I stayed up too late last night tinkering with the new toy (if you missed it, I splurged on an iPad). I'm feeling mighty tired and I still have the Monday night conference call with the co-dance teachers in an hour or so, and the house could really use some love.

I did do a couple of test-posts/drafts yesterday, and I am indeed able to post from the iPad, but indirectly. Blogger and the iPad dont quite get along yet, apparently. When you are in Blogger, you can't get the iPad's keyboard to come up. You can click on any buttons, though. What I found is that I can email a post (using the iPad/my hotmail account) to Blogger, and have it post directly, or go in as a draft. I can then use the iPad to get into Blogger and click around a bit to add tags (or anything else I can click on that's a button), and I can preview the post, and then publish it. I can also add photos into the post as an attachment, but it don't have any control over where those photos land...and I haven't figured out how to move them around in draft-mode yet, but I bet that where there is a will, there is a way.

So. Tonight I have photos, and a couple of other things to get off my chest...and I need them placed where I want them...so here I am, on the laptop.
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Ya' know, I held a blog contest recently, and one of the winners was KathodeRayTube. I sent her her prize, and she sent me back stuff! Silly (because that isn't how contests work!), but super-duper sweet! :-)



Some of her favorite goodies from Maine, she writes. A wonderful woodsy smelling air freshener, and some yarn. I have two skeins of something very similar that I picked up when I was back east visiting Plimoth Plantation (seen here, scroll down). The labels are different, but by gosh it is so similar that I think I can put them all together and do a project of some sort. I've been wanting some try some felted bowls or baskets for a long time.
Thanks, Kathy!
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Some not so great news next.
I lost another person last week. I got the call while I was in the middle of tech rehearsal last Thursday night, and I know it's been days and I should have posted by now, but....
I've got all this guilt going on.
So time to spill the beans, I guess.

My Uncle Milton passed away. I think the was 92. Milton was my Grandfather's (my mom's dad) brother. I don't ever remember meeting him as a little kid. I might have, but if I did, I don't remember. I do remember meeting him when we moved to Northern California my senior year of high school. I remember going out on a boat with him into the bay and sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember his wife Odette, too. I remember his daughter, too. I also remember going to her wedding in the Berkeley hills. I remember getting news of Odette's passing.

The guilt? I remember little else. And I don't recall ever seeing him again past my early to mid-twenties. And I liked him. A lot. And he was family. And he lived only an hour or so from where I live. And I just never saw him. And I'm not quite sure why. And it's been eating at me ever since I heard the news. Why didn't we visit??! I mean, it aint like he was calling me either, but....why??

I am confounded. And full of very strange feelings that I can't quite sit still with comfortably for long enough to put my finger on.
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Ok, onto something better (I am the queen of avoidance techniques).

Yesterday TheMostImportantGuy and I ate for the first time at a Napa institution:

(psssst....I love TheMIG's hands *grin*)

The ButterCream Bakery
(do click the link if you are into vintage photos)

It was on the good side of okay. It was kinda like a greasy spoon, sans grease. Not sure how else to explain it LOL. What I will say though, is the pastries?!?! Oh. MyGosh. To die for. Next time I have to show up anywhere for a breakfast potluck, I know just where to go. Best I have ever had. Ever.
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More food (more avoidance?), with a side of "friendship".

Today I had lunch with Donna after going to the midday practice at the zen center. Our plan today was to hit this gourmet food cart guy that parks near her office. Like, grilled asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes on a little food cart, that kind of guy. I was so excited.

And he wasn't parked there today! Gah!
That's when Donna spotted "The Bun Truck".


There's Donna's buns ordering her buns ;-)

Now, I was skeptical, lemme tell ya'. I think I have had a steamed pork bun only once in my life ever, and apparently once was enough, because I have never had a steamed bun again since. I'm so glad I got over myself because this was one of the best things I have ever eaten.

One was duck confit with asian spices and sliced mango, and the other one was garlicky greens with a this slice of crusted tofu and some sort of cheese. And the bun wasn't all doughy and tacky. DANG so good.

Even Donna's cow liked it.

She's slurping on a "Salted Carmel and Pineapple" tapioca sort of drink, with lots of crushed ice. SOoooo good.

Then I laid back on the blanket we had laid on the grass in a shady spot near the truck, and looked up at the trees for a bit.


Pretty awesome.

Everywhere I went today, people commented on the weather. It's finally hot. It was 95 up here where I live today, and only just a bit cooler where we had lunch today. Tomorrow is supposedly going to be hotter, but I think once we head into the weekend it's back to being "unseasonably cool," so I'm hoping to get out and enjoy it as much as I can.