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Wow, I haven't updated this in an age. Like most people, all my silly-photo posting and weekend-recapping seems to have been relegated to Facebook or whatever, and since that was 99% of my LJ, well. Things are (mostly) good. Hope it's the same where you are. |
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This isn't an admission of any recent guilt, nor is it an excuse for any past bad behavior, but I often wonder if "being good" is harder for me than it is for other people. |
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I've been alternately busy (shit's goin' koo-koo at work, family drama, Memorial Day Weekend) or lazy (Memorial Day Weekend) but given how much pissing and moaning I did about Bay to Breakers, I thought I should post about it. Well, for shutting it down basically for three weeks beforehand because of knee soreness, I came close to my initial goal that I'd abandoned. Next year I feel comfortable I'll break it--I just really got going again somewhat recently and the IT band problems I had didn't help. I did get passed by a naked guy in the 6th mile, but what're you gonna do? In the sake of honesty, I finished just over an hour, FWIW. I mean, I made cellphone calls while running, but I think I did my best for right now, and it was a good start considering I was 40 lbs lighter than this time last year. I'm already signed up for the Stadium to Stadium next month and the Wharf to Wharf down in Santa Cruz in July. Anyway: Hot as Satan's left ass-cheek out there. You don't think mid-70s is bad running weather until you live and run in this town. First mile or so sucked so bad--I was in Corral C (out of A-E) and the whole beginning I was dodging walkers most of them nude and/or old men and/or unregistered who idiotically or arrogantly jumped in the faster corrals. I felt like I ran 3 miles those first 2 miles what with all the dodging and weaving. But the atmosphere was awesome. I know B2B gets derided as a Straight Pride parade, or Halloween on a college campus, and I'm sure there was plenty of douchebaggery as the masses of unregistered binge-drinking walkers in the back of the pack came through, but "up front" (relatively-speaking of course--the Ethiopean dude who won could've come close to lapping me but I still finished in the first couple thousand out of 65,000 participants) it was good mostly-clean fun, especially compared to the usual road-race atmosphere of empty sidewalks and lonely park trails. A lot of people lining the course, in a lot of costumes, in a lot of early throes of their buzzes, all cheering as we passed. The only time I actually heard heckling was as I was going up Hayes Street Hill, these bro-heims that were lining the course were yelling at the runners: "Jeez, that's a long way up! You guys sure look tired! I don't think you guys are gonna make it!," etc etc., buit even that was just dumb fun. And the Breakers to Bay Salmon were coming down as I was going up, and that was actually a HUGE boost. I had fun the entire time, talking with people, singing along to the bands and DJs that were playing ("Uptown Top Ranking" is surprisingly a good song to run to), blah blah blah Most inspirational moment was shortly after getting in the park: struggling in the heat and with my knees (IT bands again) after passing the Conservatory, a drunk middle-aged woman on the right side of the road yells at me and the fella next to me, "LOOK OVER THERE, GUYS!!!" and points across the road, where we flip our heads and eyeball two young buck-ass naked women--short, about 19 or so, curvy-- waving at all of us runners passing by. I ran another mile on that alone; thanks, drunk middle-aged woman.  |
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I guess I spend too much time on the internet. While I was off to pick up my bib and t-shirt and all that crap for Bay to Breakers just now, I was riding an escalator down to the Muni platform in the Embarcadero station, when I looked at the woman in front of me, and from the rear view (blonde hair, cuffed jeans), I was able to tell it was ardaliz , who I'd never met before. And it turned out I was right, yikes! She was out with her friend from out-of-town, having just come from Taylor's Automatic Refresher and on their way to Macy's at Westfield ("to spend too much money") and then to Cantina ("to get drunk in the middle of the day"). I apologized to her for must've having had filed away what she looks like from behind in my mental rolodex but what're you gonna do?!? Anyway, I'm glad that finally happened--I always kinda expected it to. |
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Final installment (for now): I've got about 60 pages in my Photobucket (small fries for many, I know), mostly of personal photos, but plenty of ones I randomly saved because I thought they were cool or funny or just plain interesting (or because I'm a perv--although they're all pretty much SFW). Sometimes--often-- I'm not entirely sure why I saved them. Sometimes I used them for LJ or messageboard posts. I don't know. They've just been kinda sitting there the last few years, so I thought a la
( Once more, I almost feel like I'm spilling the detritus of my mind, for better or for worse, here... ) And I'm spent. |
