Monday, June 26, 2006

Everything reminds me.

So, weekend. It was very weekendish, what with all the not working and stuff I was up to. Yep, no work at all. Friday night... no work, unless you count cooking some pretty tasty aloo gobi (curried potatoes and cauliflower) with some not quite as tasty mustard greens and a cold, weirdly spiced salad involving lots of chickpeas, red onion, and shredded kohlrabi. I tried to call my mom, but she was busy when I had time to talk and then I was busy when she had time to talk. Such is the way of things. I need to send her some music for the road.

Speaking of music and roads, Saturday involved a nice toasty trip to Santa Cruz. First up was visiting Kevin's mom, grandfather, and uncle, who was in town for the week. He picked up an obscene amount of Ethiopian food from our favorite place and we hardly made a dent, but it was tasty. Then we all hung out in his mom's garden, picking and eating ollaliberries (a type of blackberry) and strawberries, making fresh meyer lemonade, etc. Always delightful. We followed this up, in short order, with dinner at Mobo Sushi with the Editor and Jenn in downtown Santa Cruz, which has extensive and exciting vegetarian sushi offerings in addition to its many popular fish-based rolls. After that, we went up to the Editor's friends' amazing house near the Mystery Spot and carpooled to the Rio from there. Neko Case and her band were absolutely beautiful (and apparently Neko is a big fan of casseroles, provided they aren't made with cream of mushroom soup), though I can't say the same for her opening act.

We crashed at the friends' friends' house (which was being housesat) and got breakfast at Dharma's before heading back over the hill to chill without having to be in public or outdoors. Not that there was anything chilly about it; heat is vastly overrated, especially now, with daily highs in the 90s or higher all over the Bay Area. But we watched a little Firefly, ran an errand for some pet project of Kevin's, and so on. In the evening Kevin didn't feel much like rocking, and I didn't feel much like making him drive me over the hill just so I could do some rocking, so we settled on staying here. Well, kind of. Kevin planned to call a few of his favorite restaurants in Mountain View and order one or two good, cold dishes from each. This was a time-consuming but fun project, and the only drawbacks were that by the time we settled in with our feast, it wasn't so hot as to require the cool dishes, and that the tea he picked for me at the boba tea shop was icky. (For the record, I hate boba tea. I hate pearls, I hate milky shit, and I hate stuff that's way too sweet. I just want iced fucking tea and I'd like to have options besides black, but I am not the world. Iced green tea from Tea Era on Castro is neither milky nor contaminated with pearls, but it is sickeningly sweet.)

Today I feel like all kinds of dumb little things are going wrong for me, and for some of those I spend a lot of time with, it was actually crappy. While I just had one of those days where you get every yellow light and it's excruciating to type accurately and why the fuck does my toe hurt and some kid at Target almost spilled a half gallon of cranberry juice all over me, my boss was home sick and Kevin got carted off to the ER by his coworkers for nearly fucking passing out at lunch. Dude has a fever and the most useless, vague diagnosis a clown college physician's assistant is legally allowed to hand out. He seems much better when under the influence of simple OTC medicines and plenty of fluids, though. So that's where I've been all evening.

And now I'm going to go bask in the breezy embrace of the cheap fan I just bought at Target.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Allegra helps me play with kittens.

I learned my lesson today, as I was between refills of the stuff and managed to get all tight-chesty and eye-itchy from playing with cats again. I wasn't terribly bothered over the weekend, so it must be the Allegra. Or I'm actually allergic to my friend, but that seems unlikely.

One of the few evening farmer's markets in this area isn't far from my house, so the Editor and I checked it out for dinner. One of the three bread stalls was selling organic baguettes for $1, so you know I hit that. Plus I got some potatoes, because you can't have cauliflower without potatoes and I have a giant head of cauliflower from my CSA share. I also had an orange honey stick, because they were a quarter and I like sugar. Mmmm, sugar! Dinner consisted of garlic naan, samosas, and baingan bharta from an Indian food stall and curried lentils and spinach-stuffed flatbread from an Afghan/Italian (wtf, right?) "East Meets West" food stall. Everything was rather delicious.

Last weekend was full of laziness and mostly filled with catsitting and TV-on-DVD watching. Namely, Kevin and I watched the first half of Firefly, and yes, you were all fucking right, okay? It is good. I'm not about to go write fanfic or anything, but it was good. (And Jen, now I know what all your damn LJ user icons are!) We are borrowing the rest of the series and Serenity shortly, but I forgot to get them tonight. Alas. We are busy, anyway.

This coming weekend should be significantly less restful, as we have tickets to two shows down in Santa Cruz on Saturday (Neko Case) and Sunday (Built to Spill) nights and plan on enjoying Santa Cruz the rest of the weekend. We are owed a "thank you for catsitting" dinner as well, and free food aside, hanging out with the Editor and Jenn is always a treat. Tomorrow night we're headed to Santa Cruz as well, just to visit his mom's side of the family because her brother is in town. We are bringing them Ethiopian food, apparently. Maybe for once an entire order of hot timatim fitfit will disappear without any left over for lunch. There is always so damn much of that stuff, but it's so delicious, I don't care.

Yeah, and speaking of treats, I treated myself to a new camera this evening. Well, I bought it on eBay. A nice Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9. It's a point-and-shoot, but really, I don't think I have it in me to do much more than that on a regular basis, and this thing looks hot and I plan on keeping it in my purse for random and hopefully excessive photography. The auction was a good deal, too, because it comes in an unopened box with a manufacturer warranty and a 1 GB memory card for about $100 less than most online shops are selling it for with just a 16 MB card. Do I need a camera? Absolutely not. But some of you are picture hounds and it could be fun.

