sarah in nyc

This is my first time in San Francisco. We have had a giant painting of a view of the Bay Bridge hanging above our couch for the past 17 years. We inherited the painting from my husband's Uncle Irving who lived out most of his adult life in Los Angeles. The painting is a bit unusual in that it lights up. With the lights off you see the view of the bridge by day and when you turn off the living room lights and turn the lights in the painting on,you get to see the same scene at night. The painting straddles the line between lovely and kitschy. One of our Shabbat dinner guests told us that he thought that the painting was the view from California Street. Today after doing a few of the obligatory San Francisco tourist activities we decided to go searching for the spot where our bit of the city was painted from. We first went to the Ferry Terminal. We loved seeing this familiar landmark from our painting. We went inside and discovered that it was an elegant food market si...

I am really writing this post forthe three people I gave birth to. If I didn't give birth to you, you may continue reading. When we travel with our kids one of our favorite activities is supermarket tourism. We love finding regional varieties of snack food. When our daughter went to China the first time she brought home a giant bag of Chinese versions of American snackfoods. We went to the supermarket this afternoon. I chased down versions of chips that we don't see in New York. I didn't purchase any of these fabulous products but might closer to our departure. The cheddar bacon mac and cheese seems to cover most of the salty and greasy categories. I did not check if they were kosher. One never knows.sometimes these seemingly Ur-treif  snack foods are made completely with chemical flavors. I have not seen this variety of Oreos before, but I also realize that I haven't seriously studied the contents of the cookie asile in a long time.  The cheese and j...

Friday we walked on the Goleta pier.  Goleta is just north of Santa Barbara and is the less glam neighbor of Santa Barbara. The pier was long and I think it was built to unload fishing boats. We were not alone in walking the pier.there were families, UCSB students and fishermen on the pier. Birds were busy on the pier as well. If you  looked back towards the shore you could see the mountains The sun was shining into my viewfinder so I took these photos blind. There was lots to look at in the water. I am so glad I was able to catch these two love birds. Amazon.com Widgets

We have been here in Santa Barbara since Tuesday. It had been so long since I have composed a post on my tablet that it took until tonight to re-figure out how to get the task done. So instead of doing a series of chronological posts of what feels at this point like old news I will organize these photos and blogs posts vaguely thematically. We left New York as the daffodils were beginning to bloom (followed by a quick but depressing snowfall). We got to Santa Barbara where nature seems to be on steroids. The blossom above grows on a tree that when it is on bloom looks like it is growing Muppets. Birds of Paradise seem to sprout everywhere. My sister- in-law and her husband live in a house landscaped with lots of citrus trees. There are two Meyer Lemon trees in the back yard. Near the Meyer Lemons is a mystery citrus tree that produces lumpy thick skinned sweet lemons with a really sweet rind. The front yard has a group of Satsumas,a grapefruit tree and some orange trees. ...

On the work completed front, Jane came to pick up her tallit. I was delighted to see how pleased she was with the finished piece. Like with all my clients, I showed Jane how to tie her tzitzit. Most people find it a bit of a struggle at first. After all, it is a new skill. Sometimes I have to be a bit more hands on as the tzitzit were being tiedif people are struggling.  Jane's hands were just so deft. All I had to do was watch her tie the knots.  When Jane was about half way through tying her tzitzit she commented how the work she was putting in made her realize how much time and work I had put into the tallit. I had put in lots of time. Each step raised questions about the best way of solving the problems presented. Some of the problems had me puzzling out the solutions for a couple of weeks before I could continue.  However, I could not be happier with how it all came together in the end. I love how this piece honors Jane's grandmother and great gran...

Yesterday, my youngest turned 20.  He wore his  birthday tiara all day as we ran errands. He had asked for the tiara as a joke for his 16th birthday. His older brother was happy to comply with the fabulous tiara from the .99 store. The tiara has become a big part of our family life and lives on a bust of my mother when it isn't in use during a birthday. My son wore the crown as we visited an art exhibit by a dear friend of ours. As we walked around the neighborhood it was nice to see signs of spring. He also wore the crown when we went out to diner. Today, my son is still 20, and I still  needed to cook for Shabbat. Vaguely French chicken and vaguely Indian vegetables are on the menu. Along with rice (with mushrooms and shallots). I just pulled the challot out of the oven. I faked a wet berry cake for dessert.  Shabbat Shalom to all. Amazon.com Widgets