Fisker Karma

If you haven't heard much about the Fisker Karma yet, you will soon. Us car guys have been drooling over it for months.

San Francisco: Chihuly Exhibit

 Let me start this post by saying it right off the bat: This art looks ten times better in person than it does in any photo ever taken of it. It truly does. I knew this exhibit was in town but we had decided not to see it because we had not bought tickets in advance and, quite frankly, I wasn't overly impressed with the photos.

 But when we got to the de Young Museum, we decided to ask to see if, by chance, any tickets were available for the current time - and there were! So we bought two and headed down to the basement, where the exhibit was. The basement was a maze of totally black rooms, save for the spotlights on the art itself.

And every room took my breath away. We'd walk around a corner and I would gasp. Unfortunately, I only brought my pocket camera along and it really, really struggled with the low light levels, but in processing the pics this week I was actually pretty happy with the results. The photos aren't perfect, but they are darn good for a pocket camera.

 Here is another amazing room. As you can see, the crowd would enter and stop dead in their tracks, all heads turned upward. This photo does not do the glass justice, but it does give you an idea of the feel.

 There's Nikki to the right. It is amazing how people would just stop and look, for minutes at a time. Words, and photos, cannot describe the beauty.

The artist's name is Dale Chihuly and his website is here. Mark my words, he will go down as one of the great artists of our time. Yes, they look overly ornate and a bit gaudy in photos, but you have to see it to fully appreciate it.

 One thought that kept going through my mind: how do they keep these things clean? Dust must be a real problem!

 But they are absolutely wonderful to look at, especially in the environment provided by de Young in the totally dark rooms save for the well-placed spotlights.

 And these pieces are huge as you can tell in those where I've included persons. I've done that intentionally to give them scale.

 This is one of my favorites....it drew a constant crowd.

 Here is a detail of the object.

 Being a big fan of the color blue, this one also ranks among my favorites. It reminds me of very pure ice crystals.

 Another beauty. Oh what the hell, they are all my favorite!

 And the last room...this one is a little much for me, but it is a showcase for all the shapes and colors that Chihuly likes. Note the person on the left that lends scale to the objects.

A photo of the same objects after my fourth Rum and Coke. Actually, someone bumped my arm but I rather like the result. It actually looks better than the previous picture to me! Anyway, enjoy and if you get the chance SEE A CHIHULY EXHIBIT.

San Francisco: de Young Museum and Golden Gate Park

 Since the de Young Museum had been closed for renovation during our last few trips through San Francisco, we made a point of visiting it last August. The day was nice, though the shade could be a bit nippy. As we strolled through the park, we came across a young man coaxing a bird out of the tree with a peanut. The bird would swoop down and pluck it from his hand, though I never caught it with my camera.

 When the bird tired of the game, the local squirrels were more than willing to keep it going. Here is one friendly fellow balancing himself using the young man's hand.

 Before long the news had spread on the squirrel grapevine and he had his hands busy keeping them all at bay. He is really lucky that none of them decided to climb his leg!

 This is the view as we approached the plaza where the de Young Museum is located. There is some parking in the area, but not alot. Luckily we had taken a bus.

 Here is the exterior of the de Young Museum. I personally don't think it is the best looking building, but it is different.

 Let's walk through a few of the displays.

 Although this looks like a smaller table top display, this is actually sitting on the floor with each of the pieces of "fruit" roughly the size of a beach ball.

San Francisco: Union Square Area

 I took out my pocket camera this week and to my surprise, there were photographs from last summer on it that I had forgotten about! Nikki and I needed a break one week last August so we booked a quick trip to San Francisco and stayed in our favorite area, Union Square.

 There is always something going on in Union Square and that weekend was no exception: it was the Korea Day Festival. We weren't quite sure what we were watching, but it was fun anyway.

 When they found out I was the famous J, they posed for me. Yeah right. I leeched this snap while they were posing for someone else.

 Then I spun the camera around a took photos of the buildings around Union Square. Here is Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany. The tall building in the background is the Sir Francis Drake where we have stayed before. The rooms feel very turn of the century (a phrase that now needs to be explained...I'm talking about turning from 1899 to 1900, not 1999 to 2000). The one drawback to a stay there is that the trolleys start early in the morning and the clang clang will make you sit straight up in bed.

 Moving the camera further to the right yields this shot. A few blocks back this direction is the Ann Fontaine store, a favorite shopping spot for Nikki.

 Further right yet and this is what you see. Apple in their favorite lime green and hot pink 60s colors.

 Macy's is always a fun store to visit while in the Union Square area. It is always decorated very nicely and is very busy. We usually spend a bit of time in the shoe department before heading to the nearby Westfield San Francisco mall.

 Another shot of Macy's. On an upper floor behind this large display is The Cheesecake Factory. We always end up there around lunchtime but have not yet eaten there because it is always P-A-C-K-E-D. Makes us think the food must be G-O-O-D.

 A favorite photographic subject of mine: the St Francis Hotel. This photo is not as good as others I have taken of this San Francisco landmark, but I like it just the same. We stayed there once and we're glad we did. But we've found a hotel we like better so we haven't been back.

 Here is the beautiful Nikki enjoying some of the warm San Francisco sunshine on that great summer day.

And finally, while walking in the financial district, I spied this beauty: an Aston Martin Vantage V8. Be still, my heart. Those lines are perfection. I certainly can't afford one right now, but they are starting to pop up used. Once the prices fall a bit more it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

The New Addition

Here is the latest addition to our family - Marcy. She is eleven and a half years old and for the first year of her life, she lived with an Air Force family who was being transferred to Japan. They weren't able to take Marcy (named Mercedes at that time) with them, so my dad took her in so she wouldn't have to go to the pound. Marcy is a mixed breed.

For the next ten years, she lived with my Dad and has been a loyal family member. She has seen the family through some tough times during that decade, including the death of my mother from cancer. My Dad is no longer able to care for Marcy, so she needed a new home. We couldn't stand the thought of her going to a pound either so over the Christmas break we drove the truck to northern California and picked her up. She rode over 500 miles in a cage in the back of the truck home with us.

One of our main reservations about taking Marcy was how it would affect the household princess, Cory. Cory has been with us for fifteen and a half years and is definitely way late into her retirement years. She has never lived with another dog. She sleeps most of the day and walks very stiffly. Her eyesight and hearing are going also.

But it has worked out well. Cory actually acts more lively with Marcy around and I've actually seen her go out front and crouch down in the "Let's Play!" stance...something I haven't seen her do in at least two years. These first four photos were taken on a recent morning...I take them out front with me to get the paper first thing...they enjoy the morning air and looking up and down our rather boring street.

Marcy has adapted well to our house. She is an extremely obedient dog which is really the only way we could sign up to taking her in as she is also very powerful, even at eleven years old. She is a pleasure to be around. We have temporarily put runners on our wood floors because both dogs were slipping and sliding. I actually saw Marcy do a Scooby-Do move a couple of times.

The two dogs enjoy each other's company. I've seen them stand in our computer room doorway together on several occasions, watching us as we move about the house - wondering what we are up to. They sort of remind me of Mutt and Jeff, which is my new nickname for them. The only time I see any competition at all is when they are being fed or when I reach down to pet one of them (the other comes running right away!). We'll see how things go in the long run, but so far so good.

Our House, Part 5: Master Bath

 Another room that we extensively remodeled was the master bathroom. Standing in the master bedroom, here is what you see. The floor originally had carpet - we took that out and put in tile. The counter was contractor-grade white tile - we replaced it with absolute black granite, undermounted sinks and new faucets. The light fixtures are new as is the paint which is many shades darker than the original color.

 This is another view while standing in the master bedroom. At the very end is the walk-in closet. To the left is a tub and a shower. To give us more floor space, we removed the step for the tub. We never use the tub anyway and would rather be able to easily sit on the edge.

 We are really happy with the way the shower turned out. We went with the frameless style, I think they also call it Euro style. For a reason that escapes me, we went with the thinner of the two glass thicknesses. I think if I were to do it over again, I would go with the thicker glass. The thinner glass has been okay, but we have to be careful not to lean too hard on it and if we really tried we could actually break it.

 We ran the tile all the way up to the ceiling to avoid getting moisture on the sheetrock - it doesn't cost that much extra to do this and is well worth the money. The contractor wanted to know if we wanted to raise the showerhead (he says it is quite a common change now) or even change it to ceiling mounted, but we declined. My wife has a hard enough time reaching the showerhead at this height.

 We placed accent tiles around the edge of the tub - I think they were called cigarellos or something like that - which added to the look but caused us a problem where it wraps around into the shower. Everyone recommended that we notch the tile so that the shower glass could run smoothly down to the floor, so that is what we did. I had originally wanted to notch the glass and not the tile, but apparently it is never done that way.

 My wife chose the accent in the shower itself and it came out looking quite nice. It alternates between aqua glass rectangles and some sort of metal diamond and looks much better than even this photo shows.

 And finally, the master closet. All we did in here was to replace the carpet and paint. Note her shoe collection...I am going to build/buy a rack to make them easier to access here soon because I am afraid the shoes on the bottom of the stack are not getting worn much. And I must tell you - I enjoy seeing her wear those shoes as much as she enjoys wearing them!

 My side of the closet. Kind of boring. Shirts are sorted by color and sleeve length (short sleeve, long sleeve).

 What did it look like before, you may ask? Here is the shower before we started. Contractor grade everything. Note how high the shower tile goes.

 Here is what the tub looked like. That is the step that we removed. It looks like we were in the process of deciding what tile to put in when this photo was taken - see all the sample tiles?

 And finally, the original bathroom cabinet. We refinished the wood, removed the countertop, and replaced the carpet with tile.

Here is what you have to look forward to if you choose to remodel. It looks innocuous in the photo, but I can tell you it is a royal pain to come home in business clothes to find who knows what in your house, including clouds of dust and debris between you and your closet. Now that it is all done, I am glad we ripped everything out at once. It took us about 7 months but we now have the home we wanted.