Welp, the days are getting shorter and darker…and colder. This can feel very sad and endless but please remember that nature is resting and restoring and that means you should too. It is in the darkest times that you find your deepest powers that you didn’t even know you had. Therefore, from the coldest winter […]
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I’ve never been that into Halloween. I get embarrassed wearing costumes and in the city no one has ever trick or treated that much in my neighborhood so it has always been something I never thought of celebrating as an adult. Then I got Jasmine, my giant, beautiful grey pitbull, and Halloween became something I […]
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It’s pumpkin season! Here’s a delicious spicy and creamy pumpkin millkshake recipe for you. Cinnamon Whipped Cream: With a hand mixer, whip half a pint of heavy cream until it looks like a melted milkshake. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla, two tbsp. of powdered sugar. (more or less) and 4 shakes of cinnamon. Whip […]
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If you Google the words “medieval cats” a bunch of insane images of seemingly badly drawn cats from the Middle Ages will pop up. These cats will often have human noses, gargoyle paws, Cheshire grins, deranged body shapes and crazy eyes. Initially you might think that artists just weren’t that good back then and […]
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As I’ve gotten older I’ve lost my fire and believe me, that’s a good thing generally. It allows me to have better social skills and not be bothered by someone cutting in line at the grocery store. It helps me to hold my tongue and just move on so I don’t have public experiences of […]
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Remember in 1992 when Sinead O’Connor, at the peak of her fame, went on Saturday Night Live, sang War by Bob Marley and then went on a diatribe about the Catholic Church’s abuse of children and finished by tearing up a photo of the Pope? Then remember how everyone, including people that never even […]
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The bar next door to my shop has motorcycle club events from time to time. It’s not ideal because it means there are a bunch of people smoking pot and cigarettes everywhere and the parking lot gets full of toxic masculinity and motorcycles. This is bad for my business and for my next door neighbor […]
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Makes at least 8 I made these for friends on one of San Francisco’s only hot nights of the year and sat and drank them in my garden and they were delightful. I had them with Herradura tequila and Cointreau but Britt had them virgin and they are delicious and refreshing that way too. I […]
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Ten years ago a skate ramp showed up one day in a foggy part of Half Moon Bay across the street from a popular surf spot. No city officials or local citizens objected to it so it stayed there, becoming a local landmark and destination. Recently, Caltrans notified the town that they were planning on […]
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Welp, it’s Poison Oak season again here in California and I don’t want to name any name, Dotty, but ever since we got her we’ve been getting THE worst outbreaks. Unlike other dogs we’ve had in the past Dotty insists on running into every shrub, bush and tall grass she sees and comes out dripping […]
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So today I visited the girls’ vet that also happens to live in Montara and I told her about the rabbit. She tells me that she keeps hearing about people seeing black floppy eared rabbits around the area. “If a bunch of people are seeing them, then there must be more than one.” She told […]
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So about a month ago I was driving on Hwy 1, about to pull in to the parking lot of a favorite beach, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a large black rabbit sitting peacefully in the dirt a safe distance from the road. I’m not a rabbit expert but […]
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What We’re Watching! I really love snuggling with my girls and watching trash TV or highly intelligent TV, documentaries, comedies, cooking shows, dramas or reality tv. I don’t care what it is, I probably have loved watching it. Here are a few of our favorites right now. Also, I make a really tasty popcorn that […]
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Mother’s Day is not easy for some people. It may bring up grief or stress based on your life experience and personal associations with motherhood and what that means to you. Every Mother’s Day that comes around is hard for me. It makes me feel more alone in the world than any other day. […]
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Years ago, my normally thick, lush hair began to thin in the front. I noticed it one night in the bathroom of a French English private school where I was taking a beginning French class. When I looked in the mirror as I washed my hands the fluorescent lights backlit my hairline revealing hair so […]
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Welp, it’s official. Gun violence is the leading cause of death in American kids under the age of 19. There have been 127 mass shootings in 2023 and it’s only March. We have probably all heard about the Tennessee shooting last week where 3 beautiful kids are gone forever along with 3 upstanding and loving […]
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It’s almost Easter and I just wanted to remind everyone about an 85 year old book about a cute little lady rabbit that smashes all of life’s barriers in order to achieve her dream. If this book were written in today’s backwards world it would probably be immediately banned in Florida for giving other ladies […]
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I always think that when I’m trying a new life choice to just give it a year before I make a final decision about it. I especially think this applies to rescue dogs. Give that dog a year to become itself, detox from various abandonment or abuse, get to know you, get to know […]
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(Disclaimer: I am an artist, not a medical doctor. This is just my personal experience.) Out of the blue, in my mid thirties, I started to get migraines. I have a theory that they started right after we put in some raw particle board down for our floors in our apartment and then did […]
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I started skating when I was about fifteen in the nineties. I fell in love with it right away. I loved the freedom, how loud it was, how all consuming fun it was. I loved that every curb, ledge or ramp became a creative obstacle to invent tricks on. I loved how it was kind […]
Read more »I love crows so much. They are so smart and funny. On windy days up in the hills you can see them in groups playing a complex game of catch with a pine cone, swooping up and waiting for their teammate below to catch up and then dropping it down to them to catch. I’ve […]
