Japanese inventions

For you all of out there still looking for the perfect boyfriend or husband, here is one that never snores, hoards the remote, or leaves the seat up ...
Pour ceux ou celle qui cherchent le perfect copain ou mari, en voici un qui ne ronfle jamais, qui ne s'accapare pas la télécommande, ne laisse jamais le siège des WC debout



Already married? A baby, maybe? Put your baby to work:
Ah, vous etes deja marrie? Un bébé, peut-être? Mettez-le au travail:



Here is a little time-saver:
Pour gagner du temps:



Last but not least, since we're deep in the cold-and-flu season and, in this economy, everybody is a little more cautious with money...

Frank Lloyd Wright Buiding on Maiden Lane

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Did you know that San Francisco has its own Frank Lloyd Wright building? The building, located at 140 Maiden Lane, between Stockton (Union Square) and Grant St., currently houses an art gallery.

According to Wikipedia, Frank Lloyd Wright renovated the building in 1948, and used it as a prototype for the Guggenheim museum.

If you like Frank Lloyd Wright, drive up to Marin County (North of the Golden Gate Bridge) and check out the Civic Center. Or, check out Don Kinney's beautiful series on the Civic Center here.

Maiden Lane is now part of the most upscale area of San Francisco, but back in the 1800's it used to be the seediest part of town with brothels lined up all along the street. Things changed in 1906 when the brothels burned down during the Great 1906 Earthquake and subsequent fire which destroyed most of San Francisco.

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Additional information on the 140 Maiden Ln building here.

Location of the building here:


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Rainy Days and Mondays

Rain in San Francisco

It rained most of last week in San Francisco and in the Bay Area.
Il a plu presque toute la semaine dans la Baie, la semaine dernière.

Not exactly a good week to start my new "completely-without-a-car" commute to work, but overall I'd say it went well.
Pas exactement ce que j'aurais souhaité pour démarrer mon "régime vert" sans voiture (je donne ma vieille voiture un peu de repos en essayant de me debrouiller sans le plus possible), mais bon, ça c'est quand même relativement bien passé.

I broke down on Saturday, though, and decided to take the car grocery shopping, which resulted in this:
J'ai quand même craqué Samedi matin, et l'ai prise pour aller faire les commissions, et voici le résultat:





Oh well.

By the way, my car is the little one on top, in case you were wondering. ;) From that angle and from a distance, she really doesn't look that bad for her age!
Au fait, ma voiture c'est celle du dessus, hein! ;) Vue de cette angle et de cette distance, elle est pas mal pour son age, non? ;)

She's fine now, but just the same, I think I'll be continuing my green commute for a while, while also keeping an eye out for a replacement for her.
Elle va mieux maintenant, mais quand meme, je vais la laisser tranquille le plus possible, pendant que je continue de chercher son remplacement.

Good luck Obama

President-elect Obama will be inaugurated tomorrow. We wish him the best of luck.



This is a photograph of the marquee of the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California. Here is another close-up of the marquee.

According to Wikipedia, the current owner of the has been using part of the marquee to display political messages for the past 20 years, with the support of, and for the great enjoyment of the local community:

"Michaan is known to use his liberal politics as a guide in managing the Grand Lake. In 2004, he publicly announced that the theater would not enforce the R rating of the political documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. The Grand Lake has also received widespread recognition for Michaan's use of the marquee as a political message board. In outrage at the 2000 presidential election, he posted this message on the high-traffic side of the marquee: "This Is America — Every Vote Should Be Counted" Since then, and with much support from the local community, Michaan has regularly used one side of the theater's marquee to display a timely political message. In addition to films, the theater also occasionally hosts talks and events on progressive political issues."

There were some pretty funny messages in the past couple of years. You can see some of them on Flickr.

Baby Talk

Aww, come on, it's funny!

Doing things for yourself feels good

Have I ever invited you to my home? Not in a long, long time, I think. Allow me to show you my latest little project:



I've been meaning to get a hand-held shower unit for my shower stall for a very long time, and I finally got around to putting one in. I got this here thing not so much for its Startreck looks, but based on the reviews (OK, it was on sale!)

Apparently, this unit is supposed to be designed for low pressure systems, because it uses far less water than a regular unit, while still delivering much better pressure (in other words, you can actually rinse the shampoo out of your hair).

So I put it in this afternoon instead of going out hunting for photographs for the blog.

This post might have been a lot funnier for you if I had taken a before and especially a during picture, because I forgot to put a washer in right in the beginning and water splashed everywhere when I tested the unit at the end, but there you have it, final result.

Beautiful, no?

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go mop up the bathroom floor, ceiling, walls ...

Want one? Here you go.

Weapons of mass ... conception?

CIA buys Afghan chief's loyalty with Viagra

What will they think of next, uh? Not kidding, just follow the link.

Happy New Year

Looks like we made it through another one!


May 2009 bring health, peace and prosperity to all.



Here is my favorite interpretation of Auld Lang Syne, by Mairi Campbell (approx. 4 minutes) Enjoy!

(If you look carefully, you will see puppies ;)

TF