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Part II: I've got about 60 pages in my Photobucket (small fries for many, I know), mostly of personal photos, but plenty of ones I randomly saved because I thought they were cool or funny or just plain interesting (or because I'm a perv--although they're all pretty much SFW). Sometimes--often-- I'm not entirely sure why I saved them. Sometimes I used them for LJ or messageboard posts. I don't know. They've just been kinda sitting there the last few years, so I thought a la
( Again, I almost feel like I'm spilling the detritus of my mind, for better or for worse, here... ) Phew, I feel like a new man. Final (for now) installment of this particular dump later this week. |
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Bay to Breakers is less than a week away, and I am losing my shit. (By the way, the Bay to Breakers people did a cool little timelapse video of the course here. It's worth checking out as a mini-tour of large swaths of a San Francisco most folks don't see much of outside of town (it's pretty bereft of cable cars), even if you're not interested in what me and 25,000 others will be doing next Sunday morning. You can check out the Hayes Street Hill and ardaliz 's neighborhood, but to me, the most amazing part of the video is that they somehow got footage of one of the bison by Spreckels Lake actually up and moving around their paddock. Usually those mugs just sit there like furry lumps.)I've been experiencing a sore dull pain on the left side of my left knee while running (and only while running) that started a few weeks ago...I'd tempered my mileage and intensity, but when running the course last Sunday as I'd been doing, I started feeling the pain again while heading up my dreaded Hayes Street Hill, and I ended up having to stop in the panhandle, which is about 3.5 miles into the 7.5 mile course, because of the increasing pain. Obviously that won't do. So I decided to shut it down completely for a week and just keep on RICE like I'd been doing while figuring out what the hell was going on. I communicated with an acquaintence who ran for Stanford and still casually competes in marathons, and he told me it was almost certainly my IT bands rather than my knee ligaments (he also confirmed for me that my idea to run the race on painkillers was a terrible idea!) and gave me some good stretches to try and advice about using a roller to loosen up my muscles and especially the bands. It seemed to help, but when I went out yesterday after the week off, there was still some twinging near the end of my run even though I just ran 2.5 through the park down to the Pacific. I got the feeling if I'd gone even just a bit longer, it would've developed into full-blown soreness and pain again, and I'd have had to stop running once more. ANYWAY, this is just all very, very frustrating. I've been looking forward to doing this a long time. Last year's Bay to Breakers I "participated" as a fat drunk spectator, 40 pounds heavier and sucking down a bottle of cheap red wine (I also bought a can of beer from a guy selling Tecates from his backpack--nothing but class for me). I mean, I'm still all too much for sucking down cheap red wine, but I've been amped about actually, you know, running the thing first. Besides feeling like a victory lap of sorts for losing a bunch of weight recently, I'd hoped for this to be my entree back into running longer roadraces like I used to years and years ago (I haven't run longer than a 10K in about 15 years). Apparently a lot of people have IT band trouble (which is strange to me--when I was running 30+ miles a week as a teenager, I never had problems with my IT bands or much of anything else. Getting old sucks), but that obviously doesn't make me feel any better about it. So I'm resting again most of the week, stretching and rolling, doing some RICE, maybe getting a massage. Keeping my fingers crossed. Sigh. I'd already curbed what were pretty modest time goals to begin with, but now I just want to finish, running the entire 12K. Man oh man, I just want to finish. In other news, we walked over to Stow Lake yesterday and did a little rowboating:  I was terrible at it. But had fun. And that's what counts, right? Maybe I should keep that in mind for Bay to Breakers. |
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I've got about 60 pages in my Photobucket (small fries for many, I know), mostly of personal photos, but plenty of ones I randomly saved because I thought they were cool or funny or just plain interesting (or because I'm a perv--although they're all pretty much SFW). Sometimes--often-- I'm not entirely sure why I saved them. Sometimes I used them for LJ or messageboard posts. I don't know. They've just been kinda sitting there the last few years, so I thought a la
( I almost feel like I'm spilling the detritus of my mind, for better or for worse, here... ) |
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mrdankelly on occasion points out the weird, usually baffling, juxtapositions of image and sales pitch you often see on Facebook ads. Well, I saw this one while playing "Flight of the Hamsters" on 13gb.com during my lunch hour today, and this takes it a bit to the extreme, to say the least:  Aaauuuggghhh! |
