Did you think I disappeared?

Oh, you could only be so lucky!!!!

We had a great time at the Eastern Naturist Gathering in Lenox last week. We saw many old friends and met some new friends, too. We were asked to join the Membership Advisory Committee for TNS and are looking forward to continued involvement with such a phenomenal organization. Goodbyes abounded as we left friends at the end of the week, as well as Eastover will be closing its doors in November. We will have a wonderful time no matter where the Gathering is next year.

I heard a song on the radio yesterday that made me think of my friends and family [who are generous enough to follow this blog]. It is called Smile by Uncle Kracker. You can listen to in online over at MusicRemedy. It is the first track to be released from the upcoming album Happy Hour. I hope you like it as much as I did!

Smiles

Why Would Tracy Do This?

This... Is... Not... Funny...

It was raining out. I was wet. I am a cat. Why do these humans feel the need to wrap me up. I really don't like it.

Don't let your human do this to you!!!

Your friend,

Bo: The Portrait, the Baseball Card

This was just too cute not to pass on....

Bo: The Portrait, the Baseball Card

via White House.gov Blog Feed: WhiteHouse.gov Blog by Jesse Lee on 6/19/09

All your Bo-wishes are fulfilled.

Download the Bo baseball card (pdf)

(The official portrait of the Obama family dog, "Bo," a Portuguese water dog, on the South Lawn of the White House.   Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) 

[View full size from the White House Flickr account]

Innovation

Hi, Mattie here.



Mike took this photo of me yesterday. He and Tracy thought it was hoo-larious that I was drinking out of the bird bath. Hello?!! Do I look stoopid? What better place to get a drink -- I may also get a snack!!!

Meows out to all of you!

Sag Harbor

Contrary to my earlier statement about Sag Harbor, I finished it today. It was good. Not great, but good. Would I recommend it? Probably only to those that want to reminisce about the 80s or are familiar with Long Island...

Now, on to the next read!

San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf

I didn't have a whole bunch of free time while I was in San Francisco. Basically, a couple of hours each evening, and after 11 hour days I was pretty tired.

I did manage to break away on Saturday afternoon for quick lunch run down to Fisherman's Wharf.

I took a street car to the wharf

I got a beautiful view of the bay

Turtle shaped bread at Boudin Bakery

The street car ride took longer than I anticipated, so I had to rush along the wharf to find food. I stopped for the quick pic of the bay, then headed to Boudin Bakery for chili in a bread bowl. It was good -- I wish I didn't have to scarf it down the way I did. After that I sought out a stop for bus #30 - Stockton to take me back to Market St.

As for my meals, I enjoyed all of them thoroughly. My co-worker and I went to Ame for dinner Thursday night. I got Seared Maine Diver Scallops and Grilled Half Lobster Tail In Parsley Nage with Agretti and New Potatoes, which was excellent. Friday night was my trip out with two other people; we had dinner at McCormick and Kuleto's.  Mike and I are part of McCormick's Preferred Guest Program, so we obviously like the food. I think I got Halibut Cheeks (it was some kind of fish, and I just can't remember now!). I was exhausted Saturday and went out to dinner alone at XYZ. I enjoyed selections from their Dine About Town dinner menu, starting with the tuna carpaccio, following with pan seared salmon, and finishing with a crème fraîche semifreddo. It was fantastic!

I left for my journey home at 11 am PST on Sunday. I was back at our house around midnight (EST). It is nice to be home and see my boys again!

Have a Happy Day!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday -- woo hoo!!! I always love an excuse to celebrate, and I hope he has a wonderful day!

 

John, Me, and Dad in Jerome (Feb 2009) 

Have a super day! I love you!

San Francisco

I was able to go to Ghiradelli Square with a couple of people last night. We took the cable car down the Powell-Mason line and stopped along the way to walk Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world?).

Cable car at Powell Station

 

A view of the bay

More of the bay

Lombard Street

Ghiradelli Square

We didn't have the time to make it to Fisherman's Wharf.  I'll try to get over there today, but who knows. I had a nice time, but if Michael was here it would have been a great time! I miss him :)

Have a great day!

My True Confession

I am sorry to disappoint you with the non-juciness of this, but, it is still the truth... I am having a killer time getting through a couple of books. Sag Harbor and Oxygen have just been killing me. I actually stopped reading Sag Harbor on the Kindle to start Oxygen. I couldn't get through it either!!! I finally bailed out on Oxygen and read the last two chapters. I am so happy to be done!!!

I am crossing my fingers that Sag Harbor  improves and I start reading something good!

Have  great day! I'm off to San Francisco for a work conference. I'll try to check in along the way...

