The Garden in afternoon light

Architectural Detail on Hearst Street

Interesting concrete detail on Hearst Street just above Liason Bistro
on Shattuck on North Berkeley

And from the French Doors

The garden / rock view from our kitchen

Mac Users - the best magazines are iCreate & MacFormat

Both published in the UK

I just installed http://ping.fm/5vIX9 and it's amazing. Hold up books to your built-in camera, it reads the bar code, and pops the information into your computer's "shelf"

Ira

Memorial Day - Golden Gate National Cemetery

We give thanks

Thank You

Our Flag is out - post photos of your flag.

It time to give Thanks.

And the after shot- still life with Guiness

Still Life: Side yard with BBQ & PV System Electronics. Been at least
2 years since we used the BBQ and figured it was time to use it again.
Guineas Stout just added to the ingredients. Soot!

Northside Condo just a few blocks from UC Berkeley

2675 Virginia Street - $400,000- Charming 1 Bedroom Condo with parking and storage

Northside condo is three blocks from UC Berkeley Campus in the Berkeley Hills/La Loma neighborhood.






This terrific unit in a three-unit complex has it all: a lovely leafy neighborhood; fireplace; brick patio; remodeled bath; walk- in closet; random plank flooring; one car space in shared garage; in-unit laundry, ceiling fan and storage; all on one level, with front entry steps; feels more like a small home than an apartment! Newer roof and gutters in 2007, windows replaced in 2004. Seismic upgrades done in 1999. Refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer are included in the sale. In compliance: residential energy conservation ordinance. HOA fee: $100/monthly. To the west and down the hill....Chez Panisse, Black Oak Books, Epicurious and more great North Berkeley shops and restaurants; at the north side of campus: Lawrence Berkeley Labs; Greek Theater; Cal Stadium; Maxwell Field; Haas Business School; Boalt Hall and Euclid Avenue shops; La Val’s Pizza; Analog Books; Celia’s Mexican Restaurant; Top Dog.

There are 3 nearby bus lines. The 65 and 52L bus take you to the Downtown Berkeley BART Station. The 52L loops right around most of the UC Berkeley Campus, and the F line goes to San Francisco. Sq.Ft.: 740; Built: 1950. Square footage not verified or guaranteed by seller or agent. Neighborhood information at http://www.berkeleyhomes.com/neighborhoods/berkeley/uc-northside-southside.html

Memorial Day - Time to give thanks to those who fight and fought for our freedoms.

Take the time to participate in one of the many remembrances in your community.

They gave months, years, blood, sweat, tears and lives. Give them a few hours.

Celebrations will be held on Monday at Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery, Alameda's USS Hornet, San Francisco's Presidio and USS Pompanito, and San Bruno's Veteran Cemetery, among other places.

Berkeley Police On The Forefront of High Tech Sleuthing

August Vollmer had a reputation as the "father of modern law enforcement" for his modernization of the Berkeley Police Department in the early 20th Century.

Barbara Gilbert, "An Independent Voice For District 5 and the Entire Berkeley Community" just forwarded this piece from the Berkeley Police Department, and it's so good, I'm reposting in its entirety!

Enjoy!

---

Fellow Community Members,

With some of the troubling events that have affected other parts of our City recently, I’m happy to be able to share some good news that has an immediate impact on Northeast and North Central Berkeley’s property crime situation.

As you may already know, some auto burglars who prowl Northeast Berkeley are prolific; one auto burglar may burglarize several cars in one night. Apprehending one of these prolific individuals can obviously have an impact in reducing the number of auto burglaries in an area affected by property crime, like Northeast Berkeley. With that in mind, I thought you might be interested in hearing about an arrest our Property Crimes Detective Division made recently.

