Case in point. IF I have to ride up 30 floors in an elevator with a guy wearing horrid loafers with those tassels AND I'm already cranky, THEN I'm going to take the opportunity to share this travesty with the world!

Just say no.

Boring technical jibber jabber...

Regarding posting to Blogger via email. Blogger gives you a couple of methods. The easiest is using Blogger's "change settings" button on your friendly blog dashboard. Within the settings, there is an e-mail tab with an option called "Mail-to-Blogger". Here, you establish a secret e-mail address. With this option, you can only post text, but you can do it from any email address.

To post pictures, you have to use Blogger's new go@blogger.com address. Its a couple of steps, but it does work. This is for posting from a phone. You send an e-mail with your picture to go@blogger.com. Blogger will create a temporary web page and send you back the address and a "claim" key via text message to your phone. Then, you must go to go.blogger.com and enter your claim key. They will then allow you to direct all future postings from your phone number to an existing blog. Whew!

There. You asked for it. :)

Kitties and flowers...

For those of you who believe that my blog has taken on a somber tone lately, let me reassure you that life is good. Here are two happy pictures to reinforce my point :)

First is a photo of Dobie and Buster from last night. They are striking their usual poses. Dobie is watching me closely and planning her escape route in case I try and pick her up. Buster is in mid-meow...which isn't so odd, because he does that about every 30 seconds to let you know he is alive.

And second is a pretty flower. This one is a test for my mother, who SHOULD receive this blog update via email...if I set this all up properly.

And now my next trick...

The photo of my Starbucks application? Fingers crossed!

I had to go through a couple of extra steps with Blogger.

Break in case of emergency...

One of favorite items in my office is the emergency Starbucks job application that my friend Steve filled out for me and framed. Always a good conversation piece. By the way, this is a test of posting via email. I'm NOT having a bad day :)

Balls...

I forgot that I had taken this photo of our Japanese snowball this morning in our back garden.

Speaking of balls, let me just say that I think it takes BIG balls to have someone wait around all day for installation service and then to tell them (only after they call) that they should just reschedule for another day.

Just who is the tail and who is the dog? (I just know who the ass is!)

Fortunately, its a sunny day. Jeff and I have had a relaxing time puttering around the house, and we did get out to the Apple store briefly to buy a connector to store photos from our camera onto my iPod. This way, we don't have to cart a computer around when we travel. THIS is a cool widget to have.

But...our tale of woe is with DirecTV.

I stumbled on a web article telling me that San Francisco local channels are now available in high definition. (For the record, this is how you find out things about DirecTV, because they like to bury this information on their website.) So, I called DirecTV on Friday night and they scheduled me for a Sunday morning equipment upgrade. We currently have HD through DirecTV, but apparently we need to keep up with the times and get a new HD receiver. But its free...so cool.

Anyhow, our appointment was between 8-12 this morning. At 11, we got a call saying that the technician was behind schedule (big surprise) and would not get to us until 2pm. OK. I was annoyed to lose 3 hours of my morning, but we ran off to do our errands and returned at 2pm.

At 4pm, I called DirecTV. They called their local contractor. The contractor "tried to contact the technician, but could not reach him" and suggested that I reschedule for another day. I said no...that I had wasted my day waiting for them, and that they can try a bit harder to find their guy.

Sooooo, they are sending a "supervisor technician". I don't know how much I trust him, since he can't find the technician he is supposed to be supervising.

It is 5:16. He is late.

An update. It is now 7:34. The "supervisor" never showed up. Instead the lost technician arrived. It look him FOREVER, but he did the job. (Jeff actually hooked up the HD receiver while the technician was on the roof.) Of course, when the technician called DirecTV to activate our new receiver, they tried to charge us, because there was no record of our 'no charge update'. Total time spent on the hook for DirecTV? 11 hours 34 min.

A good day for a run...

After a morning running our typical weekend errands, Jeff and I decided to take advantage of the warm afternoon sun and run along Crissy Field. This is one of our favorite runs, going all the way back to when we lived in my apartment in the Marina District. The route takes you along the northern edge of the City and ends at Ft. Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. On a day like today, you just wonder why everyone doesn't want to live in San Francisco.

The end of the route is marked by two whimsical signs for joggers to touch and turn around. There is one sign for people, and one at ground level for the joggers' canine companions. The turn-around point used to be directly under the bridge, but thanks to terrorist threats, there is an attractive jersey wall and chain link fence. Chalk up another reason to despise terrorists.


