Easy Come, Easy Go

I am one of six people left in America who loves Wheaties. I have never met the other five. We have Wheaties in the trailer, but it’s a special occasion, what with Conor and Taylor here. So we got up and walked over to the bakery for breakfast this morning. It was hopping (a good sign) and everybody got something they enjoyed. On our way back to the Airstream we stopped at Safeway and got some groceries: three pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (on sale) and some other, less important stuff.

After getting our collective act together, we headed out to try our luck on the BART. It functions, and even looks, very similar to the DC Metro. We took it downtown to go shopping around Union Square. Elise’s clothes have been getting a little small. She appears to be growing somehow. To remedy this — the small clothes, not the growing — we purchased one of everything in her size at the four-story flagship Old Navy store. While Danine accomplished this task with Elise, Conor, Taylor and I went to the Apple store so Taylor could get a cover for her iPod. Then we all headed up to the spiritual center of Conor’s universe, Williams-Sonoma. From the outside it doesn’t look too big. Inside it is four-stories of fancy cooking paraphernalia. Conor bought himself a Le Creuset skillet that weighs 84 pounds. It comes with a training manual so you can develop the upper body strength required to lift it. Luckily it’ll be shipped directly home.




Wedged between larger buildings was this funky Frank Lloyd Wright building housing a folk art collection.

Even browsing cooking utensils can make you hungry, and we eventually left and ate panini for lunch. Very good! We couldn’t stop with the whole cooking-slash-food theme. Therefore we proceeded to Sur La Table. It is at the center of Conor’s spiritual universe too. I think that means the two places operate like binary stars. Not sure. I may be taking the metaphor a bit too far. A number of things were purchased, but I can’t remember them all. I do know this, today I was much better managing real money than Monopoly money. At Sur La Table I spent a mere $4.95 on 100 tea filters. Yet I overpaid Conor for the cheap light blue properties and this led to his total domination of the game.



We wrapped up the shopping before rush hour really kicked in and headed home. Everybody was settling in when Danine said, “There’s a para-glider right outside the trailer!” Indeed. Since we are on the edge of a cliff — pray that it doesn’t erode this week — the para-glider was sailing at eye level. It looked fun in that sort of precariously-close-to-death kind of way.



Danine had started a delicious crockpot meal of beef tips in wine sauce in the morning, which we devoured for dinner. Taylor and Elise did the dishes and then came a long, painful game of Monopoly. Elise and I were a team. She was in charge of paying and collecting our money. I rolled the dice, moved onto someone else’s property, and then told her to pay them. This happened over and over. Conor had only three properties, the green ones. What a fool. Those are so expensive and overpriced and nobody lands on them. Well, unless you count me, Taylor and Danine three or four times each. The end. Actually the first half of the game was great because we ate 70% of those three pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Mmm.



Tomorrow we get up early and head to Fairfield to spend the day with Danine’s brother Shawn. He will introduce us to all the delights that town has to offer. And they are legion.