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I woke up when I heard the phone ringing. It was Scott. I'd missed picking him up on time, because the power was out (I rely on my plug-in alarm clock). I said I could be ready and be there in a few minutes, but he said to go ahead and sleep.
I took him literally, and woke up about a half hour later. I got ready and got to work around 9 something.
I took my frozen stuff with me to work, so it wouldn't go bad. I should have taken the ice out of the freezer.
I didn't feel very good. I spent the majority of the day trying to get rid of a small light streak on the color printer. I even ran the cool-off process and shut it down for a few hours. Scott offered me some miso soup mix. It was very good, and made me feel better.
Cathy (landlord) left me a pager voicemail. I called her back. She'd gone to the house, but my stuff was in the way, so she said she could come back sunday. She also said that if Charles comes by, I should call the police.
Call the police?! She said he'd come by and filed a police report claiming that she'd stolen something of his, and that the police had told him to leave.
I don't know what he claims she stole. I don't plan to call the police if he comes over. I do plan to ask him what the heck happened.
She paged me again, and she offered to help me move stuff on sunday, and move it back. I told her I wanted to move that stuff into the shed anyway.
After work, I got a good workout. I saw a guy pushing a red car. There was a womand steering, and a little boy in a car seat. I pulled over nearby and asked if he wanted help.
If you want good strenuous excersize, help push a car across an expressway (trying to make it across while there's a green light), then up into a gas station driveway. Whew! My heart was beating quickly, and my legs were throbbing all the way to Rachel's house.
At that point, I couldn't be easily persuaded to go drive in a parking lot. When I felt better, we did go to Whole Foods and Safeway.
Scott called me in the morning. He wasn't feeling well. I decided I really needed a bit more sleep. When I woke up again, I noticed how sore my throat was, and that I was generally achey. I called in sick also.
I eventually got up and showered. My hair smelled much less garlicky. It will probably be back to normal in a week or so.
I moved the sound-proofing boards Charles had left for me from the living room to the wall I'll be sharing with Cathy. I covered the wall almost completely. Then I paged Rachel to see if she was awake.
Rachel called, and offered to help me move boxes. I came and picked her up. It turned into much more than just moving boxes...
When we got to my house, the power had been turned on. I turned on everything except for the refrigerator. I decided to clean out the fridge while it was totally defrosted. Rachel and I moved boxes, and then she reorganized my cabinets while I moved more boxes and cleaned the refrigerator with a bleach solution.
I made beer bread, which we ate while cleaning up (before I used the bleach). That wasn't enough, so we decided to go eat. We went to Vallco and didn't eat anything there. We went to Hot Topic, and a comic book store where Rachel bought a Furinkan High School athletic dept shirt. Furinkan is the high school in the anime series Ranma 1/2. It looks like just a normal shirt, unless you know about Furinkan High.
We debated where to eat and/or see a movie. I was tired and still sick. We almost went to see Smoke Signals, but we ended up goin back to Rachel's house to make miso soup, heat curry rice, and watch Red Dwarf. Rachel also made a bean soup dish that turned out thick and chili-like. After a few episodes of Red Dwarf, Tiger called.
I wound up talking to Tiger for over an hour. Rachel finally turned off Red Dwarf, because I wasn't really watching it. Tiger is volunteering for her high school's Warrior Weekend thing tomorrow.
I played Mad Libs with Rachel before I went home. I meant to update my journal, but I just wrote down some notes / key words, which turned out to be helpful later.
Big Boy came in the house for a while, and so did Shara kitty, the grey and while cat who seems to want to move in and is very cuddly. Big Boy doesn't like Shara, though, because Shara is a cat. Big Boy doesn't like cats. I think he consideres himself to be a human.
Rachel called and woke me up. She wanted to have a picnic. I went back to sleep, and the cable guy woke me up. He was there to pick up the cable boxes. I'd forgotten all about him.
I got up and worked on dishes, and washed drawers I'd taken out of the fridge and freezer. I actually felt sicker and more congested than yesterday.
Stacie (see entry from last March) paged me. I hadn't heard from her or seen her since last November at LosCon. She'd visited San Jose in June, but I had a different number. So, she finally called my mom's house to get my current number.
She has a permanent teaching position, and her son is 5 and on a soccer team. He scored a goal today. I told her I'm going to LosCon again this year (she lives near the hotel).
I went to Rachel's house, and we packed for a picnic. We brought bean soup / chili stuff, striped chocolate cookies (vegan but not fat-free), bread, curry rice stuff, and root beer. It was so windy at the park that even though we used air conditioning on the way there, it was cold outside. We even sat in the sun!
We played Mad Libs (we play those a lot, don't we?) while we ate, then hit the swings afterwards. We stopped by her old elementary school to look around, then stopped at Long's Drugs on the way back to her house to answer another page from my landlord Cathy.
Cathy offered again to help move my stuff. I told her it was basically moved. Then we ran into Trey (my friend the last 7 years or so who I've neglected to put a bio up for), Pat (my ex-roommates' new roommate and friend of several friends of mine), and some other guy. They were buying sodas for a role-playing game session. We talked to Trey (also the guy who runs asparagus.com) for a little while. I haven't hung out with him for a long time (excepting a bit at BayCon).
We worked on Rachel's Surge fan page for a while, then spent time looking at backgrounds and taking purity tests.
I went home and started cooking beans in the crock pot to make chili.
I slept in today. I was sure I wasn't going to make it to church, and I was right. Rachel wanted to work on her web pages, so I picked her up. We went to the market and got some chili supplies. We worked on her web pages at my house. I also finished up making chili.
She went to Coca Cola's Sure page for some graphics and spruced up her Surge fan page. She also added backgrounds to some of her other pages. A lot of time was spent trying to find text colors that were actually legible on top of some of the pretty (but overwhelming) backgrounds.
A lot of time was also spent reconnecting. I seem to be having intermittant connection problems with dialup at work. It may be my phone line, or the modem on this laptop. I moved the phone cord around, which seemed to help for a while, but then it would keep disconnecting again.
Tiger called, and said we don't spend enough time together anymore. I asked her when she had time available, and she said she was busy all this weekend and the next. The one after that, I'll be in southern Calif. visiting my Mom and going to Patty's reunion. The one after that is Halloween, and she might have a day available that weekend. Weekdays she's too busy, she said. We made plans for me to pick her up after school tomorrow, so I can give her her learner's permit, disks for Mrs. Carter, and this Mormon book she leant me.
We decided we ought to finish up in time to see the Simpsons at her house. I fed Big Boy, and we got to her house a little late, but it wasn't on anyway. Some weird show was on (I don't remember what), but I got caught in it and watched it anyway. It must not have been all that great if I have no memory of it.
I woke up to my alarm and called in sick. Lois was a little confused, because Wanda had just called in sick, and my voice (what there was of it) sounded the same! I went back to sleep for as long as I could (which wasn't very long... my sinuses were still causing pain).
I emailed work that I was out but was available for questions and file conversions. I tried to stay connected and work on an internal help page, but I kept getting hung up on. Then I got email from Faith to get on ICQ because she needed me.
I didn't know where she was to call her, and ICQ wasn't loaded. I went to the Mirabilis webpage and started dowloading the 1 Meg file. After a few disconnects (thank whoever is responsible I was able to pick up where I left off after disconnects) and over an hour later, I had ICQ, but Faith was offline.
Suddenly, it was time to pick up Tiger from school. I paged her and rushed off to meet her in time. She was waiting for me, and motioned me over to park. She wanted me to go with her to see Mrs. Carter, so we could give her the startup disk and hard disk utilities. Then Tiger noticed the shirt I was wearing: PFLAG (not the same t-shirt that's in the link, but it does have the Love Takes Action logo on the back). The front of the t-shirt says:
P F L A G Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
Tiger said, oh no, why did you have to wear that shirt? I hadn't even thought about it, but now I was amused. I told Tiger my Mom hadn't liked the shirt very much, and Tiger asked, why? My mom seems unsure about gay issues, but Mrs. Carter seems rather homophobic, from what Tiger has said.
We actually hung out in the classroom for a while, but Mrs. Carter didn't mention the shirt, if she noticed it at all. Mrs. Carter said that we look a lot alike, even though we have different fathers. "You have the same mother, of course..." she said. Tiger nodded.
Tiger mentioned on the way to her house that she likes to flaunt the fact that she's Mormon, because it's different. She even compared this to the way some gay people flaunt that they're gay.
I took Tiger to Subway for a sandwich (she had money... I won't have much till next week), then dropped her off at home.
I stopped by Rachel's house for a little while, and went home around 7 because I was tired. Then I talked to her on the phone for a while. Then I tried to call Faith and Ace, but they weren't at the parents' house, and I'd forgotten their number at home was disconnected. I called Matrix Telecom to find out my 800 number and paged Ace with it.
She called back in a little bit. Her number is disconnected, but emergency and toll-free numbers are still accessible. I felt special being the only friend she could call with the disconnected line.
Lots of her stories were on the hard drive of her dad's pc, which had crashed with 3 brown-outs (worse than black-outs... where some power is available... lights work but dimly...). Hopefully she can find hard copies.
I called my mom, and Patty called. Then I talked to Rachel again. I finished writing a critique of L.A. Stories for the Critic's List, then I finally went to bed around 11.
Yay! My sinuses are better. I called in sick in the morning, saying I might be in later, then was able to sleep in till noon.
I hadn't read yesterday's Crit List mail, as I hadn't wanted to read it until I got my critique in. I had several critiques and reactions to critiques to read. Before I knew it, it was 5pm. I showered and left for work around 6.
On the way to work, I was suddenly hungry. Darn! I hadn't been hungry all day, and I'd left the chili at home. I stopped at Lucky and got orange juice, oil-free chips, and garlic-red pepper salsa.
I fixed a crashed computer (Mac with disk icon & question mark) simply by booting it up. Maybe it had needed a rest. I went through over half of the food, and suddenly didn't feel so good. In my rush of hunger, I'd eaten too quickly. It felt like I had a whole tortilla chip wedged in my chest.
I got about two hours of work done. I talked to Rachel. We both felt somewhere between tired/want to sleep and lets-go-do-something. We were going to go to Cafe Leviticus, but neither of us wanted anything there. So, we went to Ben & Jerry's. I had a purple passion fruit sorbet splash (shake thing) with chocolate syrup in it. Rachel tasted it, but she felt sick.
Across the street was a restaurant that appeared to have once been a house. It said it was a taqueria. I wanted to go get a menu to take with me, and Rachel said, okay.
Last I'd seen the place, it had been a Jamaican restaurant, and I wish I knew where I'd put the menu to it. Before Jamaican, it was Alexander's. It had a variety of food, including falafels. It was open for breakfast, lunch, and midnight snack on weekends (midnight to 4am, Alexander's Midnight Cafe).
It had the most charm of any late-night restaurant I've ever been to. Some time in 1992, I think it was, I went on my first date there. I had Linda's car for the week, and I'd been wanting to meet this one online friend for some time. She snuck out of her parents' place, and I met her on the corner. We got there just after midnight. We just ate and talked and had fun, and decided after I'd dropped her off that it was a date. I only saw her once after that, when she was working at the mall. She was cool. Oh, her name was Nancy.
Anyway, I walked into the place, and it was like walking right into the past. It looked just the same, except for the Mexican food. I've only been in the building 5 or 6 times, and I definately want to eat there (would that be again?) sometime.
I guess I get sentimental about places. Some seem to have a magic to them. I already know I get sentimental about cars.
We went to Lucky and got some chow mein noodles. We boiled them at my house. They taste good with just soy sauce, unlike most noodles. They helped Rachel feel better. Not feeling sick, I added chili powder to my noodles.
I felt well enough to return to work for a whole day. I didn't set my alarm, as I decided I should take it easy and make sure I don't get sick again.
Cathy called me at work, and let me know she's selling the house. She won't be renting to anyone else while she tries to sell it... which is basically pretty cool. I've never lived totally alone before. Now is my chance (except for the occasional realtor bringing people to tour the house...).
There wasn't a whole lot to catch up on at work. I did find out that I don't work for KVO Advertising and Public Relations anymore. Advertising is finishing up current projects, and then it's history.
On a related note, I talked to Scott about how there used to be advertising in the Silicon Valley Office (the one we work in). I remember Kevin Ellis, Misty Guerra, and Mary Connelly. He showed me a picture in a stack that was sitting at the front desk and asked if that was Mary Connelly, and it was.
