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September 30, 2005

how fortuitous

David and I went to Evergreen for lunch today. It was good but I was not so impressed. My noodles were bland.

We got our fortune cookies and our fortunes seemed to come from the Absurdity Collection. Mine read "It's not about you. It's better that way." hmmm okay. Probably good advice, not necessarily what you would expect in a fortune cookie. David's was more bizarre, "Sing a song every day. Sing the same song if it is a good song". I honestly don't know. Again, seems like good advice, but the chinese restaurant is throwing me into some sort of bizarro-themed advice quandary.

I don't know how to feel about these bits at all.

So, as I've mentioned I've been sick. last night I went home, took a nice long bath/shower, got my hair washed by the boy (so nice) and went to bed at 7:30. Slept all night and got up for work 12 hours later. Still tired, still sick, but it was great to shut down for 12 hours.

While sleeping I had my crazy dreams that i have when i am sick. One involved going to visit my mother in prison. It was a lovely prison, set up like a really beautiful apartment complex with landscaping and outdoor walkways. I'd love to rent a place like this. I went to my mother's apartment and her roommate, Ossie Davis greeted me at the door. He was cleaning the kitchen, sort of a crusty old man type. It was an amusingly detailed dream, I could spend hours describing the apartment. Probably a little more ivy, floral, darkwood for my tastes, but you can't really complain about such things in a prison. Why was my mom in a prison in my dreams? No clue. Sorry mom.

After I tried to visit my mom (she was napping and I did not want to bother her) I went to the zoo. I hung out in the shade by the camels. The camels were seal-like in their entertaining of the crowd. They jumped around, they bounced balls, they were real crowd pleasers. As I sat in the shade I was writing in a notebook. I was writing some sort of political manifesto. I was going to change the world. Essentially, I was trying to end excess spending, keep people happy and maintain a safety net for everyone. I was really proud of myself. I didn't get beyond writing about what should be fixed. I never really got to how I was going to do it because David called me on my cell phone to tell me he was by the elephants and I should go meet him. In my dream I had an incredibly detailed map of the park, and I would have been able to find the elephants but the alarm went off and sadly i could not continue my zoo journey.

So, what is today? Well, there was "Science Friday" on NPR. I do like Science Friday, today they were talking about theoretical physics and multiple dimensions and all that. I get very frustrated with these things because there is a real feeling of "you just made this up, didn't you??!!". Ira Flatow asked the guest about these extra dimensions, why can't we see them or comprehend them and what were they all about. She told him we were not designed to comprehend these dimensions, we could only see our 3 (or 4 if you count time). I feel like such a curmudgeon when I listen to this stuff because I want to shout at the radio "if you can't prove it exists, if i can't see it then I don't believe you!". Microscopic things i believe, I can see tangible evidence of dinosaurs (but often will explain to people that the new popular color dinosaurs are just theory, we don't know what color they were), I always talk about black holes in terms of theory. I love science, i love reading about new things and learning about them but you start talking about quantum mechanics and stuff like that and I want a goddamned picture. I want actual evidence. I don't want to feel like you're just some guy making shit up. There's a lot of real, physical stuff that has not been discovered or explained and I want you to focus your energy on that.

Heather: Scientific Curmudgeon.

(don't get me started on calculus, i got me some real brain problems with that).

I never thought I would ever find an art exhibit I would hate more than the looping videos that undergrads make and display in the gallery outside my office, but I have. A man saw fit to create the world's largest and loudest rain stick. It's a big contraption with levers and pulleys and loud noises (it's not nearly as large as I make it sound, but it is large). It's an interactive piece to be used with the world's largest piece of suspended sheet metal to be shaken for simulated thunder. It is so...LOUD...and people LOVE to play with this stuff all the time (ironically the person with both the world's loudest voice and world's loudest laugh is standing out there with them. How perfect). I believe this exhibit will be up for 6 or 8 weeks. Please, stop by and cause noise and make me hate you.

and lastly, we need to emphasize with the lovely lily that while all manner of crazy and insane people would be welcome to visit while she comes to visit me, we do very much need to keep the exception on 'batshit crazy'. This is so important, chica, so very very important. no batshit crazy people.

Photo to be updated soon, i missed last night for being asleep and dreaming wonderful dreams.

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September 28, 2005

1.2.3.4.5.

1. Big news about Lily!! Lily has made a big, foolish, impulse purchase!! Dang, girl! I think that's the sweetest impulse purchase I've ever had the honour of being part of. So, weekend of the 14th, if you have nothing better to do and you would like to ride the rollercoaster at the mall or eat rack of lamb or go to Cupcake (is Cupcake the 'it' place for me to take out of towners? I think so) or chill with the chica, stop on by (provided you're not batshit crazy or allergic to lamb).

2. Spent a couple days wondering if I was suffering from heat sickness and excess dust inhalation or if I was truly sick. Vote goes to sick, I think we're at 'cold' not 'flu' which usually bodes better for me, the queen of walking pneumonia.

3. So the boy makes me a cheese/salsa/chocolate chip quesadilla thingy the other day and most people would say 'eeeeeuw' and I've got just enough problems in my head to go 'damn! good! more!' (apparently, stuff like this makes me caveman-like). Now I want them all the time. I've got problems.

4. I am the last person on the planet to see 'The Office'. I am just now catching up on this pop-culture phenomenon. I got it off netflix and loved it, bought the series and the special. Just finished watching the special, and I know I must be pms-ing because I totally wanted to cry when Dawn came back to the party for Tim. I did not cry, but I did pet the dog. Petting the dog is a culturally accepted alternative to crying at the television. True.

5. The dogs will NOT settle down. I do not know what the deal is but my head hurts, my body hurts, my nose hurts and they won't stop moving.

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September 27, 2005

[H]

Sometimes the nicest gift you can get is the word 'HIPPO' incorporated into a piece of art work. Ethan gave me a piece of art that he created, it's a wonderful, beautiful piece. His work is so detailed, so full of tiny surprises. I get it home and start staring at it, looking for all the neat little messages, and there it is. 'HIPPO' on the fridge. You'll be able to see it in November.

Thank you, Ethan.

Also, thank you for an incredible, wonderful weekend.

First off, Rita was so scared of my hurricane ass-kicking technique that the could not even be bothered to show up in Austin. Most I got were a few bands of curved clouds, the very outer edge of the hurricane. Not enough to provide any relief from the sun, just enough to remind us that it exists.

Austin is insanely hot. Upper 90's over the weekend, 106 on Monday. It was like an oven. And so dry and dusty...I'm still coughing up mudballs.

But the shows!