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On archaica 's LJ today, I commented "I mean, I really only use my LJ to make brief Andy Rooney-style complaints or tell people what I did on my weekend..." Next weekend starts tomorrow evening, so I better get on the last one!Friday: Frjtz's, then Koko, then my all-time favorite, Paul Weller, played a terrific show at the Regency Ballroom, and then Koko again for a nightcap or two. Big fun. On the walk down to the Van Ness station to catch the N home, I passed some scrawny white kid, well-dressed as a cross between 1995 Beck and 2008 Kanye West, spray-painting some building wall. I could hear his tiny cat-eyeglasses-wearing, pink-haired fur-coat hipster girlfriend standing by a few cans of paint, whining "C'mon, Joshua [or something like that], I wanna head back now...." and I look at the wall and see it's just a bunch of squiggles and "6 6 6," a crummy attempt at a tag. Well, this kinda chapped my ass, and I'd had a few, so I say out loud as we pass, "No one will ever forget you, maaan....dumbass..." He freaks out, all yelling after me, "You're lucky I don't spray it in your face, man!" and some other stuff I barely heard as I kept walking away about me being "a 9 to 5" (well, he has me pegged there...I do have a job, and I generally do work somewhere around those hours. How wack!!1!) and being "fat" (this might've been true even pretty recently but not so now...I don't think, *sniff*). I in turn was yelling back at him to "keep it real back in Mill Valley" and "Whatever, cracker," etc. etc. The whole thing was kinda embarrassing, and Ginnie was not happy with me ("He could've had a gun!"...please), but I get so annoyed when some kid comes on a bus or whatever with a marker and tags up the place with worthless crap, and no one says anything. We give these children way too much power. I can't stand the "What White People Like"-esque fetishizing of petty urban vandalism you get from people who think it's a badge of the gritty city lives they lead. Art can of course be pretty subjective at times (if the kid was doing something halfway decent I probably wouldn't have said anything--I know, hypocritical), and there's no denying the energy and beauty of a lot of graffiti, but it's not quite as gray as people seem to want to believe--tagging, the most base form of graffiti, is just self-aggrandizing ugliness, usually by some bored little shits, and this was no different. Of course, nothing was gained--Captain Badass probably really thinks himself the rogue now. (The fact that some obnoxious asshole kid scrawled some incomprehensible--to most, at least--shit across the glass of my building's entryway during summer '07 and our poor landlord still hasn't been able to get it off probably colors my anger here. I'm sick of looking at some kid's awful attempt to extend the size of his dick. Anyway...) Saturday: We spent the afternoon poking around the Mission after going to get some stuff for dinner at Lucca Ravioli (our West Coast replacement for good ol' Bari Market back in Chicago), and spent the night watching some movies with some Tuttimelon, our favorite local Pinkberry ripoff, but the goodly chunk of my day was wasted watching a Star Wars marathon on cable. I caught sizeable amounts of five of the six movies. At one point early in Episode IV (the original), there was a shot of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia standing together, and Ginnie walks by on her way out the door (she was doing something actually useful and non-pathetic with her day, you see) and asks, "How did their mother die again?" (OH NO, SPOILER ALERT!) "She, uh...she lost her will to live," I answered, truthfully, and then I was really embarrassed with myself. Sunday: Speaking of crackers, I got up and ran a 5K. Before the race, I noticed that they were startingthe women and men separately, and they made a big deal about the USATF officials and rules being in play, and that's kinda when I realized I wasn't in the "fun run" I was hoping to race before next month's Bay to Breakers, so I got kinda nervous that I'd embarrass myself when I looked around and saw all the racing teams and super-skinny guys in singlets around me, but it was OK. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped--my time was disappointing and I finshed right behind some graybeard with bandaged knees (pretty fit-looking but probably AARP), but it wasn't too bad. My knees didn't bother me as much as I was worried they would, I'm still on track to reach my goals for B2B, and it was my first road-race in six years after all (and only my second in the 16 years since my freshman year of college, the last time I ran competitively!). Anyway, it was hotter than the dickens on Sunday (and the next few days...high 80s, low 90s, which for SF... ). So when Ginnie came to meet me, we went home briefly to take care of a few things and finish watching the Brewers and then we spent the day in the park, in a little meadow nook near our apartment under a tree shade, drinking wine and listening to music and talking and reading and picknicking. ( What these particular White People Like )