For lunch, I met Rachel at Whole Foods. We went inside, and while we were walking around, I saw Mary Connelly! I knew there had been an article about it, so I felt safe telling her about KVO losing its entire advertising staff. She was surprised, and wondered what Steve K would do. I hadn't thought about that... the 'K' in KVO was head of advertising.
I'd been snacking at work and had chili, so I just bought chocolate Silk (soy drink). Rachel bought a few burrito-like pocket things. Her teeth were hurting, so she gave me the vegan one once she decided she couldn't eat it. I took her to 7-11 to get a slurpee (she said it would help her teeth), and took her back to school.
I tried to help our full-time telecommuter upgrade her timesheet entry program. Her name is Julianne, and she lives in Cool, California. Around 6pm, we gave up for the day.
After work, I took Rachel to Colleen's house. I was getting kind of bored after a while and a few bowls of miso soup (I brought some miso paste along). Once we'd decided to leave, conversation finally started to get interesting. One of the guys there who looked familiar was talking about how he's a Christian. I'm Christian too, and we started talking about what it's like to be Christian and fannish. Not many people at science fiction conventions are Christian... more are pagan. But there have actually been Christian panels and meeting lately at cons... anyway, it got interesting, and then we left.
I took Debbie and Rachel home in time for South Park. I didn't know Chef had inspired Meat Loaf to choose that stage name...
I got this email concerning my May 22 entry:
Heyas, it's Dave. =D Just wanted to let you know that I finally got to see your page, and wanted to clarify a couple things.
A) It's TAZMANIAN Wolf. You had an S where there's a Z. =)
B) It wasn't that Jesse and I couldn't get along, not that we could, but that wasn't why I went somewhere else. It was because I got the distinct feeling that I should go somewhere else.
Ah well. =)
Just clarifying. =)
---
Dave
Hmmm... Okay, I spelled his handle wrong. It's fixed now. The rest, well... you have his explanation now.
Wanda at work mentioned that the Deep Space Nine premiere would be at 10pm. I missed the finale last season, and she said that was on last night. I missed it again! I know Jadsia (sp?) Dax died, but that's about all I know.
After work, I went home to meet Cathy the landlord, and the realtor. Big Boy came in to meet the realtor, as did Shara kitty. The realtor turned out to be a big fan of cats. He pointed out that Shara seems to want to move in. He and Cathy both liked him. He probably will be moving in soon, just like Rachel's Mog. He even looks a lot like Mog, gray and white and somewhat old.
I called Rachel. Her mom made split pea soup, but she wanted something different. I brought over the last of the chili and helped eat the soup. We watched the Deep Space Nine premiere.
I felt like I'd missed a lot, seeing only the second of two parts. The part I really liked was the new Dax. The symbiant survived, and was joined with the only available Trill host (apologies to those unfamiliar with Trill... they are a humanoid species with a limited number of slug-looking symbiants who also have memories and personalities... a lot of the same issues raised by multiple personalities are involved... the Dax symbiant is 300 years old). That host was Ezri, a Starfleet ensign. She's cute! And she is a counselor and will make an interesting addition for the last season of the show.
I was searching for something work-related on Metacrawler, and I actually clicked on an ad. It said:
You are about to be assimilated by the Borg Collective. Do you wish to about this process? Yes/No
I rarely click on ads. This one drew my attention. It lead me to a site on the ninth Star Trek movie. There wasn't much on the site yet, but there was a trailer. I liked the trailer. I've been following news on the upcoming movie (and upcoming Voyager and DS9 episodes) on another site for a while. The preview was very nice. I liked it. Okay...
I called my mom on a break to ask about content for her web site (which comes free with her email account). She was worried about strange people getting her phone number, so I put up a page that only has her first name and email address, and information about her piano teaching. She still needs to learn how to access email when I visit her in a few weeks.
Before I left for the day, I unlocked a Word document for Ace. It was password protected, and Wordperfect couldn't do a conversion. She sent me what she thought the password was... actually several ideas... I finally guessed based on her pattern and got it and sent it back. It's a story she's working on.
After work, I went to Rachel's house. She wanted sushi or Ethiopian food. I had a craving for Moroccan food (about $20 a meal). Rachel had $3. I had a bit over $1 in change, and a bit in each account. We looked around and found falafel mix at her house. We went and bought pita bread, veggies, and hummus.
We baked the falafel balls, and the hummus was oil-free (though of course it has plenty of fat even w/o oil), so the falafels were pretty healthy, and some of the best falafels I've had.
Rachel's mom and sister Debbie were gone to a weekend conference. Her dad brought home Lost in Space and a few other movies and a digital camera from work. We watched Lost in Space (saw it before, pretty good, understood the time travel stuff better this time), then had fun with the digital camera. Rachel's dad got a close-up of Mog kitty.
Tiger called. She asked me for a ride to her school's fund raiser thing tomorrow morning. She will call me at 7:30 to wake me up.
When I got home, I did a quick search for Ezri Dax (see yesterday). I found a fan site for Nicole deBoer, the actress who plays her. There was even an Ezri Dax discussion board. I was surprised... she just made her appearance on Deep Space Nine yesterday...
I woke up to Tiger calling me. I picked her up and got her to Westmont Warrior Weekend early. I just planned to drop her off, but before I knew it, I was helping Mrs. Carter and her daughter unpack and set up for the fund raiser. I got to see the space shuttle they use in their mock shuttle mission each year. I even got to clean out the popcorn maker, hang out with one of the Carter grrls, and eat the first cotton candy of the day (crunchy from not-quite-melted sugar).
Mrs. Carter called me a gentleman and a scholar, after she saw that I'd cleaned out the popcorn maker. I felt pretty good about that, and had to tell Tiger. Oh, I got to meet Tiger's friend who seems to have a crush on her too. He was interesting, and friendly.
After I'd been there over an hour, the actual fundraiser started, and I left and went to Rachel's house.
I kept having a craving for more cotton candy. With my new status as a gentleman and a scholar, I figured I could get away with dragging Rachel to the fundraiser. So, I did.
We walked around the school and saw lots of tables, and a small car being smashed up for money. We ended up at Mrs. Carter's area last. We didn't see Tiger, and I didn't think to check the space shuttle until after we'd left. Oh, and I got Mrs. Carter's email address so I could send her my web address.
