Sour Particles

I probably shouldn't apply for a job here.

Second stop of the day, didn't have cell reception at the first three wineries so a bit of a delay.

First stop of the day.

Seals just lay in the sun all day. How can they get so fat without moving or hunting?

I'm not a father anymore since Petey is in Florida now, but oh well.

Still nobody going to donate blood with me yet again, I am a failure still I guess. One day I will seduce someone in to joining me though, one day.

I've put more miles on my free rental car in a week than my actual car has total. I guess it helps that mine doesn't have that many miles on it, but I'm still proud of pushing 1500 miles (so far, return it on Monday so I have over 24 hours left, but they said not to go in to Mexico with it...) on a rental car that I didn't even think I'd have to begin with. And I get a free tank of gas with it.

Regularly priced at over two dollars, who could turn down cookies at a price like this!

The first exercise in ages, ten kilometers at a mile above sea-level. Dirt trail with some hills, as you can see from the elevation profile to the top left corner of the photo. Maximum elevation is 5500 feet, and the minimum is right around 5250 feet. My time last week was pathetic, but I was happy, fresh air and relaxing. Then decided instead of once a week, why not twice. Wednesday I lost six minutes, even more pathetic. But I feel redeemed now because I shaved nine minutes off my first time (15 less than last time) and that means there is hope. Stay posted for an overly dramatic webpage with performance / heartrate / bodyweight / etc graphs, gps tracklogs on maps and maybe some conclusions on my get in shape in 10 weeks or less experiment.

So I went looking for a single bottle of Cachaca, but I couldn't find a place that stocks or has even heard of it. Finally yesterday I found one place with one type of Cachaca, but not the exact one I wanted. The owner was really friendly and said she could order whatever I wanted. While I was there the distributor was in the store, and he began to show me what he could get. I saw one that I've tried previously. I asked if there was a discount for a case. She quoted me a price for a case, I almost passed out it was so cheap. As long as there are limes, there will be a caipirinha in my hand. Hopefully that is an exaggeration, since I probably won't keep all twelve bottles for myself.

Done walking for the day, walked over 10 miles. Started in downtown San Francisco where we saw some protesters laying in the street get zip tied and put in vans by Police in riot gear. I got the feeling the most of protesters were really fake, the kind of people who just like attention and acting. Well the ones who covered themselves in fake blood and were running around and screaming at least. Protesting seems pretty trendy. I wonder how many of them (the ones who were being really dramatic, not the ones chanting and holding up signs off of the road) got are failed actors / actresses. Honestly I would be much more affected by photographs that a lady running around and screaming about something horrible happening to her. I actually do not even know what she was trying to convey with it. Was she supposed to be an Iraqi woman? It didn't seem like she was supposed to be a solider's mother. She was calling out to Americans for help, did she want American citizens to pull out our troops because they are the ones who attacked her? The signs said impeech Bush, pull our troops out. Maybe I am just really stupid and everyone else who looked confused around her really understood what she was supposed to represent. Word to anyone who wants to protest, I'm open minded but stop the horrible acting and make sure your message is clear and not a confusing drama class gone bad soap opera. Anyways, next we walked down to the curvy Lomard street via Union square and some really big church.. Then to the warf for a beer and snack. And ofcourse we needed some sweets, ice cream, chocolate, etc. Then the almost final leg was all the way to the vista point on northern side of the Golden Gate bridge about six more miles. And then back across the bridge, it was dark by then so taxi to the BART station. Never a dull moment.

What are birthday celebrations without some bubbly? Thank you Louis Roederer.

Lately I've been posting a lot of name brand stuff on here. I feel like I've kind of sold out, but I don't think I've ever made a cent from this blog so selling out doesn't feel too good. Anyways, I think I've had a Jamba Juice for five days straight now. I love smoothies, I've had better ones, but at least anywhere I go around here I can count on this place.

Having some lunch and wine here at the Reverie Winery.

Just left Kelham Vineyards, played with Gaby the black lab. It is pretty hot out, but she didn't want to stop playing.

