Pardoned from execution

This man pulled up yesterday afternoon in a Cadillac. He had on a black cowboy hat and had some gold teeth. I escorted him into the garage to see our chickens. He saw Queenie and Dutchess and immediately said (to them) "Oh, look at you. You're stinkers, you're chickens! Aren't ya?" Seriously I couldn't make this stuff up. His name is Dave and he has a hobby farm in Spring Valley, WI where they have Texel and Columbia sheep (or "real sheep" as his business card reads). I called him Wednesday after I was given his name and number from a friend of a friend from Christina's fake book club. One of his three roosters recently died (at the age of ten!) and he said he would take Dodi in. Dodi will now be the head of one of Dave's three hen houses and his own flock of hens. And contrary to every indication we got when we started looking for his new home, he will not be eaten.

Art Shanties

On Saturday after brunch at Ceallaigh and Jason's house, Steve, Ceallaigh, her baby Will and I headed to Medicine Lake in Plymouth to check out the display of artist's shanties. We had a great time running into people we knew (notice elissa and erik above) and checking out these quirky shelters. They were all different, one had karaoke, one had knitting (i joined in and knit a bit of their projects that would be donated to charity), one took photos of people, another you could make pinhole photographs... the list goes on. This seems to be a creative outlet in the winter for all the people who own art cars... and also just artists in general. They all hang out on the lake every weekend for 5 weeks, bands play, people cook food, have bike races, etc. The shelters all had heat and were pleasant to hang out in. Some had beds for people to stay overnight. We only saw one of them that had people ice fishing in it.

By far my favorite (above) was the one on wheels. Ceall, Will, her brother (who had a 'plane crash' shanty) and I hopped in and had a blast. There were 4 bicycle pedals on the ground that we all used to propel the 'vehicle' while a girl steered it with some sort of pole thing (if you click the photo to blow it up you can see us pedaling in there). They were boiling water for tea on a wood burning stove and a guy jumped in with a western costume on and a guitar and started singing the Golden Girls theme song. It was kind of like a super bizarre dream or something.

The house of misfit toys shanty.

The inside out refrigerator shanty.

Here we all are at the photo booth shanty. Will is clearly not loving it.

she is a HE!!!!!!!

Just when we thought we had encountered enough trannies in san francisco to last us a lifetime... we come to the realization today that we have one in our flock. Princess Diana is a ROOSTER! We have renamed her Dodi Fayed. I should clarify that at no point was he ever a she (i just wanted to use the word trannie).

I first heard her crowing a few weeks ago and was convinced that it was a phase. but when steve heard Dodi do it this week numerous times we knew we had a problem. we researched a bit and were kind of convinced that we had a 'butch hen'-- real term. We decided we would still love her unconditionally and accept her for the lesbian hen that she was. Today Steve researched a bit and sent me these photos of what an ameraucana hen of her coloring should look like and what a rooster looks like. The evidence was undeniable. We have a rooster, Hindsight being 20/20 and all, it kind of makes sense now. She was always pretty aggressive, but i just thought she was at the top of the pecking order. Also she kind of looks raptor-like and is noticeably bigger than Queenie.

Bottom line: she/he has to go, which is sad because Dodi Fayed is the prettiest of them all. We aren't quite sure what we are going to do, but we might be able to make a trade at the place we bought him from. It is always tough to tell when they are younger what gender they are. He was smaller than the others in his flock, which usually means it's a hen. Shoulda coulda woulda i guess. Everyone keeps asking if we are going to eat him. I don't think i could. Steve probably would though.

Queenie doing what she does best-- eat.

Duchess doing what she does best-- hang out on the perch.

One big happy family. Probably their last photo as a family together. tear.

Below is a video of Dodi Fayed's crowing. It gets a tad long so after about 20 seconds you will get the idea and can just turn it off.

The San Francisco Treat

Christina, her dad, and I flew over to San Francisco on Thursday afternoon. It was a good time to get out of the Midwest since temps were about to dip under zero degrees. Also Christina's cousin Dan is living there while he completes his medical residency. Mike shacked up at Dan's place in Noe Valley while Christina and I stayed at the Beresford Hotel near Union Square.

