Taxi's

I went to yet anouther burger joint in Wlanut creek. I think this is the last one to try. It wasn't that great. I probably won't come here again.

Bird store

I went to a store specializing in wild birds in Concord. As with most specialty stores, this place seemed to have everything you could possibly want for birds, but I just needed some food for the feeders I got for christmas. They of course has a lot of different kinds. I asked a person who worked there which food I should get, and I bought a giant bag of it.

As usual with these kind of specialty shops, the people who work there are a little creepy or crazy. Creepy because they are trying to size you up to see if you are as obsessed as they are. crazy because they opened a store banking on the fact that there were plenty of creepy crazy people out there who are just as interested as they are in their specialty.

The Adobe building

No, not the Alamo(I've already been there). The building Adobe software occupies in SF. There is an event there this evening and I'm going...

The event was a joint thing presented by Adobe and AIGA. It was a live recording of Design Matters with Debbie Millman Podcast.
Debbie Millmans blog: http://debbiemillman.blogspot.com
the company she works for with links to her shows: http://www.sterlingbrands.com/ArchivedShows.html

While I was registering, the Adobe people will not take cash. I feel like this was my first glimpse into what the future wil be like. What a way to force you to give your information to them.

The event takes place in their cafeteria, and they had a very nice spead of cheeses, meats and roast beef on rolls which I ate and was delicious. There was wine and beer and soda, and cookies, which I looked for but could not locate.

The person she was interviewing was Dave Eggers author of What is the What, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and founder of McSweeny's, 826 Valencia, Wholphin and The Believer. I met two of the guys who work at McSweeney's Chris and ? and let them know I worked for their distribution company. We chatted about our sale a bit and then I sat down.

Before the interview, we were made to suffer through a presentation of the CS2 software. I was not really expecting this blantent a sales pitch, and was annoyed about it. But at the end they threw in a peak at CS3 (still at least a year or two away from release). but there were some really cool features, and it looks as though they continue with their integration of all the Adobe software packages.

Once we got to the Debbie Millman section of the evening. I was much happier. The interview was interesting and I identified with this guy in a number of ways. He also thought he would perish before he was 30 so had a drive to complete things before then. He is easily distracted by the TV, and so cuts it out entirely to stay productive. It was recorded with video camera so I expect it will be available on her site soon.

Safeway

This weekend I have the flu. I had planned on exploring some hiking trials near where I live, but since I'm sick, I had to pass on that. So instead I went to a new Safeway. New to me anyway... and better than the one I normally go to(in terms of selection). The two options for grocery stores close to our house are the small old style safeway that is down the street or the expensive gourmet market, Lunardi's. I thnk I may have to travel a little farther away occasionally, especially if my local safeway is out of my favorite peanut butter(which they almost always are)

Pinnacles National Monument

This weekend, I went somewhere I have wanted to go for a very long time. Pinnacles National Monument is probably best known as a rock climbers paradise, but it is also home of very interesting rock formations, and the recently re-introduced to the wild California Condor.

I've been trying to plan a trip here for a number of years, and It just has always fallen through. So when I saw a photography group on http://www.meetup.com was making a trip out there I decided to go.

Darla was into the trip as well, so we planned to drive there together eliminating the need to wake up at the crack of dawn to arrive with the group. We ended up on the opposite side of the park from where the group was meeting anyway(you can't drive through the park, you have to drive around it).

When we got to the ranger station, we got some good tips on where to go to view the condors, and also a warning on the strenuousness of the hike (with an overly concerned look on the rnagers face, like we looked like we might have heart attacks or something on the trail).

It is a strenous hike, but it's not that bad...we took it slow and stopped to take a lot of photos. The hike up was in full sun and was suprisingly hot for the middle of winter on a cloudy day with spotty sun. Around 2 or 3 p.m. we started spotting a lot of turkey vultures. Darla had her binoculars with her otherwise we never would have been able to tell the difference, as turkey vultures are similar is appearance to California Condors from far away.

It's a beautiful hike even if you are not into condors or climbing, but there are some rock-climing like areas where they have carved out steps in the rocks, and installed handrails.

we took a long rest at the top of the ridge, and I spotted a nest, it turned out to be a turkey vulture nest, but it was really cool to see it(hint look for bird poop running down the rocks, it indicated a place they hang out a lot).

We got about 3/4 through the trail and were feeling a little down since it wasn't looking like we'd see a condor that day, when Darla looked at what I was sure were more turkey vultures, when she said "these are different." then she said "they're condors!" and practically ripped herbinoculars off to hand them to me since the birds were flying behind a large rock formation. I caught a good look at a condor and then handed them back to her so she could look a tht elast of the three before it flew behind the rock formation and so I could get a photo. Unfortunatly, the battery in my camera decided to die at that moment when I turned the camera on.

Oh well, no photo, but it was really cool to see the condor!

New Stores of old stuff

I went to 2 stores I had never been to before on MLK and Ashby.

The First one is called Lacis, which is a store that carries old old lace and textiles as well as supplies to make lace, knit, and make corsets. It was interesting they also have a large book section (it looked like mostly used and out-of print books on costume making, and construction and craft techniques.

The Second was an Antiques shop across the street, apparently it is the only one that is open on weekends. There are 3 or four on that corner which are not open on weekends. It was overpriced and there was nothing that appealed to me except a lamp that was way too much money.