Saturday:

* Death Cab for Cutie: Rocked in their seattle emo-nerd way.
* The Fiery Furnaces: Eh, not bad, but then I was passing out in the shade by the Starbucks stand. Man I never drink Frappuccinos but I totally had one then.
* Jet: Pointlessly fun. Completely forgettable but definitely a good time while you're there.
* Bloc Party: I was not convinced, people kept telling me to see them. Ethan brought me to see them. I was then convinced. I'm sorry I had not checked them out before.
* Oasis: Okay, seriously, why the fuck are these guys even alive? I am positive there is SOMETHING in the Geneva Accords about them. I have to disagree with Ethan here, they are not even a fun-to-watch-trainwreck kind of thing. Hey, Noel, why don't you shit another powerchord onto the stage because there obviously isn't enough crap festering at your feet with those lyrics you write. God, I really hate Oasis. Live Forever? Fuck you, just die. (yeah, that feels better)

Sunday:

* Arcade Fire: mmmmm French Canadian pop! Fun to listen to, moderately rock-outable, chief lyric is "woooooo-ooooooo-ooooo". I didn't know much going in, I'm not unimpressed, I'll probably catch more of them later.
* The Decemberists: For my money, the best goddamned show I saw. Period. I loved them anyway, then they get up there and make us squat down silently and later make us scream like we're being eaten by a whale!! Could you love them any more? NO! GOD, I LOVE NERD-ROCK MORE AND MORE EVERY DAY.
* Franz Ferdinand: Again, great fun! We watched them through a thick thick haze of Austin dust! I will forever equate them with bbq brisket sandwiches and my 8 millionth beer. Sorry guys, I was hungry and inhaling my food at the time.
* The Black Keys: We caught about half their set. Not bad, worth checking out again. The intense heat made it hard to hang out for long. We were exhausted. This leads us to...
* Tortoise: Don't know who they are, don't really care. They seemed to be some sort of chill percussion thing. Don't care. What I do care about is that I got to grab a lawn chair at 'The Beach' and completely pass out for a half hour. God, that was so nice. After 2 days, many hours in the intense heat and sun it was so nice to find relief after sunset. We relaxed, pulled it together, got some Ben and Jerry's and headed over to...
* Coldplay: I'm not a fan (sorry, Lily). Ethan determined they were U2 without the politics and Radiohead without the pain. Just not a fan. We caught a few songs and I will say this, I may not care for Coldplay but at least I could rock a little to the music. I could not even do that with Oasis. I couldn't do it with Oasis because they sucked so very very hard.

We got out of there, headed home to the AC and cool showers and relaxation.

Let's see, good food all weekend, good company, falling in love with Simon Pegg's hair in "Spaced", Katamari Damacy, Sonic, lots of coffee. And let me give a shout out to the inventors of the AeroBed!

WOOOOO

Tomorrow, big news about Lily!

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September 26, 2005

Why thank you

yes, i have returned. I have not had time to call anyone or return emails. This is my blanket "I'm home!"

I had a wonderful time, I saw many many great shows, drank many many beers and got to see ethan.

I'll write more in detail later. Right now I am eating the chocolate/cheese/spicy quesadilla that Davidu-san has made for me. I missed him.

I will tell you this...when you do bad things your karma punishes you in terrible terrible ways. Not only will you miss Mike Doughty, but you will also have to endure Oasis. It's like a one-two punch to the gut. You take this lesson and you learn from it.

Later chochos

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September 23, 2005

RE: your calls and letters

Thank you for your calls and emails. Yes, I am actually going to Texas during a Hurricane. Texas is a big state full of gun wielding maniacs who drive big trucks and drink a lot of beer. That hurricane does not stand a chance.

Well, except Texas isn't really like that and I'll be in Austin which isn't really Texas anyway. I will be far enough west of the storm that the most we will get is some rain.

last night David and I went out to dinner. When did they remodel Me Gusta? It used to be 2 degrees better than a dive and it was not uncommon to find a cockroach on the all. Now the place is beautiful. They've expanded it, turned it into a plaza with little shops around it. Of course my favorite shop is the "Frida Beauty Shop" prominently featuring Frida Kahlo. aaah irony, blow a gentle wind my way.

Okay, I need to finish packing, I need to get some coffee into this poor battered body, I need to get on my plane and go. I wil try to update as I can, but if I don't I will see you chochobos next week.

out

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 21, 2005

yaaaarrrrrnnnnnnnnggggggggg

Tornado sirens going off, ugly clouds rolling my way, mmmm death from above! Not talking about texas, I'm talking about here, minneapolis, now.

But I am not afraid! No way! Piddly minnesota storms don;t scare me! I'm heading down to Texas! Texas is looking to host the 3rd most intense hurricane ever. Katrina was bad, Rita is looking to make Katrine her bitch. What the fuck. It seems the sky is looking to call me out, but the sky don't realize that I'm going to bust her nuts down to the ground.

Hey! Sky! Bring it on you pansy bitch!!!

Sigh, what else...

Poor Anna, she had to bring her pet rat in to be put to sleep today. I'm sorry, darling.

I cannot use paypal without resetting my password. I never know my password. Dammit.

God, it's a good thing I'm not trying to get people to support me with this website, there are sitcoms on UPN that are more interesting and make more sense. I need some dinner, I need to get my stuff together for my trip.

xoxo

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September 20, 2005

It's all new

Curry is the new stir fry! Tonight's offering is a potato, chick pea and spinach curry on basmati. Not bad, not fancy but solid and good.

a conversation:
him: hey dub
me: (shoveling food in my mouth) hi
him: how are you?
me: (glop of spinach hanging from my mouth) unattractive!
him: WHAT?!
me: buuuuuuuurp

So, my head's all over the place today and I guess this post will be as well.

So, Saturday I get to do my best Captain Dan impersonation standing in the middle of Zilker Park while the eye of Hurricane Rita passes somewhere near Austin! Of course, at that point inland we're just talking rain and wind, it won't be a hurricane anymore. Still though, I'm looking forward to challenging the sky and knocking that hurricane down to the ground.

Today's mail held nothing to excite or incite today. No fabulous mexican candy, no bills to ignore, nothing to take out back and burn.

So, Ben and Jerry's sent operatives to my house to split my head open, spy on me and make the perfect flavor for me. Amazing.

Okay, I wish I didn't know so many people in California. I've gotten so many invites! I want to go but I know there is no way I could see everyone in one trip. Sigh. California needs to be smaller. Way smaller.

my dogs rule, but you knew that.

Okay, not as much to write about as I thought. Common decency prevents me from writing about most of the things in my head and the Geneva convention covers the rest.

Today is Tuesday, Friday I fly away!

