The houses up on the hill

Shortly after we moved to the bay area, this subdivision was built on San Bruno Hill. The houses initially sold for about $650-800K, they went up to $1.2+M, and are down in the $1M range now.

Christmas Tree Storage

Our garage is just plain full.

We had to put our Christmas Tree somewhere -- why not on the ceiling?

Sunset over Geary

A nice colorful sunset (or, really, just a bit after sunset) looking towards the west (and, thus, towards the ocean) on Geary street in the Richmond district of San Francisco

Found Doggy!!

We posted the lost dog notice on our homeowner's association's yahoo group. About 10:00 last night, we got a call from a neighbor on the other side of the subdivision that a strange dog was howling like crazy.

We searched the area as extensively as we could at 10:30pm, but couldn't locate him, even when we heard a couple of his howls.

About an hour later, another neighbor on the same street called us and told us that they were pretty sure they had our dog in their back yard. We rushed over with the crate, and sure enough, there he was, hidden under some bushes.

It took some cajoling and body blocking, but I did get him into the crate.

Lost doggie

Arnie, our foster dog, flew over a 6' privacy fence this morning.

As of tonight, he's still a no-show.

Unfortunately, he's still not socialized enough to come, even when called or lured with food.

Clound bands

nice color set in these clound bands behind the building.

A couple of doggy pictures...

---

Clearing the hiding places...

Having a scared foster dog who likes to find hiding places inaccessible to us humans can create some interesting dilemmas.

We had to decimate our poor bushes because we simply couldn't get to him when he went under them.

Kitty / Corner

Sorry about the pun - yes, it's a kitty coming around the corner

He's still a little scared

This boy is SO sweet. I don't think that there is an aggressive bone in his beautiful golden retriever body.

I sincerely hope that we are up to this task. This wonderful guy deserves a chance -- I believe he would someday make such an incredible companion animal for someone who could love and take care of him.

Emigrant Gap

Another shot of our trip to go pick up Arnie

Arnie

So, yesterday's picture was a lead in to this.

Caryn spent a week in Reno working with the United Animal Network helping to socialize the dogs from the Gabbs ranch in Nevada. You can read more about this story at the Best Friends Site or the UAN Blog.

Anyway, during her time in Reno, she developed a close relationship with this little golden mix. He's about 3 years old, and very, very skittish. By the time she came home, he hadn't found a foster yet, and so Caryn worked out a deal with a local rescue organization, Grateful Dogs, where they would sponsor us to foster this beautiful guy and try to socialize him to make him ready for adoption.

We went to Reno yesterday and pick him up. Today was spent in setting up his living area and getting him to a checkup at the vet. The next few weeks are going to be spent showing him lots of love and just trying to get him to trust people again.

Our trip over the mountains

Bird on the roof

Love that blue blue sky. Very sunny day!

Doggies and a blanket

I really like the subtle contrast of the color of the blanket against the black doggies.

Weekend project...

The bottom box is a brand spankin' new quad-core computer with 3gb of ram and 500gb hard drive.

The top box is a 22" wide screen monitor.

Solar Power Farm

On the way back from seeing Clayton this weekend in Davis, I dropped by the Cache Creek Casino in Brooks.

As I was leaving the parking lot, I saw this.

According to what I found online, this thing generates most of the power that the large casino/resort uses. I felt ok in losing that $20 in the slot machines after I saw that.

The fog rolls in...

Warmish days = foggy evenings around here. As I left work tonight, I caught this wall of fog headed down the hill at us.

It really was that color

Sometimes the D70's has a hard time catching really subtle colors at dusk. Luckily, this was not one of those times.

The pickle fork at sunset...

Coming back from Davis, I caught this pick driving across the Bay Bridge.

Lying in wait....well, sleeping in wait....

This is a new one for Ziggy.

I heard the cat crying this afternoon and turned to find her waiting at the door to get to the room with her cat box. I couldn't understand why she wouldn't just go the other way until I looked at her cat tree.

Ziggy had taken up residence in on one of the tiers of the tree, the little sneak...

Hummingbird

Taken at the shore of the bay, right by my office. I love the rich sparseness of this picture. It is elegant without being overbearing. I think the patterns of the branches are fascinating, and I feel quite fortunate to have caught a snapshot of a hummingbird. I tried to catch him in flight, but I'm just not that good.

I didn't know those windows could open...

Taken in downtown Oakland.

Crazy stair rails...

Our facilities group put in some new stairs leading to up to our lobby door. Here are the hand rails for those stairs. They seem kinda wacky!

Crinkly ice plant flower

This flower is in a parking lot median about 200' from the bay.

Needles and Berries

No Swimming

Sunday beach walk day. This sign greeted us at Crissy Field -- it says, in short, stay the hell away from the water because it is likely contaminated by raw sewage.

Yuck.

We walked anyway.

Lit towers

I like this shot because of the contrast of the lit towers encased in the shadows in the hills.

See the detail:

February Theme Day: When people think of my city, they think of . . .

I chose this picture for the theme because it combines 2 of the big items people think about when they think of San Francisco -- fog and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The City Daily Photoblogs sponsors a monthly theme day. The following blog also registered that they would be posting to this theme on this day:

Portland (OR), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Memphis (Tennessee), USA - Manila, Philippines - San Diego (CA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - New York City (NY), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - San Francisco (CA), USA - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - Mainz, Germany - Weston (FL), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Turin, Italy - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Bicheno, Australia - Durban, South Africa - Joplin (MO), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Brussels, Belgium - Chicago (IL), USA - Montpellier, France - Seattle (WA), USA - Mazatlan, Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Toulouse, France - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Susanville (CA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Helsinki, Finland - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Lisbon, Portugal - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Trujillo, Peru - Dunedin (FL), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - London, UK - Baziège, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mumbai, India - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Stayton (OR), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Arradon, France - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Athens, Greece - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Jackson (MS), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Budapest, Hungary - Rotterdam, Netherlands - St Malo, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cleveland (OH), USA - Nottingham, UK - Kansas City (MO), USA - The Hague, Netherlands - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Wrocław, Poland - Chateaubriant, France - Cheltenham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Monrovia (CA), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Toruń, Poland - Grenoble, France - Lisbon, Portugal - New Orleans (LA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Boston (MA), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Wichita (KS), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Christchurch, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Wailea (HI), USA - Aliso Viejo (CA), USA - St Francis, South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Seattle (WA), USA - Pasadena (CA), USA - Vienna, Austria - Orlando (FL), USA - Torun, Poland - Delta (CO), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Paris, France - Stavanger, Norway - Niamey, Niger - Le Guilvinec, France - Bogor, Indonesia - Saarbrücken, Germany - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Juneau (AK), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Glasgow, Scotland - Chicago (IL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Sydney, Australia - Riga, Latvia - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Terrell (TX), USA - Terrell (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA