Social Media

Social media has changed society as we know it both good and bad. Families and friends are using it to communicate instantly, strengthening relationships. We can instantly let you know that little Johnny has just taken his first step and present you with a video or photos. You can find people you have lost track of and pick up where you left off. But then, companies are having to write policies to deal with it at work and they can and will use it against you if they want to. News is disseminated before we have time to check the facts causing countless more stories about the same subject as it's updated over and over, the facts diluted. Are we deluged with too much instant information? The under thirty crowd seems to think it a right to know everything right now and not a second later. Some think nothing of airing every little bit of their lives publicly. Reputations and relationships are ruined at the thoughtless stroke of the enter key. Political campaigns are won or lost on the internet. Views and arguments aired on blogs for all to see.

The younger generation seems to be putting their life out there without thinking who can see their words or photos for that matter. Are they hardened? Are they just so inundated with instant information they think it's normal to blast another relative or cuss out a person without thinking about who else is looking? Is it becoming normal to say anything you want without thinking first?

For me I think about what I'm putting out there in the cyber world. I want to present my spin on the world and pass on some of my experience to do good in the world. I'm not a fan of negative anything and if I read something inappropriate that ends up in my view on any of my social media links, I may comment on its inappropriateness and I may delete you as "my friend." Life is too short to waste on naysayers. You get to choose who you put in your life and how you present yourself as a human being. Choose wisely.

The Holidays

How will I spend the holidays this year? For some just mentioning “the holidays” can bring a shudder with all the stress, planning, traveling and overspending. But with some thought I think we can alleviate some of the bad vibes that come along with the entire hubbub of the holidays.

My yoga instructor said to try and take the holidays easier this year. Make it simple as part of our practice. Make that your gift to yourself and those around you. The wintertime should be a time to hunker down, stay warm and take care of yourself for the coming spring. There’s a lot to be said in that. I’m taking heed in her advice this year.

We are spreading things out over November and December. While we have a lot of traveling to do we aren’t doing it all in the same couple of weeks. I won’t get out all my decorations, just my favorite ones. I am choosing to do those things I love to do for the holidays. I also plan to create whenever I can fit it in and I will continue with my yoga practice and my exercise regime. That will keep me calm and centered. I will also remember to drink lots of water. Keeping hydrated is important and then you won’t fill up and overeat.

We opted to have Thanksgiving at home with my daughter and her boyfriend with all the trimmings. We will have all of our favorites. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mash potatoes and pumpkin pie are on my list. I love the smells of Thanksgiving and the warmth of the kitchen while everything is cooking. Then we will celebrate with friends with our “Saturday after Thanksgiving” party. A tradition we have done for the past few years. All of our friends get together from all over and we have another giant feast. People make great effort to get there sometimes. It’s a lovely way to get together before everyone scatters for December. It’s great to carve out time to see our friends and celebrate with them.




I love to go into San Francisco’s Union Square at night when all the Christmas lights are up and people are shopping. There’s a chill in the air and puppies and kittens in the windows at Macy’s. Hot chocolate and window shopping bundled up in my wool coat. I don’t necessarily buy anything, I just like to go observe and breathe in the spirit wherever I can find it, take a few photos and people watch. I love big cities. I find a comfortable place to sit and watch all the people buzzing by. I find calmness and rhythm while sitting in the middle of chaos just observing.




We will be celebrating in early December with my son and his family in the Seattle area. We are bringing my parents and they will be meeting their first great-grandchild. We have rented an apartment at a retro-motel in their town and plan on making it a mini vacation. We will take in all the sites of Seattle and the surrounding area and have a lovely family dinner at my son’s house. Early December allows my daughter-in-law time with her family when they come to visit at Christmas and it allows us to attend my mom’s Christmas Eve celebration in Southern California. Hence, I get to do all my favorite things. Hug my new grandbaby, visit a big city, connect with family, continue and start traditions.

I’m thinking a fun New’s Years Eve party at our house with our friends might be fun. But I’m leaving that up in the air right now. Whatever happens, happens. Go with the flow.

I want to thank Cynthia Morris for her post that inspired me and reminded me of how to enjoy the holiday season.

