Today was so nuts. I took the day off from work to appear in court to evict my upstairs tenant. I don't even want to go into the reasons, since in most circles, the mere thought of evicting a tenant immediately makes me evil. My crime is I bought the building and want to live in the best unit, and the only way to do that is to evict the tenant. (Even though he's on a month-to-month lease and only needs to give me 30 days notice to leave, but for some reason the only way I can get him out is to evict him. Which would make more sense if he was actually living there, but he's been subletting to someone else for 10 years now. And that's not even half the reasons I'm not getting into.)

Anyway, I don't want to evict him, so I pay him $14,000 instead. He wanted $36,000. But he knew damn well I'm only required by law to pay him and the woman who is subletting from him $1,000 each and give them 30 days notice, so they took my generous offer of $14,000 plus six weeks to move out instead. Meanwhile, I have to pay my lawyer god knows how much, but let's not get into that.

If that's not stressful enough, my iMac has been kind of problematic since I got it. ((e:Paul) has already lived through too much of my drama over this so I won't expose you to any more.) I started writing my 10 reasons to switch back to a PC (you have NO IDEA how sacrilegious - or as close to sacrilegious as I get - that is), and I finally hit 10 (actually it was 11, or more accurately the #1 reason caught me by surprise one more time and I was so pissed I wrote it up as 11) and I actually EMAILED THEM    to STEVE JOBS! Signing it with my AppleCare number.

Well, as these things typically go, the next morning I felt pretty ashamed of the way I phrased #11 (among other things), but I'm thinking, there's no way Steve Jobs actually gets email from the general public, right? I mean, I just guessed at his email address out of frustration, it's not like I can email STEVE JOBS!!!! Right??!!!??? RIGHT????!!!!!!!

Well, wrong.

So Steve's vice president of executive relations just called me and we're setting up an appointment for my iMac with an Apple genius. Oh my god, I am so embarrassed. I will never swear at Steve Jobs again! I swear!

Of course, the down side of that is, I may still swear at (e:Paul) occasionally. It's not easy being my hero.

Hey! I'm famous.



This just proves I need to get a cell phone with a better camera. And what a bad time to stop getting the newspaper because I'm dogsitting in Alameda! Anybody got a spare copy of Thursday's SF Chronicle?

Oh yeah, the pic is of the art installation thingy Mark worked on for Burning Man last year. They put it on display on the embarcadero last week. Not the best shot, since at this angle you can see the pole going up the mother's ass. But I liked the interplay with the bay bridge in the background on this one.

p.s. - Does the kid look like a Klingon or what?

People:
1. How did you find out about/why did you become [a member of] of estrip?
(e:j3sse) . Although (e:Paul) convinced me it was ok for me to join. (author's note: haha paul! no editorializing.)

2. How "out" are you about having a publicly accessible online journal. Do your friends know? Does your family know? Do your co-workers know? Does your boss know? Do you use your real name? Do you use your real photo?
I finally came out of the closet when a:link was born, so now everybody knows. But for most of them it's like "haven't you moved on by now?" They may have a point.

3. How many epeeps have you met [in] real life?
A handful on my one trip to b'lo and (e:Ajay) when he moved out here.

4. How has estrip changed the way that you meet people, on and/or off line?
That is a subject for an entire post.

5. How has estrip affected you[r] love life?
What love live? (Ha!)

6. How many of your friends have joined estrip because of your influence?
Go ahead and rub it in. Hey, I'm the only fucking one out here and I tried my best.

7. Are you from Buffalo/do you live in Buffalo?
No/No. See Q.#1.

Equipment:
1. What type of hardware or software purchases have you made as a result of using estrip?
I can't answer that. The West Coast investors wish to remain anonymous.

2. Have you used the mobile version of estrip? Why or why not?
I LOVE posting from my cell. I can't browse from there though.

Lifestyle:
1. In what way has estrip changed your Internet surfings habits? Describe the amount of time you spend on estrip, when you use it and about how long?
I plead the 5th.

