Nicasio Reservoir

This afternoon, I am nursing a nasty sunburn from what was a thoroughly lovely Saturday, spent lounging with friends, wine, snacks, and good paperbacks in a secluded, sunny spot on the shores of the Nicasio reservoir.

We chatted, read, napped, got a little blazed, and polished a whole loaf of challah and box of coconut cookies.

As the summer lazily approaches, my love for living up here intensifies. The beauty around this county is just jaw-dropping sometimes.

Disclaimer: along with the sunblock, I also forgot my camera. Hence I had to fine an appropriate Google image. But this one is pretty close to what I spent five-plus hours staring at.

Visitors from Another County

When one moves from the venerable City to Marin, one finds that it's often difficult to get friends, acquaintances, and other previously-frequently-seen folks to come and visit. People who will easily hop on BART over to Oakland, or drive to San Jose, seem to have trouble traveling north that five miles over the bridge, out of the fog and into my apartment.

So, it's with great enthusiasm that I'm looking forward to a little dinner party I've put together this evening: four friends, a lamb roast, some good beer, and a discussion of the first seventy pages of The Communist Manifesto. It should be fun.

I guess the only way I could attract visitors from the People's Republic of San Francisco is to offer a book group based around Marx. Alas.

Housing Prices

I found the coolest co-blogs.

http://marinrealestatebubble.blogspot.com/
http://marinpos.blogspot.com/

The titles just about say it all. I know I've waxed philosophic (and perhaps annoying) about my overpriced, rented postage stamp of an apartment. And perhaps rightfully: my rent is higher than my parents' mortgage. I have accepted the potential fact that I will never own a house. At least in a place (i.e., not Iowa, or perhaps Harare) that I would choose to live.

So, I will continue tromping through the armies of lovelorn cats, and the eucalyptus sap, and the other detritus that awaits me on my less-than-perfect days up here.

Addendum: There are, I have found, dozens upon dozens of "real estate bubble" blogs out there. Which suggests to me that perhaps one of the downsides of being an actual homeowner is that one has to work so much as to not have any time to blog. Which makes homeownership even less attractive. I guess I'm a pretty lucky guy after all.