Journey Down the Block

We are remodeling our offices at work. At the present moment we have no restroom. The whole remodel has been a challenge to work in. We've had to deal with hammering, sawing, jackhammers, dust, dirt. I thought the bathroom being gone was going to be the biggest problem, but maybe not. As I've written about before, everyone deals with the construction and change in a different way.





We have several choices at this point for using a restroom. We can use the porta-potty with the construction workers, go across the street to Mac Dutra Park where the day laborers hang out or take a walk about a block away to a restroom in a small shopping center, you could also take a quick drive home if you live close enough or drive over to Starbucks or McDonalds. I have chosen to walk the block away.

So you're probably asking why I'm blogging about walking to the restroom everyday. I thought I would take the opportunity to make it a positive experience. I brought my camera and decided to look through my lens on my way there every day and see what I come up with. I walk by the familiar every day, but people come to this town as a destination. I thought I would record some of the details and find the beauty and uniqueness of downtown Half Moon Bay on my journey down the block to the restroom.

I hoping to post several times a week with what I find on my walks.

Lyra

I'm a grandma! The instant I saw this little bundle my heart melted. She is beautiful. Lyra Adele Ritner, born September 12, 2009, 7 pounds, 14 oz.

The second we heard my daughter-in-law was headed to the hospital, Boyd and I jumped in the car and drove 14 hours to see our new grandchild. We were exhausted by the time we got to Washington. We didn't get to the hospital until 10:30pm. We had to go through security, have our car searched and then we got lost inside the hospital. But opening that door and seeing my son's new family was life changing. I can't even put it in words. They were all exhausted but beaming. Lyra was calm and comfortable snuggled into her mom. My heart melted as I looked into little Lyra's face. My granddaughter, a new person, a new branch to our family. The love was instant. My son is a father. Can't wait to get back over to the hospital this morning.

It's Time!

My daughter-in-law's water just broke! We are on our way to Washington. We are going to be grandparents and their lives will be forever changed. Can't wait to get there. I'll update with photos when I can.

The Silence of Noise

The pounding of hammers inside, the rumble of the bulldozer outside, you could say it wasn’t the best atmosphere to try and conduct work. But I found myself tapping my foot to the time of the hammer. The rhythm of all the work around me was making a symphony of white noise. I was actually finding myself enjoying it. I felt insulated. I could feel the beat that it was making.

Our office is in the middle of a remodel and we are in the midst of all the construction trying to conduct business. Maybe it was my upbringing of being around construction and construction workers as a girl. Maybe it was my parents always telling us and showing us to make the best of situation, but the noise wasn’t bothering me. Maybe it’s all the yoga and inner reflection I’ve been experiencing over the last six months. Maybe it’s the fact that one of the offices they are working on is going to be my new space and not everyone is getting a new space.

It’s interesting to watch my co-workers reactions to handling the noise, the dust and the chaos. You can almost see into their minds by the way they handle it. Some go inward, put their headphones on and carry on. Others have to find ways to get out of the office to conduct their work. Some get angry, sarcastic or even sick. Some are completely oblivious.

I watched a program the other day about a rock star that is trying to find new rhythms by traveling the world and seeking other cultures, new adventures. He was delving deep into himself to discover what kind of direction his music might take next. What does it sound like in another country? The music, the food, the occupations, the people, the landscape all have their own sounds. Maybe that’s what I’m experiencing with these foreign sounds in my office. It’s different, a new beat, the fresh smell of cut wood. The sounds of heavy equipment, the buzz of a saw, the hammer connecting the wood to the building making something new. For me it has helped reach inside myself, it becomes a white noise, a type of meditative silence helping me to concentrate. I actually think I’ve accomplished more during this remodel as I’ve had to adapt and change the way I’ve always done things.

Change is always hard, for some much harder. Change can be compared to the death of something. You mourn for the loss, but if you choose to look at it in a positive light and of new opportunities you might just be able to look deeper into yourself and open new paths. Out of chaos, creativity explodes.