The jogging route is filled with life. Its a favorite spot for pet owners to bring their dogs to fetch and get wet in the cold Bay waters. On windy afternoons, the Bay is typically filled with wind surfers. As you get closer to the Bridge, there are picnic grounds that are ALWAYS full. Today, we even spotted an odd spontaneous linedance to some loud Christian country music blaring from an open van. Better to focus on the serene heron that wandered nearby.

As I was pulling up the photos from our jog, I was drawn back to a couple of new images from Venice. Yes, I have Venice on my mind. I'm excited, ok! But it was the pigeon photo below that made me chuckle. After my blog meltdown from earlier in the week, this shot reminded me that its not always a bad thing when the world shits on you a little bit. It can add character :)

That's what friends are for...

See, the mood has passed. This evening, Jeff and I indulged in two true comfort items: pizza and frozen cosmos. These allowed us to unwind, reflect, and talk about our upcoming vacation. We also discussed the complexity of immigration politics with a very friendly (and a tad bit odd) stranger.

Well, it all worked. I'm relaxed now. Down from my ledge.

And yes, I agree with the assertions that I have a good life. I certainly have the best friends in the world....especially you guys that read my blog. (For the record, you guys are my favorites...just don't piss the others off and tell them!)

All I need is the occasional rant. (Although those tiny bags of airline snacks STILL irk me :)

So here, in the spirit of peace, love, and harmony: a picture I took of some chicks. I'm not normally into chicks (no chuckling!), but these little peepers made me smile. Hmmm, and no, these chicks were not in the bar where I snapped the top picture...I never realized that our favorite bar has the atmosphere of a chicken incubator!

Seeking the truth...

I think I'm due for ONE rant, aren't I? I mean, I've been good, right? I've been Happy John...at least online :) But I'm just frustrated today. And I didn't get lunch. So, I'm grumpy.

What's got my goat today? What tipped me over the edge was trying to book two upcoming trips. Travel to Michigan? Expensive. Travel to Europe? Through the roof. Upgrades from those thousands of loyal miles I fly every year on United? Waitlisted.

I guess I'm just tired. I'm tired of hearing the woes of the airlines. Flights are packed. Planes are smaller. Upgrades are far and few in-between. Points in mileage programs have become totally devalued. Food in coach is a bag of Savory Snack Mix. In flight entertainment is a non-stop advertisement for a TV network. What more do these companies want from us?

I'm tired of people always wanting more.

I'm tired of being made to feel guilty for not giving more.

I'm tired of taking my car to a crooked auto service center that sloppily breaks my anti-lock brakes and then tells me that I have to pay to diagnose the problem.

I'm tired of my City telling me that they don't have enough money to fix the freakin' potholes, while we're JAM PACKED full of tourists paying top dollar for hotels and tee shirts. We're a true destination city with only 750,000 residents in a tiny 7mi x 7mi box, and yet our inept government and flavor-of-the-day social programs are draining us dry!! (We don't even have bad weather...so why the hell do we have so many potholes?!!)

Don't make me the bad guy. I'm a softie. I want to love every one. I want Mexican families to lead good lives...but don't break into my house and then tell me to feed you!! When did I become the bad guy?

I'm pretty convinced that I haven't changed one bit. I think the world shifted under my feet. The Great Quake of 2006 is just a social tremor, I guess.

Sigh.

I'm just tired of being tired.

So. Jeff and I are hopping on a plane in three weeks. We're going to Europe. And we're not answering e-mail. And our last stop (after London and Paris and parts in-between) is to return to our most peaceful destination yet. We're going to wander the silent alleys of Venice at midnight. And feel great about it.

DEN to SFO...

The upside of my visit to Denver was one of the most comfortable beds I have slept in on any business trip (kudos to Embassy Suites) and an excellent client meeting in Ft. Collins (which is about an hour north of Denver). The downside was that I woke up 4-5 times during the night to drink more water. The dry Denver air totally parched my throat.

Oh, and the Embassy Suites had nowhere for me to grab my morning latte :( Oh the horror!

Still, the trip was a success, and also very quick. I made it back to the airport to catch an early standby flight. With some time to wander a bit, I snapped a few new fun shots of the airport. You can see the main terminal's "mountain peak" roof from the outside in the first shot. Also, a shot out the window on the flight home.





So really, the only interesting story came with the cab ride from the airport to my hotel. But, after trying for the past five minutes to succinctly write this odd story, I've decided that its actually only amusing to me. (And frankly, its nothing like the cabbie I had in LA who was rude, ran the meter while he sat at the airport trying to find my destination on a map, and then sped off with the door still open after I took his name and refused to give him a tip.)

So, instead of boring you with my cab story, I will share my what-the-hell-is-that photo of the day: my cabbie in mood lighting.