I lub this

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Flowers

I don't have much news to post today. Last night we were out in the yard (mowing) and I noticed more of my pretty flowers are in bloom. I am so lame that I took pictures to share.

Pretty Peonies

Aromatic Chives

Siberian Iris

Two-toned Iris

 

Not a flower, but my honey is the best!

Have a happy day!

What I'm Reading (May)

As usual, I am behind in posting my books!

	Summer on Blossom St by Debbie Macomber Kindle Edition From Publishers Weekly: "Macomber adds a tear-jerking installment to the Blossom Street series with this account of lives intersecting at the series-hinging yarn store, A Good Yarn. Upbeat cancer survivor Lydia and her pragmatic sister, Margaret, start a Knit to Quit group in their Blossom Street yarn store, hoping to bring in customers for weekly self-help sessions. Casey, the 12-year-old girl Lydia takes in while waiting for an infant of her own to adopt, helps out in the shop when she's not sulking in her room or causing trouble for Lydia's family. Local baker Alix wants a baby as much as Lydia does, but she and her husband agree she needs to quit smoking first. Then there's super-stressed chocolate magnate, Hutch, who takes the knitting class after his doctor suggests it. Hutch hits it off with Phoebe, who is trying to quit obsessing about a broken engagement. Rounding out the crowd, bookstore owner Ann Marie must deal with her adopted daughter Ellen's biological father, a recovering addict, re-entering their lives. Macomber deftly handles the multiple story lines and emotional terrain of families, while the predictably happy ending is very genuine."
	Loitering with Intent by Stuart Woods From Publishers Weekly: "Never one to avoid a glamorous vacation spot, Stone Barrington travels to Key West, Fla., in this easygoing entry in bestseller Woods's long-running series (Hot Mahogany, etc.) to feature the New York cop turned lawyer. Stone is supposed to track down Evan Keating, a young man whose signature is needed on documents allowing his father to sell the family business, except that Evan doesn't want to be found and when he is, doesn't want to sign the papers. Meanwhile, there's always time to enjoy good food and romance. Stone and Dino Bacchetti, his former NYPD partner, eat a lot of conch, while a beautiful Swedish doctor, Annika Swenson, learns the hard way that being involved with Stone is the most dangerous job in America. Woods handles the proceedings with dispatch and good humor, the pages fly by, and contented readers will sit back and eagerly await the next installment." This book was a typical Stone Barrington book. He gets the girl, gets a trip, and Dino manages to take time off from the NYPD to help. It was an easy beach read.
	Mr. and Miss Anonymous by Fern Michaels From Amazon: "College senior Lily Madison is on her own and desperate to pay for her last semester of school. With nowhere to turn, she makes the difficult decision to donate her eggs to a fertility clinic. Sam Parker is also a penniless student who supplements his tuition money by visiting a sperm bank. One day, Lily and Sam meet at the clinic and talk about their secret. They agree that the clinic gives them an odd feeling, as if all is not as it seems. Despite their obvious attraction, Lily and Sam go their separate ways. Twenty years have passed and Lily often wonders if she has a child somewhere in the world. She also thinks a lot about Sam. Now a wealthy entrepreneur, Sam never forgot Lily either, and when he sees her in an airport one day, he falls for her all over again. But while they enjoy their unlikely reunion, a story on the news has them riveted. Two teenage boys are missing and their disappearance may be linked to the fertility clinic Sam and Lily visited in college. In a shocking twist, one of the boys looks exactly like Sam. Lily and Sam are now determined to find out what really went on at the clinic all those years ago. When the whole story comes out, the truth will be more than they bargained for. But they will discover that letting go of their secrets from the past is the best way to build a future worth fighting for..." I liked this book. It had a storyline that kept me interested, even though it was a bit unrealistic. I like Fern Michaels a lot.
	Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead Kindle Edition Amazon.com Review: "Amazon Best of the Month, May 2009: Like his fellow New Yorker Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead weaves gracefully through genres with each of his books, but Sag Harbor, billed as his "autobiographical fourth novel," seems positioned to be his breakout book--which is a funny thing for a writer who has already received so many major literary awards, including a MacArthur "Genius" grant and being short-listed for the Pulitzer. The year is 1985 and 15-year-old Benji Cooper, one of the only black students at his elite Manhattan private school, leaves the city to spend three largely unsupervised months living with his younger brother Reggie in an enclave of Long Island's Sag Harbor, the summer home to many African American urban professionals. Benji's a Converse-wearing, Smiths-loving, Dungeons & Dragons-playing nerd whose favorite Star Wars character is the hapless bounty hunter Greedo (rather than the double-crossing Lando Calrissian). But Sag Harbor is a coming-of-age novel whose plot side-steps life-changing events writ large. The book's leisurely eight chapters mostly concern Benji's first kiss, the removal of braces, BB gun battles, slinging insults (largely unprintable "grammatical acrobatics") with his friends, and working his first summer job. And Whitehead crafts a wonderful set piece describing Benji's days at Jonni Waffle Ice Cream, where he is shrouded in "waffle musk" and a dirty T-shirt that's "soiled, covered with batter and befudged from a sundae mishap." Whitehead pushes his love of pop culture into hyper-drive. Nearly every page is swimming with references to the 1980s--from New Coke and The Cosby Show to late nights trying to decipher flickering glimpses of naked women on scrambled Cinemax. And music courses through the book, capturing that period when early hip hop mixed with New Wave. Lisa Lisa and U.T.F.O make a memorable cameo at Jonni Waffle, and McFadden & Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now"--heard throughout the book in passing cars and boom boxes--gets tagged as "the black national anthem." Like that ubiquitous song, the soulful, celebratory, and painfully funny Sag Harbor and its chronicle of those lazy, sun-soaked days sandwiched between Memorial Day and Labor Day, will stick with you long after closing its covers. --Brad Thomas Parsons "
	Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch Kindle Edition From Amazon: "Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? # 1: Don-t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. # 2: Don-t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2? When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an -After School Special,- SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides. Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other-s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win." This was really creepy. Quick, short, and creepy.
	Oxygen by Carol Wiley Cassella From Amazon: "With the compassion of Jodi Picoult and the medical realism of Atul Gawande, Oxygen is a riveting new novel by a real-life anesthesiologist, an intimate story of relationships and family that collides with a high-stakes medical drama. Dr. Marie Heaton is an anesthesiologist at the height of her profession. She has worked, lived and breathed her career since medical school, and she now practices at a top Seattle hospital. Marie has carefully constructed and constricted her life according to empirical truths, to the science and art of medicine. But when her tried-and-true formula suddenly deserts her during a routine surgery, she must explain the nightmarish operating room disaster and face the resulting malpractice suit. Marie's best friend, colleague and former lover, Dr. Joe Hillary, becomes her closest confidante as she twists through depositions, accusations and a remorseful preoccupation with the mother of the patient in question. As she struggles to salvage her career and reputation, Marie must face hard truths about the path she's chosen, the bridges she's burned and the colleagues and superiors she's mistaken for friends. A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie's family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie and is busy raising a family. Although Marie has been estranged from her Texas roots for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father's care is falling on her. As her carefully structured life begins to collapse, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendor of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, Oxygen climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming. "

