Sunday March 11 is time to spring forward at 2:00am to 3:00am.

Tuesday (February 27, 2018) participating IHOP restaurants will celebrate National Pancake Day with a free short stack of pancakes. You will be asked to consider leaving a donation ($5.00) for local charities.

Check with your local IHOP if participating and for exact hours of participation.
Find your IHOP here.

IHOP: “There is a limit of one free short stack per guest. The offer is valid at participating restaurants for dine-in only while supplies last and is not valid with any other offer, special coupon or discount. “

IHOP National Pancake Day
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
7:00 AM to 7:00 PM — Check with your local IHOP if participating and for exact hours of participation.

Chronicle Books Holiday Sale Dec 14, 15 & 16. Books and gifts with 80% off selected titles including cookbooks, children’s books, lifestyle + home, arts + crafts, art + design, photography, travel, pop culture, and music titles.

Thursday, Dec 14, 9:00am – 7:00pm
Friday, Dec 15, 9:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday, Dec 16, 10:00am – 3:00pm

Chronicle Books Corporate Headquarters
680 2nd Street
San Francisco, 94107
(415) 537-4200

Credit: Sky and Telescope

There will be a Supermoon December 3 and 4. A Supermoon is a new or full moon that comes close to Earth in its elliptical orbit; this is called a Lunar Perigee.

The full moon comes on December 3 and lunar perigee takes place on December 4.

The best time to observe the Supermoon is when the moon is near the horizon during either moonrise or moonset:

Sunday Morning, Dec. 3 –  Moonset — 6:45am
Sunday Evening, Dec. 3 –  Moonrise — 6:15pm
Monday Morning, Dec. 4 – Moonset — 7:56am
Monday Evening, Dec. 4 – Moonrise — 6:57pm

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you — Neil deGrasse Tyson

NASA: A Supermoon Trilogy

Once again Plaza de Cesar Chavez in San Jose is transformed into Christmas in the Park from the day after Thanksgiving through New Years Day.

The free event includes more than 550 decorated Christmas trees, over 40 animated displays/exhibits, visits with Santa, nightly entertainment and more.

Special areas of Christmas in the Park include Reindeer Ranch, Snowflake Falls, North Pole Plaza, Gingerbread Village, Candy Cane Lane and Mistletoe Row. There is also Adoption Alley where you can adopt a cat or dog to take home.

Christmas in the Park kicks off at 6:00pm on Friday, November 24 with the lighting of the 60-foot Christmas tree. Christmas in the Park is then open daily 9:00am to midnight.

Christmas in the Park is expensive to produce and operate. Thus, they ask you to visit their food court. All of the proceeds go directly toward bringing this event free.

Plaza de César Chávez
1 Paseo De San Antonio
San Jose, 95113

Admission: Free

From the day after Thanksgiving (11/24/2017) through New Years Day (1/1/2018).
From 11/25/2017 open daily 9:00am to midnight.

Parking

Closest facilities to Christmas in the Park are:
Fairmont Plaza Garage, 50 W. San Fernando St., under the ice rink
Pavilion Garage at Second and San Fernando streets
Central Place Garage and Lot between Second and Third streets at San Fernando
Surface lots at Second and San Fernando and San Carlos and South Market streets
CityView Plaza Garage, 115 S. Market St.
95 S. Market Garage

This Sunday at 2:00 am, November 5, we turn our clocks back an hour as we return to Standard Time.

Remember, bars actually stop serving alcohol at 1:59 am, one minute before the clocks are set back one hour.

This is also a good time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors.

Wednesday, November 15 from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm is Lego Time at the Mountain View Public Library. All ages are welcome in the Children’s Room. There will also be Duplos for toddlers.

This free event takes place on every third Wednesday of the month.

Mountain View Public Library
585 Franklin Street
Mountain View, 94041
(650) 903-6887

Thursday, October 19 thru Saturday, October 21 is the 6th Anniversary Autumn Lights Festival at the Gardens at Lake Merritt in Lakeside Park. The event is from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm.

Local artists create gigantic and small works of art using light. The event will blend larger-than-life art and lighting installations, live music, art, fire dancers, food and drink (food and drink available for purchase).

