these days of leiderhosen

Bear with me. I've found another glamourous photo of the Orinda Theater: Ah....now isn't that pretty?!

The voodoo backlash walloped me as soon as I completed my last post; something precious was broken, clothing developed an odd tear, sleep was elusive. No matter, it needed doing. One should really think long and hard before send out evil thoughts into the world, but in this case it needed doing. My temp assignment has ended just as the building the Oakland School District Administration is housed in was really creeping me out. (Asbestos everything, an utter lack of ventilation, defoilating paint, uneven broken stairs, unreplaced dead lighting, no maintenance or cleaning to speak of.) The last three canidates I interviewed for the replacement substitute teachers were perfectly and certifiably nuts. God help those kids if we actually have a strike. Das Mad Landlady goes in for hip-replacement surgery on Monday, so I expect we will be kvetch-free for a little while. (Latest issues: could I: 1. use the washer & dryer a little less frequently 2. plant some tulip bulbs 3. let the girl n...

Yesterday. Yesterday I was angry that Albertson's does not deign to give the good people of Oakland decent produce (Apparently barely passble is good enough for us!). Sad wilted chard, specifically. Today. Today I am beyond that. Today I am hauling out the box of big bad vOoDoo equipment, prying the locks and nails off the top and reaching for the oh-so-heavy hitting stuff. And when I get the chance I am going out to the 7-11 and picking up a select few extra special ingredients for stupid three grown men who should really know better. No one's 87 year old grandma should be made to cry. Or litigated against. In her husband's last days. Oh, you three little rat bastards... you just wait. I am not saying that my god is a vengefull god. I am saying he is paying attention. You just bloody wait. I have an interview at UCSF they day after tomorrow and a couple phone screens around that time as well. Huh. Well. Then. The substitute teachers' interviews continue! Today I was s...

It's the birthday of Edward Abbey who said, ""There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California." I am not quite sure exactly what he might have meant, but I have to agree. A more comprehensive quote, I think: "You know you have achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupery Sorry for the lack of posts this last little bit; I've been working a temp job for the Oakland Unified School District. Seems the Teachers' Union is on the verge of striking and OUSD needs to hire 2,000 substitute teachers. I've spent the last week interviewing people to replace the teachers temporarily and after months of having no one other than Steven and the cats to talk to, I've found it great fun. This week? More of the same: we've only hired 600 replacements. I'd love to see an American experiment: all the money...

I am lying in bed in my treehouse house, listening to the rain. Steven is off at the Zen Center and left me with a perfectly beautiful latte in a thermos cup so if I wanted to, I could go back to sleep and it would still be serviceably warm. Scattered over the bed are my most recent library books: Marjane Satrapi's latest cartoon novella, My Kind of Place (Susan Orlean, mentioned before),The Devil in White City, and a collection of Gay Talese's portraits. Oh, I am a lucky girl. Tomorrow we are having dinner guests (Diane and Jay) and I have yet to figure out exactly what we'll be having, other than homemade vanilla ice cream. I do know that I have yet to find four placemats or napkins that match. This worries me. Weekends also are a connumdrum. I never plan for them and feel very boring without anything to propose when one asks, "What shall we do?".

Yesterday I had a yoga class at our so I've enough ache today to make me feel like I actually did something productive. I even learned a new pose: twisted pidgeon. With any luck, I will get back to the studio tomorrow. Today I had a three and a half hour interview with a pack of semi-rabid but adorable recruiters, who seemed very willing to pimp me out. I was so exausted by the end of it I fell into bed and dreamed of the Virgin Mary who was grocery shopping and having trouble deciding which honey to buy and ended up with the gallon tin of Sue Bee. Oh, how perfectly adorable are these?: Okay, maybe not at my ripe age of 95, but they'd certainly camoflauge the Catholic pool-cue legs. Stockingirl.com might be the last place to find proper cuban heel stockings.

Today's output: - braised lamb shanks in balsamic (save, braises always taste better the second day) - pasta bolanese base (save, in little plastic baggies in the freezer like other controlled substances) - meatloaf (Mostly eaten. Martha's recipe. I resisted the temptation to mold it into the shape of someone's face. And Dad said all those art classes were a baloney... ) - fruitcake , three loaves (save. Dang, that stuff's expensive to make! Think twice before chucking it out. My cousin Nancy gave me the most astonishing fruitcake for Christmas, so these puppies are headed for a long, boozy vacation in the back of the fridge.) - juicy orange cake (save. Mark Bittman's recipe. The damn thing over flowed the pan and threatened to take over the joint. It sits in its glaze, staring at me from the stove. I figure it will be heaven with a cup of black coffee tomorrow.) The massive grease burn up my left arm has started to heal at last, but it still itches a good bit. ...