I'm not normally a wine person, yet, but I'm open minded. And going tasting is always fun. First stop is Noah Vineyards.

Arthur Schopenhauer is the topic of discussion today, since this is the only day I'm going to be here in the class, I don't know if its all this interesting. But I found today's lecture to be very stimulating. This is my idea of a good vacation. I even raised my hand and contributed to the discussion, more than the person whose guest in the class I am. Pessimism and and suffering are great topic to discuss. Oh, and I took the bus to get here, maybe sometime soon I will take the bus all by myself. And can't forget I went to the gym this morning, didn't exercise but I got a smoothie while I waited.

I was showing a friend the local natural foods grocery place, which by the way doesn't even have wild salmon. Most of the people shopping there are pretty much hippies and do not look like the kind of people who would use a good soap. But my friend found his secret soap there, I was reluctant to try it because I associated it with the dirty hippies (by the way, I have no issues with most clean hippies) because that market carried it. My friend assured me that they sold it at Trader Joe's back home, which eased my mind a bit. The label was insane, you have to read it to believe it, religious babble it seems mostly.

Here is a quote,"Each swallow works hard to be a perfect pilot-provider-builder-trainer-teacher-lover-mate, no half true hate! So each day like a bird, perfect thyself first! Have courage and smile my friend. Think and act 10 years ahead! And the man without fault? He's dead! Do one thing at a time, work hard! Get done!" And it keeps going, that's only a small fraction of the stuff written on the label.

As far as the soap goes, I like the peppermint cool burn it has, and it isn't a harsh soap. It does seem to make the water bead off my skin after a certain point during my shower, so I use a normal body wash every few showers, because I'm paranoid of some kind of oil buildup.

Ingredients: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut & Organic Olive Oils (w/ Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil, Organic Mentha Arvensis, Citric Acid and Vitamin E.

If anyone has any opinions or facts regarding its cleansing abilities, let me know. Or if you are interested in it, visit their website.

The house lager was pretty large and pretty toxic. The last shoreboat on Thursdays is at 9:45pm, so if you don't have a dingy at the pier or the others in your party took it earlier, you have to make it back by then or find someone to take you or swim out.

It is a pretty nice day out here. Hopefully when I get back here it will be even better. It has been a while since I gave the last update on my room. It has been pretty clean for a few weeks now. I even hung up two photos that I took on the wall, printed them out poster size.

Today had pretty perfect weather. I spent most of the day outside. Took a nice nap when I got home. Summer is here, just a few more days.

Between the zero visibility dust and rock storms, roadrunner that came within inches of his death, flying tumble weeds from hell stuck in to the car, heavy rains in heavy traffic. Weel, I'm just really quite amazed at how smooth this weekend is going for being unplanned, even though I've know about it for months. Last night, in Santa Monica, was a nice change from the usual Thursday, which this week was pretty good actually. All I have to do is a bit of shopping here and make it an hour north in about an eight hour time span. Wish me luck.

Thursday nights are special. Better than Friday or Saturday in my opinion. My opinion is key, I don't like to brag but I'm always right. Okay, tired of typing for now, thumbs are tired.

I used to be a dog only kind of person, but a few kittens have changed my mind. This one always makes me feel better when I'm down. He is my little baby, and he has been there for me through some rough times, even without needing to coax him with treats. I won't forget the day he came here, the day he got his name, or any other day that he has been in my life. Everyday that you spend with the people you care about is special, and even when you're not with them, they still make life worth living. Oh there was the day he was freaking out at the mouse in the bathtub and the day I took him for his first swim in the pool. Even though he won't ever live with me, he will always live in my heart. I love you Butters. Now that I have that off my chest I feel a lot better, he was guilt tripping me with meows.

