I am a transplant, too

Hello all, here's a quick update on life lately...

First off, Merry Christmas! Tisa and I spent Christmas with the Shumakers this year, and I really enjoyed spending some quality time playing "crash the cars" with Cavin, then later charades, fictionary, and pictionary with the rest of the family. One of the highlights for me was watching my wife try to act out Too Fast, Too Furious; for the word fast, Tisa did a stop motion action of someone running and made a phenomenal "ffshhh" sound that was unmistakably fast.

Another highlight is the cast-iron dutch oven, which was a gift from Mom and Dad Shumaker... I get to finally try out the no knead bread that Bahman posted on his blog a while back... right now dough is rising in the cold oven. You should really check out the Bittman video on how to make bread, hopefully all goes as planned (we are trying to use 2/3 white flour and 1/3 wheat to substitute for a slightly healthier recipe). Here's the original youtube video, if you're so inclined. Or, you could see the modified recipe update for a speedier version a year or two later (where Bittman looks a little hurt that his bread has no crust).

Tisa and I just finished a mini-tour of the northern bay area... here's a quick list of the highlights in chronological order (not by order of importance)...

1. Arrived in SF, staying at Parc 55, very ritzy, very cheap through hotwire.com . But, wait, charging for internet in the room? Lame. Also, parking = nightmare. We parked at a meter a block away from the hotel, then searched fruitlessly for overnight parking, only to return to a parking meter three spots ahead of the original an hour later. Had to get up at 5:30 am to find daily parking.

2. Sweet Crepe's near union square. So good. Savory. (Goal for the upcoming year: try to make a savory crepe).

3. Sweet art at the MOMA.

4. Dinner with Jeff K. at a sweet italian diner, a block from his place--very good food, fun mission district restaurant.

5. Up to Petaluma that night, slept in, checked out the downtown in P-town, then talked with a realtor about what neighborhoods would suit us in the future.

6. Drove through picturesque vineyards and rural countryside about 10 blocks from Petaluma's downtown. The countryside is littered with little bike trails, totally separate from the roads that traverse the county alongside the farms and wineries.

7. Wine tasting @ russian river winery.

8. Met cool people everywhere--from business owners to teachers at restaurants, everyone was friendly and enjoyed striking up casual conversations with us. Such a great change from the pervasive indifference one gets accustomed to in Lala land.

9. Russian River Brewing company. Amazing brews.

10. Iron Horse Winery before leaving town (pictured above). Really great wine, friendly owners, and a great view of the vineyards. Wine tasting is outside, and there we met a wine-maker who was buying a bottle of champagne to celebrate the birth of his daughter. He was a cool dude.

Well, that's ten, and that should be enough. But, my overall impression is that I definitely want to move to this area. Tisa feels the same. We plan on heading up here in 1.5 years... too long, but a necessary time frame to really be ready to buy a house. I can't wait.

Sad story

Had parent conferences last night and the night before. Here's typically what I'm thinking:

"Man, that kid took forever to turn in his friggin' essay. Jeez, he's got to get his act together; this is ridiculous. Let's look up his other grades--5 F's! Let's definitely have a parent conference."

Then, the parent shows up, and occasionally I find out that my students are dealing with so many difficult situations in life, it's no wonder when students don't complete a stupid essay.

Ie: Found out a student like above has a 10-years-left-in-life prognosis (and some other things I won't go into). Shit. Every time I think about it, my eyes are welling up.

I Wish That I Knew What I Know Now

Alright, I know I've told most of the dudes about this (except Clearwater... so this is news to you). Christmas Gift Challenge, should you choose to accept it:
Create a mix-cd for an as-yet unmade film to be directed by Wes Anderson. Title of the mix-cd will be title of the film. If desired, create liner notes/synopsis of the plot.
We'll get together to exchange said CD's with a good amount of holiday bev's, and listen to our mix-cds/party on down Apt. 108 style. You in?
Oh, and then, we'll send the whole set to Wes Anderson.

Dirty Projectors

I feel like there's a ton going on that I want to blog about. Then I put it off a few days, and I'm at the point where I have about 10 posts simmering on the back burner. I'm going to post one every couple of days just to get them out there.

1) Dirty Projectors = Awesome.
Went and saw the Dirty Projectors with Hippy Steve and Meredith last saturday (Halloween). We walked through echo park, stopped for some street tacos at the place down the block (hands down, best street tacos in Echo park), and went to the early show at the Jensen Rec center. Little Wings opened, and it was my first time seeing them. The band played great, and even though I don't own any little wings albums, I still recognized a few songs (scooby's gone away, something like that).

The Dirty Projectors came on by 8:20 for an hour long set, mostly off Bitte Orca. It was incredible. Each member of the band has so much musical talent. The drummer was particularly impressive; he played like he was going to destroy the heads on his drums while keeping perfect time and tempo changes every other minute. The lead guitarist also really impressed me, reminded me of the guitarist from YES with some of his finger picking. One last note, one of the female vocalists suprised me by all of a sudden belting out a song like a soul singer from the seventies.

If you want to hear one of their songs, see the Iguana in the Sun mix below.

Back to School...

I'm back in Lunch Lady Land... about midway through week three.

So far, I have to say that I've been very impressed with the current class. Things are off to a good start, my classroom feels pretty well managed -- at points I feel wildly successful -- of course, those highs last only so long, and the honeymoon may be slowly getting over.

Just a quick update...

Awesome things in life right now:

• Free Opera Tickets given to Tisa and I by our landlady... pretty good seats, Elixir of Love, really good stuff.
• Had a great time at the Bon Iver show celebrating Tisa's birth. They rocked alot harder than expected. Megafaun opened... I had never heard of them before, but having seen them, I really enjoyed they're banjo accompanied crooning.
• Great students that have been polite and respectful, really great year so far.

Crappy things in life right now:

• Bed bugs. Not fun. Check out this video if you have any doubts...