June 39th: A co-worker sent an e-mail out which read: Let's set the meeting for June 39th at Noon in.... To which I immediately responded to with some sound advice: There's no 39th in June. And asked: If there were 39 days in June, where would you steal the extra from? Probably July. No!! Yes, then you wouldn't have a birthday. :) No, you'd steal it from October. :P That doesn't make sense, July's much closer. Yes, but that's too obvious, if you steal it from October, no one would suspect July, they'd blame November.
Punctuating Weirdness: One of the lawyers upstairs, whom I suspect to possessed of a strong command of the english language, insists on punctuating all of his possessives with only an apostrophe. Instead of writing, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, he will write Ben and Jerry' ice cream. This seems rather odd to me, did I miss a class somewhere in grade school? The things that start bothering you after staring at the same document for an hour....
Kill Bill: I found this today. B. told me to buy one. I said that it'd just be confusing to many of my friends. Then I added, I should buy G. one, he isn't concerned about confusing other people. Indeed.
Hearing: I had to wake up a little early this morning, put on the shirt I had pressed the night before and my last clean suit, the blue three-button one that my brother bequeathed to me ages hence. Traffic was light this morning so I had every reason to believe that things would go my way. It was both more and less difficult that I had imagined. One, I had much less to offer than I thought I would, mostly because the arguments presented were unexpected. More difficult, because I found them compelling and I was sympathetic with their cause. However, I have to take it all in perspective and then I have to release a prejudice that I once held. While two wrongs don't make a right, often you don't really have a right choice to make, only the lesser of two evils, branching binary all the way to hell. At least, this time, it's not my choice to make.
Endings: I missed the Series Finale to Angel last week; thankfully they replayed it yesterday. After all the bitching on the forums I thought that it would be awful, but I thought that it was pretty good all in all. The key points: Our hero signs away his only hope for salvation in order to fight one last good fight, he betrays one of his own in order to ensure that they won't turn to evil, and he throws himself and his trusted companions once more into the impossible fight. What more can you ask for in an ending?
Poetry: I know I don't post many new poems, so here's a new one.
Strange Dreams: I'm not quite sure how it all began and now, in the light of day, I can't remember all the details. Certain things stick in my mind though. The fall of black petroleum on the windshield, drifting down an icy river the sky full of white snow, walking into the middle of a revolutionary war battle being re-enacted, and walking through a opium den with odalisques in orgy. It had something to do with invasion and occupation, flight and resistance. I remember there were five vans and we were being hunted. I remember that I had to leave my little sister behind because she was throwing a tantrum over chicken pot pie. Of course, every one has strange dreams, I just wonder why mine has to be full of hollywood actors.
Out of focus: Some days everything blurs. I can't quite see the ball and my swing just doesn't feel right. There isn't the right type of food to feed the hunger inside and I don't know why I can't keep still. My mind juggles the same three balls and they seem to multiply in midair. Quickly the morning melts to afternoon and though the fog outside is gone, the rolling banks in my mind keep ships in the harbor. I have to make a stand somewhere. I know something has to give, something has to change. The cursor on the screen sounds like a metronome and I count to breathe in three-quarter time. Somewhere there's a waltz being played. That's a start.
A language of our own: The sun keeps spilling through my half drawn blinds and I can't seem to shut out the allure of a beautiful day. I'm organizing a jail break, but I need a partner. You in?
X-post: I've tried to keep my journals separate until now, thinking that somehow I would have enough to say to fill two forums. Of course, more and more I find that I barely enough to fill one. So here it is, for the one or two of you who bother to check both of my websites, you can now choose which ever one you like best.
The Piano Tuner: As I was telling B. I simply didn't want to finish this book. Not because it was bad, but because I knew that in a dozen pages, I would be done and that there would be no more story. I have this reoccurring dream. Or perhaps it is a memory. Or even still, just a figment. I'm standing in the book store running my finger along the spine of some book I've never read, thinking that perhaps somehow, this simple act of physical contact could transfer all knowledge. I close my eyes and when I open them, she is there, looking at me with my hand on her favorite book and she says to me, "I think I've been looking for you." Then everything is different. The Piano Tuner is like that.
