It's funny how one Apple Care Case can ruin your whole day. Ok, just my afternoon. But now I feel like I'm a whole day behind on things I didn't even know about until an hour ago. All because my freakin' MAIL client stopped retrieving mail for my main account starting around 9:44 pm PST Sunday November 12. And here I just thought nobody loved me any more!

The funny thing is, it kept retrieving mail for my lwist account on the same server, so I didn't realize anything was wrong at first. If my junk mail had come to a grinding halt, I would have known something was wrong, haha.

Maybe I'm masochistic, but I like to ask why, Why, WHY did this happen, and why now? This was a particularly bad time for a setback because I have to get my kitchen and bathroom plans finalized to submit to the city tomorrow. I felt kind of on top of things this morning, but I really wanted to run all the options I've been thinking about by Mark. Yeah, it's great not to have to answer to anybody else about your decisions, but it's also scary as hell not to have a second opinion you trust and some sense of consensus on that final plan.

Anyway, after talking to Mark, and realizing the links he was sending were not coming through, and discovering I had a day and half worth of email on my server I didn't even know about, I got off the phone with him post haste, did some debugging, and decided to put my Apple Care service to use.

I guess all's well that ends well, but I so do not have time for this now. I'm going to see the Damned tonight, and little did I know all kinds of dinner plans have been made beforehand, so now I really have to get going. Plus, the Adored are opening, so I have to catch that! Thanks for the tip, (e:Leetee,201) .

p.s. -- I wish I could go see NY Dolls [inlink]mrmike,199[/inlink] with y'all! I was supposed to see them last Thursday at the Independent, but they sold out before Larry could get tickets.

It's that time once again when my thoughts inexorably turn to...

Kinkos.

I started with high hopes for this Family Calendar Season. I even got a 20% off coupon from Kinkos good through December 15. Too bad their calendar maker interface sucks so bad. I had the fleeting thought maybe this year everybody could collaborate by picking a month or two and uploading and laying out their own photos. So I went to start a new calendar under my account so I could tell them how to get there. Sounds simple so far.

Some things never change. But why does it always seem to be the bad things?

First off, Kinkos' online calendar creator still doesn't support the Mac. But luckily, my PC was already on since Ikea's kitchen planner also only runs on Windows. (Argh!) So I pop over to my PC, which naturally is running Firefox. Strike two!



Ok, fine. I launch IE and start to remember all the other things about Kinkos I learned the hard way. Like, there's no obvious way to sign-in, and they don't force you to until it's time to pay. So if you want to come back to your project later (or let other people work on it), you have to be on the same computer.

So I figure out how to log in (seriously, the interface still really sucks -- I have complained to them about this at least two years in a row) and find there is nothing saved in my account. Fine, who cares. Just because Kodak still has the calendar I created there back when they were Ofoto doesn't mean I actually need it, but somehow it does give you a warm fuzzy feeling I could really use about now. I mean, do I really have to add everybody's birthday year after year? And am I really signed in? It's so hard to tell. I click on Update My Account and get this confidence-building message:



Yeah. Merry fucking Christmas.

Anyway, I also have a 20% off coupon for Kodak. Their interface is WAY better, but their coupon expires November 20. If anybody wants to make a personalized 12 month photo calendar, I can give you the coupon codes.

Speaking of print jobs, the guy who's doing my kitchen and bathroom put together this nifty folder of information for me. Although I admit I might have been even more impressed if he spelled my name right. And the name of my street. Oh well, what the hell does that matter anyway? Although it did throw me to read one of the items I'm supposed to furnish is any and all "wayne's scott." Who? What? Luckily he mentioned it before I had to ask. As soon as I heard him pronounce it I knew what he meant. Ha! That's cute.



p.s. - I'm still looking for a handyman boyfriend. Good spelling not required, haha.

Mark tipped me off about these earrings. I can't wait until they arrive!

Paypal, you are a pal indeed.

