Christmas Letter

Rose bud

2011-11-10T18:57:00.001-08:00

Roses are brown.

- Mobile Post

Broke down bus

2011-11-09T17:53:00.001-08:00

- Mobile Post

Tic tac to solo

2011-11-09T17:37:00.001-08:00

It's not that fun to play tic tac to solo!

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Test mon

2011-11-07T17:12:00.001-08:00

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I'm back

2011-11-02T19:45:00.001-07:00

Test test 123 - Mobile Post

Cool San Diego Hiking Site

2010-02-23T21:32:00.001-08:00

I'm surfing the Web in search of ideas for hiking in San Diego over the weekend. One promising site is below:

http://www.100peaks.com/

I was hoping to find a cool organized hike to join up with...but no luck so far...

Update! I should have checked here first...since i'm a card carrying member of the San Diego Chapter of the California Native Plant Society...duh! http://www.cnpssd.org/field.html

snow day mix up

2010-02-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

my mom's snow day is all wrong...instead of getting to say home from work b/c of the snow...she went to work with an overnight bag and is sleeping at work...so she can also get to work tomorrow...

foot-tastic cooking

2010-02-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

My clogs (aka: house boots) are my usual cooking footwear. But tonight, I'm going without shoes...trying to focus on my left arch and the movements that will not further the progress of my bunion. A related picture on my yoga blog.

Stormy Week part 1

2010-01-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

We had the first in what is supposed to be a week of storms in so cal. I lifted weights and did meditative breathing while the rain poured down...and then came a rainbow...i know...hollywood ending...but it IS southern california after all.

pointsettia still going strong

2010-01-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

should someone tell this pointsettia that it's not christmas any longer?

nah...let's keep it's little fantasy alive :)

movie snobs?

2010-01-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

So...I was going to go see A Single Man w/ Italian bf...but then I read the NYTimes review by Manhola Dargis and I decided I'd just re-read the book...and we saved $21!

holy cow it's dec 12

2009-12-12T16:53:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, is right. It's December 12. And I'm sitting in my office doing something Christmas related that I can't do at home due to software limitations. Said software just crashed...i'll be back later.

the tree trunks are growing lights

2009-11-18T21:30:00.001-08:00

first the swine flu, and now the trees get lights. what's next? ocean waves with mistletoe?

santa got run over by a dildo

2009-11-17T20:09:00.001-08:00

hang, hung, hung

2009-11-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about paying someone to feel the christmas spirit for me, so I wouldn't have to...but then I would have to pay them to stop feeling the christmas spirit for me on dec 28...and what if they refused? what if I was locked into an eternal scam in which I was forced to pay someone to feel Christmas spirit for me until I died?

Best Use of a Boogie Board by a UPS Guy...

2009-11-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

...and the "Hell-Yeah!" goes to...

The San Diego UPS guy who used a pair of boogie boards to try to hide the toddler car seat that arrived 3 weeks in advance of italian bf's nephew. Too bad one of the boogie boards fell down before I got home.

I bet this guy is really into hiding his kids' christmas presents...he's the guy who builds a false floor in the basement and loads it up with toys...this is the same guy you do NOT want to piss off later in life, b/c that false floor in his basement can be used for all sorts of things that I can't even think about.

Cyber Monday: Beware of Early Morning (online) Shopping

2009-11-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

If you plan to your christmas shopping from your computer during fleeting early-morning moments of silence, look out!

don't cyber shop before breakfast!!!!

Saturday morning, I awoke and bought vacuum bags online. Really.

Mornings are when I am most amenable to bureaucratic and other uninteresting tasks.

I did a little Googling on Saturday morning and found my vacuum bag make and model for the same price listed at Target (which of course didn't have the bags I needed when I was at their brick and mortar.)

Boom-batta-click-click-click.

Done!

But as I hit confirm, my eyes caught the shipping and handling. $7.50!

Frickin' $7.50 shipping and handling for $5.99 vacuum bags.

If I had been a little more awake, I'm sure I would have checked the shipping and handling before hitting "buy".

maybe there was some way to stop the online purchase, but that seemed like too much for a Saturday morning. So I'm just complaining about it on the Internet (and gradually trying to earn back that $7.50.) I think i'm almost there. I made coffee this am instead of buying a favored Monday-morning latte. Last night, I bought white wine that is a dollar cheaper than my homer-simpson-inspired, "I'll take a bottle of your second least expensive wine." I also stopped myself from buying a cookie-cooling rack. I don't know how important they are...but my mom uses them...and since I am trying to re-create her cookie magic this Christmas, I thought I should have a rack...but I used plates instead, and it seemed to work ok. So...I think i've almost earned back my saturday morning blunder...but be forewarned...don't cyber shop before breakfast!!!!

I also practiced yoga at home over the weekend rather than going to studios...but that was not for cost-saving reasons...

bowling alley is xmas free

2009-11-15T10:11:00.001-08:00

I'm happy to report that the complete and utter lack of Christmas decorations at Kearney Mesa Bowling alley (which by the way is NOT on Kearney Mesa road. My female Korean buddy suggested they change the name to "NOT ON Kearny Mesa Bowling".)

but I am getting off track. The point is that the bowling alley has absolutely no Christmas decorations up...but I can't wait to go back when the Italians are in town to see what has changed--Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree-wise.

Googling my brain for "bowling" and "Christmas" reminds me of being at a bowling alley as a little kid sometime after Chrsistmas, but before the decorations had come down. I remember being very sad as I looked at the bowling alley christmas tree, knowing it would not be up much longer, and knowing that that meant that Christmas was over and that regular life would soon be starting.

Hallo-tinsel-ween: Big Box Retail Brings Holidays Together

2009-11-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

So yeah...christmas and halloween...they overlap in the "Land of the Big Box", for sure. We know that. But what does it mean for our understanding of the holidays (broad definition)?

I raised this question at a Yale-based telephone conference today focused on the emerging interface of Halloween and Christmas in retail America. One of the conference participants forwarded me this picture, taken on Halloween night 2009.

Anyone who claims that Halloween and Christmas exist in their own Big Box bubbles--with no interactions--needs to rethink their (not "his or her") hypotheses. Tinsel is clearly used to make a dress in the above photo. Sure, anyone can go dig into the closet and find random Christmas objects for use in Halloween costumes...but the sheer promiximty of Halloween and Christmas merchandise in the pre-Oct-31 Big-Box retail environment is fueling increased--and potentially novel--interactions between the two formerly-disparate holidays.

Look for an increasing number of Christmas-inspired Halloween costumes in the years to come. In addition, look for evolving notions of holiday boundaries in current and future generations. Jack-o-lantern Bubble lights on the Christmas tree. Jumbo Christmas stockings as trick-or-treat bags. These are just the beginning.

New Haven Santa Update

2009-11-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Santa made a surprise move today. The red-suited maverick took time to leave his sweat shops in China, and to go to a mall in New Haven, CT, according to Absurd Christmas freelance reporter, Douglas the architecture grad student.

According to a text message from the field from Douglas,

"Santa is at the mall no joke. All alone."

We look forward to additional updates on this breaking news story.

THIS JUST IN:

Douglas provided a photo of Santa...perhaps the first time he has been seen outside of his compound in China since he appeared at a "Christmas in July" used car extravaganza in Indianapolis.

Apparently, moving the North Pole to China has decreased mid-November interest in Santa...at the New Haven mall "not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse."
**as douglas suggested, please note rotisserie chicken in foreground of photo.

big box / office park disconnect

2009-11-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

We are in that magical transitory moment in the year in which the big box stores have blown past Thanksgiving and dove right into Christmas. Meanwhile, the real estate offices, salons, and upscale car mechanics of the USA are wallowing in rust colored chrysanthemums and various cornucopia products. Mean-meanwhile, the candy bowl in my office is empty. Someone finally took the deformed tootsie roll that everyone in the office had already picked up at least twice, and then put back down once they realized a surgical procedure would be required in order to remove the wrapper from the deformed tootsie body. BTW, where have I been during the Jolly Rancher explosion? I had no idea they made tootsie-pop-sized lollies.

live trees coming on Nov 17

2009-11-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

A local big box will get it's first crap...oh i mean crop of "live trees" on Nov 17. Of course by live trees, I mean "recently dead" trees, as opposed to fake trees which are made of plastic and are thus "long-ago dead" trees...if you imagine that the carbon in the oil used to make the plastic once belonged to some sort of living organism.

An excited employee in the garden section of the big box gave me the Nov 17 date with great excitement..."it only comes once a year!" she exclaimed.

Holiday Bargains and Thrift Stores

2009-11-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

One of those things that always sticks in my mind is a year-after-college conversation I had with a New York based fashion-designer friend of a girlfriend (now wife) of a high school friend of mine.

I was talking up the wonders of thrift store shopping...Matt had taught me to thrift in college. And this fashion designer was like...yeah, but in new york, sometimes the new clothes are cheaper than the thrift clothes...and she was right...in some cases, you could get super cheap new stuff...cheaper than $9 thrift store cords...

fast forward 10 years...and I have a similar comment...new christmas merch can be cheaper than the stuff at the thrift stores...I was at a goodwill in downtown san diego yesterday, as part of my "day in under-travelled san diego"...and I found a bunch of fake Christmas trees on sale for ridiculous prices...really...$35 bucks for a mediocre fake, used, and kinda beat up tree? are you kidding me? been to WalMart lately? new trees abound for well under $35 dollars. And you might even find one that is "pre strung" with lights...in fact, that seems to be the norm now...you have to hunt around a bit to find the non-strung trees...but they are there...and they are WAY cheaper than freaking $35.

how do I know all this????

stay tuned to find out...wink wink

***The WalMart dilemma never seems to go away...unless you just never walk in the door and never do comprehensive Web searches for products...

Tijuana across the border

2009-11-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

I went down to the park on the western most border of san diego and tijuana...where the land meets the ocean. it's a park on the usa side...but a totally militarized park...at least 7 different border patorol guys in various big ass trucks drove past. one tried to scare me away...told me about all the dangerous immigrants and criminals that could be sneaking through the park...then he qualified his statement...not ALL the immigrants are dangerous, he said.

Candy Corn 2009

2009-11-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was only ONE WEEK after Halloween, and I could NOT find any candy corn. I tried two grocery stores and a drug store. No freaking candy corn. What happened to the mountains of candy corn that towered just a few days prior.

I don't know about you, but I am increasinly freaked out by how fast holidays dissappear from retail shelves. Remember the days when holiday merch would languish on shelves for weeks and weeks. I am particularly thinking about Christmas, but I'm pretty sure, it was the same deal for Halloween. First things would be 50% off...and as they days ticked by, the size of the discount would increase...and then there were the bins in which advanced math was requred to figure out the actual discount...you know the bins I'm talking about...the ones that say TAKE AN EXTRA 50% OFF...followed by...TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 75% OFF...so you are taking 75% off of something that was already marked down 50, then 60, then 70 %. What is 75% off of something that is already 50% off???? It doesn't matter...at least to me...b/c those bins are few and far between.

So what the hell happened to the ghost boxer shorts? The witch toilet bowl covers? back to a wharehouse till next year maybe...but what about all the candy? where is my stash of Brach's candy corn? Do they ship it to third world countries and sell it there as "special" Candy? Do people in xxx country...you know...the countries with diseases that you only think about (unless you are Martin E) when you've earned enough money and time off to risk getting killed by a hippo on vacation....those kind of places...are they flooded with our old halloween candy?

I miss the bins...but there is not room for the bargain bins b/c the candy aisles are freaking full with every possible iteration of christmas candy.

So while last october I was freaking out over my over consumption of candy corn ...this year, I have the opposite problem.

The last time I saw candy corn in real life (minus the gross all-year candy corn that is waxy in appearance and doesn't really count as candy corn), was on the bus on Halloween night. The thing is...it's not the kind of candy corn you can eat...it was a girl in a candy corn costume. Supa cute.

