Django: At Our Mercy

Stupidly we put a scarf on him. He wants to hide. He is embarrassed.


Even though he's smiling, trust me -- he is not enjoying himself.


If there was only a way to escape his tormentors and the scarf...


Maybe he'll just fly away?

Is this quality time?

And meanwhile kitty waits.

RIP Nokia

My father loves technology so he decided to upgrade my old jalopy of a phone that I have dropped onto pure concrete, that I have dropped into a sink full of dishes, that the dog decided to chew and that recently was mistakenly thrown out like a ordinary piece of garbage -- I had to root around in the trash searching for its tiny electronic bleat. This new phone is small and light and silver and new, but it seems to have the same weird problem as the old terrible phone, that is: trouble ringing. Seems to never ring. Huh.

Thanks Dad!

Friends, Jazz Artists Get Married

Last Sunday Michael and I took a little trip to Sutter Creek, CA to witness the public marriage of our friends Michelle and Tim.

Sutter Creek is situated in the Amador Valley a fact that could be overlooked if your friend's name wasn't Michelle Amador.


Leaving the prescribed several hours earlier because we are afraid of unforseen traffic and we crave punctuality, we arrived in Sutter Creek embarrassingly early. (A little aside on this: extreme punctuality is not one of my native traits. Rather, I have been urged into it by many a face like this one:


Punctuality Can Be Fun!
What do you do in a town that is about a blink-of-an-eye-long in the unforseen rain that you are not prepared for (see: strapless dress)?

If you thought gambling, then you thought right! Casinos are fun and harmless!

Sure gambling is fun and harmless, but also depressing, shitty and smoky. Check out how the Shunk struggles to see through tears and clouds of smoke to win dammit!


[Side note: Cameras are not allowed in casinos, so thank your intrepid reporter for this brief display of bravery. However, cameras, digital cameras and camera phones were allowed and recommended at Tim and Michelle's wedding]


Heading back to Sutter Creek, the rain truly began to fall. This was no longer a simple drizzle anymore the rain was coming down in sheets of rain -- quite unusual for September in the Motherlode and quite unecessary for an outdoor wedding. Can you feel the impending drama?

Fun, Though Rain Is Falling Hard, Still Being Had
Killing more time and now sharing a couple breadstick cigarettes --


we discussed the election, I said I thought French Onion soup didn't seem so French, more Wisconsonian what with all the cheese and bread...wait a minute...

Hey, It's Time for the Wedding!
Like I was saying, it was raining like the dickens. The wedding was in danger of getting totally washed out, or of becoming a damp shame! Preparations had already been made to move the thing indoors.


However, as California and its microclimates would have it, the clouds lifted and a big blue sky seemed to drift in over the place and the way was clear for a very beautiful wedding. There they were my friends, getting married.

Here they are eating cake under a threatening sky. Will it rain on their cakey parade?

By now you're probably feeling exactly how I was feeling by the time this picture was snapped -- kinda pale, kind of witchy, and definitely sleepy. Shoo! Don't focus on me, focus on the bride!


And that folks is all I have to report.

I didn't ask, but I'll take

There is usually nothing special about buying feminine protection -- you know, to protect yourselves from the ladies. Anyway, most of us need them. I was one too, so I went to Walgreens where a funny thing happened. The cashier lady decided to discreetly bag my tampons in a brown paper bag to I presume, preserve any shred anonymity I had left I tread these naked streets.

Look! It's that tampon girl! Ha ha ha!

Actually, it was quite nice of her. Sometimes I like to classify things that are weird as 'nice.' Because its nicer that way! I might just have to request this of all Walgreens encounters in the future. I mean, don't get me wrong; I like plastic bags. It was like I was buying a bottle of wine with my groceries. What an exotic throwback to another time when the shopkeeper actually knew you and knew your limits! Knew that you owed 'em money, but never brought it up, just bagged your parcel (parcel! that's an old-fashioned word!) and sent you on your way.

Congratulations to the Montgomery Street Walgreens for keeping it real. I took some photos to commerate my experience:

cannot stop posting

Alfie. What's it all about? It's kind of a good movie. I have a soft spot for the eternally talentless Michael Caine (differ? do tell via a comment!). So there he is the affable cad about town picking up girls, breaking their hearts and getting a lot of his laundry done by them. I was thinking there'd be a bit more to this movie, like more Shelley Winters for instance. I am curious how the update to this film will go down with Susan Sarandon as the Winters character and Jude Law as Alfie. I guess he's not going to be British. But pray tell what will the scandal be since it totally can't be something as controversial as illegal abortion. Yeah, I read the New York Times.