Advance Tickets suggested:

$20 advance/$25 event day for adults
$7 advance/$10 event day for youth (ages 6-17)
Children aged 5 and younger enter free

Lakeside Park Garden Center
666 Bellevue Ave
Oakland, 94610

Wednesday, October 25, 2017, is the last book and media Steps Sales at the San Francisco Main Library.

Books and media are $1 or less each. All proceeds from Steps Sales benefit the San Francisco Public Library.

Steps Sales is located at the Larkin Street entrance to the Main Library.

San Francisco Main Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, 94102
(415) 557-4400

Wednesdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm (last Wed. 10/25/2017)

Fear Overload Scream Park offers 2 haunted houses on select dates in San Leandro.
The 2 haunted houses include The Plastic Surgeon and Static Noise.
“The attractions are not recommended for children under the age of 12.”

The Plastic Surgeon
“The Plastic Surgeon was a bullied, neglected child tormented for having hideous facial deformities. Grown up, he became more than a man, he became a leviathan of pain, dabbling in the methods of bodily torture, mainly to the face. If he couldn’t have the face he wanted, no one could.”

Static Noise
“A little white noise is good to put you to sleep but static noise will probably just drag you to depths of the underworld. Inhabited by a ghastly girl, the warehouse full of useless TVs will come to life whenever flesh is in the vicinities. Beware the grasp of the girl who watched too much TV as a child and eventually died as a cause. Built to keep the spirit at bay, the girl inhabits any television set she can get her hands on in the warehouse but be warned, if you enter the house and stare too long at the set, you may find something reaching out for you. And it is not because of the 3D gimmicks.”

Admission varies: General Admission $25 – $30; Fast Pass Admission $32 – $40; VIP Admission $40 – $50; VIP Bundle Event Ticket $80. Online processing fee varies $2.25 – $5.00 per ticket.

Tickets available online here.

Fear Overload Scream Park
Bayfair Center (across from Century Theaters)
15555 E 14th Street
San Leandro, 94578
(510) 730-2221

Park at the Century Theaters Parking Lot and enter the mall. Next to the Davita Dialysis. Parking is free.

The free San Francisco Center for the Book’s 14th Annual Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival is Sunday, September 17, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival includes public printmaking and book arts extravaganza that includes free hands-on printmaking and book arts activities, demonstrations, art gallery and studio tours, and more.
Steamroller Printing: relief printing — a process where a protruding surface is inked and brought into contact with paper — using a steamroller on the road surface of Rhode Island Street as a humongous makeshift printing press.
The resulting “Featured Artists Roadworks” prints are then sold for $500 (3’x3′) and $250 (18″x18″) and Roadworks “Roadworks ‘Personal Prints’ Artists'” prints are sold for $40 each.

SF Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street
San Francisco, 94103
(415) 565-0545

Sunday, September 17, 2017
1:00 am to 4:00 pm

Admission: free

Sunday, September 3, 2017, Solano 2 Drive-In presents Customer Appreciation Night. Gates open at 6:00 pm, there will be activities/events and live music. Movies then start 8:00 pm. All free.

Scheduled movies include:
Despicable Me 2
Guardians Of The Galaxy 2
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Pirates Of The Caribbean
Transformers
War Of The Planet Of The Apes

Solano 2 Drive-In
1611 Solano Way
Concord, 94520

Sunday, September 3, 2017
Gates open 6:00 pm

Admission: Free

Summer Reading Celebration: Explore, Connect, & Grow! is Sunday, August 6, 2017, from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
Held in the Oakland Museum of California Gardens. Many activities for kids including a magic show, games, a bounce house, and face painting. Also, 7-year-old author Sadiya Tyler-Laws reads from her book Princess Escape during story time.

Program schedule here (PDF).

Sunday, August 6 is a Free First Sunday at the Oakland Museum of California (Suggested donation: $5 per person — helps to provide access to other visitors in the community).

Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak St
Oakland, 94607

Parking: a parking garage is on Oak Street between 10th and 12th streets. Parking fees are $1 per hour for Museum visitors with validation and $2.50 per hour without validation. Get your ticket validated at the Ticketing booth on Level 2 any time during your visit.

Public Transit: AC Transit