BTW, candy corn is perhaps the most honest candy out there...it doesn't try to hide the fact that it's totally made with corn syrup. It's corn. It's candy. It's corn candy. It's candy corn.

photo needed from halloween

2009-11-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

I was "the old lady who rides the bus" for Halloween, and in fact, i did take an hour-long bus ride to get to the street party i went to...and I even had to transfer buses at Fashion Valley Mall (green sweater helped with the bus ride). Thankfully, a black woman on the bus who said "Guurl" when I sat down fixed my collar. A male army veteran (with good hair and nails) shared that when he left the military, his commanding officer told him that he needed to embrace his feminine spirit and not just his masculine spirit. He says he went to modeling school when he left the military, really. The only person willing to sit next to me (on a totally full bus) in my old lady hound's tooth dress was a ripe-smelling chubby latino construction worker. the evening was a smashing success well before I got off the bus at my official destination. It's all about the journey.

italian bf on custard cam in alexandria, va

2009-10-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

italian bf is hanging out at the Del Ray Dreamery before his yoga class with Margaret at River's Edge Yoga. I'm so jealous...but at least I got to live vicariously through the custard cam!

sunset park brooklyn

2009-10-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

MMM. Brooklyn. italian bf and I just spent the night at a hotel on 49th between 2nd and 3rd. our first night in the same bed since Labor Day weekend. 49th between 2nd and 3rd...no, not the east side of manhattan. this is brooklyn. and there is a great mexican bakery/restaurant just a few blocks away on 4th ave (www.donpacolopez.com) . we had a quesadilla with cheese, zucchini blossoms and corn fungus. there are some extremely beautiful blocks, in terms of architecture around here. and the gentrification seeping south from park slope doesn't seem to have made it's way down here too strongly yet...but i don't know what the real estate market around here has done. We are off to the airport to pick up italian bf's parents...but first a stop back to the mexican place for sandwiches. I stopped there this am and for $2 got a cup of coffee con leche and two fresh mexican baked sweets...a sugary croissant and one of those circular baked things with the thick powdery sugar on top in the shape of a sea shell.

Michael Moore Movie

2009-10-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

The new Michael Moore movie is great. Go see it. http://www.michaelmoore.com/

combination pizza hut and taco bell

2009-10-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

douglas, this is for you...it reminds me of the combination mc donalds and chipotle

it's not easy being butch

2009-10-12T09:17:00.001-07:00

it's not easy being butch...but somebody's gotta do it.

steer speck

2009-10-12T09:09:00.001-07:00

If you click on one of the photos, you'll see the "steer speck" on my face. It's like a "fly speck" but from a castrated male cow, not a fly.

back to the farm!

2009-10-09T23:46:00.001-07:00

mmm, working cattle is fun!

Ardipithecus ramidus

2009-10-09T12:21:00.001-07:00

Martin, thanks for sending me this link. I can't stop watching it. For the uninitiated, this is a video about the pre-Lucy fossil recently unveiled in the pages of my former employer, the journal Science.

new yoga blog

2009-08-17T21:47:00.001-07:00

Hi Y'all! I'll be back to this blog as we get a little closer to christmas...but in the meantime, I'm blogging at www.getofftheinternetandpracticeyoga.com

sofa art

2009-07-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

photo of the poster over our sofa...it's a movie about an italian mathemetician who dissappeared. come see it.

bunny christmas

2009-07-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

we've turned the corner. next christmas eve is just as close as last christmas eve. hmmm, mabye that means I should send out last year's xmas letter... UPDATE: WE TURNED THE CORNER IN JUNE...JULY IS THE 7TH MONTH...HELLLO??? I ALWAYS THOUGHT JULY WAS THE HALF WAY POINT B/C THERE IS ALWAYS SO MUCH TALK OF CHRISTMAS IN JULY...I THINK CHRISTMAS IN JUNE WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH

taste the rainbow

2009-07-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Gay pride was last weekend...and that meant Black's beach was PACKED. Supa cool.

Semantics on the yoga mat

2009-07-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

I am doing my "homework" for a short photography class I am taking. We are playing with light. I taped a yellow piece of paper in front of my light source in order to get the yellow glow on the aluminium colored metal piping. This is a little thing I got for italian bf way back when I still worked for aaas and was in london facilitating a press conference about the rapid melting of the antartictic.

guide

2009-06-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

i wanna make one of these guides for San Diego: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/an-online-guide-for-tourists-by-locals/

finalmente!!! ashtanga yoga a milano

2009-05-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Lino Meile, the famous italian ashtanga teacher (whose Rome studio I visited back in 2002 or 2003) recently opened a yoga studio in Milano. This is fantastic...but it means that when I am in Milan, I will have less time for visiting (and stalking) gelato shops. http://www.astangamilano.it/

Lino gave props to Pattabhi today.

and no joke...reading the short message below in Italian made me cry...somehow it felt more real than reading the same information in english...

Con grande dispiacere comunichiamo che è mancato oggi Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, padre dell'Ashtanga.

Grazie al Suo insegnamento questo yoga si è diffuso nel mondo.

Con devozione e gratitudine lo ricorderemo.

Ashtanga yoga guru died yesterday

2009-05-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

Pattabhi Jois died on Monday. He is one of the most influential and successful proponents and nurturers of Ashtanga yoga and one of the early yogis to bring yoga to the West.

He inspired and deeply influenced nearly all or maybe all of my current and past yoga teachers...you can do the "Kevin Bacon" game with pretty much any yogi, and way before seven connections, you are back to Pattabhi Jois.

Thanks Pattabhi! You taught David Swenson who taught Margaret Townsend who was my first yoga teacher. You taught Tim Miller who is my teacher and who taught Sean O'Shea who will inspire me as long as I live, even though he did in a car accident over 2 years ago. Tim Miller also taught so many other amazing yogis and teachers in San Diego and around the world, I can't possibly name them all.

I only practiced with Pattabhi once...in a huge Manhattan loft space at 6 in the morning on a Sunday three years and a couple of months ago. I'm glad I made the trip.

To Walmart or Not?

2009-05-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

It is somehow fitting that I follow a post about country music with one about Walmart. Perhaps I've got the makings of my own country music song...

My latest commercial quandary is this:

I'm in the market for a massage table, and I've settled on a brand and model. I went to froogle.com and searched...and it turns out that the Walmart online price, when you include shipping, is about $70 cheaper than at the massage school I am going to.

What to do?

For years, I have avoided Walmart...for a variety of reasons...but the one most clear and dear to my heart is tied to Walmart's decimation of the downtowns and main streets in central nebraska where my mom is from.

But am I really doing good by not saving $70 on the massage table? What if I were to give that $70 to one of the environmental nonprofits doing great work? Or to a group helping the working poor? (perhaps the people who sold me the table at WalMart...)

...anyway...this is what is going through my head right now...and also, I saw that the cetaphil face lotion I have been using is 25% cheaper at Walmart than CVS. It's 9 bucks instead of 12. what to do about that?

G*d is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Crazy

2009-05-08T16:58:00.001-07:00

It's true. For the last two weeks, when I drive around in the car by myself (which happens since I live in San Diego), I've been listening to "new" country music on the radio...commercial radio...remember that?