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Yaketey Yak Chews 10/10 I grabbed these out of desperation to keep baby Dotty quiet in my shop and they were, are and will forever be her very favorite chewy. They are hardened Yak Cheese which is weird and crazy. Also I thought they might be diarrhea inducing since it’s kind of a dairy product, […]
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The problem with manifestation is that it works best for people that have already been given a head start in life. I don’t even mean a financial head start. I mean a head start of attentive and loving parents, growing up with consistency and stability. These lucky people will casually say things like, “Oh, Mary […]
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It’s my favorite time of year…See’s candy season! I’ve been obsessed with See’s ever since the first time I can remember my dad bringing home an assorted box during Christmas time for each of the six kids to share. Each of us were allowed one piece of candy a night at the end of dinner. […]
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My Voting Guide For SF and California! On Tuesday, November 8th there is an election! Voting is exciting but doing research on confusing and manipulative propositions is not. So I have researched them for you and below are my conclusions. I implore you to just use this as a starting point. Below is how I […]
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The other day Dotty and her big sister ReeRee were playing tug of war with their leashes outside of my shop. Well, to be exact, Dotty, my 9 month old puppy, was tugging on ReeRee’s leash and dragging her around by it until her big sister grabbed onto it and began tugging on it to […]
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Pie Math Welp, it’s the end of summer pie season and I never got around to posting this pie math essay in time for summer fruit season but I am posting it just in time for holiday pie season. I am absolutely not a mathy person but there are a few creative endeavors that I […]
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Has anyone else had a problem finding semi normal jeans lately? Like, I totally get it, I’m a lady in my forties so I guess I’m super uncool now that I just want some jeans with waists that don’t come up to my under boobs. I want pants that don’t make my butt appear three […]
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When I first got Jasmine, she was so physically weak from growing up in the pound that she immediately injured both her knees and seriously injured her back. Then her elbows went because they picked up the extra work of supporting her big body that her messed up knees could not. So for months […]
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It’s tomato season so I thought I’d try making a tomato pie. Does this sound weird? It was really good! It tastes like a mix between pizza and a quiche but there are no eggs in it because like, why not just make a quiche then? Use store bought crust if you want or use […]
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What Is The Supreme Court? Established by the US Constitution in 1790, it is the highest court in the United States. It is the top court in the Judicial Branch of the US government. There are presently 9 judges on this court and they make their judgments based on the majority decision. The decisions of […]
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Our new puppy Dotty thinks poop is a delicious delicacy–so nuanced, so varied. I am writing this on her behalf based on her expressions of delight, stubborn insistence or indifference about eating each type of poop. I would like to take this moment to brag that she doesn’t eat her own poop or ReeRee’s so […]
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Guns have officially become the number one cause of death to kids in the United States. Wow, USA #1!!!! Or whatever, oh my god. I couldn’t find how many of those deaths were caused by the Ar-15 but I do know that a whole lot of our mass shootings involve this weapon, look at these […]
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I’ve been obsessed with Russian history for years now so I have accumulated a very small book list that I really enjoyed. With everything going on in Ukraine I figured some of you might be interested in some of these too. The Man Without a Face, The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen […]
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San Francisco’s surf beach that runs the width of the city is called Ocean Beach. It is one of the world’s most dangerous waves because of its power, huge winter waves, rip currents, cold water, nearly impossible paddle outs and how far away from shore it breaks. It is surfable from October thru March or […]
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Ten days ago we lost our beautiful Jasmine to a sudden heart attack. The vet said there was no way to know or help her, she just had a gigantic heart. What a metaphor for her, she truly was the most loving and generous girl. Always watching over her sister ReeRee, she was her big […]
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So Putin, the psychopathic weirdo that is the leader of Russia, decided that he just absolutely cannot LIVE without Ukraine. Like, he’ll just absolutely die of heartbreak if he cannot be reunited with his Soviet hostage and have his beautiful boundary-less Russia ooze all over independent Ukraine until it is completely reabsorbed back into the […]
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This morning we left our Mission neighborhood apartment early and ran our dogs out to the beach near Half Moon Bay. We are at the coast pretty much every day since we surf and I work in Pacifica. It’s a huge relief to have an escape from SF life which has gotten pretty messy recently. […]
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When I first met Britt, my now husband, he wore brown pointy toed loafers with buckles strapped across the top. When I say he wore them, I mean he wore them everywhere. Like the first time I picked him up to go surfing, he was wearing his casual weekend outfit which apparently was pleated khaki […]
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In 2019, at the end of the men’s third round match in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the boos for a young Russian tennis player that had just won were loud and sustained. Any normal personal would have wilted under the collective negativity of 14,000 people but not Medvedev, it energized him. After he shook his opponents […]
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Don’t be scared of my untraditional mac & cheese recipe, it’s really good, I swear! The cauliflower lightens it up and gives the sharp cheeses some sweetness and the cumin along with a ton of garlic, red pepper flakes and brown sugar give it some nice complexity that keeps your tongue guessing. This is not […]
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Remember on December 31st, 2019, when we were all like, “Ugh, good riddance 2019, you were the worst!!! Welcome 2020, this year’s gonna be the best!” Me too, lol. So now it’s 2022 (aka 2020 too). Who else is finding themselves to be mentally fatigued for the past couple of years? Same. But this makes […]
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You know when you’re a politics nerd and you watch Senate hearings where senators bring in Mark Zuckerberg or a pharmaceutical executive or a big oil executive and they ask them why they are destroying Earth? Each Senator is allowed the same amount of time to ask questions of the respondent, usually just a couple […]
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I know it seems weird that we got a Covid vaccine developed so fast and that it feels scary and hard to trust but truth be told, genius scientists like Nobel Prize winners Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna developed the technology that made way for this safe vaccine way back in 2012. So when Covid […]
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For a few years I had a pie cart in San Francisco called Pie Fridays (piefridays.com). I used to bake 50 pies a week for it so I’ve definitely put in my ten thousand hours. The truth is, I hate most pies. The reason why people liked my pies so much was that I made […]
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A few weeks ago it was John Lennon’s birthday. He would have been 81 if he hadn’t been gunned down by a selfish little twerp that wanted to be famous. Lennon was a complex, sometimes assholic, damaged, misogynistic genius and I admit that he has always been my favorite Beatle. He didn’t have a functioning […]
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Welp, it’s spider season and I have four large spiders in my backyard. They each have their own quadrant where they have built gigantic webs stretching inconveniently through my yard’s thoroughfares. One spider has decided that connecting her web between the bouganvillea and the lid of our recycling bin is the perfect place to build […]
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Okay, so I know I’m totally late on this berry cobbler recipe but I just concocted it last week for Britt’s birthday and he really liked it so I wanted to post it before I forgot. Furthermore, Blackberries are at their peak right now so you could still make a beautiful black and blue cobbler […]
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So I’ve noticed over the past 15 years or so that whenever I draw an animal, that animal shows up in real life within a few days. Just last week I painted a lone harbor seal and the next day I saw a lone harbor seal watching my dogs from the shore break. I have […]
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I recently went down to Southern California for a short surf vacation. We went to the same town we’ve been going to for years because it’s charming, has good waves and as far as I can tell seems to have friendly people. The water is warmer than up north and the waves are cruisy no […]
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The other night a couple of friends and I were sitting around talking burritos because if you live in San Francisco, this just happens. Mexican food is major to us but burritos are our everything. If you live in the Mission, you can discuss burritos for hours. Everyone has a favorite spot or two and […]
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Welp, I have a weird eyeball now. A couple months ago I noticed a bright white spot on my eyeball surrounded by blood vessels. Of course I was like, “Okay, my worst nightmare has finally happened, I have eye cancer. I need to start preparing.” But then I visited the Google machine and it’s called […]
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My dog ReeRee’s seemingly super natural ability to have explosive and unpredictable diarrhea throughout the day, saved her life and brought her into our care. Her tormentor, the abuser that she lived with in a small studio apartment, couldn’t take it anymore. When she finally realized that cursing and hitting ReeRee wouldn’t put a stop […]
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This is one of my grossest posts yet but it’s tick season and I’m sick of having to pull engorged vampire insects off my dogs so I read up on them to figure out how to combat them and I figured I’d pass on everything I learned to you. My first question was, why do […]
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On the morning of August 6th 1945, the city of Hiroshima, Japan was virtually obliterated by an atomic bomb. Over a hundred thousand civilians and more than 20,000 military personal were killed within seconds of the American military plane, The Enola Gay, dropping the first atomic bomb ever used in a war. A few days […]
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A few months ago, when we were all still pretty deep into COVID, I did my monthly Trader Joe’s run. I was bagging up my groceries and chatting with the twenty something cashier about my grocery selection. “These shrimp are so good.” he said. “Great on the bbq.” “Yes!” I practically shouted and then continued […]
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It’s officially Spring and surf conditions are at their worst, which means it’s ear surgery season for surfers suffering from exostosis or surfer’s ear. Surfer’s ear is when bone grows in the ear canal to protect the eardrum from exposure to cold water and wind. The bone can eventually completely block the canal which results […]
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So last week Paper Source, a large chain stationery store, declared bankruptcy but not before they placed large orders with hundreds of small card businesses. Once all those orders shipped out and were in transit, they made their bankruptcy announcement. None of those small, mostly women owned businesses, are going to get paid. Then it […]
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When we first got ReeRee we thought we were just going to foster her. We immediately started searching for a new home for her because we thought having two large dogs in an apartment would be impossible. Our dog Jasmine loved her but two dogs, two pitbulls in a city apartment? No way. Yes, Jasmine […]
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For the past week I’ve been seeing a tiny little white dog that I’ve never seen before. It’s winter time so he’s always wearing a blue and yellow hooded sweater. Every day I see this dog. I think he might be visiting since I’ve never seen his mom before either and if he’s not with […]
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San Francisco is dirty. Really dirty and it’s only gotten worse during the pandemic. When the tent city was up on my block during the lockdown the trash got really bad. For some reason SF didn’t think they should put up a dumpster to collect the tent people’s trash so the people living in the […]
