Vacation

IMG_5109
Originally uploaded by GrammyShu.

Mom's got a few photos from our trip up to Oregon this weekend. We've been soo so busy lately - this was a well-needed change of pace. Bregmans unplugged!

One of the many evidences that I chose the right man:

I truly cannot think of a single ex-boyfriend who would have bought me a bright orange retro bicycle. Seth lost my bike a few years ago, and he has maintained that he owes me one.
Boy, did he deliver.


We are painting the house on Saturday. Take a good last look at that purple!

I'm a big fan of porches when they create an outdoor container where there isn't one, but in the case of our back yard the porch is overkill. It's a box within a box that keeps the kitchen and outdoor space separate.

We have been brainstorming the next iteration - double doors with a little deck that flows right onto the patio with trellises that give us a little more privacy. Since we won't be doing that soon, we've also been brainstorming a temporary solution to the flow problem: removing porch walls. We were explaining this all to our awesome neighbors Jean-Francois and Nora last weekend, and JF suggested we just do it right then.

And then JF said he and Nora have some spare stairs in their back yard they'd be happy to give us. Spare stairs? Yeah.

et voila

This photo revived my frustration... the kitchen grout will not come clean. I have scrubbed and bleached and scrubbed again. I've looked into painting it, but I really don't want it to look like a craft project. Has anyone had success with products like these?

The weather in Oakland has been stunning for the last couple weeks. I never thought I wanted to live in a warm place, but I am officially converted. I predict a summer full of leaving the doors and windows open and wearing tank tops from sun up to sun down. Novel!

When she was in town, miss Anjie helped me tremendously by clearing out the weeds in the back yard (before). Alesia helped, too... Thanks, beautiful Stricklands!

tadah!

Saturday was the Spring Plant Sale at the Berkeley Botanical Garden, but at the last minute I was asked to teach a dance class right in the middle of the sale. I thought I wasn't going to make it, but I raced up the hill in my sweaty clothes and impulse bought two wagons-full of a lot of plants I've never even seen before. I can't wait to see what takes off.

+ =

I also started in on pots. The house had three ugly, plastic, faux concrete pots in the back yard, and i scrubbed and spray painted them. Then, the neighbors offered us eight pots they were not planning to use. Since big pots are expensive, I feel like I won the lottery.

Last night we got home from Marin (more teaching) to light the grill for sausages and make our first official ensalata caprese of the summer. This is my favorite warm-weather food, and I'm hoping to be walking out back to pick my own tomatoes and basil by the end of the summer.

Oh yeah, and I am going to take a saw to this pronto so we can see our pretty plants.

I played the classic "the show must go on" card at dance class last Friday when my back tweaked in an exercise early on. Short story: Should have quit right then. Shorter story: owie. I've been unable to dance this week, and stuck staring at a lot of ceilings getting fixed or trying to relax. Totally boring. Then, I developed a nasty ingrown toenail because of the way the nail was cut at a lovely pedicure I got on Saturday. The good news is that the show does go on, and I'm on the mend, not permanently damaged, etc. The back is still siezed up, but I have a lot more range each day. I got the toe fixed this morning. It's kind of gross to describe the actual (minor) surgery, so instead I'll provide visuals of the very cool time capsule podiatrist's office where I got it done. I asked the doctor if he had intentionally furnished the office with mid-century furniture to match the building or if it had just always been that way. He said, "Always like this. It just shows you how old I am."

This photo of me and Josie was taken in the Lois Greenfield workshop by Matthew Kertesz. He recreated it with martial artists at our shoot a few weeks ago.

I asked this gentleman if in their training they ever pick people up. "No, not really," he said. I said, "OK, then, I'll pick you up." Nina looks like she's got her partner in the palm of her hand!
We thought we were pretty cool until Fred and Darren took their turns solo. Martial Artists win!

I'm really excited about how these turned out, especially because there's no reason to have made them other than for fun.

Can you see the seven players we represent in the football photos below?

Dance photos by Matthew Kertesz. Football photos unknown...

Seth helped me pick out plants (nursery open!), then he spent the afternoon in the attic
drilling holes and running speaker wire to the kitchen and dining room
while I put a few plants in the ground.

There will be more photos when it stops raining...
which is not supposed to be tomorrow...

I hope my new plants survive.

I feel like I have been jackhammered, but I finally get to say - let's go buy some plants! This bed still needed to have the soil loosened, the weeds dug out, and some mulch worked in. It was a big project, but I got it all done today with the help of my new favorite tool, and the sweet gentlemen of american soil and stone.

Miss Kiki made quite the fuss about being left out of such a "fun" project. I eventually let her out and tied her to the tree in the front, because how can you say no to this begface?

Tomorrow is Easter, and we were invited to a house down the street to watch an egg hunt and meet some new friends. I heard another neighbor is famous for his Easter gin fizzes.

Shoot, will the nurseries be closed?!

On Sunday I went to another photo shoot with Matthew Kertesz. He's the one who took the umbrella and puff ball pictures a couple months ago. He recruited some martial artists (seen in the pic above), and asked if I would find some new dancers to jump around in the studio. We won't get the photos for a couple weeks, but I can't wait to see one shot in particular, which was an idea born at the flea market.

I bought a handful of vintage photos recently, two of which are these football shots. Football is my very least favorite sport, but I love how these pictures could easily be from a modern dance performance... with a little change in attire and locale. We set up a neat shot this weekend that is inspired by these photos. I'll post the dancer version later so you can compare. Meanwhile, excuse me while I take some more aleve and force myself to go to dance class. Jumping and tackling - both very hard work!