Just thought I’d drop by and check-in about what I’m doing via my Moominmamma’s webspace.

California, California… I’m currently still working for Childhood Matters and Nuestros Niños. For those of you who don’t know what we do (or what I do), we produce two radio talk shows on parenting (one in English, one in Spanish). I was the Assistant Producer for the past year, now I’m the Communications Associate, and do um… lots of different things related to operating a non-profit. Those of you who have young youngsters should visit our website – I honestly think we have good information for parents, and all of our shows are available for free on our website. I’ll stop plugging our work now…

My roomie and long time friend Jess and I have been living in Berkeley for the last year and are now trying our hardest to move across the bay to San Francisco, but it’s been more than a little difficult since the housing market here is both expensive and cutthroat competitive (and we’re both busy).

And what do I do in my spare time in the wonderful Bay Area, you ask? Well, you know, hang out with friends, explore, go to the beach. And a lot of rock shows. Just Sunday, Jess and I went to this (clickheredoitnow) on Treasure Island in the middle of the Bay. Treasure Island and this great festival bookended our summer – if anyone wants stories about Sasquatch I’d be happy to tell them. But for now just imagine Jess and I with four days and nights to make it to George, WA and back.

For a first time festival Treasure Island was amazingly well orchestrated. They had parking in SF, and shuttles to take all concert-goers to the island, since there’s not much space for parking there. We hardly had to wait either coming or going, and there was free ice cream while we waited to leave. It was big, but didn’t feel big, and I have to say I’ve been waiting to see certain of these bands for years. Best of all, there were two stages, but they staggered the performances so we never had to choose between two bands!

For anyone who cares, here’s some music gobbledygook. Modest Mouse was as great live as I’ve been hoping since the age of 15 (16?), although they played too many newer songs for my taste. The highlight was the encore, in which the band played one of the new songs, and while in the instrumental portion Isaac Brock starting inserting lyrics from an older album into the song – pretty incredible if you’re familiar with Modest Mouse. I definitely left feeling like I’d be willing to pay to see them again. Other highlights include M. Ward who put on an all around good show, Two Gallants who I’ve been listening to since moving here (they’re from SF), and one of my all time favorite bands, Built to Spill. Doug Martsch played an amazing solo version of Car, the song that makes everyone love Built to Spill. I don’t think they played that last time I saw them play in Chicago.

We go to a lot of smaller shows too, but I don’t think I need to get into the musicky details or you’ll all ask that I never post again. Other highlights in the life of Elizardbreath include cooking (gotta go make spaghetti sauce) and eating, sleeping, watching The OC on DVD (I know, I know, it’s awful), reading, speaking Spanish, my cousin Renee’s birthday beach bonfire, and planning a trip to visit my SoCal pals in October.

Lastly but not leastly, I was saddened to learn last night that Shakey Jake died. My dear old dad pointing Jake and his bowties and guitar out to me (most likely from the fresh and healthy atmosphere of the Fleetwood Diner [ha. {not.}]) is quite possibly one of my earliest memories.

This was pretty long, but I’ll be happy to see many of you at Christmastime, and keep in touch. Hope you weren’t bored :-).