1a. How many journals do you usually read per day?
All. Eventually. Although sometimes I skim.

2. In what ways has estrip changed the way you perceive your local community?
That is another subject for an entire post. I don't know if I would have gotten so hooked on (e:strip) if I had been living in SF instead of Alameda when I first discovered it.

3. How has journaling about your life affected the way you spend your free time?
Pass.

4. Has estrip changed your living situation in any way?
In ways you couldn't possibly imagine, and I couldn't possibly explain.

5. Do you find that you mediate/document more of your experiences now that you share them with others?
Yes.

6. Has publishing on estrip affected the way that [you] write?
Prolly. ;-)

7. Do you have other online journals? If so, with what service and has estrip affected your usage of that journal?
No.

8. Have you ever gotten in trouble for using estrip at work?
I wish!

9. If you have stopped using estrip, why?
Keep trying to. Haven't been sucessful yet.

For reasons I don't want to go into, I find myself reviewing my real estate closing documents. This standard disclaimer in the California Statewide Buyer and Seller Advisory just caught my eye:

Item 22. Errant Golf Balls:

Buyer and Seller are advised that if the Property is located adjacent to or near a golf course there is a possibility that golf balls may damage the Property or injure persons or pets on it, as well as the possibility that persons playing golf may enter the Property to retrieve errant golf balls or for other purposes. Broker recommends that buyer investigates this possbility during Buyer's contingency period. Brokers do not have expertise in this area.

Some day I'll post about the Red Eyed frog habitat contingency.

This dog-sitting gig is funny. Jack and Margaret picked me because they wanted someone willing to snuggle with their dog in bed. And Margaret says Brodie likes to go into town, but sometimes he's too tired to walk back, so it's better to drive him. I'm thinking, are you looking for a pet-sitter? Or an escort service?

Anyways, while I'm in Alameda I get free home-cooked dinners with B&K almost every night, so I can't complain. Tonight is jambalaya, followed by a soak in the hot tub. Why did I leave Alameda again?

Oh, but back to the title of my post. I have to take Brodie out to check his pee-mail on a regular basis. He doesn't seem very discriminating about what offerings he sniffs, but he sure as hell is judicious about where he leaves his own reply. I wish I knew the story behind all of that.

My life has totally gone to the dogs. Brodie this week, while his Mommie and Poppie are in Italy. And Maggie the following three weeks, while her Mommies are in Germany. Maybe I need to take a vacation myself so I'm not so available.

My brother got a summer job in San Jose. He arrives next Friday and starts the following Monday. Anybody know of a good summer sublet in the San Jose area?

And I probably already told you this, but my ex arrives next Saturday for a week. If my user images weren't broken on a:link I could show you, but the "art installation" (quotations mine - as an outsider I may roll my eyes a bit, although maybe I'm just jealous) he and his friends did at Burning Man last year is getting a second showing in SF. So he's coming out for that and to plan for this year's extravaganza.

Re: Batman

This is really an AP story, but I read it in the Chron, so here's the link:

URL:

Re: Nymphomaid (e:Metalpeter,653)

Not sure what this is worth, but my co-contractor, Steve, is a 38-year-old not-much-to-write-home-about in the looks department, but still very interesting guy. Oh! But did I mention he's a DJ? And apparently SF is full of 18+ DJ groupie wannabes, not to mention fresh off the boat clueless but beautiful underage girls looking to latch on to someone. Well, I get to hear the stories every day. I offered him the keys to my place in the city for tonight's date. He DJ'd last Friday, and an under 20 Asian "girl" (they're all girls to him, but this one really is a girl) latched on to him. Luckily he was with a couple friends who speak Japanese, so he actually got set up with her, even though she's only been here 5 months and knows approximately 5 words in English. Although it turns out she has a twin sister. I wish I could remember their names, because they're so damn cute you just want to commit hari kari thinking about it.

