San Fran Art Warhouse Awesomeness with Leroy

My supposed last night in Cali, Mary and Mai and I went down to the City to visit Leroy. We went out for some excellent Vietnamese for dinner, then he took us over to the warehouse he`s working at to help create some 50` tall steel trees with programmable LED leaves. Here`s a shot of the model.

It was most excellent. Everything you dream of San Francisco being - crazy warehouse art projects and such. We got a tour, saw all sorts of old art projects, and the one in progress. And we all got a shot at driving the forklift too!

These trees will be at Coachella this April. After that, they`re looking for a home. They may go on a festival tour in Europe, but if you want to be the proud owner of a 50`tall tree with programmable LED lights, that can likely be controlled by music, they are now accepting offers.

Well Traveled Art

Finally! Mary, I can post a photo of the lovely painting you gave me, now hanging up on the wall of my room here in California:

So why do I say finally? Well, in addition to this being a lovely forest painting, in now has a bit of a story behind it....

So Mary left this painting for me in Edmonton, when she had to make a move from there to Winnipeg. Phil hung on to the painting for me, then brought it over to Sue & Brock's place when we had dinner together there one night. I wrapped it up in plastic, and took it with me on the plane back to California the next day.

I got on my first flight, the Edmonton-Vancouver leg of the journey, and placed the painting at the front of the plane, where you keep suits and guitars and things, for safe keeping. When I got off the second leg of the flight in San Francisco, I felt "hmmmm, I should be carrying something else.... OH NO!!!!" The painting was on the plane in Vancouver still!

Turns out there's no phone # to call to report lost items with Air Canada, there's just this web form. So I filled it out, and thought that I'd never hear anything about the painting ever again, and I'd never be able to speak of this to Mary. Eternal shame! This was the first week in June.

BUT THEN! I got a call from an Air Canada representative in Montreal at the end of July, and he informed me that they'd found the painting, it was safe in Montreal, and they'd send it on a flight out to San Fran for me! Hooray! And then a week later, the painting arrived. I was busy hosting Aussies and then going camping, so I said I'd pick it up the day I arrived back from Cascades. After some misunderstandings on that day and another trip out to SFO, I am now the proud owner of a well-traveled Hocaliuk Original.

Thanks Mary!

Visitors!

My former students Kalai & Leroy were out here for a visit. This is us, on the bike car of the last CalTrain home after a night in the City. Good times.

What I do when I have nothing else to do

Hey all,

Once again, it's been a while. I'm back from Australia, and am just going to chuck up a bunch of photos of what I've been up to a la Phil's Life in Pictures:

Mary's Royal Birthday Bash:

Yes, that was Mary as Queen Elizabeth enjoying some crisps after winning a Nobel Prize from the King & Queen of Sweden.

What else? I shaved my head for charity in celebration of finishing the ol' PhD!

I then ran in Bay2Breakers, and then checked out a solar eclipse:

This past week I've knitted some slippers, read some books, done some running, and that's about it. No job yet. Still at risk of losing our house due to increasing rent. Hung out for a couple hours in the hammock this afternoon, reading "Word Nerd" and soaking up the Cali sun.

Tomorrow I'm off to Edmonton for a week to hang out with the peeps up there. Stay posted for more then!

Minion Visit

Just over a week ago I had a visit from my very first minion. I dragged her to karaoke with Kirsten & Kate & Wibke, then woke her & her friend Belinda up at 5:30am trying to get them to check out the lunar eclipse (they stayed in bed - fair enough), then we went to explore the Mission District. Here's Kalai surrounded my Santas at the BART station:



There's always something interesting & random happening in the city :)

Day 25 - Your favourite book of last year
The Right Attitude to Rain

Start of Random Updates

It's been a busy month, and I have some random catch-up that I will do via random photos that I took, mostly with my camera. One bit of random awesomeness: string-quartet in the Mission District BART station.



Day 20 - The saddest or most emotive book you have read:
Things Fall Apart

Turns out, lots of stuff has happened

I wasn't updating very frequently 'cause I didn't feel much was happening in my life, but now it feels like something exciting has happened nearly every day recently.

So Labour Day I was in the Desolation Wilderness with Mai and Oleg. Photos:









I also went mountain biking with some people at work. Last Friday Hiro, Hanne and I went and did the Alpine Road-Russian Ridge trail, and even though I'm a bit slow, it was amazing! Hanne's got an awesome photo that I'll have to put up next time.

Kate Fisher, my UNSW lab manager predecessor, was out in San Fran for a few days, so we explored the city a bit. Went to a street party on Filmore, where you could borrow out roller skates for free. There was lots of stuff for kids, lemonade stands, live music & people dancing in the streets. The weather was gorgeous and sunny. Went to check out the Golden Gate bridge, had some amazing Greek food for lunch, and followed it up with a bbq at my place with Dan Inns & my housemates. A great weekend. More photos from the City:









And check out the solar panels!!!



And news! Susan & Brock are engaged!!!!!!!!! Woot! Super excited for them!

And Margot update: Tumour was removed, no problems, however yolk cells were found in it so it was found to be malignant. Poor little tyke is going to be undergoing chemo now for the next few months. Good news is that the success rate is high, bad news is they'll have to watch out for cancer recurrences for the rest of Magoo's life, and she won't be able to be an astronaut :( But on the whole, she should be alright, so that is good news.