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 19, 2005

mizzenmast

yahoy my mateys! Okay, I love getting mail! The mail brings happiness! Today the mail brought a big box bursting full of mexican candy! It was crazy! It was a very lovely housewarming present from LILY!!! It's very exciting. Also, it's ver very very tart and spicy and salty. Not quite what Americans would equate with candy, but unique and good. I even got Mexican KoolAid!

What will the mail bring tomorrow? Hopefully something as good as this or I am burning it.

New feature on the side. Daily photo, completely not archived. Ephemeral. Transient. Here one day and then gone. I could not get MovableType to work so I did this the hard way. Though, honestly, doing that took me all of 30 minutes, installing MT has taken me more than a week, and I have gotten nowhere but frustrated. So now I get to pretend that not archiving the photos is a philosophical thing, I'm celebrating the impermanence of the universe, instead of admiting the reality which is that I don't have access to a PC with Microsoft Access on it and I don't feel like making new tables in my database and making new pages and whatnot. This works for now.

Mostly daily updates on the photos, but I make no promises.

I am heading down to Texas on Friday. I am hugely excited about this trip. Many many photos and stories I am sure.

My weekend? hmmmm....
I already wrote about friday and my fabulous quiet walk. Saturday...I did nothing. Nothing. Seriously. I got up, I made my coffee, I sat on the sofa, I took a nap, I showered a couple times, I edited and posted photos from the party, I did nothing.

Went to Balls, but that was at midnight, so technically that was sunday.

Sunday morning we went to the Danish American center and had the all you can eat Danish breakfast! abelskiver, pancakes, sausage, coffee, orange juice and Danish love! So, for whatever reason, I totally thought that abelskiver was a puff pancake with apples in it, not unlike a pannakoeken. i was wrong! An abelskiver is like a pancake ball! It's way good. Cut them onpen, add butter and strawberry jam and you are one happy bubbo!

After that we went to the Twins game with Alan. I like baseball well enough, but mostly I like beer and hot dogs and peanuts and lord knows what else. The Twins lost, I had a great time, then I got home.

Something I ate at the ball park freaked my belly out and I spent the rest of the day sick. Sad.

ah well, such is life.

I need to clean and do laundry and get everything together for my trip. Hula!

chochobo out!

.:

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September 17, 2005

Finally party pictures







Finally, pictures from the party! Sorry about the delay, but no matter, here we go!
First off, an homage to my insanity. When I am planning a party the most important thing is the NOTEBOOK. After the notebook comes the post it notes. Many people have discussed the fabled and insane post it notes...essentially, I take the list of every thing I am making, I pull out a platter or bowl or tray or whatever for each dish and write the names on post it notes and label the serving dishes. This keeps me sane. This ensures a smooth transition of food to table.
Alex was supposed to arrive on Friday along with most of my other out of town guests but Hurricane Katrina decided to test her strength on Miami. How ironic were my rantings about Katrina on the Thursday before it hit the gulf coast. Alex is determined, Alex is goal oriented, Alex managed to make it to my party! He got in on Saturday afternoon, mere hours before the shindig was to begin. Here he is with Ghengis. The G-dawg loved him, but Alex was not so keen on the frosty reception Maddie gave him. Don't take it personally, Alex, Maddie growls at almost everyone.
This is Jessi, (and me with cheap liquor). Jessi is a wunderkind of extraordinary talent. First off, she's the talent that designed my fantastic invitations for this party. I love those invitations, just love them. They could not have been more wonderful or perfect. Then, because she is truly amazing, she takes time out of her busy Saturday to come over and help me set up the party. Last, but not least, she handmade the lovely luminaria we had in the front yard. Each one unique, each one beautiful. I honestly cannot say enough nice things about her. She is a true lifesaver.
Tuan drove up from Chicago on Saturday and had the misfortune of arriving early enough to be put to work. Sorry Tuan. I was in the kitchen when this picture was taken. I'm not sure what's going on but I found no blood on the carpet, so i imagine everything turned out okay.
The party revs up and we catch up with the Betsy half of Jetsy choking on a piece of sushi! The deaths at my parties are fairly minimal, I'm glad to say that Betsy survived! Good thing too, we love Betsy and not just because she has the cutest dog ever!!!
Anyone who knows me knows how I love to throw parties. I love to do it because I have such a wide range of friends from so many arenas and throwing a huge party is the best way for all of my friends to get together and meet one another. Here we see Dena, Alex and Julie getting to know each other. Dena is the wife of one of my coworkers, Julie is a friend from Montreal and we all know Alex from Miami. All three of them post to my website and knew of each other from there. The beauty was being able to brong them all together so that they could meet for real.
Veggie plate with dhal dip and spicy mustard dip, dolmades with tzatziki, croissants stuffed with spinach, feta, and dill or curried veggies or artichoke/ricotta, crostini with apricots and queso de cabra, spiced maple pecan salmon with lemon cream, tomato/basil/caper bruschetta, veggie sushi, chips and guacamole, bulgogi wraps! Sadly, Julie's delectable desserts are not pictured, stuffed strawberries, maple cake, raspberry squares, chocolate hurricanes. Also not pictured, the giant cheese plate and relish tray. I was so busy for most of the night I barely had time to try the food and missed out on a few things, but let me tell you, once the party calmed to a dull roar i laid into the Brillat-Savarin brie like a pig on slop!
Levi gives my party a great big thumbs up!!! Go me!
Aaah Meggers! Cutest girl on the planet! She flew in from Seattle and was such a trooper, I put her to work and there was nothing she could not do. So fun to party with. I'm sad she lies so far away.
From left to right, David's sister, Mary Alice, Julie's husband, Ryan, and David's sister, Julie. Ryan and Julie were amazing and offered to roll sushi for me when they go there since I was running behind (naturally I was running behind! food and fun for 40 people! I was amazed I accomplished anything at all). These three are absolutely great fun and I am so glad to have them in my life. (also today is Mary Alice's birthday!!!! Happy birthday, Mary Alice).
Jen and Eric! She's the payroll wizard at MCAD and he's her husband and the two of them are so sweet and so much fun. Jen is really one of my favorite people. Smart, no nonsense, tell it like it is and up for anything.
Two more people from out of town getting to know each other. Julie (montreal) and Tuan (chicago) finally meeting in person and talking.
April and Keith finally show up! HUZZAH!!!! I love my sister and her boyfriend, you would do well to party with them. Invite them to your next party but keep in mind that Keith has volume control issues once he's been drinking! Have I mentioned that they own a hedgehog! They do and I would link to a picture but they have yet to post a picture of the cute little thing!
Party's going full blast and of course I notice that my boyfriend's shirt has Wiener on it. What can I say, this party was to celebrate the many new things in my life and he was one of those things. I think I'll keep around a bit, Wiener covered shirt or not.
The party winds down. Ghengis was the consummate host. Final head count put us at 37 people, no food or liquor left! It as a wonderful night and I can't thank my friends enough for participating.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

hippo moon

Last night, about 10:30 or so, David and I decided to go for a bit of a walk. The moon was almost full but so very bright. We went down to Minnehaha Creek and made our way in the moonlight down the path and along the creek. You forget that something so beautiful and natural can exist in the middle of the city.

