Tuesday, April 3, 2012

City of Industry (Sculptures)

We've been touring our (temp) hometown of Emeryville whenever time and weather allows. It's a small place, with a lot of interesting history and buildings.

We noticed this gem before we even signed our lease. It's not the only reason we live here, but it definitely didn't hurt. The building is actually a working office for PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric for those of you who've never lived in California or are just not so great at acronyms).

There are two sections with three scenes per section. We're not sure what these murals are called, so we've decided to name each scene for you:

Brighty of the Grand Canyon's Cousin (It's a long story, Karen really liked that book as a small child.)

Flames of Industry (that's probably it's real name, we should really Google things before writing posts.)

Daniel Plainview's Alternate Life Story


Whew, three more left!

 Salmon Voyeur

 Just Before Dr. Frankenstein Animates His Monster

Crazy Lines (apparently one of M.C. Escher's first drafts)

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Trash Time for Teddy Bears

Karen and Erik left their apartment.

They went to their garage and saw this.


In case you were thinking that wasn't a giant Teddy bear perched upon the Dumpster. 

It was.

Let's take a closer look. Karen doesn't want to . . . but let's do it.


YIKES!

I'm not scared. How about you, Karen?

Karen?

. . . Karen?

Friday, March 23, 2012

Bunny Business


The Burgs currently live in the East Bay as we attempt to figure out where exactly we want to settle down (SF proper? North Bay? South Bay? East Bay? More on this debate as we get closer to lease expiry.)  It's an area of the SF Bay in transition, with a lot of stuff cobbled together in a way that doesn't quite mesh. It is not uncommon to see a taqueria, liquor store, art space, organic vegan doughnut shop, auto parts store, and an expensive clothing boutique all on the same block.

Anyway, there's a lot of randomness. But nothing quite as random as this little gem Mr. Burg noticed while exploring the neighborhood. So many questions . . . but we're way, way too scared to go inside and ask.  We recommend enlarging this one to get the full effect.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Queuing On Up . . .

Sooooo. We are really enjoying living in Northern California. We love San Francisco, it's great to be so close to nature, the grocery shopping is amazing (more on that later.) Overall, it's a nice fit for us.

Of course . . . no place is perfect. There are a few interesting quirks to our new city that we're still adjusting to.
Exhibit A: The Line Up
SF is, as I'm sure you're aware, a pretty liberal city. Almost everyone is very, very careful to seem fair and civilized. It's sweet really. The perfect example of this is how everyone lines up while waiting for their train. They literally form single file lines that you patiently wait in for your train. We try to picture this working in NYC and usually just wind up getting the giggles.

While this seems incredibly nice and civil, this is the typical commuting scenario: All civilians wait patiently in single file lines. The minute the train doors open those who are not getting on that train step to the side so anyone who does want on that train can continue into the car in their single file lines. But, they do not let people off first!

It's basically the Anti-New York. There it goes something like this: Everyone mobs the platform. The minute the train stops they jockey for the closest position to the door. All people are allowed to exit. Then everyone pushes into the train.

We know this is a metaphor somehow for the differences between the coasts, but we don't quite have it yet.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Classy Much?

Another gem from Karen's phone. This one taken in the ladies' room (I'm using that term lightly) in the MGM Casino. We should probably start a series on abandoned drinks in Vegas, they like to pop up in some pretty lovely places.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Karen recently found a lot of photos on her old phone that she meant to add to CHB, but never got around to it. Here's a prime example.

This little gem is actually a screenshot of her phone. It was taken while visiting Washington, D.C. a while back, we were looking for a bookstore when Karen noticed something strange and zoomed in. 

 

A few things to note here:

1. The West Wing is a restaurant now?
2. Are they absolutely certain that's where our President is? Right there? In that exact spot? 
3. The Burgs are pretty nerdy looking for a bookstore on vacation. (But you already knew that, didn't you?)