Jay Allen’s Neighborhood

Happy Birthday Janika!

Happy Birthday Alex!

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner.

That's Maldon salt on top. The peanut butter / honey filling is poping out the cracks. Next batch will be cooked less and have either habañero, cayenne, or jalepeño.

Molten Chocolate cups w/ peanut butter & honey centers...

Ok friends, i have been a bad VOX'r and i know it.   So much has happened that i can't begin to catch you up in one post. The most important event since the last time i updated is the arrival of my nieces, Lucy and Vivian.  My sister, Jamie had her two beautiful little girls on October 16th at roughly 2pm.  The journey was a long and emotional one but nothing compares to the joy we all felt the day we first met these two precious babies. 

The proud parents have already set-up a website for their little darlings.  You can see pics and watch videos of the girls at www.vivianandlucy.com.   Joe is really good about updating the site so it's been fun to capture their growth even after only 5 weeks. 

This past weekend, Joe took video of the girls which makes me smile (and admittingly a little teary...i'm such a sap) every time i watch it.  Here is a video of VIvian who is turning out to be the spitting infant image of her adoring auntie Robin:

Lucy is Joe's clone - so stinking cute and SUCH a good baby. Lulu loves her schedule and so do mom and dad becuase predictability is the key to a parent's sanity i've learned, especially with twins. 
Here is a video of Lucy taken by Joe with cousin Tara's voice in the background:
I'm looking forward to spending the Thanksgiving holiday with the Green Bean baby girls, Jamie, Joe, cousin Corinna and Aunt Shelley who will be meeting the babies for the first time today. 

Seen in lower haight.

My first job was working as a make-up artist in my mom's cosmetic shop, which was located in "the dead mall" across the street from the mega-mall, where everyone respectable went to shop. The only folks who ventured into the dead mall were those with bizarre fetishes they wanted to try out in "public" without actually being too far out into the public sphere. My four hour shift was often punctuated with high school principals and construction workers in drag, trying out the new high heels they just scored at Payless; a 60 yr. old woman dressed as a naughty school girl being led around on a leash by her husband; your occasional flasher; foot fetish guy who would creepily make me show him the colors of "toenail" polish we carried and on & on...

Anyway, it appears that Vox is now the dead mall. Of course, I'm sure there are still many "respectable" folks on here...but more so, there are a lot just letting their freak flag fly. And I love it. You are my people and I'm happy to be back. But don't send me pictures of your penis. Thanks.

Most of us call 'em leftovers. Because some people prefer not to eat food they consider "old" my mum decided to rebrand them as "plan aheads".

Homefries from Sunday, pan heated with fresh spinach and smashed garlic. It's amazing how much spinach reduces when cooked; one of my fav ways to consume my quota of green leafys.