it's not you I'm looking at...

Rice a Roni

Needless to say, I didn't finish the house before Donna's mom arrived. In order to create a diversion, I hinted at a "quick drive" to San Francisco - and her mom took the bait, or err, thought it was a great idea. The schedule went roughly like this:

Sunday 10 AM - Donna's mom arrives from Charlotte, NC. They head straight to the asian market for Korean food (food is arguably the most important thing in these two's lives).
Sunday 1 PM - They arrive at the house. Donna's mom asks where the kitchen is and wasn't a friend of mine supposed to drive them out? I explain a bit about that and then say, "want to go get them?". She responds with, "well, I've never been to San Francisco before".
Sunday 3 PM - I'm putting the rocket box on top of the car while they do who knows what.
Sunday 5:30 PM - We leave town.
Monday - after driving all night (just Donna & I, Nanna doesn't drive stick) we decide to take the scenic route around Lake Tahoe. That's got to be one of the most beautiful places in the west.
Monday 3 PM - arrive in Sacramento, meet up with Rachel & JT for a late lunch.
Monday 6 PM - arrive in Napa, hang out with Todd & Suzanne, load the cabinets into the car, have dinner.
Monday 10 PM - arrive in downtown SF, check into the Maxwell hotel, meet Donna's cousin Tommy for drinks until sometime after midnight.
Tuesday 8 AM - breakfast, after much arguing, in a small coffee shop. Ride the cable cars to Chinatown, shop EVERY shop in Chinatown. Walk back to the Union Square area, pick up the car, drive down Lombard street, over to Coit Tower, then across to fisherman's wharf to pick up some sourdough bread and to take a look at Alcatraz, then over to Japantown to, of course, eat. Oh yeah, and shop. I fall asleep sitting on a wood bench while they peruse the Japanese bookstore.
Tuesday 4:30 PM make a mad dash to the Golden Gate bridge to try and catch it at sunset, get trapped driving around in the Presidio, make it to the bridge in time to get the rush hour carpool discount, more pictures.
Tuesday 5:30 PM - decide that we might as well go shop haight street while rush hour is in full effect.
Tuesday 8 PM - arrive at IKEA, shop.
Tuesday 10 PM - decide we should probably get on the road to head home.
Wednesday 12 PM - After driving all night, through snow including a nice slip/slide while the girls were sleeping (after which we went into 4 wheel drive) we take a driving tour of downtown Salt Lake City, eat at a Japanese restaurant a block from the temple.
Wednesday 6 PM - arrive in Glenwood springs to a closed road due to an accident. I institute martial law and we eat at an italian restaurant.
Wednesday 9 PM - road opens, we head for Denver arriving at about Midnight.

And I feel like I've already forgotten things we did.

More pictures here.

Buzz!

Look at that, Trader Joe's comes to Colorado! Thanks Neil! I've been enjoying it all week. It also caused Donna to go into a tirade about how Trader Joe's should open a store in Colorado and about how everything about Trader Joe's is better than Wild Oats and on and on and on...so, you know, that's always fun....

Four Zero

But can you tell? More pictures from the event...

Oh Yeah!

Donna's favorite part of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show. A smooch from Nick after chatting with him re: his book. Coincidence that his book is largely pictures of beds he's slept in? You decide...

More pictures, careful though, David had the camera for a while...

And yes, the show was good and no, Karen O. didn't fall off the stage! Sorry Simon & Erica! (and c'mon Simon, where's an entry?)

Uh-oh.

Before living with a girl it seems like I create some lifestyle hardship to endure. I don't think I do it on a conscious "this is a test" level, I think it just sort of happens. Perhaps it's why I've only talked 2 into it. The first one had to camp for 4 months straight in Oregon, rainy Oregon, moving camp every night. Not to mention walk in the woods late looking for owls and get up at 4 am to look for sea birds.
Donna & I drove to Costa Rica that month long drive our first 'living together' experience. Border crossings, middle of the night dead end roads in Hondouras, road side bathrooms, that stench in Santa Ana El Salvador. This in a rusted out '85 Subaru wagon with an overheating engine that required us to keep the heat on and the windows rolled down. That makes for a long 5,000 miles.

So this is all fine and good for the person that decides to put up with me. The problem is, I can't really wish this on their mothers. Yes, mothers. Donna's mom arrives in roughly 72 hours and the house, the house she's staying in, our house, is not what most people would call "habitable". Procrastinating as usual, I left the work for the final week before she arrives. Now I'm worried if we'll even have a working sink.... Wish me luck.

Shins

Did I mention I saw the Shins last week? Just wasn't awake enough to fight to the front to take a picture. Dang house work making me tired. Dressy Bessy opened. They're tons of fun.

TV on the Radio

How I summarized the show to Sean:

It was fairly late, Donna got a little buzz on, Scott Bennett was there to see ladybug transistor (hah!), Anne had a new shirt, Schuster played a deer shooting game, Pete & Sophie (Hyde's friends from Australia) came, my brother was in a good mood, Donna chatted with the very, very black lead singer of TV on the Radio, he asked her if the band could stay at her house, and is apparently going to be sending her a demo of him singing. Birdland opened, electroclash in a post electroclash world. Jack wondered where you were and was heard saying "these guys are good". He also managed to scare Sophies cute roommate away inside of 2 minutes.

Killing Joke

Last week at the Bluebird.

Odd show. I think I'll remember it through the lyrics of "I'm a loose cannon... ASTEROID!!"

Frontman Jaz is interesting, while not wearing doomsday hoods and screaming to hardcore crowds he is the conductor of world orchestras. Yep, even did time with the London Philharmonic. More story here.

rollercoaster

I've been fluctuating between two states lately, wanting to burst into tears and wanting to get into a fist fight. Not sure how to explain it. I've even daydreamed about the fist fight, picked guys in parking lots that I've toyed with the idea of starting a fight with.

Number one reason I haven't gotten into a fist fight?
Fear of getting my teeth knocked out.
That shows just how deep and wide my angst is, it runs right up next to my enormous vanity.

"Gonna hafta to cut off both of my hands, I got pride as big as dixie land"
--16hp

more more more

Halloween pictures here. I particularly like this one.

Now with spirit!

Spiritualized, formed from Spacemen 3 whose motto was "we take drugs to make music to take drugs to". I don't think that motto has changed much, they're just embracing/copping to? the other half of their brain which seems to be about struggling with God. A theme that's always been there with lyrics like "the trouble with the straight and the narrow is it's so thin I keep sliding off to the side". Good stuff, full of real tension between God and Flesh.
The song "Hold On" should be on your next mix cd.

Pictures from the show here.

Flip Flops

What I got from Thailand!
Thanks Jeff & Chris!

If Priest = Aura, Sleep = ?

It just can't be a good sign to be tired by 10 pm and still in bed at 11 am.

Bride beware

Go-Go Yubari...

More pictures...