As you go along, hand in hand, listening to the creek burble and the crickets spasming and you get lost in your head you suddenly find yourself confronted with a burger king and a lightrail train and actual urban life. So weird to go from one to the other.

We explored a little more and slowly made our way home, much to the delight of the dogs.

Lovely.

I almost have my pictures ready from the party. I'm still waiting to hear back from someone who is supposed to be sending me pictures....julie....read your email...

I've had too much coffee already...too much coffee...too much coffee....

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 16, 2005

Sus pedos olian a repollo.

In one week exactly I get on an airplane and fly to Texas. Excited? Oh yes. Excited. Chicken fried steak of the gods, lots of beer, lots of music, spending time with Ethan and Sara! Going to make sure I get more pictures this time, too.

So... David's a smart guy and I give good clues and he did a little research and figured out where we were going at the end of October. Here's the deal, I'm all about fun! I'm all about excitement! I'm all about about celebrating important milestones in the presence of GOATS!!!

Yeah, that's right, I booked a romantic weekend for 2 at a goat farm! Let that sink in for a minute...goat...farm. aaaaaaaw yeah! The goat farm has a guest house that you get all to yourself, the kitchen is stocked with food, you make your own breakfast so you don't have to get up with everyone else on someone else's schedule. You can play with the goats, learn to make cheese, hang out on the grounds, walk the labyrinth. You can also head out and go hiking at all the parks in the area! If it were warmer I would suggest canoeing, but the end of October is pretty chilly.

I am so so so very excited about this! Nothing says true romance like a smelly ungulate!

Okay, also, I just went to Google to find out if a goat was actually an ungulate and I ended up at Google Scholar!! Which is completely new to me, and that led me to this. I love the internet! From all the things on the internet that you can learn down to all the fucking crazies on the internet, I love it.

I love that today on the internet someone suggested that schools should publish their own textbooks in order to save money. Yes, teachers should add to their work load by also creating the textbooks that will be used and schools should have these printed up. Because somehow it's cheaper to print up a limited run of books than it is to go to a company that can print up say, half a million at a time and sell them in bulk.

Of course his other scheme was to may more experienced teachers less as they did not have to work as hard, and the flip side being that we would pay less experienced teachers more because they had to work harder to figure shit out.

I suspect his meds ran out sometime last week and the demons have taken over once again.

Goodness, it's a lovely day out! I should not be here. I should be at home doing lovely day related things!

This weekend is Danish breakfast at the Danish American Fellowship (how cool is that? cooler than you think). They'll be serving abelskiver among other things. I used to have a running joke about abelskiver with someone but for the life of me, I can't remember the basis of the joke or who I had it with.

If you or anyone you know has any information about a long running abelskiver-related inside joke with me, please contact me!

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 15, 2005

just trust

When you have jarred mol� and the instructions say "mix 4 parts water with one part mol�" trust the damned instructions!!! Don't mix the sauce and the water together and think "this is too dmaned thin!" or go ahead and think that, I'm not the boss of your thoughts. Whatever you do, don't double the amount of sauce! It thickens as it cooks! It heats up and gets thicker. THICKER. Too thick and strong and you will end up adding that much more water.

On the other hand you will end up with 8 million buttload of mol� which tastes great on everything. Also, make more tofu than you think you need since you will end up with all this sauce. The sauce is delicious and you want to eat it on everything and you wonder what it would be like on ice cream. I'm a total mol� whore. I'm gonna go buy me an abuelita to make me wonderful mol� all day every day.

Let's see...what else...
I love love love love the tech support at MovableType! I really really do. I am being assured every step of the way that I am not functionally retarded and that it is not necessary for me to beat anyone or anything with a sledgehammer! She defines the problem, tells em what needs to be done and then summarizes everything into exactly what I need to ask my host's useless tech guys. Amazing. I should send them cheesecake and tequila!

A week to Texas! WOOOOOO!

I absolutely need to stop watching all the videos of the animals being saved and in danger in New Orleans. I am forced to picture Ghengis or Maddie in these situations and it kills me. I imagine Ghengis when he gets sad and he lays down and puts his nose between his paws and watches the room using only his eyebrows. Maddie is so loving and trusting it would kill her to think I abandoned her. I don't want to think about those poor, sad, confused dogs and cats with no good way to survive and no good way to understand what's going on.

but let's not talk about things excessively depressing...

Dammit, i wish I didn't make my anniversary weekend with David a secret because I want to ramble on about it. I want to tell you all about it and say "dating me is an adventure" and you will agree! Okay, I will continue to give him clues and when he figures it out I will share it with the world.

today...it's an amazingly good day!

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September 14, 2005

Hoping that I see you on the Street

it's your kind of day

as you can see, nothing has been resolved yet with my MovableType issues but I am seriously considering getting a new host. EasyASPHosting has been good to me up to this point, reasonably priced, consistent service and all that. There comes a time, though, when you have to be willing to pay more to get service that goes beyond someone in another country getting paid less than minimum wage with a goal of closing every help ticket that comes his way with no actual urge to help.

I will pay more to have my site hosted at a place that is willing to pay to have actual, real tech support, not jokey clown car tech support.

I've saved all of the emails between me, blake, jared, brendan, gilbert and the newly added 'rey', someday I will find the strength to post them.

I had one of those perfect pms music trifectas this morning with sad songs making my voice crack as I sang them. I'm such a girl.

Today we had Jessi's birthday cake party. Go Jessi! Sunday I take Alan to a Twins game for his birthday, Go Alan!

Tonight for dinner it's tofu mol� with veggies and rice. I'm using a jarred mol� sauce, sigh, I feel shame. I want to make it but my mol� sauce takes all day and lots of tweaking and adjusting. Sauce from a jar takes minutes and if it does not taste good we can blame the jar. Easy!

David is off teaching a guitar lesson, hopefully i will mostly get dinner done by the time he gets here. I'm not so domestic as I used to be, mostly ut of laziness, but I have my moments.

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September 13, 2005

There's a first time for everything

Today I had some firsts...

1) I voted in my first primary. I've never voted in a primary before, i'm still not even sure of the point of the primary but I looked up the candidates and we wandered over and voted. I even abstained from voting on the categories that I didn't know (except for Ted Cabana, I totally voted for him. How could I not?).
1a) I vouched for david as he did not have the new address on his license. I did not have my new license but I had a gas bill. I had to sign a paper saying that David was legit. I had to sign an oath. Neat.
2) I drank tamarind soda! It was good!
3) I saw a squirrel poop!!! (see entry below) It finally happened, pretty much all of my dreams have been realized.

yeah, okay, only 3 new things, but still!!!!