So I was at my favorite neighborhood bar across the street from Wing Lum on Saturday just noticing the underaged all fresh faced and out in droves right in plain view. Lucky kids. I had to travel all the way to Maryland from Virginia to drink at this hell hole Chinese restaurant with the very original name Chopsticks to be served when I was sub-21. These kids today, they've got their share of the coolest bar in America. Fukkers.

Yeah, I'm ranting about underaged kids! So sue me!

Or

in honor of the Name-a-Sushi-Restaurant-Badly-Contest (with no prizes):

Sosashimi!

Oh right

My weblog. I forgot for a minute. Here's the post to end all posts regarding a heartbreaking injury I have and am currently surviving. I'm a survivor.

So a while back I got or realized I was injured. I was on this maniacal (for me) gym/working out schedule. I was running three times a week, lifting weights, running great distances. Then the pain began-- a dull sort of shooting pain from my hipbone to the center of my right ass and didn't stop. I took my aching hip to see Dr.Loosli a sports medicine doctor. He was right, I was right. I had a running injury that I got probably years ago. The doctor gave me some tough talk and mostly took delight in the fact that I was no longer in my early twenties when injuries were not injuries in the clinical sense or even in the sense that you'd need to recover from them. I had pinched the nerve in my glute and since then the muscle has been atrophied. The muscle was so weak that the pressure I put on it just maxed it out. I had trouble just walking without sharp pains. Everyone who knows me (you're probably included) knows that I am a weakling. Now I had medical evidence. Worse Dr.Loosli's prescription was among other things the constant, perpetual wearing of running shoes. Could my pride take any more abuse? I had to rock it like I was Seinfeld (big white running shoes with everything!) for about a month and I very well should still be. Funny thing is after 12 weeks of no running, no swimming and absolutely no dancing, the thing has not gotten better. Growing muscle where there has been none is tricky.

The prescribed weeks of 'laying off it' have elapsed and I am free to exercise again. But will I? I've nearly forgotten the way to the gym. Well I went on Wednesday night. Nothing much had changed there at all. There's something wonderfully anonymous about riding a stationary bicycle, listening to NPR and watching a subtitled episode of Jeopardy all while maintaining a certain heartrate. I skimmed an article in Harpers about how the modern gym resolves our need for working and socializing in factory environments. Now I've lost that issue. If anyone has it please scan it and start your own blog, post it there and send me the link.

Thanks!

The Worst (unreal) Sushi Restaurant Names

I have three:

RopeNeck Sushi
Big Man's Sushi Buffet
Budget Sushi

Hamlice's submissions:

The Whaler's Booty
The Old Meng and the Seal

And then it was almost time to leave work

I just remembered something a Michael said the other day:

"Food. The Anti-Death"

HILARIOUS!

I am absolutely food obsessed today. It was the sweet sweet memories of my dinner last night. I miss you dinner! Habana 1948 is where we ate and let me tell you folks, the pina colada dessert is truly not to be missed. It features pineapple upside-down cake. You should go.

A food renaissance

What is a food renaissance? This is a time of my (maybe yours) life when foods that originally seemed revolting for the first time become urgently delicious. I have had several renaissances in my life: milk (albeit soy milk) on cereal, tuna fish, tomatoes (though I am still a bit suspect of the mushy ones), and my current -- blue cheese. How can something that is visibly rotten be so good? I don't know, but it can.

It is Maytag Blue cheese which I'm told is made in small batches in Iowa, so you know it must be wholesome. It is especially good as all the foodies will tell you on apples and pears and also on salads with balsamic vinegar and then all together: the cheese, the apples and pears and the vinegar.

Tuna fish did take some getting used to. The point of it all seemed revolting: creamy + canned fish. I've removed the creamy aspect from the tuna fish altogether. Instead it is better without the horrid mayonnaise (may the dark ages never end on this one...I don't think I can live as an outward mayonnaise eater), with mustard, with balsamic vinegar, with olive oil as a kind of saladless nicoise salad.

For a time there was a drought. Cereal was happily consumed dry. And then it rained soy milk.