Fish Sticks and Green Jello

NW Tour
The Teenage Harlets - The Juvinals (Reno) - Thee Coppertones (SF)
30-Jun The Alibi, Arcata, CA http://www.thealibi.com
1-Jul Paris Theater, Portland, OR (Not confirmed)
2-Jul The Lobo Saloon, Seattle, WA
3-Jul Twilight Cafe and Bar, Portland, OR
4-Jul 4th of July BBQ

San Francisco Show
The Teenage Harlets - The Juvinals - Thee Coppertones - Shellshocked (NYC)
7-Jul Thee Parkside, 5 bucks. 9 pm

Vans Warped Tour
Phenomenauts, The Groovie Ghoulies, and some other bands.
We'll be playing on the Space Station Stage next to the Springman Records tent.

8-Jul Sacramento, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
9-Jul Boise, ID Idaho Amphitheatre Lot
10-Jul Seattle, WA Gorge Amphitheatre Lot
11-Jul Portland, OR Columbia Meadows
13-Jul Vancouver, BC Thunderbird Stadium
15-Jul Calgary, AB Race City Speedway
16-Jul Bozeman, MT Gallatin County Fairgrounds
17-Jul Salt Lake City, UT Utah State Fairgrounds
18-Jul Denver, CO Invesco Field
20-Jul Milwuakee, WI Marcus Amphitheatre
21-Jul St. Louis, MO UMB Bank Pavilion
22-Jul Inianapolis, IN Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
23-Jul Cleveland, OH Tower City Amphitheatre Lot
24-Jul Chicago, IL Tweeter Center
25-Jul Minneapolis, MN Metrodome Lot
26-Jul Kansas City, KS Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
28-Jul Atlanta, GA Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre Lot
29-Jul Orlando, FL Central Florida Fairgrounds
30-Jul St. Petersburg , FL Vinoy Park
31-Jul Miami, FL Pompano Beach Amphitheatre Lot
1-Aug Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Fairgrounds
2-Aug Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
3-Aug Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
4-Aug Washington, D.C. Nissan Pavilion Lot
5-Aug Pittsburgh, PA Post Gazette Pavilion
6-Aug Philadelphia, PA Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
7-Aug New York City, NY Randall's Island
8-Aug Englishtown, NJ Raceway Park
10-Aug Hershey, PA Hersheypark Pavilion
12-Aug Quebec City, PQ Colisee Pepsi Parking Lot
13-Aug Montreal, QB Parc Jean Drapeau
14-Aug Toronto, ON Molson Park
15-Aug Detroit, MI Pontiac Silverdome
16-Aug Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center Lot
17-Aug Columbus, OH Germain Amphitheatre
18-Aug Buffalo, NY Darien Lakes PAC
19-Aug Boston, MA Foxboro Stadium
20-Aug Boston, MA Foxboro Stadium

http://www.warpedtour.com

For more information on the Teenage Harlets, consult your local library or...
just go to these fine websites
http://www.johnnydismal.com/harletsmainpage.html
http://www.myspace.com/teenageharlets
http://www.teenageharlets.com/

This has to be the most special birthday gift I've gotten from anyone EVER. I got this quilt in the mail today that my grandmother made me for my birthday this year. She took family photos and pet photos and printed them onto material and then added them on to the quilt. It's so great! I'm in love with it and plan on running out tomorrow to get a rod to hang it on the wall.

Now that I've started knitting and crafting my own things, I realize how much time and care goes into making something. It makes me appreciate it that much the more. I even got a bit choked up seeing this. In particular she put a nice sewn message on the back of the quilt, with a picture of herself taken in the rose gardens in Seattle and the best part... a poem that I handwrote to her and my Grandpa when I was a little girl. Incredibly touching and sweet. That's my Grandma for you though... and my Grandpa for that matter. Both talented artistic, musical folks. I got my piano playing talent from my Grandmother for sure. In fact I think some of my personality definitely takes after my Grandma more than my dad or my mom for some reason. I relate more to her in a lot of ways, suprisingly.

I'll be up in Seattle this weekend visiting Cristy and friends, and hopefully she'll be around to spend an afternoon with. I LOVE YOU GRANDMA! THANKS FOR BEING YOU!


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Which Family Guy character are you?

Today Johnny and I head out to Pleasanton to check out the Alameda County Fair. I hadn't been to it since High School back when I was living out in Livermore so I thought it might be fun to check it out again and see if it was any good. When we first got there we met a couple of weirdos... the guy who we paid for parking, rambling weirdo... and the guy who directed us to a parking space, jump in front of the car, flag waving weirdo... I was apprehensive about how the rest of the fair experience was going to go after those two.

Anyway, we headed into the fair and found that it was actually a pretty fun place to go. I particularly liked the fact that it wasn't very crowded. Probably bad for business but nice for us. We did arrive between 5:30 and 6pm but since it stays light out for so long it seemed like we got there much earlier. The fair stays open pretty late, up until 10pm for the exhibits/booths and midnight for the Carnival. Pretty cool!

There were lots of cool booths with goofy things for sale, both inside the buildings and outside on the walkways. I bought some pretty darn good beef jerky at one of the booths that I promptly inhaled. I had to go back and buy another piece of a different flavor because it was so tasty! There were lots of cooking demonstration booths and gadgetry booths. People were very nice and small town-like at the booths too. I liked the atmosphere a lot. There were also lots of exhibits for different types of things like hobbies, gardens, minerals, bees, art, etc. There was judging on the exhibits and we could see who won 1st prize or got honorable mention and so on. And don't forget the animals! Camel rides, petting zoo, animal exhibits... We saw lots of cute bunnies. They were selling animals too. $30 for your very own peacock! $6 for baby chicks! $6 for a baby duck! Great deals. I like the black tailed japanese hens, they were super pretty. I think those chicks were like $8 each.

As far as the actual carnival part went we rode two rides there. One was a mini rollcoaster which was fun but I had visions of our car jumping the track and us splatting on the pavement. We went on this other ride... Can't recall the name. I like to call it "ohmygod we're going to die!". I was super scared on that one. I'm just not as brave as I used to be I guess. Plus I have a distinct fear of Carnival Rides. They just don't seem that safe to me. I'll happily ride a coaster at a big park though where more deaths have probably occured, but that's beside the point!

Back to the ride... It looked like a big arm type thing with a round wheel bit at the bottom. Basically you go into the round wheel part and boost yourself up into your seat so your feet are dangling. A restraint, is lowered down over your head that holds you into the seat. The thing then starts to spin... Then the thing starts to swing to the left and to the right... and then the thing starts to swing higher, and higher and higher, so that at some point you're looking straight down at the pavement on the side of the ride way the heck up in the air, because you've swung completely up to one side or the other. It was never ending. I had to shut my eyes at one point because I had visions of the arm breaking and us splatting on the pavement. Or my restraint releasing and me falling out and splatting on the parking lot. Yeah, good times! I'd probably go on it again though. It was pretty thrilling. Heh.

The Carnival also contained lots of games for dumb stuffed prizes or goldfish. All your typical carnival games. Johnny tried to shoot a basket. 1 ball for $2 or 3 balls for $5. I played the water racing game where you shoot the water in the hole and try to be the first to get your bear to the top. $3 a play. Other games, like darts games were $5 for 3 darts. That's a lot of dough for a crappy stuffed toy. Suffice to say we didn't play more than one game and we didn't win crap.

