Why do something now when you can put it off till tomorrow?

That's usually my motto. As a result, I have lived with a 'free' flickr acct since April and let my booboolina.com domain lapse on June 9 (8 years old! Happy belated birthday, site!).

Luckily for me, things in the virtual world are easily paid for/renewed/financed, and you can now browse the entirety of my flickr account (9,466 photos!) and access this site!!

I'll try to get some new stuff up soon. That, or watch more Buffy.

Hi there! I'm in Dallas! Again!

Erica was married on Friday and yesterday I went to the reception/open house at her parents' beautiful home. Got to see most of my Dallas friends (alas, Leia and Jim couldn't make it), wear a dress (I know!), sit outside next to the pool, eat some sushi, and visit.

Today my dad's wife said, "Let's not get cleaned up before going out for breakfast, let's just throw on hats and go." I thought this meant we'd be returning to the house after getting our bagels and getting cleaned up before actually starting our day. Then I found myself at a mall, in the shirt I slept in last night, looking awful, but shopping way too successfully. 8 hours later, we closed the outlet center and came home for dinner. Still unwashed, but dressed well anyway.

In other news, I believe I may have a disease that I kind of brought on myself. Kind of? No, actually, entirely. I'm facing some major changes to my lifestyle to get to a place where it won't need to be managed with pharmaceuticals. I have suspected it for some time (ever since the non-fasting blood test that showed my glucose levels to be twice the recommended upper limit), but have lived in stupid denial ever since. This week I'll finally take the fasting blood test and see how much trouble I'm really in.

Oh, and I learned on my flight out here that it's a really really bad idea to sleep during takeoff and landing. If you neglect to pop your ears during the altitude changes, then it takes forever (like, hours) for your eardrums to readjust, and everyone sounds like they're down a tunnel until they do.

I think that's all the social, financial, health and transportation news I have to impart at this time. Later, alligators.

Reasons why I don't have a cat*, off the top of my head:

1) do I seem like someone who could take care of a cat?
2) don't want to clean the litterbox
2) take the cat to the vet
4) deal with cat hair all the time
5) make sure it has enough attention so it doesn't take all my stuff apart.

Imagine what kind of cranky old spinster lady I'm going to be without a cat! Perhaps in my old age, I'll be able to handle a roommate, a roommate with a cat, perhaps.

After all, I like other peoples' cats. Just like I like other peoples' kids. And other peoples' dogs. And houses.

* most of these also answer the question, "why don't you have/want kids?"

Wow, take away my twitter, and I have all kinds of things to say on my site. Hm.

So I managed to clear up the weather in plenty of time for the wedding. Which was good, because I spent the whole day shopping for an appropriate dress, and it would have sucked to have to wear the only over-thing I brought, my black hoodie, which is better suited to too-cool SF than warm and sultry Kauai.

There is something in this house that chirps. I'm not all that interested in finding out what it is. Also, lizards in the house. Strange.

The Canine Chorus appears to have the night off. Maybe they're painting the town red at the moment and will be back for practicing later tonight.

Speaking of which, it's 11:12 p.m. and I'm in on a Saturday night. Granted, we had 6 hours of wedding party, but still ... kind of wish I wasn't alone on this trip. I don't travel solo very well.

The wedding itself was beautiful and simple and unpretentious. It's what I would like my wedding to be, should that ever happen. I think the ceremony was 15 minutes at the most, on the lawn that ran down to the beach, followed by dinner, speeches, cake and music in a small tent afterward. The bride was lovely and glowing, the groom handsome and charming, and everyone there was so happy for them both.

So I'm going to go wash off the sunscreen, bug repellent and makeup and get ready for some "hiking" tomorrow.

And congratulations to my brother-in-law for retiring from the Army after 20+ years! Wish I could be there to help you celebrate!

I would like to apologize to everyone visiting Kauai this weekend for the weather. The overcast? The rain? That's my fault. I'll try to get things cleared by this afternoon, promise.

Now, figuring out what to do with the Thing in the bathtub so I can take a shower. *shiver* Gross.

Also, the Canine Choral group did not perform this morning. The Cock-a-doodle-doo Boys have it all to themselves. They're more soloists than anything else, but they do like to hand off passages to one another so it's never quiet for very long. And they're still going at it. Awesome.

The cottage is so awesome, it has an iMac in it. Apparently, though, no one wants to upgrade this machine, and IE can't handle CSS, so I can't twitter. Nor can I edit previous posts through blogger. 'Tis weird.

So my cottage has an amazing view, lots of chickens, 2 bedrooms, a huge kitchen, nice dining area, a cowhide rug in the living room, high ceilings with big fans, french doors out to the back, a row of cowboy boots in the hallway, a lovely bathroom, and the aforementioned 8-legged buggy.

Also, I found out after I got back tonight, all the neighbors have dogs. And these dogs are practicing their choral selections for the next Howl Night competition. One starts, and then everyone else joins in. Way fun. I hope they perform with the roosters in the a.m. I'd hate to oversleep or anything :)

I have already gone shopping for a dress for tomorrow, finding the perfect one ... if only they had it in my size! Then I picked up some super local food called a "Subway sandwich, bag of Fritos and a Coke" and headed out to a beach, where I sat on the pier and watched the sun go down and a couple of crabs race out of their holes to get ... something food related, I'm sure ... and then race back in. I know how they feel. Then I drove and drove and drove, seeing a sunset on one side, and a rainbow on the other, and hints of the grandeur of the Waimea Canyon (any more than that and I would have become part of the scenery, knowwhatImean?). Maybe I'll get more than a hint on Sunday. Stil deciding how much local wildlife I want to encounter on purpose.

