best christmas ever

• grandpa's question to the anti-immigrant crowd: "what do we do with the 12 million undocumented? do we load them on a train in the middle of the night, or do we shoot them?"


• running my dad's train in the front yard to the delight of kids, parents and UPS drivers


• having various loud, obnoxious conversations in cafes, mostly with dort. the Chronicle, she said, recommended wrapping presents in newspaper to be more environmentally minded. first of all, that is blatant self promotion, and second of all, it's a terrible idea. the point of wrapping paper is that it is pretty, or fun i.e. not pedestrian and everyday (like newspaper).
  
  
• pretty much I yell at my little sister a lot when i go home. maybe i should try a more relaxed approach.


• thinking about Zeitgeist the movie, which says Christians are first rate sun worshippers. i should work on my tan.


• i saw the Oakland ballet's Nutcracker, a lighter, sexier, more diverse take on the old Nut.


• seeing micah go for my present (a rabbit-head shaped mug, Skittles and a cigar) at his white elephant party made my night. hearing Mike Park, also at the party, sing Jingle Bells might just have made my month.

weekend schmeekend

brian and corinna got married at SF City Hall on Friday. they came by my work and made a splash. one of my coworkers said they look like they belong on TV (in a good way).

saturday i went to the free legal clinic, hoping for word on my violin. that night i went to a party in a tent in Civic Center Plaza with a bunch of ex-49ers. Open bar, good times. I felt a little weird drinking and carousing as Harris Barton talked about the meaning of his brain tumor foundation.

The Color Purple at the Orpheum Theater afterwards. well done show. plenty of uncomfortable moments, namely the lesbian scenes. James and Tina and my family and brother + wife all went.

Sunday I practiced on my new rental violin. I'm starting to like it more, but I hate how the case smells.

Brian and Corinna cooked dinner for a bunch of folks Sunday night:
-tomato and spinach salad
-veggie three cheese lasagna with broccoli
-chocolate mousse, ever so good (rum, though perhaps not enough)
-champagne

Corinna seems to want to move into my apartment, though Brian seems to have reservations. Anyway I will check out a place in the Sunset soon.

saturday morning constitutional

i went a-searching for a violin
what i found to my chagrin
was 12 ladies howlin'
11 fluourescents glowing
10 men conniving
9 volunteers helping
8 chairs grinding
7 smiles grinning
6 students learning
5 actions pending
4 ladies pregnant
3 languages spoken
2 stalls filthy
and a cockateel in the man's jacket next to me.

I went to the main library for a free once-a-month legal clinic, held in the Latino Community Room i.e. the basement. i wanted to get the ATM video to see who took my violin. My lawyer said my only options are to "harass the police," to check pawn shops, and the DA, to get the video.

The lawyer told me her sob story - her mother's empty home was "hot robbed" after her death and an important ring and other things taken.

Other tales from the underground:

• A guy next to me, sixty-something, with a big white goatee, black leather paperboy-type cap pulled low, and heavy use of slang, will fight for himself "on constitutional grounds" after he violated parole by going to Las Vegas.



• a black lady says her house is so moldy her new suit got moldy a month after she bought it. she's trying to get out but the landlord won't give her the deposit until she moves, which she can't do until she has money to move.



• another older woman, inspired by the first ever class action lawsuit for sexual harassment depicted by the movie North Country, is seeing her options to get a man to delete the inaccurate information about her on his website. He says she still works at a university in SF where she no longer does, and mentioned something about a plagiarism allegation.

So it goes.

search for the bomb - update

Dort reports: "Dick called and said it was not a grenade, but a mortar."

We had looked for a grenade in her basement, a WWII relic her brother dutifully brought back from the front. It turns out we were looking for the wrong thing.

"I think I've seen it," Dort says, of the mortar, a ball with two long things coming out of it.

Will we find the missing mortar, before it destroys the house? Stay tuned....

we heart thanksgiving

so it's a little late but i put up some shots from my Montana Thanksgiving. In between puking and freezing I had a good time. I'm better now.

carol had a fun pre-Thanksgiving bash replete with Guitar Hero (3?) and Keith T. came out that same weekend to hash out the We Heart Owen song and lay the groundwork for a possible move to the Bay Area.

check out realgoodbuddies.blogspot.com for my latest review, She's the Man (baby).

Trying to write lyrics to MP+TC songs, which is fun. I'm trying for something more tasteful than Invicta's power ballads ("Hardcore addiction to softcore porn"), yet still as true ("Hearts don't beat the same). We opened for them at C+J's the other night. It went well, despite Micah and Tre's forgetting my effects pedals and cables and guitar strap. Props to Invicta's lead guitarist for changing my Floyd Rose string so quickly. Gotta get me a different backup guitar, one whose strings I can actually change.