It's another one of those days where I hadn't taken a photo for the day so I took a picture of the cat.

For Dive Bar, we went to a bar (duh) and watched election results while playing a quotation matching game.

I'm depressed.

Somehow, over half this country voted for an administration that...oh, where do I start? The needless loss of life in the war started to protect oil interests? The floundering economy? The lack of civil rights for many Americans, not just gay/lesbian Americans? The lack of health care?

I think the Democratic party lost it on faith. Somehow, Bush's attachment to being right with God translated into being right about everything. Bush doesn't believe he makes mistakes. If the Democratic party is going to survive, it needs to figure out how to appeal to people who don't live in San Francisco or New York. Now I'm not a big fan of the Democratic Party but I think it's a step forward, however small, from the Christian Fundamentalists who seem to have taken over the Republican party.

This is a rose in my garden.

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We went to a friend's housewarming party. This gate was across the street. It looked much more interesting in person. I want to come back during the daytime and take a photo.

This is Surly Bunny who lives in a pot in my garden.

I'm giving up on tomatoes. I think the tomatoes in my garden are finally done. It is, after all, November. Even for California, that's pretty late.

Today, I put the remains of the tomato plant vines into the com

I"m thinking of knitting some table runners from Euroflax linen. Has anyone worked with this? How does it work for a shawl, lace or other openwork pattern?

Tonight, we went to Video Riot which was underwhelming. I thought it was kinda like Burning Man but without the dust or the naked people. Video Riot was supposed to be a bunch of political speech projected onto the wall of a large building downtown. Instead, it ended up being a lot of test images from various video mixing tools. I'm over seeing fractals morph. That was interesting the first time I saw it on a screen saver. I'm told the show was much more interesting last year. On the good side, we ran into a number of friends. I enjoyed talking with people, even if the video performance was less than compelling.

This is roasted garlic.

I'm thinking a lot recently about how blind devotion to something can impair critical thinking...and the victim won't even know it. For an example of this, I offer the star of my high school football team. I don't think I ever went to a high school football game. I did, however, have a class with this guy. The class was a law class, not a science class. I think he would have refused to take a science class on principle. One day the topic was teaching evolution in public schools. He thought it shouldn't be taught because evolution couldn't possibly be true. If it were, monkeys would still be turning into people.

I think he might benefit from a science class, if he could open up enough to hear how evolution actually works. Then again, that doesn't match what's in the Bible so I figure he wouldn't have been capable of hearing anything new or different.

This is a homemade tart with roasted garlic, roasted Japanese eggplant and a home made crust.

As I've been driving 101 these days, I've been listening to NPR, that 'liberal' media source. Recently. several shows have had evangelical Christian guests who talk about why they did (or did not) vote for W and their perception that the heathens (of which I would be one) feel contempt for evangelical Christians. Twice on the radio today, I heard the word 'contempt' in describing a non-Christian's attitude toward a Christian.

This scares me.

This scares me because there isn't anything more dangerous than a population with a martyr complex, especially if seems to be over half the US population, the people who voted for W.

I will admit to feeling contempt for sheep who don't think for themselves. One of the guests on the radio today said that we shouldn't feel contempt for her because her values are thousands of years old and they are true. Uh...that's my point. People who believe they have a corner on truth are dangerous. That's how we ended up with the sun going around the earth, among other scientific errors.

This is the commute on 101. This isn't a very fun place to be.

I'm thinking of a new story. This will be something like Bo, the Burrowing Owl and the saga of the wall-mounted toilet. It was supposed to be a special event but it's turning into a mini-series.

This is the empty spot in my garage where my car is supposed to be.

It rained today. When I left work to pick up a sandwich, I turned the lights on as I was driving around. I left the lights on. When I went to leave, my car battery was dead. A friend came to try to jump start it but that didn't work. In a strange lapse of judgement, I'd bought a car alarm along with the stero I'd bought to replace the last one that got stolen. The car alarm has an ignition kill feature that made jump starting the car problematic.