Becoming a grandma

Here at my son's house in Bremerton, Washington. I watched him and my husband put together a crib for the baby due in September. Watched my daughter-in-law's belly contort as little Lyra squirmed around trying to find some more room in there. It all brings back so many memories. Seems like it was just yesterday I was experiencing all that first hand and now here is my little boy as a man about to be a daddy. Can't wait to hold my granddaughter in my arms. I already love her.

The Power of Now

How do you live in the now? You must have a passion, something to focus on, a goal, a dream, something to strive for.

The gentle rocking of a sleeping baby in your arms, the sweet baby smell, your breathing synchronized with his as his warm little body melds into yours. You can think of nothing else but keeping them warm and safe. People are talking around you but you can only hear the breathing and the heartbeat of the little child in your arms. You feel as one with the child as you glide back and forth in the chair. You must provide for them, they are your center, your passion. Your every waking moment is to care for this child.That is living in the now.

My children are in their twenties now. One of them is going to be a parent soon. It seems so long ago that they were babies. My sister just had a baby, he is seven months old. I just spent five days with my little nephew taking care of him. That mother instinct never leaves. The care is constant. I had no time to worry about what I left behind at work or the projects I had undone or when my next exercise class was or what I was eating or drinking. It was quite eye-opening to me. You never stop until it’s feeding time and then you can sit down in that rocker, darken the room and slowly rock as the baby touches your hand and you feed him. I had forgotten all that. That’s why it all goes by so fast; you are in the moment thinking of nothing else but what is happening in front of your eyes.. That’s living in the moment, living in the now.

I’ve experienced the same passage of time as I’m creating a piece of artwork or walking on the beach looking for treasures. When you do something you have a passion for you don’t have time to notice what time it is or think about your bills or problems. You are just in the moment, nothing else matters. The dishes can wait, the pot can boil over, the laundry can pile up you don’t care because you are rocking a child or painting a picture or writing a song or petting your cat. You are living in the now.

I can remember how hard it was to be sleep deprived, exhausted, and unshowered when my kids were little and thinking how hard this is. But one look or touch or new thing learned always made up for it. It went by so fast and then they are grown and you have this empty spot that you have to fill. Find that passion. Your second life after kids is just as important as the first half but this time you are experienced, older, wiser. Make good use of your knowledge. Volunteer to spend a few hours, days or a week with a baby you love, relive those moments, it will bring you joy and a new understanding of self and what’s important. Live in the now.

Power Tools and Pilates

I had to bring the Mikita to work with me this week. Nothing like a change of pace and power tools to make your job interesting. We moved our business into one building because we sold the other building. We had to empty it out and get everyone and everything into a smaller pace. Not an impossible task, just a lot of work. Our budget is small and my boss and I are the labor. We put on our jeans and brought our power drills from home and took on the task. Not that I don’t wear jeans everyday anyways but I got to wear my tennis shoes and sweatshirt too. That’s the beauty of living and working in a small town. Everything is casual. Good times!

We managed to get the building sold fast even in the face of the economy. However, we discovered the building we still owned needed extensive emergency repairs so the remodel is much more than we anticipated but in the long run will be a much better and usable building. I always say things happen for a reason. I think this all fell into place so I could get in shape and improve my overall health. At least that’s what I’m choosing to believe.

I’ve been moving stuff from building to building to storage. I’ve ripped out counters and moved furniture up and down stairs. On top of all this I’ve been going to Pilates and working out on a cross trainer machine or treadmill every other day. I also signed up for Weight Watchers and have been studying the Law of Attraction. I think synchronicity is in place. I’ve released 10 pounds since January and I feel really good. I’m living in the now and I’m in a very peaceful place.

Last night I was really considering not going to Pilates because I was so sore from moving all day. But I went to class and lay down on a roller and was immediately transformed. I could feel my back relaxing and stretching out. By the end of the hour I was exhausted, exhilarated and I felt taller. Today I wasn’t stiff. I had a few sore muscles but I felt really good, not crippled like I had feared I might be. I went home and had a couple of glasses of wine and a hot shower. It was an excellent day. Not sure everyone would agree with me about that. I’m sorry to report my boss went home and discovered she only had one glass of wine left in her house. She promptly poured it in her glass and spilled it. She should have went to Pilates with me. Clearly my energy was in a much better place and I belong to many wine clubs and was in no danger of a wine shortage. Life is good!