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

jibblies

Plans are in place for the last weekend in October. YAY. I would tell you about them but i don't trust that you won't tell David. I know you! You're crazy! You'd totally email my boyfriend and tell him.

I'll give you hints...cheese...labyrinth...bucolic...

David and I watched 'Straw Dogs' last night. I spent a good couple hours chewing on it in my head and I decided that I really really disliked it. It was gratuitous, excessively so. Not a single character was believable, the motivations were completely disingenuous. Not a single person in the movie was not a complete asshole. Every character was comprised of one out of tune note.

It was gratuitous, unnecessarily so.

Happy birthday yesterday to Alan!!!!!!

Happy Birthday today to Jessi!!!!

What is it with all you damned Virgos!!!

For some reason I thought i had 2 weeks to go before I went to Texas! I was so so wrong. I have 10 days. So I had to book my hair appointment and the best available option was next Thursday, the night before I leave. Dammit. Can not wait for this trip. It will be 1000 hectares of fun.

Man, the weather here sucks!

last night there was a spider on me. Today there was a spider on my iPod. Asshole spiders!!!

Why does someone need more than one iPod? They're all very small, the regular sized version is a small device, the smaller ones are just smaller. Are someone's iPod needs so disperate and specific that you would need more than one size? I don't get it. I have all these friends with iPods who went out and got every iteration of the iPod because it was new or smaller or whatever. I can see getting the larger capacity ones, but beyond that...i don't know.

And i'm the queen of useless money spending!

WOW!!!! Sometimes it DOES happen right outside your office window. Amazing.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 12, 2005

I doubt at the installation part of you

~'Gilbert'

Urge to fly to India and punch cheap, second rate tech support rising...Urge to go to the MovableType offices and offer up cheesecake and tequila also rising.

Urge to chain smoke also rising.

Renewed my driver's license today. Afer sitting there for 30 minutes I've decided this: If you are too old or addled or whatever to negotiate the system at the DMV then you can not drive. I know the DMV is harder than anything you will ever have to negotiate, but still, I need to know that the other people on the road are at least as semi-skilled as I am. You go to the desk, you tell the lady what you want, she gives you the appropriate form and a number, they call your number and tell you what counter to go to. There's no need for aimless wandering, staring at empty counter space or weeping.

If you cannot get your license renewed without drooling, I don't want you merging with me. Go away.


This is a 9.25 pound sugar beet.

I'm off to get cancer.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 11, 2005

jackasses

Ghengis lays half across my laps and growls manacingly at every noise he hears. Maddie responds by getting up from her nest, walking to me, staring at me intently and then burping in my face.

assholes.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

Just keep swimming

Woke up this morning and found that 'Jared' had passed my tech support question along to 'Brendan'. 'Brendan' pretty much told me what 'Blake' and 'Jared' had been telling me, which was that all the modules were installed correctly. Then he asked me if there were any sort of permissions or settings on their end that should be looked at.

Great good god this is what I have been askign you about since the beginning of time. I once again sent him the list of settings and permissions.

Then I went to breakfast with Alan and David over at Maria's Colombian Cafe. I had the corn pancake, so damned good.

Upon returning home I found that my issue had been passed from 'Brendan' to 'Gilbert'. I love 'Gilbert', I want to marry him. He answered my question, he made the right adjustments AND he found where the problem was in the cgi script so that I could go to MovableType and show them the trouble.

The little green crayfish I wone at the fair...totally named 'Gilbert' now.

After 'Gilbert' and the joy, we had a doggie playdate! Ghengis and Maddie met Bela and Milo over at the dog park. Milo is Ghengis' new best friend, he's also the cutest little puppy! 4 months old, pit bull and shar pei mix (they aren't positive about the shar pei but I am!!). So lovely, so cute and puppy-ish.

The dogs romped and played and wore themselves out. Nine hours later, Ghengis is still pretty much passed out next to me. Either he's passed out or he's pretending to not watch the scary movie. Sigh, my dog's a wimp. Kidding, my dog rules.

This afternoon was all about productivity. Dishes and laundry and making a nutritious and delicious dinner. Sadly, it meant I missed out on going to Hong Kong Noodle, but they asked me to go after I ate.

This is a picture of me with the Ignatius Reilly statue on Canal Street near the Aquarium in New Orleans. I wonder if the statue is still there. We stumbled upon it unexpectedly, I knew there was a statue of him somewhere in NO but I did not know where it was. You can imagine how excited I was to find it. That whole day was one of my favorites during my visit. David and I spent the day at the aquarium studying every fish in there, I think he is the only person I know who spends more time at each exhibit than I do. Afterwards, we discovered the statue, found the car, spent too long finding a Whole Foods (we found the one on Magazine street; I saw that one recently on a CNN report and it made my heart hurt for how many good memories I have). We were buying ingredients for the rack of lamb dinner we were making for his parents that night. $140 later we were ready. We worked together, made a wonderful dinner and his parents really enjoyed it.

The next day I flew home. David walked me into the terminal and stood waiting until I got past security. I'll always remember him standing there and how sad I was to be leaving him.

So that's just a tiny sliver of my favorite New Orleans memories, there's also the zoo, buying boiled peanuts on the side of the road from an old lady across the border in Mississippi, shopping at the French Market, Beignets, coffee and cigarettes and coffee and cigarettes and coffee and cigarettes and...

The dryer buzzes and the clean sheets beg to be brought up.

And the ice cream begs to be eaten.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 10, 2005

Just a thought

If you're going to outsource your tech support help to India you might want to contract to a company that bans it's employees from using the word 'Kindly'. Seriously, it's the HUGEST tipoff that you're a cheap-ass company that outsources your tech support to India. Also, it would be nice to get something other than the same exact answer 8 times from 2 different tech guys. Yes, I'm aware that you have the correct services installed on the server, what I'm asking you goes beyond that.

As you can see, the mighty changes here at velvet-c are not going as well as planned and if I had not recently paid for an entire year of hosting I'd consider moving to a different host, not because I am unhappy with the host or its services (though I am unhappy with 'jared' and 'blake' and their boilerplate tech support style), but moatly because what I want to do works better on any other server but microsoft.

I've got nothing specifically against microsoft as a whole. I prefer macs over pc's but 80% of that is aesthetics. This here website uses microsoft servers and asp and happily thrives. Unfortunately it is also stunted.

