Spooky

Hallowe'en over here is a big deal, much more so than in the UK.

On the other hand, on yesterday's walk I saw this sign in the window of the thrift store at Mission & Clarion and enjoyed the quiet understatedness of it:

Unredeemed Viola

The changing season in San Francisco this year is being measured for me by @thebeean. Fall has definitely arrived. These days it's dark when she gets up and we watch it get light together. She goes to bed a couple of hours after sunset. My Saturday walk with her this morning was on wet streets under a gray drizzle and I put the rain cover on the stroller for the first time.

She's thirteen weeks old today.

The Mission felt distinctly autumnal as we walked our circuit, and I took some photos along the way. Here's one from the window of a pawn shop around 19th & Mission. The sign says Unredeemed Viola.

Great name for a band, I thought.

Passport Photo

We're taking Lux to meet the English side of the family next month so we had to get her a passport. Filling in the forms was actually easy enough (and Wendy wrote "Occupation: BABY", which I found charming) but the photo was a challenge.

It's harder than it sounds. No smiling, no funny faces, no hands or limbs of anyone else, eyes open, facing forward, a white background. And this photo is in a passport valid for five years! We laid Lux down on the white bed, stretched the sheet out, and I took her photo. I thought the result looked fine:

but the Post Office said the background was too dark.

We came home, put some white cardboard down, and took another picture. This time it passed muster, but the photo's not worth posting here. We're yet to apply for the UK passport; perhaps the original photo will work for the Brits.