Tiger's friend saw us, and later told Tiger we'd been kissing. We hadn't, duh... maybe he was imagining things. We bought cotton candy from Mrs. Carter. Mrs. Carter had met Rachel before, but she didn't recognise her. Anyway, we didn't stay very long.
We went back to Rachel's house and watched Lost in Space and Priscilla.
There's some new radio station, 104.9, that is playing 80's modern rock and some 90's. They don't appear to be playing any commercials yet. Rachel tuned it in when she was trying to get another station.
I slept in. I found the new station and called their number, 408 441-1049. It's just an answering machine asking for comments about the station and what kind of music people like. I told them I like Oingo Boingo, Mr. T Experience, Violent Femmes, the Ramones, Pansy Division, Flaming Lips... I forgot to mention the Muffs. Maybe next time I call...
Rachel came over, and we made chili. We also decided to wash Shara and Big Boy.
I wonder if Shara had ever been given a bath before. I don't think Tiger's cat Tigger ever put up that much of a fight. I got scratched a few times, and one time Shara got his claws hooked over the edge of the counter in a death grip, and it took all the strength Rachel and I could muster to get him back into the sink.
Finally, he was clean (with flea shampoo) and rather upset. So, we washed Big Boy. He put up very little resistance, and never used his claws. He had to put up token resistance to show that he wasn't enjoying himself.
With Shara nice and clean, and seemingly wanting to move in anyway, I figured it would be a good time to keep him inside. Once he was dry, he was cuddly and happy again. I told the neighbor Elise's husband that I was keeping the gray-and-white cat inside. He wanted me to talk to Elise when she was home later to be sure it was okay with her.
Since it was Coming Out Day, Rachel wanted to go to the Billy deFrank Gay & Lesbian Community Center. We went, but the bookstore had just closed, and only a few people were there. We ended up going to Rachel's house.
I helped Rachel's dad dad fix his web page. It was pretty neat... her dad doesn't usually seem very friendly to me, but tonight he was pleased and thankful for my help.
There was yet again no Simpsons episode. I wonder what happened to that show... I wanted to watch the new Star Trek: Deep Space Nine again, but we missed it because the tv listing was wrong. Debbie started watching Lost in Space. We didn't want to watch it two days in a row, so we went to her room, and spent most of the rest of the evening reading old Mad Libs.
Today was mostly uneventful. I did get a neat email from the Society telling me that I'm a wonderful person. That was unexpected and cool.
I was very tired by the time I got home. I tried to call Rachel, but she had gone grocery shopping with her mom. I didn't go anywhere. I talked to a few people on the phone, and wound up going to bed early. I think I needed it.
I woke up to a carpenter knocking on the door. Just after I woke up and let him in, Cathy, my landlord, showed up, with her husband. The carpenter left the door wide open, and I asked him to close it, so Shara wouldn't get out. He said he needed to get his tools. I asked him to get his tools and then shut the door. He said he needed to walk in and out of the house as he worked, and needed the door open.
I put Shara in the kitchen side of the house, but the carpenter said he'd need to open the bedroom and kitchen doors in order to get at the carpet. Whew.
Cathy suggested we put the cat in the very back bedroom. I did, and moved his food, water, and litter box in there too. I asked her to make sure he was let out after the carpenter was done, and she said she'd call me when they were done. Poor Shara... he just moved in.
Cathy's husband (his name might be Bill) opened the door to the back bedroom, and Cathy chased Shara out the front door and caught him there. The carpenter started to remove the carpet in the living room, and found linoleum under it. They were trying to decide what to do with it, as it was rather old and dirty. I realised I was long overdue for going to work, even as the cat escaped a second time.
I talked to Cathy from work near the end of the day, and she had decided to take out the carpet and let the floor breathe for a while. Shara was still in the back bedroom, and he had mistaken the closet for a litter box. She had removed the poop, but wanted me to spot clean the carpet.
I wasn't happy about their inability to deal well with the cat. I asked her to give me 72 hours notice next time they come over, so I can find somewhere for Shara to visit. She said she thought she legally only needed to give 24 hours notice. I'll have to look into renter's law.
I went to visit Rachel. We missed the new Buffy episode... oh well. She wanted to get out of the house, so she spent the night at my house. Shara wanted to crawl into Rachel's sleeping bag, but his fur tickled her, and she kept shoving him away. She pushed him towards my futon, and he flailed his arms and claws and scratched to the right of my nose. At least he missed my eye.
I took Rachel to school in the morning. Still half asleep, I went to work, but I don't remember much of it.
I do remember what happened after work. I took Rachel and Debbie to PFLAG. We talked most of the time about Matt Shepard, the gay college student in Wyoming who recently died after being severely beaten and strung up like a scarecrow.
To give you an idea of how much I keep on the news, this is the first I'd actually heard about him. My parents used to watch the news every week night, and leave it on for about three hours while the same stories were covered over and over again. I still can't stand tv news, though sometimes I look at a few stories on Yahoo.
I was saddened and sickened to hear about what happened to Matt. But what really got me was hearing who was going to his funeral... some crazy pastor of a church in Topeka, Kansas, is going to protest the funeral. That's the part that really sickened me. Imagine going to the funeral of a close family member and seeing picketers waving signs with horrible things on them.
And I'm a Christian. I feel sorry for that pastor, and sad that some people will probably think he represents many Christians.
We taped Star Trek: Voyager & Deep Space Nine at Rachel's house. I got back in time to see the latter, but Rachel called Niki. DS9 had a lot about the new character, Ezri Dax, and it was excellant. What would you do if your spouse was dead, yet this other person was given your spouse's memories?
At work, I read Yahoo news about Matt Shepard's killing. I also found out who the crazy pastor from Topeka is. It's Fred Phelps, owner of the godhatesfags.com domain. I had heard of that domain before.
I brought the Star Trek tape into work. At lunch time, I asked Lois if anyone was using the ping pong / tv room, and she didn't think anyone was. I told her I'd taped Star Trek because I'd been at PFLAG. She didn't know what PFLAG was, so I explained that it's Parents, Family, and friends of Lesbians and Gays.
She asked what people do at the meetings. I told her we spent most of the time talking about Matt Shepard. Soon, Lois and I were talking about Matt.