For years, I was rigidly against this strange hybrid of real country music, pop music, right wing propaganda, sexism, xenophobia, heter-ONLY! society, and Americana-rha-rha-rha! But now, it also amuses me...for a variety of reasons that operate on a different levels.

I have this idea of going on a new-country-music radio binge...at least 12 hours straight...taking notes all the while...collecting strings on the similarities of topics that come up in the songs. What draws me to the lyrics are the fascinating contradictions...three songs praising god, followed by a song about being increadibly slutty, followed by a pro-military song, followed by a song that manages to mix all previous categories into one song, followed by a song in which the word "suds" is sung in such a charming way that I can't help but smile.

If you're still with me...listen or watch and listen (he is awful easy on the eyes) to Billy Currington sing about how "G*d is Great, Beer is Good and People are Crazy"...and I have to give Billy a little credit...

two out of three ain't bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqrogegV1lw

last week's menu

2009-05-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

So...I cooked a lot last week, in honor of Italian bf's birthday.

Sunday 26 April:
risotto bianco (the first time I ever cooked it properly)
King salmon (seasoned and baked)

Monday 27 April:
Fritatta con zucchini, pomodori (tomatoes) et chipole (onions)

Tuesday 28 April:
Chipolte take out

Wednesday 29 April:
My take on thai green curry with very little spices but lots of coconut milk and tofu

Thursday 30 April:
Dinner at Sea Rocket Bistro (Sustainable seafood in San Diego). And delicious beer too.

Friday 1 May:
In N Out french fries consumed in a car in the parking lot of In N Out. Follwed by green curry leftovers.

Saturday 2 May:
Pastina (tiny pasta cooked in vegetable broth which you don't strain away at the end)...kind of like a smooth veggie soup with pasta inside.

Sunday 3 May:
Potato leek soup with way too much rosemary...but good anyway...it felt like eating liquid stuffing due to all the rosemary, sage and thyme i sauteed with the porri (leeks).

Our friend Julie just sent a link to a cooking blog she follows...maybe it will provide some future inspiration. http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html

susan boyle

2009-04-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad I watched this youtube clip before someone told me what exactly I was in for. So if you are one of the 8 people in the internet connected world who hasn't seen this, click away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

half gallon of half and half

2009-04-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

so, i'm in the grocery store tonight getting some onions and beer and trying to soak up the easter-eve vibe. Not much easter-eve vibe in the outskirts of La Jolla...until I examine the contents of the guy in front of me in the express check-out line:

3 pounds of strawberries

two gallons of milk

a big ole pre-cooked ham

five pounds of potatoes

and...

drum roll

a half gallon of half and half.

what does one do with a half gallon of half and half?

coffee service for 50 perhaps.

but my money is on a crazy scalloped potato casserole recipe that calls for a butt-load of half and half.

mmmm

easter

before my half gallon of half and half express checkout line encounter, i tried to buy a small bag of Cadbury mini-eggs, just for old-time sake, but they only had 18 ounce bags...and I don't need that much extra candy in my life...

but that does raise the possibility that maybe the dude only needed a small amount of half and half, but all they had was the half gallon....so he went for it...if that's the case, i hope he does something fun with the leftovers...like pouring it in the bathtub and doing a kinky photo shoot.

about that last post: I SO didn't read that

2009-04-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

so...on Monday, I posted what I had planned to read at the end of my weekly Tuesday night yoga class in San Diego. Well, by Tuesday afternoon, when I re-read it, I was like "there is no way I'm going to read this."

So, I chose something that I didn't write...and read it almost word-for-word...just inserting "wise man" where the book had "holy man."

I'm all about de-religification of readings for savasana (deep relaxtion at the end of yoga practice). I mean, hello, what is a "holy man" anyway? The only holy man I know is Sponge Bob.

I'll include the text of what I read later.

what I'm reading at the end of tomorrow's yoga class

2009-04-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

In the worldly life, one needs money to pay the rent or mortgage, to pay for transportation, insurance, clothes and other necessities. Without money, one cannot get these things.

But, there is a limit to what one can buy. One can buy a fountain pen, but one can't buy the ability to write. This, one has to acquire oneself. This experience cannot be bought.

One may pay for someone's help for just about anything you can imagine, but the help given by friends and family is something different. It is given with feeling. This feeling cannot be paid for with anything. It can only be given.

Likewise, in yoga and meditation, there are books and DVDs to give you knowledge, and knowledge certainly IS valuable. But more and more and more knowledge does not guarantee a deeper, richer or more freeing yoga or meditation practice.

Unless you make it to the path, knowledge of that path is not going to help much.

Instead, it's helpful to couple knowledge with regular attempts to teach the brain to follow the breath. Cultivating a hint of care-free joy within the practice is also helpful -- joy unencumbered by fears of whether a pose is imperfect; joy free from concerns that you are doing certain poses worse than you did them last week, last month or last year.

Joy that is free from any expectations that we put on ourselves, or expectations we imagine others are placing on us.

*adapted from the beginning of chapter 13 of Good Company by Sri Shantanand Saraswati

emailing w/ italian bf

2009-04-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

from italian bf who is at a conference in Ohio:

ciao, sexy boy

cos'hai fatto ieri sera? hai dormito bene? io cosi' cosi'

ma ho fatto le mie tasse federali questa mattina e ora vado a mangiuare e poi alla conferenza

un bacio

even the most mundane things are more interesting in another language... "le mie tasse federali" ...sounds like a big italian beer glass emblazoned with a baroque federal symbol from Italy including both a bird of prey and a butch peasant with bulging biceps...but of course, it's just federal taxes.

twitter...really?

2009-03-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

One of the inhabitants of the Blue Knob gay trailer park (see comment on last post) suggested I try Twitter...so here I am...now I can hook up my phone and rack up huge text messaging charges just like a 14 year old girl!!!! OMG!!!

http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/23513195.rss

Cursive is coming next Saturday

2009-03-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Cursive (aka "screaming white men" to certain dutch friends) is playing The Casbah next saturday. Yay! Indie rock on saturday night and a hike to Anza Borrego Desert State Park on Sunday morning with the SD chapter of the CA native plant society. I am spoiled...and I like it.

Local Government Will Rock! Go Amy!!

2009-03-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

http://www.electquinn.com/ You go girl!!!

shoe shine

2009-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

I just shined my shoes. It had been freaking months since I did that job...I also cleaned my yoga mat and italian bf's yoga mat using the cool spray I bought at Margaret's yoga studio.

next step...fire up the digi camera again and start posting pictures again.

