Grandma vs. The Sign!!!

As soon as we rounded the corner into my grandma's cul-de-sac I knew that all hell was going to break loose because there was a real estate For Sale sign in front of my grandma's house and I know that it's not for sale. Since my mom lives across the street from grandma we had a great view to the sign. My sister told me that she thought grandma didn't know it was out there since she hadn't mentioned it and sure enough when we told her she was pissed. Apparently when my grandma came home from work she came into the house from the garage so she hadn't seen the front of the house. Anyways so she said she was gonna call the company or something and that was that. A little later on last night as my mom, brother and I were headed to the store we passed grandma's and saw her kicking the sign and trying to uproot it. Of course we cracked up and my mom turned around and stopped the car, then my brother got out and helped her, she kept trying to break off the swingy part of the sign (I'm surprised she didn't end up hitting herself in the head with it) and was trying to knock the whole signpost over. She finally suceeded with my brother's help and then she threw part of the sign in the bushes..you can see the end result in the pic. Also she's planning to place several more calls on Monday to her homeowners association and the realty company and the city and lord knows who else. Poor guy who put the sign in front of the wrong house!! Give 'em hell gramms!!!!

Designing Women

I do love Designing Women and of course Julia's rants, this particular one has to be one of my all-time favs!!! Because that is the night that the lights went out in GEORGIA!

Notes from everywhere...

First of all I'm back at my mom's for a visit so it's been a busy week, I flew into LA Sunday afternoon and have been catching up with folks this week. Friday night I went to dinner with an old boss of mine at Beach Chalet which is right on the water at Ocean Beach in SF, got to see a beautiful sunset and had a yummy dinner and some good beer (they make their own). Then it was back home and Joey and I ended up having a mini-movie marathon, watched 2 great movies, including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown which I have never seen but was just great.
Saturday we headed to this event called Beer and Bites, which was put on by the SF Brewers Guild, to taste lots of beers and have some good foods, they had lots of fancy foods like pate and oysters which I don't really like but the beer was great and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting, it was at the Officers Club at Fort Mason, which is kinda fancy and has a beautiful view of the bay and Alcatraz.
I've decided I have to live close to the ocean, nothing beats a beautiful view of the sea or being able to go for a run along the beach, which is what I did yesterday with my brother, forget that I thought I'd collapse and we ran over some dunes, it was such a nice day and I love the smell of the ocean.
In random news I was hit on by a call center operator from India that I always speak to on the phone about one of my credit cards. Earlier this week I paid it off at it was at that point he's all..my real name is --- not Shane Williams as you've known me as (I knew they gave them fake names!) and then asked if he could email and said if I ever came to India we could go for a tea..it was all too much!!
Alright gotta jet, I'm staying at my grandma's which is a story in itself and she's lurking..will write more on that adventure later.

My Obsessions

So occasionally I get obsessed with things, then spend hours on the internet researching, reading or looking into said obsession. Then oddly enough one day it'll pass, I forget all about it and am onto something else..weird how the mind works, so recent obsessions...

Gawker- this website reports on New York Media, etc. not really a particular interest of mine but every time I go to the site I discover something new to look into or about a legal battle involving people I've never heard of but is some sort of magazine/newspaper saga that is interesting to read about. Plus I find out about weird magazines that I've never heard of or get to read about rich entitled white folks, which can be entertaining. Anyhow my two favorite features in Gawker are undoubtedly Altarcations (which scores the couples featured in Sunday's New York Times who got married last week, inevitably deciding which couple are probably the biggest jerks) and Unethicist (which answers the same questions as the New York Times Ethicist column, but of course with better answers).

Luxury Real Estate- I don't know why it fascinates me so but I could look at houses I can't or probably won't ever afford in exotic locales all day long! It all started when I checked out the International Herald Tribune's Raising the Roof Blog, about international real estate. Then I moved onto checking out various properties listed LuxuryRealEstate.com. Mostly I look at apartments in Manhattan that I can't afford but they've got homes in cities all over the world to look at, seriously last week I think I spent a few hours a day everyday checking out this site.

Also there are the old standbys, Go Fug Yourself ( wonderful commentaries on celebrity fashions) and The Onion (although I've been more obsessed with the print edition than the online one lately b/c the print edition has great weekly event listings and what not)

Okay gotta go find the next internet obsession, happy surfing everyone! Also Aggies take on Memphis tonight..go Ags!!!

Notes on the weekend

I ended up watching lots of NCAA basketball this weekend which was nice, had a couple beers and watched some games with my dad on Friday night and basically took it easy since I knew Saturday was gonna be a big day. Since it was St. Patrick's Day we headed to the festival they had at Civic Center, so we drank some beer and listened to some Irish bands all afternoon, mostly drank beer though. Then headed over to an Irish bar in the Haight where there were lots of drunk people causing a commotion. I had a few guiness there and a sake shot oddly enough that the bartender gave us for free. When we left there we headed back towards the Castro and about one beer in there it was time for me to go home, didn't even finish my beer, just hightailed it home to go to bed. Sunday I headed over to the Deyoung museum in Golden Gate Park to see an exhibit they are having on Vivienne Westwood. It was really good, plus their permanent collection has some really great American paintings all the way from colonial times to modern art, so it's always nice to browse through there. Later in the day I was headed to meet Joey for a movie and the train I was on abrubtly stopped, and we were told to exit the train it was going out of service. Unfortunately it turned out that someone jumped from a wall in front of the train, it was really eerie. Thank goodness we were told not to look in a certain direction when exiting the train if we did not want to see the body..I wasn't even curious to look I'm sure I would have had nightmares. The whole incident was really upsetting and I feel for the driver of the train he seemed really shook up. So I ended up walking the rest of the way to meet Joey and we made it to the movies. I saw The Namesake, which was a really great film, as it was a great book..worth a look. So now I'm wrapping up my last week in San Francisco trying to think about what I want to make sure and do before I leave the city!!

