E&G's House

Future Census Takers of America

That's me and Andrew for you, seeing as we've officially applied to work for the 2010 Census and taken the application test.  We got some pretty good damn scores, too, so it may not be long before we're knocking on your door to probe you with our endless questions.  Hey, in this economy I'll take any job I can get, even a temporary government one.  Plus, having to go out to City College for the test gave me an excuse to see the giant Olmec head they have there:

Actually, it's a replica

Yay!  Giant head!  It sure was a nice day out there. 

Little Boxes....

2009, Year of the Juice Fast

Well, not that I'm going to be on the fast for the whole year, but whatever.  Starting on Monday I am embarking on a weeklong fast of nothing but green juice, kombucha tea, and water.  I'm not following any specific plan, but I'm confident enough that I'll get all the nutrition I need from the green juice.  I'm aiming for five days, but may expand to seven if I can keep it up.  I've had the idea of a green juice fast for quite a while now, but lacked the motivation to go for it.  But my diet for the past few months has not been too kind to my body, so I think now is the perfect time to try it.  First, of course, I've got to eat up the food in my refrigerator that won't last a week, but I think I can take care of that by the end of the day tomorrow.  And, of course, there's this guy:

Your ass is mine, cupcake

Just for the hell of it.  After the fast I'm going to make a real effort to get back to a better diet, but tonight I am devouring this enormous lemon-raspberry cupcake.

No money, no problem

Halfway up the Hyde St. hill

Pier at Aquatic Park

Being a jerk

King of the pier

The unseasonably nice weather doesn't hurt, either.

Cat hotel

For a few days this week I had a guest in the apt, a cat named Penny Lane who I was taking care of for a friend.  I was interested to see how Gionna would react, since I'm constantly tempted to bring another kitty home from the SPCA.  And, predictably, she was PISSED.  The first two days or so saw a lot of hissing, growling, passive aggressiveness, aggressiveness, and sulking.  BUT, by yesterday she was really coming around!  She was trying to play with Penny, rolling around on the carpet and dashing madly around the apartment the way she does when she's really excited.  Penny wasn't too interested in playing, but it was a really positive sign that another cat might actually be welcome.  Maybe when (?) I find a new job I'll celebrate by bringing another one home, who knows....

Stare down

There was definitely a bit of evil eye going on in the photo above... if you look for Gin's reflection in the mirror you can see she's got an evil glowing eye too.

The luxurious Penny Lane

Awkward

Interested

Almost touching! (& no growling!!!)

There's not much action in this vid, but I thought it was pretty funny that this song was playing in the background for some reason.

Eel whisperer

This is from awhile ago, when Andrew and I went to the CAS.  For some reason, I never got around to posting it here.  So in the Philippine Coral Reef tank there is a little glass bubble that you can enter, crouched down through a tunnel, in order to see what they call the "Children's Eel Garden."  The little Garden Eels (not technically eels, but whatever) live in little holes in the sand, which they pop in and out of as they see fit.  Or, as you'll see in the video, when I desire them to. 
I may be broke and without prospects at the moment, but I stand firm that the CAS membership was the best hundred bucks I spent all year.

This is my unemployed life

Today Andrew and I spent much of the day riding Muni aimlessly around town, since we are both (mostly) outta work and have some time on our hands.  We started at Quetzal (as per usual) and walked down to Civic Center station, as I needed to reload my Translink card.  Which, by the way, I should be able to do from my computer, only the Translink website doesn't like to let me log on.  Whatev, Translink.  Anyway, on the way there we spotted a herd of police cars speeding down McAllister toward the Western Addition... not sure what that was all about but boy was it exciting!  Here's one of them, zooming by Andrew as he Twitters about it.  Yeah, we're on top of things.
Anyway, we reached the station and I successfully added $20 to my Translink card.  It's fun, see:

I am Dialing the Host

We decided to get on the T line, since we didn't know what we wanted to do and neither of us had ridden it before.  I had originally wanted to go to the beach, but the weather was too fugly to make that sound appealing to Andrew.  Plus, we had enjoyed the Dogpatch when we walked around there a month ago.  We saw some interesting things out there:

How to decide?

Who wants to go for a dip?

T on the bridge

I took some nice video of this bridge, by the way, but Andrew ruined it by making an off-color comment while I was filming.  Nice one, buddy!

Origin of the Balloon Lady

After the walking we were nice and hungry, so we stopped here for lunch:

Piccino

It was pretty good, and I especially liked the cutesy recycled milk jar of water we received upon sitting down.  I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

Glub glub glub, yum

After lunch, in the spirit of our earlier aimlessness, we hopped on the 48 Quintara.  I haven't ridden this bus in a few years, and forgot about the nice views you get on this line as it winds through the PJ's. 

By then,

...the sun had come out

Our driver was the saucy type, and we were treated to a show a couple times when she ordered passengers off the bus. (One of them complied, the other refused and the bus was stopped for ten minutes or so.  She spent the rest of the ride on the phone with Muni complaining about the driver.  Good times.)  We got off in Noe Valley and poked around there for a bit, then headed back to Andrew's house.  Hey, being unemployed is fun!    

Maggots.

In my Kombucha jar.  Nesting in my carefully grown and nurtured scoby.... Eating it too, I can only imagine. 
I am FURIOUS.
From now on if I spot a fruit fly in this apartment, I am not just going to swat it.  I am going to MURDER IT.

Day spent not working

My tummy was sick this morning, so I didn't go to work.  Here's what I did instead:

I'm not that worried about germs, clearly

Sat on bed, read blogs, ate an apple with peanut butter.  Then Gion licked some peanut butter off my finger.  She loooooooooooves peanut butter, and as soon as she smelled it she positioned herself next to my computer, stared alternately at me and the bowl I was eating from, and made pawing motions in my direction.  She's subtle, all right.

Okay, okay, it's not that bad

I was sitting in the sun this afternoon, in that big grassy park above Fort Mason watching dogs running and tourists on bicycles and Marina yuppies pushing strollers.  It was fabulous.  I had walked down there to pay my rent, after realizing that having a killer hangover was not an adequate excuse for not paying rent.  And, I currently have enough money to pay rent and make my hospital bill payments, and, you know, live.  So, maybe all the gloom and doom was a bit much?  I dunno.  Oh, and I was also listening to this song, that may have helped:

Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping

Grouper

One year anniversaries (not exact)

I was struck by a thought this morning when I was switching on the heating pad that keeps my Kombucha jars warm... I bought that just about a year ago, so apparently I have been brewing KT for a year now.  Well, a little more, since I became interested in it after my trip to Italy in the summer.  But I guess by the time I decided to try it myself and actually succeeded in growing a scoby it was probably closer to Christmas.  I lose track of the passage of time easily, and started to wonder what else I got into a year ago that I'm still doing.  And, all I can think of so far is that I started making monthly payments of $500 on my hospital bill about a year ago, and I'm definitely still doing that!  That's depressing, but not nearly as much as the fact that I'm not close to having paid the whole thing yet.  I think I'm about halfway there, actually.  And, having recently quit my job, I am having a bit of a hard time mustering up any optimism about 2009...  Oh well.  Optimism has rarely gotten me anywhere in the past, so maybe it doesn't matter.