Meeeet.

Riverside Clubhouse. Boooo. This is my fourth time there and still not a lot of veggie options. Every single salad was served with meat. I had some ravioli, which wasn't bad, but I felt like the portion was too small.

I'll try to eat at Spataro a couple more times before I really form an opininon about that place.

All the Boston Terriers in Boston say Wicked Bahrk.



Lil' baby Heylove. Just looking at some of these pictures from last winter makes my ovaries go crazy for another puppy. I keep checking out the breeder's poorly designed, obnoxious site looking and wishing for a baby brother or sister for the Riblet. But we have a hard enough time keeping up with the one we have. In fact, tiny Ribs has to be boarded at the vet for Labor Day weekend because we just don't feel right about leaving her with anyone else. It's partly because she's still a puppy and pretty needy (I wouldn't want anyone to have to swab out the nook under her tail, miss her "I have to go pee, so I'm going to bite your hand" signals, or even try to understand the idea that you can't play tug with her if she brings you a toy), but we're also a little neurotic over her, can't you tell? The only people I'd leave her with are busy most of the holiday weekend, which is totally okay. I'm just bummed about all the dough it's going to cost to keep her at the vet. F this S, mang! The vet should pay me to bring her there. Everytime we show up they're all over this dog like white on rice. Or should I say fleas on a stray dog? I need to switch vets, this place is too far anyway.

Channeling Paul Feig

I just read Kick Me by Paul Feig. I loved it so much. How could anyone undergo an adolescence like his and a) live to tell about it, b) make it so funny and c) remember so much of it? Much like when I immerse myself in too much Curb Your Enthusiasm and begin to feel like I'm Larry David, right now I'm channeling Paul Feig and starting to remember and make peace with a lot of my nerdy experiences growing up. I still cringe a little, but I'm beginning to think that some of these things are only funny stories now instead of the mortifying incidents they once were (no way I'm sharing! I'm just not there yet).

I know what you're thinking. Me, unpopular? Well, can't you tell?!

Cramping



This weekend we headded up to Camino Cove, up near Icehouse. All in all, it was fun.
Anyway, camping top and bottom 5:

'Smores
5. Campfire
4. Swimming
3. Boston carrier
2. Bunny dog
1. Mellow campers

Mosquitos
5. Smelly vault toilets
4. ATVs
3. Monster trucks
2. Dirty, dirty finger nails
1. Loud, teenage campers and their quotable quotes.
Skinny blonde chick #1: "Put the beer in the cooler! Put more beer in the cooler...woooooo!"
Skinny blonde chick #2: "I am not...a teeny bopper!"
Skinny blonde chick #1: "I just want to get waaassted!" (mating call?)
Small braugh dude #1: "I'm small, but I could totally take you!"
All of the braugh dudes and skinny blonde chicks: "Wooooooooo! WooooooOO!"

In the wild


I'm camping this weekend, but I feel really sick. I have some nausea that might have been brought on by the house-made fresh moz at Spataro yesterday. It's either that or west nile. Uggh. I need to lay down and eat saltines, but instead I'm in the office drinking Sprite. That's how I'm rolling today.

Pooh, I'm sad.



Here's a list of things that have gotten me all choked up this week:
1. A Kodak commercial.
2. Reading a Bee article about a town hall meeting in Davis. I know, WTF?
3. A song on the radio this morning. Too embarrassed to say what it was.
4. Friends moving.
5. Six Feet Under episodes.

It finally occurred to me that I'm in the throes of PMS. Send help, or pizza. Oh, I just remembered. I'm finally trying out Spataro today! I've heard nothing but great things, though I sure do hope that they offer something to satiate a picky vegetarian like me.

How could something so cute make something so gross?


This dog is determined to break us. I'm taking her to the vet today. You seriously don't want to know what this is about. Much too pukey.

Mateys


It was an all Birdo weekend. Well, except for Sunday. But we kicked around Friday and Saturday evenings...party crashing and getting our cans grabbed on. We're unstoppable, 16 or so years and running.

The man, the mystery.


No, I don't mean Slices here. Well, he is a man and sort of mysterious...but that's another post. Okay, so here's Slices listening to Jandek. You can practically see the gears in Slices' head churning and turning. Now take Jandek, that's mystery. Friday was great. Besides being goosed at Old I (should I even be surprised?), my night ended in pizza, beer and Nick Drake. The rest of my weekend was pretty nice, maybe I'll write about it later. We finished the first 2 episodes of SFU, season 3. It's....different.

So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for uuuuu...



Elusive weekend,
Why must you literally be at week's end? Your 48 hours or so provide me with much needed rest(laying around) and catch up(shut-eye). Such a short amount of time for so much unwinding! As a child I could never really understand the Loverboy song "Everybody's Working For The Weekend," but now I can really feel it...as I rock out to all four fabulous solos! Well, today is Friday and like R.Kelley says, it's the freakin' weekend baby and I'm going to have me some fun.

T.Clanger

2 buck upchuck.