Sherry Bottle Cashed

2009-02-20T19:08:00.001-08:00

It took 14 months...but my first bottle of sherry is finally finished. And it all went for squash soup.

I am cooking dinner for italian bf and a friend tomorrow night...so I'm making the soup tonight...in hopes that over night, the molecules will all go to night school and learn how to be extra flavorfull.

what else is on the menu?

lasagne made with grass fed nebraska ground beef and italian bf's mama's recipe.

and salad and for dessert...

budino...which is a custard like dessert made from egg yolks, flour, sugar and milk (and a shit load of stirring)

balcony food composting

2009-02-19T17:00:00.000-08:00

it's the next step...using worms to compost out on the balcony...am I up for the challenge? I keep thiking about it...and the article in the NYTimes just reminded me that it's something to keep thinking about...it references a magazine about organic recycling...but it doesn't seem particularly aimed at apartment dwellers

xmas letter is coming...

2009-02-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

so...i've been doing a lot of writing since i stopped blogging in december...and well...some of it will be printed and mailed...in theory...so...lets hope the post office is still functioning in the next couple of weeks.

i'm back...and my shirts stink

2009-02-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

I'm back...not sure where I been...but I'm back nonetheless...

who's up for a little self depricating humor?

i am!!!

great! here goes. Last week, I get to work after the usual 30 minute walk...and I notice I've got some under-arm stink going on...which I just don't understand...I had showered, I had put on deodorant...sure, I walked to school and got a little warm during the walk, but nothing major...I wear a new tshirt every day...what gives?

i'm stumped...until...coincidentally, italian bf asks me if I ever plan on washing my work shirts...and i'm like, yeah, of course I'll wash them...see...italian bf used to wash all the clothes, but since he's been so busy, he hasn't gotten around to it...and well...i hadn't really noticed...and well...you can see where this is going...clean on the inside, and dirty on the outside...that's me...showing up at work all clean and showered except for one little detail...my smelly banana republic sale rack shirts...mmm...smelly banana.

two weeks

2008-12-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

we've had a house guest for the last two weeks...and while it was great to have her (italian bf's 4th grade teacher), I'm pleased at the prospect at peeing with the door open again...and not having to find my night clothes before i shower...

but there are a couple of things that maybe I should carry over out of courtesy for italian bf...like double checking to make sure there is no dental debris in the sink after I brush my teeth.

white zin, white trash

2008-12-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

In the 80s and 90s, conventional (stereotypic) white middle class wisdom said that only the white trash drink white zin. Bonus points if it came in a box. and then someone decided to re-market white zin to other groups...I got curious and bought a bottle. conclusion: it tastes like bad white grape juice with way too much sugar added.

Tonight, I managed to give, in Italian, my take on white zin's recent marketing history. The glass of the stuff I gulped down on an empty stomach helped a lot with the flow of the verbs. Our italian house guest listened intently and pretended not to mind being served "truzzi wine". (truzzi is white trash in italian).

I also know how to say "I have a hard on" in Italian...but you'll have to ask your local pizza guy for the translation :)

beer for dinner

2008-12-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

i should be eating a salad, but I don't feel like washing the lettuce right now. so i'm just having a beer. I had a big lunch, so it's no biggie. I talked to douglas on the phone for almost 90 minutes tonight...it was so nice to catch up with him...and we came up with a sign for his chair, but I think it was a much broader possible usage:

Don't use me as a benchmark of mediocrity.

btw, speaking of beer, benchmarks and mediocrity, did you guys read that Married with Children has gotten so big in Russia that Sony hired back the original writers, to create additional episodes for the Russian market...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE release the Russian versions in the states, complete with english subtitles

update: I want real food now.

ventura make-your-own hotel waffles

2008-11-27T08:34:00.000-08:00

note to self: the self-serve waffle-making station at our Ventura, Ca hotel yields undercooked waffles.

note to self: the 8 hour train ride (due to major delays) from san diego to ventura yields hilarious conversations with nice people on the train.

beepers

2008-11-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

remember when beepers were the cutting edge technology only required by doctors and drug dealers? and now...not that far into the future, everyone AND their grandmother has a cell phone that is so so so much more powerful. what the hell is next?

Larriland mentioned in New York Times

2008-11-25T15:13:00.000-08:00

I suppose it was inevitable...Larriland Farm mentioned in the New York Times. Sure, the mention was just in passing, but still. Little ole Larriland, the place where hog halves hung from the old barn in the early 1980s, way before local produce was cool (but before it all but disappeared before making a comeback more than a decade later)...little ole Larriland has made it into the New York Times. Larriland is the pick-your-own farm that we visited numerous times per year, to pick strawberries, peaches, nectarines, raspberries (to eat off bush but not buy), apples, spinach, pumpkins and various other fruits and vegetables. The farm has grown exponentially since the early days...and it's a little sad to see how successful they have been...but it's better than the alternative...the McMansions that are popping up all over the surrounding parts of Howard County. Icky.

More Larriland thoughts in another post...but I saw this and had to share...it's also interesting to me that the reference is in a story about Frederick, MD, the new cool "old Maryland town" a frontier of sorts according to the author...this is funny because we grew up visiting a VERY different Frederick. We grew up visiting our dad's parents who retired in the first explosion of siding-clad split levels that attached to old Frederick like a wart attaches to a toe that's been to the locker room one-too-many times.

I don't think douglas was there, but I'll never forget the time granddad took some of us through what was then the current construction site in their neighborhood and down to the Monocacy River. (Every visit to our grandparents split level in "new frederick" seemed to co-incide with the beginning of another siding-centric tract development in the fields that used to surround Frederick.) Grandad walked us through the construction, through a dried-out corn field and down a steep slope to the muddy waters of the Monocacy river just to see it. One of those moments you never forget. Along our walk, we found a bone from some large animal, a horse or cow probably.

sun goes down and the leeks start cooking

2008-11-23T18:55:00.000-08:00

sun goes down and the leeks start cooking

it helps to have an italian houseguest who knows her way round the kitchen to help with the leek (porri) soup.

douglas' turkey saga part two

2008-11-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

italian bf is back from LA and when I relayed douglas' turkey-day conondrum to him, he was like...well...if he has work he absolutely has to do and he has the drive to do it over thanksgiving...maybe he should just stay and do it...

hmmm...maybe that's the drive you need to actually do grad school...(I wouldn't know)...so anyway douglas, I am offically not preaching to you on this...i say do what you need to do, but make sure you take a break and step back and try to reconnect with yourself before the final push till the end of the semester...maybe going home will do the trick and maybe 2105 GWP is not the right option...but do find something that takes you away for a short time...do you have a crash pad in manhattan?

and btw, it's not like i'm going back to the rents this turkey day. italian bf and I are driving up the coast from sd to sf and then I'm flying back to sd and he is driving back w/ an old friend who is visiting from italy.

go home for thanksgiving Douglas!!!