The best part of the thing? The food! Oh if I wasn't on a diet, I would have gone nuts! As it was I bought a passion fruit and blue raspberry hawaiian shaved ice, beef on a stick, jerky and a soft pretzel. What I really wanted was fried calamari, fried mushrooms, bbq and so much more. Johnny ate a jumbo corn dog. That sucker was huge! Heck I would have eaten that too, even though I'm not a huge corn dog fan. I'm just craving the fried foods on this diet since I can barely have any.

So yes it was a good trip to the fair. We even got to see some National Guard Recruiters. See the photos below! After seeing Farenheit 9/11 that was particularly amusing.

Oh and while I was writing this post I happened to find the website for Butler Amusements. They're the folks that put on the Carnival. I discovered that the scary ride I was on is called, appropriately enough, "The Freakout". Which is described as follows: "This 16 seat carrousel that lifts its riders 22 meters in the air as they sit around a rotating 360-degree circle. This is a ride for the most daring teens and adults." No kidding. See photo below. This sucker is a lot bigger looking in person. A LOT.


The Freakout

If you're really bored you might want to check out the History of Butler Amusements. It's actually kinda interesting. I find the whole Carnie thing interesting. Books make the old time carnivals out to sound like fun fascinating places to work and live. I'm sure modern day ones are much different now but it's still really interesting. I wonder if they all live in trailers still and have a strange community of carnies. It's different now though because there aren't freakshows and strange attractions anymore. It's just rides, food and games. I did feel a bit sorry for the carnies operating the games. They really have to hawk those games pretty hard. When the crowd is kind of sparse it's probably hard to earn a living. I'm sure they rake it in on other days too, so it evens out I guess.

So if you're in the bay area you should take some time and check out the fair. It's a nice day out of the house and if you go July 9th you can catch the musical stylings of Night Ranger! Can't beat that! Admission is $9 to get in and $8 to park your car. Johnny and I were saying it should be free since the Fair is one big buy stuff event. Buy buy buy! Oh whatever, I had a good time! I only wish I could have bought a baby chick. So cute!


Photos by Johnny.
Except the one I took of him, obviously.


Heading in to the Fair

Recruiters at the Fair! (see Farenheit 9/11)

Johnny, a Jeep and The National Guard

Cute Giant Fat Bunny!

Chickies! You can buy one for $6!

Eating Tasty Shaved Ice / Not too Crowded There

I hate this ride, HATE IT!

Carnival Crowd

Free plug for my friend Theo's band who will be doing a short tour of the Pacific Northwest. Come check 'em out if any of these shows are in your area. I'll be in Seattle next weekend and while I'm there I'll be seeing them play at the Lobo Saloon. Come on down and say howdy if you're in the neighborhood!

Teenage Harlets (surf.garage.punk/from SF)
www.myspace.com/teenageharlets
www.teenageharlets.com/
The Copper Tones (instrumental surf music from SF)
www.spider-t.com/coppertones/
The Juvinals (two-piece garage punk from Reno)


Wednesday June 30th
The Alibi
744 9th Street Arcata, Ca
www.thealibi.com/

Thursday July 1st
Fox & Firkin
202 SW 1st St Corvallis, OR (541) 753-8533
www.foxandfirkin.com

Friday July 2nd
Lobo Saloon
433 Eastlake Ave E Seattle WA (206) 464-9435.

Saturday July 3rd
Twilight Cafe and Bar
1420 SE Powell Blvd. PORTLAND, OR
www.twilightcafebar.com

This theater is in my old neighborhood. Good for them. I stole this photo from Michael Moore's website.


Grand Lake Theater - Oakland, CA

Tonight I met up with a group of folks, 8 of us in all, to have dinner then see Farenheit 9/11. For those of you out there that haven't heard of this, it's Michael Moore's documentary about Bush, the war on Iraq, Terrorism and much much more. I added a handy link in the title to the movie's website if you'd like to see a trailer or find out more about it. I also just read some news blurbs on Michael Moore's website about how the demand for the film was so high opening night in NYC that they decided to show the film all night long! As it was they were showing it every 45 min.

I loved this film for so many reasons. It touched me, made me laugh out loud, shocked me at times, and made me understand some things so much more than I had before. It's hard to describe everything that happened in this movie since there was so many points made, and I really think people need to see it for themselves and take away what they will from it.

A few movie points:

- The Bush Family's connection to the Bin Laden Family
- The Bush Family's connection to Saudi Arabia
- The senseless and needless killing of Iragi Civillians (very emotional)
- Poor families being pushed into enlisting since there are no other jobs for them
- The manipulation of the last election, and why Gore should have won
- Families who lose children over in Iraq
- Haliburton, Enron, The Carlyle Group and so many other companies in this war for profit

I could go on all night! Just take some time and go see it. Some of my friends wondered what it would be like to see this film in an area or with a crowd that isn't particularly pro-democrat or liberal. I'm not sure that anyone who wasn't that would go see the movie in the first place. There was definitely moments of applause and cheers during the film that made you realize exactly where most of the people in that theater stood.

I didn't vote for Bush in the last election and I sure as heck am not going to vote for him in the next election. I voted for Gore, not Nader or any other candidate. While I understand the points of view of folks voting for people like Nader or other candidates, I want Bush out of the white house so badly that I can only vote for Kerry in the next election. Absolutely.

Also, another point brought up tonight. Why does this film have an R rating? It totally didn't deserve it. There was nothing in that film that we hadn't already seen on the internet or on the news. Oh and remind me never to watch Fox News again, amongst other things. Yeeesh. Watching that film made me afraid for America. Afraid about who controls this country and how much money is changing hands at that level. Very afraid. If this film isn't showing in your area it will come out on DVD in September. If it is showing, get off your butt and go see it! Sorry for the sparse commentary. Tomorrow's an early morning, and I'm not one to argue politics, particularly at 1 something AM...

Synopsis of the movie from the Farenheit 9/11 website:

"One of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, Fahrenheit 9/11 is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11.

With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering the facts, Moore considers the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Bush and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saudi connection to 9/11, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi money had funded Al Qaeda. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows us a nation kept in constant fear by FBI alerts and lulled into accepting a piece of legislation, the USA Patriot Act, that infringes on basic civil rights. It is in this atmosphere of confusion, suspicion and dread that the Bush Administration makes its headlong rush towards war in Iraq ?and Fahrenheit 9/11 takes us inside that war to tell the stories we haven't heard, illustrating the awful human cost to U.S. soldiers and their families."

I spent about 5 years living in Flint, Michigan when I was in elementary school. I can't believe how much its changed since I was there, when it was a thriving community with jobs. It's povery stricken now with an official unemployment rate of 17% and as one woman in the film stated, a rate that's actually closer to 50%. Unreal. Most of the kids in that town wind up enlisting as a means to get to school or a better life. Now those kids are over in Iraq being killed for no reason. That's something everyone should think about and be aware about.

Be sure to visit the website for the film. It has some great resources on there.

