I finally got it finished!

I decided to go ahead and switch to a self-hosted blog using the wordpress.org software.  Love it love it love it.  So, now, the blog is hosted at deanatollerton.com.  You can still go to the original ducksoupquilts.wordpress.com address and your RSS feeds should all still work.  If they don’t, please let me know.

This took me a little longer than I anticipated.  But I’ve also been MIA for two very good reasons.  #1 – my camera battery died and I can’t upload the pics from SF.  And #2 – I have been so busy since I got back that I’ve barely had time to breathe. I haven’t checked other blogs or any forums in like 3 weeks.  I had to make a conscious effort to log into Facebook yesterday.  That started it all rolling again.  Now I’m reading on MQR and checking back on my google reader and sorting emails I haven’t gotten to in a while.  It’s a little much to do all at once, but I’m going to try and get it done over time.

I finally broke down and ordered a new battery charger for my camera.  I’m really glad I did.  Even if I find the old one, the new one (after-market brand) can be charged in the car.  Big plus for traveling!

Off to run some errands downtown.  I’ve got SF trip posts prepped and waiting for pictures.  In the meantime, what do you think of the new layout?

I could probably talk and talk and talk, but I’m tired right now and it would mostly be babble.  Pictures galore:

I think the seagulls here are bigger than the ones in Austin

Ghiardelli Square

Hyde Street Pier and Alcatraz

Cable Car turnaround

view down Lombard from Hyde Street

Lombard Street

In case you’re a yokel, like me, it’s pronounced “hate”, not “haight”…  How do I know this?  The disembodied voice on the bus told me so!

Tall!boy and I went over to HA for the afternoon.  The bus was CROWDED and there were the most obnoxious 14 year old boys talking about beating up on each other and getting high.  Boys are dumb at that age, for sure.

We had lunch at the BEST cafe — All You Knead.  It reminded me of Magnolia Cafe or the original Kerbey Lane back home.  We then went to Crepe Express and the gal behind the counter was the nicest ever.  She and I kind of look alike, according to tall!boy.  I take that as a compliment, because she was beautiful.

While tall!boy went down to Amoeba, I went all over.  I was disappointed with Mendel’s.  If I wanted to buy polyester and nylon, I’d go to Joann’s and not pay SF prices for it all.  I bought a Pigma Pen and some matboard for my cross-stitch project.  My back hurt from standing on the bus (the constant stopping and starting is murder on the knees, too) so I went to the bookstore down the block and sat in the ONE CHAIR in the whole store.  It happened to be by the paper doll books, which were fun to look through.  Their quilting and sewing section?  Two books: one on art “quilting” (no quilting involved, please note) and Denise Schmydt’s book.  Shame.  I was looking forward to buying something.  I did end up getting Candy Girl (the auto-bio of the writer of Juno) and a book about the history of HA.

After the bookstore, I met up with tall!boy and we went to a different cafe that I heard has the best chai in town.  Ok, yes, it was good, but they used skim milk the first time and that’s just not optimal.  I asked for half-and-half the second time and YUM.  I decided to stay and read Candy Girl while tall!boy went to another record store.  Chated with the guy behind the bar and had a grilled cheese sandwich — BY FAR the best grilled cheese I’e had in my life.  He said it is: provolone and sharp cheddar with fresh salted butter and fresh baked French bread.  I have challenged tall!boy to try and replicate it.  He makes a killer g.c.

I think if I lived in SF, I would either have to spend a lot of time in HA or live there.  It’s the only place I’ve been this whole week and felt really comfortable.  It’s very much like SoCo back home.

Off to bed.  More tomorrow — we’re going to take the cable car to the end of the line and see what’s there.

I didn’t do a whole lot today, but I did go over to SFStitch to get some Aida for a Subversive Cross Stitch project for one of tall!boy’s co-workers as a surprise.  Only one pic to share, of going down Powell Street on the cable car.

Today was my big bus trip up to Dharma Trading in San Rafael.  I had to take the same bus as yesterday, but only half-way across town to the Golden Gate Transit stop.  While I waited for the bus, I noticed this sight across the street:

It took about an hour to get up to San Rafael.  A very interesting group of people on the bus.  I heard all about one gentleman’s car problems and another woman’s sex life with her very tattooed girlfriend.  People don’t realize what they say on the cell phone sometimes!  I also noticed that as we got further away from downtown, the riders went from typical business people to non-English-speaking with cleaning service polo shirts.  I hate generalizing like that, but I was paying very close attention.  I didn’t have the same experience on the way back, so maybe it was just the time of day (11 am) or something.

San Rafael is the sweetest little town!  I wish I had more time to spend in downtown, just sitting and people watching.  Dharma was rather underwhelming.  The storefront is mostly a yarn store.  The saleswoman wasn’t any help with my questions.  She wanted to go ask someone from the warehouse, but couldn’t find anyone to help.  So much potential, but it didn’t pan out.  I got some water softener, but I’m not sure if it will work.  I’m going to give it a try.

