7 April 06
Earthquake In Jello
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. In an exhibition at the Exploratorium entitled “Magnitude X: Quake Science and Survival”, artist Liz Hickok has created a model of the City in multicolored Jello. (From The Map Room.)
6 April 06
Designing for Post Office Requirements
I attended a class this morning: Mail Design 101. It was the last thing I wanted to do. We had our first sun in days and our classroom had no windows. It’d be more interesting to watch paint dry anyway, I thought. Still, I enjoyed my bike ride onto campus.
For someone who spends a lot of time online I do seem to send a lot of mail that involves a stamp, or several. Turns out I’ve been slowing myself down a bit, or the mail I send out.
I will not entirely give up my calligraphic envelopes with wavy lines that might be illegible to young post delivery people who’ve never learned how to write cursive, never mind OCRs. But I won’t expect them to get anywhere in two days. Now I know why. Anything lumpy, anything that sloshes around, anything non-standard goes in the “non-automated” pile, where it languishes.
Much more fun this afternoon was working on design ideas for bookmarks and wallet cards featuring mountain lion pawprints for our upcoming booth at Picnic Day (April 22).
6 April 06
Two Of Three
The A’s just beat the Yankees 9-4, coming back from a 4-2 deficit, to win the opening series of the season two games out of three. Of course the baseball season is barely in infancy, but this is quite satisfying, especially after they shelled the A’s opening day. In some ways the Yankees are the American League reference team, but they are definitely vulnerable. They have a potent offense, but lackluster pitching and a somewhat shaky defense (two errors tonight, one of which figured in the A’s five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth tonight). The A’s seem to have a very good mix of players—I was especially pleased to see Frank Thomas, their newly acquired slugger and DH, come up with a two-out, three-run double late in the game.
4 April 06
New Independent Film Venue to Open in Davis
The Varsity Theatre, an Art Deco building that has seen a good few years of mediocre community musicals, is getting a makeover and will re-open on Thursday (they were still laying carpet yesterday when I walked past, so they’re cutting it fine…). A project of two Davis enthusiasts, one of whom owns Mishka’s Cafe just up the street, the theatre will now offer independent films for Davisites who have otherwise had to go to Sacramento for the pleasure.
The opening film—sold out already for the first night—is Thank You For Smoking. I’m eager to see it based on the rave writeup of the titles on Typographica by Stephen Coles.
3 April 06
Isn't There Supposed To Be A La Niña?
Or that’s what NOAA tells us. You’d never know it from the weather these past few days. I paddled my way to work this morning, and we’ve had 0.80 inches of rain in the past day. It all evens out though—we’re not that much over normal for the season (as of yesterday, 0.40 inches over the normal to date of 17.47 inches).
2 April 06
Cold Canyon Watercoloring
We got a quick trip in before the rain arrived this afternoon. I find I’m a very impatient person and will never manage this fiendishly difficult medium, but it was a good time…
1 April 06
Opening Day Minus One
We’ve just started watching the Ken Burns baseball series, thanks to DocRock who has kindly loaned us her set of DVDs. The season opens tomorrow, with the defending champions the Chicago White Sox playing the Cleveland Indians. Most of the teams start their season on Monday. The A’s get right in the thick of battle, taking on the New York Yankees at home on Monday. I’m excited about the prospects of the A’s this year—it’s a young, enthusiastic, and strong team. I’m not so cheered about the state of the Giants, who were ailing last year, and haven’t gotten any younger. Their closer, Armando Benitez, is already on the DL.
Assuming it isn’t pouring, we’re going on a watercolor outing up at Cold Canyon tomorrow. Accursed daylight savings time also starts: the only good aspect of which is that the cats will be waking us up for their breakfast an hour later.
31 March 06
Moving On
I’m at my mother’s on the Northern California coast. There are boxes everywhere. This afternoon I went through twelve photo albums cataloging my youth. And my brother’s and sister’s. Choose what you want, she said. The rest’s going in the trash.
She’s moving to Maine to be near my sister and the grandkids. It’s the right time to move, while she can still make friends, start a new life.
I’m thinking not having her around’s going to leave a little hole in mine, though…
30 March 06
Triple Play?!
The baseball season is almost here! This evening we joined Barbara and Susan to go see the Sacramento River Cats play in an exhibition game their parent major league team the Oakland A’s. The rain held off and we only had light drizzle to contend with. The game went as such exhibition games tend to go, with the A’s winning 5-1 behind their strong starting pitching of Rich Harden. The River Cats gave a good accounting of themselves, their pitcher Shane Komine holding off the Oakland bats until the 4th inning.
The most dramatic play occurred in the top of the 7th. Pica had gone off to the box office to pick up tickets for the game in a couple of weeks, and left me with scoring duties. The first play was a fairly solid single by Mark Kotsay, followed by a squibber for a hit about three feet in front of the plate by Marco Scutero. The next play I notice is a fly ball caught in mid-left center, followed by a relay to second base, followed by a throw to first base catching the running off base. And the River Cats start leaving the field, the inning over. Umm—I either profoundly messed up on the scoring, or I just saw a triple play. Barbara and Susan both thought it was a double play, though they didn’t think two people were on base. But when Pica was returning from the box office, she ran into another friend, who asked oh, did you see the triple play? No, she hadn’t, alas.
29 March 06
Spring
Many thanks to everyone for their kind blogday wishes.
Baseball’s coming! If all goes well and the weather cooperates, we’ll be seeing the A’s take on the local River Cats at Raley Field!
I need to shake the dustballs off my scorepad, find some suitable warm clothes to wear, and the like.
Update, March 30: at left is a copy of a Benin mask-portrait of the Queen Mother, who died four years ago today… I especially like the hat.