Sunday, July 24, 2005

crank

continuing genocide in sudan, bombings in baghdad, explosion in egypt.

i have reasons for being cranky, not all of them so high-minded as those.

miss J says saturn's mercury's in retrograde (this supposedly explains the bad moods of many).

but, bright side, bright side. the plimsouls rocked café du nord.

goin' dot com! was also excellent. go see it before it closes – support campy indie musicals and local artists!

meanwhile, i'm getting the heck outta dodge and fleeing to portland tomorrow. where are you?

Friday, July 15, 2005

the week in review

in absence of anything intelligent to say about last week's london bombings, may i extend sincere wishes that you and yours are all OK and express my admiration for the official and collective british response to this tragedy. carrying on with life while examining and responding pragmatically to the situation.

*

on sunnier and more superficial topics, dos equis has been impressing the hell out of me and my dinner guests with his culinary chops. on monday night while KGB (K, the goddess/guardian of the bay) was staying here, dos equis made cracker-encrusted salmon, cauliflower and horseradish purée, wilted garlic spinach, and baby greens drizzled in homemade dressing. then, while we were all basking obliviously in the deliciosity, he lined up four of V's crystal wineglasses for presenting dessert: champagne and passionfruit-sorbet floats. this morning some of the leftover salmon went into the eggs benedict he whipped up for brunch, with mimosas on the side. and, well, anatomical charts will show a route to this girl's heart through her stomach.

so KGB was in town for wedding shower festivities. being the low-key bride she is, the shower consisted of five women on a hike in marin, a picnic with rioja and stories and live-action napoleon dynamite quotes, and then dinner in the mission. we shared custody of her during her visit, so she moved from house to house to hang out with the bay area friends she left behind to live with her incredible poet-pilot. i miss her terribly but am thrilled she met a match worthy of her amazing self. and i can't wait to watch them be wed, just weeks from now.

the silver cloud (aka my poor car) has not had such a good week. wednesday night after tango, i limped back to it around midnight and drove it half a block before realizing that the bumpy ride and the GUNGUNGUGNGUGNG meant i had a flat. yay, triple-A! boo, big rusty nail.

two nights later after attending a giants game, i parked across the street from dos equis' house where i always do. i left the car as i usually do, removing the car stereo face plate and not removing the 72 empty coffee cups and to-be-forwarded pile of mail belonging to a housemate who owes me rent money from an apartment i no longer live in (note to self: take ex-housemate to small claims court, then clean out car). in the morning, i could see from across the street that the passenger door was open. i steeled myself for the possible pee smell left behind by a possible overnight guest who might even possibly still be passed out inside.

my little car is a marvel of swedish engineering, making it challenging to break into – unless you bust out that quarter-panel window in the back, which some clever schmuck had done. whoever broke into my car went through the trouble of opening some of the coffee cups lying around the car to see if anything was hidden inside (like maybe my checkbook? or, like, some diamonds? or crack?). ah, the disappointment of finding dried-up coffee dregs and energy-bar wrappers. they did steal all the CDs out of the glovebox, around 20 of them and as such, a fair chunk of my minimalist, much-loved collection. so my glovebox is now looking very spacious. i'm thinking about renting it out.

do you know how much those tiny quarter-panel car windows cost? i just bought a full-priced roundtrip flight to portland for less than the cost of the window, and i didn't even get a frame in the bargain so it's bordered with perky blue tape. gonna call around used-parts places for a replacement frame, unless any of you all have one lying around.

ah, and speaking of lying around, my clean sheets need to be spread upon the bed so that i can go to sleeeeep... buenas noches.

Friday, July 01, 2005

jetlag remedy no. 2

instead of actually abstaining from coffee (nnoooo!) in order to avoid jetlag, i have a new strategy. all you have to do is get off the plane, stay awake until the local bedtime hour, get a good night's sleep, and take two tim tams in the morning. simple! and delicious.