Scenes and Memories from October in San Francisco

Sometimes I'm not sure what to post. I don't produce a lot of knitting. My life is pretty routine. (This is not bad, but maybe not super exciting for the rest of you.)

So I thought I'd share a few photos from some moments between the grind this last month.

October is one of my most favorite months in the Bay Area. The weather wavers between a late summer and a crispy morning and evening. The light is lovely and the temperature is comfortable.



This photo was from a Sunday around 1pm when I went to meet my husband after a morning of exericse. I needed to pick up some flowers and we went to the Farmer's Market near our apartment at the Civic Center. It's not as nice a neighborhood compared to the other farmer's markets in the city, but it's always been our go to, though usually he goes on Wednesday mornings for work. I think he was somewhat amused to be there on a Sunday. (that's him in the bottom right corner, making the "where'd you go?" face.) It was funny because some of the farmers and vendors that have been in the stalls for over 10 years still ask him how our son is. When we lived in the Tenderloin when our son was born, he stayed home with the boy when I went back to work, and the Farmer's Market was part of their regular Father/Son weekly schedule. I probably had one of the few preschoolers addicted to pomegranates. Ha!

Just across the road before the City Hall Playground and Courtyard the trees were yarn bombed. This seems to be a regular occurrence, maybe it's a type of agreed upon exhibit? Last time I was walking around there, it was giraffes. But that weekend it was Otters in trees!?





I think the thing on his chest is a clam, but I can't get the photo to display in the correct orientation so you'll have to take my word for it.

At the beginning of the month I took a Friday off from work and watched the Parade of ships come in through the Gate for Fleet Week. There were only a few ships this year, and I didn't really get a photo because it was too far away and there were a bunch of people. But it was a lovely day. I sat outside with 2 very good friends and we had lunch with our toes in the sand and watched the tourists and the air show while our boys were all at school.






Blue Angels!



 What have been this month's highlights for you?

What's up Chickenbutts? Friday's This and That.

It's a fairly common greeting in my family. I try to mess around and make it all formal and royal like, "Hello, bottoms of fowl." It hasn't caught on yet. I have hope. Not a lot, but like I say some hope is better than none.

I am still knitting that damn baby sweater. (I love the sweater, but for some reason the stripey sleeves are kind of sucking the knitting life out of me.) The truth is that I often can't focus on knitting until about 11pm and I don't always have all my wits about me at that time. The last 2 nights have been some funky sleep cycles. My face is puffy. I hate that.

But some good things my friends! Because we can't whirly bird down the drain of despair any faster. It's not wrong to be a little skeptical, but it's easy to get lost in what we aren't doing or what we'd like better for ourselves and those we care about.

So I offer you 1. CAKE!!!!!! (this picture is of me and my crazy cake face. I have no shame that I love it. Vain? maybe, but hey I am not puffy!!)







YAAAYYY CAKE!!! I love this cake dearly. It took a couple runs for it to become as fluffy and delicious and moist as it did. It's a coffee cake that tastes a little like actual coffee/espresso. Both inside and in the glaze. Get the recipe here. Do not substitute the cake flour.



Alright I'll ease up on the exclamation points for you with this cake. This is a cheesecake bar with mixed berry topping -- end of season out this way. This went pretty fast at the office and I am making another one for our section's Thanksgiving potluck. I prefer the crust with Nilla wafers and pecans vs. graham crackers.



I finished The Goldfinch and it was crazy good to me. It was definitely crazy. I'm really surprised that I liked it all the way through. It would be a book I would normally take issue with the editor and say, why did you let them ramble on like this? But it worked for me. The story of a child of tragedy that continues to endure a lot of self inflicted pain and conflict grows up with questionable characters also making questionable decisions. There is drug and alcohol abuse. There is art, philosophy and life in parallels to question.

I had friends that seemed to have read it through half covered eyes, wincing at all the crossroads. A few people I discussed it with couldn't back any of the characters and therefore didn't like it.

For me, I liken it to finding myself enjoying some old classic rock? No maybe jam rock? Where it starts off and the first 2 minutes I'm like, this is nice. I think I like this, and then 8 minutes later  I'm pulling my hair out going, "When is this hippie crap going to end?!?"

Essentially some of the drug induced experiences were very lengthy. There's a bit of losing time in certain settings. However for me, I enjoyed the descriptions. I could see and feel and I really had a sense of the pain and the desire to escape. I understood very well that feeling of knowing what you should do, and then not doing it anyways and then beating yourself up about. Rinse and repeat. Empathy, people. I had it.

Well that is all for now. The weather here is getting that fall crispy feeling. Or as I like to say, "smells like knitting weather." To which my entire family replies, "It's always knitting weather."

Love knows.

Wishing you all a good weekend.