There were some taxidermy birds covered in wax in one exhibit. It looked kind of odd. Then by the same person, there was some stuff made out of hair, again kind of odd. Then there was some stuff by Andy Warhol, interesting and fun to look at. And then there was some robot exhibit, nothing seemed special in there, it wasn't interesting at all except the balloon floating thing that had no real description of what it did. The 3D computer thing was nothing special, and was pretty boring. Sushi place for lunch was pretty good though, I didn't get my miso soup though. By the way, my room is still clean, I did all the regular upkeep this weekend besides vacuuming, because I couldn't find the vacuum. Back to art, I don't hate all contemporary art, but there is a point when people see something in a piece just because the name or description next to it implies it, I like art that actually speaks for itself and doesn't let the plaque next to it do all the talking. Maybe one day I will get one of my paint by numbers in to a museum.

I was pretty productive Friday, but the rest of the weekend I didn't get much done, but I tried to get some rest. I fixed my faithful little car, it wasn't its fault. My room isn't too bad yet, still pretty clean, and I'm going to tidy it up and do all the laundry laying in my bathroom tomorrow. Something I hate is plugging stuff in to charge, then coming back to grab it when your about to leave. And you realize the outlet it was plugged in to is controlled by a wall switch, and it was turned off. Pretty depressing when you wanted to listen to your portable music player or take photos with your camera, but the batteries are dead, and it is too late to do anything now.

My Girl Scout cookies came in today, the Thin Mint are pretty awesome, and the Samoa are decent too, but I could eat way more Thin Mints. I think I have an addiction to this stuff.

Almost done with this, half a gallon really isn't that much beer. It is filled with Liquid Amber, well was filled. Don't really have anything else to say at the moment, well other than three day weekends are swell.

I've always wanted two of these beanie Peeps, I just didn't know it until today when I saw them at the store. They are made of really soft cloth and filed with beanie stuff. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. If nothing else I'm sure somebody I know would like them. I actually made progress on the room, and its not just in my head, people have noticed. I'm turning a new leaf or page or something. Anyways, it should be interesting around here.

It feels like it should be Friday, but it is only Wednesday. I am not feeling very motivated, but after a long vacation you will have some coverage of the progress I make organizing my room. It will be almost like an early Christmas, but without a tree. On a different note, have you ever felt like you made a big circle in life but this time something was different? I know I make mistakes on each loop I make, but hopefully less of the same ones and not too many new ones. I'm really stubborn though sometimes. Actually quite often, maybe I can change that this time around. Today revolved around food, but if not food, what then? Banana cream pie shakes are perhaps one of the best fast food items ever produced.

Today is looking up and might be close to perfect, for no apparent reason at all. Need to run some errands, but other than that it should be fun. And I probably won't even do them today. I'm hungry.

I was hungry so I ended up eating a cookie that had been in my bag for about 2 days maybe a bit less, it wasn't too stale just crunchy, and it tasted really good at the time.

Is it the afternoon or the evening?

For all you haters.

Friday at 8 o'clock in the evening, nothing beats a Guinness.

What if it crashes or loses track of your information or just stops responding for a day?

For some reason on Monday, going to the mall to shop for jeans was a welcome comfort. I'm usually picky, but I found a pair that seemed right, it gave me some stability in a world lacking stability. Or maybe it just simply means I really needed new ones, but that wouldn't be profound, and actually doesn't make sense to me, so let's stick with my first idea..

I guess when you put that much work in to putting the lights up, you don't really want to take them down Christmas day.

Going to sleep, so we can leave early in the morning. I didn't put a photo with this post because it is too dark in here right now.

Time to celebrate!

Being a cat would be a pretty sweet job. Butters seems to like it. When he was a kitten he would sometimes fall asleep with his head up in the air, and it would kind of sway up and down a little, and then it would just drop, and if he had a bowl of soup, his face would be in it. Now he is pretty big though, and he pretty much is the loudest cat you've heard when he wants your attention.

Going out to dinner and a movie I think.

Every year as you get older Thanksgiving activities get more confusing. When you're old enough to understand the concept of time, thats when it first starts to get really confusing, what time does the turkey start, when do we eat, I thought we were going to eat three hours ago. When you change venues for Thanksgiving, confusion. Then when there are multiple possible places for you to go on Thanksgiving, more confusion. When the food is something other than the same thing you've had for the past decade or more, confusion. And you get the point. Oh and you should donate some blood.

But last weekend someone got stabbed. And this weekend is a birthday celebration.

Each year it seems like stores put up the stuff for each holiday earlier and earlier. I know I'm not the first person to think this, but I thought I would say it anyways. Pretty soon the start of a holiday in stores will overlap with the end of it. Christmas all year round. It is not a new concept, but I can't say that I don't enjoy seeing the lights up at night. On the other hand though sometimes it is nice to have it dark at night, see the moon and stars from the hottub or pool. Summer is a holiday too, at least as a kid it is. Well until they invented "year round" school. See now I am doing it too, I'm thinking about summer before winter has really started.

My room has seen better days and not too many worse days. It is not rock bottom yet either though. There is hope, a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Do you ever order something online, and they brag about three day shipping being standard. But they do not ship your order which is in stock and they say time to shipping is one to three business days. And you want to get a hold of them because you want to know what's happening, but they have no real way to contact them, but they are the best bet place to order that thing from. So you eventually get tired and want to take your business elsewhere, but you can't even cancel your order. Weeks go by. I hate that.

Went out to watch my cousin's football game. He is the second string varsity quarter back. He played the second half. Pretty good considering he is only a freshmen. It just happened that I also had a chance to go sailing too earlier that day. I've never been that excited to go that slow. I had the record at just over six knots. This morning I tried to surf, my first time. I got up and could balance pretty well. Wasn't very big of waves though. I think I will be doing more of that. Thanks to John, Rach, and Chip for letting us stay with them. If their place was as messy as mine, we wouldn't have had any room to sleep. It gives me a reason to clean up when I get home.

Yeah, it wasn't a bad day, but it had its low points at around 9am. Oh, I'm leaving town for a second weekend in a row. I should probably clean up my room before I head out, even if it will take another hit when I get back and drop all my stuff in the middle of it.

Standing close to the flower, means you're close to the bee. Sometimes the sting is worth being near the flower, maybe the bee might change and stop stinging you one day, or maybe not. Only time can and will tell. (random?)

Had a good day!

Friday had some pinetar, but the waitress said the growler size was illegal to serve there and was only for taking home. It has got nitrogen not carbon dioxide though, so I'm not sure about it. If you have any input on the subject let me know.

Took a break from cleaning my room, but not for very long. Here in my mind, we are very committed to restoring the orignal beauty that once existed in my room. With the support of the community we can all realize that dream. Photos of a clean room soon to follow in the comming days.

It has been a good weekend, interesting, fun, exciting, relaxing. And the weekend is only half over. I feel like something good for dinner, so I think I'm going to go to the store in a second. I've had quite a bit of decent food lately. I did all the dirty laundry that came in my trunk a few days ago, I think wednesday? But I still have yet to hang them all up in my pretty clean closet. I might do that next week, my only goal is to hang some up before there isn't any clean stuff left to hang up.

I will be happy if you donate some blood. I will even clean my room 100% if you do within 24 hours of you giving it. And if it has been more than 8 weeks since today I will go give blood with you if I have not already again.

My room here at home is pretty clean, but other than hanging around the house and going to eat I didn't do much today. Watched some O.C., some South Park, Desperate Housewives, some Office, and a little bit of American Dad. Good day, ready to party the rest of the weekend! Or maybe just take it easy. Who knows?

There are few places that can beat my shower, the hot tub is one, and maybe another would be my uber comfy bed. But overall showers are often the highlight of my day, and this one is definately no exception. Wish me luck.

Yum

Chris is kind of drunk.

I can now make it to the back of my closet. Found some interesting stuff I had forgotten about. I know its not "clean" yet, but I really will finish it by friday. I would keep working on it, but I have a lot of other work which has to be done before Monday and Wednesday. Now it is time to relax a bit, I am exhausted.

