Renegade Craft Fair : San Francisco

I found out that I got into the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco! Woo hooo!

My aunt lives in SF so I figured it should give it a shot since I can stay there for free. It'll give me a chance to take a working vacation and also to get my products circulation on the West Coast!

So, if you live way over there in the Bay Area stop by and say hi July 12th and 13th.

Daytime Drinking

Dangerously delicious.

There's nothing like a warm Saturday afternoon in McCarren Park. It's like the whole neighborhood is out and on display. Abe and his buddies were playing a weird version of football and I was out strolling around and decided to sit and watch them. I got myself a to-go cup of whiskey and ginger ale with limes from the Turkey's Nest (I'm ca-ray-zay!) and lounged on a bench until a softball almost hit me in the head.

Abe and Sam both showed up wearing their Wired Birds shirts so their team was called the Blue Birds. It's really adorable how they call each other up to match their outfits.

(Abe is probably going to make me delete that last sentence even though I'm only joking. Jeeez.)

Some ice cream was had and then we headed back to our apartment to host an impromptu BBQ . We had lots of sausage, lots of chips, and Sam and Chelsea both kicked off this season's "Back Door Egg Roll", which is when we are hanging out in the back yard and order food from the Chinese restaurant by knocking on the screen door that connects to their kitchen. Later in the night we headed into Williamsburg and went to a pretty big rager on S. 3rd and Roebling.

Not-So-Secret Garden

Abe met me at my office after work yesterday and we went to the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. This is one of my top 3 places in Central Park and I have to remember to go back more often during the day (I've only been after 5:30pm). It is a huge space and has all these neat little gardens inside. Because it is way up on 103rd Street it never seems to be too crowded. The hardest part about being there is that I just want it to be all mine. I want it to be my yard and to have a little stone cottage with a working fireplace under a giant willow tree. I could have breakfast out by the fountain and little birds would land on my shoulder and then I could catch the 6 train and be at the office in 15 minutes. Oh, I guess if I lived there I would probably ride my bike to work.


I have a little problem with lilacs and the Conservatory Garden has hundreds of lilac bushes. Abe went off to find a bathroom and while I waited for him I just stood there huffing the blossoms for a solid 5 minutes and taking close-up photos. My nose was stained with pollen for the rest of the night.

I didn't get a photo because I couldn't get close enough, but there was a raccoon down this walkway just munching away at some food it had found. There was a crowd of 5 of 6 of us watching the thing - it was huge and had a massive bald spot on its back. A lady was saying that she see them every night and they are not scared of people or dogs.

Weekend of Exercise

Saturday morning I participated in the Revlon Run/Walk for Women with 7 of my friends. Team "Adult Babies" (don't even ask...) raised over $1,500 to be donated towards women's cancer research (I don't have the official total yet because we donated checks on the day of too).

The walk was fun. We met a little too early (8am, but the walk didn't start until 9:15), but it was kind of neat of be in Times Square without any cars zooming by or tourists walking into you. Of course, we were surrounded by thousands of females, which can be a little overwhelming in itself. The run/walk kicked off with a sky of confetti (best part of the whole day) and Tiki Barber waved from the catwalk above (second best part of the whole day).

Saturday night I was wiped out and getting ready for Bike NY so I decided to make baked beets. They were delicious, but I got a little too excited when taking them out of the oven. It looked like someone had chopped their hand off in our kitchen.

On Sunday morning Abe and I rode into Manhattan to ride in Bike New York. This bike tour rides through all 5 boroughs of New York City. At least 30,000 people participated this year and it's quite a production. Major streets like the FDR highway and teh Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) are shut down so we can ride on them. In addition, we ride over the Madison Avenue Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, and Verrazano Bridge. The tour is 42 miles, but we rode extra and I think we ended up doing around a total of 50 miles.

In Astoria Park

6th Avenue right before Central Park

After Bike New York we went over to Meredith's house for a BBQ. I was exhausted, but totally rallied because, like my mama always said: "There is nothing better than sausage and beer after a 50 mile bike ride."

Abe about to eat a Bill Cosby-style hot dog: sausage and ketchup topped with potato chips.

This little guy is surprisingly loud.

Troubling Dreams

Ok, I fully had a dream about the comic strip For Better or For Worse. I believe someone was like "What is Lynn Johnston up to these days?" and I proceeded to lecture my friends about how Lynn is retiring this year and will end the current plot lines of the 29 year old strip in September.

Now, this is all true, but still a very weird dream to have. Don't get me wrong, I love FBorFW and read it every morning before I even check my email. However, my friends already think I'm weird for still reading the comics pages - which I think is ridiculous, but I think I might have to agree with them that I need to let go a little bit.

I really wish Lynn wasn't retiring the strip...it is going to totally mess my routine up. She's going to keep reissuing the older strips, but I don't really like those that much. John (the dad) is super mean back then and like total "I'm the man of the house and you're job as a housewife isn't as important."

The readers' blog is pretty hilarious. Click here to read all the crazies' comments. And NO, i have not commented. (Yet.)