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So I guess the time has come for us to learn about the Domestic Terrorists that have become America’s greatest threat. The US Government and Law Enforcement Agencies have generally ignored these groups and made them seem okay by naming them “militias” which suggests some kind of Constitutional righteousness. But these “militia” groups aren’t patriots […]
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When we first rescued ReeRee we realized that she had a thing about her feet. She abhorred having her feet touch water. If it was raining, we would have to carry her outside, set her down on a dry spot under a tree and stand with an umbrella over her until she’d go pee. I […]
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Print out your game here! https://mailchi.mp/4002daf5d91c/a-calculating-parrot-e-pluribus-unum-join-the-sticker-club-and-i-still-love-you-california-5078758 I have literally watched all the Hallmark Holiday movies ever made and now I’m putting my years of knowledge to good use. I’ve put together this board game for you to build, color in, and then play! This board game will either spare you hours of Hallmark Movie watching, […]
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Years ago I broke my two front teeth snowboarding. I wasn’t doing anything rad and awesome, I was actually guffawing at a joke my brother had made. I threw my head back laughing as we walked, carrying our boards to the lift, then threw my head forward right into the metal edge of my board. […]
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Cardigan sweaters are my jam. I love a zip up sweater with a hood. But I’ll take one with no hood but a cool collar. I’d try one with snaps or buttons but have just never seen one I like because usually those make me look frumpy because buttons are usually put onto sweaters with […]
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There’s something very soothing about watching the same holiday movies that you have memorized every year when they pop up on tv. But since we’re in the middle of a pandemic and maybe everyone is extra bored, I thought I’d suggest a few holiday movies that aren’t played over and over again every holiday season. […]
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Butterhorns are a family tradition for me. I’m from a family of bakers so making rolls from scratch was no big deal growing up but I know that recipes that involve yeast can be really intimidating. Don’t worry, I swear you can do this! This recipe just takes patience and observation, which means I’m sure […]
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I was at Trader Joe’s today to pick up a couple of free range chickens for Thanksgiving. It was very busy due to the holiday. At the checkout, I let the young cashier know I was a bossy bagger so no need to bag my groceries, I’d do it. “Oh cool, thanks! That helps a […]
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The holidays are coming up and I’m sure a bunch of you are enthusiastic pie lovers that would love to have a homemade pie, hot out of the oven but you have no idea how to bake one. This year in particular will be a difficult one because your family’s designated pie baker might not […]
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The thing about abusers is that when you’re their victim, it feels like they are so powerful, manipulative, unrelenting, conniving and cruel that you will never be able to escape them. Over time the abuser isolates you from friends and family, shreds your self esteem and terrorizes you so badly that you become terrified to […]
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Driving home on the freeway yesterday I eased on the brakes on the winding downhill connection between Highway 1 and the 280 because of all the flashing police lights stopping traffic from taking the freeway entrance onto the Southbound side. As I continued past I could see police lights flashing on the other entrance across […]
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A bunch of snobs have been talking trash about Iceberg lettuce lately and I’m here to talk trash back. They write about how tasteless it is, a throwback to the fifties, when no one knew what good food was. “It’s so American!!! So old fashioned, a throw back!!” they proclaim. It’s tasteless? No lettuce is […]
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************************ I wrote this essay a few years ago when I started to realize that wildfires were going to become a norm every fall in California. I saw the PBS documentary, “Leave It To Beavers” when it came out and I’ve been obsessed with getting the word out about how much they could help to […]
Read more »With the announcement of the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it was a hard weekend for every American that cares about equality, animals, climate change, healthcare, women’s rights, pollution and a hundred other important issues affecting our future. So I’m writing this to talk myself down from my panic and devastation but I hope it […]
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A few weeks ago my friend Andrea called to tell me about her crow. She could see him from her bedroom window. He was living in her neighbor’s yard. He was hopping up and down and flapping his wings but was unable to take flight. “I think it’s okay.” She told me. “He’s surrounded by […]
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During this time of COVID, I feel like we are all pioneers now, trying to find our way in a new world. Our future is uncharted as we move through our lives blindly, trying to just feel our way around all the changes. With no government to really help us, we’re all floating around, trying […]
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One day this summer, at low tide on a waveless day, I was walking parallel to shore in the shallow water to rehab my injured knee. A lobster wandering the sea floor startled me enough that I let out a tiny, little wee scream but he left me alone and I went on my way. […]
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Sometimes, when I walk by a barking dog waiting outside a grocery store, I’ll stop and keep him or her company until the owner comes out. It calms the dog’s anxiety down and allows the owner to shop in peace without worrying about annoying everyone in the neighborhood with their barking dog. A couple of […]
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It’s summer, time for berry pie! For a few years I had an illegal pie cart called Pie Fridays http://www.piefridays.com) . I’d wheel it out onto the streets of San Francisco every weekend. I made all sorts of pies from Key Lime to Double Chocolate Raspberry Crumble. But I always loved the berry pies in […]
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When I was around thirteen I spent a summer living with my older sister. One of her part time jobs was to curate and run films for a movie night at the local library. One evening I was visiting her at the end of her shift when the janitor popped in to tidy up. They […]