There is much more that I want to do with my site including categorize the posts and make a daily photoblog (I have to do something with the 4100 pictures sitting in iPhoto and I am sure I have mentioned my rabid dislike of Flickr somewhere on here). My skills are limited, there's really only so much I can do. Me ex built this site for me (I made the first, very ugly, very awkward iteration of this site. It lasted about 2 days) she did it before applications like MovableType and WordPress were available.

Now, instead of beating myself up trying to figure out how to add the functions that I want I am going to TRY to migrate over to something that has everything I want and more. There's no sense in reinventing the wheel and no one has ever accused me of being an overachiever.

The problem is that I can't get it to install. At the point where I need to log in to get the ball rolling, I get an error. Every bit of research that Alex and I did today turns up the sorts of answers, IIS has issues, fix IIS.

Since this isn't my server, I must go to tech support and they tell me they have all the modules installed correctly and I tell them I'm very happy and very aware that the modules and whatnot are installed correctly but could they please just answer the actual question I am asking.

Damn, I just went off on 'Jared' and asked if he was in India and if he was then perhaps I should wait until Monday when I could talk to someone who actually worked with the servers.

Whatever. I just contacted MovableType's tech support to see if they had any suggestions. I'm moving out of that realm of pirated software and lack of tech support and into that all too grown up world of paying for things and getting services in return (I even buy music off iTunes! Go me!).

In other news...
had a cubano sandwich today from Manny's Tortas. It was wonderful, totally brought back memories of trips to Florida. Not quite as good as the ones I've gotten down there (one from St Petersburg was particularly nice), but still very good.

Finally did some grocery shopping. We hadn't done any real stock the pantry type grocery shopping in about 5 weeks or more. it was time.

Also, weird stuff keeps showing up in my comments, for the life of me I can't figure out why it's happening. Generally, I just ignore it, it doesn't affect the way anything works, occasionally they get in my way and I have to make them disappear. Not quite comment spam, but close.

And here are some state fair photos. It's not all of them but it's more than none.


Me eating a pronto pup.


The Mighty Midway

There's more, someday you'll see the 9 pound sugar beet or the smothered fries or the Magnum PI ride...

Breakfast at Maria's Colombian Cafe tomorrow morning!

UPDATE:Tech support just sent me a link to a microsoft knowledge base article about my problem. This would seem to be the answer to my issue except the solution offered up to me by microsoft was to contact my server administrator. I emailed 'Jared' back and asked asked who my server administrator would be...

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 9, 2005

yum

When dinosaur pancakes battle, your belly wins

[CHOMP!!! CHOMP!!!]

I win, Mark loses.

I will be making some huge changes around here this weekend. Hopefully the whole place won't fall apart. Wish me luck!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LILY
Happy birthday you happy, lovely doll!

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 8, 2005

HESH WANTS SEX

I miss Sealab 2021. I miss Hesh. Remember when Hesh was dressed up like a geisha? good times.

My brain is slow tonight. Can't make the words work. It's hot in here too. It's always warmer inside than it is outside. I need a fan.

I got an invite to Montreal. I want to go and see the dinosaurs but I have to go before halloween. Halloween weekend I've special plans. I wonder if I could do it. hmmmmmm.

All depends on my NYC trip...someone needs to confirm or disconfirm the trip!

Ghengis has two more playdates! Saturday and Sunday. Crazy dog lady on the loose.

Also, I forgot to call my dad back. Sorry dad, it's been one of those days.

Ghengis and Maddie went to the library today. David's trying to culture them or something. They need it.

Yeah, I got nothing here. I was going to make cookies and did not. I mostly just talked to friends tonight.

and changed email apps

and installed a flash blocker.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 7, 2005

Playdate redux

Playdate went swimmingly. Ghengis got his ass kicked all over that yard (but not in a bad way! Just in a "wear him out and give me a break" way). Mary's new dog is so sweet, or at least for the few seconds he wasn't jumping all over my dog!

We'll have to do this more often. We have the dog park and all but this also gives me the chance to just chill with people too.

Next time I am bringing beer.

OOOH! So I forgot to tell you about the freaky guy at the fair the other day! Just as we get in and we're looking for the cheese curds we happen by the MPR booth. They're giving away one of those Honda GoodEarthMobiles or whatever they're called. David goes to sign up for the drawing and I wander away to study the map and look for cheese curds. A guy bounds up to me...
guy: blergghlyttterrrgllllgurg!!!!
me: what?
guy: blerrrrgghghgSTATION?!!!??
me: WHAT?
guy: are you promoting the station????
me: what?
guy: are you promoting the station here? is that why your hair is blue?
me: no...
guy: I figured with your hair and you're standing outside the MPR booth you were working for the station
me: no...i...
guy: how many times have you been to the fair this year? do you just love the fair? do you know anyone from the station? I know this dj and he's sure he knows me I'm in a band but we met and he was all 'you're right i don't know you' do you want a beer?
me: no...i...
guy: do you want 80 beers? I so glad to have met you here!!
me: no....i...nice to meet you
From here I'm desperate for David to finish filling out his form so I can have a gracious exit to this bizarre situation. Before my boyfriend shows up, we are visited by his girlfriend! What the hell. His demeanor changes, David shows up and I have my exit.

What. The. Hell.

Crazy people.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

An army of 2...jackasses

The dogs playfight all the time and I watch them and I watch how their strategies change. Ghengis has always been a bit of a dirty fighter but Maddie is bigger and stronger. He never gives up, though, even when Maddie has him by the neck and he's pinned to the floor and she holds him there forever. The second she lets up he's bounding at her for more. Crazy dogs.

Maddie's seperation anxiety is easing up but the bark monitor and the pheromones are still needed to keep her in the zone.

I need to get the dogs microchipped this week. There is no way to express the distress I feel in my gut watching those poor abandoned animals in New Orleans and the surrounding area. I look at my two members of the dork patrol and I know it would kill me to ever have to leave them behind in a situation like that. If it ever does happen, I have to think that having them microchipped will help a little in getting them back.

In other, boring, dog related news, Ghengis has a play date tonight. I am the queen of getting people at work to adopt dogs from Petfinder and tonight Ghengis gets to go meet Mary's dog, Fletch. Excitement central. Some people make playdates with their kids, freaky dog ladies make play dates with their dogs.

I'm crazy. You knew that, though, didn't you.

I'm in the mood for salmon. I'll have to get some, grill it up.

Also, have a great idea for the last weekend in October! Exciting? Yes! but don't tell David, it's a secret.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 6, 2005

cookies galore

So I spent the day doing lots of things I hated but also some fun things. woo. or something.

So the fair...we did the fair yesterday.

The plan was to go on Sunday, but i managed to get myself sick so I was ordered to stay in on Sunday and eat some healthy food and get better. Monday I got up and felt better and got ready and quietly poke poke poked David to get up and go to the fair! He was such a trooper! I know he was not so keen on going but he went anyway and made sure I had a wonderful time!

