Listening:
"Lady Marmelade," Cristina Aguilera et al
"Shadow on the Sun," Audioslave
"The Fall," Ministry
"Starfuckers Inc," Nine Inch Nails
"Concerito de Aranjuez," (from Mad About Guitars, various artists)
"Do What you Wanna Do," Lords of Acid
"Ireland," Tori Amos
"No Entiendes La Onda," Cypress Hill
"Platinum," Orgy
"Holocaust," THis Mortal Coil
"Walk Away," Bad Religion
"fyt," This Mortal Coil
"Rocket Collecting," Milla
"Georgia on my Mind," (various)
"Playboy Mommy," Tori Amos
"The Letter," PJ Harvey
"Burning from the Inside," Bauhaus
"Mint Car," The Cure
"21st Century Digital Boy," Bad Religion
"Number Nine," Machines of Loving Grace
"All the Same," Orgy
"Legs," PJ Harvey
"Just Say Yes," The Cure
"Lilypad," Ruby
"Devil Bunnies," My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
"Microphone Fiend," Rage Against the Machine
"Wrong Number," The Cure
"Taksim," Ekova
"Frogs," Alice in Chains
Mentally Replaying: the last week
I'd rather be: warm
Desiring: *shrug* less spam
Aches and Complaints: sore back from driving
Enjoying: relaxedness

I still have more than 40 work emails to read through but my brain is melting so this seems like a good time to update.

Molasses's timeshare people let him know that he was in danger of losing many of his points in July if he didn't use them. In that company's system you buy points as a share of the company. You spend the points by taking a vacation at one of the resorts. Somehow or other the money you pay gives you a share in the company but then how you can "lose" points for not using them is beyond me. Sounds fishy if you ask me, but Molasses is better at the money thing than I am so maybe it isn't. Anyway they told him that last month so we whipped up this vacation that we kind of had to hurry up and take.

In toto it was kind of average, but still rather pleasant and sure beats the heck out of commuting from Long Beach to Pasadena everyday and working in a freezing office for people who don't get what a monthly advertising budget actually is. I'm not feeling particularly creative so I'm just going to outline things, day by day.

Thursday, June 15: Happy hour dinner with friends at Mick & Schmick. Tasty... and a little dizzy what with three apple martinis and a little social tobacco inhallation in the hour and a half there. Chased down some sobriety as the evening ended with a slightly more serious conversation than I was anticipating but S., who wasn't supposed to be there, popped in and read my fucking soul. Darned empaths. };>

Friday, June 17: Organized a few things at the apartment then took off to hang out with Miss Thang and the neice. The whole thing would have been better if my family weren't my family. I don't take it as personally when people are hostile around me and someone bitching about her mom doesn't bug me unless she's my mom. And two year olds ignoring is rarely worth noting unless they share my blood. Very ehh day. But got lunch at Ruta's and that's always a good thing.

Saturday, June 18: More packing, car stuff, mass, errands... Time enough to dress up in the get up from last Holloween and take off to a birthday party in Culver City. Party with many lovely people and about the sweetest dog I've ever met. There was absinthe but I wasn't offered any and there wasn't enough I felt I could just help myself. But there was a pirate with Mount Gay rum and that's something you don't see every day. MMMmmhhh Mount Gay. Happy stuff. }:> At the very end the Glitter Faery showed up!!!!!!!!!! I haven't seen her...good Lord, somehting like eight years. She's lost a heck of a bit of weight (which made me feel positively gross, but anyway) she was gorgeous and sweet and gave me a great big hug. Me Happy!!!

Sunday, June 19: Father's Day, but first - NIN!! Due to the party I had a late night but I still forced myself out of bed at six am (some three hours after laying down) and dragged myself up to the Hollywood Bowl. Much pain, and yet moreso because I was hoping maybe only a couple people would camp out. Nope. a good two dozen people were already there. Luckily for me there were a couple other people who I knew already in the line. I wish I knew why people get in line when they know wrist bands are going to be passed out. Most of the people there knew this, I didn't, though I figured it would be the case. Ah well, long story short there were something like three people in line, five phones and two computers employed to try to get tickets. OF all people it was Molasses who I called up to beg for help who got through. He told us the seat numbers and we checked out our spot. Very, very nice. Yay!

From there I headed to the LA Zoo to wait for the family. They were, of course, an hour late. I was prepared though mildly annoyed the Zoo doesn't have bathrooms outside the gates. It was just the 'rents and OB. The niece was with her father. *shrug* The niece would have made us walk faster, I think. At the end of the day my hips hurt because that was quite possibly the slowest damned walk I've ever taken. My dad certainly can't walk very quickly any more but gah.... I had my pedometer on and we walked just a little over 4000 steps. In five hours!! I can do that in about 35 minutes! The animals were very neat and very cute. Several had young'uns which were terribly cute to watch chase after their parents. It was neat to see the young giraffe which was something like ten feet tall and still be a miniature compared to his parents. Sadly my camera's memory chip filled up quickly and I didn't get pics of some of the cutest guys. Ah well. We got in for free thanks to Akin and maybe sometime in the future Molasses and I will go back for more terrific cuteness!