On May 5th, at about 6:00 p.m., one of our fellow community members parked his car near the corner of Hearst Avenue and Euclid Avenue. Unknowingly, he left his laptop bag on the back seat of his car. Sometime before 8:00 p.m., someone smashed the car window and stole the laptop from the rear seat. The victim reported the auto burglary but there were no significant investigative leads in the case. This is where the story gets really interesting. The victim had a back-up program installed on his computer that automatically uploaded new data from the computer’s hard drive to an online virtual storage location. The suspect, not knowing of the back-up program, proceeded to take photographs of himself with the computer’s built-in camera; those photographs were eventually up-loaded to the internet based storage location. The victim discovered the photographs of the suspect and passed them along to Detective Sergeant Ed Spiller and Detective Earl Emelson. The Detectives recognized the suspect as Gerardo Vega (1/30/72) of Berkeley. Vega had a long history of auto burglary and theft, and the Detectives knew he had just been released from jail at the start of the year.

The Detectives closely examined the photographs and noticed that Vega appeared to be sitting in a motel room when he snapped the pictures with the computer’s camera. Sgt. Spiller, theorizing that the victim’s computer had accessed the internet thorough the motel’s wireless internet system, began work to identify the I.P. address utilized by the victim’s computer in hopes that it would lead them to the motel where Vega was staying. Not content to wait for the I.P. address information to become available, Sgt. Spiller and Det. Emelson began checking local Berkeley motels for signs of Vega. After checking the Berkeley motels and not locating Vega, the Detectives decided to expand their search to Oakland motels. While checking motels on MacArthur Blvd., Det. Emelson spotted Vega getting into a car in a motel parking lot. The Detectives stopped Vega and arrested him for possession of the stolen laptop. During the investigation, the Detectives located additional stolen property (from other auto burglaries) inside Vega’s car and in his motel room. Vega’s girlfriend, Maria Reynoso (4/27/72) of Berkeley, was also arrested during the investigation at the motel.

The Detectives are certain that Vega was involved in numerous auto burglaries around Berkeley, including Northeast and North Central Berkeley. They are confident that Vega’s arrest will have a noticeable impact on the number of auto burglaries we deal with in the near future. This is not an isolated incident for our Property Crimes Detective Division. Work like this is done daily by our Detectives, but it is not widely advertised by our Department. Please let me know if you enjoyed this “Detective Story” and if you would like to hear similar stories in the future. In the next update, I plan to discuss the problem of auto theft, and what we can do to prevent it.

As always, feel free to contact me directly with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Respectfully,

Officer Casimiro Pierantoni #96
Area Coordinator-Area 1
Community Services Bureau
Berkeley Police Department
Phn: (510) 981-5773
Fax: (510) 981-5819

Berkeley Chamber Of Commerce meeting on Berkeley Marina

Web dead.com the greenest folks at the meeting are foreverfernwood.com where they recycle people and give GPS coordinates to your heirs

Pyramid Alehouse at the Berkleey Chamber

Pyramid Alehouse at the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce meeting

Angles and Demons at the Orinda Theater

Angles and demons

Part of the Al-Gebra movement?

It's 88º in Berkeley, but with the humidity feels like 88º

It's 88º in Berkeley, but with the humidity feels like 88º

When you create maps using MLS data it incorporates the data fields
into the map. Email the web page link to your iPhone and the maps/MLS
info shows up too!

Disappointment is the natural result of badly managed expectations.

Wow

How do you manage your client's expectations?

What's the difference between client expectations and desires?

Listening to Chip Conley talk at Pacific Union Eatates luncheon in
beautiful San Francisco. He's talking about how to Recession Proof
Your Business - Getting motivation from Maslow

My best park of the week!

My best park of the week!

Andy Kaufman talking to #Berkeley association of Realtors

#Berkeley Breakfast - French Hotel Cap, Cheese Board Baguette, Produce
Market Tofu, and Zarris Oluves at Casa Serkes

Ballots, not bullets

As I drove home from Downtown #Berkeley I wondered what CHP was doing so far from I80. Then in a "blink" moment realized it was for ballots, not bullets."

The condo in #Berkeley that Patty Hearst was kidnapped from.

They know about our wonderful client service...even in Arizona