Squash!

Looks like I'm going to have some butternuts this fall!

Weekends, Etc.

Well, I have once again been too busy living to remember to blog about it, so we have a lot of catching up to do.

In the last three weeks I've been to two screenings at the gorgeous, historic Paramount Theater in Oakland (Jaws and Back to the Future), had more of my friend Hannah's incredible doughnuts (with banana custard this time!) at Broadway Bites, had some awesome meals at Plum, Millenium, Cotogna, Camino, Lulu, Saravanaa, Bar Agricole, and Cafe Jacqueline, took a hike with my friend Kelsey and our dogs, went to the Yolo County Fair (best pupusas ever!), drank fancy cocktails at Comstock, the Hotsy Totsy Club, and Wilson & Wilson Detective Agency and wine at Yield, got sunburnt on the beach, went to two ballgames, helped my friend Jenn hand-color her wedding invitations, spent a night watching YouTube videos with girlfriends, attended a rooftop bacon party, saw my friends the Wrong Words play, went on an art deco walking tour of downtown Oakland, did another juice cleanse, sold antiques at Alameda Point, drove to Los Angeles for a weekend of Malibu beaches, fancy parties in the Hollywood Hills, watching my friend Myles' improv show, eating at Gjelina and the Larder, and most importantly, MOTORHOME DEMO DERBY at the Orange County Fair. Whew! Without furhter ado, I present the evidence:




yes, that is a chocolate covered corndog



prosciutto, burrata and grilled nectarines at gjelina in venice


malibu


wild plums kelsey and i foraged in the oakland hills





cibo per strada banana doughnuts


fraises de bois in my garden


photo op at the yolo county fair













assorted street food


elvis-themed fireworks at this weekend's oakland athletics' pyrospectacular

Volvo Watch 2011!

When I was 16 my father and I had a serious discussion about finding me a car. I desperately wanted a VW Karman Ghia (most likely inspired by Molly Ringwald's in "Pretty in Pink"), but he insisted I get a Volvo for safety reasons. The compromise was a cherry red 1969 P1800S, which we purchased from a nice man in our neighborhood, and which satisfied both his criteria (safety) and mine (style). After seven years of ownership I was in a bad accident and lost my beloved car, but was able to find another one from the same year (in blue), which I have been driving ever since (almost another seven). The P1800 series was made for just a few years, in limited quantities, and became a favorite for all kinds of people, from racing enthusiasts to travelling salesmen- the famous (in Volvo circles) Irv Gordon has nearly 3 million miles on his. Perhaps the best known P1800 was driven by Roger Moore on the television series "The Saint" in the 1960's- it was the more practical version of James Bond's Aston Martin.


In any case, as much as I love my car (top), I don't see very many of them around, even in classic-Volvo-friendly Berkeley. There are a handful of owners in the area, for sure, and we always honk and wave at each other when we pass on the road, but more often than not, I get people asking what kind of car I'm driving, and expressing surprise at never having seen one before. But lately, I have seen two P1800s pop up on my radar, which is pretty cool! The first (above) was a couple of weeks ago in this series of vintage photos that showed up on a blog I read, An Ambitious Project Collapsing.


The second arrived in the mail today in the form of an advertisement for Kate Spade's new Westward Collection, a collaboration with Emily Current and Merritt Elliott. In this case, the car pictured is the P1800ES, the hatchback version of my car. Pretty cute, huh? I wonder if parts are going to be harder to find all of a sudden...

Notes from the Point, August 2011: Insider's Edition

This weekend my friend Jessica and I rented a booth at Alameda Point to sell some of the things we'd been accumulating in our homes. Seeing as we both have excellent taste, we sold almost everything, and we had a lot of fun so I think we will definitely do it again in a few months. I spent most of the day (from 5am to 3pm) in the booth (the photos of it above were taken just as the sun was rising, so they're not great), but I did walk around a bit and here is what I saw in other booths.