So, I haven't updated all week, mainly because it's been a really busy week. On Monday I worked ALL DAY. In fact, I worked so hard (painting, sanding, priming, removing cabinet doors and hardware . . .) that I totally forgot I was supposed to meet Monkeygirl to go see the Violent Femmes. And normally if someone called me and I'd forgotten something I'd slap my forehead the instant I heard their voice. Not this time. Nope, we had a nice conversation along the lines of "What are you up to? Did you forget something? . . ." Anyway, I'm glad she called, because we still had plenty of time to get to the show (with lawyergirl whose Monkeygirl-appointed blog nickname I've forgotten), and it was AWESOME! Dude, I had the most fun ever. Brian Ritchie, the bassist, is AMAZING, and I was standing within three people of the very front, I made eye contact with him bunches of times, and I even caught a pick he threw (well, "caught" in the sense of "scrambled around on the floor for it"). I also held my own in the mini-mosh-pit-lite. It wasn't much of anything, just a bunch of bozos either A: thinking it would be good fun to push people around or B: thinking they could push me out of the way to get in front of me. Little did they know . . . I even threw an elbow, which I haven't had to do in a long time. Kept my place, though. The Femmes played all my favorite songs, including several from the Hallowed Ground album, and getting to watch Ritchie work up close was just brilliant. He played the acoustic bass, the electric bass, the basstick, several other things I didn't know the name of but that generally had one string and the tone was changed by either stretching it or "fretting" it, although the stick thing was fretless, the xylophone, and the Japanese bamboo flute. There may have been more. I was dazed by the end. What struck me as funny is that although I like the Femmes, I've never, like, had posters of them or anything, so I didn't know what they looked like, I just kind of assumed they'd look cool. Let's put it this way: Gordon Gano is the lead singer, and he looks JUST LIKE someone who would be named Gordon.
Okay, then Tuesday I ran errands with Mom and went to ballet --- low impact, but still on the move from about 12 to 8:30.
Wednesday I went to an orientation for the kids at school and met quite a few of them. They seem bright and motivated, and I'm looking forward to working with them. I then made peanut butter cookies, did some stuff around the house, picked up Sweetie and his new Mac, then the veggies, came home, made dinner, and went to ballet.
Thursday I spent the entire day painting while the air conditioner guys were here. I made pretty significant progress on the cabinetry, which had to be sanded and primed.
Today Pigglestein and I went to SF, shopped around Union Square and Chinatown*, then went to the ferry building, which I still consider new even though they did it in 2003. It was really nice -- I kind of wish we had needed to eat, since there were about 5 places that looked equally yummy, not to mention all the good produce and stuff. I got two little Scharffenberger truffles, and they were heavenly.
Then we went back to Berkeley, and to the game store (amazingly briefly), then The Craftsman Home, a store which rivalled the intensity of my love for it only with the exorbitancy of its prices (tell me if that doesn't make sense, I'm tired), and Dark Carnival, a cool bookstore. Then a quick Ikea run for a replacement frame for one that broke Thursday, and we were off to dinner at P.F. Chang's. Sweetie told me later that taking me there was an effort to disabuse me of the notion that it's a good place to eat, and his dastardly plan worked. I agree with his assessment that it's like Chinese Applebee's. I mean, not a bad dinner, but nothing we couldn't get at a hundred cheap Chinese places in town. Although it was almost worth it for our sincere waiter, Dan, who mixed "P.F. Chang's special sauce" right at our table, explaining "now this is Chinese mustard, which is hot, like wasabi or horseradish, and this is a chili paste . . . this is soy sauce, which gives it a salty flavor . . ." Dan, no need to give us the rundown on the Chinese condiments, yo, we can handle it. Okay, that's about it. I'm celebrating the air conditioning by lying in bed with the sheets on and the comforter actually on my lower legs.
* In Chinatown, we saw a giant wooden phallus with a bow on it. I took a picture with my cameraphone, so we'll see if there's any way to get the picture off the phone and here on the web.
Good night, take care, I'm off camping tomorrow, so I probably won't update again for a while.
CM
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