Wedding Bells: Congratulations to my long time friend S. and his beautiful bride P. They are now winging their way to Europe. It was a sweet wedding, there was something incredible informal about the whole affair, as if we were all friends and there was no show. There was something refreshing about that. But then that's fitting I suppose, S. always liked doing things his way.
Wax and Wane: I'm glad to see this week over. In the last three hours I've made corrections to a potentially contentious letter, (normally I wouldn't give most letters a second thought, but this time I was editing and wordsmithing language that came from our legal department, that's thinner ice in my book), whittled down a 400+ person database to a managable 50 and mail merge those, and mail both sets out, all before 4:00. Not bad for a Friday afternoon. And pretty much par for a week that's included half a dozen meetings with legal staff and more than a few calls checking on references. Oh did I mention that they upgraded my computer and I had to get it set up again?
Fore: All of which is why I don't feel at all bad that I get to go play golf on company time Monday. Of course, that puts me a little farther behind the eight ball since the hearing is on Wednesday, but heck, it's only over $18 million dollars ... chump change right? Oh well, as they say, you gotta play it as it lies.
Tomorrow: I'll admit that it's rare that the day's so busy that I can spare a couple of minutes to check my personal e-mail, but this was one of those days. Lo and behold, when I open it up, I find the cost breakdown for the little trip that I took last weekend. That final amount didn't really phase me, what did throw me for a loop was the closing, "See you at the wedding tomorrow." I thought to myself, the wedding isn't tomorrow ... oh wait, it IS tomorrow. Crazy how these things sneak up on you.
Am West and The Flamingo: I am offically boycotting American West. When I arrived at the Oakland Airport on Friday, I had to stand in a line that was about five people long for about 20 minutes and I have no idea why. The guy in front of me was already late for his flight and the attendants weren't giving him any help either. After I finally made it up to the front, my ticket was processed in thirty seconds and then I was on my way to the gate. It boggles the mind. When I finally made it through security, there was something going on the gate and the plane I was supposed to get on was on the taxiway waiting for the plane at the gate to get going. I never figured out what was going on there either, except that I have a suspicion that it had something to do with the people at the ticket line that were late for their flight.
When I finally made it to Vegas I found out that I couldn't check in and I had to bum around until my friends arrived. I walked up and down the strip a bit before I decided that I just had to play some craps. After downing 2 long islands and taking about $200 of the casino's money I decided that call it quits and waited for my friends to arrive. T. checked us in, but when we got to the room he said that it wasn't what we had paid for. Turns out they downgraded us without telling us! They were going to charge us a suite rate for a standard room. Bastards!!! After T. complained a bit, they moved us to another room which was bigger but not any better. We decided we had had enough of moving and that was that. After that bit of shitty service I'm never staying in a Park Place a.k.a. Caesar's Entertainment, hotel again (for those non-Vegas ppl, that's Paris, Bally's, Caesar's, Hilton, and Caesar's Palace.)
Les Artistes and Bouchon: After downing a few more drinks we decided to look for some grub. Our trip to the New Frontier turned out to be a bust so we headed to a nice steakhouse in the Paris (I said I wouldn't stay there, I didn't say that I wouldn't eat there) I ended up with the a french onion soup and a grilled halibut. Both were only average and pretty expensive, $9 and $26 respectively. It definitely wasn't as good as the first time I went, two years ago on my birthday. We bummed around for a bit after that and waited for the fifth member of our party to arrive and then the heavy drinking started.
The next day we tried to get up early for the Bellagio buffet. Turns out we didn't get up that early but we didn't have to wait very long either. I guess everyone else was lazy too. Unfortunately the buffet wasn't quite as good as my past experiences. I thought it was worth the $22, but you definitely had to choose the right things. After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we headed down the strip for some video gaming fun, trying to kill time before our dinner reservations at Bouchon. For the foodies out there, you'll recognize the name as the new restaurant by Thomas Keller, of French Laundry fame. Bouchon, in a word, was great. The decor was very tasteful, the service was excellent, and the food was superb. After my gorging at Bellagio, all I had the appetite for was the lamb. At $25 the serving size was what you might expect at a upscale SF restaurant; however, unlike most of the lamb that I’ve recently had, this dish was cooked to perfection, I thought it was just about the best I’d ever had. Even with that, I think I might have gotten the only plate that seemed the slightest bit expensive. One of our party ordered the salmon, which the chef was happy to serve seared on one side and rare on the other. At a restaurant of this distinction, you might expect to see a salmon portion the size of a palm pilot, instead he received something that looked like a large filet mignon. Not bad for $23. Two people ordered plates of 12 mussels which cost them only $6. Not bad at all for a restaurant with such a renowned lineage.