When Lois asked me if I'd heard of the pastor from Topeka, I told her I had, and about the godhatesfags.com domain. She got tears in her eyes talking about how Matt was someone's child, and imagine someone picketting the funeral of your child or parent or brother. "I don't know what god he worships," she said, "but it's not the same one I do."
I watched Voyager, but it wasn't as good as Deep Space Nine this week. I called my mom later, and talked about Matt Shepard with her. When I mentioned Fred Phelps' site, she said, "God doesn't hate fags. He died for them." I love my mom.
My neighbor Elise left a message on my pager. She is glad I took Shara in, but wants to come visit him sometime and pet him. Shara is a very loveable kitty.
I spent most of the day at work trying to get a program to print a search window. After a few emails to the program's tech support, I figured out it won't print that window. It will save the window as HTML, which can then be printed by a browser.
Yes, I need bios for Autumn and Luke. For now, I have an introduction for them.
I talked to Luke and Autumn when I was about ready to leave work for the day. They wanted to hang out and watch movies. I picked them up and brought them home. They actually spent most of the time cuddling and kissing. They were, however, fun to hang out with. I made pasta and shared it with Luke.
Okay, I hung out with my cat a lot of the time. But I know how they feel... they don't get to see each other very often.
When was the last time I went to a museum? I asked myself, and I can't remember. I remember going to one in L.A. with Andri in... 1989 or 1990 I think. That was probably the last time. I went to one with my first girlfriend (after we were on longer going out... er, "going out"... we were engaged when she was 7 and I was 4...) sometime in the early 80's in Palm Springs. And in the mid-80's, I went to the Smithsonian and spend a few days there with my parents.
Today, I went to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, with Rachel, for her art history class. The special Picasso exhibit was separate. To also get to see his work, you have to pay almost double. So, we skipped him.
We spent the most time at a small sarcophagus, which Rachel sketched and described for her class. It had angelic figures standing around the outside, holding in the center a head-and-shoulder relief image of a male youth, probably the one who had been buried in it. It was carved in marble, and it was a bit haunting to stare at it while Rachel sketched.
We walked through most of the museum, stunned at some of the paintings which looked like photographs of times that pre-dated photography. A few of the females in the paintings were attractive, and Rachel and I have similar taste in females. It's weird to look at the date and realize the model and painter died centuries ago.
Exhausted from walking around, and overwhelmed by all we'd seen, we went back to the car to consult the Thomas map to find a route to our next stop, Nyala Ethiopian restaurant (not the one in San Diego, but the one in SF we went to for injera in March). Unfortunately, the car was parked with one wheel in a pot hole, and now had cars parked too closely in front and behind. I had to pull out of the hole, turn the wheel, go back into and out of the whole, turn the wheel...
Once we got going, it wasn't hard to find. We found a nice questionably-legal parking spot, and went inside. We got the buffet. All-you-can-eat Ethiopian food seems like a funny idea to me, as it's very filling, and half of a normal serving is often all-I-can-eat.
Still, we got to try lots of different dishes I'd never seen before, plus a few familiar ones. The "spicey lentil" dish got low marks for me. Please, it was about as spicey as mild salsa. It tasted good, though, for how mild it was. The spicey mushroom dish was something I'd never seen before, and it was actually spicey... somewhat painfully spicey after several bites. It was good! The black-eyed peas were good too.
We were in San Francisco, and still had plenty of time left in the day. Rachel suggested Japantown. I agreed. It wasn't hard to find with a good map. I realised I hadn't been there more than a few times in the nearly 8 years I've lived in San Jose. For a few years before I moved here, I went to Japantown every year when I flew up to San Jose for BayCon. I think the main reason I don't go often is that I'm horribly tempted to spend lots of money on anime and anime-related merchandise (stuffies, stationery, CD's...). That's the same reason I rarely go to Nikaku in San Jose... too much expensive, cute anime stuff.
I bought a new Tadashi keychain at Kinokuniya bookstore. When I was in third grade at Japanese school, and a freshman in college, I went by Tadashi in Japanese class. Tadashi means right, or correct. It also sounds a lot better than Todd transliterated into Katakana, "Taddo," pronounced "Todd-o." I joked once about my name being Todd-Ashi. Ashi means food or leg. It caught on, and I was "Ashi-san" until I dropped out of third grade to work weekends. By then it had caught on as a nickname.
Several years ago, while visiting up here from Fullerton, I bought a Tadashi keychain at the same bookstore, but it got pretty worn and eventually was lost at Avila beach. Now I have a new one that was a bit over $3 and even got me 40% off parking. It's one of those little splurges that I can look at and just say, "Neato! It says Tadashi."
On the way home, we got snacks at Wild Oats market, and stopped by my work to look at a preview of the new Star Trek movie, due out December 11. I dropped Rachel off, and went home.
With a broken CD player and a few long drives coming up next month, I came up with the idea (cannibalized from something I heard a long time ago) of audio taping a few movies for the drive. I tried to tape Star Trek: First Contact, but discovered my dual tape deck doesn't work on the recording side. I wound up breaking off the tape deck door, getting it to record while applying even pressure to one part of the mechanism, trying to bend things for a permanent fix, and finally making it so it won't record anything.
Basically, the wheel thing on the bottom that regulates the speed so it doesn't race through the tape, was applying just a little too much pressure and triggering the auto-stop feature. Easing up on the wheel allowed it to work, though any variation in pressure changed the speed. I tried to bend stuff around to ease the pressure of the rubber wheel thing, and now something is misaligned enough that (I think) the recording head no longer contacts the tape. Oh well, the stereo still works as an amplifier so I can watch tv with a VCR & the Apple //c monitor. And it was a freebie after all.
I woke up and realized Cathy is coming over today to take out the linoleum. Shara was already in the kitchen, so I shut him in there and got ready to go to Rachel's house.
Shara started whining and whining. I don't know how he will do staying there for a few days till the carpet is redone. I called Rachel and asked if it would be okay if Shara came to visit. She said it would. I was going to just take him in the car (my carrier was at Rachel's house), but she suggested using a box. I looked around and couldn't find one.
I let Shara into my room, and started petting him near the empty, tipped-over clothes hamper/basket. Then I picked him up and put him inside. Once I righted the hamper and put duct tape over the top, he started whining. I don't blame him.
He whined some more as we drove off. As I changed freeways, he started head-butting the top of the hamper. I put a hand over the area where it normally opens. He hit it hard enough to undo the plastic hinge, and he was free.