It was a light month. Hopefully I'll get more reading done this month, but I'm not counting on it!

Google Squared

I didn't think too much about Google Squared last night when I read the article about it Lifehacker. I randomly thought about it today and decided to look at it. It's pretty cool!

All you have to do is enter a search term and Google gives you related values and other info in a spreadsheet format. In the example below I entered "Apple Computer":

The results list the first 10 items, a photo, description, etc... After I did the screenshot above I added a Price column. Each cell shows a source and can be clicked for more info.

I can see this as a great tool for product comparisons before buying, little research projects, and a whole lot more!

Thanks, Mom!

It is finally nice enough out for me to wear my birthday outfit (not birthday suit, hee hee!)...

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Launching Soon in NYC

This is great. I hope I see the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck next time I'm in the city...

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Launching Soon in NYC

via Serious Eats by Erin Zimmer on 6/3/09

From Serious Eats: New York

Rainbow sprinkles might mean something a little different on a soft serve cone from The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. Doug Quint, a New York-based basoonist who just finished coursework for his musical arts doctorate at CUNY, is rolling out his playful new mobile dessert business as soon as his permit shows up (hopefully next week).

"Let's face it, ice cream trucks are kind of queer, and a middle-aged white man driving one is pretty suspect," Quint said. "That's not to say that I'm a rolling hotbed of perversion. Hardly the case. It's all in the name of silly." That means his Twitter updates (@biggayicecream—yes, he's another street vendor on Twitter) won't be limited to the truck's whereabouts, but also involve haikus and requests for good cha-cha music.

There are a few noticeable differences between him and Mister Softee. For starters, his concern for Proposition 8 in California, but also his topping selection. The BGICT will offer olive oil and sea salt, Nutella, bacon, and any suggestions from his clientele, who will earn freebies when they sport his apparel (the tank top is called the "husband beater").

Be on the lookout for the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck in the West Village during the day, near East Village and Chelsea bars and clubs at night, and maybe even some Brooklyn appearances. If you hear cha-cha music, the rainbow sprinkles shouldn't be far.

Sometimes we just need to laugh

This did it for me...



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