I know nothing about buying BBQ stuff. Yes I understand the basic concept of it and I've BBQ'ed before, many years ago. But overall I'm not as up on this as I could be. For my birthday Jeremy, Sabine and Theo got me a gift certificate to Amazon. I decided after much deliberation to get a mini Weber BBQ. To go along with it I also ordered an 18" BBQ grill brush, a Weber BBQ Mitt, A BBQ tool set with case and a Weber Chimney Starter for the coals.

So far I've received the bbq, brush and chimney starter. I canceled the mitt since I figured it was overkill and the shipping was delayed. I'm still waiting for the bbq tools. Anyways, I thought I'd put up a little photo of what my three items look like. As you may or may not be able to tell from the shot, I ordered a little weenie bbq and giant accessories. That chimney starter is huge! I could bbq out of that thing alone! I need like 4 coals to heat my bbq and that thing holds 500. Seriously. It's as heavy as the damn bbq.

I feel stuck with it though since with shipping it cost $18.00 and if I send it back it will cost $5 for shipping plus a 15% restocking fee since it was from a company that sells through Amazon. (Note: You can only use a gift certificate on "Amazon" items, no subsidiaries, such as any of the apparel companies, what a joke) So if anyone out there needs a chimney starter I have one for sale real cheap! I can make do with the gi-normous grill brush because those 4 coals can get darn hot and you'll want to keep your arm away when scrubbing the crap off the grill. Yes indeedy. I can't wait for the tools to get here either, I can probably stand a good 3-4 feet away with those when flipping a burger. Nice!

By the way, the blogger spell checker doesn't like the word "BBQ". Apparently this should be replaced with BBC. I'm a posting maniac tonight!


My new Smokey Joe "Gold" Weber BBQ

Brody is a little boy kitty that lives in the building next to mine. I first met him a couple of months back when he used to run out to hang out with Toby in the mornings when he was out back doing his morning you know what. Toby and Brody get along great. Brody lets Toby chase him and he puts up with him sniffing his butt all the time. That's some love for ya. Brody is the friendliest cat you could ever meet. I'm suprised someone hasn't run off with him! For a long time there I wasn't sure he had a home since he doesn't wear a collar. One day when Johnny was over walking the dogs he met Brody's owner. Brody's owner has a dog so it makes sense why he has no fear of them at all.

I'm not a big cat fan, I've said this before. Even though I do own a cat. But seeing Brody and Toby play together makes me wish I had a cat like him. My cat Olivia, HATES Toby with a passion. In fact they hate each other. Toby used to be afraid of her but now he just chases her if she's bitchy to him. I guess she deserves it sometimes so there you go. Either way, it would be nice if they got along better. Olivia loves to drive me crazy too. She's a smart cat but she does things for attention that makes me nuts.

Case in point, just now she tried to jump up on me while I'm in my leather chair. She of course can't make it since she's aimed at the skinny little armrest. So instead she hangs there by her claws on the arm, waving the other arm in the air, finally catching MY arm with it. She then falls backwards putting a HUGE scratch in the arm of the chair and a one on MY arm as well. Ouch! Bad bad kitty! Sigh. Don't even get me started on the five tons of cat hair that sits on everything around my house like a layer of dust. Toby doesn't shed! Uh uh!



Brody

Brody trying to get in my house

Brody/Toby smoochy action shot

Pissed off Olivia up on the roof

It was Chris's birthday party too, so Happy Birthday to both of you!

I didn't whip out the camera much at this party. No idea why, but it was fun nevertheless! There were lots of good photos to be had too. I was obsessed with the fact that I'd lost my lovely white flower that went with my shirt. So I spent a bunch of time wandering around looking for it and asking about it and getting lots of deflowered jokes as a result. Har har!


Me and the Birthday Boy!

Jeremy

Jackie, fresh from a wedding

Theo and Jackie in a cheesy prom pic pose

My first week of Weight Watchers I went over my 20 pts a day, 35 flext pts a week limit by a whopping 46 points! It doesn't help that I had fried food twice in one day which totally tipped it over the edge. There's a nice fat - 46 in red on my chart for that week, ouch. I still weighed in at 2lbs less than I put my starting weight at. I calculated that starting weight by what I weighed at the doctor's office, since I'd been so many times in the past couple of weeks. I'd been at that weight steadily for months. So that first week of 2lb weight loss is questionable.

Week 2 just ended yesterday and had 1 pt left to spend! Yay me! No red marks, no overspending. This morning I weighed in at 2lbs less than the week before! That's 4lbs total (ahem) weight loss since I started. I don't feel any thinner, but yesterday at the fitness place my trainer asked me if I'd lost some weight so that made me feel good. I'm still not really drinking water, except a glass a night which is bad. So that needs to change at some point. I know it will help but I hate drinking water. I know I'm sooo unhealthy. I love doing this Weight Watchers thing though. I love being able to eat what I want (pretty much)as long as I eat only what points I'm alloted for the day. So today for example I ate a very small bit of frosted chocolate cake at a baby shower and it only cost me 3 pts. Yay! Of course I went over by 8 pts today because I snacked a bit too much but I still have 27 out of 35 flex points left for the week.

Lately I find myself filling up my smaller portioned dinners by eating more steamed veggies. Veggies are a zero point food, if you eat it moderately. If you eat a ton of it eventually it will cost you. After all Weight Watchers is all about portion control. That first week I was sure I wasn't going to make it. Now I feel a lot better about my chances for success. The key to this, for someone like me who eats out a lot, is to plan ahead. So Monday for example I knew I was going to be out for dinner, so I looked up some food choices and picked what I knew I could wind up having that evening. If you go out not knowing how many points something's going to cost you, it's very easy to use up all your points quickly.

For example, I love fried calamari. It's called Squid Tubes at Tapioca Express, my favorite local tapioca tea shop. This has got to be my most favorite snack of all time. I get 20 points a day to spend, that's it. If I go over it eats into my flex points. 1 cup of fried calamari, which is about what's in a bag there, costs a whopping 21 pts! That's more than a whole days worth of points! So as you can see, I have to save up for stuff like that, and it can maybe only happen once a week.

Anyway, I am surviving and liking it. Thanks to C for suggesting Weight Watchers to me! She definitely inspired me and I'm grateful. I need to lose 12lbs. 4 down, 8 to go. I have a feeling that when I get down 12 lbs I may need to lose a few more, but let's start out with a small goal and see how that goes. ;)

Finally I figured out how I would reconcile having Snor comments and Blogger comments. Since I'd started out with Snor comments I didn't want to republish my entire blog thereby losing those old comments. Reading C's blog gave me the answer. Why not just publish two means of commenting? Snor or Blogger? So when I republished my entire blog with the Snor snippet in the template the old comments would still remain. So now you have a choice to post blogger comments or Snor comments. I know Jenn prefers Snor comments since she won't have to register to use blogger to post non-anonymous comments. She can just use the Snor form. So where it says "other comments", those are also known as Snor Comments. Snor being the name of the script I used to put them together. I'm just happy I don't have to delicately republish only the index page, and I can now have all my pages looks the same. I'm sure you don't care but it makes a world of difference to me!

Sure knitting's cool and all but I can't find a cool poncho/shawl knitting pattern ANYWHERE. Then I realized that's because most of them are crocheted, not knitted. So I've decided to take up crocheting now for awhile. My grandma taught me how to do these years ago and honestly I think crocheting is much easier than knitting, so hopefully I'll be able to whip out some cute ponchos in no time. I just can't find the one I want in stores and the ones that are somewhat nice cost an arm and a leg.

