Adventures of a Midwestern Girl (and Her Hillbilly Hermit Tennessean) in Sunny, Sunny California

The Stanford Campus is relatively close to my place of work in Palo Alto. Every so often, I have to head over there to borrow a hard-to-find book from their Engineering Library. Such a request came in late Thursday; the book is needed by Tuesday, so I had a little time to make my way over to campus. Since Steve and I carpool to work, I don't have a car during the workday. Fortunately, there is a free shuttle that picks up in downtown Palo Alto and runs to a few stops on campus. Unfortunately, the Engineering Library is a good 15 minute walk from the closest shuttle stop. I don't really mind this since I'm still on the clock and getting paid to walk across a beautiful campus, reminiscing about my own undergrad days of yore. But if I'm really busy or if the weather is crappy, it's not quite such a treat. Since it was sunny day and the forecast calls for rain through the weekend and early next week, I had hoped to take the time on Friday to head on down for my walk. Friday morning was pretty busy, though, and I couldn't fit a visit to campus into my day. Oh well, I still had a couple of days to make it over there.

It wasn't until 4:30 that afternoon that I realized a Perfect Storm had been gathering and was only narrowly avoided. Bush was visiting the Hoover Institution on the Stanford campus. Oh, I knew he was in the Bay Area. I had heard he was going to San Jose; I had even mentioned to Steve that it was probably a good thing he wasn't going to be visiting closer to my workplace. But I didn't know he would be right in my backyard. There were even protests on campus.

What would have happened if I had innocently gone to campus to pick up that book? What would I have done if I had known Bush would be on campus? Would I have tried harder to fit a visit to Stanford into my day? Not that I would have seen Bush anyway. God forbid he should have to see the protesters, they changed his plans so he would meet at former Secretary of State George Shultz's house instead.

Alas, we will never know the answers to those questions. At least I didn’t have to spend my 31st birthday in a jail cell for protest activities.

Posted by Anne at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After many weeks of rain, Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. We even saw blue skies. Taking a chance early in the day that we could avoid the rain, Steve and I decided to head into the city and go to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

We seldom make it into the City, so this was a fairly significant decision on our part. But Steve had been talking about going for a while, and this seemed like a great opportunity to try out his brand new camera. He has a fancy film Nikon from many years ago that is just not all that convenient in this digital era. We also have a pretty good digital brownie camera. But, while great for shots at the karaoke bar, it can be frustrating to try and take animal pictures or more artsy fartsy shots. We have many pictures of empty pet carriers vacated by a recently released WildCare patient. Steve's been lusting after a fancy digital Nikon for a while now and he finally decided to go for it, following the appropriate money rules and using his personal account. As usual, I didn't really think we needed it, but now think it's the greatest thing. It even has that satisfying real camera chunk sound when it snaps a photo. And he can use his old lenses and attachments on it.

But I digress. The Conservatory of Flowers is a really cool place. It has several sections devoted to different types of tropical plants. It's hard to tell the size of this hibiscus flower; we were so engrossed in the macro mode (I mean come on! The macro mode symbol is a freaking flower!) that we didn't really get anything else in the picture to show the scale, but it was a good 8 inches across.

Bri and Mer take note: Currently their special exhibit is the Butterfly Zone. There weren't as many butterflies as we saw last year when we visited my grandfather and went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, but there was a very cool case full of butterfly chrysalis out of which butterflies were emerging. They looked like jewelry. Who'da thunk?

Above all, the Conservatory is a great place to go on a cold day. Which this wasn't particularly. Every room we went into was warmer than the last. Remember this place holds tropical plants. By the time we got to the aquatic plants, we were starting to feel a little light-headed. The best advice for this excursion is to dress in layers so you can start stripping down as you work your way through.

It's not someplace you could spend the whole day; I think Steve and I made our way through it in about an hour to an hour and a half. But it's very reasonable price-wise (only $5 for adults) and it's in Golden Gate Park, so there are lots of other things you can do. I think it will be a great place to take my parents the next time they visit in cold weather, assuming they'll let us entertain them.

Posted by Anne at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Steve and I have finally done it! We've come up with a way for us to get our own house! It was hearing this story that gave us the inspiration. I noted that we've heard this type of thing before. A woman has a litter of kids after undergoing fertility treatment and suddenly help is coming out of the woodwork.

So, I figure what we need to do is join a close-knit Evangelical church, get pregnant with 4 to 7 kids, and wait for the church to build us a new house! It's brilliant! It's also probably the only way we can afford a house in northern California.

Honestly, when I first heard this story on CNN they started by saying that the 5 babies were born in 3 minutes. I couldn't help but picture the mother as a giant gumball machine. Steve says he thought of the Catholic woman in The Meaning of Life.

Posted by Anne at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)