stringbeanlove's blog

Kitty cake.

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:09:15 -0700

For a few someones I know who are fans of Hello Kitty.

"The 3D Heavenly Hello Kitty Birthay Cake is marzipan bordered in puffs of icing clouds. Cake board is finished in silver metallic fabric trim." - Lovin Sullivan Cakes

P.S. One of the cakes looked like Dora the Explorer. Except she had a unibrow. "Cool,' I thought. "Dora must be going through puberty, or perhaps she's even older now and just got on The Pill and it's messing up her hormones." Then I clicked on the photo of the Dora cake. It's really a Kahlo cake. Still cool, though.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Sidewalk statement

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 01:36:24 -0700

A memorial to floral commerce.

I was browsing housing listings for apts./condos when I came across the photo gallery for one apt. building. Usually these are filled with photo after photo of completely empty rooms, or impeccably furnished rooms, or rooms shot at such a weird angle to emphasize the alleged spaciousness of the room that a bathroom will inexplicably feature a stretch toilet. In the middle of all this photo viewing, I came across the photo above.

My first thought was, "Why did they want to highlight the fact that a drive-by shooting or a hit-and-run or some other kind of tragic death occurred in front of their building. Didn't they have a photo from any other fatalityl-free day?"

Upon a closer look, I realized that the uniform containers and homogenous floral arrangements could not be the floral representation of a community's outpouring of grief. There weren't even any tall and wide Virgin Mary candles.

So yeah, it's probably a florist's shop. One that couldn't afford a table to to display its bouquets.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Fringe Fest fun...& flamenco.

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 14:51:21 -0700

Checking the festival's schedule this afternoon, I noticed that there was something happening a few blocks away. Off I went, stopping to get some green tea along the way. When I got to Sutter & Post (the intersection noted as the location for the performance) there were a few other people waiting around for it, in addition to the crowds that are out here on any given Sunday. When Sisyphus came into view, I crossed the street to take a (poor) photo with my phone.

I'm guessing that Sisyphus is British, based on his accent (not that he spoke much), hat, and dress. The boulder's gotta be hollow/Styrofoam/something lightweight, though the performer does a good job of pretending otherwise. He peeked into the windows of Lori's Diner as he passed by it. I wish I could've seen the expressions on the face of those patrons who caught a glimpse of him rolling by. Then he took out his map and looked at it. By the time I took the second photo, I had noticed that there was a luggage tag like that kind that airports affix to suitcases stuck on the bottom of the boulder. Ha! This was about an hour and a half ago.

....

I'm back from an evening performance. Wanted to get on the Mexican Bus - maybe later this week. But tonight was for Flamenco con Fusion. Very cool.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: Weekend Wrap-up

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:28:15 -0700

What was the highlight of this past weekend?

SF Theater Festival - I checked out a few shows for a little while in the afternoon on Sunday. The highlight during my time there was a group of talented seniors who cracked everyone up with their songs and comic commentary about money. (Stagebridge Senior Theater Company).

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: Celebrational Muppetational!

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:33:33 -0700

Who is your favorite Muppet? Why?
QotD submitted by knitwitology.vox.com.

I liked the S wedish Chef for his fearless attitude in the kitchen. He should be on Iron Chef. I think he'd flay a certain Bobby any day. But for pure pathos, one must look beyond the narrow confines of the "Muppet" label and examine the tragic life of Grover, the muppet who never was.

"Every night after wrapping on 'Street' Ernie and I would hit the local bar for Shirley Temples and ice cream. What Ernie did not realize was that my Shirley Temples were spiked with whiskey and I was chasing that ice cream with barbiturates. And when he went home, I stayed out- sometimes all night."

"Losing the Muppet Show gig was like some kind of affirmation for me of all of my worst insecurities at once. It was as if the whole world was telling me 'You are not good enough, Grover. You are only a children's show character, Grover. Go back to Queens and die a slow death, Grover."

flaying Bobby

Cooking Kermit

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Puffs in the press

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:38:55 -0700

This afternoon I finally got to taste the puffs. The store was empty except for me and one pregnant woman, who to my chagrin, ordered one cream puff less than me. This was not a week for green tea flavored puffs, so I had to do with one pumpkin and one vanilla. I liked how I could see little specks of ground up vanilla bean in the vanilla custard. Yum.

I also liked some of the descriptions in this article about the Bay Area Beard Papas (there's going to be one in Redwood City too, it seems, and my suspicion about them opening locations in places where there's a high Asian population - like, um, you know, Gardena and SF - seems confirmed in the article).

...popping up in subways, railway stations and malls. Soon after, like arterial plaque and middle-aged stomachs, the shops' relentless spread began: mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

And I'm an American, dammit. Order me some McCrap. To go.

"Corporate America consumer food products, for the most part, are geared to the McCrap eater segment of society," Celente said.

Sounds like opening day at the SF location was quite an event.

...the supply ran dangerously low and puffs were rationed to six per person. During a particularly busy Saturday, after customers were warned that a shortage was looming, patrons who ordered too many puffs were booed by others in line, while those who showed restraint were applauded.

Best. T-shirt. Ever?

While people wait, they can contemplate "Who's Your Puff Daddy?" T-shirts...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: Weekend Wrap-Up

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 23:40:45 -0700

What did you do this weekend?

This weekend I worked. I wanted to wrap up some loose ends before they unraveled into a mess I couldn't handle.

Then at the very end of the weekend, I decided that I wanted to indulge by trying something from Beard Papa's for the first time. I made my way over to that little street with the shop and MOCFA. It was about 6:10pm. The puff purveyor closes at 6:30pm. The line was snaking out the door. I might have made it in time, but it would have meant standing behind the smoochy couple at the end of the line for a while. I didn't think I could stomach that, even for flaky goodness.

I bet some Beard Papa cream puffs would make a great Monday morning breakfast.

Puff puff puff

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: No shouting on the bus!

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 20:04:22 -0700

What was your most memorable or favorite school field trip?

That time in elementary school we went to see an opera - La Boheme - was pretty good, but the most memorable was probably the class trip on a fishing boat with the flirty fisherman. I wore my hair in two long braids in fifth grade and he kept pulling on them every time I walked by with the rest of our group. He winked at me a lot too.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Best. Fireworks. Ever.

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 10:35:53 -0700

Hmm. Don't know. Maybe at the Rose Bowl. But here's the most recent - Last night around 10:30pm, in front of the Whole Foods grocery store, some jackasses were sticking a firecracker in a tree that stood in the parking lot. They looked a little old to be doing something like that (jackassery knows no age?) and perhaps dumb, with one guy running out to the tree and the others sitting in a car with a license plate number clearly visible by the light of the lot's fluorescent bulbs. We saw the sparks jumping above the treetop as we drove away.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

More quarters please...

nobody@vox.com(stringbeanlove) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:35:02 -0700

Ms. Pac Man. Tetris. Not very original, I know. But true. And, yes, I did play Tetris in an arcade, as well as in front of the family room tv late at night after everyone had gone to bed.

The Wikipedia entry for Tetris is interesting. I like the section called "Is it possible to play forever?"

and the following material linked at the end:

1) "Tetris Dreams" (Scientific American article)

2) One of the biggest Tetris games (Dutch dudes at Delft U. did the biggest one.)

World's 2nd Largest Tetris Game - www.freshcreation.nl

Read and post comments | Send to a friend