Stupidly, foolishly, I drank too much on an emptyish stomach Saturday night. I woke up sick on Sunday and spent most of the day missing out on a bunch of fun things that I wanted to do, like swimming in the Yuba with A. She came over to see if I wanted to go but unfortunately a barf was waiting in the wings. Of course 45 minutes later I felt much better and regretted not going at all. So did Riblet. She was really wanting to try out her new life jacket.

Guess who's being too spendy lately?


Me and him. Too much eating out, I've got to get better at this. At any rate, here's this weekend's top consumables:

1. Pomegranite cider. Sorry if this is old news, but I am just catching on. Mmm, so delish and refreshing, not too sweet like cider can be. I could drink a whole pitcher. Maybe not, but left alone with one I would surely try. Available at Rubicon.

2. Asparagus panzanella (bread salad). Okay, okay, I made this, but you know what? I can't lie, I fucking rule at salads.

3. Frosty cold beer. In this heat, there's nothing quite so refreshing as a cheap lager, easy to drink and coldy-cold!

4. This was consumed today, not this weekend: icy cold coffee from Nugget. Some kind of Brazilian stuff, I feel ready to take over the world. As I've been documenting, the coffee craze has finally reached Wessac and most Wessacians are going buck wild, ordering giant coffee-chinos with extra whipped cream, chocolate shavings and caramel syrup. In the morning. Dudes, that is a 1500 calorie milkshake, not a coffee.
So, the wessacian cashier was ringing up my self-served coffee.
wessacian cashier: "what's that?"
me: "iced coffee."
wessacian cashier: "are you sure?"
me: "I'm quite sure this is iced coffee because I poured it myself."
wessacian cashier: "it looks weird, is it...?"
me: "black coffee? Yes, it's just coffee and ice."
wessacian cashier: "you're brave."
me: "why? because I drink black coffee?"
wessacian cashier: "yeah!"
me: "I don't like sweet things in the morning."
wessacian cashier: "did you say you wanted plastic or paper?"

Guess who's not being efficient?



So Crush Groove made their third recording last week. Maybe there'll be another this weekend?

It's Friday, I've technically got an hour and a half left here, but I think I'm staying late. There's so much to do and just not enough coffee. I keep sipping on the ghost of my ice coffee from this morning, which is now just brown coffee water, like it's going to rematerialize. I had to order from the younger girl at Raley's this morning, which is only slightly embarrassing. The last time I ordered from her, we had a debate about the ice coffee price and I am not sure if I won (I was right!), so now when she waits on me I just feel stupid. Which is a lot better than feeling like I'm about to jump the couch (Cruise style), when the Wessacians are ordering really complicated dessert coffee drinks for breaky and I just want
a
small
black
coffee.
That's it.

From work:
-----Original Message-----
From: IT DUDE, THE ONE WITH THE 'TUDE!
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 2:55 PM
To: Teeni Clanger
Subject: RE: Whitelist


Anyway, we received 1216 emails from them this week, all were delivered except a couple related to Herbie Hancock. It seems that an errant Subject Line rule saw Herbie's last name as unacceptable.

I've adjusted the rule. This is not a SPAM rule, but more of a content rule. @wmg.com is definitely on the whitelist.

Signed,
IT DUDE, THE ONE WITH THE 'TUDE!
-------

A brief pizza log of my week so far.


















Pizza log. Monday, August 1, 2005.
Tried to eat pizza at Zelda's (long story), ended up at Luigi's Pizza where I found a live fly in my pepper shaker, but ate a couple of slices anyway. No good.

Pizza log. Tuesday, August 2, 2005.
Ate Roundtable Pizza with co-workers in attempt to correct lousy pizza at Luigi's. It was only okay.

Pizza log. Wednesday, August 3, 2005.
Went back to Zelda's with friends to re-correct Monday and Tuesday's experience. The Gold Standard of pizza!

Pizza log. Thursday, August 4, 2005.
Ate Roundtable Pizza as part of a work function today in the conference room. Free is always good.

Could I possibly eat any more pizza this week? I'm on such a roll, it would be a shame if I stopped.

Wanting, wishing...


...that I was vacationing in England. Hanging out in pubs, eating lots of doughy, bready things. Visiting friends, working on my accent. And eventhough it's so cheap to fly there now, I probably can't afford it. Let alone, where the hell would I stay? Hostels are pretty cheap for private rooms, even cheaper for dorm style rooms.

Sigh. But I'm here, and I'll try to make the best of it. Really though, it's almost the weekend and there's so much for me to do. Dog class, chores (so many piles of clothes), front porch beer drinking, movie watching. Yep. Pretty full schedule there.

That thing your mom used to make.



In my ongoing effort (okay, but only when I feel obsessed with it) to define what it is that I love about Sacramento, I've come back around to the feeling that if you are from here, you inherently "get it" but what is "it?" I don't know and probably can't tell you. But my love for Sacramento goes beyond the delta breeze on summer evenings (is that the name of a douche?), Nationwide Meats, inside jokes and funny bands. It's more like that weird, comfort food dish that your family makes (hello, Leon...hamburger pie?), an aquired taste, I guess.

Speaking of aquired tastes, I made a big breakfast on Sunday. Menudo, part tres. This batch came out too spicy and my poor guests were probably suffering some mad heartburn later. Sorry dudes, not my fault! It was the lame chili powder from Whole Foods.