The Daily Sabs

I love three day weekends, and get so sad when they end. However, if
they have to come to a close, they might as well end with good company
and good food. Tonight anneh invited Randall, Eric, and me over for
dinner; she made tangerine tofu and asparagus risotto. We drank wine,
chatted and gorged ourselves silly. Now to get to bed at a reasonable
hour. Boo on weekend's end.

This weekend the weather proved to be amazing BBQ weather, this was
good because i was headed to a couple of them today. We started off in
the east bay at jessi and chris's house. They have a pretty sweet
backyard and the east bay means at least 5 degrees more in warmth. The
crowd was a nice mix of folks, and while there were still more non-
parents than parents, quite a few babies and toddlers were in tow. I
started to feel old (how can I be somewhere where so many peers have
children?), but then someone brought jello shots and I knew everything
was okay.

After an entire afternoon of drinking in the sun, r and I headed to
the Parker brother's party. Every memorial day they do a 12 hour
(2pm-2am) backyard house party, complete with disco ball (yes
outdoors!), djs, and so much food and booze. Every year I say I'm
going to go, but never have the opportunity to make it. This year I
put all excuses behind me (including all day sun drinking) and dragged
Randall to the shindig. We didn't stay too long (see: all day sun
drinking), but we did have a good time. Plus, we got to see a bunch of
Santa Cruz folks we hadn't seen in years, and more Bridget time before
she leaves for turkey.

The party itself was the opposite of the first party. Both were loads
of fun (and can I just stop myself for a sec and tell you how great
the food at jessi and chris's was? Seriously I ate so much
deliciousness), but both made me aware of my age. On one hand I was
surrounded by babies and wondered how we ended up at this point in our
lives, and on the other I wondered how long until raging house parties
will be too much? Either way I'm going to try not and dwell and just
live in the now. Jello shots, disco balls, and all.

When I got up this morning Randall said we should go do something. For
a quick second I thought I was dreaming still, not only were last
night's dreams ridiculous, but Randall never suggests outdoor events
when there are new video games to be played. I think he knew that I
might put him to work on the backyard, so decide to preempt my
suggestion. Even so, it was nice to get outside.

So we called up samshrew and chris (we had super tentative plans to
hang out with them anyway) and decided to head up to sonoma. I got
some dogfriendly suggestions from Molly and off we went. But before we
made it across the golden gate, we realized it was lunchtime. So we
pulled over in Sausalito and us some delicious Fish. Sam and chris had
never been, so it was a tasty treat. The trout blt was more like omg.
Seriously one of the best sandwiches I'd eaten in quite some time. In
fact I want another right now.

Once we had our fill, we headed north to armida, it was super lovely,
but oh so crowded. Randall and I started a tasting but it was taking
forever to get the next glass so we left and headed to arista (another
Molly suggestion). This one was fantastic. We bought a bottle of the
gerwutz, and found a nice picnic table spot in the shade (their
grounds were really pretty). The folks were also super friendly when
sushidog got away from samshrew and bolted through the tasting room
looking for chris. So bonus points for them.

After we killed the bottle, we realized it was already 4:30, so we
headed to matrix (we passed it on the way and there wouldn't have been
enough time together anywhere else). I was glad we did. Their matrix
zin was nice and peppery, as chris put it, perfect for a steak. Plus
once the crowd died down a bit, they polled the room to see if
everyone would be okay with having a dog inside. There were no
objections so sushi pup got to join us too.

Finally, before we headed home we stopped into town for a coffee.
Somehow, I ended up with ice cream instead. It just seemed to round
out the experience.

Ps. Once we dropped s&c&sd off, we actually made a quick stop at giant
robot. The current trees group exhibition has a lot of cool things in
it. Sadly the ones I wanted were either too expensive, or already
bought. But great to see regardless.

Pizza check, new Mario check, margaritas check, cartoon ricky gervais
check, peanut butter cookies check. Nerd Friday is back in full force.
Take that rest of the week!

this evening bridget, karen, april, and i got together for a bit of dinner mayhem. if you don't count my wedding, it had been ages and ages since the four of us hung out together (we're college crew). we kept meaning to, but you know, just never got around to it. this time, we had to make it happen, you see bridget (aka little b, the one in the middle) is packing up and moving to turkey. that's right turkey. 17 hours away on the other side of the world. her beau is there already securing the apartment, and in two weeks she's off. i'm going to miss this gal, but i can't wait until she gets settled. it's time to see that part of the world!

ps. we met up for dosa dinner at 7:45pm, we left at 11. we probably could've talked for hours more. great to see you ladies!

i'll admit it now, i have a bit of an etsy problem. it's not so much a problem as it is a habit. every so often (usually when someone mentions the word etsy and i happen to be in front of a computer) i navigate on over and do my secret vintage searches. some of my purchases have been complete gems, worth way more than i paid for (a low price is part of my secret), while others are one-hit wonders (things i love for about a week and then wonder why i bought). some however, are somewhere in between. this plaid tunic-like item is one of those things. it's clearly handmade (the stitching is far from perfect) and didn't take much consideration for bodyshape. in fact, the weirdest thing about it is that i can't tell which side is the front. and i'm not the only one, samshrew tried it on once and agreed (for the record, conservative samshrew looked so weird in it). and just so you don't think i'm totally crazy, here's a pic. as you can tell, there's the slightest of scoop on the front of the shirt, but that's about it. the arms, bust, and everything else about the shirt is exactly the same.

now if you don't mind me, i have a random polyester dress that i need to go find and purchase.

technical difficulties ate my post, but the gist is my memory is really really terrible. i always joke about how bad it is, but this is a true story. less than four years ago i saw massive attack live at the greek (with liz fraser even). tonight i got annoyed when randall tried to tell me that we'd seen them. i insisted that i'd never seen them before and that he must've gone with someone else. about 3 songs in i realized i had seen them. seriously. i was like waaaaiit a minute. maybe i have seen them

so when i forget your name, or your birthday, or what i said/you said, or some outing we went on a few years ago, please try not to get too angry with me. okay? it's not like i want to forget these things. also, shit if this happens now, can you imagine what will happen in 25 years?

and to be 100% honest with all of you, this is the main reason i even keep this dumb blog. mostly so that in four years time when i think i'm seeing massive attack for the first time, i can look it up and go, oh wait, i've seen them before, and actually i've seen them twice even!

This afternoon I joined lizzy, Ali, and carisa for frapphapp
(frappacinno happy hour). Starbucks had this promotion a few weeks
ago, and the gals got hooked. I have no idea what I ordered (actually
what lizzy ordered, I just piggybacked it as I got flustered and it
was easier to say "one of those") than to order it myself. But it was
tasty and it had caffeine, and now I'm feeling wirey and weird.

So naturally I thought I'd go home and take a nap. (Seriously that's
all I've wanted to do all day. I blame lost, my brain can't stop
processing or thinking about it, it's been exhausting.) Yet sadly, I
am not napping. Somehow I convinced myself to go to the gym where I am
composing this post. The ellipticals were all taken so I'm on a dumb
bike machine. I hate these things. They really make me feel like I'm
going nowhere (a theme that is haunting me lately I might add).

As an aside, I think the great house hunt of 2010 is on hold. That's
been two weeks in a row (maybe 3?) where we've said nah, let's not
even bother looking. I think it's just the current market, but I'd be
lying if I didn't say it also had something to do with our wishy-
washiness, inability to commit, and overall ennui.

I think it's the weather. Despite it nearly being June, I feel like
I'm stuck somewhere between hibernation and spring. I'm not sure what
it'll take to snap out of it.

In the meantime I ride this stationary bike and wonder.

Ps. No more coffee post 1pm.

I wanted to have a lost finale shindig party, but randall (in his
infinite wisdom) said that my friends and I would talk too much and
he'd have to hit pause every five minutes and it would be 3am by the
time we finished. He's not totally wrong, that's pretty much how I
believe it would have happened. This is why we opted to avoid all lost
parties and stay at home with our own tv and sound system.

We're torn between happy, sad, and excitebike!, but we're ready. We've
got our dharma beers and are good to go.

Feel free to leave your lost thoughts and analysis here. I'm staying
away from the Internet for the next 6 hours or so!

Somehow Randall and I made the cut for poker night. These dudes had
regular games for a while, but we never made the roster. However, they
have apparently exhausted all their friends who are willing to part
with money and so they gave us a call. It was a $20 buy in for each
game (we ended up playing 2) and the money was split into three prizes
each time. I'm happy to say I held my own in game one (I came in third
and blame the wine and quick pace for my ridiculous bets - seriously
ridiculous bets).

In the end, I was thirty bucks in the hole, but I had a great time.
Plus, heidi (our gracious host, pictured) had a fantastic spread set
out for us. And her friend made us the most tasty almond fruit tart.
Good company + good food + games = fun, even if them dudes stole my
money.