what a long, strange two weeks it's been...

First, thank you to Oakland Magazine for featuring Our Oakland in the Oakland Online piece in the latest edition! Welcome to any new readers (whether you found the blog through that or not :-) As the title suggests, this post is somewhat long and strange compared with what I usually post here: no signs, no restaurant reviews, no cool maps.

Now, on to an explanation of the paucity of posts of late. It started two weeks ago with a short trip through the stairs of our carport. No broken bones, but plenty of aches and bruises and a renewed appreciation of the power of gravity.

not Oakland

I recovered enough from that in time for a trip for work to near Fellows, CA. Outside of Bakersfield is the town of Taft. Outside of Taft is Fellows. Outside of Fellows are a bunch of oil fields and several power plants. It's a strange-looking bit of California, so it was appropriate I was there over Halloween. Doubly spooky since the entry on Wikipedia says Fellows is where the film version of Shirley Jackon's always creepy short story The Lottery was shot.

Had I been 30 minutes or so to the west, I could have been in the beautiful Carrizo Plain National Monument. Instead, I was inside most of the time working on software at one of the power plants, working long hours to launch a new version of the software.

The long hours lead to a nasty cold, but we got the new version launched, and made it home in time to vote on Tuesday. The results from across the nation were somewhat depressing, but many of the California and local contests have had good results: we don't have Meg Whitman as our governor, nor Carly Fiorina as our senator, and Prop 23 didn't pass. (And even more locally, I'm happy that Libby Schaaf will be our new council member for district 4.) Tammerlin Drummond of the Tribune asks the question I ask almost every election: isn't there a better way for rich candidates to spend their money? The flood of negative ads didn't persuade me to vote for anyone; rather it confirmed my votes against those sending it out.

We didn't know who the next mayor of Oakland would be, though -- due in part to ballots like mine. I requested a mail-in ballot in case I wasn't able to get back in time on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it didn't arrive before I left, so I had to cast a provisional ballot upon my return. The changing results as the IRV ballots are tabulated has been interesting, and it's clear why Don Perata was against IRV since he's gone from 1st to 2nd in the process (and speaking of spending lots of money...) For what it's worth, although I think Don Perata is "ethics challenged", he was my second choice after Rebecca Kaplan. Jean Quan's responsibility for Measure Y, et al, was enough to convince me she's probably not the right person to lead Oakland out of its budget problems.

By Friday, I was mostly over my cold, but we still didn't know who the next mayor would be, but Oakland was now focused on the impending sentencing of Johannes Mehserle for his killing of Oscar Grant. Like many, I was disappointed with the involuntary manslaughter verdict, but was hoping for for a reasonable sentence because of the gun-enhancement charge the jury included. Instead, the judge inexplicably gave a minimum sentence and credit for time served. Not surprisingly, this made many people unhappy. A peaceful rally lead to a march towards Fruitvale BART, which lead to some vandalism, and ended with 152 arrests. Reports differ widely about the nature of the march, but at least the understaffed OPD was better prepared. My question for those involved in the vandalism: if you feel like you have to trash something to make your point, why not go trash the BART offices instead of the property of innocent Oaklanders?

Sunday morning I woke up barely able to swallow and my tongue looking absolutely disgusting. After I nearly passed out, K called the advice nurse at Kaiser. A trip to the doctor and pharmacist later, I had diagnosis of strep throat and a prescription for penicillin.

Rosie

Since then, the kitties and I have been doing a lot of this. To be fair, that's what they do a lot of even when I'm feeling well, but they enjoyed the company and were probably wondering why I don't join them every day.

So there you have it: the long, strange post of why I haven't updated the blog recently. I'm off to rest a while, and will hopefully be back to normal posting soon.

Monday + sun = happy cat

happy cat

On my ride home from the dentist this morning, I saw this very happy cat grooming itself in the sun.

signs: Baggy's by the Lake

Baggy's by the Lake

Around the corner from the Parkway Theater and Woody's Laundromat is Baggy's by the Lake. I took the daytime pictures some time ago, but I've been waiting to post it until I had a chance to get a night shot. That's because during the day, it doesn't look like much. A closer look reveals a nice variation on the requisite drink glass, that even has a bit of color. And a nice-looking front door that bespeaks a bygone era. While the main sign is in good shape, the sign that hangs out for visibility up and down the street is broken.

at night

drink glass with color

awesome front door

signs: Wesley Cleaners

Wesley Cleaners

This lovely sign is not far from Lake Merritt, next to Leaning Tower of Pizza. It's a funny little commercial zone surrounded by apartments; if you stick to Lakeshore (which looks great these days -- loving the redone lanes and increased bike-friendliness) you'd never know it was there. Shout out to Only in Oakland for letting me know about it.

Wesley Cleaners

food: Encuentro

Encuentro

Saturday, K and I had reason to be out and about in the evening, so we decided to finally try Encuentro. It's been on our lengthy "restaurants in Oakland to try" list for a while, so I've been looking forward to it for some time.

It features an "eclectic mix of organic/sustainable wines from small, local and old world vintners." and "highlights simple, flavorful, organic and local, vegetarian cuisine in the style of enotecas and tapas bars". Local, organic, vegetarian...what's not to like? In short, we loved it. Some of the dishes are vegetarian (including dairy) and some are vegan, but all are clearly marked which are which on the menu.

We ordered a bottle of California Sangiovese (i.e., Chianti grapes) which was the perfect accompaniment to the various dishes we ordered. We started with some deviled eggs which were excellent, and brought to mind our eventual plans to raise chickens for eggs. We then moved on to the marinated vegetables w/baguette, quinoa with kale, empanadas (we acquired a taste for those years ago in Argentina), and the socca of the day. I think we may have had ordered something else in there, too. It was all excellent.

Feeling full but not totally stuffed, we finished off with some great butterscotch pudding (K's choice, but I had no complaints). That's the only thing the wine wasn't perfect with, but by that point we'd pretty much killed the bottle.

They've got a small space (which must be a bear to heat in cold weather with all that glass), so it can get crowded during popular times. We sat at the bar, which was great for service and for people watching. Not the cheapest meal we've had in Oakland by a long shot, but well worth it. In short, highly recommended.