some of my favorite things

As an antidote to the world, Jed offers this list of kitten links. Many of these were already familiar to me, but I had not seen this review of a kitten. I particularly enjoyed the chart at the end.

Last night was also a lovely antidote to the world. My friend C is babysitting a sailboat for the weekend, so he invited a group of people to come have a picnic on it last night in the San Francisco Bay. I love boats in all their forms, so I accepted quite happily. We launched from Oakland at around 8pm and pulled back in at midnight. We spent the intervening time sailing around the bay, taking in the view of downtown San Francisco and the Bay Bridge, chatting, eating a dinner that R and S provided for us, including S's delicious homemade pot de creme for dessert, and enjoying an unexpected fireworks display from the best seat in the house. Boats, fireworks, San Francisco, chocolate, friends: it doesn't get much better than that.

"This scepter'd isle, this other Eden, demi paradise... this Los Angeles"

Last Thursday night, T and I left for four days in Los Angeles. The stated reason for the trip was T's ten-year architecture school reunion on Saturday, and he very much enjoyed reconnecting with his old friends, but it was also an excuse to spend some time in LA. T is an Angeleno by birth and upbringing, and he is quite fond of his home city. For many years, I had the typical Northern Californian attitude of smug superiority toward Los Angeles, but the more I visit, the better I like the place. I never expected LA to become one of my favorite cities, but it really is.

( Some photographs and perhaps way too much detail here. )

The complete photo gallery is here. This is my first experiment with using the gallery so I hope it all came out all right.