Monday, June 20: We slept in to avoid as much traffic as possible. the mistake then was to get out of the LBC on the 710, when in fact the semis get on the road in the late morning making traffic in the area much worse. Ah well, we headed up to the 101 (or I did because there's no point in cutting an hour of driving time off when the drive itself sucks). I like driving so I was behind the wheel for most of the week. The drive is more scenic along the 101 and it goes right up into San Francisco. We had to deal with a bit of afternoon rush hour and street traffic but it wasn't horrible. I really adore San Francisco so any excuse to enjoy it I'm totally with. I have a dog-earred guidebook to various neat spots in Northern California and it got us to Center street with many tasty places to eat. We hit a tandoori place cause Molasses had a yen for some Indian spice. I keep telling him curry is addictive but he just laughs like I said something funny. *sigh* As for me, two words: "mango chutney" *drools* After that we continued and caught a near-sunset off the Golden Gate bridge. On into the rural parts north of SF. Got into Windsor after dark and chilled.

Tuesday, June 21: Happy B-Day to Mabon_Grey and a merry Solstice to all! We resolved to check out Muir Woods though the directions we got involved swinging out to PCH instead of going straight down the 101. River Rd (HWY 116) follows the Russian River to the coast and past some of the wineries of the Russian River Valley. More on that later. We headed down the 1 right on the cliffs over the Pacific. Some damned awesomes vistas flew by, made all the more breathtaking by the fact that the road itself is in awful repair. At a few points it felt literally like slaloming down the road relying on a sketchy suspension and system that pulled to the right (off the cliff since we were headed south) when given a chance to keep from flying into the ocean. Good times. }:> Still, gorgeous. I love my state. LOVE IT. We stopped at a couple of small towns in the Bodega Bay area. so cute. And it just warms my cockles (such as they are) to know there are tiny little towns that fly the Pride/LAMBDA flag in front of their all-organic grocery marts. It's so knee-jerk lefty it's just great. I mean I wouldn't want to live there but it feels nice to find some place of a population under a 1000 where I don't have to fear to admit to a Green Party allegiance. }:>

Finally got to Muir Woods and had three hours for general traipsing and exploring. Noted a few cute critters running round and got to see a very placid deer hang out by the edge of a ravine (Me am citypeople, no hablo wild animal). It's lovely and serene there and the basic trail is very easy to follow. There are a few trails that leave the main one that are a harder hike, but over all in two hours we got in much nature. Couldn't stay longer because, among other things, the allergen count was redlining that day and I couldn't go a few steps without a sneezing fit. Sadly I remained hypersensitive to allergens for the rest of the trip. }:P I really envy people without allergies. For dinner we swung up to Sonoma, took in a little farmer's market and had Mexican at this place that was across the street from the mission.

Wednesday, June 22: San Francisco Day! SF has a walking tour marked out through a few neighborhoods in the northwest part of town called the Barbary Coast trail (it's like the Freedom Trail in Boston). the guidebook I have has notes on how to follow it, what to make sure to catch and a couple of edits on neat things to do. We followed this and got to get up close an personal on some places like Chinatown, North Beach and the Financial District. Started out with an early lunch at Mel's Diner and meandered all through these areas. At one point going through Chinatown I heard the cymbals of a lion dance and looked up the hill we were on. A small crowd was gathered aroudn some folks who were in fact performing a lion dance. Molasses wasn't so into it but I wanted to see it up close. Up there I could see a tall good looking (white) man standing in their midst and occasionally shaking hands. An old Chinese lady spotted Molasses and I exchanging curious glances and she let us know that was her Mayor. Heh. Randomly caught a lion dance in honor of Mayor Gavin Newsom. I took a few pictures but due to being unable to get up close I couldn't I couldn't take very good ones.

The tour ended up at the Embarcadero and we ended up walking all the freaking way back to Chinatown because the line for the trolley was scary long. We found a dim sum place but it was less than spectacular. }:< Unsatisfactory dim sum is always a sad thing. Well, it was just supposed to be a light snack so it wasn't the worst thing ever. We got back to the car and hooked up with Aberrantvirtue and Random_Vamp and had some very satisfying victuals at Chevy's before running off to see Batman Begins (Finally!) with them. What everyone said, plus some. }:> Sadly we had to head our seperate ways after that so in fact it wasn't a whole lot of hanging out but it was great to see them. Molasses drove back to Windsor as I couldn't keep my eyes open.

