Day Laborer...for a day

Friday I spent the day out in the blazing sun picking produce. I volunteered for this, in exchange for some produce to take home. As I spent the day going from row to row to pick flowers, bush beans, turnips and ENDLESS amounts of tomatoes.

Something occured to me during the day. Why are we undecided on the issue of giving work visas to migrant farm workers? It's back breaking work...and I don't see lines of people fighting over the jobs. If it's a stepping stone for someone to get started, make more money than they would otherwise, why not? And the farm I was working at was at a pretty mellow pace...no one was pushed to work crazy fast, or deliver a certin volume...instead they had a specific list of things that needed to be provided to the restaurant. I can only imagine how grueling it must be on a commercial farm..yowzer.

Even the guys who were working there were making fun of me because I came their voluntarily and was excited to pick produce all day in the 95 degree sun... looking at it now, they must have thought I was insane, or too naive for my own good.

What do you mean "you people?"

Went to see Tropic Thunder on Wednesday night after the Caltrain commute fiasco.
Two Words = FUCKING HILARIOUS.

Caltrain Accident

Soooooo on wednesday, I took the Caltrain home and it suddenly stopped near SFO after we felt a slight thud and heard a "spraying" sound.

GROSS - instant mental picture, I know.

Then the train conductor gets on the horn to say "Folks we are in emergency mode...there has been an accident, a possible fatality. Please be patient as we will be stopped for awhile."

GROSS - mental picture getting worse.

Cops roll in, time passes by....more time passes and there's another announcement that we'll be on our way soon. Once we get rolling, another of Caltrain's staff walks through all the cars to say "Everything's fine...we didn't kill anyone, both of the guys legs are broken but he's alive and on his way to the hospital."

GROSS - All I can picture are two shredded legs.

Everyone is wondering if it was a suicide or someone just too close to the train and got sucked in. Well, thanks to the trusty internet I was able to find out that it as a dipshit that tried to beat the train in crossing the tracks and got clipped.

Read the article here

If the crossbars are down and the lights are on...uh...that's ususally a sign to stop and wait for the train to pass...

AAAAHAHHAHAHAH

Forrest is a nerd. Notice how he "rests" his headphones on top of his ears....hahahah...

Visiting Ann & Scott

Pic of us on the grounds of the Getty Villa. This past weekend we took friday off from work and packed up into Sam's Honda Accord to cruise on down to Culver City to visit Ann and Scott. We literally spent the entire weekend eating, sleeping and watching the Olympics - the damned Olympics!!!! I want my nights back as I can't seem to get to sleep before midnight these days. Anyhoo, we got to check out a lot of great eateries in the Culver City area and even made it out to the museum AND a movie in one day!

Visiting the "New" Old Getty

Creepy looking bust of a antiquity man.... Although we're used to all the statues having empty holes for eyes, apparently they used to all have these marble or glass eye things ~ creepy!
On Saturday, we cruised on down to Malibu to visit the newly renovated Getty Villa. So this used to be the coastal ranch home of J. Paul Getty where he used to collect Roman and Greek artifacts and then held private showings in his home...thus was born the Getty museum.

CALLING ALL FRUIT

If you have fruit trees in your backyard and live within the San Francisco Bay Area, please email me at bettyjunod@gmail.com.

My cooking/baking/canning hobby is taking over my life and I am in a constant search of raw ingredients. Usually fruit trees bear more fruit than a single family can eat for that season, so I am happy to unload some produce and in exchange, bring you finished products made with that fruit.

M&M Engagement Party

The bride and groom to be with their "identifying hats." The engagement party was held at her sister Holly's house in Alamo. Holly's home is beautiful and is a great space for entertaining. Nevermind the weather - holy moly it was a clear, sunny and warm day. It was nice to meet the extended Ireland and Fleming clans as I had only met a few siblings before but no aunts and uncles before. Jason's (Holly's husband) father, Frank was hilarious - the quintissential Italian patriarch was a hoot. Listening to Frank and Chester banter back and forth about the history of San Francisco real estate and neighborhood development was pretty fun to witness.

Some food up on the breakfast bar. There was loads of snacks and food for everyone to munch on while we all got to know each other.