It was raining. I was tired. I decided to pull a Scarlett O'Hara and decide tomorrow was another day. I would leave the car overnight, take the train home and deal with it in the morning.

This image is taken from the window of the train as I took the train to work in the morning. This is one of those images that looked much more interesting in person. This is early morning light hitting some of the buildings in Brisbane.

I called a tow truck. $45 later, the nice man from Bill's Towing had my car working. I then drove to Cupertino (30 minute drive or so) to buy cat food and recharge the battery.

Now that my car worked, I had to drive home on a Friday evening in rush hour. If there is ever a day or time to take the train instead of driving, Friday evening is it. Friday evening is that time of the week when everyone's brain is fried, something which gets reflected in their driving. I drive a very small Honda. If I'd been in a train, I'd have less fear of dying in a collision. The train always wins.

Even before I got onto the freeway, some guy tried to change lanes into me. I don't think he even looked to see if anyone was there. He had his seat way back in low rider position. I wonder if he could even see over the steering wheel, let alone to the surrounding lanes. He saw me at the last minute and swerved back into his own lane.

On the final approach to the freeway, another person decided that it would be a good idea to make a left turn across two lanes of freeway bound traffic and two lanes of just-exiting the freeway traffic. There is no light at this intersection. He had pulled into traffic, almost entirely across my lane. He was setting himself up to be broadsided. I saw him and slowed down until he removed his car from the lane so there was no collision. Still, I wonder what he was thinking? What decision process told him that was a good idea?

I was going to go to Farmer's Market but then I realized I didn't need anything. Farmer's Market is a bit of a crowd and I don't enjoy shopping for the sake of shopping. I stayed home, instead.

I talked with a friend today who said she had found her self in a strange place the previous night: in a gay leather bar surrounded by furries. She decided that was not the place for her..

In the evening, we held what was billed as 'Martini and Movie' night except that there were no martinis and we never got around to watching movies. Instead, we ate. I know a bunch of people who are doing various low carb (Atkins, South Beach) diets. We got together to eat all the high carb food. My contribution was bread and Meyers lemons (from my tree) for lemon drops. I made whole wheat sourdough, olive and garlic bread. This was the first loaf of whole wheat sourdough that actually worked.

Kitty needs a snooze button.

I met a friend for brunch. On my way home, I passed these patient dogs waiting outside a store.

In the evening, I met some friends for coffee (hot chocolate in my case) and Thai food.

This is the sunrise from my bedroom window. I live on the West Coast. We're supposed to have fabulous sunsets over the ocean. I'm partial to the sunrises. On days like this, it beats a sunset.

People who share their cell phone conversations in confined public spaces should be required to at least have interesting conversations. On the train ride home tonight, I had the misfortune to share the car with an idiot loudly having a cell phone conversation. This guy got onto the train after me. He had his cell phone glued to his ear. He kept talking and talking and talking...and not saying anything. If I had to listen to his conversation, I wanted it to at least be interesting. His conversation seemed to mostly be about some music he had downloaded earlier that day. He also didn't have a train ticket so he got kicked off the train at the next stop. I only had to listen to his yakking for one stop.

This is some graffitti near my house. I walked by here on my way to catch the bus to pick up my car. My car now has new brakes. Brakes are a good thing in a car.

Tonight's Dive Bar was a clown gathering at the smallest bar in San Francisco. This was kinda like putting clowns in a small car. This time, all the clowns fit into a small bar.

During the past several weeks, I've received many phishing attempts to get me to update my 'Suntrust' or 'Citibank' account or letting me know that PayPal charged something to my credit card. This makes me wonder. What would a knitted phish look like? I knit fish. What would a knitted phish look like?

I'm knitting a cosy for my laptop. This is the swatch.

The early train is kinda empty in the morning. I like mostly having the train to myself.

Last week, I had car problems with the dead battery and the missing brakes. This week, it was bicycle problems. My bike locker broke. I can't open the locker. My bike is stuck inside the locker. I ended up having to walk to work from the train station. I caught a ride home with a friend. This is 101 on a Friday at rush hour.