Early Bird Gets the Sea Glass

Early bird gets the sea glass or so I thought. My husband and I headed out at 6:40 am this morning to hike down to our favorite sea glass spot before work. There was a negative tide and we thought by getting there so early we would be the only ones on the beach.

We hike down to our spot, out of breath before our caffeine fix in the morning and look down at the beach…there are already three people down there, heads down digging through the gravel. Uggghhhhhh! People more crazy than us.

Undeterred, we head for the gravel. I’m sure this is to the annoyance of the three hunters already there. We find a small amount of sea glass. Nothing really worthy of the shard of the day, except maybe a piece of Vaseline glass. I’ve found better. But I could tell one woman had already sent her husband down the beach in search of the big pieces as she methodically dug through the gravel in a grid. The other woman was on her own and was digging through her own piles. I did a hit and miss in the gravel and found a few pieces. We didn’t really have a lot of time so we gathered the pieces we found in a ziplock bag and headed back up the hill.

The photo shows our catch for today vs our find the day we found the marble.

I guess the find of the day was really the exercise we got so early in the morning on a beautiful sunny day. I wonder what the tide is like tomorrow? If we get there at 6…..

Looking for Lizards

I cringe every time I pick something up off the floor in my bedroom or when I slip on a pair of shoes that's been laying on the floor. Why? Lizards, snakes and rodents find their way into our house on a regular basis. All thanks to my lovely kitties. They tend to end up under my shoe rack hiding under a boot or inside a shoe that didn't get put back. I shake each shoe out before I put it on. My vision is that I'll put my foot in a shoe and a lizard will bite my big toe. I'll scream and fling it across the room. I shiver just thinking about it.

Right now I'm waiting for Boyd to get back from one of his weekend trips to the hardware store. He needs to look through my sock basket. It has a funny smell emanating from it. I got a whiff of dead something. I am not dumping that basket out myself. No way, no how. I'm sure Darryl the boy cat thinks it's a nice gesture to bring me a gopher or mole and put it with my socks so I could thank him later. Sigh....eeewwwwwww.

Good thing my cats are cute and cuddly. Thought it was time to listen to my kitties theme song again:


Ray Wylie Hubbard - Snake Farm
Video Codes at www.blastro.com

Shard of the Day-May 17, 2009

Marble! Not just your regular small marble but a giant marble. The shooter. Cool! It's light green when you hold it up to the light and it's got that twirly thing inside it. Ok, I didn't find it, but my husband did. It rolled up at his feet in the surf in Half Moon Bay. Talk about awesome.

Update on Molly the Dog

My parent's went out to dinner last night; she ate two trees.
Hmmmm.........

Ignore the elephant in the room...

Visiting my parents’ house on Easter weekend we had our second experience with Molly the Saint Bernard. Last time we were there she was a bouncy puppy of about 35 pounds with sharp puppy teeth. She ate my husband’s glasses and left several holes in various clothing pieces. A couple of months later she was as big as me and weighed 70 pounds with the biggest head you’ve ever seen. I was afraid of what she might eat this time.

My parents are very good with animals and have been working very hard to get Molly trained and under control. After all, she will be about 200 pounds by the time she is full-grown. You just have to have a dog like that in control. My dad walks her, well marches her, everyday after work. She goes to the dog park several times a week with my niece and takes obedience classes. She was still having some issues with biting so they invited a dog whisperer over. Someone they ran into recommended him who had heard about his great successes with animals. He was connected with the Humane Society.

He came over and just wanted to observe how the family reacted with the dog. They wanted to find out if the biting was a puppy thing or something else. The trainer observed and basically said they were doing everything right. The dog was basically jealous when she wasn’t getting the attention.

About that time the cat saunters up to the dog. A little history on this cat is needed. This cat found my parents house and moved in. She belonged to a neighbor down the street that had passed away. She came over and decided she wasn’t leaving. So mom and dad asked the relatives if they could keep her. They agreed and the cat happily took over the then petless house. The cat lived an amazing life of leisure and then the dog moved in. Not just a dog, a Saint Bernard puppy. Molly really just wanted to be friends, but the cat would have none of it.

