Category: The Married Years

Mom’s Coming

Mom‘s here tomorrow afternoon. Guess that means I should clean the bathroom tonight. It also means my email responses and exciting journal entries will be even less reliable than usual over the next few days. Try to conceal your disappointment; do some Christmas shopping perhaps…

While I’m at it, I should update that Wish List, just in case anyone cares…

Also on my mind on a cold Wednesday afternoon:

  • The potential of not engaging in any creative attempts at keeping warm for two and a half more weeks.
  • Where to stash the porn ’til Mom leaves.
  • My rumbling stomach from not eating lunch today.
  • The cold I have this nasty feeling I’m getting.
  • How much I secretly want that kid in the Dell Computer commercials to die a slow and painful death.

Randomly Sunday

I’m a little tired, there’s not an unclogged artery in my body, I have this sort of goofy grin on my face, and there are random articles of clothing scattered about the living room. Good weekend, all in all. Y’know, after a really shitty year, I’m quite happy with the way the last few months of it seem to be playing out…

Yes, Mom. I really like this guy…

If I could just get rid of the lingering health problems and find a job which paid a little more and sucked a little less (or even better, more freelance), I’d be happy as a clam…

Random ponderings for a Sunday evening:

  • Just what the hell IS a tin woodsman? Were they all big old screaming queens like the one in The Wizard of Oz?
  • Has it really been 18 years since I last sat through the aforementioned movie, one drunk night in Greensboro?
  • How do certain plants sense that you’re just about to give up and throw them away and suddenly start putting out new growth?
  • Will there EVER be a normal schedule for first-run Simpsons episodes (and other Sunday night shows) on our local Fox affiliate in San Francisco? And will said station ever have a website with even the bare essentials (like actual program information) on it?

Randomly Thursday

The week from hell is now pretty much over, except that I can’t seem to log into one of my client sites to upload the latest batch of stuff. Soon even that will be over and I will be much happier…

Anyway, I shan’t be lonely for the next ten days or so. Mark‘s coming tomorrow night (yeah, that makes me happy), and Mom arrives on Thursday. I still haven’t cleaned to “Mom specs” yet; I guess that will cover the three days between visits…

Why is Family Guy not on tonight? And does the world really need boot-cut jeans again? Have the years since 1981 taught us nothing?

Sorry. Pretty lame journal entry. I’m worn out and I think I’d rather be reading my book now…

Thanksgiving

 

As I’ve said before, one of the benefits of living 3000 miles from your family is that you very often get to choose who you spend the holidays with. I spent mine having a most luscious meal with Sarah and Brad, and later having a shop, a drive and a snack with Jamie. Both worked quite nicely, thanks…

Realizations:

  • Sarah can cook. But I already knew this.
  • High definition TV is a very good thing. I pretty much knew this too.
  • Thanksgiving Day is a surprisingly easy day to park in North Beach.
  • Thanksgiving Day is a good day to shop at Tower Records and a bad day to shop at Kmart.
  • The Tower Records in North Beach is much better than the one at Stonestown.
  • Having one’s laundry done before the weekend really starts is a significant source of contentment.

Mark arrives in the morning, and I’m now popping in a movie and officially placing myself on email sabbatical until Sunday. You are forewarned…

If anyone cares, I’m testing a new front page at Planet SOMA. I’ve decided that since I can’t seem to add any new content over there, I’ll just keep remodeling so it looks new…

Christmas Is Coming

Popped by the miniature Safeway on Jackson Street in the Financial District this afternoon on the way home from work. It’s my secret Safeway where I avoid turkey-crazed crowds on days like today. I’d never do all my shopping there, but it’s a great little hidden place to pick up things when I’m in the neighborhood. But even it was more crowded than usual today…

You can tell the holidays are brewing downtown. The Christmas Muzak has already kicked in at Embracadero Center, and the crowds on the streets look slightly less constipated than usual. They’re all still tight-assed suit monsters at heart, but around the holidays, they’ll sometimes actually even pause from their terribly important cell phone conversations to say “excuse me” when they ram into you…

Upcoming:

  • Food on Thursday, although I’m still firming up the details of where and with whom. Conflicting invites. Which is sort of flattering in a way.
  • Mark’s coming on Saturday. That’ll be much fun, as will the fact that I won’t be the one fighting the traffic on Sunday.
  • A visit from Mom in early December. Which means I should pay a little more attention to all that stuff that’s growing behind the toilet.

Thursday Night

It’s midnight. I was restless and burdened with overabundant nervous energy earlier, so I cleaned up the house (so as not to return to a mess on Sunday) and then popped some Dragnet into the VCR. That did the trick. What is it about old police dramas that soothes me so?

In about 18 hours, it’s Fresno, Mark, and a much improved disposition…

Y’all have a good weekend now, y’hear?

Happy belated birthday to Becky. I hope you get what you want too. It’s amazing how effective bullet points can be sometimes…

Anniversaries and Rain

My mom and dad were married 52 years ago today. An anniversary with a number that high seems to be a milestone I’ll never achieve, if for no other reason than the fact that I’d be at least 89 when it occurred…

The rain today was amazing. There was none of that wimpy, drizzly California crap; this was the real stuff like back east. And, on schedule, the fiercest downpour hit this morning just as I was on that three-block walk between the Ferry Building and work…

Which seems a sort of piddly thing to complain about in the face of the latest news from New York. Jeez, what’s next? Earthquakes? Locusts? New Yorkers must feel a little like Californians felt in the early 1990s with the SF earthquake, Oakland fire, and LA riots, although Californians had three years to absorb all the drama…

Anyway, if this week ever ends (not a good thing to be thinking on Monday), it’s off to Fresno to see Mark this weekend. It’s supposed to be raining there too, which is not really a bad thing. I like rain…

Tonight, it’s cubed steak and gravy. I deserve cubed steak and gravy…

Lethargic Sunday

Sunday afternoon. The house is reasonably clean, my car has been brought upto code, I sent Mark on his way back to Fresno a few minutes ago, and I don’t really have any work to do. I should complete some great and wonderful task now, but I think I’m probably just going to watch a movie, read the paper, and maybe fall asleep on the couch…

Damn. It just hits me that my plan might actually involve having to go up to the corner store to GET a paper. May have to scratch that idea for now…

Lethargic? Me? Never…

Must. Remain. Detached.

 

Y’know, it’s touchy meeting someone I really like and talking about it on the website, especially since I’m known for a sort of detached cynicism and the slightest trace of irony. I come off sounding either insincere or unnervingly gooey. Therefore I’m not going to try at all right now. So there…