Do you like you nut "sweet and salty" or what? Yesterday as I walked up to my front door a bird was flapping around trying to scare me away, it was a small bird. Then I noticed another bird on the doormat. I opened the garage with my clicker and went in the house that way. I went to the window and watched them. It was a few minutes and the other bird had no intention of leaving his helpless companion. Then I noticed the helpless bird was caught on some thin string. I went to get some scissors to cut it free. Niels had some and we opened the door and the other bird was going crazy but wasn't going anywhere. They flew away together. What I would give to be a bird...

I'm going out to get some lunch and return I Heart Huckabee's. Tonight I'm going out for another 21st birthday bash, hopefully this one will be just as crazy but not as much drama as the last. Nothing beats my birthday bash in Vegas last year though, if you found the memory card with the photos please email me a copy of them.

It has been raining off and on for too long now. I didn't do much today, but I'm really tired, so I'm going to say hello to my friend, Mr. Guinness, and take it easy for the rest of the night. Keep watching this blog, it is going to get interesting soon probably, I can feel it, plus if you have wasted this much time, you might as well waste some more next time you are bored.

Frenchy turned twenty-one, highlights (if you can call them that) of him for the evening would be loudly whispering to me "she's a big girl... ...she heard me huh?" referring to a large chested girl talking to us, falling down a 2 or 3 foot curb face first, getting kicked out of one bar and kicking a garbage can after I let him go on his way out causing two nearby bouncers to yell profanities and start to chase him down until we calmed them down, going in to the last bar and sitting down his elbow knocked over an amp which also took out a cello and caused half the people in the bar who were related to the band to want to beat him down, after leaving that bar punching a metal street sign and getting a big gash on one of his fingers, getting blood from his finger on everyone else around him and not even noticing he is bleeding at all, plus a lot of other things... ...and there was the random drunk dude who tried to start something with me, I pushed him aside and kept walking, then ten seconds later he's in a fight with everyone else, alcohol makes people act funny.

I love being tired halfway through the day and falling down on my nice pillows. Taking an unscheduled nap with the sun filling my room and some nice music in the background. Most of all I have to be laying down on my bed crooked or with at least thirty percent of my body either hanging off the bed or on top of random things left on my bed. Oh, and for sure the nap has to be one where I didn't know it was happening until I wake up, and then I keep laying there and snooze a little longer. Oh well, nap time is over!

Not only has it been a long day, but this whole week was pretty tiring, but tomorrow is my last real weekday of the week. This week I rediscovered how much I enjoy music yet again. Maybe I will review the various music hardware / software / services that I'm looking at and trying right now and in the next few days. Actually no, I'm not that bored, but if I like your product I might give a shoutout to you. Tonight, I made pasta, it tasted pretty bland. Starting tomorrow I'm going experiment with new things to cook. Friday should be fun, I need to catch up on some sleep too. Nothing I have written today, both on here and other places seems to make sense to me when I go back and look it over.

When you are a mile above sea level, running is quite a chore. I am ready for a nap, but first I will take a nice relaxing shower. By the way, I had made major progress on my room, but I started to slack and it started to fade back in to that "watch where you step" category. I am confident that by Friday I will have some photos of a nice pristine spotless room for posting here.

While getting a little exercise we ran across a little dog. He had a collar so I approached him, and read it. "Orange Co., CA" with an ID# and phone number. Called the number and it was a vets office that was closed for the day. Took him home with us, called up some neighbors, one said it could be her neighbors, she asked if he responded to "Bud", we tried it and he did. She went to see if they were home, but they weren't so she came over to confirm it was bud, I was holding bud as she approached with her dog on a leash, he was about three times the size of Bud, but that didn't stop bud from unleashing a storm of barks and growls as I held him up in my arms. He has a lot of personality, I think that's you would call it. Sweet dog but won't let the big dogs walk all over him. So she said she would leave a note on the owner's door, 15 minutes later we got a call and his owner was on his way to pick him up. It was fun having a dog for a few hours. I think its also funny that his name was Bud, because not only does one of my roommates drink budlight non-stop, but also because my pal Butters, the Butt, I don't know, just reminded me of Butters since they were almost the same size and similar sounding names if you chop off "Ers" from Butters...

