despite the rainy forecast, it has not rained since yesterday. i was glad to be relieved of chauffeur duty this morning.
jg biking to work
i had been dropping him off and picking him up for what seems like months. i hope it will stay dry so he can bike home.
with this being my first post of 2005, i'm going to show you a few of the thousands of pictures i took during our modest new year celebration. if the pictures seem erratic, that's because it's the first time i had three semi alcoholic drinks in one evening. woohoo!
...
so, last year, well before schmeebot time, jg and i rang in 2004 at a rowdy party in los angeles. this year we couldn't decide what to do, mainly because of the dreadfully wet weather. we were supposed to go see my peeps in san jose but around 4pm, i changed my mind. i went to trader joe's and bought $120 dollars of food, mostly hors d'oeuvre ingredients, and rented two dvd's for an evening in.
jg built a fire and i prepared a bottomless poopoo platter. we watched the movies contently while it poured outside. we were having a wonderful time until 10:45, when both movies and firewood ran out.
earlier in the day we had turned down beeze's invitation to mallard's, a bar in albany where his friend mike bartends. so there we were, wavering between going to bed and driving to the east bay. believe it or not, i was the one who decided not to stay in!
approaching club mallard at 11:25
joining the gang at the upstairs bar
amanda (beeze's woman), jg, beeze, and...
ray
here's our bartender caught in a compromising position
fellow bargoer in ray's infamous head gear
beeze goofing around waiting for the countdown
thuy pretending to be drunk after one tall pineapple juice
mike asking us how we want the champagne served at midnight
someone started the count down and our bar space got instantly crowded. ten... nine... i was handed a plastic glass of champagne, half of which promptly spilled on my boot. the six of us stuck together despite the madness. we toasted loudly and, next thing i knew, it was 2005!
yay! happy new year!
fireworks exploded on tv and everyone kissed, even lone man ray. we got a pretty girl standing near by to give him a big wet one. then we went dancing. this was not my idea.
above the dance floor
ray grooving
how do you like his shirt?
keeping busy while the music cut on and off
huddling on the dance floor to discuss risk taking plans for 2005
beeze tripping off emergency exit alarm on the way back upstairs
bartender getting us ready for round two
jg grabbing my buttery nipple
last call
mike the bartender took that picture of us shortly before he threw us out. we left mallard's a little after two and it was still pouring outside. we had a terrible drive home but, boy, was i glad that we didn't miss the count down.
how ever you welcomed the new year, i hope you had a great time, too!
saturday night i got back from three days in tahoe to a mailbox full of postcards.
those are from my friend justin. he's currently working as a volunteer in thailand. i hadn't heard from him since october, when i emailed him about having moved. he wrote those postcards during his month long trip around vietnam. the last one was sent on december 28th but i got no word on the tsunami. i understand that he lives pretty far inland so i am assuming he is unaffected.
i have a lot of pictures taken in snow blizzard country but i won't be able to post them for a while. i took two days off work for the trip so i have to make up for lost time first.
until then, here's a shot i took yesterday during sunset.
after the postcard storm last week, my mail box has returned to its standard state: empty. i walked down to the bank today. when i got back, this was on my door step.
that's from rachel, the cofounder of teamkatelin, a santa barbara based fund rasing team supporting the komen breast cancer foundation.
this year, i would like to do more to support the cause. i plan on joining the avonwalk. i have also came up with an idea for schmeebot to raise a little fund. except i need to make sure it's viable before i can propose it. other than that, i am open to any suggestions you may have.
and down with ichiban! it is used to be my favorite dollar store in japan town. i was there yesterday and was thoroughly disappointed. their stock has dwindled since before thanksgiving and most of what's left has gone up in price.
i got a bit irate with ichiban yesterday because of the surprise price jack ups at the check out stand. i bought four bags of my favorite snacks which were one of the very few things that are still labeled $1 at the rack. at the counter, however, they were $1.80 each. i also bought six clear plastic pouches which were also labeled $1 at the rack. $1.50 at the counter. i really don't mind the increases because the prices are still good, but i rather dislike being surprised.
thankfully, clement street shopping was a lot more predictable. well, price wise anyway. look at what i got suckered into buying:
i am a sucker for cute packaging. there's even a little cartoon about how the pea becomes the puff. purely guessing, of course, i know no japanese.
100% adventure
get ready for this month's curious snack segment on schmeebot:
i got that at a dimsum to go shop. i showed it to jg when it was still in a little plastic bag and said, "look what i found on the sidewalk!" he was genuinely speechless. aghast.
sesame jelly roll
yes, black. it's elastic as well as jiggly. good device to demonstrate poisson's ratio. i actually ate a quarter inch slice of it. yum, tastes like... sesame jelly roll!
on to my next clement street find:
hahahahahaha. i bet you said, "aw, cute" right before you saw the second picture, didn't you? they sell a holstein cow version of this terrific toy too. i love it!
i can't help it
i spent all morning looking at all the happy stuff i got yesterday. the happiness ended when i looked at the receipts. $145, jiminy crickets!
actually, today is the anniversary of the very first entry made on this blog. schmeebot itself came alive a few weeks prior to that groundbreaking day. it was a difficult birth from a long distance conception between him and me. there was a lot of arm twisting, teeth pulling, and, of course, swearing. but we did it! i'm very proud to see it has survived one full year.
thanks to everyone for reading and linking to this blog. i hope you'll still be coming around when schmeebot hits two.