Potential kitchen layout plus/minus some details the Ikea Kitchen Planner couldn't deal with. Still a pretty impressive layout program. It even calculates how much this layout would cost in my choice of Ikea cabinets.


Potential kitchen materials if I went with a cabinet dealer I can't afford. Oh well.


I'm tempted to get one of these antique Asian kitchen chests for the pantry. Not as practical as built-in cabinets, but looks cool. We'll see.


I'm pretty sure about this engineered glass tile for my bathroom floor.


And this crazed blue tile is on a massive close-out sale, so I think my shower enclosure could look a lot like this. Except white on the top (not that peachy color). And probably not all those transitional pieces. They look expensive.

But I still want to use the water-blue mosaic tiles for the border, and shower floor.

Ok, I've got to get back to it. Just wanted to see how it looks.

p.s. - I miss my [inlink]twisted,134[/inlink] fire chicken kitchen, even though I had it for less than a year, and I've basically been w/o a kitchen ever since. Is there something about me that refuses to enjoy something I've worked hard to get? Don't answer that.

p.p.s. - I've recently come to the same conclusion my friends have been pounding into me for a few years now. I need a handyman boyfriend. Anyone? I am totally serious. Handywoman girlfriends also considered.

I had a dream last night that PMT were visiting me, but my house was falling apart so I had moved into a tree house above it. I felt pretty lucky to have the treehouse, but it turned out all my friends picked this inopportune time to come visit me. It was like I was throwing a huge party for everyone I've ever known, except they all showed up uninvited.

I was happy to see they all managed to get drinks from the rubble below before climbing up, but the more of them that showed up, the more trapped I was at the far end of the tree house. I kept wondering what they were all doing there, then it hit me. You came here to meet Paul, didn't you? That must be it. I decided I needed to get out of there and get a drink myself, so I pushed my way through the crowd and climbed down. That's when I discovered Terry had been stuck downstairs the entire time being bartender. People were still asking him for these crazy drinks and he was doing his best to accommodate with the meager resources left in the hollow shell of my house.

I knew I had to buy more drink fixings quick and asked him what I should get. He rattled off some mixers, ending with "white coke." I wasn't sure if I heard him right even after he repeated it a few times, but figured it would make sense once I got to the store.

I think I know what he meant now. Unfortunately, they were all out.

Ok, enough with the freak-out rug userpic, I'm switching to something more soothing!

I had a weird voting experience today. I didn't get all the pre-election crap you usually get in the mail the last time I registered, so I registered again. They convinced me to sign up for an absentee ballot, even though that seems like a waste of paper to me and I'm not really keen on killing more trees.

Anyway, my boat-load of election materials arrives on cue and I fill out my cheat sheet and head for my polling place at the playground next door. I also had the brilliant idea to unload my Halloween candy by dropping it off there in a bag labeled "Thanks for Voting!"

Maybe my 5.6 pound all chocolate variety pack threw them, but the volunteers seemed to think I needed my absentee ballot to vote. So I go back to the house, transfer my cheat sheet answers to my absentee ballot, then go back. They fuss around a bit and decide they have to write "Surrender" on the envelope and put it in this special bin. That seems odd to me, but I sign my name to say I voted and go on my way.

Five minutes later, one of the volunteers tracks me down. Turns out writing "Surrender" on the absentee ballot makes it void, so now I have to go back to the polling place to fill out another one. I'm thinking, the only thing that made sense about the situation up until then was saving paper by using the ballot mailed to me. But now that one is "void" and I have to fill out another one. That is so fucked up.

Anyway, there was a time [inlink]twisted,5[/inlink] when I enjoyed throwing curve balls at election booth volunteers, but I am so over that now. Those guys have enough to worry about without me throwing a wrench into the works.

p.s. - some guy named Adam, identifying himself as being from the Democratic party, just stopped by to make sure I voted. Hell ya! Twice!

"A review, survey, or contemplation of things in the past."

I spend way too much time in retrospection already. And the rest in anticipation. Which doesn't leave much time for whatever the hell is supposed to come in between. Wow, that sucks.