He started roaming the car, watching out the window excitedly. He dug his claws in but still fell a few times as I had to turn. Finally, the long 15-minute drive was done, and I got him back into the hamper.
Already upset about the drive there, he was even less thrilled to meet Mog, Rachel's cat. They spent a lot of the day staring nervously at each other.
Rachel and I taped Star Trek: First Contact on audio for the drive to Portland next month. Then I got Rachel's brother Ewen's CD player working with an adapter for one of my broken CD players and taped a few songs. We spent a lot of time keeping Shara & Mog apart. It was funny because they are both gray and white and look cute together.
I had chips and salsa, and ate the last of their salsa. Later, Rachel's mom whined that there was no more salsa. Luckily, I had some unopened salsa in the car, so I gave it to her. It seems weird to hear her whine... not too weird, just a little.
I took Rachel futon shopping. She got a nice twin-size mat for her bunk bed, and it actually fit in the Blue Lion (though it blocked all vision through the back window). We stopped by whole foods to get food to make for dinner (including a soyrizo... vegan chorizo). I found a space where I could drive through one spot into another, so I wouldn't have to attempt to back up.
The soyrizo was very good, though more fat than I'm used to. It would be a good holiday/feast dish. I made a soy shake (chocolate, of course).
I got Jesse's phone numbers from Niki. It looks like he'll be able to go with us to OryCon next month. Yay!
Shara kept going up to Mog. I held Shara in my lap for a while, but he kept making angry noises. So, I put him in the cat carrier. He was very upset and tried to get out. I finally let him out after a few minutes, and he was better. I put him on the floor to see where he would go. Mog was in the hallway, and I followed Shara into the kitchen. They stared at each other from a distance, both lying down.
There were no Simpsons on, but the Hunchback of Notre Dame was on. I was surprised that it was good, and that so much of the sick perverted evil of the story was in the Disney version. I feel I have to recommend the movie.
Shara and Mog stayed in their staked-out areas till I left. Shara went pretty willingly into the carrier, though he whined all the way home. I moved back into my old room, so he can still sleep by me at night without having access to the bare floorboards in the living room. I was lazy though, and left my futon in my new room, so Shara decided instead to sleep on a cushion in the laundry room.
I emailed Allen to see if he's going to Orycon. The hotel is full already, so I hope I can find someone to stay with.
I remembered there was a female in charge of the room last time I shared a room with Allen. I couldn't even think of her name, but finally, I remembered enough of her email address to piece the rest together and find her. I sent her an email asking whether she was going.
I spent a lot of the day trying to help a guy from our Portland office who was working in the Boston office. Dial-up wasn't working on his Win 98 pc, and I haven't even used Win 98 yet, but I tried to help him over the phone anyway. My ear was sore when I hung up, after we gave up for the day.
After work, Rachel wanted to go to a book store. We decided on Barnes & Noble. It wasn't too surprising after a few hours there that it was she who had to drag me out of the store. I would have been content to drool over Anne Rice's new book, The Vampire Armand, till the store closed for the night. It's still only in hardcover, so I probably won't buy it any time soon anyway.
We stopped at Midtown Safeway on the way home, and found this new fake salami stuff by the company that makes the fake logs of pepperoni. The salami was much better. I wish I could think of a way to describe it. There are many good fake meats out there... I only wish totally dairy-free (no casein) fake cheese were half as good.
I got email back from Allen. He's pursuing two jobs, one in South Dakota, and one in Mountain View (with the latter, I could meet him for lunch on occasion). He has no idea whether he'll make it to Orycon.
I got email from Britt, the woman I emailed yesterday, who I roomed with for a few years. She remembered the chocolate raspberry alcohol I used to make & bring to cons. She's going to Orycon, but she isn't getting a room. She gave me the email address of a friend who is getting a room and should have crash space. The con is less than a month away, so I'm getting a bit frantic.
I wanted to surprise Rachel for lunch, but I couldn't get away from whatever it was I was doing at work. It was just as well... she wasn't feeling well and had stayed home that day.
Rachel came over, and we rearranged the living room. The couch no longer faces the place where the tv used to sit. It feels nice having a living room not centered around a television set. Ironically, after thinking that, I wanted to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rachel resisted and didn't want to watch, but when I went into my room and fired up the stereo and Apple 2 monitor, she came in to watch it too. After watching it, I felt a bit cheated by how the episode worked out, but then, it is a cheesy show I'm hooked on.
It was after 10 when we left my house. I felt like more fake salami stuff. We went to Lucky by Rachel's house, but they didn't have the new salami kind. I got a package of fake sausages instead, but it didn't seem as good.
I decided to surprise Rachel for lunch. I left just in time, I thought, but by the time I got there, her class had been out a few minutes. I decided to wander a bit, looking for her. I hate it when I miss something by a few minutes and end up wasting a whole trip.
Luckily, this trip wasn't a waste. I decided to walk from her classroom towards the student center and then maybe page her, but she spotted me.
Rachel had been trying to find the Health Center for a while, so I thought I'd show her where it was. Unfortunately, I didn't remember where it was, but we found it after wandering the student center for a while.
Unable to think of a cheap enough alternative, we went to Whole Foods again. I bought an instant split-pea soup, and Rachel had some kind of cous cous salad. I really miss being able to go out to eat more. I am happy I'm starting to get my finances in order. I'll be happier when I'm out of debt.
I took Rachel back for her next class, and checked email at work. There was still no reply about the Orycon room. I checked around for nearby hotels, and found a Days Inn just over a mile from the convention. I called and made a reservation, just in case. I really like to stay at the hotel. That way, I can stay up and dance or go to parties until I can barely stand up, then stagger back to my room and not hassle with driving.
Gee, I sound like Dug in Tiger called me. She wanted to know why I gave Mrs. Carter my web address on the 10th. I hadn't wanted Mrs. Carter to misunderstand that Tiger and I aren't biologically related, and wanted to make sure she could find that and other information if she wanted to. Tiger said I should have told her first, so she could clear up any misunderstandings first. She was kind of mad, but thanked me too... Now she won't have to figure out a way to bring up the fact that we're brother and sister, just not related.
Anyway, Mrs. Carter finally read my journal, asked Tiger a few questions, and that was it.