So tonight he's taking one (or maybe both) of them out for Chicago style pizza in my neighborhood. I can't wait to hear this story tomorrow.

I might have to quit this site. These California people posting all the time are getting on my nerves. Oops, never mind. ;-)

I'll make this quick. Tried to post last weekend but gave up after technical difficulties. Now it's a freakin' mission.

Saw some fireworks sponsored by a local radio station from an amazing vantage point last Saturday. We took a boat across the Bay from Berkeley.


Also a good vantage point to see the new earthquake-resistant eastern span of the Bay bridge, in progress.


Somehow my camera got set to B&W mode. Oops.


The fireworks actually were in color.

Met some friends for a picnic at Bakers Beach the next day -- which turned out to be a picture perfect beach day. We don't get many of those here. It may not get cold in the Winter, but it also doesn't get hot that often in the Summer. Last Sunday was hot.



Plus, I had my first craigslist sighting! I know it's not as exciting as an (e:peep) sighting, but it's all I can reasonably expect. I recognized this guy at the picnic who always posts his picture on his ad. I couldn't remember his ad (or why I remember it but never responded to it) so I didn't bring it up with him. Although he was cute, and seemed nice, and he went out of his way to get an introduction to me, and brought up how hard it is to meet people to date in the Bay Area. Yeah, maybe I blew it. We'll see what I think when I find his post again. At least now I know he looks just like his picture, haha.

Then today more than 75,000 mostly costumed (or au naturel) participants surged past my block in the 95th annual Bay to Breakers 12k race.


View from my front steps


And up the block at Alamo Square


Closer up


The stragglers and the street cleaning crew, turning donuts at each intersection.

It's pretty much a 7.5 mile block party, where everyone who lives along the route hangs out their windows, fire escapes, roofs, front porch, blaring whatever music they think is the appropriate accompaniment. And toss treats the naked people running by. Kind of like Mardi Gras.

Although even the mayor complained there weren't enough naked people this year. I couldn't help noticing that too. Still interesting to check out the pix.

I'm not sure if I'm cut out to be a contractor. I seem to care more about this project than anyone else.

Case in point. Being the conscientious little content migrator that I am, I raise the issues that are keeping us from doing our work in my weekly status report. (Of course I also bring them up with my boss right away, but she never seems to do anything about them.) So when my boss's boss reads about them she decides these issues are so important, I should submit a daily status report so they can get on them right away. Ok, fine. I do that for 3 days, and still nothing happens.

So then my boss's boss decides, hey! These issues are so important, as soon as they come up you should broadcast them to this distribution list of people who apparently signed up as the project movers and shakers in the last executive meeting. Somehow I don't think they really knew what they were signing up for, and now I don't want to be the one to deliver the message. But this all goes down Friday at 5:45pm and I have to get the fuck out of there. So, against my better judgement -- and already clocking 1.5 hours of overtime for the week I can't even bill for -- as instructed I submit my first ever "ACTION NEEDED!" (caps theirs) email outlining what needs to happen for us to get our work done.

Maybe that doesn't sound so bad, but keep in mind this is at 6PM on Friday, everybody is gone for the weekend, my boss hasn't done a damn thing about any of these issues all week, and now I look like a contractor b!tch on a power trip or something. I mean, you don't go from being a behind-the-scenes "can you fix this?" type person to an "ACTION NEEDED!" type person overnight without some kind of explanation. Plus, I still have an aversion to using caps ever since I got yelled at for putting ONE word in caps for emphasis in a trouble ticket (is it my fault textarea form fields don't have any way to format for clarity other than capitalization? Good lord, I'm never going to live that down.)

So yeah, it's not really the way I would have gone about it. But at least now I've been given an account on the bug tracking database, and I've been invited to the daily QA meetings, and the project manager invited me to a meeting with the developers to talk about some of this stuff. And even though I'm still not supposed to bother the developers, they now come to my cube on a regular basis (Steve says my cube is like Grand Central Station). It's about freaking time!