2008-11-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

Douglas, the youngest of the 6, is in architecture grad school at Yale. this is his first semester. He barely sleeps b/c he has so much work to do. I just talked to my mom and she said he said he isn't coming home for Thanksgiving b/c he has to work on a paper.

Come on Douglas!!! You have the whole week off...can't you go home for at least a couple of days? Get some good food, a night of sleep and a change of scenery?

Knowing that you are going home will also make you more productive for the first part of the week when you are still up at school...and if you are going home, you better buy a ticket soon...you don't want to decide to go home at the last minute and then realize you can't get a ticket...

now...on the other hand...if you are saying you have a paper b/c you have a hot week-long botty call next week that you don't want to miss out...then that's up to you...but thanksgiving only comes along once a year...and if you don't want to go home, then go somewhere else...what is Amanda doing? go see her! or go hang out in Manhattan...but enjoy yourself for at least 48 hours...you'll be glad you did.

it's gotta be...

2008-11-20T18:35:00.000-08:00

it's gotta be dirty.

The paper version of the Christmas Letter HAS to be dirty. There is just no two ways about it.

I apologize in advance to all those souls who have transcended sex and find such lust-tinted musings on life tired, unamusing and pitifully revealing of a week psyche and spiritual inner life.

anyone who has received the paper letter in the past and would like to cancel their subscription should do so in the next 7 days.

****this note not required by law****

how to give yourself a wet willy

2008-11-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

to give yourself a wet willie without actually sticking a wet finger in your ear is easy. All you need to do is accidentally drop your right ear bud into a cup of black tea that's gone cold. You let the ear bud sit on your desk for two hours, then insert it in your ear, sure it's dry by now.

and now it's time to squirm as memories of gross people sticking wet fingers in your ear rush into your brain. Remove ear bud and watch drop of tea pour out of the little holes in the ear bud.

repeat.

just back from yoga

2008-11-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

just back from the yoga class that I teach on tuesday nights.

Tracy Chapman's new cd Our Bright Future turned out to be a hit with the folks who practiced tonight.

only 7 people came to class, which is not great for the studio's revenue, but it is great for the students who did come. I had more time to give assists and to connect with each of the students.

lots of folks will be away next week turkey day...but I'll be there...hmmm...maybe I need to come up with a turkey pose...

Fig Leaf 2.0

2008-11-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

if vegetables are vestments, do they still count toward the five-a-day goal?

anza borrego italiani

2008-11-16T21:45:00.001-08:00

yesterday's fun

2008-11-16T09:44:00.001-08:00

Friday Fist Bump

2008-11-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

Friday fist bump to everyone!

In the last 48 hours, I have found myself in two separate fist bump scenarios.

In the first, I was simply an observer...sitting inside a cafe with tinted windows watching the world go by...in particular, the world happening at the table directly in front of me, but on the other side of the tinted window. I watched a dude sit at the table, with an air of excitement...clearly waiting for someone...and that someone turned out to be a buddy of his...they greeted with a fist bump. The dude who arrived first pulled out a colorfully wrapped gift for dude number two, who opened it right away. Inside? Skater shoes. A late 30s straight dude gave his fist bumping straight dude friend just the sort of "post-skater airwalk-espue" black shoes one would expect.

And then yesterday, a man of color who I interact with at work about once every other month greeted me with the more traditional four-part handshake...I was cool for the first three of the four maneuvers, but then stalled and didn't produce my fist for part four: the fist bump. We laughed, and then he noted that the cool thing now is to go straight to the fist bump. Who has time for all the handwork foreplay leading to the fist bump? Apparently not the dudes of America.

thursday post

2008-11-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

wine, beer and bread

yogurt, milk and toothpaste

to the store I go with haste

thankful for my job and living place

full-moon chipotle warning

2008-11-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

if you are like me, you should stay away from Chipotle when it's a full moon.

this is a lesson I learned today after eating at Chipotle on a full moon.

I took a big bite of my burrito and when I swallowed realized that I bit off and swallowed a nice chunk of aluminum foil along with my rice, beans and tomatoes.

at least the foil was thin...and not the heavy duty aluminum foil that is good for covering furniture before wild parties.

marichi d

2008-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: an alternate version of this post will be added to the blog in the near future

i was doing the pose described in the yoga forum entry pasted below...the pose is called marichyasana d and I treat like an outhouse in Ohio in the 1980s...you get in there do what you have to do and get out...but today was completely different? why? because I was so with the breath that all movement was like union of peanut butter and jelly? hell no! i wish...it was different in that I was in no rush to leave because my gazing point was the cutest 8 month baby I had ever seen, hanging out next to her mom who was practicing yoga. the baby sat there with perfect posture...spine so strait, while the homosexual in front of her tied himself up like a pretzel in some abstract attempt to be a whole lot more like her...sitting there fully aware and present...enjoying her mother and occasionally spontaneously giggling...giggling for no particular reason...just giggling because she could and because being happy is always an option. I didn't know 8 month babies are such good yoga teachers...but i think this is the secret the new parents are all hiding from me...that your baby is your guru and your student at the very same time. how fucking cool is that?

one person's take on marichi d is below and here

Hahaha...you're first mistake was even attempting such foolishness!

Okay, let's assume for the moment that you're body can actually do the pose with or without buttering your hips and duct taping your arm to your knee....

Let's say the left foot is in half lotus and the right foot knee is pointing to the sky. Now pull your right sit bone back and move your right foot a little more to the right. That should widen your base. Now the fun. Sit up tall as you inhale and twist to the right as you exhale. Use your right hand to pull the belly flesh out of the way (if you have a little extra like me). Lean to the right to get your left armpit to the outside of your right knee. Put the right hand back down for support.