My favorite part of the trip was riding the cable cars. It was very touristy, but a ton of fun and you get a great view of the city. Below is a view from the streetcar. I know this is well known, but the city is really hilly. Really, really hilly.

Throughout the weekend we walked a bunch; all around downtown, through the MOMA, we went through the financial district and saw the oldest Wells Fargo Bank, we went to Fisherman's Wharf (good view of Alcatraz), and took a train to Berkely. On Saturday we stopped in Chinatown and went in dozens of stores. So many happy kitties and buddah statues.

We stopped in a shop with dehydrated deer antler, catapillars, prawn, and generally all sorts of smelly, weird and unappetizing items. The jars were pretty cool all lined up.

Sunday (before I had to get back into the city to watch the NFC championship game) Mike drove us out to Muir Woods. We had a GPS "neverlost" in the rental car. I really think I need one. It was hard to know where to turn and the GPS was awesome.

The forest is a national monument about 15-20 minutes on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge (above). The park is a 554 acre forest lined by the Pacific Ocean on the West. They have some of the last protected old growth Redwood trees. They're HUGE. The tallest one in the park was 258 feet tall (they grow to 380 ft in Northern Californa). That's why I look so tiny below.
Before we left on Monday afternoon we took a tour of the Mission District. Not only do they have a several weird bars and boutiques, but the area is known for its street art. Christina walked down a few alleys and Mike kept stopping the car to let her take over 130 photos of different murals {click this link to see a ton of them}, like the one at the top of the post.

i found this guy on a walk during lunch one day. he's about 5 ft tall, maybe a yard ornament? well we are off to san francisco and not a moment too soon. it's freezing here!

Avenue Q

Last night Ginny and I went on a 'date' to go see Avenue Q at the State theatre. I had first heard about when it opened on broadway about 5 years ago and was interested in seeing it. basically it is a puppet show/musical for adults. the puppets are all in their twenties and have problems that people our age do... unemployment, a lack of purpose in life, relationship troubles, etc. I would have to say it is was one of the funniest things I have seen in years! enjoyed every second of it and didn't want it to end (and that's a compliment coming from someone with A.D.D). Afterwards ginny and I both agreed that we would be willing to go again before it ends its run here.... in 3 days.

also another great thing about the play... the audience. All were funksters who looked to have just skipped their night art class at MCAD or something in order to attend. Intermission was great people watching. Lots of people on, what appeared to be, first dates, which had to be kind of awkward due to the content of the play. Anyways, at the end the audience jumped to their feet cheering before the characters/people could come out to take a bow!

Kids and puppies

Christina and I made two stops over the weekend. First we went over to Kristen and Cameron's on Friday night to see their new puppy. His name is Pious and he was super cute.

Then on Saturday we drove down to La Crosse to visit my friends Travis, Sarah and their kids Therin and Kya. The photo on the top shows the kids helping Christina spin some yarn that will become a hat for one of them (they both wanted pink hats). It was a short visit, but we had a great time seeing them. I was able to have a wonderful bloody mary at Del's Bar and Sarah was nice enough to pick up some Mr D's donuts and muffins.

{sad note: Mr. D's closed for a long time while a condo/commercial building could be built in it's place. Mr. D's just re-opened in one of the commercials spaces along with a coffee shop. The donuts and bakery items are made off site and few of the original favorites I loved in college are offered}

January LINK OF THE MONTH

Here is a link to more links. Jason Kottke's The Best Links 2007. You can easily spend the rest of the week on this (and the rest of his site).

The year twenty zero-eight

We rang in the new year at casa de Wattson. Our friend Ginny was nice enough to have us over for the second year in a row. It was a lock-in with homemade pizza, games, pajamas, and a giant cupcake.

The guys kept close to food to start the evening.

Erin worked the dance dance revolution pad.

Ginny, Emily, Erin started a rock band.

We ate a giant cupcake compliments of Christina!