Had lunch at an Italian place, don’t remember the name.  Good pizza and a nice place to eat.

Caught the bus back and got a little bored.  I thought I’d take a picture of my new shoes to share with y’all…  I HEART Privos!

And took pictures of the view:

Walking back to the hotel, I saw this store (I really should have stopped, but I was tired.  I’ll go back the next time we’re in SF, I guess)  The funniest thing?  As I stopped to take the picture, I realized it is directly across the street from a mosque.  Why do I find that so amusing?!

I’ve tried to plan my days out ahead of time, but I’m not sure how that will work. Today went according to plan, though. I got up with tall!boy and took the bus over to Clement St. Fabrix happens to be across the street from Go Figure, which is awfully fortuitous. The bus went right by Japantown, which I didn’t even know existed. Sometimes I wish I was able to enjoy all of the Asian areas of San Francisco. The last time I was here, I spent half a day in Chinatown and all the incense and smells and such gave me a horrible headache that I can’t seem to forget. I can’t eat any of the food, which makes it difficult to enjoy the area, too. I guess in Japantown I could have at least gotten some awesome candy. But I was on a mission and didn’t stop to browse.

At Fabrix, I was looking for dupioni for my next wearable, Mrs Peacock. At the Dallas show, I bought some fat quarters in the colors I want to use, but the yardage is $18. Fabrix has all their dupioni for $9.99 a yard (!) and I managed to find not only three of the colors I need but also some silk organza in the green that I need for the underneath part of the train. Now I just need to track down a chartreuse and a copper. I suspect Silk Road will have what I need but before I go over there, I need to make up a mock ‘eye’ and guesstimate how many yards I’ll need to make 150 of these suckers plus the little things at the base of the tail

Go Figure is an interesting plus-size boutique. I suspect there are just some differences in what silhouettes are popular in SF versus Austin. I did find a pretty shawl and a jersey top but for the most part it was all wrong for my shape and way too expensive. I loved talking with the gal in there, but there just wasn’t much to interest me. Especially since I can sew my own clothes, too.

I met tall!boy’s new co-workers and boss for dinner tonight and still had time to kill before I needed to head back to the hotel, so I went over to Needlepoint, Inc and Britex. I bought a little thing at Needlepoint, Inc but won’t be going back there for anything but floss/wool/yarn. The canvases were ex-pen-SIVE. At Britex, not only did I strike out in the remnants section and the dupioni section, but I managed to anger a sales clerk. She was suggesting that $50 a yard was cheap for dupioni and I said “That’s ridiculous. You have a very warped sense of value. This fabric is of lower quality that what I bought earlier for $10 a yard. It’s looser woven and the dye will run if it even comes within a foot of water.” She literally spun on her heel and walked away with an audible huff. Well, what can I say? I said the truth! Some of the things I’ve bought there before are wonderful quality, but this particular piece was atrocious.

With still more time to kill, I decided to take the F line street car down to FLAX art supply. Now, I’ve take the route before so I didn’t bother to check the schedule before I left the hotel. And it never occurred to me that the protesters all over Market Street would cause any delays. But they canceled F line service down where I was standing. I waited there for 30 minutes before I thought to check the SFMTA website for info. I ended up taking the Muni subway-esque train down and walking a few blocks. I guess it’s a good thing I had been there before and knew where it was.

Sadly, having been there before meant that I didn’t feel the need to walk around and be awed by the coolness that is FLAX. I was able to get the colored pencils I needed and a sketch pad in a number of minutes. The sketch pad is, for lack of a better phrase, the coolest. It’s held together by three rings, but it flips back like a regular spiral book. It means that I can refill it will all kinds of paper and run paper through the printer and color in the lines. I’m such a child! And as a child, I really loved coloring inside the lines.

Dinner was a a Florentine Italian restaurant called Firenze. Delish.

We got in about an hour late because of fog, and tall!boy decided he didn’t want to take the cable car up the (massive) hill to the hotel. Please note that I have a BART Plus Pass which means I get unlimited rides on all Muni and most regional transport. I had an asthma attack about half-way up the hill and where is my inhaler? In Austin.

The hotel was nice enough to give us the room ahead of schedule by an hour or so and I *crashed* big time. Just woke up and tall!boy is still at work. The room is nice and the bed is super cozy.

Thought I’d share a pic from this morning. Tall!boy stayed up all night instead of going to bed at midnight and getting up again at 3:30. So by the time we were in Denver, he was exhausted. He wanted to sleep but the morning sun was in his eyes.

I also realized that I forgot to post about Miss Scarlet while I was in Dallas.  She was still entered into the show as Married in Red, Take 2 and was up against 14 competitors (including some very stiff competition).  And guess what?!

Whew…  off to eat across the street at Uncle Vito’s.  I’m in the mood for pizza.