Rachel and I went to Colleen's later, to hang out and pick up Debbie, as usual. Emerald introduced me to a girl named Amy, who was actually there last week (though I didn't remember her). Amy had an injured (broken?) nose from getting hit working at a haunted house.
Emerald tried to get Rachel and I to go upstairs to see her room, mainly that it was clean and had a visible floor. She whined at us enough to get her mother's attention: Colleen told her several times to quit bothering us. When we were ready to leave, we finally went up to look at Emerald's room. Then we got Debbie and left. I told Amy it was nice to meet her, and she hugged me. On the way home, Rachel told me that Amy had been there last week. I really am bad about remembering people the first few times.
I took Rachel and Debbie home, and went home to take the trash out. My landlord had already filled up the trash, with junk from the basement. I'll have to put a bunch of my trash in early next week. I want to totally clean out the Blue Lion before we drive to Orycon, so we can fit three people and their stuff.
I got the neatest book today. It's a storybook about a dragon, a little girl, and a dog. Goldie's littles made it for me. It's bound with plastic ties (the plastic strip things that snap into themselves and make a loop... sometimes used to keep computer cables neatly together). I think it would scan well. Goldie's family almost read the book, which would have required a lot of explanation... they don't know Goldie or the littles who made the book. They think there's just one person there, who sometimes acts like a small child or a cat or a dragon.
While I was visiting Goldie, I wound up sorting construction paper with Cabbit. She's twelve, lives in the same system (body), and likes to do things like listening to Green Day and sorting construction paper. Once all the colors were together in piles, I suggested putting them together like a rainbow, which Cabbit did.
When I got home later, I went through my routine of feeding cats. When I went to the front porch to check Big Boy's food, I saw a big rat-looking tail before it disappeared around the corner. A possom! I thought I got rid of them all in July or something. I trapped four possoms, one at a time, and let them go on Mount Hamilton.
Well, I rigged up the cat carrier with a phone cord again, through the side and tied around the door. Then I put Big Boy's cat food inside the carrier. I waited and finally caught one, but then I saw the bigger one outside the cat carrier. Mom. I went to get dressed instead of latching it right away, and the little possom got away. I didn't feel like trapping just the baby tonight.
I slept on the couch, waiting for them to come back (they crunch cat food loudly... I think they chew with their mouths open). If they did come back, they did it quietly.
I woke up possomless and tired. I didn't get around to packing for the weekend. I hurried off to work, having no idea what I was even going to pack tonight to wear to the reunion.
I spent a lot of my day at work trying to get one of the old Mac laptops to do dial-up networking. I even did a reinstall of OS 7.6. I had no luck.
I picked up Rachel. She helped me pick out a black rayon shirt, and my black interview pants. After I packed, we were hungry.
Once again, we each had $2 and wanted something nice to eat. Her stomach was bothering her, so she didn't want tomato-based things like pasta (which I had at home) or anything with salsa. I looked at the time. I was going to drive to the Doubletree Hotel and take their shuttle to the airport. I am a regular customer there, at least for BayCon. Anyway, I wanted to be at the Doubletree in 45 minutes, and I still had to take Rachel home.
She wanted Ethiopian food, but finally suggested Rock 'N Tacos. We got a veggie burrito with no salsa and ate it at her house. Then I took off for the hotel.
I parked kind of close to a car that was way over the line, hoped they wouldn't do anything nasty to my car, walked through the back of the hotel, and asked the concierge desk when the next airport shuttle would be.
I felt kind of awkward when they made a special trip for me. I wondered if the driver would ask me what I'd been visiting San Jose for, but he didn't.
The line at Southwest was long. Linda had free drink coupons for wine or beer. We each had a drink. I asked what the sweetest wine was, and had a white zinfandel, which was good for wine. I tolerate wine, despise beer, love rum & Kool-Aid, like Kahlua, and only drink alcohol once every two to three months.
We got to Mom's house after midnight. I called Patty, and her car is dead. She had no idea how we were going to get to the reunion.
I called a few car rental places, and discovered I could get a small stickshift (the guy apologised that that was all they had available... I was happy I could get one) Ford something for $24 a day. They did, however, require a major credit card, or $300 cash and my check book.
Mom had leant me her card, but they couldn't accept that. I called around and then paged Carol.
Carol called from Cal State Fullerton and said she could take us to the reunion! I offered her a meal and gas.
Carol took me shopping to Costco, Target, and Mervyn's. My feet were getting sore in the black dress shoes I hadn't worn in about a year. Ooh, Costco now has $1.25 smoothies that are vegan.
We picked up Patty and went to the hotel early, so Carol could go home and study. She lives 10 minutes away from the Newport Beach Sheraton.
We saw that Sunny Hills 1988 was at the same hotel, next door to the Fullerton High reunion. We were an hour early, so we walked around and found Baby Panda Chinese Food.
I moved my mixed vegetables away from her beef broccoli, and we talked about the last ten years, relationships, things that happen in relationships, and all sorts of things. I even drank Coke, making today a caffeine day (no caffeine for at least the next two days, so I don't get addicted).
Before we knew it, the restaurant was closing, and it was almost time for the reunion. We went to register, and discovered they wanted cash or credit card to pay the remainder due.
After some soul-searching about whether Patty really wanted to go, and a few inquiries, we were off to find the Wells Fargo across the street, so Patty could write me a check, and I could deposit & get cash back.
We went the long way around the hotel, but we found it. Then we found that we had to pen. Talking about life all the while, we headed to a hotel near the bank to get a pen.
We found a closed part of the front desk, grabbed a pen, and started signing our names on the check. A hotel staff person asked us if we needed help. "We're just borrowing your pen," Patty answered. We walked off with the pen a few minutes later.
Soon after that, I handed over $63 in cash, and we were in. Patty didn't see many of the people she'd been curious about. I recognised a few people, and Mr. Kopacki (my English teacher) was back again. He looked old, and said he would probably be getting out of the business (or maybe he said "this racket") soon.
Carol came to crash the dances. I'd made her a nametag, but she decided not to wear it. A few people asked her if she'd gone to their school. Once girl swore she remembered Carol from school, then asked her to take a picture for her.
Next door, I recognised Joy and Monica Creel. I went to church with them, and their sister Leanna. We were also in church choir together. I hadn't known they'd gone to Sunny Hills, or I'd forgotten. My friend Tim had graduated Sunny Hills in 1990.
