Mem Day

Monday I went down to Woodside to visit with my Woodside friends, Jason and Laura. It's been about a year since I've been to their compound even though they are right around the corner from my work now. I whipped up some super yummy chicken kabobs and picked up a fellow SFer and we headed down to the pool party.

I love hanging out with Laura and Jason and it was a real treat to meet all their friends they've gained since they moved here. Attendance was heavy on the academic side since Laura is at Stanford doing a mastersphdsomethingIcan'tremember degree in Liguistics but, it was also nicely rounded out by the non-acadmic sect too. Everyone was really friendly and funny and I had such a great time! Unfortunately my camera battery died early on and I got no pics of the 14 acre fruit tree farm to show you. I felt it might needed to be charged before I left, but was afraid to do so before the charge fully ran out since it was its first time in use. (don't look at me like that, that was true once for certain batteries right?!?) I wish my new camera had a battery level gauge on it. (I said stop looking at me like that...does it have one!!?!)

It was a bit cool, for me, to go in the pool but that didn't stop most from going in. We had sausages, burgers, kabobs, salads and lots and lots of beer and sangria. My favorite part of the whole day was at one point I surveyed the pool patio scene, which consisted of two round umbrella tables for people to sit at and to which I was sitting at one. The table across the way was full of all the ladies at the party and then I looked at my table and it was filled with all the men. Um...whoops! It was the camera. ;)

Photos here.

Carnivale

Today I inadvertently attended Carnivale. June and I were coming back from a kick ass bike ride in the South Bay and the parade was on its way! We couldn't get down to my street as we were on the southside of 24th and everything was blocked off. We decided that I would get out at 26th and Shotwell and try to make it home on foot. Great idea! Except in order to cross 24th I'd have to become apart of the parade.

Carnivale 2006

I watched for about an hour and a half and it was totally cool since I had never actually watched the parade before. Pics here.

Oh! And you may remember, a year ago my house was broken into on this day.

Hot Floor. Hot Damn.

This is my Morale-O-Meter from the last few days. Sigh...it was so good for a minute.

Wednesday I stayed home from work because surprise, surprise...if you drink excessively for four days in a row, have the stress of your parents in town, are graduating from college and running Bay to Breakers you will probably get sick.

I spent the day on the couch and caught up on my TiVo queue and in between I would go and pee and noticed that the floor right in front of my bathroom door was warm. I noticed it but wasn't too surprised because sometimes the kitties lay there and I thought, well maybe it's a hot water pipe or something and haven't ever noticed it before.

Then Thursday morning it seemed that I couldn't pry the cats off that space and felt around and the floor was still warm. Weird!

Then last night I came home around 12:30am from a long night of being out (in every sense of the word) and I immediately noticed my apartment was unusually warm. Huh? I go into the bedroom and put my hand on that spot on the floor and it's warmer than usual. In fact, the wood file cabinet I have near that spot was even warm. Shit.

I panic because I know that something is wrong and I am standing there, feeling miserable, with my kitties and what if I have to get them out of the house? And where is the carrier? And what do I need to grab? And I know that I have to go into the sub basement to see what is wrong. And I don't want to. I almost want to ignore it and to hell with what happens. Shit.

Out the door I go, I unlock the basement door and as soon as it opens billows of steam stream out into the night. Shit. I turn on the light and it seems that my sub basement room is now a sauna. Or more precisely a turkish bath or steam room. The entire room is saturated and the spiderwebs are heavy with water. The hot water heater that is situated under that part of my bedroom/bathroom floor is spewing scalding water all over and looks like it's going to explode. Shit.

I run upstairs and wake up my front neighbor Patty and she is all wha? and huh? and then ohhhh. We hear our landlady's roommate walking around upstairs so I ring his bell and am like Nivi! Help! He puts on clothes (!awesome!) and comes to the basement with me. He is convinced it's just a leak and even tho the insulation is swollen and bloated, says that it's not going to blow. Thing is, we can't find the shut off valve for the water. Shit.

Patty and I decided to call 911. The Fire Department come in about ten minutes in a giant ladder truck, all sleepy and grumpy, and parade into my basement, root around for the valve, find it and shut it off.

The good news? It's not my hot water heater. Mine is across the room unaffected. Bad news? Poor Patty is withouth hot water until the plumber comes to fix it. Oh and now all the floor boards leading into my bathroom are warped.

Graduation Weekend

This weekend I graduated from college. Yay! It took me about EIGHTEEN YEARS. OMG! I had no idea it was that long! Anyways, my parents came into town to celebrate it with me. This was the first time my parents were going to be spending extended amounts of time together since they got divorced a few years ago. sooo. whoosh! But it turned out great!

My mom came in on Thursday and was about five hours late. I had to do something at work so she came down to Stanford with me and got to see all that. We stopped at In & Out on the way home. Yum!