So after an extensive search online I found Becka's Boutique on ebay. She creates and sells really cute crochet patterns which she auctions off or sells in her ebay store. I bought 4 of her patterns. They're very cheap and she emails them to you once you've paid for them, so no shipping costs or waiting around for the pattern to show up in the mail. I'm excited to get started on something new other than making wristbands or scarves for a change. What's particularly nice about these patterns is how little yarn they take to make. Plus they're supposed to be quick and easy to make.

I'd like to get started on one this weekend. It looks to be a low key weekend since I have to go into work for a bit on Saturday. Friday I'll see Farenheit 9/11 with a group of friends. Saturday night... who knows. Maybe nothing for a change! I'll have my new mini weber by then so maybe I'll have a mini bbq.

I've been reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. So far it's interesting. I'm not sure I'm loving it yet, but it's different than my usual read. I'll post more about it when I'm done with it. Oh, Dave and I saw The Stepford Wives last week. I'm not even going to go into a whole explanation of why it was bad. Let's just say it was really bad.... so bad I didn't get it in the end, if you can believe that. As in, what just happened here? Huh, wha? Eh. Poor Matthew Broderick. Please, whatever you do, go rent the original, read the book, just don't see the new one. Dave and I always go see the dumbest movies. But I like that about him. I can go see all the big budget hollywood movies with him whereas my friends generally like to see more serious or indie stuff. We're going to go see Dodgeball together possibly. Heh.

And last but not least, Dave announced his engagement (during a friends bday party I might add, tsk tsk) on Saturday night. So congrats Dave! It's not a shocker in the least, since this has been in the works from the first date practically... but now it's official, ring and all. Another one bites the dust! That leaves Becky and myself, out of the original gang, as the remaining unmarried ones. Typical. I'm not gonna get started on that topic though. Let's just end things on a nice happy note. :)

So maybe I shouldn't have watched The Ashlee Simpson show on MTV after that last post. Holy crap she's just as vapid as her sister Jessica. Plus she doesn't even know how to clean. I mean who the hell grows up not knowing how to sweep a floor? It's not like she's Paris Hilton or anything. Oh to live the life of a totally spoiled brainless 19 year old. Yuck! The Simple Life 2 was pretty bad as well. The only redeeming moment was watching Paris Hilton get thrown off a horse and stepped on. What was even better was watching the ranch owner pick a big clod of dried up poo or as he called it an "organic" out of her hair. Hah!

Last Comic Standing on the other hand is great. The comics are funny and fun to watch. I'm watching the second half of the Las Vegas finals where they pick the remaining five comics to live in a house of ten comics, until they are all eliminated down to one. I'm also really enjoying Celebrity Poker Showdown this season. It's fun to watch people play Texas Hold 'Em. Particularly amusing celebrities. Makes me wanna start up a poker game!

And yes, I have a pain in my neck. Another pinched nerve I think. I can't even turn to the right at all without moving my whole body. I made an appointment to see my Chriopractor aka Magic Healing Fingers Lady tomorrow. I've had some weird issues with my back and pinched nerves in the past that she's always been able to work out for me. She's more of a muscle worker/back doctor then just the crappy sports doctors you go to that crack your back and kick you out. She's truly a magic worker. I'm taking the morning off work and heading to the city to get this thing fixed. I was going to make some low fat brownies tonight but considering I can't even bend down to pick something up I may have to put that off until tomorrow.

On other fronts I met with a therpaist on Wednesday who was nice. She's probably going to wind up referring me to someone else, but we had a good talk nevertheless. Basically after I filled her in on everything she told me at the end that I was very insightful and knowledgeable about my own life. She commended me on coming to see a therapist to have someone to talk to even though I already pretty much knew what to do and how to do it. She said it's good to have support rather than "white knuckling" your way through issues. I agree and will go back next week to meet with her again. Meeting with her gave me strength and resolve about some issues that I'd been wavering on. I'm hoping to find a therapist that my medical plan covers so it doesn't break the bank so to speak. For now I have my three free visits.

Karoke night was nice last night as well since my friend Shannon came for the first time. It was mellow and we didn't stay too long. Toby was a bit of a terror, which is unusual since usually he's pretty well behaved there. He kept chasing people around barking at them. Everyone's so sweet to him though. I don't bring him everytime but once in awhile it's nice to tote him along. Next Karaoke night is Shawn's birthday. Shawn is one my generous friends and he's the organizer of these nights every other Wednesday at his 049 Lounge Space in SOMA. He also throws a great monthly party there as well. This month's party is Mark's birthday which is happening this Saturday. It promises to be a big one since there's already over 70 Yes RSVPs and counting. Happy Birthday Mark!

Have I mentioned yet how much I love summer? I love it! Warm sunny days are great. I am particularly loving having my patio right now and the ability to actually plant things and watch them grow. I've decided to be frugal and use part of my birthday gift certificate to buy a mini charcoal weber vs a gas grill for my patio. It's just a small table top weber but I'm starting to get tired of smelling my neighbors bbq'ing just about every night and want to do my own bbq'ing! Plus I can have some folks over at some point or we can tote the thing to the park (unlike last time where we had no bbq!). Sure it would be great to live in the city one day but I look around me at the place that I have, the cheap rent I pay, and the great sunny/non-foggy warm days I have here, with no work commute, and I think, damn I can't beat it! Sure I'll move at some point but for now, things are good. I can go outside and hear quiet. No cars roaring by, no pollution or crime in front of my door. I'm content.

Okay back to watching the rest of Last Comic Standing. Then I might have to lay down or something to get my neck in a good position. Oh btw, I'm reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. It's his first book I believe. A bit corny in some parts but a fun read. Defintely not as good as his later works, ie The Da Vinci Code but if you're a fan like I am then you'll enjoy it. I recommend it for good pool side, beach laying, patio sitting reading. Now if only he had some more books out. I'm going to have to dig back through the giant box of Dean Koontz books I bought off ebay for more reading material once this one's done. Which will probably be tonight.

The other day this friend of mine was telling me that just about all of her friends were from work/people that she'd met at work. I said wow, next to none of my friends were from work. I mean honestly, I couldn't imagine only have friends from work! That would be really weird. I mean can you imagine if everyone you hung out with did the same type of job you did or worked on the same type of things? I get sick enough of dealing with work when I'm there much less hanging out with everyone from there as well. Don't get me wrong, I work with some cool folks but that doesn't mean on the weekend I want to party down with all of them either.

Where I work a lot of folks are married or not into what I'm into per se. Some of the people there are kind of pretentious too. Not so much in my group but there are people like that. In the tech industry people make a decent wage so you tend to get folks, those that are not supporting a family with kids I mean, throwing a lot of money around. It's a little nauseating at times. Like oh, look at my new fancy car, or my new fancy apartment, or this condo I plunked 600K plus down. It can be pretty materialistic. I guess I say this because not all my friends are made of money and are about money. I have friends that are students, artists, musicians, unemployed, techies, writers, etc. I think my life is that much richer for having such a diverse group of friends. I get exposed to so much more than I would if I had a limited group of friends.