Zumanity and Points Beyond: After our sumptuous meal, we headed over to New York, New York where we had tickets to see the new Cirque du Soleil show, Zumanity. I had heard pretty bad things about it, so I prepared myself for the worst. Instead, I was treated to a decadent display of artistry. Though I have never been a fan of the comedic aspects of Cirque, I thought that the clowns in this show at least had a point. They were of course, at the outset, Puritans. By the end of the show however they were anything but that. The first talent was two nymphs playing in a large fishbowl. They balanced, contorted, swam and flirted beautifully with one another. It was perhaps my favorite of the night, though midway through the show, there was a tango between two men which was equally well done. More so perhaps because it seemed to capture something genuine about the relationship between two men. In any case, I highly recommend it for anyone who has an open mind about such things. I think in general, if you can handle something on the level of Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together (without the depressing subject matter) then you will love Zumanity.
After that the night quickly deteriorated. To be honest I don’t much enjoy the seeder side of Las Vegas nor the red light district of San Francisco. Let’s be straight, there was some pretty good talent on hand. It’s okay I suppose, all the same, there’s something about it that’s tiresome and aggravating. Oh well, I suppose everyone has something that they like. Personally I’d rather go back and see Zumanity again. Yes, even the part where the two guys kiss.
Dreams: Exhausted from climbing Red Rocks, and fortunate to have survived the ochlocracy of ticket lines and security gates, I drifted off somewhere during the long taxi and take-off. I drifted in an out of a fitful sleep with my heavy-lided eyes cast out the window at the solitary unflinching light. After an interminable period of time a small, uncertain glow drifted up from the abyss. At first I doubted I was awake and then I thought them to be reflections. Then they were more and brighter too, smatterings of galaxies scattered in the dark corner of the universe; the timorous fluorescence of life in a vast oily sea. Then they consumed the darkness and the pregnant void yielded life.
I was nearly awake when we fell through purgatory. Out of the darkness we fell into a rough gray ether. In a waking dream I imagined that we were being transported back through time as if we were in some impossible episode of the Twilight Zone. When we finally broke through we floated over quiet avenues lined with streetlamps casting out their gauzy cobwebs of sodium light. The city was blanketed by a translucent sand of sleep. And I, for a moment, was afraid that I would never wake again.
Snacks: In an effort to cut back on monies spent on food, I've started bring food from home. Bringing lunch hasn't been a problem for the past couple of weeks since I've had an abundance of food. The problem I run into is that I don't have any snack food at home. So I usually make a trip to the vending machine for a 65 cent pop tart or something equally gross. As I was rifling through my pantry I came upon some large containers of pork fu. (shredded pork). I brought it into work and started chowing down. At first I thought, this is great, cheap protein. Then I realized my mistake. Ideally a snack should be healthy, ideally it should be cheap. While my pork fu somewhat satified the first criteria and wholly satisfied the second, it didn't satisfy the third hidden one ... ideally a snack should make you want to stop eating. I think i need to take it home now and hide it in a dark place before I eat anymore.
Gardens: Lately I've been obsessing about what to try to grow in my backyard. Perhaps I should go with California native plants. That seems like the environmental thing to do. Or maybe I should have a huge herb garden for all that cooking that I do. (Yeah right.) Or maybe I should grow pretty flowers. Or maybe flowers with strong scents. I'm taking ideas right now. Just don't say that I should grow a hot tub in my back yard.
Computers: I'm very afraid that my computer is about to die. (Both at work and at home as it turns out.) It'd would be another chapter in this year's bad computer experience, which started with the broken Tungsten E that I got off of Ebay. Actually, I've been worried about my hard drive for a while now. I should get off my bum and do something about it, like maybe save all my important data. Damn I'm lazy.
It's a mad world: I don't know where to begin. Where does it all begin? How far back into history do you have to go to explain the events in one small part of the world? I don't know enough about the state of Israel and the reason for tensions in the Middle East. I don't understand enough about the Iran-Iraq conflict. I don't know what went on in Soviet-Afghan conflict. I do know that two of the world's tallest buildings crumbled to the ground. I know that the United States sent troops into Iraq. I know that there've been prisoner abuses there. I know that yesterday a man was decapitated. I don't understand the causes, but I think I'll have to live with the effects.
