Sour Particles

First place brave enough to attempt to make one. They used rum instead of cachaca though, its a good drink, but sadly not as great as a real caiprinhia. The sugar cane garnish is a great touch to make up for the lack of authenticity in regards to the main ingredient. The rest of the U.S. should learn from Vegas.

Being a person with a pool table in the house, it is expected that I not be horrible at the game. But I think am.

A city,town or village without a decent smoothie place is really just a trailer park, even if the houses don't have wheels. Free smoothie isn't bad, not like my typical one I get at Jamba Juice though. It isn't a bad one though and there are a lot more to try, and wheatgrass! I think the value of houses will go up now that this city is civilized.

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

While I wait for an hour for the creme brulee in the oven, I might as well pig out on this awesome little chocolate rabbit. Next up is sugar cookies. Maybe after the rabbit I will have a sandwich. I only wish this bunny thing was solid because at the moment its about 75% gone.

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.

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.

I would hate to be locked in there without a tap.

Guinness, because life is too short too waste a glass on Bud Light.

Exciting weekend ahead, but sad because didn't have ice cream before I left.

As always there is not enough space in the overhead bins, this brings up an important issue. Why do people bring huge bags that obviously are way over the size limit on to the plane, yet when people with bags that are barely over the limit to to get on, they make those people check the barely over the limit bags. I was boarding group B, and early in it, so I found space for my within the size limit bag quickly. Its not the danger of hitting the ground that scares me, its the collective IQ of the general population, including me, that scares me. Who knows what will happen because of us, during and after the flight. Taking off.

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.

This is my favorite Red Cross. I like and trust all the people here. They stopped using the bright colorful "cohesive flexible bandages" (stretchy stuff that wraps around the gauze when you're done) because people complain that they were too colorful. That explains the two tan ones I got the last two times and this time. But they have a surplus of the colorful ones, so they gave me a roll of the pink since they can't use it.

House speciality drink here made with various alcohols. Taste some banana and cocoa and some whipped cream.

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.

One of them actually still works. Amazing, the buttons were locked up, so I poured some rubbing alcohol in the gaps, and sprayed some canned air inside it, apparently from the looks of what blew out, I or someone else, spilled soda on it. Works perfectly now, makes me feel better using these than my Ipod. Just imagine if Diamond actually knew something about marketing, maybe they would be in Apple's place right now? Maybe it was just bad timing, not as many people with broadband and whatever. This is taking up way too much of my time. By the way, this phone sucks right now.

Maybe I have a biased opinion since it is the only one I use. I trust it on camera lens, my phone's screen, getting smudges off my discs, and it works great, almost too good (too much light coming through now that they are clean), on sunglasses too. It is funny how the same size bottle of Zeiss Lens Cleaner (3oz) ranges in cost from 3 dollars to over 11 dollars. It is ammonia free too.

Maybe it is a basket not a bucket, I am not sure, but it is pink for sure. I ate a lot of the candy already though. Not sure if they picked pick because they are girls, or because they thought it would be funny or because they thought I'd like the color. I have the best friends ever.

This deep fryer makes everything taste better. It has been a while since I used it though. I think I need to cut back though, its not healthy is it?

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.

Okay this might not look like anything, but it is actually a porcupine that was in the street in front of our house. I got out of the car to take this photo with my phone, it is a pretty horrible photo but I just have to say that thing was a lot bigger than I expected. It was also really slow too. It didn't seem too smart, but I guess you don't need to be when you have all those sharp barbed quils.

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.

It is one of my beliefs that when people say something, they should truly mean it. What is the point of saying something you don't mean? I've found that too often in life, people say things just to make people think something specific. It is called manipulation. It is different than me saying my room will be clean tomorrow, because people say things to get people to do things. Guys tell lies to get with girls, and girls tell guys lies for probably the same reasons. This concept is nothing new to me, but I guess I'm deciding there is no point of listening to people in the future if all they've ever told you were lies. But then if I was too strict I would barely have anyone to talk to. I have without a doubt told lies, but never to manipulate, at least since high school? I guess you only need one person that you can believe though. You can't change the past or control the future; you can only do your best right now. If I stray from this garbage I'm preaching then steer me back on course. Look back in a few years to tonight.

But I still will try it out, because it seems like a good form of exercise. And I am out of shape, you probably thought I just wore a lot of layers under my jacket.

I don't think anyone will figure out on their own what this photo is. But that doesn't matter because I know, and knowing is half the battle, or so I was taught when I was younger by cartoons. It's kind of hard for me to come to terms with how much has happened since then, since I was what I now consider as "young," check back in twenty years for a post referring to myself as young currently. Anyways, the TV had a dial, VCRs and stereos ate your favorite tapes for lunch, and nothing besides how the answering machine you just took apart worked internally was complicated. Or maybe that's an over simplification of it. But it sure feels that way sometimes.

The copyright on the Atari cartridge is 1978 (pre-me), and 1989 on the original Gameboy. I used to look to the Dial-A-Pirate for guidance in my early years. I didn't want to pull out the wood grain Atari 2600 or the copy of Gato (Spectrum HoloByte) copyrighted 1983.

The weather is pretty bad right now, it was fairly warm and kind of overcast, and now it's just really rainy and wet. Right now barcodes interest me. They can be useful, and they look cool too. I wonder if anyone could read a barcode without the numbers below it just by looking at it. That would be a pretty cool skill to have. I'm about to go ice skating. I'm not good at all at ice skating, but sometimes I feel pretty good about my skills after a few laps. I just try to keep off the ice and look the least dorky as possible to the little kids skating circles around me.

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.

I used to use a Sonicare electronic toothbrush, but I am pretty brutal on toothbrushes. Traveling with it was never easy either. The feeling after brushing with it was pretty amazing though. I went to normal brushes, and stumbled on the Oral B CrossAction Vitalizer Toothbrush. I prefer regular size and medium bristles. I'm sticking with this brush.

My room is still a complete mess. In fact it is pretty much a lost cause, but you know me, I love lost causes. After my fairly probable crappy morning, I will start the relief effort.

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.

I'm doing some laundry because I packed a trunk full of dirty clothes. This Dole Mango Lime Fiesta 100% Juice tastes kind of good too. Okay, time to get some work done.

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?

If you forget memories, what will you have to talk about when you are old, besides how rock music makes kids do drugs. Something I didn't learn until it was too late was that if you give up what you believe in you are left with a bunch of stuff that you don't believe in and it is hard to convince yourself that they matter. You can never control what happens in life, but you can control your actions, sometimes it is just hard, but you will thank yourself later. My next action is sleep, I bet you expected me to say I was going to clean my room, but that will have to wait because I have to pack now, but I will try to clean as pack, because it's what I do, i'm a neat freak, ask anyone I know.

This candle is bright in the darkness of my room, but doesn't amount to much when you put it up next to the Sun. My room may look messy right now, but if you compared it to the past, then it would be clean. Since I have mastered the relative, next I must conquer the absolute. Because the absolute is the only one of the two that matters in the end, because nobody seems to remember the past.

The Peppermint Schnapps has to be the 90 proof one or Rumple Minze. And you must use a chilled cactus shot glass as pictured. Oh and the room is making good progress too.

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...

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.

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...

Theres a BBQ at my house right now, show up if you are cool...

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!