When I was not hanging out so much and just hanging out with my last boyfriend, who worked where I work, things were much more materialistic. More about having stuff, and buying stuff and getting the best stuff. Now that I'm with everyone again, it's not about stuff so much. Sure I still shop and buy stuff, but not like I used to. Plus I have to be more conscious about money when I'm with friends who can't just throw money at everything. It's not so bad because I find myself being more frugal which is always a plus. I do still have friends that make a lot of money, but those friends can be generous with our friends that don't make a ton. It's nice though, I can buy a friend a gift that they really need because hey, they don't make tons of money so they don't own everything under the sun! There's actually things they may want or need that they just don't run right out and buy. Things that they appreciate.

Honestly I find it a bit disgusting when people just throw money at stuff. You know there are many many people out there that can't do that. They can't say, oh ho hum, I don't like *this* let me toss some money at it so I can feel better. What an empty existence that is! Money doesn't make the world go 'round. It may make you more comfortable but you can't buy friendships with it. Not real ones at least. Plus it's wasteful. I know some folks that just waste money like it's nothing. Even though I may have some money it doesn't mean I'm just going to toss it at anything I want whenever I want. I actually consider costs before I just buy something these days. Sure it's nice to have whatever you want and the best of the best but that doesn't mean you have to waste your money. Frugality is a good thing. Besides who are you showing off to anyways? I mean if you want to attract materialistic folks, then be a materialistic person. If you want to attract real people, be yourself, and they'll love you now matter what you have, how big or small, how good or bad. Trust me, I know! :)

Everyone took tons and tons of photos. I thought I'd share a few of my more favorite less drunken looking photos. There's got to be a hundred more photos from this party, some truly embarassing, ugh. Anyways, here you go.


Nancy and I - Pre-drunken binge

Jackie and I

Kari, Nancy and I

Sabine the Birthday Girl

Group Shot - I needed a longer shirt, definitely!

Have you heard about this new show? (Link in title!) It seems just SLIGHTLY over the top! It actually seems rather creepy to me. Particularly considering how Michael Hutchence died. I wonder if they'll get some look alike or sound alike. Yup creepy!

Okay the initial shame of the weekend has burned away since I spoke to many many folks who were there who all reassured me that I didn't do anything dumb or say anything particularly stupid. I was just wasted. So that's cool. I guess as everyone said it's not like I do this all the time so best to not repeat the scenario. That way I won't get the reputation of being the lushy girl at the party, unlike other folks I know! Heh.

My mood's improving too. I called this program at work to make a therapy appt for myself. I'm in the mood to re-evaulate my life right now and I think this is a good step to take. I still think on and off about moving up to the city and how much easier that would make things for me socially since I'd be close to home when I go out and have crazy nights. Having to get home that night or the next day is hard to impossible at times. It would make life easier in that sense but I do love where I live, its so nice and convenient. I also save a lot of money living here in rent/gas etc. In fact I think if I lived in the city I'd be out almost every night since it would be easier for me to get out and about with friends. I definitely don't think that would be a plus considering.

I'm still feeling a little under the weather from the weekend but I'm rapidly improving. My high school buddy Dave's over and we're going to go see the Stepford Wives and eat popcorn. I started Weight Watchers last week and so far it's been good, except I used up 8.5 points on White Wine this weekend then blew 21.5 points on my most favorite snack of all, Squid Tubes from Tapioca Express. Man I love that stuff! It was my hangover food yesterday. I am down a little bit in weight already and my goal is to lose 12 lbs. I only get 20 pts a day to spend on food so suffice to say the first two days were pretty painful to adjust to. I get 35 flex points a week to spend and with my squid, wine and the bad stuff I ate at BFD I'm down to only 5 pts left to spend until Thursday when they reset. I think I can make it!

Anyway, just a quick post to say I'm Okay. And thanks to C, for posting the spa suggestion. I'm going to go get another facial this week, that will definitely make me feel better! I like how my funks only last hours now instead of days. Such a vast improvement from earlier times in my life. It shows progress I guess. Oh and Dave said while the photos weren't the most flattering of me, I didn't look like a fat slob. Thanks Dave!

Okay I've had it. Party party party is getting old old old. I had fun at Sabine's Birthday party Saturday night but I got WAY too drunk. I hate getting that drunk. You get sloppy and silly and do dumb things. Everyone keeps telling me that yes while I was completely drunk I didn't do anything too stupid. Sure sure, that's all well and good but it would be nice if I could actually remember those details. In fact I can't remember a lot of things that happened which really bothers me. I can't remember the last time I was THAT drunk. There was a party awhile back where I got pretty crazy drunk but not like this. This was just completely over the top. At least I didn't get sick or pass out. Amazing really.

Anyways, I'm embarassed. These photos of me that people took are horrendous! I look fat and sloppy in them. My gut is hanging out of my pants and I look ridiculous. I know I'm being harsh right now but it's what's necessary for me to address the fact that I did a stupid thing. I was talking to Jackie today about how every weekend is just one party after another. This next weekend will be Mark's birthday party. It's overwhelming and getting tiring at this point to spend every weekend party'ing. This is part of the reason I don't live in the city. I like having my distance, my sanctuary to get away from the whole scene. My apartment is my oasis away from all the craziness.

To be honest, while I enjoy being social and having fun, I really want to "settle" down at some point. I want to ocassionally go do these things, but not all the time. I want to have a normal life where things are done in moderation. I want to find that right person and have someone to share things with. It's not much to ask for really, people do it all the time. I'm just stuck in this cycle that I can't seem to get out of. It's always one extreme or another but never that happy medium. I either stay in all the time or go out all the time. I hate it really. I try very hard to not let things like this get me down but this weekend took it's toll on me. What I've never understood is how some of the people I know can live like this ALL the time. It's just too much for me.

Anyways, I'm sure tomorrow I'll be chipper again but tonight I'm just feeling in a down mood. Honestly I'm feeling fat, unattractive and very alone. I hate that. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Quick post before bed!

I took Friday off of work to go to Live 105's annual BFD show. This entails a long lineup of bands playing at the Shoreline Ampitheater over an 11 hour period. Seeing as how I'm inherently lazy I wasn't about to go for all of it. Jeremy came by earlier in the day and we went shopping for Sabine's birthday present. We found something nice for her at Crate and Barrel, can't say what yet since we haven't given it to her. The present is from Theo, Jeremy and I though. Which is kinda cool since my birthday present was from all three of them. Joint gifts are always nice and easy to do.

Anyway, J and I headed over to the show a little after 4pm and met up with Katherine and Kevin. While we were waiting for them we got to hear The Rapture playing in the sub sonice tent. They didn't sound very good at all, so I'm glad I wasn't actually watching them. The Shoreline Ampitheather was completely crowded. It took us a little while to get our bearings and even longer to find the beer ID booth. This year's BFD theme was comic books. The program was done as a comic book and the logo had that POW! look to it.

We missed all the bands earlier in the day such as The Stills, The Von Bondies and Death Cab for Cutie.We also unfortunately missed the local band stage. A band called Communique from Oakland were playing and I would have liked to catch them. Jeremy is friends with the band and their single "Perfect Weapon" has been getting a lot of airplay on Live 105. If you haven't heard them before you should head over to their website and check them out. They're kind of an 80's throwback band. You'll know what I mean when you hear their single. They sound so good though, not like just any local band. They're album is actually very well produced. I met Rory and Corey from the band last week after Zero 7. I had missed their show that night since I was at the other show but still stopped by 330 Ritch afterwards to see everyone. They were really nice guys and I look forward to seeing them when they play again.