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The Chronicle has a pretty cool feature on their website today showing rarely seen photos from the 1906 earthquake as tomorrow is the 103rd anniversary. Some of them are pretty remarkable to me. Here's the city burning (thanks Funston!) from Alamo Square at the crest of the Hayes Street Hill :  People still gather up there these days, but to take snaps of the Painted Ladies, not to watch their homes in flames. Here's a contemporary similar view:  Here's the Ferry Building looking down Market...glad to know that when disaster strikes, there will still be hats, and WAFFLES!:  There are more high-end gourmand food places (I'm guessing you can still find some form of waffle probably) in the Ferry Building these days than ferries, but it still stands sentry at the end of Market on the bay. Similar view, different perspective today:  And that photo couldn't help but make me think of this truck that the Red Cross parked in front of the Ferry Building a couple years back to get us to think about earthquake preparedness:  I found it very effective, but unfortunately not effective enough: while we have a plan on where to meet if we're separated when the Big One happens, all we'd have at this point for water is whatever's in the Brita at the time. I was better prepared for hurricanes in Florida, and those you got several days warning for. I'm not being completely facetious when I say we'd probably be living (hopefully) off of bottles of wine, blocks of tofu, and melted sorbet for a few days. How San Francisco, and how very very stupid of us. Maybe (again, hopefully) this year's anniversary (and the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta this autumn) will be the prompting we need. |
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I got some pretty sweet road-rash this morning after tripping while running. It was pretty embarrassing, I really went flying. As I was still laying on the ground cursing and groaning on the sidewalk, this little old stooped-over Chinese lady with a cane kinda maneuvered around me. I'm not sure what I tripped on exactly; I was wearing my glasses this morning and my peripheral vision wasn't so hot, plus I was zoned out. Anyway, I haven't skinned my knees and knuckles up like that in years and years, maybe even high school. And I guess it's the high-schooler in me that has to ask: you guys wanna see? I'm putting it behind a cut because it's just a little gory. ( Just a wee bit gory ) Ouch! The alcohol really burned my shit up when I was cleaning it out. I'm a little wary of running this 5K I'm registered to do this weekend in the park now, too. And of course, as per my fretting-grandmother nature, I'm also freaking out about tetanus ("When was my last booster? In Chicago? back in 1997? 1993?!?") but nothing about the wound or the way I treated it or my health or myself tells me I have too much to worry about. A tetanus booster probably wouldn't be a bad idea during my next scheduled doctor's appointment, but I don't think I need to hit the ER here. I'll survive; where's the Bactine?!? |
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Taxes were filed this morning. I'm glad that after today, I won't need to see this annoying banner ad much longer:   If you haven't seen it (and I'm sure you likely have unless you ride with Ad Block), the guy's face changes from crying and upset to hopeful to happy to ecstactic as his refund rises, presumably with the help of TurboTax. What pisses me off is the guy is still crying when his refund is $950. Motherfucka, I would stab a "teabagger" between the eyes for a $950 refund right now.
As per this post, we owe a lot this year. A lot. A wholllle lot. So much that we weren't able to pay it all off right away. Not even close. We're on a payment plan with the IRS, so the spending-like-a-drunken-sailor money that I usually throw around (cough) will be going to help subsidize GM and AIG (among other better things, of course) the next several months rather than doing its little part to help keep the local economy afloat. The folks at Durty Nelly's and Underdog Sausages will feel the pinch, I'm sure (cough). |
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( Two weeks ago, we went over to Yosemite for Ginnie's birthday. ) ( Then, this last Saturday, we went down to Redwood City to go roller-skating. ) I don't have pictures of the rest so you'll just need to believe me. I've been running a lot again the last year, stepping it up the last few months, and I've been preparing to run the Bay-to-Breakers next month. I've especially been dreading the Hayes Street Hill, which, while not nearly as infamous as the Boston Marathon's Heartbreak Hill (I mean, for one thing, it's nearer the beginning of the race than the end, but also B2B is just a 12K, not a marathon), it's much higher and steeper, rising out of Hayes Valley and cresting at Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies (better known as "the Full House houses" to people of a certain age from outside of SF). 216 feet and an 11.15% grade in about five blocks; all those years running cross country below sea level in Florida haven't really prepared me. Well, I've been working on my hills but figured it was time to take on the beast itself a few times before the race proper, so I took the N to Powell Street station and ran from there back home, down Market, through Hayes Valley, up The Hill, past the panhandle, through Golden Gate Park, and back home. A couple things: as I knew they would be, Market and Hayes are terrible streets to run along, between the vehicle exhaust, the constant red lights, and all the foot traffic you have to dodge. But The Hill is doable. When I first turned down Hayes, I could see it in the distance, taunting me, and I won't claim it was fun, but I got to the top with no real issues and ran another four miles after. We'll see if I'm able to tame the beast next month, although really, my goal is just to finish. Wrapping up, this week is Brewers' Week in San Francisco, which unfortunately coincides with Opening Week. Unfortunate because 1) it cost me much more for tickets now than it has the last few years when the Brewers would come in late summer and the Giants were already in the shit-can, but mostly because of 2) tomorrow's weather report:
