The Crooked Man aka Stranger Danger

Dani and I went to Children's Fairyland this weekend (we can walk to it from our new house :) Built in 1950 it is the first American theme park. It's hard to believe that this strange little corner of Lake Merritt somehow spawned Disney. We met our friends David and Derrick and their son (who is almost 3 and was our ticket in.)

I loved it! All the attractions had a clear 1950's edge to them; before the world of childhood was turned sugary sweet and overly age appropriate. Check out this The Crooked Man:

Look at his creepy eye, exaggerated features, and cob webs (as if the spiders were adding their two cents to the story.) It reminds me of what I loved about my childhood-- Never again will I feel that same mixture of shear joy tinged with absolute terror.

I wear my cartography hat!

How do I get to the boats?

Death Valley Resuscitated

Death Valley really gussied itself up for us this time. The colors were amazing. I mean who knew that the desert could be green? The desert flowers were blooming, the kangaroo rats were scampering and we were giggling uncontrollably as we rolled into Boyscout Camp at 2 am. (On previous trips we turned our noses up at Boyscout Camp thinking that it wasn't rough and ready enough for us but actually its the perfect place to crash and then make a quick get away in the morning.)

On Saturday (our only full day) we drove to Leadfield. Leadfield sort of seems like a funny tragedy. It was only a town for a year in the 20's during a mining boom that resulted from "wild and distorted advertising." The desert is full of bizarre, tragic endings that ultimately go unnoticed. (see Pete Aguereberry in addition to the story in the link Poor Aguereberry eventually found gold but it was stolen while he was at church)

Even the rocks seemed to be in bloom.

The way out of Leadfield is a one way road through Titus Canyon. So beautiful and amazing! This was only the beginning

The Racetrack, my favorite, where the rocks move by themselves but only when no one is looking. It is 20 miles in on a dirt road so bumpy it took us 2 hours to get there. But I don't care, it is always worth it!

Hi Andy

Ubehebe Crater

On the way home we took a route that we had only traveled at night and were amazed at what we had be missing. Kern River is beautiful, the Yuba still has my heart but I do have a wandering eye for Kern.

Plus while driving we passed through some sort of blossoming jasmine farm that filled the air with the most intense smell of jasmine I had ever sniffed.

Post for W.D. From the Desert

Dad, Debbie and The Hunkiest Jesus

My Dad and Debbie came for a visit. We took them to The Hunkiest Jesus Easter Celebration in Dolores Park.

My favorite part are the bonnets.

and these two badasses came too.

Birthday

Contrary to what the Social Security Administration (and the IRS for that matter) may think today is my birthday and I am 29.

Photo by Begor

I <3 TXT, or My Recent Brush with Fame

So, I was sitting at my window enjoying a nice Oakland sunset:

When my phone alerted me of an in-coming text message:

Isn't that sweet someone is thinking of me. I replied:

I was totally surprised when I found out it was:

There was only one logical assumption as to which Celine this was and this was funny because I was just thinking of her.

Not without a little disappointment I received this message:

Who is this Mr Phelps and why would Celine Dion be texting him. I decided that it was best to be civil with Celine-- she is a powerful performer-- so I used a sweet emoticon.

Then this:

Listen here Celine! I don't know who you are out gallivanting with but I assure you I do not and moreover will not associate with anyone calling themselves by such a bizarre assortment of words: peace justin zen.

Then I remembered that I hate Celine Dion and tried to angrily flip my phone shut, alas I don't have a flip phone so I pressed the end button and swore off "The Power of Love" forever.

SF is calling it's daughter home

but no San Francisco you are too expensive and I am having too much fun in Oakland. No matter how you woo me by decorating your streets with giant pictures of me I will not move back.

Everything I own is from Craigslist

I love Craigslist.org but not as much as the W.D. Craigslist is really an amazing community making portal. I love having a way to connect with people that have what I need and with people that want what I have. It is nice to see your old stuff go to good use. Every time we move we become wheelers and dealers in the grand Craigslist exchange community. But this time W.D. took craigslist-ing to new heights.

Here is the running tab.

Sold:
Our Grandma couch.
To some nice young college girls that were new to the city and couldn't understand why we were even selling it.

Our Bed and Mattress:
To a lady that made up a lie that her son was sleeping on the floor and really needed the bed in order to haggle us down. Little did she know that we were just glad to be rid of it.

My broke-ass dresser
posted for free and was gone in 2 hours.

Dani's Ipod mini
to the cutest little teenager having his first craigslist experience.

My manual typewriter
to sulky teenager that wanted to be a writer and needed the old school typewriter to feel authentic.

My Playstation and games
to an odd guy buying because his sister was visiting with her kids and he wanted to seem cool

Dani's Lesbian themed videos
to a woman in the south bay that hosted goddess poetry nights and repeatedly wished us a good life.

Dani's computer keyboard
to a nice lady

Our extra ukuele case
to a crazy lady who's antique uke was stolen and then recovered by the police but with a broken case handle. This sale hasn't actually happened yet because the women is so crazy she can't schedule the pick up but she keeps calling.

Dani's Desk
to an odd little hippie boy who asked us unanswerable questions like: "So its a desk... what have you been using it for primarily?" um... I don't know, mostly we've been using it as a...desk.

Helmets
Still for sale


Bought:
Our new apartment

Movers
Two Cal students that move people for extra cash

Boxes for the move
Free from some nice rich guy that just bought a house in Potrero

Ikea Couch
From a nice guy that was getting his first "big boy" couch and dry cleaned the slipcover of this one often.

Bed, hypoallergenic mattress and side table
From a super rich woman in loft that accidentally locked me out for 1/2 hour in my socks.

Super sweet orange Schwinn Varsity bike:
From Harvey a cute Stanford student.

hmmm... can't think of anything else. Dani please fill in the missing items.

Cube Master!

This is a photo of my triumphant first solve. It took me 4+ days to ensure my spiritual transcendence by perfectly arranging these brightly colored "cubies"(as true aficionados call them.) Below is a six year old dressed as spider man doing it in 37 seconds.

My feat of intellectual agaility wouldn't have happened without the help and support of chessandpoker.com or Andy who gave me the gift of cube.

Oaktown, Oaklandish, Oaksterdam

Goodbye SF :'(

The new place is freakin awesome. Its the top unit of a totally remodled victorian with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Dani will be in cooking heaven and I've been having dreams of the dishwasher and built-in microwave. Not to mention we have and even better view of The Sutro!


These are the crime stats of the new neighborhood.
It seems in line with city living pretty much. Right?

30 Days

60 days

Wake Up Leggy Wake Up!

I have the sinking suspicion that this photo is more truth than metaphor