Beautiful weekends

Last night I went to "mix tape club" for the first time. Mix tape club meets about once a month in an art gallery/studio in South Philly. The members of mix tape club put together a themed mix of songs on a CD and make 10 copies to share. When I arrived at 7:30pm with Emma who knows the girl who started the group, there were about 20 interesting-looking individuals scattered around the cozy studio chatting drinking beer and wine and snacking on an assortment of pot-luck style food including a big bag of muddy buddies. One of the mix CDs was playing. Most of the people there were artists with relatively boring day-jobs. I met several comedians, a stained glass artist (it was his studio), a record store owner, an aspiring singer, and a smattering of students and other visual arts people. Discussions on movies and music were way over my head but I felt warmly welcomed and had an awesome time. Later in the evening after everyone had done the brief presentations of their mixes, people migrated toward the back of the studio. I saw someone with an intricate chinese stamp and we decided to find some ink and proceeded to go around giving people acrylic-paint tatoos which were fun but didn't last very long.

I can't wait for next month.


This is part of the "secret garden" made of glass, concrete and found objects on south street.
This is me in my carrot costume at work :)

Cat and sister united

Cat drove down to Santa Barbara, where her treasured sis lives. We ate salads with lettuce we picked from the garden and then through a huge amount of gear in the SUV and headed out to Red Rocks national park.

It sure feels good to be in California...

We went hiking and camping. However, I was severely injured which trying to break off a cat-tail...
Cat posing with horned melon late at night at the campsite
Alex "slack lining"...it is about as easy as it looks

Alex and I made oatmeal with walnuts and raisins and sat on the porch overlooking their vegetable garden.

California...my spirit's home

The trip home to SF was filled with time outside with family...here is me doing a little yoga on Treasure Island after running around the perimeter with spectacular views of the city while my dad read and my mom walked.

We also went for an 7 mi roundtrip hike with a mid-point at the ocean where we played jump-rope with giant pieces of seaweed.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to pick up a 2lb dead jellyfish...I used to wonder that too...
Here is dad by the waterfall that drops onto the beach where we played seaweed jump-rope and "get the frisbee out of the ocean after Catherine makes a horrible pass"
View toward golden gate park from Ocean beach.
We visited the new Science Museum in GG park. It has a LIVING ROOF!!! (SF is so awesome)
Here is the scuba diver taking about the fish he is in a tank with in the science museum.
Catherine and grand-dad enjoying each other's company.
Cat at home
Great grandfather Revered Herbert Tweedie's grave in Oakland
Beautiful lilly-pad pond
My family like sky and rocks
and waterfalls and empty beaches
...and being generally awesome