I Miss you..

Claire!! The next in the series of I miss is of course Claire, my Aussie partner in crime. I miss our forays to the McDonald's drive-thru in Kangaroo Point, trips to the Southbank Cinema for a rainbow ice and a movie, even Tuesday night ladies nights at the Down Under Bar which you know I complained about but I usually ended up having an alright time at the DUB and well you can't beat the meal deal. I also miss wandering to your house after I got off work at Fosters, our gossiping and constant theories about things, I miss your car always being on the fritz, never knowing if we'd make it home in time to see the O.C. and get pizza!!! I miss internet days in the computer lab, constant procrastination, web of lies, waking up to find a crazy shit text from you (although I do love that even though you are in Japan we can still exchange crazy shit texts that leave more questions than answers). I also miss exchanging magazines, chugging UDL's in the car, and our Sunday dinners at RG. I'm glad you're going bogan watching in Thailand, because well it must be done, can't wait until we catch up again, know it will be soon!

Le Weekend

It was a busy weekend, went to see a couple movies and well managed to spend all day Saturday at the bar...so quite the weekend! Saturday morning my dad and I had tickets to see 300at the IMAX. It was a madhouse over there too, as soon as they let people in everyone started running, I thought I was gonna get trampled for a minute..hell people there are like 500 seats in the IMAX it's not like you won't get one!! Then after the movie I went to meet some friends over at Zeitgeist for lunch and a beer in their back beer garden. Needless to say after a marathon Uno game, which I won by the way, we ended up staying there until it was dark..bad news..but I had a good time. Then Sunday dad and I headed off to see The Host (why all these movies with dad you ask? well my stepmom and sister went outta town this past weekend so it was just me and pops). Then after that it was just grocery shopping and the usual Sunday activities and to bed early for me, I was so tired after the Saturday festivities.

The Must List

Every week Entertainment Weekly does their must list, of things you shouldn't miss, last week on March 9, the must book was Love and Rockets, my uncle's comic book! Congrats guys on 25 years!

BOOK
9. LOVE & ROCKETS
You can find punk rock and magic realism in the groundbreaking comics of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. Fantagraphics honors their 25 years in the biz with a series of reissues.

Notes from everywhere..

So note #1 is that I've just got 2 weeks left in San Francisco and then I'm headed back down to Southern California for about a week before I head overseas again so things are getting kinda hectic around these parts.

Note #2 this weekend is the Big 12 Championship tourney and of course A&M is in it..go Ags..we've got a really good team this year and I'm glad I'll at least be able to see the beginning of the NCAA tournament in the coming weeks before I leave.

Note #3/Rant Why are the freakin' Thursday shows a re-run??? It's been like a month since the last new Ugly Betty--What gives????

Note #4 It's nearly the weekend, thank goodness, tomorrow my dad and I are going to see the 300 at the IMAX--I bet it's gonna be loud and tonight perhaps some happy hour/game watching festivities will occur.

Have a good weekend everyone!

I miss you...

Valerio!! (you are the next contestant in the I miss you series). The reason I put explanation points after Valerio's name is that he would always shout it..Vaaalllerriooo he'd shout a few times a day just because! Also due to an ex-girlfriend obsessed with yoga Valerio could bend every which way (as pictured) and would so often, mostly when drunk. There are so many Valerio stories but one of my all time favs is when he made some weed tea and drank it..crazy Italian! Also Valerio loved to drink wine and play Risk, he was a pretty good player too, gotta give him props, especially since he didn't speak much english. Nonetheless he was one of the most warm and funny people I've ever met, one day soon I'll finally make it to Milan Valerio for a visit, I wish you the best of luck in your quest to marry a pharmacist's daughter, so you will have a job for life at a little Italian pharmacy, maybe you can dole out the pills with your toes :)

The Pincess and the earplugs...

Since I've had lots and lots of flatmates the last few years I have grown accustomed to sleeping with an eyemask and earplugs. This puts me in my own little sleep world and I can literally tune the whole world out. Anyways I always wake up and my earplugs will have fallen outta my ears, no doubt due to constant tossing and turning. I always seem to find them though somewhere on the pillow or mixed up in the blankets, they've never gone totally missing before, until the other night. I searched and searched for those suckers, taking all the blankets off the bed, picking up the pillows, looking on the floor, I just couldn't find them anywhere. So I got a new pair out last night before I went to bed (because you know I have a whole bag of those suckers, can't be without my earplugs!). As I lay my head down on the pillow I noticed something was off, I couldn't tell what but I just could not get comfortable and then lo and behold, I noticed there was an errant earplug inside my pillowcase!!! I mean honestly that's some crazy tossing and turning when the earplug came plumb outta my ear and all the way into my damn pillowcase, no wonder I always wake up with my blankets twisted every which way!