Baseball down at China Basin in early April! Wish me luck. |
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Oof, crazy morning: phone won't stop ringing here at work, and we just had a lil' earthquake. Even that gentle sway is a little unnerving nine floors up on the old landfill here in the Financial District... Edit: I guess it was a 4.4, down by San Jose |
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Currently wrapped up in a bottle of this and am getting "nobl[y] rot"-ted; fantastic, just a warming honeysuckle. His grocery stuff was generally garbage but the old man's premiums hardly ever let me down. I need to make sure to pick up a couple more bottles of it the next time we're up in Napa. Speaking of The Good Life, we're driving to Yosemite in the morning to spend the weekend hiking up the falls and relaxing and celebrating Gin's 33rd birthday tomorrow. If we have another bear encounter while getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night like we did on a visit last year but don't quite survive it this time, I wish you well. |
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With apologies to jamethYOSEMITE CURRENT CONDITIONS
Road Status Snowstorms do occur in spring and tire chains can still become required at this time of year. Read more about tire chains and check road conditions by calling the phone number above. Wawona Road (Highway 41 from Fresno) Open Northside Drive in Yosemite Valley, from Camp 4 to El Capitan Crossover, will be closed for road work until May 2009. Southside Drive east of El Capitan Crossover is open to two-way traffic for access to eastern Yosemite Valley (including Yosemite Lodge and Camp 4). What's it like in Yosemite right now? View the latest weather forecast for the Yosemite region Seasonal Information Rivers & Waterfalls: Yosemite, Vernal, Nevada, and Bridalveil Falls are flowing, with nice spring flows. Lodging & Other Concessions In Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Lodge and the The Ahwahnee are open; Curry Village is open on weekends. Wawona Hotel is open selected weekends. Housekeeping Camp, Tuolumne Meadows, and White Wolf Lodges are closed. Badger Pass Ski Area is open; the Curry Village ice rink is closed. Campgrounds Yosemite Valley: Upper Pines Campground is open; reservations are required. North Pines Campground is open for those with prior reservations in Lower Pines and will open on April 1 with reservations required (and new reservations available). Lower Pines Campground will open on April 4; reservations are required. Camp 4 is open on a first-come, first-served basis. Outside Yosemite Valley: Hodgdon Meadow and Wawona Campgrounds are open on a first-come, first-served basis. Porcupine Flat, Crane Flat, Tamarack Flat, White Wolf, Yosemite Creek, and Bridalveil Creek Campgrounds are closed for the season. Estimated opening and closing dates in 2009 for all campgrounds are available. Trails and Wilderness Snow line is around 5,000 feet. (Yosemite Valley is at 4,000 feet.) All park trails are open, except: The Mist Trail between Vernal Fall Footbridge and the top of Vernal Fall is closed for the winter; the John Muir Trail between Clark Point and the top of Nevada Fall is closed for the winter. Access to the tops of Vernal and Nevada Falls is still available via alternate routes. The Half Dome cables are down for the season. They are usually reinstalled just before the third weekend in May. (Learn more about the Half Dome hike.) |
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Today has been a ghastly reminder of why I just can't stay up late drinking on "school nights" any longer. Just as your metabolism slows down, the hangovers become more horrific as you get older. We've got a couple friends from Chicago in visiting. Yesterday I took the day off to spend some time with them, and it started off well, with me taking them up to Mount Tamalpais and the Marin Headlands, and then we came back and took the N downtown where we poked around Chinatown and North Beach for a while. But while they were browsing at City Lights Bookstore, I got a little bored after about an hour, so I stepped into Vesuvio next door for a beer, and that's when the day basically devolved into a crawl through some of my favored touristy dives. After beers there we went to Li Po in Chinatown for a couple stiff cocktails, and then over to The Hyde Out on Nob Hill, and after going home and getting dinner, we went over to my local, which we ended up closing. And I'm paying for it now. I think I'll be staying in with warm milk and a book for the next few evenings. |
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