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If you’re going to have a household accident that causes facial disfigurement or scarring, I would suggest that you should have that accident during a worldwide pandemic. Recently, while making Pupusas, hot oil splashed out of the pan and scattered all over my face, barely missing my eye. I now have large purple blotches and […]
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A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles At first Jasmine thought this was one of the most boring books ever written. She felt like the writer really loved to over describe things for no reason except for the luxury of it. “I mean,” panted Jasmine in exasperation, “there were entire pages dedicated to a book […]
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During the pandemic shut down I have hardly seen any pigeons. With all the restaurants and bars closed and everyone else sheltering in place there is no longer a free and easy food source where they can manically gather, gobbling up every crumb. I don’t see them fighting each other over every bean and grain […]
Read more »In 1859 an English naturalist and biologist named Charles Darwin published the book ‘On the Origin of The Species’. It was a book describing his new theory, the science of evolution, meaning that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. It introduced to the public the concept of “natural selection” known […]
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I knew the virus was coming for us. It started in China in 2019 and by February 2020 it was in Europe. Italy and Spain were completely in lockdown. Public health officials kept warning that San Francisco was two weeks behind Italy. In two weeks we would have more sick and dying than Italy if […]
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I’m a loud talker, my voice just travels. It’s probably not genetic though, my family jokes that it’s because the sister closest to me in age became hearing impaired in childhood so I subconciously just started talking loud so she could hear me. In the 70’s and 80’s some butcher doctors invented a surgery for […]
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While I’ve been sheltering in place, I’ve been thinking a lot about the 1976 sexy sci-fi movie called Logan’s Run. It’s a dystopian story that takes place in the year 2274 set in a protected, domed world that has a computer system for a government. The domed world is a society of beautiful young people […]
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I’ve been so psyched to have my veggie burger recipe (http://www.sundewhiteindustries.com/delicious-veggie-burger-recipe/) through this Shelter in Place world pandemic because it seems like it’s kind of difficult to get meat right now and because we’ve been enjoying our veggie burgers so much, I haven’t even worried about obtaining any meat. So I started to think about […]
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Back in the 1800’s, when the pioneers trudged across the Great Plains to build their new life on their homestead, they had to survive any way they could, they were on their own. When a woman got pregnant, she’d just have to get through it and pray for a safe delivery. Injured? Whelp, you’d better […]
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Since I’ve been in quarantine I have thought a lot about the gross and tragic story of Typhoid Mary. She was the first person identified as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever in the early 1900’s, a disease that causes fever, weakness, abdominal pain, a rash and sometimes death. A vaccine was created in the […]
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For a few months I had been reading on Twitter about some kind of epidemic over in China that doctors and experts that tracked that sort of thing seemed to be really freaking out about. They’d tweet out statistics and graphs trying to alert us regular people about how dangerous it was and how there […]
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I pretty much only eat sandwiches and lately I just haven’t really felt like eating meat so I got inspired to make a veggie burger that would leave me feeling satiated and is also really tasty and holds together well. Salting each element to your taste is really important to the overall flavor of the […]
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Years ago I went to a Surfrider talk given by a shark specialist that had been studying Great Whites around the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco for twenty years. He had tons of fascinating information about sharks and left us with some tips on how to know if there is a shark […]
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Every year in San Francisco there is an “Escape From Alcatraz” triathlon. The athletes start on Alcatraz island and swim 1.4 miles in the bay’s icy waters until they reach a beach in the Marina District where a crowd of on lookers form a runway of receiving lines that the swimmers run through high fiving […]
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I’m not proud to admit that I worked for years at a bar/restaurant that was so seedy that we employees nicknamed it “The Rat Spot”. I won’t say what street it was on because anyone that has lived in SF will immediately know the actual name of the place. When I worked there, the Mission […]
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Don’t be scared to make this pie. It has a few steps but none of them are very hard and I’ll break down all of them for you so it’s easier. You can cheat by buying a crust or whipped topping so all you have to do is make the filling but please don’t, if […]
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I haven’t had a good, uninterrupted night’s sleep in over twenty years. Not since I got my first dog DeeDee, a pitbull with very little need for personal space. Although back when I had her I was single so we made it work, sharing a whole bed between the two of us. Then my husband […]
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So Britt recently had a very unfashionable day and I’m pretty much totally to blame. He walked in from work after a full day as an electrician and I ask him, “Is that what you wore today???” He’s like, “Ya, I met with clients.” Met with clients??? Oh my god. “What??” He asks me. I […]
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In a wild land with strong rivers cutting through it on the way to the sea, there lived a man named Edgar that would walk down to one of these rivers to fish nearly every day. One spring morning he was baiting his hook when the largest bald eagle he had ever seen swooped down […]
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This Fall, when the water temperature dropped suddenly, I went to go buy my usual 5/4 (stands for 5 and 4 mm thick) hooded wetsuit from my favorite wetsuit company. I scrolled through the women’s section and became panicky when I couldn’t find any hooded 5/4 suits for women, just men. Having a great winter […]
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I pulled into the alley and stopped at my apartment’s back gate to load my boards into my truck. I sighed when I saw a guy at the fence, a few feet from my gate, squatting down and hunched over something on the ground. “Oh gross.” I thought to myself, assuming he was a drug […]
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With crows standing up to 21 inches high and weighing about a pound with a wingspan between 35-40 inches, a sharp beak and wily intelligence, I always figured a crow would be a sure winner over the seagull in a beach battle. But this week I saw an actual seagull vs. crow battle take place […]
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ReeRee The Testaments Margaret Atwood As a feminist, ReeRee thinks the long awaited, well timed sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale is great. Usually she doesn’t like books told by a few different narrators but in this case it is really effective in answering all the questions she’s ever had about the dystopian country, The […]
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Every California surfer lives for October. The bigger swells start to roll in, the weather is beautiful, offshore winds arrive holding up each peak perfectly and summer crowds go home. But for the past few years October has become a fiery hellscape for all Californians as every year we wake up one morning smelling smoke […]
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After Britt and I had been together a couple of years we took our first trip back to his home country of New Zealand to visit his family for Christmas. Along with his mom Judy, we arrived in Gisborne, a quiet seaside town, jet lagged but excited to be there. We were staying with Britt’s […]
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James was a bartender at the restaurant where I worked as a dishwasher and line cook. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. He was like a sculpture or a model. He was the only person I had ever met that actually worked out in a gym and was compulsively healthy, always […]
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I was still a teenager, maybe 18, when I was living in San Francisco in a large Victorian flat on the third floor. My roommates were all adults in their 30’s and all except one were lesbians that were cool and powerful and fixed their motorbikes on the sidewalk downstairs. I was very intimidated by […]
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While jogging on the beach last week I noticed a seagull standing alone, further up on the beach than the other seagulls that were all eating big crabs left over from high tide at the water line. As I ran past I realized that he was holding his foot up, just resting his toe on […]
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I hate lettuce on sandwiches and hamburgers because it is always applied wrong. When done wrong lettuce is a second thought put on in the rush of burger and sandwich making. “For the crunch.” People mumble to themselves as they stick a leaf of limp, veiny, green, solidified watery vegetable onto the mayonnaise of their […]
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Welp, Ollie the dog has taken the Hamburger Hot Rod Express up to heaven and we will all miss him terribly. I only got to know Ollie when he was a bit older. He visited us one Christmas when his family went away for the holidays. I had never met such a confident dog. He […]
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I’ve been working a lot of art festivals the past couple of summers and I keep seeing many versions of this dancing lady. She can be found dancing in the dry grass to the live band or sitting on the hay bails waiting for the live music to begin. She usually has a big hat […]
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The first time I saw someone get shot I was about 16 or 17 and had moved into my San Francisco neighborhood the year before. SF’s Mission District at that time, was a little bit like the wild west. Gangs, shootings, stabbings, trash everywhere, needles, heroin addicts nodding off standing up, while trying not to […]
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I went to move my truck for street cleaning this morning a little before nine. In my peripheral vision I saw what seemed to be a homeless lady that was maybe a little bit nutty, walking towards me in a pretty rose colored short bathrobe and white slippers. Well those aren’t going to stay clean […]
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I’ve been really into frozen treats lately so I thought I’d invent a delicious easy one for summer. Introducing the Frozen Elvis! A chocolate covered peanut butter and banana frozen treat. Here’s what you’ll need. Ingredients: Peanut Butter 2 Bananas cut in half width wise ************** 1 Cup Chocolate Chips 2 tbsp salted butter 2 […]
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Last week Britt and I went to a wedding. It was a quintessentially American wedding in that it joined two people, with two different cultures and heritages together. At this wedding a first generation Chinese/Vietnamese American bride was marrying an Irishman that had only just arrived here a few years ago. Speaking with a strong […]
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On Thursday Britt woke up with a sore throat. “God Dammit,” he said. “I’m sick.” “What??? It’s summer time. Get away from me though.” I told him. “You know who gave it to me?” he asked. “ A little kid?” “Dr. Coolum.” “The root canal dentist?” “Ya, he was coughing and had sniffles the whole […]
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We kept ReeRee for Jasmine’s sake. Jasmine loved her obsessively from the moment she met her. Ree Ree helped Jasmine to forget all her fears. When they were together Jasmine no longer refused to go down stairs, or get out of the car at the beach, walk down a city sidewalk, frozen with fear. With […]
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It’s been a difficult few months for me for a bunch of reasons that I think I’ll get into as time goes on but for now I’m looking for some input from anyone who feels they grew up in a fairly stable and loving household that helped form them into a stable and kind adult. […]
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Supposedly the Popsicle was invented in Oakland by an 11 year old named Frank Epperson in 1905. The story goes that he accidentally invented them by mixing sugary soda powder with water and then accidentally put sticks in them and then accidentally left them outside and then they accidentally froze over night. Then he went […]
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I’ve been sucking it up and just getting on with things all week while I recover from ear surgery and it reminded me of a day where I was horrible and mean and terrible to Britt and demanded that he suck it up. Years ago we went on an early season snowboard trip. The mountain […]
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So tomorrow tiny magical elves will sneak into my ear canal and chip away all the bone growth that has formed because I’ve surfed in cold water for 30 years. JK, actually it will be Dr. Gupta but it seems way less scary to just think I’m going to take a nap and magical elves […]
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How do you figure out you have no self esteem if you have no self esteem to tell you? I started a plant and garden care business at twenty one because I hated working for people and also I was never going to get hired for anything other than low paying, soul sucking jobs. At […]
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Because of her upbringing, ReeRee can go from zero to 1000 on the anxiety scale within seconds. Over reacting is her thing. When she’s stressed she growls, lunges, nibbles and then frantically kisses where she’s nibbled, begging you to forgive her. Being restricted in any way triggers her anxiety and she can lash out, so […]
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First of all, I hate crowds so I really can’t stand crowded yoga classes. But I’m really trying to do two yoga classes a week because it calms my mind, makes me more focused and reduces sports injuries. So today, since I hadn’t done my second yoga class, I forced myself to go to a […]
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Definition of Feminism (noun): The advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. Political, economic and social equality of the sexes. For some reason some men and women don’t like the word feminism or feminist. Predictably, the word has been weaponized by society so a larger block of the population […]
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So I spent all winter, recovering from one cold or another, hugging my heater and watching The Great British Bake Off on Netflix. Oh my gosh, this show! So soothing and relaxing, so British! The contestants win nothing but a glass cake plate and some flowers but they weep when they win. And the other […]
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The police would always come up behind me and quietly stand in my blind spot, waiting for me to notice them. I’d follow my suddenly silent pie customer’s eyes and turn to find them standing there. They were always very polite and kind but it would kill my business for that night. My line of […]
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So my cheap landlord hired a grifting contractor that has suddenly found a thousand things that have to get done with our apartment. The contractor decided that he needed to fix our bathroom subfloor around our toilet even though we’ve never had our toilet leak before. He casually informed my husband that they’d be doing […]
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Everybody talks about fresh cut fries like they’re a good thing but in reality, almost always, they are just okay. Ya, if you get them seconds out of the fryer when they are still soft and piping hot then they’re fine but that is rarely what happens. Or, what if you’re like me and want […]
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I am officially announcing a new holiday to replace the current single shaming, romance pressuring, limp rose, Hallmark invented holiday of Valentine’s Day. I present to you: Dogentine’s Day! No love is as pure as the love between a dog and their person. My first Dogentine was dropped off at my apartment by a friend. […]
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When I was 15 and living with my sister, we would fill our stomachs once a week at the Hare Krishna house across town during their weekly community meal. They would welcome us warmly and usher us into the house. My sister and I would sit in the middle of a pool of orange robed […]
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Recipe: 1 heaping cup of chocolate chips ½ cup heavy cream Pinch of salt Splash of vanilla Note: You can melt this in the microwave but watch it carefully because chocolate chips always burn and melt unevenly so you’ll have to take out and mix every 10 seconds or so. Directions: In a […]
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I walked by an inspiring blackbird in a parking lot the other day. His foot was perfectly severed and had healed back cleanly, with no clumpy scar left over so his leg looked like a piece of dry spaghetti, except it was black. And he didn’t care at all. He was just hopping around in […]
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I recently watched the 2013 Academy Award winning documentary, “Searching For Sugar Man”, about an amazing musician named Rodriguez, that was discovered in the late sixties in Detroit and released a couple of albums in the early seventies. His music is played throughout the movie and I found it to be beautiful and gritty. Both […]
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I’ve been feeling kind of, “Whah! Poor me!” lately. Will I ever get to where I want to be professionally? Is anybody out there who cares? Maybe it’s the political situation that is seeping into me and bumming me out. The entire shutdown of the US government is not reassuring. Or it’s last week’s head […]
Read more »A couple of years ago, outside of my apartment, a pigeon flew past me frantically flapping his wings but barely being able to fly higher than about my shoulder. A pink plastic bag was attached to his foot. With each attempt to fly, just as he was becoming airborne, the bag would fill with air […]
Read more »So I found a new American Hero this year. His name is Jordan Blue and he is a high school student at Baraboo High School in Wisconson. A photo of him during his heroic act shows him in an old timey tuxedo, quarky, with a red bow tie and pocket square, standing in a group […]
Read more »I saw this dad walking along Valencia street one morning. The giant toddler he was carrying was actually bigger than I drew him because I thought it would look like I was exaggerating. I don’t know if the dad was short or the toddler had exceptionally long legs but I swear to god his legs […]
Read more »I woke up to an orange sky and a heavy brown haze hanging over the city. Smoke from a fire a few hundred miles away was pressing down on San Francisco. For the second year in a row I dawned my dust mask every time I left the house and a coating of ash settled […]
Read more »When I was 18 I didn’t care at all about voting. I was a skate boarder working as a dishwasher and living in a tiny apartment in San Francisco with two guys that were pot addicts that played video games all day. The first time I even thought that about voting was when I walked […]
Read more »Remember back in the 80’s when we’d settle around the TV to watch Miami Vice on a Saturday night and every time there was a drug dealer on there’d also be ferociously barking Rottweilers and German Shepherds? And everyone was like, omg, Rotweilers and German Shepherds are so scary, only drug dealers have them! Well […]
Read more »Last week a couple of American cities were wiped out from a giant hurricane. The people in Florida are still in desperate need of help so please visit AmericanRedCross.org if you’d like to help. I watched Hurricane Michael on TV as it was coming to shore. It pulled sheets of steel off of gymnasiums, uprooted […]
Read more »Remember last week when, for 25 minutes, America listened and believed a sexual assault victim? And then the accuser got his say and started crying and shouting at us and everyone was like, “Gee, okay, if you’re that upset about it she must be lying.” ? Me too. The thing about Dr.Ford’s testimony that was […]
Read more »Jasmine looks adorable no matter what, obviously, but I’m going to be honest with you—she does have a tendency to over accessorize. This is her every day out and about style. She’s kind of a safety first type of dog so most of her outfit is for her own protection. Like, she has one collar […]
Read more »I used to take care of a lonely cockatoo named Buddy. His home was a greenhouse in the backyard of his owner’s house that was rarely there. I was supposed to clean his glass house and feed him when Tony, the owner, was out of town. At first I was terrified of the big bird […]
Read more »A few years ago an historically huge swell hit the Bay Area. It was too massive for us to surf anywhere but Britt and I wanted to witness it. We drove along the coast oohing and aahing as giant mountains of water collapsed and rolled over on themselves, exploding into the shallower water inside. Highway […]
Read more »Pitbulls were once known as the Nanny Dog and the dog of the working class people. It was the most common type of dog in America. The pitbull’s warm and sensitive nature and interest in pleasing their owner is why they are beloved pets but it is also why they are taken advantage of by […]
Read more »San Francisco has a poo problem. Not a dog poo problem, we have a very large dog poo police force here where you can be bending down about to scoop up your dogs poo and some poo policeman will ask, “Are you going to pick that up?” Or more passive aggressively they’ll ask, “Do […]
Read more »Fact: Senior dogs are the best dogs. They know the routine, how to communicate, how to act. They’re polite, gentle, disciplined and calm. It seems like they can read your mind, they’re always prepared for your every move. They don’t bound and spring through the world anymore, but who cares? Neither do older humans. […]
Read more »In celebration of Wimbledon I thought I would share a fashion analysis of the most accessorized player ever in the game, Andre Agassi. In 1992 he won his first major, Wimbledon, and his outfit was nuts. I don’t know how he did it when he was so weighed down with all of his fashion don’ts. […]
Read more »So it turns out that if you have a closed plastic bag of Hershey chocolate minis in a small compartment at the bottom of an 80 pound suitcase full of craft supplies locked in the camper shell of your truck in Tahoe, a bear will know. Wandering by, late at night, he will smell chocolate, […]
Read more »I finally figured out this spring how to successfully launch a white fly eating brigade of ladybugs successfully into my garden. Every year I used to try to use ladybugs to kill bugs but it was never effective. Then a nice gal at my local hardware store gave me these tips and they worked! Here […]
Read more »A guy on a motorcycle passed me yesterday by driving around me on the wrong side of the road. I glanced over at him and saw the he was wearing a helmet, a leather jacket and flip flops. The flip flops made me cringe. My mind flashed back to the motorcycle accident that happened outside […]
Read more »Because my dog ReRe is an innovative go getter she made the decision early on that when she has to poop at the beach it’s best to wade knee deep into the ocean and let the waves immediately dissolve and wash away any evidence of it. This makes people furious. They like to lecture me […]
Read more »Last week there was a break in the incessant wind and fog of spring on the coast. The sun came out and the surf calmed down at my favorite beach. It was a Tuesday so the beach was empty. The dogs and I were the only ones that saw the big grey whale surface just […]
Read more »***I am not a doctor! This is not medical advice, just my personal life experience! Please just go to a doctor, thanks!*** ___________________________________________________________________________ I didn’t have health insurance for about twelve years. During this time I tried to eat right, exercise and prayed I wouldn’t get into an accident. I became really good […]
Read more »I consider my high top Vans to be my dress shoe and my Adidas shell toes to be my casual shoe.
Read more »Britt and I were enjoying one of the last warm days of fall, sitting in the water at Ocean Beach, waiting for a wave, when we saw it. At first we thought it was a rogue local storm raining down in the water south of us. But it was moving and reshaping itself unlike any […]
Read more »I recently witnessed the greatest moment of work rebellion ever. You know when you’re at work and you’re like, “No one’s the boss of me. You may have my physical body for the next 8 hours, but you can’t have my mind.” ? It was basically that sentiment being acted out with a six wheel […]
Read more »I’ve had a dream of growing grass in my mud pit of a backyard ever since I got my big, glorious dog Jasmine. Her two favorite things to do are relaxing and luxuriating and relaxing and luxuriating on grass. So this September I dug out all the useless clay soil around my patio and replaced […]
Read more »One morning last year, I got up before dawn to move my truck so I wouldn’t get a street cleaning ticket. I swung the door open and gasped. There he was, my neighbor’s raccoon. She had told me recently that there was a family of them living under her house. He was sitting on my […]
Read more »Just a quick note to let everyone know to check the events section of my website to find out where find me selling my stuff this summer. I’m adding on a bunch of new spinners, an expanded table set up and a lot of new product including magnets and some original art. See you soon!
Read more »As part of our switch to doing all sales in house and not going to trade shows anymore, I thought I should jazz up my in store sales strategy. So here you go! It’s a super cute sales display cabinet named Roger. Stay tuned to all of his adventures. He will charm your pants […]
Read more »2016 was a weird one. We lost so many rad people. Here’s some portraits of them. Wishing everyone a beautiful and inspiring 2017–no matter what the political climate is, great art and ideas can still be made.
Read more »Well I’m really excited for January because I’m coming out with four 8×10 inch lithograph prints and three 10×14 inch lithograph prints. What’s a lithograph? It’s the same as offset printing. It provides the sharpest, brightest, clearest image possible out of any other printing method. Even the best digital printers can’t duplicate the clarity of […]
Read more »Cat Cat Chanel was awesome because she freed women from restrictive corsets and big, heavy dresses. This was important because how can a woman change the world if she’s suffocating and overheating dragging around a giant dress, stuffed into a corset? She was put in an orphanage as a child but built an empire as […]
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