Rampant Consumerism: A brief departure from all this high-floutin' talkin' ... yesterday I decided that it was time to get some new pants. Being the cheap bastard that I am I went to the Marshall's in San Leandro. I've decided that that particular Marshall's sucks ass. So then I went to the Nordstrom Rack and I found heaven. Three racks of Kenneth Cole pants all on sale. It was like the frickin' holy grail. I'm such a label slut, especially for KC. You could practically buy me anything from that store and as long as it fit right, I'd wear it. This is why I try not to go shopping. I'm two steps away from being a mall rat.
The strangest places: You find good food in the strangest of places. This weekend Carol had a craving for sushi, so I tried to find a place near Castro Valley that was open for a Sunday lunch. Turns out a lot of sushi places aren't open for lunch on weekends. I did finally track down a place called Shun's in Pleasanton. Turned out to be some of the best sashimi I've ever had. Carol whole heartedly agreed. The rolls were only so-so unfortunately. Maybe it was just something about the rice they used, 'cause the soft shelled crab in the spider rolls were pretty tasty, even if the rolls themselves were only marginal.
Mundane Obsessions: This morning, rather than suffer the bitter swill that they serve at the office, I thought to stay an extra minute or two to make some fresh espresso at home. When it turned out to be broken, which I had half expected it too since the last time I cleaned it something didn't seem quite right, I figure that I could have it fixed in less than ten minutes. Half an hour later I had my espresso and I was rushing out the door, late to work. There's just something about the engineer in me that won't let it stay broken.
The paucity of words: Turns out I was right about yesterday. Just enough of a breather to let me catch my thoughts. More that that, I was making pretty good progress on some difficult routes at Ironworks. Now, looking back on the dearth and meagerness of entries, it occurs to me that for a few weeks, I was like all the other working stiffs. Puting in ten hours a day at work and nothing into things that really matter. It's not the time that I mind; it wasn't that it was demanding, it was that it was defeating. Most days you put something into the job that's replenishable. The scary days are when you put something in that's gone forever.
Top of nothing: Jack of diamonds. That was probably my best play of the night, defeating an otherwise makeable 3NT. Likewise, Monday's suck, but I'll try to make the best of this one. This looks to be a good Monday to turn things around. So far I only have one or two things over my head from last week and no unread e-mails or unheard voice mails. Not too bad for 8:45 on a Monday morning. Onward...
Paella: I attempted to make paella yesterday with questionable results. It started off simple enough, saute sausages, reserve, saute zucchini, reserve, saute tomatoes and onion, reserve. Toss in some chicken stock, garlic and saffron and then cook the rice. Now truth be told, I've never been comfortable cooking rice in a pan. This time I was doubly so because I wasn't familiar with the rice, I had too much of it, and it clearly hadn't been soaking long enough. Any of these things should have told be to change what I was about to do, but in my stubborness I pressed on. It ended up taking an hour and a half to get the rice to a manageable texture and by then I had lost much of the flavor of the dish. Oh well, live and learn.
The week ahead: Carol flies out to New York again this week to look at an apartment that's opening up. I have to give props to Elton for hooking her up with this opportunity. Though if she takes it, that means she'll be leaving that much sooner. Sigh. I guess I'd better start getting used to the cross country flights. But I'll save that for another weekend. This weekend I headed down to Vegas for some questionable activities. I'd tell you, but you know the saying. What goes on in Vegas....
Super Size Me: C. and I just came back from this movie and I gotta say, it was great. It's all about one man's quest to eat nothing but McDonald's for thirty days straight. Needless to say, the results are, surprising, disgusting, and enlightening. Highly recommended ... just not right after you've eaten. The most interesting thing in the movie for me was the fact that our school system serves so much crap to the youth of our country. Thinking back, I remember that I ate alot of fries and pizza in high school, but I didn't really think about it that much. One school that they documented served only healthy food and no meat. That was the remedial school and it looked a lot calmer than the normal high schools that were in the movie. Just goes to show, start 'em early.