Thursday, June 23: Must have been a good vacation because I kept forgetting what day it was. Thursday we went on a tour of several Russian River wineries. There's a variety of ways to do it which includes taking a limo, or going by SUV and the guide drives you to selected spots for one large sum. The flights are all paid for and often there's a discount for wine bought at that time. Vine Rover is a slightly new outfit that bought a couple British-made Jeep-style land cruisers. I may have it wrong, I simply can't remember what the vehicle is called. Anyway it seats several people and was open to the elements with a canvas top strapped to roll bars. While I was sucking down a lot of allergens (Thank sweet Jesus for Claritin!) the weather that day made it perfect for riding around in the fresh air. Rolling between the vineyards it's really easy to appreciate the land for it's natural beauty. Unlike plants like wheat or corn you can see over grape vines and enjoy the view even from the bottom of a valley.

I don't have my notes with me so I can't recall which specific places we hit. Most of the operations in the Russian River Valley are a bit small, quite a few are single family businesses. Where a major company like Beringer in Napa will produce 100K cases without breaking a sweat, a place like Michel-Schlumberger will struggle to hit 20K in a year. If I'm not mistaken the area is known for some great Pinot Noirs (I haven't seen Sideways yet, but that stuff really is hit or miss...) whereas Sonoma is known for its Zinfandel and Napa has famous Cabernets. Anyway, we picked up a bit of wine and had a great time. And was yet again reminded that I live in the best state EVAR as we watched our touring cohorts try to get their chosen wines as close to their home in Boston as possible (one winery was willing to ship direct, the rest had to be routed to friends in CT & NY).

Tired and a bit grungy, we soaked in the hot tub and actually napped through dinner time. We tried to get as much sleep as possible since we had an early start coming the next day.

Friday, June 24: Up 5am, skipped a shower so as to not need to get up earlier. Ran down to the local airport (mostly serving puddle jumpers and private planes) and tried really hard to catch a balloon ride. Unfortunately both sites the company has were fogged in and we just couldn't do it. I never found out why we had to do it so freaking early in the day. I'm sure there are good reasons, I just don't know them. Headed back in defeat and Molasses went back to sleep. I checked email and read a bunch. Still a lot of email I need to respond to...

In the afternoon we drove up to the town of Napa. It's a cute little town but is definately growing whether it likes it or not. I get the feeling that the days without a Starbucks on the main drag are numbered. Lots of little outlets expressly for trying new wines, so of course we did that. Also found a place called "Sweetie Pies" where we discovered the World's Best Pie Maker. I didn't catch her name, but I swear if the ability to conquer countries was quantified by one's ability to bake a pie this woman would rule the universe. But she would be a kindly tyrant. And there would be peach cobbler for everyone. We bought a bunch more wine and took in a little street fair that they apparently have every Friday evening during the summer. Much fresh fruit and tasty things. As our arms were sore from carrying wine we decided to take off. Took easy back in Windsor and elected to sleep in as much as possible before packing to take off on Saturday.

Saturday, June 25 Party in Sac-Town! Drowsy morning, packed, reorganized car to accomodate all the new booty wine and checked out of the place. One last trip to Russian River to try a winery called Martinelli (no relation to the cider people) for some last gifts. Then off to Sacramento to party old school with Cammies I hadn't seen for a minimum of two years and meet some nifty new people. Molasses knew the hostess, spookyb, from way back and her hubby 1blueboy is a sweetheart. They were totally kind and generous and let us crash overnight. It blows me away how awesome people can be. }:> Anyhow got to meet more Sac-people - Lex, Wednesday and mamasaid. I remembered akunin from way back and he hopped into my lap enough times to make me think he remembered me. }:> Best of all was the chance to see and hang out with The_Dean and finally meet the storied silverflight. The_Dean and I sat around and goobed about pretty much anything that crossed our minds (or at least mine, I'm nervous of imagining what crossed his mind), Molasses and silverflight had a great time goobing about languages, primarily in German. Polyglots are neat. }:>

The night wound down around 2am, though I crashed around midnight.

Sunday, June 26 roused by hunger about nineish, it still took some work to actually get up. when we were finally up and together and not quite so sodden through with alcohol our kind hosts took us to a place called Cricket that was just oozing character. It was hard not to get any on me, there was so much character hanging around. Molasses picked up the tab and ahh it was nice to hang out with thems good people. They're darned easy to talk to so they were assured crash space should they ever find themselves in SoCal. Finally we had to say good bye and be on our way. Again I drove most of the way. I quit in Gorman though. I was tired and starting to get cranky and the uphill work just made me want to curl up with a book.

and that was pretty much that.

On an unrelated note I finally read all of Watchmen. eerie, it's parallels and references I could make. But I'll just say this: the movie has already been made. They made it a clever family comedy and called it The Incredibles.