Friday morning my dad got in and drove right to my house. I put them to work on some last minute yard detail for my party on Sunday. Then we walked to La Cornetta and got some burritos, then off to the Body Expo so I could pick up my race number for Bay to Breakers. My dad went back to his hotel to take a nap and mom and I did some party shopping. Later that night my mom, dad and I went to the Market Bar for dinner. I had been there once before for lunch and it was just as yummy!

Saturday we got up and I got ready for my graduation! The ceremony was at noon but I had to be there at 11am to :assemble: for the ceremony. All of my class mates were really excited and happy and freaking out but we made it through! With minor embarrassment though: as my name was being called and I was walking across the stage I heard my mom yell, " YOU GO GIRL!" at the top of her lungs. Damn that Oprah!

After the ceremony and alllll the pictures, my mom, dad, Carlo and I went to the Beach Chalet for some lunch. Them my mom and I came home and did some prep for my party on Sunday. Then back out to dinner at RNM, my all time favorite restaurant. Carlo came too and we ate SOME MORE....and drank lots more and then rolled out of there.

Sunday my mom and I woke up bright and early to catch BART to the Embarcadero where the start of Bay to Breakers was. I don't know what I was thinking, but I thought I would be the only person on BART heading down there. Boy was I wrong! Only in SF would there be people in costumes, and some of them drunk and still up from the night before, heading off to run across the city at 7am.

I met up with my friend Susan and her boyfriend, Bill. My parents saw us off at the start and off we went. It was really humid and the sun came out and it was the warmest/humidest weather I had run in in awhile. I started to feel mildly crappy along the panhandle, like getting some migraine symptoms and I think it's because I wasn't drinking enough. Thankfully, there were water stops and some watchers even were giving out botles of water, which really saved me. At some point in the park Susan and I were able to grab a snack and we booked it on the way to the finish line. We finished in 1:38. Yes it's realy slow when you consider the elite runners did the 12k in 35 minutes, but this is a pretty good time for me!

After the race my parents were no where to be found and when I finally got a hold of them on the cellie, it turns out that they got to talking and before they knew it it was 2 hours later. I started walking down Irving so that I could keep warm and get closer to an area where the streets weren't blocked off. I ended up walking from Great Highway to Frederick and Irving!! OMG! That's over 50 blocks. It took me an hour.

We went back to my house and I quick took a shower and set up for my party that was starting at 2pm. At 1:59 it started pouring. Figures. We still had fun though as just about everyone showed up and we got to eating and drinking and meeting my crazy parents. I felt so special and really loved to have all my friends there to celebrate my graduation. I got cute presents and lots of champagne! It was so much fun and I feel so grateful! After everyone left, I got in my PJ's and promptly crashed. I was asleep by 8pm.

On Monday my mom and I shopped in Union Square for SIX HOURS. Then we met my dad at his hotel and walked over to Hog Island for their fabulous happy hour. We ate a bazillion oysters and drank a bazillion beers. Then we walked the Embarcadero back to my dad's hotel.

The 'rents left this morning and while it's nice to not have a ton of things to do and places to go, I'm sad to see them go.

Next up! my triathlon in 2 weeks and 9 days! Eeeeee! I can't wait!

Photos here.

Cloud Cult

Last night my new favorite band played The Make Out Room and I have been so excited to see them. There is something about them that really draws me in. Part of it might be that each song sounds like it comes from a different band. At first that confused me and I wasn't sure I liked it. And you know me, I fall in love with singers because of their lyrics (see Dave Sardy and Greg Dulli, sigh). There is something in this singer of Cloud Cult, Craig, whose voice and words just make me feel. Something.

"The under-riding theme of all of Cloud Cult's albums has been focused on the struggle to understand mortality and our purpose here," said Craig. Ted told me that the singers song died unexpectedly and after that he became a hermit and wrote over 100 songs in order to deal with the loss. After I learned this, I can't listen to their songs without thinking of a two year old boy dying suddeny in the middle of the night and how the pain of that loss must be so overwhelming.

Last night I even got teary eyed during "Training Wheels." Pictures here.

Cloud Cult

IMG_0058
Originally uploaded by hezcatt.

I love this picture from the show last night. The band had 2 painters on stage. This painting was close to done.

Whole Foods. Whole Drama.

Today I drove to WholeFoods in Palo Alto to get some lunch. I didn't feel much like eating today and, in fact, hadn't at that point. They have this parking lot with the tiniest spaces in them. I drove around and had to pass up 2 spots because of oversized cars taking up extra room. I think when they designed the parking lot for WF, they assumed that the people shopping there would be all environmentally friendly and aware and would be driving cute little compact cars and not a giant SUV.

Anyways, I found a spot amid 3 empty ones and I parked the farthest to the right as I could. As I was getting out this old lady zips into the remaining 2 spaces and parks right in the middle of them. I waited for her to get out of her car to tell her this, thinking that maybe, you know, because she was old she didn't realize it. But oh yes, she did realize it. In fact, parked that way on purpose because the spots are just too narrow for her. So not even trying to, like, fit into a legitimate space as best she could she just parked across all of them.

