Rubbah!

I think this is cool.

Dentist

Nmph. I've never minded going to the dentist before. As a kid I even thought was fun. But I'm not not so thrilled with my current dentist office. I'm maxing out all the health/vision/dental benefits before I leave, so this afternoon I had a dental appointment.

The hygienist commited such key offenses as:

• failing to move my lip aside before jabbing me with the poky thing
• spraying the water onto my front teeth instead of inside my mouth, such that it bounced into my eyes
• flossing me as if she were wringing laundry against a washboard

When it was all over, I sulked away with a "May I have a toofbrush fanks bye." At least I have no cavities.

The other reason my weekend was good

A secondhand shop downtown closed this weekend, so all books were only 10 cents! I got a Schubert mass score, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, and The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou. Total: 30 cents!

I might take the second two as reading on my trip. If I lose them, they're only 20 cents!

AIDS Walk SF

Today was the San Francisco AIDS Walk. I did this last year for the first time, and this year I signed up with Kevin's Williams-Sonoma team. (I figured Williams-Sonoma corporate would have a really good post-walk lunch. Plus the company matches all funds raised, so that's a good thing too.) The walk kind of feels like six miles of people gorging themselves on samples and free goodies, but it's a nice event. I think the event raised $3.77 million! Plus I got to walk behind Hal Sparks for some of it, and I ran into Berkeley people Danny, Noah, and Johanna. Fun! (The lunch was totally delicious too.)

I decided to walk back to BART rather than take MUNI, and as I often do when I'm returning from Golden Gate Park, I headed east on Haight. After a couple blocks, this unassuming young (mid to late 20's?) white guy in subtley grungey urban chic garb fell into step with me, on my left side.

"Do you go to the Academy of Art College?"

"No, sorry, I don't."

"Oh, you look kind of familiar."

"You know what, someome asked me that a few weeks ago. On Haight too. I ... think it was you?"

"Oh ... um ... I hope it wasn't."

I wonder if this is this guy's pick-up line? Because the first time it happened, I totally thought he must have mistaken me for someone he knew. This time, I was just like, wait a second... He then kept talking to me for another two blocks or so. I realized that I'm not quite as friendly as I thought I was, so I was like "I'm kind of in a rush, so I should get going. Have a nice day." He dropped off my side, but then a few steps later, popped up again and asked me out to coffee. Um. I already used up my generic goodbye! So I brain farted and blathered "Oh, thanks, I really can't right now, but um, maybe I'll see you again... here on Haight... sometime." His name was David.

Saturday, July 15

I spent a fun Saturday afternoon in SF with a boy :-) . First stop was paddleboats at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. I noticed a sticker on the boat listing such warnings as "Do not overload" and "Distribute weight evenly." Also listed was the gem "Fast paddling can cause rapid tiring of legs." I laughed so hard that I cried, which made my sunscreen run into my eyes and sting, causing me to cry some more.

Next was a visit to City Lights, where I found an awesome pirate book. Dinner was at The House in North Beach as well, which was super delicious. And super fast. We started with the deep fried salmon rolls with Chinese hot mustard, then I had the grilled sea bass with garlic ginger soy, and we finished with the Scharffen Berger chocolate truffle cake, which was insanely good. It was almost too much chocolate cake for me. Almost. I still totally finished it. I totally want to go back. Yum!

We finished by walking up Telegraph Hill, to the base of Coit Tower, for the view and the sunset. I love the city!

Lanterne Rouge

While driving on 101N today, I found myself behind a van with the license plate "LTRN RGE." Hee! Fun.

Project Runway

Augh!!! Project Runway starts in two days!!! I'm crazy excited. Unfortunately, I'll leave after a couple weeks and miss all the rest of it, but maybe one of my wonderful, wonderful friends (you) will record it for me? Please? I love you?

Yay rafting, blug blug, oh wait where's my raft

Rafting last weekend was lots of fun. This was the third year I've gone on this trip, and each year it seems to get bigger and more fun, probably because I know more of the people? Here's some pics from this year's trip.

I was doing great until I stopped paying attention, ran into a bush, got tipped backwards out of the raft, went under a rapid, lost my hat and sunglasses, and lost a paddle. But other than that, I'd say I'm starting to be a real pro at this.

Bill Nye the Science Guy!

I have no idea how I ended up here, but I found a site that has archives of a bunch of old Loveline radio shows. Anyway, I know my online tangent had more to do with Bill Nye the Science Guy than with Loveline, because I entered the site through an archive of a show where Bill Nye was the guest! Neato bjeato. A few lines down, Greg Proops! I've downloaded both and am currently listening to them.

Here I go...

Well, an actual post of substance today.

At the end of this month/beginning of August, I'll be leaving to go work with Hands on Disaster Relief (the same group from Biloxi, MS, under a slightly different moniker) in Bantul, Indonesia. It'll probably be manual labor, but I don't mind. I don't have all the plans settled, but I'm hoping for a month of work, followed by another month of two of travel. It will probably be by myself, which scares me a little. But that's a good thing. I'm excited.

Allez Les Bleus!

Eeeee France is in the finals! I knowed it ten times.

The rapid-fire deluge of posts today does not mean I'm distracting myself at work, really.

New ClifBar product!

Ooh, there's a new LUNA Bar, called LUNA Sunrise. The flavors, Strawberries & Creme, Blueberry Yogurt, and Vanilla Almond, sound a little less treacly than regular LUNA Bar flavors. Will I eat it regularly? Probably not. But I'll try it. The blueberry and almond flavors sound promising...

Vin Diesel scores in World Cup!

Oh wait, I meant Alessandro Del Piero. But seriously, doesn't he look like it? Ok fine people. It's ok. At least I make myself laugh.

Happy Birthday, U S of A

Intrigued by a report of buried fireworks in Santa Cruz, Megan and I headed down to Seabright Beach to take in the lawless Fourth of July festivities. Apparently fireworks are illegal in Santa Cruz, but every year the amateur fireworks enthusiasts of the greater Santa Cruz area put on a show on the beach. We had heard that some people bury stashes of fireworks on the beach in advance, so that when they show up on the evening of, police won't find anything on them. Then they can go dig them up and ignite to their little hearts' content. Yay America!

We showed up at 8:00PM, and the beach was already teeming with people. Police had set up barricades and were "patrolling" multiple entrances to the beach. The inspection simply consisted of "you're not packing fireworks, are you?" This made it funnier that just a hundred feet over, people with odd lumpy packages pretty much dropped themselves down the vertical face of a cliff onto the beach below so as to avoid inspection. Yay America!

As the darkness settled in, the whole beach erupted in an airborne fireworks show. It was crazy. Crazy fun, but scary at times. Some fireworks shot off horizontally, loud booms came from all directions, and Cliff even got hit with a clump of something in the shoulder. At times it looked like burning embers were going to fall down directly on top of us. We'd see a flash, then hear a boom followed by shrieks of glee. I half expected the screams of delight to turn into screams of pain, and to see bloodied figures stumbling down the beach, but it seems like no one got hurt. I was impressed with the quality of fireworks these people had. Seemed like they had raided Disneyland or something. And they either dug huge holes on the beach, or packed in a ton, in order to put on the show that they did. Two hours later (yeah, a two hour fireworks show), we left, with the fireworks visibly thinned out and slowed down, but still going. Definitely the craziest fireworks show I've ever been to. It could be fun to come back though. Yay America!

Busted knuckles

Kaiser called today with my x-ray results, and it turns out that there's a small fracture along the back of my left pinkie knuckle, or something like that. The prescription? More cowbell!

jk , it seems like the treatment is to probably do nothing. Which is good, because that's what I'm already doing.