From the category archives:

Alameda

Goodbye Alameda

June 15, 2009 Alameda

Over the past month, I have been unwinding my life in the San Francisco Bay Area and getting ready to move the family (and dog) over to Helsinki, Finland where Nokia, my employer, is headquartered.
For the past four and half years we have been living in Alameda, an island in the East Bay, about 20 [...]

View Comments →

Alameda Family Kicks the Fossil Fuel Habit

September 5, 2008 Alameda

Congratulations to my neighbor Eve Pearlman who is challenging herself to life without an automobile. Eve sends her kids to the same school as ours and I’ve ridden with her husband a few times on the morning commute (I ride a bike to the local BART station now). I have a pretty good sense of [...]

View Comments →

ULTRA, the Personal Rapid Transit vehicle

August 16, 2008 Alameda

Alameda, the island I live on, is cut off from easy access to the local rapid transit system. Residents need to cross one of three bridges or a tunnel to make it to a BART station. Some people (including yours truly) ride a bicycle to the train station where they have a place to park [...]

View Comments →

Alameda Theatre Restored to Art Deco Grandeur

June 29, 2008 Alameda

When I moved to Alameda four years ago I was struck by the beauty of the local movie palace. It was clearly from a different time, built before VCRs and DVDs, when going to the movies was a social activity, an occasion which you would dress up, put on something special.
Since closing its doors in [...]

View Comments →

Small Town Messages

May 5, 2008 Alameda

You know you live in a small town when the local PTA message board posts the following:

We lost one of our black silkie chickens near Santa Clara and Court. If you see a small black chicken roaming around please call us.
We miss her.  She is a pet, not dinner.

View Comments →

Our Local Pocket Cinema

April 2, 2008 Alameda

Nice write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle of our local, 49-seat movie theater in Alameda. It’s a one-man operation with the same guy who takes your tickets and serving you popcorn also running the projector. With old couches and laz-y-boy chairs to sit on, it’s more reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso than your standard Lowes [...]

View Comments →

Hecka nice

November 24, 2007 Alameda

“He’s an extraordinary player who makes every team a lot better. This guy is hecka nice. . .”
High school coach for Jimmy Rollins who has just been named Baseball’s National League’s Most Valuable Player. Jimmy Rollins is from Alameda, CA where I live. Encinal High School, where Jimmy played, is in Alameda. We’re all really [...]

View Comments →

Fore!

January 8, 2006 Alameda

I’m not much of a golfer. I never did understand the attraction of hitting a little white ball around and then, as is usually my case, looking for it in the bushes. I never gave the sport a chance when I was young and had a chance to get into it. I guess patience comes [...]

View Comments →

500 pieces of candy in 90 minutes

November 1, 2005 Alameda

All the kids in Alameda have the day off from school on Halloween which just makes the waiting worse. Tyler woke up early, moaning that evening was hours away. It was 5:30am – I told him sleep makes time go by faster and convinced him to get back in his bed.
I got back from work [...]

View Comments →

Blackout

October 28, 2005 Alameda

The power was out when I came home today, second time this week. Alameda Island has it’s own power company and several times a year they have trouble keeping the juice on. I think some poor squirrel was the cause last time.
Today the power was out for about an hour so we got to enjoy [...]

View Comments →

← Previous Entries