Watercress: Last night C. and I went to eat at Watercress. I had been there before for Rich's b-day and I'd have to say this time around was much better. (The previous trip had nothing to do with the restaurant but rather some questionable accounting on some of the party participants.) I had the oysters and the steak as part of my prie fixe meal. C. had the soup and the pork. The oysters were exceptionally good for the price. I was served 5 medium sized oysters with various sauces all of which were delicious. C. enjoyed her tomato and basil soup immensely. I ordered a rare steak but got a medium-rare steak instead. It came with a tasty wine reduction so I forgave them for over cooking my meat. C.'s pork was pretty tasty, but she still longs for the pork we had at Bennigan's. We both ordered the cheesecake for dessert. It was quite unusual and delicious. I hesitate to call it the best cheesecake because I didn't really seem like cheesecake. It seemed like a very dense creme brulee that was set atop some candied nuts. All in all not bad for twenty bucks. Well, if you don't count the wine and coffee....
60 seconds: I probably shouldn't, but I'm typing this while I'm waiting for my 41 faxes to clear the machine. I probably should be typing up the agenda sheet that was due yesterday or answering some more contractor's questions or dealing with one particularly difficult bidder, but I've had about enough revisions for this week. It should suffice to say that I can't wait for this part of the project to be over and I can deal with less frustrating crises.
Relative massing: While doing the weekly climbing thing, I found out that Scritch weighs more than me. I didn't believe it until we actually weighed ourselves, but it's true. Damn, what ever happened to my new year's resolution to weight 175? I really really really need to bulk up. Anyone got some Weightgainer 4000? Beefcake BEEFCAKE!
Friends' End: Like 80 million other viewers, I was sucked in to the end of a dynasty. It wasn't that it was great show, cause it wasn't. But somehow it captured the interest of America. It defined trends and hair styles. It catapulted six unknowns into superstardom. It defined Thursday. Sometimes I think the only true democracy is TV. Every day the American people are voting. Yesterday, the people's choice stepped down from high office. And in it's wake the most highly acclaimed show on tv will probably end with a whimper. BANG!
Just one of those days: Seems like I've been getting them in spades. I spend half of the day running around the office, usually taking the stairs, two, three, sometimes all five flights of stairs, trying to put out fires. The other half I spend answering voice mails. "You have 14 messages." Damn. Check my e-mail. Four more contractors, twenty more questions. Double damn. Then, at the end of the day, when I think I've made it through unscathed, I find out that I've left a critical section out of my project manual and I can't fix it without slipping the schedule. All I can think is, tomorrow's another day.
Confessions: I worked like Windows yesterday. In other words, I spent every other moment crashing. Damn I'm weak at the start of the week. Sadder yet, you'd think that I'd be refreshed after a self-imposed three day weekend. Nope. I think that my brian died this weekend. Probably around the time I found myself liking "Mean Girls." This entry gets sadder by the moment doesn't it? I watched in yesterday with C. It was pretty well written and it had some interesting moments. Ugh, I think I need to go wash myself now.
Annuals: Felicitations to my two good friends with birthdays today. Funny how obsessed we are with years. I think it has something to do with not being able to keep track of time. Somehow we've come to rely on a calendar to tell us if it's spring and a clock to tell us if it's morning. We've allowed curriculums to tell us if we've learned enough, diplomas to tell us if we're good enough. And we look to our friends' anniversaries to tell us where we are in love; to their children to tell us where we are in life. Here's my advice, when they ask you if your clock is ticking, tell 'em, it's ticking just fine, don't know when the alarm is set for, but it's ticking just fine.
Annuals, Reprise: Funny what you see when you skip backwards a year. Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes ... how do you measure a year?
It's late now. Or early if you prefer. I should have something to tell you, but I can't think of anything inspirational. Lately, I've been consumed by work. I even brought home some really dry reading for the weekend. Whether or not I get to it, it a matter of debate, however, the polls don't look good. Today we drove down to Los Altos to celebrate Carol's sister's 30th birthday. Later in the day I had some old friends that I hadn't seen in a while over for a pot luck dinner. We somehow got to talking about having kids. Does anyone ever imagine how old they'll be when their kids are graduating from high school? College? Figure, if you have kids when your 32, you'll be 50 when they graduate from high school. Somehow it life doesn't seem quite long enough. I think I need some sleep.