The garden

New kitten pictures

They're so much bigger now! The one of Tigris sitting in the red file box is funny because that's my "important things" box. She is obviously very important.

Kittens!

We're tentatively going with "Tigris and Euphrates," as we are geography geeks. First, a quiet moment:



The darker one is Tigris - she's was apparently the runt and is still a little smaller than her sister, but she makes up for it with her superior plotting and climbing ability.






The lighter one is Euphrates - she's a little bigger, a little more energetic, and she crashes into walls a lot.





These girls are hard to get good pictures of, but I'll keep trying!

Your introduction to the Bay Area

First, some simple geography! This is an article on the entire Bay Area: Wikipedia article on the Bay Area

As noted in the geology section of the article, you'll actually be visiting when the terrain is at its greenest, due to the preceding wet season.

Here is your hotel in relation to my house:


View Larger Map

Then, the BART website:
bart.gov

Macarthur Station is two blocks away from my house and also the closest BART station to drive to from the hotel. You can either park at my place or pay $1.00 to park in the BART parking lot for the day. Embarcadero is the first of the four main stops in downtown San Francisco, and is about 15 minutes away from Macarthur. Embarcadero is right near the waterfront, Montgomery Street has the financial district to its north and many of the city's best museums to its south, Powell Street is the major shopping and theatre district and also home to the terminus of the cable car, and Civic Center is home to City Hall, the courts, and lots of bus and trolley lines that go out into the further reaches of the city. All of these stops run along Market Street, which is the spine of downtown San Francisco. They are all relatively close to one another.
I'm also only two stops away from the downtown Berkeley station, as well as two stops from downtown Oakland.

Next, the official website of Emeryville, the city in which you are staying:
Emeryville

This website describes a bunch of the local neighborhoods in Oakland and Berkeley. I live just south of Temescal, and work in the Fourth Street district: SF Gate Neighborhoods of the East Bay

The Trike

A long due update

First of all, that card is on its way. I ended up going home from work sick the day after I spoke to you, and spent two days regretting putting anything more acidic than bread into my stomach.

On to pictures! This is what you got me for Christmas, thus far. There are $12 left on the card.

We start with not very exciting yet highly necessary trash cans:


These were actually quite a deal - they were on super clearance because they were meant for storing rolls of gift wrap. The lids snapped on securely (too securely!), but there was a little extra top storage area on top of the lid with it's own hinge cover for storing bows. Alex enterprisingly took a hot blade and cut the bottom of the bow storage area out and sanded down the edges, and presto - trash cans with easy open lids. They were the right size (we needed narrow ones to fit in that space and allow our cabinets to open), and less than half the price of "real" trash cans in that size.

Next? You finished my bathroom. See Rainbow Fish toothbrush holder, next to the previously purchased Rainbow Fish soap dispenser.



Remember how I bought some of the Rainbow Fish collection from my local Target, but they only had some of the pieces left because the collection was on clearance? Well, I went to a different Target this time, and they had different stuff. This next find was the most exciting of all:



That's right, RAINBOW FISH BATH MAT! Complete with my soggy footprints.

Because not everything in my bathroom is Rainbow Fish:



A lovely cabinet for storing extra bathroom goods, because the built in shelving over the toilet was overflowing with stuff:





Let's leave the bathroom! Another highly necessary buy, complete with crumbs:



Finally, a toy. Civilization II was the computer game that I played for hours in the basement, as did Shaun, Anthony, Nicole... conquering the world is fun! I saw this new version and had to have it:

What you got me for my birthday

A floor lamp to help our basil grow:



A lovely wooden nightstand/file cabinet and a wrought iron lamp atop it:


Curtains for my room:


A stylish pocket watch:


A "rainbow fish" tissue box:


A "rainbow fish" soap dispenser:

That sink is big and beautiful, except for the stupid rust stains. I want to find a way to remove them.

And you did not get me this, but I wanted to show you the matching shower curtain: