pic: youngi biked to work with young this morning and i got a bunch of free stuff in addition to a bunch of allergens in my eyes. now it is blind at work day. also this morning i found out that my building’s garage freight elevator looks like the kind of freight elevator that people go into and never come out of, like in the horror movies. if there was an award for Scary Freight Elevator this one would win first prize.

operation no fun is/has been in full effect. my liver frickin loves me for the time being.

the other day i got on bart after work and the first available seat i saw was next to this woman who was wearing the same pants as me. so i said “hey, same pants!” and then she smiled and said “same shirts” which didn’t make any sense. i didn’t know how to respond so i just said yep and laughed nervously. i suspect she saw right through me.

decided to mess up my railroad pin collection and turn them into rings

figured i’d get better use out of them

this weekend i went down to the central valley aka the midwest of california to visit my dad cause he’s had some hardcore heartwork and can’t travel for awhile. also it was my lil brother’s prom night? that was surreal. he’s about 10 feet taller than i remember. my dad gave me a tiny leo pendant which is his sign. not really the kind of gal that is into astrology but i was pretty touched

grampa grandma uncle uncle aunt dad

when my camera battery died in big sur i started relying on my phone camera as backup. then i remembered the panoramic stitch function on my phone camera which was made for trips like this. click each image for the big picture

Midweek on the playing fields
Sir thwacks you on the knees
Knees you in the groin; elbow in the face
Bruises bigger than dinner plates

i tried to recreate the Boredoms’ Vision Creation Newsun album cover with mah friends

































my america’s next top model pose and my imitators

here are 3 funny pfeiffer beach pics from young’s camera

sorry i haven’t been updating as much as i used to. i used to blog from my old job during bored idle moments and hardly ever at home. not much of those opportunities now with my newish job, but at least i am content between the hours of 8 and 5 now thanks to good company (pun intended).

here’s more pics from the last couple of weeks. bay meadows, bingo night at the knockout and other neighborhood bars, roasted chicken and baseball on tv all day with pallies, handmade gifts from friends and me forced into making button rings after getting into a seinfeldian fight with another crafter on etsy, and me freaking out at a $4 gas sign before a long road trip. don’t worry about my mental health, i’m fully aware of my fickleness/neuroticisms.

young started working w/ felt again and me a letter a with a bunch of cutesy adornments.

i’ve asked him to make me a hammerhead shark biting a manta ray in felt form next but he rolled his eyes at that. i still dream.

i got into a fight with some paranoid imbalanced seller on etsy.com who accused me of not having a coupon code for a 10% discount when i really did. i got so mad that i canceled my order because she was so accusatory and passive aggresive bitchy with me and transparent passive-aggressive behavior make me nuts. so blah blah blah i told her off and said i’d rather give my money to a non-bitchy seller, etc. but then she put up a bunch of cool stuff on her store a few days later that i wanted badly, so i asked young to buy stuff for me so i didn’t have to eat crow under my gov name/shipping address. i felt so dirty, like i had an addiction to drugs except instead of drugs it was some cutesy diy crud that was quality and ridiculously underpriced. it was like that one seinfeld episode with the fruit bodega where they got banned and asked non-banned folk to buy bananas for them.

anyway, so i bought $50 worth of button rings and necklaces from her under young and then realized that shit is so easy to make once i stared at it. thanks to britex for introducing me to my new friend mr. fiskars diagonal cutter. this thing is amazing i can cut anything with this, weirds me out that i haven’t seen an infomercial for it cutting through cars and frying pans. i’m glad i realized i can make this stuff myself but i still am mad at her and asshurt that i gave her more money after she accused me of trying to bilk her out of 90 cents. i blame my moms’ excessive pride genes. she was a diva during the war.

a bunch of random pics i finally got to uploading from the past 2 weeks, mostly from my phone and a few from my digicam. opening night at at&t park with fireworks, art opening at receiver gallery, pork chops nights, olympic torch relay & protest near my work, and random pics of coworkers. i love my new job. since i worked at the mall with young as a teenager back in the day, there hasn’t been a job where i could say that i enjoy all of my co-workers’ personalities and senses of humor. so much in fact, that some days i look forward to going to work. never thought that was possible as a corporate lackey. hams unite!

so a bunch of gigantic unknown animals were found off of Antarctica. young showed me this nat’l geographic link. what the hell are these things? other than beautiful, awesome and amazing, i don’t know.

maybe those guys can tell me what this x-rated sea creature is that i picked up at the monterey bay aquarium when i was a kid. i’m starting to think it is a sea cucumber of some sort.

this woman looks so much more happier to be holding her sea cucumber than i am

then again, hers looks like a Pokemon character. mine looks like something not on a kid’s show…

