Nice weekend

Yesterday, some friends and I attended a calendar-making workshop in San Francisco. It was sunny in the city, and it's so nice to drive in on a Sunday when traffic is light. The workshop was in the Bernal Heights neighborhood, a comfrotable, family neghborhood, far from the tourist places. As we turned onto Cortland Avenue, a homeless man came flying down the long, steep hill on a shopping cart, a huge grin on his face. At the top of the hill, a yuppie-looking couple craned their necks to watch his descent.

Right near the community center where the workshop was to be held, there are cute little shops and lots of familes with kids in strollers and dogs on leashes. I saw no children over age 5, though. I wonder where they go? Do their parents keep them locked indoors? Do families move someplace else when their children reach school age? Do all the older kids in San Francisco magically sleep in on Sundays? Anyway, we had a delicious brunch at the Liberty Cafe.

The workshop lasted 6 hours, and even so, I didn't quite get my calendar finished. I still need to cut out the pages with the dates and assemble the whole thing. Other people made calendars that were much fancier and more artistic than mine, but still, I'm pleased with my results. Mine has a travel theme. Here's the front and back covers, and some of the internal pages:



I like the process a lot (although many handwashings and a shower later, I'm still picking medium off of my hands). I'm tempted to make more, time permitting. In any case, it was a wonderful, relaxing day with friends.

After the workshop we had dinner down the street at Moki's Sushi and Pacific Grill. Mmmm. And then I made record time on the drive home, and it didn't rain until I was in bed. What a great day!

And, in case there was any question that Thing 1 is my offspring, here's an unposed shot I got this weekend. Note the size of the stack of books :-)