Between Posts - London Charing Cross

Billboard at Charing Cross Station in London England. 


Still on blogger break. 

Between Posts - London Style

Horse Guards in London, England

Mounted cavalry trooper posted daily from 10 am to 4 pm.

***

Still on blogger break. 

Between Posts - London Underground

Hope you're enjoying your summer.

Between Posts - New Orleans Style

Telephone pole on Magazine Street in New Orleans, Louisiana

Taking my summer break from blogging now. I will be publishing pre-scheduled posts in the next few weeks.

Enjoy the summer!

Inspired by Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos.

The Blogger Beast

Getty Images

For twenty years I worked as a software developer which offered me limited opportunity to express myself creatively. Even though problem solving often requires thinking out of the box, I had no idea that I still had oodles of pent up creativity locked inside me until I retired. I was surprised how hungry I was to feed the need to create. It was like an ever-hungry beast lived inside me.

To quel The Beast, I made wreaths and floral arrangements, painted elaborate banners for my kids' elementary school, accepted more calligraphy jobs, took a Photoshop class, and several floristry classes. I even accepted a few event jobs where I provided all the decorations for weddings and bat mitzvahs. 

It turns out that these activities only whetted The Beast's appetite. Then I learned about the world of blogging. The Beast stepped up her appetite and became The Blogger Beast. 

There are times when I simply can not devote my time to feeding her, and then she slyly morphs herself into a hungry child, sweetly enticing me to feed her, one small morsel at a time. I have a choice; shall I let her go hungry or indulge her with fast food?

 

Getty Images

Though it hasn’t happened yet, will the time ever come when she will refuse to be fed? Will she become like a petulant child refusing to be fed?

 

Getty images

I'm usually cooking up something for The Beast. On the front burner is the very next meal, almost ready to serve. On the back burner some ideas are simmering, in the fridge some thoughts are marinating, and on the counter I'm slicing and dicing the next post.

 

Getty Images 

Sometimes I'm just planning the menu, figuring out what to feed her next. What would be delicious for my diners? Which ingredients would I like to surround myself with? How many courses should I make? It seems my Blogger Beast sometimes enjoys multi-course meals.

Then there are the times when I have to run out to get more ingredients.  If I'm lucky, I already have them in my pantry of photos, or at Getty Images or in Flickr's Creative Commons store, but sometimes I have to wait until I have time to go out to shoot. Other times I can borrow a cup of images from my neighbors like Fogbay.

Now that this is my 100th post, I realize that The Blogger Beast may not be a beast after all. Maybe she's a Blogger Sprite who only morphs into a beast only when unfed. She is a frequent presence showing me her point of view. She sits on my shoulder and points out yummy things to eat, whispering in my ear how it would make a great dish. She reminds me to carry my camera, just in case we happen upon a perfect ingredient for a future meal. Right now she is a great friend who is great company and relatively undemanding.

  

To celebrate my 100th post, I would like to have a dinner party with my blogger friends. I will of course invite Tangobaby who introduced me to the wonderful world of blogging.

Relyn will grace the evening with the uplifting, soothing, spa-like atmosphere as we come sit by her fire. Cuban in London will provide us with a great playlist filled with music a propos for the occasion. Lala will fly in from her Castle in Spain to set the table with style and grace.  No need to have wardrobe angst, The Sartorialist will provide heaps of inspiration. On the walls, we can have a never-ending parade of exhibits featuring Elsa Mora's intricate papercuts, or photos provided by Ramsey at Fogbay or Robin at Birdtweets. All will join the round table of discussion. Also at the table is the ever-interesting, multi-talented Ruth from Synch-ro-ni-zing. We can go on and on about how much we love Paris. While we are talking about travel, who better to join the conversation than the flight attendant at Postcards and Coasters and Tara at Paris Parfait? When the conversation turns political, Tara will chime in with her insightful knowledge Middle Eastern politics and culture. Gabby could regale us with some of his gripping tales. The conversation will, no doubt, turn to movies, at which time we can call upon Hollywood producer, William Horberg, for his considerable expertise in the all things film, cartooning and graphic illustrations. What a fine time we will all have in each others’ company.

This is also the perfect occasion to pay forward the wonderful awards Tangobaby bestowed upon me and others many moons ago. All of you here at the dinner party, I would like to raise my glass to you and express my admiration for your talents by giving you these awards. If you haven’t already been given this award, please come up and grab them.  If you’ve already been honored with these awards, a pair is always nice. The great news is that you will have no time limit for your acceptance speeches and you will have the opportunity to pay forward these awards to your favorite bloggers.

 

Thank you, Tangobaby for these awards and for your inspiration!

Gone Fishing

Photo by
Today is a Good Day at Flickr

Kids are on spring break.