I have no idea what to do with myself tonight. Lame, no? Maybe I'll sit on the couch and watch the lizards climb up the window screens. That's the ticket!

So this cottage I have rented in Waimea is fucking awesome. If any of you can get a flight to Kauai tonight, you can stay with me. I have 2 rooms. I'll come pick you up.

All you need to do in exchange is take care of the huge arachnid in the bathtub.

Edit: Ok, I have made sure it is no longer of this world, but it's still in the tub. All you would need to do is dispose of it.

PSS: that was the the most terrifying 20 minutes of the last 10 years of my life, btw. I hope not to have to do that again. Like, ever.

Oh hey! Hi! Got to the end of sxswi and I kind of just left it there. I did get back safely 2 hours later than expected, but otherwise the return trip was every uneventful. I posted all the photos over at flickr, of course. Only 62 photos this year, much less than the usual 200+ I take every other year. I guess that's what happens when you're only there Fri-Mon. Only 2 days less than usual, but significant, it would seem.

For the first time in the 15 years I have lived in the Bay area, I did not go Home for St. Patrick's day this year. A combination of factors: too much traveling, parents living in a smaller house, dad out of town, etc., all conspired to keep me home this year. I didn't miss corned beef and cabbage though, thank goodness. A friend with an underage sister who couldn't go out to drink at a bar opted to host a boiled food dinner at her place on the 17th, so we were able to satisfy our Irish holiday cravings. It was way fun.

The rest of March was birthday parties, pub night outings and Teddy Thompson at the GAMH, my first time seeing him and going to that venue. Both were pretty neat. I'd go again. Tip: get tickets early, though! Wait too long, and you have to go through another service and the "convenience" fees increase significantly. Bastards.

April has been more than interesting. It started off with Bon Jovi in SJ on the 2nd. I managed to get us some pretty good seats (upper deck, front row) (photos soon), and I would have acted much more the typical fan girl, but the row o' women behind us kept up such a cacaphony of shrieking and squealing during the whole show that I just couldn't muster up the energy. Also, were you aware that Bon Jovi has gone crossover-country? They have. Disappointing. Still, they played a bunch of the oldies/goodies and we had a good time anyway. Knowing they were pushing the new (country) record, though, we left at the encore and got out of the parking lot in a fraction of the time it usually takes to escape downtown SJ. Yee. Haw.

Friday last week dawned warm and sunny, a marked change from the week previous, and everyone was in a party mood this weekend. We went to dinner with friends where we could sit out on their back porch and drink margaritas, and then hung out at what is quite possibly one of the best dive bars around. If you can find my business card, I'll buy you a drink :)

Anyway, after a few hours, we decided to head out, and walked towards home. I can't seem to write down a coherent blow-by-blow of what happened next, but suffice it to say that after we dropped Deirdre off at her car and I was in my apartment, my honey was almost-mugged for his laptop case as he got it out of his car to "keep it safe" inside. As the kids young adults ran off, they giggled and dropped their gun and cell phone. It turned out to be an air pistol, but those look like real guns, donchaknow. Interesting way to get to know your neighbors, while you wait for Oakland PD to show up.

The rest of the weekend was much less exciting and much more pleasant, with a bbq, hair coloring and finally finally finally getting my tv stand from IKEA. I spent last night putting the damn thing together while watching Eddie Izzard and My So-Called Life. I just need to nail in the back paneling and put the doors on and then find someone to help me haul my new-to-me 30-something inch flatscreen tv up onto it. Then find something to do with my perfectly good 27" tv and tv stand.

Also, finally finished Alias sometime last month. Ohmygod. If you ever start watching a series that has lasted more than 2 seasons already, pace yourself. I watched 5 seasons of this show in a row and by the end, I was Aliased out. So so very ready for it to be over.

I also watched Lost, season 3 in record time. Considering catching up on season 4 with my friends' Tivo'd episodes, but I think I'll just wait for DVD again. BSG3 is also out now ... just added those to my Netflix queue, which will help with the pacing, as I won't be able to just skip from disc to disc with abandon.

Wedding season is also beginning. At 36, I have never yet had that summer where all my friends got married. I think this one will come close, though, with my ex-roommie getting married in Kauai next month, Erica getting married in early June in Dallas and more friends getting married in mid-June here in Berkeley. Lots of traveling coming up!

What else ... I put all my DVDs in cd sleeves, and now I'm not sure that was a good idea. I mean, it's good in terms of saving space, but browsing titles won't be nearly as easy. Still working on the scarf I started on the trip to Mexico in January. Managed to finally clean off my dining table, which I haven't been able to see for at least a year now. Determined to keep it that way. Did my taxes at the end of last month, and the money has been deposited to pay for A's season tickets, opera season tickets, highlighting my hair, getting a tv stand and hopefully a real nightstand too. What's left over will go towards the Hawaii trip next month and then I'm tapped out. Couch will happen next year, I think.

I think that pretty much brings us up to date here. Hope y'all are doing well!