Which reminds me. ACTION NEEDED: PAY ME MORE!!! ;-)

Whoa. This has been a totally weird week. The company I'm contracting for announced they're being acquired by Wachovia. So either I'll be asked to clean out my desk (won't take long) next week, or they're extending our contracts through August 25th.

Either way, I'm signed up to dog sit in Alameda May 27-June 29. Don't even ask me how that happened.

And this morning I was asked (again) if I would be available for an interview for an article with Alameda Magazine about -- which seems to be on the brink of disappearing.

I keep trying to get back to the right place at the right time. Thought I was back on track, but now not so sure.

News Flash!!!! (this just in from Larry)

Buzzcocks will be at Mezzanine Thursday, July 27; tickets go on sale on Saturday, May 20 at noon. They are also going to be on the bill of this year's Warped Tour, at Piers 30/32 on Saturday, July 8 (the day after Rev Horton Heat plays the Fillmore), along with Joan Jett and a host of others.

Ok, I've got a waypoint plotted back to the right place, right time. I'll just hope for the best.

So, I had this dream last night that (e:PMT) came to visit me (a peep can dream, can't she?) and I was so excited they were going to stay with me and I could finally show them around San Francisco.

Flash forward to Thursday night in my dream. I'm driving home from work and all of a sudden I realize, OMG!!! (e:PMT) have been here for almost a week and they've been trapped in my place and couldn't go see anything on their own because I took the car to work! I was so freaked out. In my head I kept calculating just how much of their time I had wasted -- and wondering why didn't they come last Friday or Saturday so we could have a couple weekend days first? But it all boiled down to me taking the car.

So I get home, ready to make amends, and there's (e:PMT) with my Dad. I don't know how Dad got into this dream, but he's grilling a huge steak for us to eat, so obviously I have to let him stay, haha. Dad loves his meat rarer than rare, but for some reason, it's taking a long time to grill this one. Since it's already 11pm and I know I have to work again tomorrow, I decide to sneak out and plan a sightseeing itinerary for (e:PMT).

I wish you could have been there for this part. It's the typical harrowing gamut of all things feared in your life. I'm thinking, "I can't map this out for them! I know how great the view is at the end, and even I don't want to go here!" Then I realized I had also forgotten my camera, so I couldn't even take a picture for them.

For some reason, I was convinced they couldn't see what I wanted them to see unless I showed them, or took a picture. And I was also convinced I couldn't change my schedule so I could go with them myself.

It's kind of like this whole long-distance blog thing, when you think about it. haha.

So anyway, if anyone decides to visit me here (before hell freezes over, that is), I really am a dedicated tour guide. Mi coche es tu coche.

I just got back from the Fillmore Farmers Market which finally reopened for the season today. I was bummed to find out it wasn't open year-round, but I still have the market at Civic Center for the "winter" months. Anyway, I noticed for the first time they take food stamps. Is that unusual? I don't think I've seen that at other farmers' markets.

I'm ashamed to say I did not ride my bike, even though chatting with (e:Ladycroft) inspired me to at least think about it. My excuse was I also needed to refill two of my gallon water jugs at the Safeway next to the market and I didn't want to schlepp them back on my bike. Although when I worked at a 7/11 in high school I used to schlepp two gallons of milk home many a night after I got off from work. Not to mention an ice-cream sundae for mom when she got that midnight craving.

God, I am so old and lazy now. I rode my bike every single day in Alameda. But that was easy, low-stress riding. I think I need to get my city street chutzpah back. When I moved here from Boston, I took to the streets of SF with reckless abandon. I knew how to avoid every hill to and from work. (They can be killers out here.) (e:j3sse) and I would sometimes arrive at work at the same time -- last one into the underground parking lot of our building careening down the ramp and screeching to a halt inches from the bike rack. Nothing like making a grand entrance first thing in the morning to get the adrenaline flowing.

God knows I could use an adrenaline rush these days. Not to mention the exercise, haha.