Okay so back to BFD. So while waiting for The Streets to start we unforuntately had to listen to New Found Glory playing on the next stage. Yuck! Pass! Luckily we got out of that area fast enough and after a long wait we caught The Streets in the Sub Sonic tent after catching the end of Dizzee Rascal, who I didn't really warm up to. I happen to really like The Streets and no one else had really heard them before. Their show was okay but the sound in the tent really sucked so I had a hard time really getting into the show and into the music. We only stayed for a few songs before we jumped over to the next stage, which was RIGHT NEXT to the tent. No clue why they did that, probably a space issue. It sucked though since the sounds kind of overlapped. Anyway, we caught Bad Religion on that stage, who are always pretty good. Boy are those guys getting old! They still sound strong though. We caught most of that show before heading out to get garlic fries and cheesesteaks. Ohmygoodness Garlic Fries are the greatest thing ever! That is of course until you get towards the bottom of the container and start feeling grossed out from all the garlic and grease, but those first few bites are heaven!

The food line was horrendous so we wound up missing a lot of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the main stage. We had lawn seats (bad idea!) and parked ourselves up their to catch the last couple of songs. After that set we caught The Violent Femmes who were really great. It's funny that after all these years of going to shows I've never seen them play. It wasn't a visually exciting show per se, but they sounded great as well. Just like Bad Religion, the Femmes have been around FOREVER and are getting up their in age. It was fun (weird?) to see these little 12 year olds going crazy during the songs. Their music never gets old I guess!

After the Violent Femmes was the highlight of the evening. The "Special Guest Appearance" by the Beastie Boys. Calling it a "Special Guest Appearance" seems to imply that it's barely a set or only a few songs. But they played a pretty full set. Kevin said it was about 12 songs. They also came out for an encore. Katherine commented that it was a much better performance then when we saw them at Coachella and I'd have to agree. They played some new material as well as the old stand bys like Root Down, Body Movin', Three MCs and One DJ, Intergalactic, So What'cha Want and more. Their encore song was their new single, Ch-Check It Out. I'll probably pick up their new album. I always love seeing Mixmaster Mike do his thing. He's only one of the greatest scratch DJs ever!

The show headliner/ender was The Strokes. I really like The Strokes and this was my first time seeing them live. They sounded pretty good except I'm pretty sure the lead singer was either very drunk, a total freak or both tonight. He spent a lot of time jumping off the stage and wandering the crowd, pushing or trying to push speakers off the stage. Falling down on his face, falling down on his back, slurring, stumbling and much more. It was amsuing yet bizzare and almost distracting. I think he must have been drunk, he was just too freaky and sloppy to be anything but that. They mainly played material off their last album and never played Last Nite, which I"m sure they're sick of but I still love it! We jetted out of their during their last song to beat the rush of the crowd.

All in all BFD was okay. I think if I were to go again I'd for sure get seats. The lawn was way too crowded, covered in garbage and just all around disgusting. Seats are the way to go even if they are all the way in the back. I got really sick and tired of people cutting through our area where our blanket was, and stepping on everything as well as kicking garbage on us. Gross. Oh I saw someone I hadn't seen in years today too from the Rockabilly days in Santa Cruz. Dina! It was nice to see her, and she caught me up on some bits and pieces of news from some folks we used to know. She looked great too. Other than her though I didn't run into anyone else which was amazing. Usually you ALWAYS see someone you know, I guess Dina counts for today.

So while I'm not a fan of festival type shows anymore I had a pretty good time regardless and it was totally worth it to see the Beastie Boys. Definitely great! On the way out of the show tonight I got a coupon good for a week to get half off tickets for Lollapalooza. I went the first two years of Lollapalooza but I haven't been since then. It's been many years. Katherine, J and I decided that we should go to Day 1 since its half off in order to catch Morrissey. Modest Mouse is also playing and I'd love to see them. So it looks like we'll be heading back to the Shoreline again next month for yet another festival show! This time we're getting seats!

Okay so this wasn't a quick post... Tomorrow is Sabine's birthday party. J and I picked up ingredients tonight to make Sangria to go with her gift. This will be my first time making Sangria. I don't even like the stuff so hopefully it turns out okay. Boy am I tired and garlicky! Time to pass out.

Saturday June 5th.
"Juney Toonz" at Anon Salon in San Francisco.
Photos all taken by Johnny.

Once again, lots of photos to choose from, not everyone in them etc etc. Second trip to Anon Salon and I had a great time again! In fact I am happy to report that just about everyone that went to Anon Salon had a good time that night. Yay again!


Shawn all dressed up

Shannon

Virginia and Randall

Virginia and some costumed gal

Fred and Katherine

Me, Jeremy and Shannon

Us getting projected on by some cartoon

Dancing Gal

Great Costumes

Some Crazy Costumed Guy

Smooch from Shawn

Saturday, June 5th.
Dinner at Thirsty Bear in San Francisco.
Some photos by Mark, the rest by everyone else, we passed the camera around.

20 people came for dinner. Great turnout! Not everyone is in these photos. I had about 80 photos to choose from that were sent out after the party. I didn't want to totally over do it so I'm being selective about which ones are going up here. Sorry if you're missed in this batch!



The Bday Girl!

Jackie and Theo

Kari, Jason and Libby

Mark, Johnny and Theo

Katherine and Fred

Shawn with group in bkgrnd

Paul and Caroline

Dave, Shannon and Me

Back half of table group shot

Front half of table group shot

Theo and Jeremy

Jenn

Shawn and Ken

So V and I checked out the re-Invetion tour at the HP Pavillion tonight. I've never seen Madonna once in the 20 years that I've been a fan of her music so what the hell why not now? We paid less than face value for our tickets, which was a bonus! Seems that people overbuy and then have a hard time getting rid of them at the last minute so their loss is our gain. Our seats were in the upper level but we could still see the lay of the stage pretty well. The big screen monitors helped too of course.

It took me awhile to really get into the show since the first half of it was so darn political. Madonna really likes the in your face disturbing imagery schtick. Lots of emaciated children and war torn countries. She had a whole bit where everyone wore army outfits and had rifles. She also re-mixed all of her songs, so some upbeat songs became ballads, and some more electronically enhanced then others. I got into the show more when she played songs that were a) more popular and b) more easily recognizable. Overall it was an entertaining show but I'm not sure if I'm getting too old for big arena concerts or if I thought she was just a bit too weird at times. At one point she and her dancers came out wearing shirts emblazoned with "Kaballists Do It Better". Which she eventually stripped off after singing a great version of "Crazy For You" (for the fans that have been around for 20 years!) and threw into the audience (she had her white tank top underneath). There was definitely a lot of Hebrew writing and influence in the show. She also did a few songs playing electric and acoustic guitar which was okay. She's definitely a strummer, not a picker.