Okay here is a good trick: EXTERNALLY ROTATE your left arm first as you press the triceps into the outside of the knee. Then INTERNALLY ROTATE the arm to bring the hand down towards your left hip. Now look over your right shoulder stretch your right arm really far out and EXTERNALLY ROTATE the right arm as far as possible before INTERNALLY ROTATING it to meet the left hand. Left hand grabs right wrist and you try to straighten the right arm.

Okay as for balance remember how you moved your right sit bone back and your foot out to the right more. That should give you a wider base. The right knee should lean in towards the center of the body as the bind tightens. Glue the right foot down and try to pull the heel closer to the sit bone. Now the stability comes from your uddiyana bandha. You keep the navel pulled into the spine and let the breath fill up the kidneys and lengthen your tailbone down towards the floor like an anchor.

Besides all that, it's just practice. The more you do it, the calmer you get in the pose and you find the stillness that you need.

Will Hang Lights for Cash

2008-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

A home-made sign on the exit ramp for The 5 at La Jolla Village Drive offers to hang your christmas lights for you. I suppose there is a market for this, but I have such fond memories of hanging white christmas lights on our mostly dormant azalea bushes...and memories of happily plunking down my own hard-earned cash from raking the leaves of various neighbors to buy more lights to put on the bushes. I was SO into Christmas lights...into the thrill of reaching the crest of Gatewood Place (the block before ours) and looking down the hill and halfway up the next hill and seeing the white lights lighting up the bushes. But I think more than anything, I sought the feeling of personal expression and validation I got from seeing my efforts "lit up at night."

Perhaps

1 in 12.5 million...Nov 9 post

2008-11-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

I already knew that italian bf is one in a million, but I now have empirical evidence that he is 1 in 12.5 million...

well...sort of...only 1 in 12.5 million spam emails results in a sale...and italian bf became that statistic yesterday when, in a panic, he bought anti-spyware software from a fake website and thus joined a botnet and became a computer zombie...

italian bf, if you wanted to be a zombie...you could have been one for Halloween, you didn't need to turn your computer into a zombie!!!!

it's crazy how much legwork is now requrired...in addition to blocking the credit card and monitoring all the other credit cards, italian bf has had to go through and change every freaking online account password that we have...since it's possible that his keystrokes were captured...including a crucial password that is used for many different accounts..

this is exactly why they say you should have different passwords for every account...but how the hell are you supposed to remember them all?????????

Apple Crisped

2008-11-08T16:06:00.000-08:00

I got my ass kicked by apple crisp. An apple crisp that I made. An apple crisp with apples, pears, (too many) cranberries and persimmons that won't ripen. After the usual butter, brown sugar, oatmeal, flower, cinnamon and nutmeg topping had been applied to the raw cut up fruit, I threw on cardamom for an extra gourmet kick.

After 35 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, let's just say that the wouldn't-ripen persimmons magically turned into almost-rotten-tasting baked sweet potatoes. The cardamom gave the whole dish a vaguely ethnic....maybe Indian...vibe that joined with the sweet potatoe punch to create a nauseating combination of tastes.

what to do?

Step one: pick out the rest of the persimmons and throw them away. Nevermind the loud thump you hear every time you drop a persimmon chunk into the sink. How heavy are they anyway?

Step two...leave it in the fridge for 36 hours longer than you should

Step three...attempt to eat on a nearly empty but relatively nauseated stomach that is the result of deciding to try out Pizzaria Uno pizza after many years. You have fond memories of going to an Uno's in Georgetown with Mike H. at some point either during or after college.

Step four...enjoy your day...if you can...

McBarneys

2008-11-07T22:37:00.001-08:00

wh-words

2008-11-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

it's good to have an italian bf who studies "wh" words like "what, who, when and where-the-hell-is-my-martini" ...and this wh scholarship comes in especially handy when you go to a bad exhibit and a contemporary art museum and leave with a big black and white post striped card that says "what" if you hold it just right and plug your left nostril and think only in verbs for 18 seconds.

it comes in handy b/c you have someone to hand the card to who won't be as snotty and snobby as you...someone who is happy to have a fettishized "what" in the house.

birthing pain

2008-11-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

Peter,

I think you said it right...we have our country back! if this election is the birth of a new era in america, then maybe the vote to stop gay marriage in california is the labor pains...or maybe when the vagina tears all the way to the anus...yes, I think that's about right...in time it will heal, but in the meantime, it's shitty (literally and figuratively)!!!

i'm glad u found an obama party in Paris. we went to an all night coffee house and just watched the happy people stream in and out...it was fun...

:) d

Nov 4 Ballot photos

2008-11-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

scenes from the ballot box...

Nov 3 standing up out of backbend

2008-11-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

it's monday (well, it's actually wednesday, but i am pretending it's monday)...it's monday night and I finished my yoga practice. I stood up out of backbend for the second time in my yoga life. It was the first time I did it without spreading my feet super super wide. how did it happen? in preparation for tomorrow's vote, my brain made some sort of connection between "every vote counts" in democracy and "every breath counts" in yoga...and so in my backbend series, I was successful in my efforts to stay with the breath...and on the fifth backbend, I just started rocking back and forth between feet and hands and before I knew it I was standing up. this was in the living room. it was almost completely dark. I was like "cool"...and I kept going with the practice.

Nov 2 Soda Fountains?

2008-11-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

I had a lemon phosphate at an old tyme soda fountain yesterday (Nov 1) in Julian. It tasted like lemon soda. Not sure what all the fuss about soda fountains is. Of course, I was already a bit jaded b/c it was the town's "apple days" and there were hardly any apples around...I guess they were all put into the pies that people were waiting in line for...waiting in line for pie...maybe they are just practicing for waiting in line on tuesday...

vote no on 8 rally pic Nov 1 post

2008-11-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

i was going to try to post every day this month (NaBloPoMo)...but it's now the th 5th...so i'm going to do some back tracking...

It's saturday night, and I just got back from the Vote No on Prop 8 rally in Hillcrest. They ran out of candles and there were more young lesbians than you might find at an MC Flow concert (and that means a whole lotta young lesbians). there were also a ton of cops, who were intent on making sure we stayed on the sidewalk. Critical mass blew through on bikes dressed like skeletons...bad ass!!! I wanna be a critical masser here in sunny d.

if animals were people...