The cat pulls its ears back, bares her teeth and hisses at the dog. The dog will not touch the cat and is completely buffaloed by her. The cat provokes most of the encounters just to let Molly know who is in charge. The dog whisperer loves the cat and tells my parents that’s how you handle this dog. The cat knows what she’s doing. She may be small but she is in charge. He gave them some advice on what to do and left them with their new training regimen.

Molly has now had several weeks of training with the new techniques by the time we show up for Easter. This is a different dog. She’s huge and slobbery, but under much more control. We were all mulling around in the kitchen at breakfast trying to get our breakfast together and Molly walked in. She just wants to be in the middle of everyone, she’s very social. But it’s a small kitchen and when you add a 70-pound Saint Bernard puppy to the mix it’s hard to move. Mom says to just ignore the dog. Right. We all juggle our food and try not to spill it as Molly leans up against us trying to get our attention, I pronounce, “It’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room.”

Looks like Molly will eventually get over her puppiness if she doesn’t completely exhaust and slime everyone in the process. She’s a handful albeit very sweet. It’s a good thing she’s cute!

Wine Words

My husband, Boyd loves to describe how the wine tastes when we are imbibing. Sometimes he overuses a term or two like chewy and legs.

We went to Napa for our 27th wedding anniversary to tour the wineries. At the first winery I grabbed a mailing list card and a pen as we started tasting. We took the first sip and Boyd said, "robust." I wrote it down. My first mistake was telling him what I was doing. When I explained I was going to write down all the descriptive wine words he said on our trip, he may have been a little annoyed and was oddly quiet about the first few wines. I had to pry it out of him. It actually became quite hilarious by the end of the trip and six wineries later. Some quotes are from Boyd, some from me, some from our wine hosts. Enjoy, we did!

Black Stallion:

Robust

Thin

Not very pleasing

No taste

Smokey

Liquored up on the first four

Clos du Val:

It's vanilla!

Tannin finish

yeah

I prefer a wine you can pour and drink now

Folie a Deux/Napa Cellars:

Very drinkable

This is kinda growin' on me

Let's switch

But I haven't tasted it yet

I know that smell

This has cinnamon

A little spice

St. Supery's (Clearly we had too much wine by the time we got here):

Grapefruit

She looks professional

Fuller

Mouthier

Taste is still growing

It's awesome

Bolder

Let's switch

I haven't tasted it yet

As Randy Jackson would say, "It's all right dude."

It's awesome

Mark that one

Kicks it

Made for lamb chops

Something gamey

Hella good wine

I think when you quote Randy Jackson or describe wine as "hella good" you should stop tasting, but oh no, not us.

V. Suttui: We didn't wine taste here. We shopped for lunch in their deli and bought wine cork candles in their gift shop and then ate lunch on the lawn. We were in desperate need of food. Great cheeses and deli food there and a lovely area to eat your lunch in.

Franciscan:

Creamy

Sweet

Huh

Oh dear that's really good

Now she's snorting

I'm at a loss of words

Embraceable

Bastards (This is a very descriptive word for I have to buy this really expensive wine!)

I think we bought two bottles of wine at Franciscan. It wasn't even one of our planned stops. It put us way over budget.

We were done, the wineries were closing. We bought almost a case of wine. We had consumed too much wine, lunch, a bag of fritos and a can of bean dip and we had spent way too much money but we had a lot of fun in the process and made many people laugh at the wineries.

Gopher Boy

It was late. I spent the day at AT&T Park for the opening day of the Giant’s. We had a great time, the Giant’s won and the rain cleared for the game. I came home and unfortunately had to work on my taxes, the appointment to get them done is on Thursday. I’m cutting it a little short this year. By about midnight I crawled into bed and tried to go to sleep. I was just drifting off when Darryl the cat appeared at the open slider. There’s no screen so he bounded in and as always announced himself. There was a fair amount of commotion when he came in. I thought his sister had followed him in and they were tussling on the floor.

She can be a real hisser sometimes. Literally, she hisses at everyone when she is trying to make her point, especially her brother. Apparently she has some Abyssinian in her that makes her very vocal. She doesn’t bite, just hisses.

Well the tussling stopped for a bit and I drifted off to sleep.

About fifteen minutes later Darryl was chasing something through the room. I woke up to him half under our bed with his paw on top of something. I was sure he had another lizard. I shined a flashlight under the bed and couldn’t see anything and Darryl wasn’t moving and I wasn’t putting my feet on the floor. My husband, who was sound asleep and didn’t respond to my comment of, “Honey the cat has another animal in the room and is chasing it around” was finally awakened by my insistence that the cat had something other than a lizard under the bed and he better wake up and remove it immediately. Begrudgingly he got up and looked under the bed. He stated rather too calmly, I thought, that the cat had a live gopher under the bed. At about that time the cat let the gopher go and it darted across the room. I may have screamed, the cat bolted and my husband said he didn’t see where it went. Great, so much for sleep.

The cat ran towards my boots that were lined up on the floor under my shoetree, hot on the trail of the rogue gopher. My husband flung all the shoes out of the way as the two of them hunted for the rodent. Darryl, we'll call him gopher boy now, sniffed it out with his tail twitching. My husband had it cornered. I asked him if he wanted a glass or something to put it in. But to my horror he just picked up the live gopher with the cat clawing at him and threw it off the balcony and shut the door. The cat continued looking through the room for another fifteen minutes trying to find his prey. My husband proceeded to get back in bed. I said, “Not before you wash you’re hands.” Grumble, grumble, sigh. Needless to say I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep last night.

By Candlelight

Last week we went out to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant, Cafe Gibraltar in El Granada. The atmosphere was wonderful. I've always loved everything I've eaten there. That night it was rabbit and duck, superb dishes. We were celebrating our anniversary and shared a bottle of wine. After dinner we had a Greek Float. It had Ouzo gelato with a fig compote, an original and savory dessert.

Our dinner was almost over, we had enjoyed the live music, an upright bass and electric piano, the atmosphere, the food and the company. The couple behind us was much older, in their 80's or 90's. He had a walker and struggled with his reading glasses. When the bill came, he pulled out his American Express and tried to read the bill. You could tell they were both having problems seeing the writing on the receipt. They finally held up the candle to try to read it. Now remember Boyd and I had shared a bottle of wine. Boyd said, "When I can't read the bill, you take over and pay it." We laughed. Our bill came and Boyd couldn't read it...he brought the candle closer. Thermal paper burns really fast...

In Search of Sea Glass-Aquatic Park, San Francisco

Living on the San Mateo Coast in the Bay Area for 13 years I recently realized I hadn’t taken the time to really explore the Greater Bay Area. Sure I’d been to the major tourist areas when our out of town guests arrived. But there is so much more to do here. Being an empty nester, bored, and feeling creative, my husband and I set out one day every week as our adventure day, playing tourists in our own backyard. It usually focuses on hunting for sea glass (an obsession of mine), and gives us a starting point.

Dressed in layers with a picnic lunch in preparation for a day at the beach, it was overcast but the weather report promised no rain, so we set off to San Francisco to find sea glass.



In my search on the Internet I had found a small snippet that said Aquatic Park at the Embarcadero is a good place to find sea glass. So we headed to the Embarcadero. My husband is not one to ever take the same route twice into the city. It’s always an adventure getting there. We started near the Bay Bridge at the complete opposite side of the location to Aquatic Park. You are immediately greeted with a giant bow and arrow sculpture coming out of the ground greeting you to the waterfront of San Francisco. The Ferry Building is next and I commented that I had never been inside there. As we got closer we noticed that there was a farmer’s market and art fair going on. So we took a left and looked for parking. We found a parking garage at the Rincon Center Garage at 121 Spear Street between Mission and Howard a few blocks away that had a $5 deal for four hours at the Farmer’s Market.

We walked down Steuart Street and looked in all the restaurants and read their menus on our way to the market. Perry’s had a brunch going with half price Bloody Mary’s and we discovered on Tuesday’s they offer ½ priced bottles of wine. Perry’s is located in the Hotel Griffon at 155 Steuart Street.