We got there and our first mission was cheese curds. We had to find them!! I took it upon myself to make sure that he had a good time at the fair. About twenty minutes into it he grabbed my hand and told me to stop being so tense and to relax.

So I did. And we found the fried pickles! Amazing. I miss fried pickles. I've only had them a couple times, they're so weird and good. I'm going to start making them at home (and serving them with something more interesting than ranch dressing). My other mission was getting a pronto pup, not a corn dog, oh no! A pronto pup is 42.3 times better than a corn dog (bet you didn't even know there was a difference. well, there is!).

So! We ended up eating fried pickles, a pronto pup (me, not him), cheese curds, beer, fries smothered with cheese, jalepe�os, sour cream and hot sauce, cotton candy, orange soda, veggie fajita (him, not me) and a giant bucket of cookies! Blergh!

Labor day was the last day for the fair so most of the animals had already gone home or to the slaughter or whatever they do with them. The goats were still there so I got to play with some goats and a baby goat sucked on my finger. I lvoed it so much I totally wanted to bring it home and let it play with my dogs.

We hit the midway, played a few games, I got to shoot a crossbow! Shooting a crossbow, kind of exciting. We went in the fun house, and on the ferris wheel and on the twisty coaster thing and we went down the giant slide. They even let us go down together on the slide!

We sat for a while and listened to the whitest band in America play the grandstand. ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you, the absolute whitest band in america. Let's hear it for Switchfoot!!! Whoever the fuck they are.

Then a man sneered at my cookies!! This old guy, total classic nothern minnesota old guy with his non-ironic trucker cap advertising "B.P.O.E LOCAL 149" and his plaid shirt walked buy me, saw my bucket of cookies, looked at me and David, looked at the cookies and sneered. Who sneers at cookies? He was so close to me and stared at my cookies for so long I almost impulsively offered some up to him. How can you go to the fair and never see the buckets of cookies? The bucket of cookies is not so rare? everyone gets them! They're a fair tradition! Look, buddy, you don't like the cookies, that's fine, you don't have to but why SNEER at the cookies! What did the cookies ever do to you??

Sigh.

Blue hair was definitely a hit, many people came up to tell me they liked the blue hair. Cool. There was a booth at the fair that was airbrushing cool colors onto people's hair. The guy operating the Sky Ride had his hair in two giant blue spikes with silver stars stenciled on. We loved each other. Also, I had David take a picture of me on the Sky Ride (the one with the little buckety cars that go across the fairground high above on a cable) and the look on my face is one of swallowed fear. I'll get over my fear of heights soon.

Also got to watch the fireworks. so nice.

Did I mention how much David rocks? Not only did he go to the fair with me but he went and did all kinds of things to make sure I had a wonderful time. Ot was the most perfect date day I have had in a while. I can't thank him enough for the fun.

Now I'm off to eat more of the cookies (you didn't think we'd eat a whole bucket in one night, did you?) and relax my little head.

Goodnight people

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 5, 2005

Sometimes

Sometimes you eat too much weird stuff on saturday and one of those things might be a steamed pork bun from the vietnamese place and sometimes you ake up on sunday with a sick belly.

And your boyfriend makes you stay home from the fair and drink juice and eat healthy things and all you want to do is go to the fair!!!

oh well.

Sometimes you sit here on labor day and wait for your boyfriend to get ready so you can indulge in the State Fair!!!!

HURRY UP CHOLOBOLO!!!

We sat and watched 'Oldboy' last night. I liked it a lot but David was not so keen on it. (holy crap, the dog is laying in the sun, passed out on his side. Next to him he has lined up his squeaky shoe, his chewy fist, his rawhide roll and the last nubbin from his orange nylabone. God I wish my camera was not next to him! I need this picture). Anyway, Oldboy was disturbing and probably more stylized than it needed to be but I liked the story and the mystery and all that.

Also, it made me want t eat mandu in the worst way.

Okay, i'm hungry and bored. FAIR TIME

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 4, 2005

cosine

So how do I juxtapose my very lazy saturday morning on my very busy saturday night. Some sort of equation is in the works, but I can't do it. I'm math retarded. mathtarded if you will.

David's sister Julie turned 30 this week and tonight her husband invited Mary Alice, Matt, David and I to a round of appetizers on Nicollet Ave. We started at Christo's and ate too much and then went to Quang's and ate too much (jesus, appetizers! too much) then over to Sebastian Joe's (not on Nicollet, but still good good ice cream) for dessert. I had the mint chip of course (mint chip is the king of ice creams you know). We chatted for a long time and observed the most giant spider in north america rebuilding her web after the storms blew it apart this afternoon. It was fascinating to watch, she was so quick and efficient. She really was big, too. Not the kind of spider you can just kill if it shows up in your house, more the kind of spider where you throw your dog at her as a distraction before you run out the door never to return.

I adore spiders in nature (or on the exterior of urban hipster ice cream shops), but never in my house.

After eating so much and revelling in Julie's birthday (god I love birthdays! I love celebrating birthdays with people. I love it more than celebrating holidays. A birthday is like a singular holiday bestowed on each person, you get to spend this time celebrating that person. It's lovely. Of course, I'm the queen of celebrating my own birthday as evidenced this past June where I had birthday celebrations in one form or another for 4 nights in a row) we said a fond goodnight to Julie and Ryan and then Mary Alice, Matt, David and I went over to the Lagoon to see The Aristocrats.

I'm sorry I waited so long to see that movie. Fucking hysterical in the worst way. So horrid, so wrong, so vile and inappropriate and yet so very very right. Go see it just to see Gilbert Gottfried talking about the longshoreman's arm.

After the movie we bade goodnight to Mary Alice and Matt and headed over to Balls Cabaret for what ended up being a nice, light performance. Nothing too drastic or out of the ordinary, nothing over the top. Couple of new people, couple of old people and a lesson in trigonometry (if somebody could explain to my why in the 'unit circle' we denote 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees points but we skip 15 and 75. if you skip 15 and 75 then things are uneven. Watching this lesson in trigonometry brought back memories of high school math classes and what a miserable failure I was at them, partially because I was mathtarded but also because there is a certain mindset or way of viewing these mathematical situations that just eludes me. There's a certain, specific logic in math that I just can not grasp. I know it should not be hard, I can easily grasp rules and methods and follow directions, but I always get stuck focusing on the wrong aspects of things and that kills my math ability).

I'm home now, my belly is all oogly, i've spent the day gnawing on these chocolate bricks I got as a gift from Tuan when he came to my party, then I ate too many appetizers, then I had ice cream, then I had a diet coke, then I had more candy, then I had a cigarette. Now my body is telling me that I better eat the green beans in the fridge tomorrow or most of my major organs are going to evacuate and go live in another body.

If anyone wants a back up liver, one slightly used, mostly okay liver, I've got one looking for a new home.

Anybody wanna come wash my dishes? I'll give you $12 and a carton of black cherry yogurt.

and, related to nothing, if Marshall makes it up here this week and we are still wallowing in our cool weather, I'm totally making my shredded pot roast in gravy on mashed potatoes! I'm itching for comfort food and I have all these chuck roasts in my freezer that need to be eaten and I can't eat a whole chuck roast on my own. I could also make chili, I've revamped my recipe so it is not so concentratedly meaty but that means that I end up with HUGE amounts of chili when I am done (huge amounts of very very good chili, i might add).

and related to cooking...I would really like to make my chicken mol� again. I made it once, I started to follow Rick Bayless' recipe, but part way through I felt his was missing a lot of ingredients (like cocoa and ground peanuts) so I retweaked it and the result was phenomenal (in my mind, at least). I'm a mol� whore!

Speaking of mol� (god, how long can this post get?) David took me to Mercado Central for dinner Friday night. Mercado Central houses a number of latino food counters and little shops. I dined on pupusas and chicken mol� for dinner. The mol� there was wonderful. Very deep and flavorful. I went to get a drink at a juice place there and navigation was hard. I only know a little spanish and what little spanish I can deal with is written down and it is quiet and I can read the words and break them down to their roots and figure them out. David can converse with the merchants in spanish, he can order our food for us and answer questions and whatnot. I went off in search 'licuado' (i think that's the word, it's like a smoothie sort of). Anyway, the place I went to (David stayed at the table, this was like my adventure) had nothing in english. The girl behind the counter spoke no english at all. She gave me a menu which was easier to read than the board, but had considerably fewer options than the big board. I sat there chewing my lip and remembering fruits and vegetables from my ninth grade spanish class. I'm pretty sure I did not get what I set out to get but I did get a combination of fresh squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice, pineapple and lime. It wasn't a smoothy in any way, there was no ice or anything and it was kind of warm. But it tasted good and it was the only thing on the limited menu that did not have vegetables in it. There were a million other things on the board, but I got so overwhelmed I just ordered off the menu provided.

After dinner we took a stroll down my Minnehaha falls. Here's the thing about the falls, it's this beautiful landmark in the heart of the twin cities, just this wonderful, natural phenomenon hidden away from all the bustle. I've lived here my entire life and for whatever reason, I've never ever seen the falls. Everyone knows about them, I've been to the parks near them. I live just BLOCKS from the creek that feeds them. I've never been to the falls. I should be ashamed. David brought me down there so I could see them. So lovely.

The funny thing about David is that he's only lived here for like 4.5 years but he knows more about this city than I do in some ways.

Okay, it's 3:30 in the morning. I've written far too much. You aren't even reading this, just skimming for some mention of your name or some vague reference to yourself. That's okay. I have a lot I want to write about New Orleans, but I will do it later. Or I will wait and then never write it. I always called New Orleans a dirty lady with a pretty dress. I love that city. I'm glad I got there before the destruction of the Ignatius Reilly statue, the Aquarium of the Americas, Cafe du Monde, the zoo and everything else I touched when I was there.

Goodnight New Orleans, I'm sorry you drowned.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 2, 2005

please please please

can we?

Dear Chochobo,
Please, let's go to the state fair and ride the ferris wheel and eat bad food and take goofy pictures and ride the bus and have lots of fun! It will be a grand time and it will be hot and smell bad and the food will make us sick but I will take your pictures by the spaghetti on a stick stand and you will try to win a teddy bear for me.

Come on! Let's go!
xoxo
ubbo-dubbo

All I wanted, since Tuesday when the levee broke, was those really large military vehicles to come rolling in to New Orleans and have the doors open up to scores of men (and women) in khaki fatigues with guns and a plan and a sense of direction. I've been sick with worry waiting for this to happen. Today it did and amazingly my heart lifted just a little.

When I read or hear about the roaming bands of mad-max like thugs taking over the city and feeding the misery that preys on the victims I just stick my fingers in my ears and go 'lalalalalalalalala' because if I don't then I will be wrong about humanity. I firmly and totally believe that humans are essentially good and when forced to make a decision will make the decision to do all that is right and good. I truly believe that the exceptions to this are singular and uncommon. Whatever animalistic turn these monsters took in New Orleans this week does not exist in the human psyche. This has gone beyond looting for food, this isn't basic survival. This is cannibalism, this is the basest and most vile of acts.

LALALALALALALALA all people are good.

Today I ate an illicit bratwurst.

Less than a month to Austin Texas!!!!! The chicken fried steak of the gods! the heat of the gods! $4 heinekens consumed in mass quantities! AND HUGE MUSIC!!!!! Can't wait to spend a weekend with Ethan and the very lovely Sara (and let's not forget Boris, Ivan and Cole). I am looking forward to this fun weekend.

I also NYC to look forward to but I have not had a chance to even think about booking tickets and now I fear what they will cost with gas prices rising. Sigh. (actually i just checked and prices are not bad. I can eve fly United and get a good rate...hmmmm).

hmmm perhaps I should pay rent now.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

September 1, 2005

it's been a week

I've spent the week glued to the internet news site and the streaming local news from New Orleans (i don't have tv so i'm stuck with the interweb). Initial reports had us believing that David's parents had lost everything. As more information comes in from actual eyewitnesses we are able to hold out more hope for their home.

Obviously their safety is more important than their belongings, but still, now that we know they are safe we can focus on the home.

There is much i want to say about the conditions in New Orleans, about the looters, the rescue operations, the response of the federal government to this.

I won't. What's the point? Instead I choose to focus my energy on what I can do and what I can help with. If anyone lives near enough to the affected areas, please consider donating items for children and babies. They need formula and diapers and clothes and beds. Donate money if you can, but keep in mind there is no where there where they can actually purchase these supplies. All the money in the world can't make the supplies appear. I am in Minnesota and at this point they are unable to transport these things down there, but when they are able to I will donate these things.

David's friend Marshall might be headed up this way. he got out ahead of the storm and now needs a place to stay. He has two dogs. I predict lots of dog related fun!

Who wants to go to the state fair with me? I need the diversion. I need a pronto pup! I need mini-doughnuts and cheese curds and ferris wheels!

I will do what I can to get party photos up. Obviously we have been distracted. It's hard to look at the photos and see how much fun I was having just hours before all hell broke loose.

I was reminded once again that I was not to use the corporate card on cheap liquor and loose women. Apparently the corporate card is a privilege and not a free ride to sweet oblivion.

« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »