Retail therapy

Shopping at Costco today with my friend Barb, I mentioned that I was on the lookout for a little storage bench I could put under my mailbox for larger items.
I have a nice vintage mailbox, i.e., small. (The clip, however, is not vintage. I guess I should leave it inside when I'm not using it for outgoing mail.) Magazines and catalogs have to be folded in half to cram them in.
On the drive home, we passed a used furniture place, and the ever-vigilant Barb (who was driving, no less) said, "Hey look! A bench like you wanted!"
It opens from the front rather than the top, but I can cut out the dividers on one side to hold packages. And for $25, it's just what I needed. Thanks, Barb!

Potatoes for dummies

Oh, for Pete's sake.

Rats!

In Denver, we have rats. Rats with bushy tails, rats with wings.

We even have rats with wheels!

Lunch at Gaia Bistro

Gaia Bistro on Old South Pearl has turned out to be a much better use of the space than Lah-ti-dah, a combo yarn shop and coffeeshop that was a little too obscure and tiny and yet off-puttingly hip as a yarn shop, and too close to a very well-established coffee shop, Stella's, to be successful.

Gaia offers breakfast and lunch, and a very occasional dinner (once a month on a Tuesday, I think). Their menu is quite good: crepes, sandwiches, salads. Lovely fresh vegetables and bread, with pretty presentation. Not too pricey, either.

The vegetable sandwich looks fabulous:
I had the breakfast poblano, which is a roasted poblano chile topped with scrambled eggs with pancetta, brie and tomatoes. Some mixed greens alongside and a slice of potatoes au gratin. Very yummy.
There was also a savory crepe, but it didn't photograph well. But it was also good, I'm told.

I wish they had a better website (no hours listed, not great photos in the photo section -- where's the patio? But note the egg-beater light fixtures!). And I really wanted to get the skinny on their next venture, which I'm very excited about.

Gaia has bought the space formerly occupied by the Denver Doll Emporium, just down the street. As mentioned in the neighborhood paper, the Washington Park Profile, it will be the Pearl St. Creamery and Pajama Baking Company:

Pajama Baking – currently operating as a wholesale business – will be a “Euro-style bakery” with breads and pastries made in-house. The Pearl St. Creamery side of the operation will offer 30 flavors of shakes, malts, soft serve, banana splits, floats, etc. Also, look for a small market area offering cheeses and other specialty items that go well with great bread.

Can't wait!

Wicked ride

Who among us of a certain age doesn't have fond memories of the Ford Country Squire? My folks had one with the fake wood paneling on the sides and the bench seat in the way back that folded down into the floor. You could fit a lot of kids into that car. Or two adults, two kids, two dogs and all the gear you needed for vacation trips.

The back seat was wide enough that the invisible line down the middle between squabbling siblings still left ample room for movement (but still failed to prevent squalls of "Moooom! He's on my side!" and the inevitable response: "Don't make me stop this car!")

You don't see Country Squires much anymore, and those you do tend to look pretty wretched, as this one does at first glance.

Then you take a second glance:
This is not your parents' Country Squire. Back then, Jerry wasn't dead, Phish didn't exist yet, and your dad had to have a job to afford the payments on his brand-new land yacht.

And I'm willing to bet it didn't have spikes.

Well, I'll bee

Came out on the deck with my coffee and computer. Opened the computer and bzzzzzzz ... a bee circled down and landed on the mousepad, then waited patiently while I got my camera and took a photo.

I couldn't possibly keep a hive, but all these bees must be trying to tell me something.

(Click on the photo to see it larger. It's pretty cool.)

Strawbale house

My friend Jules and her husband are building a strawbale house. It has taken a really long time, but they are getting close to finished. One of the rules of strawbale building is that you have to have a little window somewhere in the house that actually shows the straw. This is in the study. (I saw this in a magazine-bale house once, too.) I'm not sure what I like best about this house. The view?
The fabulous cobalt Viking stove?
Or could it be the wall of bookcases, with library ladder?
Take a guess.

What is it? No. 2

Can you guess what this is? Click on the photo to see if you're right.

Closure

One last look around the empty house, and a note to leave on the fridge for the nice young couple who bought their first house today. The closing went without a hitch, and I can move on at last.

Torture

Nooooo! Not the hose!

Saigon Wraps and The Hobnob

A couple of belated notes on Bay Area eateries:
I'm a big fan of Vietnamese sandwiches, called banh mi. I know of a couple places in Denver where I can get them: a bakery that doesn't advertise them (you have to know, and they only have one kind, and the sandwiches are $2 apiece), and Ba Le, a chain that has maybe a dozen varieties at $2.50 apiece. I like them both.

I figured there must be some really good banh mi places in the Bay Area. Saigon Wraps is not one of them. They're in Oakland's Fruitvale Village, next to the BART station. The service was sullen and the bread was stale stale stale. I saw it being put in the microwave, for pete's sake. The fillings were unexceptional, and overall the sandwich was dry and bland. Maybe they were better when they first opened, but just don't get a lot of business now. I don't know. But I won't be going back.

Meanwhile, Kelly's on Park Street in Alameda is now The Hobnob, featuring "American tapas." Which is a fancy way of saying all dishes are à la carte. Sort of. They're not small plates, anyway, so we ended up with a lot of food. Cesar salad, baked salmon with mash, fish and chips, olives and cheese, grilled artichoke with aioli, crab cakes. It was all good! And not very expensive.

I took some photos of the food, but really, the light wasn't good, so I won't post them. I can attest that the mojitos are yummy, and I thought not very strong, so I had a "cucito," too ... or cuke-ito, made with cucumber. Also tasty and whoa, the two drinks left me looped. Ice cream from Tuckers afterward helped.

The Hobnob also has a huge selection of board games and is kid-friendly. It's on my recommended list now.

Save the children!

When I picked up the pallet the flagstones were on, I uncovered an ant nursery. It's simply amazing how fast they coped with the disaster. Within minutes they had hustled their sizeable stash of eggs (at least 10 times the number you see here) into the remaining tunnels. It wasn't "every ant for himself," but an instantly coordinated rescue effort. Are you taking notes, FEMA?

Blue

A pair of bluejays set up housekeeping in my neighbors' tree at the old house. I meant to get photos of the nest (and maybe babies), but it required climbing onto the roof for a good view (from underneath it looked like nothing). I never got around to it. Then while watering yesterday I found this. Is it a parent or a juvenile? I don't know. And what got it? Cat? Fox? Falcon? I hope one of the latter two. The cats around here are all well-fed pets and don't need dietary supplements.

Fresh produce

For my caprese yesterday I wanted fresh tomatoes not from Safeway. Had this been a normal year, they would have been growing in my backyard. I thought about going to Cherry Creek Farmers Market, but it's such a zoo there. Too many people, too hot, crazy parking lot. Then I remembered the supposed existence of a produce market in a neighborhood not far from me. I found the address and looked at the map and still it took me 10 minutes of driving in circles before I found it.
Wilkerson's is a funky mix of country farmstand and hoarder's junkyard. The lady who was running it was super nice and showed me everything that was locally grown. She had just finished adding dill to this jumbo jar of pickles she was making:

I came away with a nice little haul of vegetables and peaches, about $10 worth.
The bag on the right is roasted sweet red peppers, which I snatched up as soon as she pointed them out to me. Her husband likes them, so once in a while he roasts a big batch and they sell the extras. I'm thinking of all the things I can do with them: soup, salsa, grilled cheese ...

Wilkerson's Produce:
1995 S Santa Fe Dr.
303-744-8419

There's no entrance off Santa Fe. They're right behind the soundwall at the Evans exit, on the northeast corner of West Asbury and South Elati. Easiest way to get there is to go west on Evans from Santa Fe, take the very first right/north that you can, which is Galapago, turn right/east on Asbury and go all the way to the end. Turn left/north on Elati, and it's the second driveway on your right

Caprese appetizer

Nothing says summer like fresh tomatoes, basil and mozarella, especially with some really really good aged balsamic.

I bought the vinegar in Italy and have been too stingy with it, I decided. God, it's good. Mixed with a teeny bit of good olive oil and drizzled, it makes caprese divine.