You're Doing It Wrong

We got back yesterday. We already have photos but I don’t think I’ll have time to scan and get it all organized and posted until next weekend at the earliest. Right now I’m trying to figure out the minimum food run I can do that will tide us over until we do the main shopping later in the week. There is also a bale of dirty clothes.

It was a great trip. We couldn’t have invented better weather — sunny and clear. Other than trying to drive around San Francisco and getting lost a number of times, everything went perfectly smoothly and we all had a fabulous time.

More details to come.

We’re going to San Fran tonight to play. Erin runs with the torch Saturday 7:23am at Crissy Field — we’ll be the ones holding the Karuk Flag. See you there. The temps have been in the 30’s-40’s and how pathetic is it when I see it’s in the 50’s in SF and I’m excited about that? I remember when I lived in LA and went to SF and I was always cold there.

Yesterday there was a high speed chase on Interstate 5 during rush hour. The traffic reporter was narrating the chase — I thought it was completely exciting. Today I didn’t even see anything in the paper about it. I don’t even know who the guy was or why he was running away.

You know when I heard this story about the President choking on a pretzel and fainting it sounded pretty fishy but too ridiculous to make up. Then I saw that picture in the paper which makes the story more suspect. I like this story refuting any rumors of domestic violence in the Whitehouse from Whitehouse.org.

Billy brought a bunch of salmon back from Alaska and we each got one smoked so there is a lot of smoked salmon floating around here. So far we’ve had smoked salmon fettucine, smoked salmon quesadillas and smoked salmon chowder. I’ve been looking at other smoked salmon recipes — I want to make a pizza. But in my travels I found this goofy recipe for salmon cooked in the dishwasher. Seems like a pretty egregious use of resources.

I have not been in the mood to blog lately. Every morning I think about logging in and then I don’t want to — it seems like too much hassle. I’m not into communication at the moment.

This week I have been having the most bizarre dreams and every morning I wake up and I remember these crazy images and sometimes two or more different dreams. Also I can’t seem to get enough sleep. Is this a hibernation instinct? Last night I could barely keep my eyes open until 10pm and I didn’t get out of bed until almost 7:30am.

Tomorrow I’m going to Tacoma again. And on the train again. I’m going to start reading my new book: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

I just logged on and learned that I’ve been blogging in my sleep again, ahem. So I’ve been deleting and fixing a bunch of stuff. I have not been in the mood to be near the computer this weekend. That probably is a good thing.

Today we went to Meier & Frank downtown to check out the sales. I have said it a million times and I’ll say it again: I do not like that store and I’m never going back. Bob found some stuff. I wanted to get a new raincoat but do you think they even had 1 single sale raincoat in my size, much less something that I liked? Well, they did have one single sale raincoat in my size but I didn’t like it and who cares how much money you can save if you don’t like the coat?

After that we went to the Art Musuem because the European Masters show is ending this weekend and we never managed to get over to see it yet. Word to the wise: do not go go the Art Musuem on the last weekend of a show. I mean, unless you enjoy viewing art in the same room with 10,000 other people.

Life doesn’t seem to suck at this time except some small details which we won’t discuss at this moment. I did notice that the world’s cheapest staples which I didn’t think would make that big of difference in the world do indeed make a difference. I mean, how can your world not be affected when you can’t staple more than 3 sheets at a time?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Last night was our big night out. For my birthday we went downtown and got a room at the Paramount Hotel. I put on my party dress, which I normally wear on New Years Eve but since we’re staying home this year I wore a day early, and we headed out. We had cocktails and then went to the Fox Tower theater to see The Royal Tenenbaums. Great movie — we still haven’t stopped talking about it. Then we went back to Dragonfish and their late night happy hour had started so we had specialty cocktails and sushi specials. This morning we slept in and then went out for breakfast (banana nut pancakes) and wandered over to Powell’s and finally went home. The best birthday ever.

Tonight we’re going to Aileen’s for dinner and we’ll probably come home early. I’ve got some stuff I’d like to do tomorrow and we’re still trying to see Vanilla Sky.

Yesterday we went to the movies and saw Amelie. We’ve been wanting to take Priscilla and it hasn’t worked out so we just went ourselves. It’s a fabulous movie and everyone should see it.

Right before the movie started two women came in and sat in front of us and you can imagine my alarm when they both checked their cellphones and then PUT THEM IN THEIR CUP HOLDERS. No, I am not making this up. I saw one of them fiddle with her phone during the movie but they didn’t take any calls which was a huge relief. I thought they were teenagers but when they left, they looked like fully formed adults. [Rant about cellphones omitted.]

Wasn’t there a time when the movie trailers were aimed at the audience? Like, if you were watching a chick movie, the trailers would be for chick movies. If you were watching a artsy film, the trailers would be for artsy films. Last night the trailers were for some of the dumbest looking movies ever in an era of movies that compete for dumbest status — and not at all aimed at the audience. There was a trailer for the Tim Allen movie and the remake of Rollerball which strikes me as unnecessary and this animated ice-age movie which looks completely dreadful. Where are the good movie trailers?

Well, it’s been an interesting week and I seem to be recovering just fine and have repaired some of the loopier blog entries. I’ve also fixed my desktop among other computer light repair needed after my Xmas stunt.

I saw in the paper this morning that Concrete Blonde is on a reunion tour and according to the website have a new cd coming out in January. This is a big surprise and makes me very happy as I saw them whenever possible back 100 years ago when I lived in LA.

I finally get the commentary tracks on DVD. I guess it depends on the movie but I always thought that you’d have to have a lot of time on your hands to be able to sit through that — but if you’re a big fan or the movie and/or director, then the commentary track is a lot of fun. Over the weekend I watched Rushmore with Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman doing the commentary. I’m going to cram in a quick view of Bottle Rocket again and I’ll be all ready for The Royal Tennenbaums. Last night I watched Cameron Crowe and his Mom do the commentary for the director cut of Almost Famous. Excellent. I’m ready for Vanilla Sky now too.