I remembered being in a junior high choir play with the Creel triplets... they were flowers, and I was a weed, who grabbed two of them and said, "I want them all for myself!" The play was Antshillvania, and since that was the last I remembered actually talking to them a lot (1983?), we didn't talk very long. I talked to Joy for a while, and she remembered me. Monica seemed to be winging it, and said it was nice to see me again. I would have done the same, with someone I didn't really remember.
Anyway, they both had married names, and I figured I'd say hi to them, as I probably wouldn't ever see them again, and I used to know them and think they were cool. Yes, and I had sort-of a crush on Monica when I was in 8th grade. So what?
Sunny Hills had a better DJ. Around midnight, both dances ended within a song of each other. We danced the last two songs in the Fullerton side, then the last in the Sunny Hills side.
Thinking back, it was like a small con, except full of people you went to high school, shorter, and not as interesting. A plus side is seeing some of the people you haven't seen in ten years. Another plus in not having to see them for another ten.
Carol wanted to go to Denny's. I bought Carol a tank of gas, and Patty bought her dinner. I drank a whole caraf of tropical juice stuff (1 litre). I felt overjuiced after the last bit, but it was worth seeing their faces as I polished it off. It's like when I used to order a pitcher of root beer, no glasses, and a straw at Round Table Pizza.
Patty and Carol got along well, and exchanged numbers and email addresses. I got home and crept in super-quietly, so I wouldn't wake my mother. She used to hear the door opening from upstairs and wake up when I'd come home at one or two in the morning, until I learned how to take two minutes to sneak in properly.
My mom had mentioned she played the organ for a second church that met in the same building as the church she's been playing at for years. She'd mentioned that Nancy has been going to that church, and that it's Episcopalian. She never mentioned the punks!
A fourth to a third of the church is comprised of teenage punks. Okay, not one of them had a mohawk, but the occasional punk hair color or piercing, the jeans and t-shirts, the sweet sincerity... my punk radar went right off.
The litany was familiar, from Lutheran school. Ray grew up in a Lutheran church, and recognised it as well. The pastor reads his lines, and the congregation answers with theirs (in italic, in a booklet that's handed out with the bulletins).
The pastor was cool. He talked about the Dutch land reclaimed from the sea, which in Dutch they say is redeemed. Time spent helping others isn't spent, he said, it's redeemed. Linda later mentioned she didn't find her mind wandering the whole service, and I had the same experience. Even with pastors I like, I usually drift a bit from time to time.
We took communion too. I'm used to having the bread and grape juice passed around. Here at St. Albin's, people came forward by row and kneeled on the steps in front of the pulpit, and were served the bread individually. Then the one communion cup was held to each of us to sip. Same sacrament, much different arrangement.
During the message, Acts 2:17-18 hit me. It says, "...Your sons and daughters will prophesy..." I found myself thinking of the Mormon President / Prophet, and how they are only men. I admit I don't know how they apply that verse, though.
After church, I tried to tell my mom how neat it was that there were so many punks at her church. She said, "At least they hear the gospel." I tried to explain what I meant... I think she's glad they're there, but would change how they look if she could. At least she's nice to them, and hasn't tried to change them. I think they're cool the way they are.
We stopped on the way home for burritos. They were yummy. Then Carol paged me. I went with her to pick up Andrew, and then we went to see my dad.
Dad was happy to see me. He recognised me, and even Carol and Andrew. He said, "God bless you!" several times, and told me to take care of Carol and Andrew. After about 5 minutes, he said that it was good to see me, and that we'd have to get the whole gang together again sometime, and to take care. I guess he didn't want to visit very long today. He may not have been up to talking long.
We hung out in Ontario, and then they took me to the airport. Parking is 20 minutes free, $5 the first hour, and $3 each additional hour. They stayed about 5 minutes. Southwest asked for volunteers to get bumped... I would have gotten $276 credit for additional flights, but they didn't need me. The flight was almost an hour late. I finally got home around 11.
After work, I took Rachel to the store, so I could get kitty litter, and she could get tampons. She reminded me to avoid line 5, which won't read my ATM card. After the stuff was paid for, she grabbed the big bag of kitty litter, so I could carry the tampons to the car. I thought it was funny that she'd rather carry the heavy bag of litter... the tampons didn't bother me.
I'm still unsure what my Halloween costume will be. I might be Ranma (an anime character). Debbie is going to be a 50's girl, complete with old-fashioned glasses. She'd bought cheap, used presciption glasses, but they were bifocals and not a good idea to wear for long. I offered to try to get the lenses out, and she confirmed that it was okay to destroy the lenses.
I love a challenge like that. I tapped the lenses, and they sounded like plastic. I took the glasses outside and lit my lighter under one lense. I was hoping the lenses would melt, shrink, develop a hole... something that would make it easier to get them out.
The first lense cracked. I broke it out over a trash can, and it turned out they were glass lenses. I made sure to wipe all the glass out, and Debbie is set with her costume.
I wish at work I had more fun challenges like that, and fewer of the dull problems that come up. Maybe I'm just looking at them the wrong way.
Today was Lisa's last day at work. She was our office administration person, and we'll miss her a lot. She was friendly, she did internal web updates, and she ordered stuff.
We took her to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I was the second person to get there... Lisa was the first. By how many people showed up, I think the whole office will miss her. They even got her a cake and an oil lamp. My veggie burrito was over $8. It wasn't worth that, but it was spicey and full of tasty veggies like broccoli.
I discovered that Bill Pay messed me up. Instead of downgrading my Citibank payment from $150 to $50, it made two payments: $150 and $50. So, that's why I ran out of money. The $70 check to Orycon just bounced, and they charged me $17 for unsufficient funds.
I came up with a crazy plan to have enough money when that check tries to redeposit, or the $75 check still to be deposited by my landlord comes it. I get paid friday. I wrote myself a check for $81, brought it to a Wells Fargo ATM, did a deposit/cash back to my savings to get $80, and deposited the $80 cash into my checking account. Tomorrow night, I'll do the same thing.
By the time my first check clears, the second deposit will be there (in case one of the other checks clears). By the time my second check clears, my paycheck will have been deposited. I mapped it out on paper first, and it looked like time travel. I wonder how many others have juggled money in this manner.
I hope my bank will at least credit me the $17.
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