It's being hot in San Jose. I really hate the weather.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

So...tired.

Okay, so I was going to post a really exciting recap of my weekend and not one, but two great Mountain Goats shows, but I am so fucking exhausted at the moment I'd rather die than think about forming interesting sentences. I need to eat some food and go to the Editor's house and meet their kitten and be instructed on its care and feeding. Their other two cats are beautiful and lovely and kittens embarrassingly make me squee.

I am tired because (1) I got 6 hours of sleep and I'm a 7 hours or more kind of girl and (2) the first day of my period is never any fun. I can't relish it like some, uh, artists, I guess. If I had a red tent to visit, I'd probably spend my time there in a fetal position, begging for cups of tea and dark chocolate. Not exactly female empowerment time.

Anyway, last night and Friday night I saw the Mountain Goats for the second and third times. The Friday night show was in Seattle and I took my friends Chris and Lauren and they enjoyed it very much. They played a bunch of really old stuff (like on the tapes/compilations, lots of stuff I don't have because I just not that hardcore, really) and some of the songs that will be on the new album. JD told amusing stories. Then the encore included "No Children" AND "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton," both of which are so great and such a treat to hear. Last night's show in SF was a bit more sedate, as JD had gotten sick and was at risk of damaging his vocal chords should he belt out a few too many fan favorites. The "No Children" debate was quashed with a performance where the audience was on tuneless, shouted vocals and John and Peter played the music and giving cues for the verses. Otherwise, they delved further into the obscure, which includes a lot of great songs you might not otherwise hear because, admittedly, listening to the old recordings is kind of a chore, no matter how great the lyrics are. John Vanderslice, another fantastic performer, gave a nice rendition of "Your Belgian Things," though I heard his performance of the same the night before was a little more enthusiastic.

So, the rest of the weekend. I visited lots of friends -- besides Chris and Lauren, I saw Becky (and her cat Pippen), Josie (and Boo), Christine, Danger, Jana, Tom, and Graylan. There was a visit to the University District farmer's market where we found delicious tomatoes, cheese, and other locally-produced goodies, Pagliacci's pizza delivered, heart disease-inducing real mac and cheese made, and lots of catching up among old friends. I made it to Olympia Saturday night and spent two good days with my family. Sunday was my brother's senior recital, and it was great. His performance was beautiful (I especially liked the pieces he composed himself), there was an awesome turnout, and I got to spend time with family and family friends I don't see often. (Speaking of which, I owe lots of emails...) Plus, mom made bucolne dulce, which is a divine layered dessert consisting of meringue, chocolate, whipped cream, and strawberries.

On the other hand, I was suffering from a bit of a cold/cat allergies/sinus infection/who the fuck knows all weekend. And, again, I'm super tired at the moment, so forgive my awkward phrasing in this entry. I'm trying to be descriptive and no doubt failing.

Take me to the operator.

Oh, Barbara Morgenstern. You are so cute. Your cuteness improves each time I see you. And that last song played with the Mountain Goats was just delicious.

But please let me get your catchy hit song out of my head.

I will update later with the goings-on of the weekend and more tMG gushing.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Dip me in dust mites and call me Sneezy.

I returned to the allergist yesterday. To her great surprise, the swelling in my nose had gone down "75%," she said. She was impressed. Needless to say, I'm impressed, mostly with breathing. I've been using just the allegra and the rhinocort aqua for a few days now and all seems well enough.

The doctor explained that the grass allergies are seasonal and should be over their annual peak in July. She told me to get dust mite-blocking mattress and pillow covers for my bedding and make sure to wash my sheets in hot water at least every two weeks (hey, I use a coin-op washer, this doesn't happen already, okay?). Then she said I could start getting the allergy shots in July.

Allergy shots can actually kill you, by the way. Not likely, but it's possible. I think I'll take my chances, though. I will get one shot with cats and dust and one with grasses and in three to five years, if all goes well, I should be able to go both medicine- and shot-free into the allergen-riddled world.

Anyway, the success of the allergy treatments leaves me with little excuse when it comes to exercise. Until now, I've been lazy because I felt like crap all the time (and yes, not exercising certainly contributed, but being unable to breathe didn't help much), but now I can only claim to be lazy. So I've got to figure out the best way for me to integrate good exercise into my daily routine, and maybe it's the stupid workout video game and maybe it's something else. I don't really like being with people or having to go somewhere because, again, lazy. This is not a call for suggestions, by the way.

Wednesday evening I saw the Eels and Smoosh at the Fillmore with Kevin, the Editor, and an old friend of the Editor's. It was an absolute blast. They have a guy (we think they called him Crazy Al, but there was some debate as to the last word) onstage with them, dressed as a security guard, who annouces things, does weird shit like "dance" by doing kung fu/boxing moves/push-ups, and squirts whipped cream into willing audience members' mouths. Fucking fantastic.

Tonight is Jim Gaffigan at the Mountain Winery. What a pretty place for a silly show. Next weekend I am headed to the PacNW to see some of my favorite people and one of my favorite bands.

All my Netflixes lately are Deadwood Season 2. It is delicious. We did rent some things from Bradley Video last week--Fear and Trembling, which I liked okay; Face, the Japanese movie about a woman who kills her sister and flees, which I didn't like much; and re-watching The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Ghost World. Kevin didn't like the latter much, which saddened me.

Also, I bought some unnecessary crap in the form of shiny oxblood-colored mock croc Dansko clogs on eBay, a pretty black and silver-striped skirt, and a bunch more tea from a new website. Isn't consumerism grand?