So this wasn’t sea glass but our adventures are never set in stone. We ambled on to the art fair where artisans had set up across the street from the Ferry Building. They were selling a lot of locally made art; photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, miniature watercolors of San Francisco scenery, jewelry, clothing, purses. We pursued their wares and then headed across the street to the Farmer’s Market. We needed vegetables to go with dinner on Sunday night, something for Moroccan leg of lamb.

We knew we needed lemons and oranges, which were stocked in abundance at the market, but were stumped for a vegetable. There were lots of greens: rainbow chard, broccoli rabe, bok choy, fennel and various varieties of lettuce. Organically and locally grown looked to be the theme. We found fresh cheese, herbs, fruits, meat and food vendors from local restaurants.
Having never been to this Farmer’s Market before we walked through and took a look at all the booths, getting samples and making a few purchases, Blue Cheese Dip & Dressing from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company. So fresh and creamy and they gave out recipes with it. We ran into Lou Iacopi from Half Moon Bay at his stand selling his fresh vegetables. We bought Fingerling Potatoes at the Zuckerman’s Farm stand. They hail from Stockton. We wound our way through all the booths, some already closing up because they had run out of produce, and made our way into the Ferry Building.

The Ferry Building Marketplace has been completely refurbished. Filled with stores, eateries and markets we found another gem we should have visited long before. We ended up the Golden Gate Meat Company. Their selection of meat was unique from Chicken cilantro with lime and tequila sausage to perfectly aged New York steak to buffalo and elk. Their produce department like the farmer’s market outside was full of fresh produce. They happened to have asparagus that we determined would go well with our lamb. Purchases made we decided to head back to our car. After all we still had sea glass to find and we had packed a picnic lunch for the beach.

On our way to the car we passed by Perry’s again and couldn’t resist brunch with half price bloody Mary’s. With jazzy blues playing in the back ground and old exposed brick walls we sat down to a reasonably priced brunch. Eggs Benedict and an egg white and corn tortilla scramble. Both came with red potatoes sautéed with onions and bell peppers and a small bowl of very sweet fresh melons. I think we’ll be back soon to try the Tuesday night half price wine with dinner. So much for our picnic lunch waiting for us in the car.

Satiated by lunch we again headed out in search of sea glass. It was about 3:30, which was perfect because that was low tide for the day, the best time for sea glass hunting.

Parking anywhere in San Francisco is a challenge. Since we didn’t really know where we were going we took our car this time. It’s much easier and cheaper to park in Daly City and take BART in to the city. But we meandered our way through the tourist traffic along the Embarcadero until we found Aquatic Park at the foot of Polk Street at 2905 Hyde Street. There was free parking for the weekend at Fort Mason on Van Ness at the Hyde Street Pier and there was open parking. The Maritime Museum is right there at the beach. They are in the process of remodeling it. The beach sits right below the giant Ghirardelli sign that looks out on the bay towards Alcatraz.




I could see that the tide was low. I didn’t really hold out hope of finding any precious pieces of sea glass since this is a well-traveled and busy location. But being armed with extensive sea glass hunting knowledge and the fact that the tide had just gone out I had a better chance than most. We got about half way down the beach and there was a perfectly frosted piece of white sea glass. Not a coveted piece but where there’s one piece of sea glass you can be sure there is more. You could see the gravel bed right beyond our reach, churning up pieces of green sea glass. I was not dressed for jumping into the freezing water or wading in with bare feet. So I had to be satisfied with the dozen or so pieces of frosted glass we found on the sand washing up at our feet. Our objective had been met for the day and we ended up finding so much more along the way.

Travel Channel

Don't miss this episode of Treasure Hunter: Kirsten Gum. Part of this show was filmed at my house! Check out the news article in the Half Moon Bay Review about the filming. My friend and business partner Aileen Cabral of The Art of Sea Glass did a sequence showing Kirsten how to make jewelry with sea glass. You might even see a couple of seconds of me, if I didn't end up on the cutting room floor!

