There comes a special time in a girl's life...

...when she knows three people having babies in the same week. Yes, friends, I hereby declare 2008 the Year of the Baby.

Fortunately for me, none of them are mine. I am sure the other people are quite happy to have them, though. Me, I'm content with my bunnies and my quiet-a-holic boyfriend who thinks *I* talk too loud. Wait'll you live with a baby, baby. I haven't (recently), but I'm familiar enough with the concept to know it isn't in the immediate future for yours truly.

I am feeling the urge to go into more graphic detail about the icky things about babies that I am happy not to be partaking in at present, but I'll suppress it. It's impolite. I am happy for the people who are happy to have happy babies, though, really!

Anyway, on to things I AM happy about, besides other peoples' happiness.

My dear friend Christine paid me a visit early this week, her first time seeing me in California. It was a hit-and-run, one night affair, but it was fantastic to see her for more than a few hours while I'm trying to see everyone I know in Seattle for the one day I'm in town. We did the farmers' market (natch), baked muffins (*insert Homer-style drool here*), and drove up to SF with Kevin for a nice tour of all the parking spots that were taken within a reasonable proximity of the Exploratorium, our original destination. Instead, we nabbed a spot at the park on the SF side of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked over to the Marin county line. It was a beautiful (and popular) day for the stroll, and I learned that both Kevin and Christine are afraid of heights. Hah! How did I not already know that about either of them?

Afterwards, we were parched, hungry, and desperate not to spend another 45 minutes trying to find parking near a decent restaurant, so we headed back to Silicon Valley and ate at Chaat Paradise (Christine had never had chaat and as far as I know you can't find much of it in Seattle). Then we rented our dorm favorite, Galaxy Quest, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan because we'd never seen it and it seemed like a good pairing. Christine was bored of Khan pretty quickly, so we put on the other. My poor, sleepy friend, wracked by a combination of regularly working the morning shift at Peet's and getting on a flight at the asscrack of dawn on Daylight Savings Sunday, fell asleep around 9:30.

The next morning, we opted to take a walk on the Los Gatos Creek Trail that has an entrance a few blocks from my house, then baked pizza for lunch (one sauceless fakin' bacon-asparagus-Roquefort; one marinara-spinach-cremini mushroom-goat cheese) and played co-op NYT Crosswords on the Nintendo DS. YEAH. We also went down to the Camera 7 and saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which was fine. The movie was chosen because Christine's general Tomatometer threshold is a high splat/low tomato, whereas mine is at least a tomato. It was a decent compromise on that front; neither of us hated nor loved it.

It brings up an idea I have, though, which is that it would be interesting to run some kind of statistics on a person's movie ratings (say, on Netflix's 5-star scale) versus Rotten Tomato scores. That way you might be able to see how well, and possibly in what ways, your taste in movies matches up with the general critical views.

Anyway, we hung out at Barefoot for awhile, which I never really do despite going there once or twice a month to buy my coffee beans, doing more crosswords on the DS and eavesdropping on the smoking highschoolers bitching at the table next door, then met Kevin for dinner at Mudai before I dropped her at the airport.

I have been trying to use Zyrtec to control my allergies since my prescriptions ran out, but apparently I can only take it every other day or less because that shit is what I'm blaming for my inability to stay awake on Tuesday. THAT WAS A LONG FUCKING SENTENCE.

Wednesday I saw a movie with Steve! We saw The Bank Job! It was an entertaining, fun movie! There were many boobies on display in parts! I recommend it if it looks like the kind of movie you would like!

Thursday I attempted to write stuff but I was distracted. I don't know that I am cut out for working from home. I like my TV and my bed too much. Maybe I just need a laptop or I need my COMPUTER AND TV IN THE SAME ROOM AGAIN. Wonder which of those has an easier solution? Also, I took the VTA downtown and went to a double feature at the Camera 12: Be Kind Rewind and Charlie Bartlett. The former was entertaining enough, and the latter was also decent. I enjoyed them unambiguously, but I don't have many substantive thoughts about them.

"Now I will play you another song about people who hate everybody." P.S. I am still obsessing over the Mountain Goats. Check out the recording of the last show I saw, if you're so inclined. And, yes, "The Sign" IS an Ace of Base cover, and no, it's not ironic.