My favorite bit was the filler circus themed act. They had a guy skating a half pipe and a pretty darn kick ass break dancer doing his thing on the stage. There was also a pretty cool tap dancer during that bit as well. This intro led into Madonna coming out in a 20's type outfit and singing "Hanky Panky", which was never a song I would have considered a huge hit. It's also a song that's a million years old, but whatever, this is a greatest hits show. I also really liked her version of "Don't Tell Me" but instead of Cowboys, everyone had berets with a cool old black and white scene of Paris in the background. They still broke out some of the cool two step from the video. I love that video! Madonna also did an emotional version of Imagine by John Lennon which showed lots of scenes of children and signs of Peace all over the world. She's definitely changed a lot over the years, it's kind of cool that she's still around and still actually pretty good. I mean her voice was great! She didn't dance during this show as much as I'd like to have seen but overall as I said earlier, it was entertaining.

Couple of other interesting points. T-shirts were selling from $50-$65 apiece and programs were $30 each. Ouch. There were NO encores.

Here's the set list:
01. The Beast Within
02. Vogue
03. Nobody Knows Me
04. Frozen
05. American Life
06. Express Yourself
07. Burning Up
08. Material Girl
09. Hollywood
10. Hanky Panky
11. Deeper and Deeper
12. Die Another Day
13. Lament
14. Bedtime Story
15. Nothing Fails
16. Don't Tell Me
17. Like A Prayer
18. Mother And Father
19. Imagine
20. Into The Groove
21. Papa Don't Preach
22. Crazy For You
23. Music
24. Holiday

If you're not an entertainment weekly subscriber than you won't be able to view all the photos they have of her opening night. So just for you guys I've copied them and posted them right here!


Singing Lament from Evita in an Electric Chair

Doing a pretty cool version of Vogue

Wearing a Burka during American Life (she didn't do this for our show, but a dancer did)

Playing the Soldier during American Life


Singing Hanky Panky in the Circus act


Getting a little more upbeat during a pretty cool segment with a Scottish bagpiper and Scottish drummers

Helping to spell out FREEDOM with her butt

Just finished this scarf for my stepmom last night. I wanted to get it done before I got too busy this week. Plus last night was my only free night for the week. Tonight I go see Madonna (woo!) at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. I'll post reviews on that show later. I still need to post Birthday pics as well which I will try and take care of this week. I promise!


Berry Parfait Deco Ribbon and Splash Yarn Scarf

Close up view - Scarf is unstretched

Thanks for all the well wishes I've recieved from friends and blogger friends alike. You guys are the best! I'm fighting the good fight right now and keeping cool in order to keep the hives at bay. They're right there on the surface ready to bust a move. I'm taking another dose of allergy meds before I go out tonight. I had a nice long chat with my allergist today who told me to get off the antibiotics and take some more allergy meds to see how that works. Oh and all my blood and urine work came back fine. No weird diseases. Yay!

So far I've gotten a couple of nice cards, some really nice gifts and phone calls from friends and family. Everyone's been so sweet. I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody tonight as well. The dinner reservation has jumped up to 23 people at this point due to a couple of last minute RSVPs. So it promises to be a big turnout. I still can't believe I'm in my 30's sometimes. My 21 year old fitness trainer today was saying it was weird for him to call me a lady versus a girl cause I don't seem as old as I am at all. I definitely don't feel like I'm in my 30's most of the time, unless I'm talking to some 19 year old then I REALLY feel older. But otherwise I'm still pretty young at heart.

So another year has come and gone. Here's to being 33!

Okay, September must be a popular month to get your freak on because good lord! There are a ton of birthdays this month! There are THREE birthday parties this weekend including my own. Sabine's birthday party is next weekend and Mark and his friend Chris are having their birthday shindig the weekend after that. My Aunt Bonnie's birthday was today, Mine tomorrow, My Cousin Larry's on the 6th, My Aunt Brenda's on the 10th.... not including all the other people I know of who are having birthdays really soon as well. It's crazy! Maybe it's the June wedding thing then you get pregnant 3 months later or something like that. Anyway... it's an epidemic!

Today my hives came back again. Not in full force thank goodness but rashy and ugly nonetheless. I had a nice fat upper lip too, yuck. I even took my prednasone today. I went back to see my allergist and he gave me some more prednasone. He's going to taper me off it for one additional week. I also did some blood work to rule out any possibility of anything major like diabetes, thyroid etc. Although I did go out to see Zero7 last night and proceeded to show hop and hang out til 4am. Which might have not been good for the immune system but my doctor said that was irrelevant. He's looking for a more long term cause he says. I'm hoping this just goes away once I'm done with the antibiotics etc. If it doesn't then I'll have to take a new allergy test, possible nasal cavity xrays etc. Let's just be positive at this point though and say it will go away. Particularly since my party is tomorrow night and god forbid I'm some rashy mess! I look better now and I'm going to bed soon to get lots of rest so there better not be any hives raining on my parade!

Oh and yes, Zero7 was fabulous. i've been a fan for awhile though, ever since Raul turned me on to them a few of years back. In fact everytime I hear them I have to lend a little thought to Raul. He has the best taste in chill music sometimes. It's great. He also turned me on to Buddha Bar, Goldfrapp and others. Thanks Raul! Zero7 reminds me of pink and blue sunsets over beautful blue oceans. Dusky twilights and warm desert nights. I was saying to my friend Katherine that it reminds me of being some place like Palm Springs. I totally want to go back there on another vacation. I love that place. I used to love to listen to "mood" music when I lived in Dominica, this tiny island in the West Indies. The sunsets were amazing, breathtaking, awe inspiring. I still remember the feeling of standing out on the front porch of the house on the hill I lived in when I was 12 and 13. Except instead of listening to Zero7 I listened to Melissa Manchester for weepy songs. Haha! Hearing Diana DeGarmo sing Don't Cry Out Loud on American Idol sure brought back some memories!

I saw my ex-boyfriend at the show but we didn't speak. I seem to recall the first time I ever played Zero7 for him, he said they sucked. I guess going to shows like that and liking that music now comes with the "new" him. Its so typical though. I mean how many times have you gone out with a guy who's said, oh that sucks, or yuck when you like something but the minute their friends or someone else or whatever brings it into their radar suddenly it's cool! Like I said, TYPICAL. Not unlike when I first started blogging and he said I was gay for doing it and now he blogs. And so it goes.

I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban today. It was great! I loved the first one and wasn't too jazzed on the second Harry Potter movie. This one has a whole new director. Instead of Chris Columbus aka I directed Mrs. Doubtfire, they decided to go a whole new route by picking Alfonso Cuarón aka I directed Y tu mamá también, which I still haven't seen. Although Alfonso did direct A Little Princess which I really liked.

Okay so the story, yes of course it's great. I've read all the books so far and this book is one of my favorites. I was a bit thrown off by some slight changes they did in the plot line but I was able to get beyond that and still get into the plot. I was also expecting a bit more polished hollywood looking film and the opening sequence alone, with the slightly shaky handheld camera really threw me off. The film as a whole had a totally different lighting to it then I was used to. More natural light in some scenes, more gritty in others. I love the transitioning of the seasons and the focus on scenes in nature. It had such a different vibe to it and it made me enjoy it for more than just a blockbuster hollywood film. It came across as more original to me, more unique.