Later in the evening, we went to a show that featured a performer that would only be seen at the Odeon: a pogo stick stripper. Yep, he did a striptease act while bouncing around on a pogo stick. I guess everyone needs a gimmick. This was surreal. The other performers were much more interesting. This guy was just kinda strange.

Yes, there is a story behind this picture. It isn't a very funny story so I won't write about it here.

We went grocery shopping. Safeway is a place to be avoided on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I got stuck in a crowded aisle in the middle of an extended family drama. I guess they wanted to start their holiday family drama early and in public. I got stuck between their three shopping carts while they argued about what to bake.

My cell phone had a rattle. While this was somewhat entertaining, it stopped being entertaining when the phone started randomly dying. I got a new cell phone. I knit a cosy for the new cell phone. Some people buy cell phone cases. I knit a cosy for my cell phone.

Today's cooking: banana bread, whole wheat sourdough bread with garlic and olives. dinner: roasted eggplant filled with mushrooms, onions, sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts.

I"m feeling kinda Martha-Stewart-like but without the insider trading conviction. This weekend, I baked two loaves of bread and knitted a cell phone cosy. At least I didn't do decoupage. (sp?). I also ran around the Haight in a priest shirt and went to see a man doing a striptease act on a pogo stick. Maybe it wasn't quite the Martha weekend it first appeared...

uh oh..I feel some bread coming on...

This is a swatch for a laptop cosy.

This is a sweet pea in my garden. I didn't plant this. It's a volunteer.

I made bread - sourdough.

I'll be cooking for Thanksgiving so I'm starting today (Tuesday) with making bread for stuffing.

My bicycle difficulties continue. CalTrain sent me a key to another locker. (remember my old bike is locked inside a locker that will no longer open) They sent the wrong key. The new key might open some other locker but it doesn't open the locker they claim it does.

I made whole wheat sourdough for Tday stuffing.

This year, I managed to go to Safeway on the Saturday before Thanksgiving AND the Wednesday before. I think America has a new family tradition: taking the extended family to the grocery store before Thanksgiving. This was a mess. I went by the frozen turkeys and saw a 6 people staring at a frozen turkey as if they had never seen one before. I think they were trying to figure this turkey thing out.

I also saw a large number of abnormally thin (anorexic?) people at Safeway. They also didn't know what to do in a grocery store. I think they are not used to eating. They certainly didn't know what to do with things like shopping carts.

I was also surprised to see the aisle of paper plates was empty. I guess a lot of people eat Thanksgiving meals on paper plates.

In other news, we seem to have acquired a cat. A stray cat has come to stay. This cat is extremely friendly. We already have a cat who is the Queen. She won't tolerate another cat in the house. We will put up posters and take her (him?) to the shelter. Meanwhile, the Found Kitty has a nest in the back yard. This is a very hungry cat. Found Kitty will have a home in the back yard, separate from the Queen, until we can take her to the shelter on Friday.

I cooked.

But first, we continued the Thanksgiving tradition of exploring something. Last year, we tried Chinatown followed by Swanson Turkey TV dinners (they aren't edible). This year, we explored Mountain Lake, one of three lakes in San Francisco. We found this creature which I guess is a kind of a duck.

This was taken from the top of Bernal Hill at something like F2. It wasn't a particularly long exposure but I did open the lens a lot.

We did a little minibar party on Bernal Hill to celebrate the Racoon Breeding Moon. Actually, it had more to do with a full moon and my having a new minibar that needed to be broken in. It was a pleasant evening and not too cold.

We took Found Kitty to the shelter. Now we don't run the risk of cat conflict.

This is a lilly in my garden.

I am a geek.

The hilight of my evening was transferring a file from my laptop to my cell phone via Bluetooth. Now I have "Teddy Bear's Picnic" as a ringtone.

I am such a geek that the best picture I could take is yet another cat picture.

I do have a fondness for sunrises. This is out my back door, looking over the roofs of the neighbor's houses.

I baked banana bread.