As we were walking through the lot I wrestled with maybe telling her the least she could do was *try* to fit into just one but, before I got the chance another old lady (though younger than the first) drove up along side of us and stopped and said: I just wanted to let you know that this woman almost got hit coming into the parking lot becuase she neglected to look both ways before turning. She almost got hit on both sides. Then an old lady show down began as lady number one says: who? and lady number two says: you! and lady number one says: oh I don't think so. and lady number two says: oh yes you did. I tried with all my might not to say to lady number two: oh you mean the lady who took up TWO spots in an already tight and crowded parking lot?

Lady number one starts to walk away just shaking her head like, that bitch be crazy! And not caring, wanting, or interested in seeing what might be true.

$178 -- $2,219

What is that you ask? The price range of Madonna tickets for the San Jose show. WTF?!?!

So, what else is going on? Yeah, not much here either.

I had a super rawktacular time at the Air Guitar Championships. We might call them "the regionals." Willo and Ali and Darren pics here. 1) I forgot to charge my camera battery and 2) my camera is all jacked up since dropping it in a drunken state on my birthday and 3) am expecting my brand spankin' new SD700 TONIGHT!?!!? (love UPS)

So what else?

Ben's mom is coming over tonight so we can "tawk" about Ben's temp to perm status. You know what? He's super happy here and even tho taking on a 13 (or 16, I can't remember) year old cat is a big deal, I love him and him and Shai Kitty love each other so, why the hell not. Plus Ben's mom is totally jet-setting all summer and I don't see Ben in her future. That said, there's sure a hell of a lot of cat fur rolling around my place.

Ok, what else?

I am on a 3 week break from school. THANK GOD. I mean, really, I am graduating on Saturday and that woulda sucked to have to go to class on that next Tuesday with an assignment due. Especially since it's gonna be an eat-drink party weekend. My last class starts the first week of June and then THAT is it.

And?

Sigh, Carlo has been away. It's amazing how you can spend a good chunk of your life coming right home from work and getting your PJ's on and making your way through your TiVo queue and it's no big deal. Then you meet someone who changes your life and suddenly you're doing all these things and it was like your previous life never existed. Or you can't even imagine it going back to the way it was, or maybe you forget how it was and then you have the opportunity to experience it that way again and you're like, what the hell!?!? I had an even more poignant thought but ALI just IM'd me about dress tailoring and I lost track. Well, that's how I feel anyway. He comes home tonight, at any rate, and then things can go back to normal. Or you know, bizarro normal.

...

Ohhh! Cloud Cult is T.O.M.O.R.R.O.W. CAN. NOT. WAIT. Sigh. I love them so much and am so psyched that Carlo thinks he likes them too and is coming with! Ted told me a story at Zeitgeist yesterday that the Happy Hippo reference that is all over CC's new CD is from a dream the singer had. His young baby died and he started having dreams about a hippo and that helped him overcome his grief. Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus. Not so happy anymore, is it?

www.TomCruiseScaresTheCrapOuttaMe.com

What is priceless about this Dish gossip article are the comments by the readers.

Mix Tape

I confess. I made a mix tape for a boy. Then I started to think, when was the last time I made a mix tape? I started going back through my BF catalogue and kept going and going. Not one recent-past BF was worthy of my mix tape! (Though I will mention that I made a "See You In Hell" mix for Kid Kani a few months ago in exchange for his "Lucky 14" mix.)

So, mix tape. I don't know what possessed me other than when any of these songs roll around on DJ iPod, they make me feel funny inside and they make me feel like I need to share them. Here's what I included: (and I know someone, somewhere is laughing that the Refused make me feel funny inside)

Refused - Refused Are Fucking Dead
Interpol - Evil
Biffy Clyro - Justboy
Blond Redhead - Down Under
LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk is Playing at My House
Barkmarket - Hack It Off
Tim Fite - Forty-Five Remedies
The Go Find - Summer Guest
Afghan Whigs - Step Into the Light
Folk Implosion - Natural One
Film School - Like You Know
The Go Find - Sky Window
Tegan & Sara - Walking With a Ghost
Tweaker - Ruby

I'm not a DJ so the order might be slightly random sounding. I tried to match endings with beginnings. What is funny to me is, all but 5 of these songs were introduced to me by Bagel Ted. It's so weird now how we find out about new music. Remember how it used to be the radio? Then it was sometimes MTV. Now it's the internet. Anyways, I digress.

For Carlo's sake, I excluded most of my fav metal, hip-hop and rap songs and these might be 14 of my all time favorite songs right now. I think that people should hear these songs, and while I love Carlo's taste in music...a girl cannot listen to a bazillion hours of The Ramones. (That includes on the stereo as well as special Carlo renditions while shopping.)

Let's digress again. I have a special memory of that Go Find song, Sky Window. I specifically am remembering it live with some cheering and clapping at the end, but I don't think I have ever seen them live? They didn't play with Loquat that time at the GAMH, did they? No, they didn't. (Just checked Bagel Ted's gig list!) Anyways, it's just weird that I have a memory of seeing that song live...and a special feeling that goes along with it. Weird!