More food

'Cause I love talking about/eating/looking at/and now selling food.

Another day selling at the farmer's market, and today I helped set up the stand. Early morning sun + colorful food = Nerissa taking pictures. I can't help it, it's irresistible.

Oh, and they're called pluats, not plumpricots. Although I think "plumpricot" is much more descriptive. I got more today, yay.

Some type of heirloom tomato that I haven't memorized yet (there are over 50 types, I need time.)

LOTS of tomaters (I'm not sure that'll read how it sounds in my head, but I know what I mean, even if you don't.)

A sea of okra, the last of the figs, and itty bitty tomaters.

One of the prettiest eggplants I've ever seen.

"Hiking"

The other day I went with some lovely Pittsburgh lady friends up to Marin County to go hiking along the coast near Rodeo Beach (I think). Due to the goat trail-like paths, we couldn't exactly manage to stay on the proper route and probably did barely half the distance we meant to, but it was nice to see/hear/smell the ocean. Highlights of the day included seeing bird poop-stained rocks (see photo below); discovering a now-decapitated seal corpse on the beach; getting marked by not one, but two dogs as we had a snack on the beach (the sand about ten feet away, not us); and making fun of/being awed by surfers.

The only thing I took a picture of was the poop, though. Enjoy.

Jackpot

I got a job without even trying today. Don't get too excited, it's only a part time, temporary, sporadic gig. But it's paid. I volunteered to help out at the Berkeley farmer's market and was put in touch with a vendor whose strawberries are famous city-wide. He needed help, so I showed up today. I sold a ton of strawberries and other assorted organic, local produce (mostly tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, etc). I helped break down the stand at the end of the day. And then, an unexpected but wholly welcome thing happened: the vendor paid me for my time. And all the while I thought I was volunteering! Plus, he asked me to come back next week, and perhaps a few extra days a week thrown in if need be. So, it's not a career path, it's not even going to be enough to pay the rent. But I haven't been paid to do anything since May, people. May. So I feel pretty good today (patting myself on the back).

Oh, and did I mention the perks of the job? They include: being outside all day; chatting with lovely/weird/nice people all day; strawberries galore; greens with edible flowers tossed in from the vendor next door; vegan cookies from another vendor; itty bitty cherry tomatoes; and plumpricots (I don't know if that's what they're called, but they're a mix of plums and apricots. Apriplums?) from yet another vendor.

Behold:


(Photos taken in the very low light of my IKEA lamp on my desk at night. It's artistic/blurry.)
(I also just noticed my looming hand in the cookie pic. Apparently I couldn't even wait long enough to press the shutter before reaching for one.)

One last note: welcome home, Mom (tomorrow)!

International relations?

I've just started "geotagging" some of my photos on flickr, because I read about it and, of course, just had to try it out. But I just tried to take a look at some specific places around Bogota, and lo and behold, there's mostly cloudy satellite images of the city! What's the deal, Google/NASA/U.S. Government?

Oh, and I also came across this neat little blog insert thingymajig...


Cool, huh? I think it makes me look like I know how to code things! (nerd alert)

Update: crap, it's not working, is it? I claim no responsibility whatsoever.

d'oh!

Now why didn't I think of doing this?


I'm still wondering how they kept the lens bug-free...

California update

It's been what, three weeks since I got here? I suppose it's probably time to elaborate a little on my experience here so far. Um, yeah.

Well, I experienced my first earthquake last night! A 4.0 about 30 miles away. It was weird, five seconds or so of rumbling and slight shaking. At first I thought that perhaps I was just going a little crazy. But no, that's only part of it.

I'm spending my days at this point doing yard work at my aunt and uncle's house in exchange for subsidized rent, as well as attempting to secure some employment, both short and long term. The outlook is grim thus far. Yay for the current economy. Thanks, Dubya, it's been swell. We recent graduates applaud you. But hey, at least I live in a pretty place with lots of fresh, local food available.

There's also some intermittent seeing of friends and making of new friends. Oh, and I went hiking at Point Reyes and took a little wine tour up in Napa recently.The view from the hike along the peninsula. There was also a herd of elk along the way.

Getting a little Georgia O'Keiffe-y.

Messing with colors on the camera makes pretty pictures.

Napa, late afternoon.

This exhaustively descriptive and exciting update has been brought to you by a slightly-anxious-at-the-prospect-of-remaining-unemployed new Berkeley-ite.

The simple life

In an effort to make my life somewhat less convoluted, I've finally paid up to have an unlimited flickr photo account, so all my photos will be hosted there from here on out. Of course, I've made my life that much more complex for the moment, as I'll need to transfer all of this past year's pics over there. Ugh. Why me? (dramatic fist shaking occurring)

It's also meant that my oldest digital photos have been salvaged from the flickr server. Please forgive my entry-level digital photography and captioning. Looking back through the comments I made, I cringe every so often, but in a nod to historical preservation, I'm not altering any, unless there are egregious spelling errors.

Enjoy!