The casting was good overall too. Emma Thompson was okay as Professor Trelawney, amusing but irrelevant. David Thewlis as Professor Lupin, the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher was great! I've never been a big fan of his work and more often than not saw him in bad guy roles, but he was very endearing in this film. Gary Oldman as Sirius Black was good albeit small. We'll be seeing him again though. No, I'm not giving anything away. Just go read the plot synopsis for any of the subsequent books. Anyway, I've always dug Gary Oldman and I still do. The new Dumbledore was blah. It's weird not having Richard Harris around anymore. He brought a kind of quiet grace to Dumbledore. I found that the new actor spoke faster, was a bit more intense and not as dynamic of an actor. Which is a bummer since Dumbledore is such an important character in the series. I guess I'll get used to him.

The kid actors were fine as well. I hope they don't ever plan on replacing them no matter how quickly they seem to be growing up. And Fred and George aka the Phelps twins sure grew UP! They're cute for beanstalk redheads but hey I'm not one to discriminate on cute. I've always thought they were kinda of cute in a gangly geeky kinda way. Heh. I like young boyish types. Not young like in high school, just young-er. Anyway! Go see the movie. I'm not the best movie reviewer, and I'm still working on articulating my thoughts down better but that's what you get. If you want better go pick up Entertainment Weekly!

Okay I have to at least get into bed now whether I'm going to fall asleep right away or not. I've got my usual morning workout appt with my trainer tomorrow that I don't want to be tired or hive-y for. No more Hives! Down with Hives! Hive Free Birthday!

I had an opportunity to jet off to NYC this weekend. Basically I would go there and be put up in a nice hotel anywhere from Saturday to Tuesday or Thursday of next week. My job would be to support our new product and make sure that it was up and running for the demonstrations. Some sort of tech preview show or something or rather.

Alas I had to say no. It was kind of a tradeoff. I could go to New York, probably see my old boss Paola (who now lives in Brooklyn) for a bit, then hang out by myself most of the time. I'd be on call during the day and who knows how much free time I'd actually have to wander around. PLUS, I'd be missing my birthday! If it had been any other weekend I would have totally went for it. But it had to be THIS weekend. What a bummer! Jackie has said she wants to go later this year for a quick trip. I'll try to tag along then I guess. Seemed like such a cool thing to be able to do though. Seeing all my friends on my birthday will be way more fun.

Speaking of Jackie, she's in some crazy magazine spread for getting your own gansta gold teeth. You can see the photo and read the article at the Mass Appeal Magazine site or view the photo below. And no she doesn't have a gold tooth in real life.



And while I brought up the topic of my birthday I'd like to pose the question of What is the Best Way to Split a Large Bill? There are two schools of thought here. 1) Everyone does an even split or 2) everyone calculates and pays what they owe. In theory option 2 is the ideal except the bigger the group the harder it is to actually collect enough money to pay the bill. To make matters more complicated we're having Tapas which means that people will be sharing small plates and who knows who's eating how much. There's also the issue of people's incomes. When people are going that aren't all in the same income bracket and not all employed it makes it tough to do an even split, particularly when people are trying to be extra frugal. We're going to have to go with option 2 on saturday and just hope that everyone pays what they owe!

I'm doing my best here to make this as low stress and low maintenance for myself as possible. I hate having to plan parties and make sure everyone's having fun and that it's well organized. Years ago I threw a huge birthday party for my ex at Kimo's on Polk. I basically rented the place (owner expected a certain amount in bar money to cover the rental), hired the Demonics to play, decorated it all jungle/tiki themed, had my friends Amrah and Angel strip, and Amrah's friend's band play as an opener. It was an awesome party and everyone had a great time, but man what a pain in the ass that was to plan. We even had custom invitations.

I had a BIG birthday dinner at an Italian place years ago with a price fixed menu. There were probably over 30 people there. We all headed over to the Wanda Jackson show at Bimbo's afterwards for a nice combined evening event. The dinner was pretty high maintenance in itself. First the plates were all too small, and the food wasn't as good as it could have been. Lot's of people ate and drank though and when the bill came and the money was collected we were short in the 100-200 dollar range. Which is a pretty significant shortage. A group of us wound up putting in a LOT more money than we'd planned to, which was fine but it was a big defecit. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again this time around. I think it should be okay though. It's tough when you have over 20 people going though.. it can get a bit out of hand.

I don't have super duper high expectations for my birthday. I just want to have a nice time at dinner and a nice time afterwards at Anon Salon. Which is a whole other issue in itself. Some people are put off by the cover charge to get in there. But hey you don't have to go! It's not a club with a meat market atmosphere that sells you expensive drinks. Instead it's a privately run party. Not unlike the ones that Shawn throws at his 049 Lounge Space. The drinks are really cheap too. Apparently not everyone loves Anon Salon either. I personally had a great time last time and look forward to going again. Others hate it. Shawn says he's always suprised by who loves it and who hates it. He took me for someone who would have hated it but hey I'm a fan now. Unless of course this time it sucks! Heh.

There were also a couple of things I would have liked this birthday that don't look like they're going to come through... but that's okay. It may be my birthday but it is also just another Saturday night. It's best not to put to much on it. That's how people wind up party'ing their asses off and passing out in the gutter. Too much, "Hey it's my birthday! An excuse for me to completely go off my rocker for an evening!". Nope, not me. Not this time!

I started this scarf Friday night and finished it Sunday morning. It's not complicated per se, but the deco ribbon isn't much fun to knit with. It likes to get twisted so a lot of my time was spent flattening the ribbon out and rolling the ball to keep the twist out of it each time I knit a stitch. I'm quite proud of it though and it turned out like it was supposed to which is always a plus! I have to say that when you view the picture of the scarf on the pattern site, you'll notice how nice and flat all their ribbon in the scarf is. I found it completely impossible to knit it that flat. No matter how hard I tried and how long I straightened the deco ribbon out, so phooey on that! It still looks good. I knit the wristband(s) last week. The star doesn't look as well as I thought it would and it took me awhile to figure out how to knit the thing properly but I think it turned out well also. The only problem with it is that I didn't bind off knit 2, purl 2 like I should have. I plan on making more "perfect" ones later.

Right now I'm working on the Berry/Purple/Blue version of the scarf I just finished for my stepmom. I'm already 4 rows into it so I should be done soon-ish! 4 rows doesn't seem like much except this scarf is knit lengthwise on circular needles. So instead of casting on say, 10 stitches I have to cast on 115 stitches. So each row takes awhile to get through. The muscle in my hand below my thumb has been sore all day. It felt like I'd bruised my hand when I woke up then I realized it was a knitting injury, haha. It's less sore when I knit at least. I think moving it around a lot works out the pain.



Picnic Deco Ribbon and Strawberry Lemonade Splash Yarn Scarf

Close up view of detail - Scarf is unstretched

Navy and Mint Green Cotton Yarn Wristband (quick to knit, made two last week!) 

If you like the wristbands pick up a copy of Stitch 'N Bitch for the pattern. The scarf pattern is located on the straw.com website. The best site to view the pattern photos with links is on the Knitting Garden website. The best place to order Crystal Palace yarn is not from the Knitting Garden because they were backordered on half my order. Instead you can order from the Yarn Market. They were pretty quick about the order and had everything in stock.

Why am I posting so late? Well I stayed up really late to start the next scarf. I was motivated! And then I really wanted to put these photos up online. Not as much fun if I can't share what I've accomplished.