Tonight, went to dinner, then decided to watch a movie, had some time to kill, stopped by a nearby restaurant, had a drink at the bar, watched "Be Cool", it was really funny. Fun times, the weekends not over yet either.

Seven Layers of Hell, pretty tasty. The week is now over, nothing more to do until Monday really. I think I have a permanent Guinness addiction now, if they don't have Guinness on tap I freak out, and usually I just order an Amber Boch. I never really liked beer, but Murphy's and Guinness just are more me. Fried mozzarella sticks with ranch go good with taquitos, beer and liquor for a healthy square meal.

I had two apples today, yum.

I didn't even realize it but tomorrow is March too. Time flies when you're having fun huh? I'm pretty tired though and I have to be up pretty early so I'm going to try and keep this short, but in the next few days I'm going to try to add more photos to my website. Nite.

We went to The Office, and there might be some gaps in the storyline, this is just the things I remember, but I don't have like blank spots in my memory, just it was a long night. So I had a Guinness and sliders, which is a pretty good deal at $4.00, if you get like any other beer its $3.00 for it and sliders. Sliders are little mini burgers by the way. The first ten minutes of the hour at 8 and 9 are one dollar Jager shots, had one with Niels at 8. Ordered another Guinness and hot wings (boneless, cost a bit more than the normal 4 wings for a dollar, but it is less of a pain to eat and they taste better). Then Niels ordered two Screaming Nazis, and Kyle didn't want the one put in front of him, so I offered to take it. The bartender, she said it was Thursday so it was okay to have a few more beers. She gave Mikey some free samples of Beer he hadn't tried, but she cut him off from the samples when he asked for a sample of Malibu. Can't remember if I had anything besides Guinness in between that Screaming Nazi and the drink in the picture, a Leg Spreader. It was a rather large shot, and it didn't taste bad. But I just looked up what's in it, see below. I'm actually surprised, it didn't seem to bad, but as far as that drink goes, that's the most unoriginal drink I've heard of. I'd like to thank my brother for picking up my tab (Mikey you know the joke), Niels for taking some shots with me and for smoking constantly, that was great, my liver will be shot and I will have cancer, Mikey for providing excellent entertainment, and Chris for driving.

Leg Spreader (as made by Jessica)
Ingredients:
* Rumple Minze
* Southern Comfort
* Bacardi 151
Mixing instructions:
Mix in glass and enjoy

The sign says "Most Livable City" but in the summer it gets really hot there, too hot for me to spend more than a few seconds outside without strapping a block of ice to my back. Other than the summer though, the weather there is pretty "livable" and today it was nice and warm.

My week is basically over, and today wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I burned my tongue on some hot food though, so its kind of sore right now. I think I'm going to go for a run, and take a shower and then get some sleep, I really need to catch up on my sleep. By the way, I didn't really get to cleaning my room yet, I made it look a bit less messy, but it is still a wreck, so I might work on that before I get to sleep...

It is Matt's birthday so we are all here having a few drinks and playing poker and whatnot. I guess that doesn't explain how I didn't clean my room before they came over today, but oh well. This "blog" thing is kind of getting boring. I'm trying my best to use it, but I just feel like writing pointless stuff here. So people are still here, but I think I'm going to clean my room for a few mins while they play more poker, I've never really played poker except at a casino, oh and strip poker, and I pretty much suck at poker so I'm going to avoid it...

My bedroom is so messy, today my goal is to get it all the dirty clothes washed, old papers and junk on the floor put away, and vacuum. I think I might also want to move my desk and bed, although I can't really picture how I want them arranged. Not on my list of goals for this project today is to get the closet done, that is just a ridiculous amount of work right there, especially since most of the stuff from my room when I clean will end up in the closet. Lucky my closet is pretty spacious, in fact when I first moved in I slept in my closet because there were no blinds in the house, and my empty bedroom faced south. I even have electrical sockets in my closet, I had my computer in there for a while, just because I didn't want it in my bedroom. So now to stop writing and get to work!