Sunday, November 26, 2006
Ocular Gluttony
Man, that was a fine long weekend for ol’ Chuckles. I got a nap most every day, ate my fool head off, and enjoyed many sterling moments with family, friends, and good architecture. I won’t bother you with too many words about it all because I don’t feel like writing a whole bunch right now and the photos are better evidence anyway. But let’s start at the beginning.
T-grabbing was a really festive event, and we made it there on time which was a matter worthy of thanksgiving all by itself. We cruised down to S&H’s place on the ‘ninsula, which they had painstakingly coverted to child-safety-mode on Z’s behalf. There were 9 adults, and five of us had been born outside of the US - Greece, Greece, Iran, Iran, and (East) Germany. It was quite a cosmopolitan crowd (though my cocktail of choice was VSOP). As evidence, we took a short stroll after supper to clear out some room for dessert, and here’s what we found at the office complex one block down:
Happy Pagan XMas! What says “Seasons Greetings” better than larger-than-life-sized statues of Mars and that other dude with the intact equipment? How about a huge balloon spraying beanbag chair beans around inside of it over a pair of smiling, waving Snow-Golems? (see tiny head of young girl in foreground for scale.) Yay holidays!
After TG, we got home and I fell asleep like a warm rock on xanax. The next day I woke up with inexplicable energy and we went out to the mall. Not the regular mall down by SFSU, and not the fancy downtown mall - we went to the other fancy downtown mall, the one that just opened. It was quite the retail palace, and Z got kind of wacko running around the shiny floors under the giant old cut-glass dome. Had he been calm enough we could have even done some shopping, but at least I saw some good design work. I think some other stuff happened on Friday but all I really recall was seeing Born Into Brothels on a dvd that night, which wasn’t exactly your typical holiday fare but it was really good.
Saturday morning we got up early again and took the boy down to Ft Point to burn off some energy. This is a civil-war era fort build of bricks right at the south tip of the “golden gate” of SF Bay. When they built the bridge, they put in a special archway to overspan this austere martial relic. This is a spot that gets a lot of wind and rain and fog, so the bricks and iron have taken on some really cool patterns, which I have taken it upon myself occasionally to enhance with some of the ol’ Protoshop fiddlingnesses. To wit:
(see, it’s really under the bridge!)
(holding back the bay:)
(the front door to the fort:)
(old-ass canonballs, with a little post-production magic thrown in:)
(Zachary frolicking amidst the cannonades, courtesy of Kel:)
Saturday night we saw what may have been the world’s most modest parade. Union Street is a very fancy shopping district in the marina; they had a “Parade of Lights” this year and we went down to see it. There were some elves on rollerblades (and a hot little elfette too), an antique fire truck with some xmas lights on it, a pickup truck with santa in the back and some lights on it and a tree on the cab, a nice old stutz or some such classic car with the “crystal snow queen” in the back (I was looking but didn’t notice any cocaine), an ordinary black car with a man in a bear suit in the back, a pickup with no lights on it, two cable cars converted into tourist busses, an antique horse ambulance, and three horses with hussar-type riders. I think that was it. Took about five minutes to go past. But it was fun to see it, so no actual complaints here - just a little snarky irony for now. Let’s see how the season pans out. I may return to this subject if necessary for my own self-amusement.
And finally, so far as you-all are concerned, Sunday was full of small achievements and restful silences, but after Z woke up we wound up finally making the connection with our dear friend Tanja da Bomb, who was in town with a friend who was working a crafts fair. Tanja herself was not selling her own crafts there because it was thematically inconsistent, but if you wanna get like her, just check it out here. Meanwhile, we got a few hours to catch up and let her fall in love with young master zaq, and who can blame her?
Other than that, there was a lot going on this weekend. I’d have to say it was mostly really cool. Regardless, I am not feeling overly wordacious about any of it right now so the photos will have to do. I can’t imagine it’ll really put much of a crimp in your monday to be deprived in this way. If it starts to rankle, apply an unguent. If it rankles bad, drop me a line. I could use a giggle.