Fogbay

San Francisco City Hall

Today I would like to celebrate one of the hidden treasures of San Francisco. Five days per week, Ramsey posts to his wonderful photo and history blog Fogbay. Whether you are a native or perspective tourist, his blog is worth a visit every day. If you are a San Francisco ex-pat, he will tug at your heartstrings with longing. His images have appeared on Dutchbaby in the past, but here is a larger sampling. It is worthwhile to follow the links below the photos to read his posts.

He takes stunning photos of the iconic places in the City:

 

Palace of Fine Arts

but he will also tell you about the gardener who maintains the beautiful gardens at the foot of Coit Tower :

 

Coit Tower

One of my favorite buildings in San Francisco is the City of Paris building, currently occupied by Neiman Marcus.

City of Paris Building

He gives excellent advice for tourists:

 

Barbary Coast

He is not squeamish about telling the violent side of a story, as in the story behind the top photo.

He finds interesting historic nuggets to share for every photo, even from culinary history:

Big Squid Chinatown

He finds unique places to visit that many natives don’t know about. If you are a runner, you may consider running near Fort Point and tag Hopper’s Hands when you reach the end of the trail:

 

Hopper’s Hands

Even your pooch has a place to tag:

 

Ramsey is nearing his 1,000th post, so there are many, many more posts here to wile away the time.

Six-Word Memoirs

Thursday night my friend Camille called me up to ask where she could buy the green stuff that florists use. I knew that she and her daughter Cressida were hosting a literary luncheon at the Stanford Grill. Camille had invited me when she was at my house about a month ago. She told me that the theme was going to be six-word memoirs and gave a couple of examples. I was intrigued and sat down to write mine without hesitation. I thought about what events in my life defined me and came up with: "Indonesia: survived. Amsterdam-grown. Paradise found!" The punctuation came later that night.

After Camille left, I looked around my calligraphy supplies looking for suitable paper to write my memoir. Years ago my mother gave me a large roll of antiqued silver paper that she found at a garage sale. I always loved this paper but could never find a use for it. It is not acid-free, so it is unsuitable for scrapbooks and it is too fragile to tie into a bow, but it was perfect for this event.

When Camille called about the green floral foam, she told me that she was going to make six floral arrangements. Six? I said. Why don't we create six table names? I have the perfect paper. We brainstormed and came up with: lyrical, harmonic, athletic, aesthetic, adventurous, and inquisitive. I offered to write out the guests’ six-word memoirs as they arrived. Did she need any help with the flowers? Sure, let's meet in the morning.

Friday was a great day filled with flowers and calligraphy.

The Saturday luncheon was pure fun.

Guests selected their tables:

Cressida, who works at our favorite independent bookstore Kepler’s, explained the idea of six-word memoirs came about when Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a six-word story. His response was “For sale: babies shoes, never worn.”

In 2006, Smith Magazine challenged its readers to write six-word memoirs. The response was viral. The first book they published as a result of this challenge is “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure” and their second book “Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak” published just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Camille shuffled all the papers before we read each others’ memoirs, allowing for anonymity, but it turns out most of us had no problem claiming ownership. The women outdid themselves. Their memoirs ranged from humorous:

"I tried my best, pobody's nerfect"

to poignant:

"Dad died, Mom cried, I tried."

and everything in between:

“Love at first sight, many times.”

“Two children, I watch in wonder.”

“Ready to climb the highest mountain.”

“I gladly take time to listen.”

“Married, worked, raised kids, finding way.”

“Every day is happily ever after.”

“Dropped ball in Little League, survived.”

Camille then challenged us to write another six words inspired by our table name. I can tell you that it gets easier with practice and over-thinking makes you loose your mojo . After a while, we found ourselves counting words on our fingers every time we heard someone say something memorable. I might as well warn you now, this can be addictive.

Thank you, Camille and Cressida, for a fun afternoon of reflection and inspiration!

How about you? What is your six-word memoir?

Interview with Relyn

questions questions by Rock Alien at flickr

Our neighborhood of the blogosphere has caught an interview virus. Relyn at Come Sit By My Fire caught it from Willow of Life at Willow Manor and I caught it from Relyn. The idea is that Relyn offered to interview those who choose to participate. Participants, in turn, will offer to interview their readers. The rules are at the end of this post.

I decided ask Relyn to interview me. Thank you Relyn for your thoughtful questions! Here are three of her five questions.

1. You can I know that you are fluent in more than one language. Please tell us about that. How many languages do you speak and read? Do you have much occasion to use languages other than English in your current daily life? Do you find yourself thinking in your original language or in English? (OK. I can count. I know that's three. What can I say? I'm interested.

I don’t speak as many languages as you would think.

photo by yeowatzup at flickr

I was born in Java, Indonesia where we spoke Indonesian which is a derivative of Malay.

Photo by thegshow at flickr

When I was almost six years old we moved to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. My father was eager for us to learn Dutch, because he wanted us to succeed in school, so he spoke exclusively Dutch to us as soon as we were able to comprehend it. My mother had no interest in perpetuating Indonesian in our household since she didn’t have very many good memories from seven years in Java. It didn’t take long for me to almost entirely loose the Indonesian language, except I can still order from an Indonesian menu. I’m very grateful for this skill because Indonesian food is spectacularly delicious.

Photo by FogBay

When I was eleven we moved to the US. We all regretted that my sisters and I did not retain Indonesian, so when we came to America we did make an effort to continue to speak Dutch. My Dutch is not very good any more because it’s been over forty years since I last lived in Holland. When I speak Dutch to a native speaker, I get a lot of funny looks. Once, a Dutch friend said to me, “Speaking to you is like speaking to a time capsule”.

Another one said, “What are you, eighty years old?”

All living languages evolve over time but since I am not exposed to Dutch very much, my Dutch vocabulary never grew or evolved, and in fact seriously faded. We don’t go back to the Netherlands very often, but when we do, it takes a couple of days for the Dutch to reply back in Dutch to me. When they hear my fractured attempt, they automatically speak in English to me. It’s humiliating.

When my daughter was born, I intermittently spoke Dutch to her for the first couple of years of her life but she really didn’t tolerate it very well. She would squeeze my lips together and say, “No, Mommy, no”. When my son was born, I resolved to speak Dutch to him one hundred percent of the time. I lasted until he was about three or four years old, but my Dutch was not strong enough to carry on a nuanced conversation. I rarely speak Dutch to my kids any more, strictly due to my laziness, but they both understand my personal “eighty-year-old” version of Dutch.

Every few months I get a stack of Dutch gossip magazines passed down from one of my mother’s friends. I try to plow through them before I get the next stack. It’s not my first choice of reading but it can be very entertaining to read about Madonna, Brad and Angelina from the Dutch point of view.

As for other languages, I took French in junior high, German in high school, a couple of quarters of French in college, and one semester of Italian at a local community college just prior to our trip to Italy in 2005. Of these, German is my strongest language, but it’s nothing to brag about. I’m told I speak German with a Dutch accent even though I learned it in America.

With the exception of a few unique words or phrases here and there, I think exclusively in English.

2. You have excellent taste in children's and young adult literature. How did that come about? What is it about that genre that appeals to you?

Peggy Rathmann's Officer Buckle and Gloria

When we lived in Amsterdam, my father was a scientific editor for Elsevier, a very old publishing company, so were surrounded by books at all times. I still own the two volumes of fairy tales that I read over and over again as a child. Books are great tools to teach, comfort, and inspire anybody, but I believe they are especially important for children.

I have many fond memories of reading to my children when they were younger. We read every night at bedtime; it is a fantastic way to end the day on an up note. When the kids were in the picture book phase, we went to the children’s library every Wednesday afternoon and we usually checked out forty books, the maximum allowed. It didn't take long for us to all forty books every week.

My favorite gifts for babies and young children are books because you can never have too many books. As a consequence, people often ask me for book recommendations for their children. Now I list many children’s and young reader books on my Goodreads list, so I just give them a link.

My hope is that my children will be lifelong readers.

  3. You have traveled extensively, including time in the Galapagos Islands. Please tell us your favorite travel destination and share why you love it so much.

My favorite travel destination is my next destination. I know that’s cheating, but since you cheated on the number of questions…

The reason why I say that is that I’m always yearning to see new places, meet new people, observe new animals, buy new things, eat new foods, touch new buildings, see new art, and experience new experiences. I enjoy the planning of a trip almost as much as going on the trip itself. Now, with blogging, I think I will enjoy reliving it and sharing it as another dimension of the trip.

I am currently making our summer plans, but I'm not quite ready to reveal the destination yet. It will be a surprise.

Next time I will answer Relyn's remaining two questions.

If you would like to be interviewed by me, leave me a note in the comment section. Give me a few days to send your five questions. Here's the scoop:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Gratitude and Dreams - The Party

I am still feeling the glow of being surrounded by our wonderful friends and reflecting on the sentiments of heartfelt Gratitude and Dreams shared at our party on Saturday.

 

My daughter came through once again with running many errands, including chasing down the last bit of caviar left in Palo Alto (note to self: buy caviar before New Year's Eve, not on the second!), and by cooking homemade peppermint bark, two pies, and 75 tiny red potatoes stuffed with artichoke hearts and topped with lemon zest and minced garlic.

Michelle Bailey, The Roving Gourmet, made the rest of the food. My favorites were the mini blinis that melted like clouds in my mouth. I could have had twenty, but I had my guests to consider. The home-made gravlax, sushi, and herb-stuffed turkey breast were also very popular.

 

Last but not least, I received a package of delectable home-made chocolate truffles from Edi the day before the party. Thank you, Edi, they were out of this world!

I rang the jingle-bell to gather the crowd in the living room to share our journal entries.

 

Here’s a sampling of what our guests shared:

Gratitude 2008:

• My Dad turning 80, on a Sierra wilderness trip with his sons
• Almost finished the back yard greenhouse
• 50 fingers/50 toes are still intact
• The brow beating to complete college applications is over for now
• 45 years of marriage with the prospect of many more
• The end of the dark ages, i.e. The Bush Years
• Having a job in a tough economy
• Moving away from an unloving relationship … moving on with my life to restore my ability to care, love, and create…
• All five of us survived Hurricane Ike as our Partay Garage Tailgate Generator kit saved our day (7 days actually)

Dreams 2009:

• To hear a sweet little voice say for the very first time “Mormor” (grandmother in Swedish)
  
• College goers score summer internships
  
• Wife gets backyard re-model,  post Hurricane Ike
  
• To think less and do more about my dream to own my own little store/studio
  
• Help preserve local history of Palo Alto
  
• We will have enough rain this season for a good crop of apricots and tomatoes
  
• Travel to re-awaken that part of me that loves far away places
  
• Restoring economy
  
• Maybe go see our second solar eclipse

May all your dreams come true in 2009!

Gratitude and Dreams

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!

Live the life you’ve imagined.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 -1862)

Nearly every year since 1998, we throw a "Gratitude & Dreams" party. We invite our friends to write what made them grateful in the past year and what their dreams are for the coming year. I now have a binder filled with our guests’ past Gratitudes & Dreams.

Here is a sampling of our friends' past Gratitude entries:

• Thankful for “Popcorn” the school bunny.
• Our son cleaned his room.
• Being able to see stars again (after cataract surgery).
• Boyfriend came home from Iraq safe and sound.
• The robbers only took our jewelry and not our computer or committed identity theft.
• How great it is to live in California, appreciating this more every year.
• Survived 25 years of marital bliss(ters).
• For having met a wonderful woman several years ago and in 2006 she agreed to become my wife.

And some of their past Dreams entries:

• To master “Für Elise”.
• Learn not to shudder when George W. appears on TV (January 2001).
• Hike up Mt. Ranier.
• Teach my daughter how to paint.
• Music gigs 30 minutes or less from home.
• Study to become an excellent Rodin art docent.
• Start writing the stories in my head.
• To grow more fragrant roses.
• San Jose Sharks make the playoffs.
• Stop comparing my children to vicious dogs or village idiots, at least out loud. (I assure you, she's kidding!)

Here are my entries for this year. In 2008 I am grateful that:

• My family was blessed with good health and able bodies.
• My mother has healed and can live independently again.
• I am blessed with a saint of a husband who supports me, in spite of all my crazy passions.
• We are blessed with two children who make me burst with love and pride.
• Our daughter was super-organized about applying to colleges and already got accepted to two colleges.
• Our son has a great set of friends and is enjoying high school.
• I am blessed with friends who nourish my soul.
• The right candidate won the presidential election.
• I have been introduced to the wonderful world of blogging.

For 2009, I dream that our blessings continue and

• Our president will continue his focus on leading our nation, from darkness into the light, for all the right reasons and that he will be blessed with wisdom and strength to be a guiding light for a better and safer world.
• Our ailing family members will heal.
• We can all weather these tough economic times and can show compassion for each other.
• People will have equal rights and equal opportunities to succeed, be able to marry the one they love, and choose what happens to their bodies.
• Our children find their bliss and continue on their path of becoming responsible and compassionate citizens of the world.
• Our daughter will be happy and be able pursue her passions in college.
• Our son will be safe and careful on his new BMX bicycle.
• My husband continues to enjoy his work and will be able to spend more time riding trains and making films.
• I give away what I don't need and organize every closet.

What made you grateful this year and what are your dreams for next year?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

This morning started rainy and cold. Cold by wimpy California standards, that is. I was bracing myself for a rough Monday morning drive because this is the first rain in a long time and the roads are slick.

Five minutes into my drive, I quickly rolled down the window and snapped the photo above before the light turned green. Well that turned my mood around. Then I was greeted by this sight:

Do you think there is there a pot of gold between those two trees?

Only a few hundred yards down the road, I pulled over once again because now there is double reason to celebrate:

All these rainbows made be think of Israel Kamakawiwo Ole's version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

Somewhere Over the Rainbow


Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over therainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.

Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

--music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg

May all the dreams you dare to dream really come true!