my sunday morning was a morning of transportation. here, i’m getting on BART to go to a design meeting in San Francisco. afterward i took the ferry from san francisco back to oakland, then hopped on amtrak from oakland to berkeley, and walked home through the warehouse district on fourth street.

their band was called “judgement day” and they played their stringed instruments in exactly the manner one would imagine a band named “judgment day” would play. on fourth street in berkeley.

this is four generations of my family. i am thankful to Chris and Teresa who invited all of us (and our accompanying chaos) into their home for the holiday.

this is my former boss, and mentor, Marc. i learned a lot of what i know about production management from him. one of his rules was that if there was anything remotely funny or unusual in the costume shop, it would end up going on his head. i try to employ that management technique whenever possible now that i have a department of my own.

Right now, it’s the set for glass menagerie that I’m spending all day staring at. Scenic design by Kat Connley, lighting design by Ben Wilhelm, at Marin Theatre Company thru Dec 19.

this is our neighbor cat. we call him The OC, short for Orange Cat.

Ben and I are in the middle teching the same show right now, which means that 1) our fridge is pitifully empty and 2) we’re not at home long enough to document it. so this is our staff fridge at work, where i’m spending most of my time/keeping my food anyway. it’s a terrifying black hole. you don’t want to see any further in than this.

postscript:

the next day my coworker sent the following email:

From: S. H.
Date: Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Subject: Refrigerator running (from what was growing inside of it)
To: Staff

After narrowly escaping a lunch-money-for-beating transaction by whatever odiferous bully had pitched a tent and capital-O occupied our fridge, I donned a HazMat suit and bagged and tagged some penicillium cultures, mesophilic compost and miscellany “food” that had expired peacefully in its sleep days or weeks (or months ago). If I confused your lunch for a John Carpenter horror, I apologize.

– S

PS: Ick.

I was going to clean up my kitchen for its photo op, but I decide that was bad journalism. instead I documented the kitchen exactly as it was today: a disaster zone. still, it’s my favorite room in the house, messes not-withstanding. to get the full experience, click on the photo an following the link to flickr, where 19 embedded notes will give you a full tour of the picture.

Clockwise in a spiral from top right:
1. note blue and white color scheme. when we moved it everything was mismatched wood paneling with an emphasis on the orange spectrum. this job took 3 people about 4 days, but it was so worth it.
2. vintage map of Chicago
3. pastry mat, cornmeal. prepared surface for the loaf of bread that was rising near the heater
4. ben’s corn chowder. It’s awesome.
5. cauliflower and delicata squash roasted with curry for dinner.
6. Ben’s mother’s apple pie recipe that I’ll be making on thursday morning
7. electric kettle is my second-favorite kitchen appliance
8. gas range. electric range is a deal-breaker.
9. magnetic spice jars
10. my “clean room” award ribbon. my irony ribbon is hanging around here somewhere, too.
11. sink full of dishes, because we’re both in tech right now, so no one does the dishes.
12. favorite item in the kitchen: the food processor. essential for so many things!
13. vacuum cleaner because we are battling an ant invasion under the cupboards right now
14. the honey bear has to live inside an oxygen tent (ziplock bag) because of the constant threat of ant invasions
15. plant gnome.
16. pastry scraper. i’d just finished making 3 double recipes of pie crust in preparation for thanksgiving.
17. dishtowels. a clean stack of dishtowels is a kitchen essential.
18. compost. berkeley has curbside compost pickup along with regular trash and recycling. yay, hippies!
19. the entry point for this week’s ant invasion

Boise airport on a Friday night. Flying home after a funeral.

these are the mittens i’ve been knitting since last winter. they’re nearly done which is good since another winter is nearly here!