The Further Adventures of Coco

Coco escaped yesterday. Last seen at Caffe Trieste on Market Street, he seems to have given Pa and Louis the ditch and gone off to do his own thing.



It's a good thing Coco is a San Francisco native, and he knows his way around. He'll never go the wrong way down a oneway street!



I expect after leaving Trieste he probably first went for a walk, maybe to the playground on Octavia Street? I hope he didn't get hit by a car on his way -- traffic moves pretty quickly through there.



I wonder where he went next. Where would you go if you were Coco? If I were Coco, and I got a day to myself, I might go shopping, and then I might go get my hair done, and then talk a walk around the Ferry Building, and then I might go to a movie. After the movie I would pick a lovely place to eat, and have a glass or two of wine. I would stop and get a good book to read with my dinner. I would pick out some place to go after dinner, just to prolong the feeling of being on vacation.

Maybe Coco went over to Flax and explored the art rooms and coloring tables. Or maybe he met some friends for dinner at Zuni Cafe, and ended back up at Trieste for coffee and jazz in the evening.

I don't know if we're ever going to find him. I hope he comes back. Maybe we need to consult a professional.



Coco! Somebody sure misses you and was looking everywhere for you last night!


Stay tuned for updates.....

Yikes

Check out this recipe from the LA Times. I was intrigued when I saw the headline -- who doesn't want a nice home-baked chocolate fix for under 200 calories?

But then I read the list of ingredients. Who wants to cook like that? Who wants to eat like that? Would you feed your kids all of that chemical junk? Forget it!

Architecture

Check out this nicely done article, written and photographed by someone very close to me. I borrowed a photo - I hope he doesn't mind!

Learning How to Play Hide-and-Seek

Rafa is teaching Louis how to play hide-and-seek. It's a good thing that Rafa has more patience than I do, because Louis only wants to do what Rafa does, not what Rafa says.

Case in point:
Rafa wants to play hide and seek, so he explains to Louis that he, Rafa, is going to stand in the kitchen doorway and count to 10, and Louis is supposed to go hide somewhere and wait for Rafa to find him. So Louis nods and says, awethome! and Rafa commences the counting. Louis looks up at Rafa, goes over to the other side of the kitchen door, and starts counting too. One, touw, free, fow, fiy.

No, Louis, Rafa says. Go somewhere. Don't stand here with me. Go hide. Then I'll come find you. So Louis goes over to the other doorway, still in the kitchen mind you, but a little further away, and starts to count again. One, touw...

Okay, Louis. I'll hide, then, if you want to count. You stay here and start to count. One, says Rafa. Touw, says Louis. Rafa runs down the hall to hide. Louis runs down the hall after him, Coco in tow in his left hand.

No, Louis! You said you wanted to be the counter. Stay there! I'm hiding. Louis! Stay there. Papa, will you tell Louis to stay and count?

And Louis just giggles....

Pancakes on a Thursday

This morning Rafa and I both woke up early. He come in to talk to me, about dreams mostly. Then he asked for pancakes.

It was a work morning, a middle-of-the-week morning, and there were things to do. But we made pancakes anyway, just because we could.

Here are some of our favorite pancake variations:

Oatmeal pancakes
Replace half of the pancake mix with quick-cooking oats, and make as usual.

Lemon pancakes
Squeeze the juice from a lemon from the tree in the backyard into the mix. This only works if you use pancake mix and water, not pancake mix and milk!

Cinnamon-raisin pancakes
Pa invented this one day when there was no more raisin bread. Stir in a half a cup of raisins and a couple of shakes of cinnamon into the mix.

Mixed berry pancakes
Fold some berries (fresh or frozen) into the batter, after you've done the rest of the mixing, or they will fall apart. The berries, that is. And the pancakes will turn out purple.

I guess, since we had pancakes for breakfast today, we really shouldn't have pancakes for dinner too, should we?