2008-10-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

in response to my vegan condom question, douglas posed the following question:

"I didn't know that animal products were involved [in non-vegan condoms]. I wonder what animals would make out of us if things were switched around..."

good question, esp when there are only five minutes before halloween begins on the east coast.

what would a cheetah do if it were a human and we were exotic animals (as cheetas are to us)? hmmmm...for one thing, they might like us b/c we are such slow runners...they'd think it's cute...and they might like how great our camoflage works when we are walking next to really boring walls. that could be really cool to a cheetah. what else? i don't know...I think they might use our emptied out penises as change purses...did i just quote from a bad b movie that is playing right now somewhere in a dark smoky bar? and why am i not there right now?

vegan condoms?

2008-10-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

i saw a sign yesterday for vegan condoms. It said "protect yourself and the animals at the same time."

Are vegan condoms for real?

gloom and doom

2008-10-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

My parents are just back from a two week trip to my mom's parents' farm in Nebraska. My grandparents are in their 80s and still living independently on the farm (my uncles who still farm help out a lot of course).

My mom picked up a Wall Street Journal in the DC airport to read during the 2.5 hour flight. The newspaper ended up in my grandparent's kitchen, and my grandpa took it with him to his reclining chair in the living room by the picture window that looks east across the clay hills of east central nebraska. This is his spot for reading the local newspaper, printed in a town of 800. After studying the Marketplace section of the WSJ with a powerful magnifying glass, he said...

"I don't know where this newspaper came from, but it's all gloom and doom."

More Palin Bashing

2008-10-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

More Palin Bashing...i like the baby names on the wall

hat top to Chris

Vote no on Prop 8 in CA

2008-10-22T14:06:00.001-07:00

Two friends of mine (a gay couple) recently got married here in California and they turned what might otherwise be a for-friends-only 3 minute video into a powerful statement for what is so incredibly wrong with attempts to prevent same-sex couples from having all the rights that hetero couples enjoy. Vote no on Prop 8!! If you get bored, just watch the beginning and then the end...or just take my word for it.

ear plugs and alarm clocks

2008-10-22T09:34:00.001-07:00

There is an inherent cochlear conflict in utilizing both ear plugs and an alarm clock. Sure, the ear blocks block out the ambient noise and drunk screaming grad students at 2 AM. But said ear plugs also block out the alarm clock in the morning.

Isn't there an overachieving high school student out there who needs a diversion from hacking into bank websites who can engineer a solution to my predicament???

Facebook Faceplant

2008-10-20T17:01:00.001-07:00

I took a big ole Facebook faceplant this afternoon. I created a Facebook page months ago in an attempt to better communicate with people within the university where I work. That didn't really happen. Instead, I've amassed a motley crew of friends, classmates and former acquaintances. But it's still a work thing.

In typical style, given uncertaintly and a bit of mild conflict, I just avoided the situation and didn't log on for months. But I still get email notifications saying that so-and-so has requested you as a friend on Facebook. So today, I logged in and "friended" a ton of people...and then answered a question in my Facebook messaging box from someone I don't know. He wanted to know how not to "crush your junk when you do yoga," as he put it. After dispatching some sage advice about NOT wearing boxers at yoga, I said hi to a guy from gradeschool who posted an adorable picture of his unshaven face and a little baby...you know, the kinds of pictures that advertising firms use to get women to ovulate and/or buy perfume.

and then I requested Facebook friendship from a dude from grade school who appears to live in LA. I've actually tried to find him via google b/c my mom said that he was in LA. But I never could find him.

And then I clicked on a picture of another friend and learned that a cool guy I know...my first hookup after my first love and I were definitively no longer together(can you tell I'm mincing words?)...has become a firefighter. So, at least, I can say I have retroactively hooked up with a firefighter. That counts for something, right?

and I joined my gradeschool class of 1990 facebook group and looked at a picture of a little blond boy with smooth skin and shining eyes that turned out to be me.

Then I logged out and walked outside. The soft afternoon sunlight and cool ocean breeze felt real, good, and strange all at once. Being in once place at one time felt real, good, and strage after being in that bizzare time capsule that is Facebook.

if obama loses...

2008-10-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Thanksgiving too.

I totally don't get it. After eight years of Bush, still people think it's the dems who are going to destroy the country (and world)...

I wonder how the big P is going to do on SNL...the spoof of the spoof...like her being picked as the VP candidate...totally surreal

scuscuscuscuscuscuscuscuscuscuscuscuscuscu

2008-10-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

scuscuscu = solar conference update solar conference update solar conference update

beer + exhibit hall = a freaking good idea

one of the solar companies brought in two kegs for "the night with joe public." this night is not to be confused with "the night with joe plumber" which, of course, was happening at the same time on the laptops of the exhibit booth jockeys who were tired of fielding questions from "joe public" and thus traded us for laptop screens featuring two politicians trading "joe plumber" quips.

joe public likes beer when he wanders through an exhibit hall. I'm not sayin it was the beer per se, but I i spotted one company that I liked a whole lot from their name "Sun Pimps" until I realized it was really "Sun Pumps". Sum pumps are cool...but Sun Pimps woulda been way better. Pimpin' out the sun...that's what we do, and we do it for you.

but seriously, there is a reason that "cocktails" are a crucial part of "cocktail parties" and "cocktail party conversations". the cocktails help with the conversations. and likewise, beer helps with the formulation of deep questions regarding surge protectors for rooftop solar systems from joe publics who own neither a solar system nor a roof to mount it on.

PS when i type "mount" i think about rabbit breeding, and the pamplet that described how (and how fast) the buck would mount the doe. Associated with this memory is that of the page in said pamphlet in which one determines the gender of the bunnies that were the fruit of said mounting.

newbannernewbannernewbannernewbannernewbanner

2008-10-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

Solar conference

2008-10-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

I'm headed downtown to the convention center for the night of the big solar conference in which Joe Public can attend for free and see all the solar bells and whistles for sale. I'm hoping to learn about solar water heaters, not that I can install one in our rental, but I'm just curious.

I'm also curious to check up on the green-washing I expect to see from the big utility companies...

more later

Talk to your parents about John McCain...

2008-10-15T17:00:00.001-07:00

hat tip a blog on The Nation for this from MoveOn.org

Candy Corn: Basta Cosi

2008-10-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's still three weeks BEFORE Halloween, my costume is still only inside my head, and I've only seen one carved pumpkin around town.

HOWEVER...I have already overdosed on candy corn. And I don't plan to buy (note: buy not eat) any more candy corn this year. The problem is that they sell small bags of Jelly Belly candy corn on campus, and I've bought 5 bags so far this year. Basta cosi (which literally and figuratively means "stop here")

Only time will tell if my basta cosi is all bark and no bite.