That is all for now.

Day 15 - A book where you wish you were one of the characters
The Northern Lights

Other Updates

Because I have to catch up:

- last Wed, got back from Australia. Went straight in to work, worked late, missed water polo training
- Thursday - Laura Billing arrived! Hooray, guest!
- Friday - all-day meeting in the City. Laura caught a lift in with Scott and I. Laura and I stayed over at Justine's. Had tasty Mexican for dinner, did some knitting and watch some Jane Eyre. Good times.
- Saturday - Mat, Justine, Margot, Laura and I all went to the Monterey Aquarium! It was awesome. I have photos, but need to get them off my camera, so I'll post them later.
- Sunday - Laura and I went to Sonoma, went on a wine tasting tour at a biodynamic vineyard, which was super yummy and super tasty. We had a picnic in a garden there, then went to the Charles Schultz museum and checked out some Peanut stuff
- Monday - met up with Justine & Laura in the City to go see HP7: Part Deux. Mat babysat Margot. It. Was. Awesome.

Ok, all that's out of the way then. Laura's with Justine & Mat 'till she leaves on Thursday. I'm packing up my flat in preparations for moving house again next week. And that's all you need to know for now.

Next up: MY LITTLE BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!! Exciting times. Look for the photos next week.

Day 8 - The book you can quote best
Pride and Prejudice

Long Weekend

It was kind of nice having zero plans really made for this weekend. What I did:

- househunting
- hanging out with the Saccoruddels
- thesis writing! and finishing the drafts of the IEEE poster & paper. Woot!
- hiking at Big Basin Park with Caro & Thad

So all in all pretty eventful.





Also, a friend of mine is doing this "30 books in 30 days" thing, where there's a question about a book you've read each day for 30 days. Anywho, I'm going to do that on here too, just 'cause it's fun to see what she likes (The Great Gatsby is her fav book. Ugh! Discussion point anyways.)

And so, Day 1:
Your favourite book of all time?
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

Feel free to judge :)

Permanent Visitors!

So after checking out the potential new place in the Mission on Friday, I headed over to Mat & Justine's! Who live just 5 blocks from potential new place! Yay!

Since I worked late and then went to the house thing and had no cash on me, I didn't eat before turning up at their place. Justine satisfied me with a salad made in part with edible flowers:



I crashed at their place that night, then we went for breakfast in the morning at some amazing cafe around the corner from their place. A few of their friends from Stanford came up for the afternoon, and we explored Japantown. Japanese BBQ lunch, crazy Japanese dollar stores, and then a climb to a hilltop park to enjoy the brief warm, sunny weather.





With incredible views once again:

Epic Journey

So I'm house hunting again. I've looked at a couple places in and around Menlo Park/Palo Alto again, and then Friday I went to check one out in the Mission District in the City. I took the Caltrain down to 22nd & King after work (after working late. Grrrr.) and had Google directions on how to get to the house by bike. Well, the Caltrain is on 22nd, and the house I was going to was on a cross street that ran between 22nd and 23rd, but down a ways. Google told me to go all the way up to 17th, around, and back down. I though "Pshaw, whatever. I don't need to go all that way. I'll just go down 22nd."

Well.

For some reason I went to 20th at started biking along there. It was so steep I had to walk up it. I thought "I'll head back over to 22nd, maybe the hill is not quite so steep there". So 2 blocks back to 22nd, and this is what the street had become:





Ok, so I walked my bike up the dirt & wood path that 22nd had turned into until it hit the next road. When I got to the road, instead of 22nd becoming its own road again, it became a stair case:



I thought, well, that doesn't look too bad. I'll just carry my bike up and then I'll be able to bike again. But then when I got to the top of the stairs you see here, there were more stairs.



There was actually access to a driveway that ran parallel to the stairs about 1/3 of the way up, so I was able to push my bike the rest of the way up instead of carrying it. Biked for about a block when I got up, and then there was a super steep downhill that I was afraid to bike down now. I didn't trust my brakes to be able to stop me at the cross streets. So I walked my bike down, worrying now that the traction on my shoes wasn't good enough to hold me on to the sidewalk. I expected to slide down the sidewalk in my running shoes at any moment.

I made it to about the bottom of the hill and saw this. 22nd is the 'street' to the left of the dead end sign.



It was a footpath that ran over the highway:



That was the last bit of craziness to 22nd St. After that, I entered the Mission where everything is blessedly flat. So it was a bit of an adventure getting there. But I must say, San Francisco makes up for the pain of going up and down all these crazy hills with some pretty stunning views.

You have been warned

VISITOR!

Mat Trudel was here this week for an interview at a start-up company in San Francisco! Yay friends moving to the area! Hopefully. If Justine can be convinced.

To help with the convincing: I'm an awesome babysitter! And we can have knitting nights!

I didn't take any photos of the awesome Thai food we had for dinner, or the "Food Not Bombs" people outside the BART station, or the triple-goatee that Shandi was sporting, or of us playing pool, or any of the Mission Randomness that occurred (some guy bought us massive steins of beer???). So here's a photo of Margot to make up for it: