Back in Time, Opera I have missed.

I would have loved to see EVERY ONE of the shows that SF Opera put on its last season.  But ring cycle this summer?  I thought it was too much of one thing until I discovered it's one thing FOUR NIGHTS IN A ROW.  Well, Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Sunday.

Next season's tickets go on sale in February. Time to mark my calendar for that now.

Buy Nothing Day

I've been holding my own private Day-After-Thanksgiving protest for years.  

It's good to know there are others who share my views.

Stairs notebook

My architect laughingly refers to all the open rail-less stairs in the shelter magazines as "stair porn."

Today I discovered there is an actual site by that name.  Rated PG, unless you're a city safety regulator.

http://www.stairporn.org/

from there I found this site:

http://www.eestairs.com/

Earlier this week I got to visit the studio at West Edge Metals, who make some pretty amazing stairs and other architectural metal pieces locally.  I'd love to work with them.  I'm still not clear on what I'd like to do exactly, other than THE STAIRS MUST BE CHANGED.

http://www.westedgemetals.com/

Kitchen progress

Your mom may have pulled out the counters and backsplash, but it's still a great place to do homework.

Another backsplash idea: glass tile with subtle irridescent color

I'm a reader of Susan Serra's Kitchen Designer blog (see sidebar)  I enjoyed Susan Serra's post on this East Hampton kitchen.  Her comments on ventilation cracked me up--I'm a ventilation girl myself, but if you're going to do it inadequately, ventilating with an old-style wall fan would still get my vote.  Lovely in general--who can argue with those matched-grain flat-front cabinets, but more to the point for me, a good example of the kind of beachy glassy tile I admired in the store.

http://www.thekitchendesigner.org/journal/2010/11/20/an-east-hampton-kitchen.html

Just not sure it will look good in my purposely "artificial ingredients" easy-care modern kitchen: laminate cupboards, nickel trim handles, soon-to-be-installed white nougat caesarstone counters.

Shopping in Hayes Valley, San Francisco

After we found Kohler Karbon faucets at Bath + Beyond, my husband took me to Hayes Valley to Christopher Elbow for hot chocolate and lunch.  As we walked along the street, marrimekko in the window drew us into minimal where there were amazing wool felt pillows, and Finnish dishes, and cool table pieces, and Tivoli radios, which I love but hadn't known where to see and buy in person anymore.  I saw so many cool things I felt like I was back on my Stockholm anniversary vacation.

Then we went to Lotus Bleu where I discovered Madeline Weinrib rugs, though I went in to look at throw pillows.  Because, if I am ever am going to spend money, it's good to know there are things I could buy that I would want.

Kitchen under construction

Today my dishwasher was effectively unplugged from the garbage disposal and therefore would not run.  The counters were already stripped down to their old plywood base, which is a surface you can't really work on, or drip hand washed dishes onto.  It was my first flirt with having a kitchen unavailable during remodeling.

So, lots of no cooking going on at my house.  We had from-frozen chicken enchiladas Monday, leftovers of the same yesterday, and take-out cheeseburgers tonight.

Edited to add: another no cook, no mess: chef salad from Honey Baked Ham, and a tub of mashed potato and gravy.

It's the little things, like feeling you can't dirty a glass, which get to you.