Travel Channel Jan. 31 9:00PM ET

(60 minutes)
Treasure Hunter: Kirsten Gum
Treasures of the Deep
TV-PG

This week Kirsten searches for Dungeness Crabs. She'll come face to face with rough seas and dangerous equipment. She also kayaks to a hidden beach in the middle of San Francisco Bay and battles the dangerous surf off Santa Cruz in search of Sea Glass.

Comcast-Half Moon Bay-Channel 71 at 10 PM

Direct TV-Channel 277

Check your local TV directories for channel and time. It varies depending on what service you have.

Boxes

We drove down to Southern California to visit with relatives a couple of weekends ago. Now that we don’t have kids at home, we packed our car with room to spare and took off for a long weekend. I had one box of jewelry to return to my friend and business associate, Aileen. I sold some of her sea glass jewelry over the holidays. But somehow when we packed the car to come back home it was stuffed to the gills with boxes. It seems every house we went to had stuff for us to take home. I think we ended up with about five extra boxes. My husband growled a bit about it.

My mom had a set of encyclopedias that my dad and his best friend bought the year I was born. They were young and the door-to-door salesman convinced them what a good investment those books would be over the years. As it turned out, they were. I couldn’t just let her throw them out. I spent many hours with those books doing my research and reports for school over the years. Kids today don’t even know what an encyclopedia is. They just "Google" it. I actually plan on using them in my collage art. I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to tear them apart but they do inspire me. I’ll keep you updated on what I do with them. I can always scan the images and use them.



At my brother-in-law's house we ended up going through boxes in his garage. I was looking for a few vintage photographs of my husband’s grandparents. My brother-in-law couldn’t remember if he had them or not. We started going through the boxes and finding all kinds of fun things. Not only did I find some of the photos I was looking for but we found the original stuffing recipe in my mother-in-law’s handwriting. I blogged about this recipe at Thanksgiving. There was actually a photo copy in the folder that she probably made about the time we asked about the recipe. So I took some photos of the originals and took the copy. I plan on making a collage with it and putting a copy of the recipe in our cookbook. What I didn’t realize as we were looking through all of these memories was it was my mother-in-law’s birthday. My husband and his brother finally did realize it and I think their mom was guiding them through the boxes. We found things like menus for every holiday meal since 1958 when she was pregnant with my husband, and things she jotted down that my brother-in-law said when he was three. If I had remembered it was her birthday I might have had goose bumps the whole time I was looking through the boxes.



My plan this year is to do some collages that capture the essence of some of our family members. I’ll be scanning and using the memorabilia I have collected over the years. I am also offering this art form to others if they have someone they want to capture in an image. It’s easy to put things in a box on a shelf and forget about them. It’s healing to pull them off that shelf and remember the good things and where you come from.

If you want me to help you with your memories, send me an email! I can create a custom piece for you.

The Power of Bummer

"Bummer." This is a word that I used to raise my kids. When they would call and say I forgot something at school, I would say, "Bummer. What are you going to do about it?" I would give three strikes from the start of the school year. Since I worked near home and school it wasn't too much of a deal for me to go back and get something for them. But it was annoying. So we set-up early on the three strikes rules. It had to be something they really needed and then they only had three times a school year for someone to bail them out.

Try it. "Bummer" works for a lot of situations while raising your kids. "Mom, I lost my book." "Bummer." Then you just look at them. After a while they get the hint that they need to solve the problems they cause for themselves.

After my daughter was out of high school, we were sitting around talking and the issue of drunk driving came up. My daughter piped in with, "I never drink and drive because I can see myself calling from the police station and telling my parents I had been arrested and them saying, 'Bummer. What are you going to do about it?'" That's a good parenting moment. You know your words are in their heads and sometimes they actually listen to you.

But the best moment was just this past week. My daughter is watching a little ten year old girl. She gets her ready for school in the morning and is finding out just how hard that is sometimes. She called me to complain that the little girl keeps forgetting things and she's had to take her backpack and lunches up to the school. So my daughter sat down with the parents and told them the "Bummer Method." They thought it was great and fit in with their parenting style. They decided on two "get out of jail free" cards. This little girl will be learning the power of bummer. More importantly to me, my little girl is passing on the power of bummer and understands it's value. What more can you ask as a parent but to see your methods played out and actually have a positive outcome?