(hot dog bun)

today was the first time i’ve ever been summoned for jury duty for a criminal trial at the hall of justice on bryant st. i’ve always been assigned to the civil courthouse which has been renovated and is kinda fancy, almost opulent. on the contrary, the criminal courthouse was a depressing place, seemingly neglected & dilapidated with bailiffs escorting defendants in handcuffs down the hallways. i counted approx 8 bail bonds places across the street, many door to door.

around the corner alley there were even more. there was one called “helena bail bonds” with a girly sign with multicolor blinking lights that i wish i took a picture of.

i dodged the 8 week trial but had to be pinged back into the jury pool for another trial. that one came to resolution before the jury selection process and i got dismissed. i’m glad. i can read about it in books or watch it on a screen, but i sometimes feel physically ill when i hear about details of real life violence. i think criminal cases in general are inherently depressing.

sometimes when i am suffering at the gym i ask myself why i am doing this. i think most people want to get in shape or drop a few pounds so they can wear swimwear in public without shame or look good in a cocktail dress or something. me, i realized i am exercising so i can fit into my robot blouse again which i put together 4 years ago.

i think sometimes sentimentality is my only motivation for making a concerted effort. sometimes. i know i can just pull the buttons off and put em on a new shirt, but i am too lazy to thread a needle. not too lazy i guess to feel the burn. no secret really, i’m a fickle one.

my drum lessons lately have been really constructive. i look forward to them every week, although there has been a few hiatuses recently with my teacher going to SXSW and just gigging a lot in general. lately our lessons have just been both of us on drum sets at the same time playing the same rhythm with him doing some fancy variation or drum fill intermittently and giving me a measure of time to mimic the exact thing. it’s very loose, i’m not always perfect but i am appreciating this kind of method because most of the drummers i admire show dexterity and can improvise off the pulse. i think it helps me learn creatively and intuitively instead of focusing too much on numbers and technical details. anyway, this weekend i upgraded to a better paiste high-hat and went into guitar center and got a used sabian crash and that made a world of difference. i love the way my drum kit sounds now and i spent most of sunday afternoon playing to the first sabbath album which probably made the neighboring restaurant hate me. i don’t care, i’ve heard them blast trance music really loud when i was trying to get some sleep one time. oh going into guitar center bummed me out a little though because there were 10 year olds being badasses on the drums and not only was it intimidating, but i felt at my age i was past the learning curve. i need more variety in my arsenal to son these brats. just kidding, i love kids that rock and that one jack black movie with the kids and the rock. dude my nephew shreds on Proud Mary, makes me a proud auntie. (Queue Whitney Houston) I believe the children are the future…

i browse the internet on city buildings.

birthday girl alexis mackenzie

katie explains how wii works to john of fecalface.com

“OMG I love Wii”

guess i’m really disconnected from my catholic heritage because it’s been at least a decade & 1/2 since my moms last badgered me about mass attendance and/or important catholic-related holidays that i must celebrate to avoid eternal damnation. so, i forgot how fun easter can be! i didn’t know until today, but the washington post has a peeps diorama contest. pretty fun me thinks. the birds one is killer - i loved that they used the boat scene. hitchcock & bodega bay forever. seriously, this scene looks like a scene i would enjoy eating.

i know i have mentioned flip flop flyin’ here before but i can’t remember why. these illustrations of famous artists/musicians craig robinson made remind me of playmobil figures. kinda fun trying to guess who they are

i picked up a some pins of legendary railways the last time i was at the san jose train station because i liked the logo/typography and i think i inadvertently started a collection. and possibly reached new levels of nerd.

i’d like to take a scenic cross-country trip on a luxury train one of these days.

i saw an american werewolf in london when i was really young and just watched it again. it was a lot more funny, entertaining & gorey than i remembered, almost in an evil dead way.

i think i have a crush on griffin dunne circa early-80s now.
yeah, that griffin dunne. the guy who chased madonna around in a 1 1/2 star movie and starred in a movie where he talks to his manhood for advice about career decisions. yeah, the guy that was named after a virile mythical greek beast. i’m grossed out by it too.

i’ve witnessed fires before but never a building engulfed in flames. this must have been on the back end of the building. the large group of spectators cheered when the firefighters got someone out of the building. it’s amazing the only casualties were cats. if this happened in the middle of the night, people would be screwed. unfortunately, 60 people are out of a home now.

when i was walking home out from the BART station after work i saw huge black billows of smoke in the sky blowing from the direction of my home as well as news copters flying above. i came up on that corner of my intersection scared stiff and kept thinking over and over please god, don’t let it be my building…

the fire was so big that it spread to 3 buildings (4 alarm = approx 130 firefighters). i never really thought of myself as a particularly lucky person, but god damn.