But I'll indulge one more time.

Halloween in the Castro:

Hard to describe - kind of like SF itself. Better to experience in person.

I wish I'd been more prepared. You'd think the anticipation stage would have taken care of that, but unfortunately I'm also a consummate procrastinator, so all that planning is mostly putting off grandiose plans until the last minute. Maybe I shouldn't have spent Halloween day poking around San Jose until Paul was done with the conference that day. Makes a good excuse, but I know damn well it wouldn't have made any difference!

I can't believe I didn't get a single trick-or-treater. What's up with that? And who's going to eat all this candy?

Hotel TV:

If you tend to overdose on retrospection and anticipation, just spend 10 hours in a hotel bed watching TV. That'll cure you! And if that doesn't work, try Salvia (see below).

Salvia:

No comment. BTW, who the hell is going to eat all this Halloween candy? I am in big trouble.

(e:Iriesara) :

I'm so glad you came up! I hope it was worth changing your flight for our 15 minutes at the Monterey Aquarium. OMG, I still can't believe that.

p.s. - There is so much more to say, but this damn Halloween candy is calling out to me...

(p.p.s. - new user sound.)

I had a weird dream [inlink]paul,4711[/inlink] in super slow-motion the other day. The universe as I know it was tearing open to reveal a new one. My field of vision was literally folding open from the center of my head like being in a flip-book with both sides peeling open at 15 frames per second. Slow enough to recognize I was being pulled into oblivion from both sides like a "split vertical out" digital video transition, but fast enough to know there wasn't much time left. I could already feel and see the tips of my fingers being diced away in time with the relentless "tic tic tic" of each flipping frame like an old movie reel.

I realized the new "real" universe was infinitely bigger than my imaginary one. I couldn't believe everything I thought was real -- including me -- was really just a fabrication of my mind. How could so many intricate and intertwined perceptions not be real? Why make me "sentient" if it wasn't going to be real?

I watched the receding edges of my world moving inward. I noticed a candy wrapper on the rug (damn rug!) next to my hand and wondered how on earth so much detail -- all the backstory to that candy wrapper and the rest of my life -- couldn't be real. Then I saw (e:Paul) sitting on the rug (damn rug!) beyond the candy wrapper. He was smiling at me like he knew something crazy was happening, but he was totally ok with it. I wasn't sure if I was still projecting him as a figment of my imagination or if he really was real.

In some accounts of my dream, I clutched a finger of his outstretched hand and said "you're really here!" Things were getting hazy again at this point after being crystal clear in the middle of my dream, but I do have a vague recollection of that. In any case, eventually I managed to wake up and synch my body back to my own reality time enough to get the wrapper off my new Little Britain DVD so we could watch a few episodes.

I sure am glad not to be a speck on the butt of a flea in a larger universe! For now at least, haha.

A few more pix from the past week.


Castro on Halloween


Firecrackers? Or gunshots?


Monterey Aquarium


Tea tasting


Golden Gate bridge engulfed in a sudden mid-day fog


We use the photo op anyway


Bright sunshine 10 minutes later at the beach


Soaking up 15 more minutes of sun before heading to the airport


There's still more to see. Come back soon!


Naturally Pookie is despondent now that (e:Paul) and (e:Iriesara) are gone. I'd better take him for a walk while it's still sunny out. Maybe it'll cheer me up too. Otherwise, there's always sushi boat, haha.

Peace out and safe travels!

From yesterday...

::Download Flash Video::

I've never been there myself, but I'm sure google maps can help.

I can't believe (e:Paul) arrives tomorrow! It's about freakin' time!

I wish my guest quarters were as well-appointed as (e:PMT)'s. Hell, I wish I had guest quarters! It wasn't until Friday that I even had a sofa to sit on. Although I do have a killer rug. Granted, it's no white shag carpet [inlink]paul,4659[/inlink] BUT, I did manage to get my white shag pillow pup out of storage. I hope (e:Paul) isn't allergic to it, haha.