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That warm fushia glow is actually my laundry basket – a well known cat place to be.  As is in my closet, on top of my handbags.

Bryan & Michele – two friends from TX

Bryan, Michele, Mark (fiddle player), Jeffrey (fellow coach, member of the SF Gay Men’s chorus)

Bill (business partner) & Gia (his girlfriend)

Mark on fiddle, before we moved to the piano.  Much easier to do sing-a-longs on the piano, by the way.

Stacy, my awesome neighbor, with Moxie & Mancha on my daybed / couch.  This is before the party really got started.

Rick and I spent the day together taking in the downtown mall & seasonal sites – we had a great time.

Here’s their website:  farley’s 

I have gotten to know many of the people who work there, as I’m in there at least several times a week.  The staff is young & hip, and I have become chummy with several of them.  What a wonderful feeling to walk, approach the counter & hear them say, “decaf mocha?”

It has become my home away from home:  I use it as an office to meet clients, as well as an office to get work done that I know I’ll be too distracted to do at home.  I also like to go there to read & think, and stare out the window.

Like any good coffee shop, it has it’s own culture.  There are a few old men that can be found sitting out front most days, drinking their coffee.  I see them together at the same table almost every time I’m there – they are definitely regulars.   Several dogs are also regulars, as they have a convenient place to hook their leashes out front.  Mancha doesn’t like it, though, as the street is too busy and he’s trying to cut back on caffeine – even decaf.  He really watches what he eats…

They have an art show on the walls every month; this month it is art by developmentally disabled children, which they are actioning off.  Once a month they have a reception for the exhibit / meet the artist – I’ve gone before, and have to say they are a little lame.  So mostly I just enjoy the art after it’s up on the walls and skip the meet/greet.

Oh, and they have an amazing collection of magazines.  Sure, a few of the regulars, like Oprah & Time; mostly, though, more esoteric things that you won’t find at Walgreen’s.  This makes it a cool place to be, too…lots of good reading.  One of my former clients thought the coffee was too expensive ($1.75 a cup – is that expensive?); he concluded it was because they were giving away all those magazines and needed to subsidize them!  I hated to tell him they were for sale – he was a bit confused about that.

Did I mention that they play cool music?  I’ve heard everything from the Velvet Underground (60′s rock garage band) to old blues in there – always keeps it interesting.  This truly is a place where the community meets.

So, if you’re ever in my neighborhood I’d love to take you to Farley’s.

The people are nice, the atmosphere is comfortable, the magazine selection fantastic, and the community feel is in full force.  As Lawrence Welk used to say – wonerful, wonerful, wonerful.

in order:

My cousin Renee making her world famous gravy

Uncle Bill on turkey duty

Susan (Bill’s girlfriend) and Grandma waiting for the feast to begin

Mancha’s post dinner feast

Chinnok during a howl-a-thon, with his dad Todd (Kevin’s best friend), my cousins Renee & Kevin

Grandma in recline

Bill & Susan

Bill, Susan & I having breakfast at the Bait Shop, the best place for breakfast, esp. in Lewiston, ID

I have a new kitty – her name is moxie. thought I’d share the definition of her name with you, so you get a sense for who she is.

Moxie =

adventuresomeness, adventurousness, audacity, backbone, boldness, braveness, bravery, daring, dash, dauntlessness, determination, fearlessness, fortitude, gameness, grit, guts, hardihood, mettle, nerve, pluck, prowess, spirit, spunk, stamina, tenacity, toughness, valor

Friday: Rick and I spent the day together looking at the Christmas lights in Union Square and the kittens in the windows of Macy’s. Great food, great company, nice decorations.

Saturday: Dinner party at my house. It was an incredible night with an intimate group of friends that ended at 3am and 9 bottles of wine. Oye.

Sunday: Drove to LA

Monday:

It took me less than 6 weeks to go through all 5 seasons of Alias – that’s dedication.  It was, quite literally, the all Alias all the time channel around here.  DVDs would arrive via Netflix, I’d watch most of the DVD that night, and send it back within a day or two.  Since I get 3 DVDs at a time, I was able to get through the seasons quickly; there were several long, desperate weekends, however, where I had sent back all the DVDs and the new ones hadn’t arrived yet.  During those lonely hours I had to discover other things to do:  see friends, read, walk the do…all highly overrated compared to finding out what happened after last season’s cliff hanger.  Seriously, I loved Alias, and went through a couple of weeks of withdrawl after I saw the last episode.  That Jennifer Garner can really kick some bad guy butt.

The other two shows I’ve done this with are Arrested Development & Weeds.  Both very funny and irreverent.  Who knew watching TV could be this much fun?

Mancha says he loved visiting Idaho, and he’s really glad to be back in SF.  He likes sleeping in his own bed – or mine, whichever is most convenient.   Although he did seem to enjoy Uncle Bills big comfy chair…

I drove from SF to Hood River the first day – that’s a 12 hour drive. Hood River is just about an hour west of Portland, and I spent the night at my friends’ house, James & Yvonne.

Grandma moved into a duplex two weeks ago. She has a nice amount of space, and today got a just like new washer & dryer for $275. She’s slowly unpacking, and I helped with a few boxes. Although she’s 91, she’s doing great.