I went back to San Diego for Xmas.

Presented in reverse-chronological order. For the rest, check my flickr

New Terrarium

So I went to Stow Lake and collected some specimens for new terrariums this past weekend. This is the new one I made:

I also added new plants to these two old ones:

I still have some moss and tiny plants left, I just need to get more jars. I'm pretty happy with how the collection is growing.

In other news, Logan and I have started a blog about the various wildlife found on the island. It's going to be awesome and has the most black metal name ever, which Charles came up with: Maganrord. Marie + Logan + Rock + Bird. Pseudo non sequitur for the win! I'll link it here once we get it all pretty.

Post 2: People & Food

So one night Logan, Danielle, Micah, and I went to the Knockout to play bingo after pregaming at Pi. Riiiiidiculous things ensued. Which you can see captured on film by clicking this picture:


Also there's a picture of Johnny in the set. NOM.

Then Chris and Josh came over and we all had Thanksgiving together. I made roasted cornish game hen and a shit ton of other delicious things. Check it all out by clicking on my delicious-looking plate of food:


A few days later I made this amazing pot pie with some of the leftovers:

It contained roasted asparagus, brussel sprouts, onion, potatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms, along with peas and broccoli, and all of the meat from a leftover game hen, in a homemade chicken velouté sauce, topped with homemade pastry dough. It was so much better than you can even imagine.

Post 1: Nature

So I was going to do separate posts for each series of photos I have from the various things I've been doing but honestly, it's too much of a pain. So this one will be about nature.

First I went hiking at the ruins of the Sutro Baths and then went and hung out in Sutro Heights Park. Click the image to check out the set on Flickr:



A week later I went birdwatching/hiking in various areas. I walked from the Golden Gate Bridge across Crissy Field to the Palace of Fine Arts and then took the bus down to Golden Gate Park and went to Stow Lake. Click for the Flickr set:


Yesterday I was at Stow Lake. I saw a weird juvenile gull with grey/white legs:

Discovered that Mew Gulls:

will hover in the air in front of you and catch food that you throw in the air to them.
And saw one of the Great Blue Herons:



And last, but definitely not least, we've had a Peregrine Falcon hanging out on the island for the past week or so. It is awesome.

More pictures of it here.

Land's End

I'm trying to go hiking at least once a week. Last weekend I went to Land's End. It's part of the GGNRA, the National Park site that Alcatraz is also part of, and it's completely awesome and beautiful.











The full set of pictures is here.

BONE ZONE

My sister and I started a new blog, Welcome to the Bone Zone, based on inside jokes and stupidity and hilariousness and us talking about how much we need to get laid. I think it's pretty funny. Check it out.

Terrariums, 3 weeks later

From this:

to this:


This:

to this:


This:

to this:


And this:

to this:

(The little plant actually went through it's entire life cycle and then died. At one point it was so tall I had to take out the cork and let it grow out of the top.)

I've been..

getting back into cooking and crafting recipes in a MAJOR way lately. Here are some pictures from this past week:

Pear, Plum & Ginger tartlet.


Stuffed Acorn Squash


Ratatouille

Update Post #2: Hike from Ocean Beach to Stow Lake

So the day after Garrett left I decided to take the train down to Ocean Beach and then hike my way home through Golden Gate Park. It was an amazingly beautiful and warm day and a fantastic way to spend a few hours.


The swells at the beach were huge and moving very very fast. It was awesome.



These little jelly things were everywhere on the sand. No idea what exactly they are.



Kelp and sea foam.



Dead sea lion. It was pretty small, maybe 3-4 feet and something had stolen its head.



There is a great group of ravens, or an "unkindness" if you will, that live at Ocean Beach. I see them around the park and the Sunset all the time. They love to hang out on these lights along Great Highway, and this one totally succeeded in scaring off the gull who was trying to share it with him. (I have the whole incident in series in the album on Flickr)



There were so many mushrooms growing under this tree. Back in my pagan days I'm sure I would have thought that fairies lived there or something.



Dead gopher at Stow Lake.



Dirty tree sex behind South Lake.

Oh! The best part of this hike is when I totally discovered the gay cruising spot in the park. I saw a random trail and decided to follow it. As I'm just going into it, I see this sort of business-casual dressed guy walk by. I thought it was a little weird but kept following the trail into this much more heavily wooded area, full of large thickets of bushes and trees. This old guy passes me in a cardigan and khakis. Thought it was weird that I kept getting passed by all these men who were definitely not dressed for a hike through the park. Then I see a guy standing ahead of me, but facing away, in this sort of clearing through some trees and I think "Huh, that guy looks like he's taking a leak, maybe I should stop and wait until he's done" and as I'm thinking this another old guy just pops out of some bushes to my right and starts walking away while buttoning up his cardigan. Then it all comes together and I say "OH MY GOD" out loud and start laughing, and immediately turn around and walk away, still laughing. It was amazing.

Update Post #1: Garrett Comes to Visit

So I've really been slacking on shoving my rad life down all of your throats. This is where I get back on that.

I took a few days off last weekend because I was supposed to go to Houston with my mom and sister to visit family. That of course didn't work out, because trying to plan anything with my family is an exercise is futility and ridiculousness, so Garrett came up and visited me instead. We had a much more mellow time than we did the last time he was up here, but it was still huge amounts of fun. Plus I made him gourmet breakfasts everyday, which got me waaaay back into cooking in a major way, so I'm happy.



Dragged him to bingo on Thursday, so that we could both drool over Johnny the hot bartender. He ended up winning and got this fantastic alligator.



In front of Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach. I walked him from Market and Kearny, up through Chinatown and North Beach, over to Pier 39, and then back down to Market later that night. We hit up some bars along the way and played tourist.



Sitting in my kitchen, eating breakfast burritos I made using homemade refried beans.




We spent a lot of time just hanging out in bed, talking and cracking each other up. Those are the best times.

As promised...

the full files for the songs from "Ships & Seas" in a 70MB .rar file.

1. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - My Home is the Sea
2. Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines
3. Nick Cave - Pinery Boy
4. Dead Man's Bones - Paper Ships
5. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Is it the Sea?
6. The Long Winters - The Commander Thinks Aloud
7. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
8. Okkervil River - A Girl in Port
9. Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Matt Sweeney - Death in the Sea
10. Rufus Wainwright & Kate McGarrigle - Lowlands Away

Ships & Seas

My newest "mixtape":

Inspired by a night on a ship on the bay. It was beautiful.
I'll put all the actual tracks up on here later this week.

Oh November..

aren't you off to such a great start? Sigh.

Sunday night was the first time I've hated this city. I got better though.

I do hate this new time. The days go by so fast and the nights seem to drag on forever. I used to love the dark but right now all I want is sun and running around outside and being in nature. It doesn't help that all of a sudden we're in the middle of full-fledged summer weather up here.

Garrett will be here tomorrow night and then I've got 4 days off, on 3 of which I will be hanging out with him. I hope the weather lasts through then. We will have epic hikes and beaches and exploration and adventure.