Single Speed Stella

...or, should say, my weekends;

Yesterday was a whole lotta good-times-fun-times, and like all good-times-fun-times, I pay for it the day after. BUT, the party is not ending today, oh no...we've got stuff planned for the morning, and this evening...this evening is -

MASTERS OF METAL!!!

It's going to be like eating a whole mess of Frito Pies and washing them down with Pabst...cheesy and bad for you, but oh-so-delicious! Yep, i'm buying a T-shirt.

Whatever your plan is today, make it a good one...It's beautiful days outside, go out, have a beer (or wine, if you're classy) and take a gander at the landscape...

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Are the best, ever! Saturdays are rad no matter what, but then knowing that you have a three day weekend - that makes it all the more rad!!

Sleevage gets to happen today, Indian food happens, all around radness will happen today...

Depending on how the day goes, I may try to swing by Fry's, or somewhere comparable, and find a new camera...

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We just went out for a ride last night, and it was like, 85 degrees at 9 pm, wow! It's good bike riding weather, indeed!

We had a lizard hanging out in our living room as well, I guess it was too hot outside...he was just a 'lil guy, super cute...

It's Friday, which equals the weekend, which means beer tonight. Add them all up, and you have...radness

This week has been interesting - the most exciting stuff is going to happen this weekend, more sleevage, a concert on Sunday, and a BBQ on Monday (hellz yeah!)

Enjoy your day...i'm about too!

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After a so-so summer, weather wise, California has come through once again...it going to be in the 80's and blue skies for days, and last night was amazing...it was 8 pm and warm, the stars were out, perfect!

If I did anything outdoor-sy, like surf, i'd be stoked...as it is, i'm stoked! This is the weather i've been waiting for all summer...this is the 'sit outside on the trailer porch and drink beer weather...'

LOVE it...i'd post pictures, but yeah...camera=kaput

{and for those who've been asking...YES - I will be posting pictures of Scotland soon, I'm stlll sorting, i've got 500 of them!!!}

Here's one of my favorites...this is Dawn, and she's (obviously!) the bride, but this picture is rad because 1) with the back-lighting and the beautiful dress, she looks like an angel and 2) that look, is the look I know well from California days with her when she was stuck in the States and caught me being silly...usually it was with beer in hand, but she's a lady now....(I think I had a beer in my hand...)

And this is Dawns grampa, who is seriously the coolest grampa ever...no joke, this dood rocks....

I have bowling pictures too, but i've not yet gotten to that roll...

My last pontification is this...you know how it's really hard to find perfect jeans? Yeah, well, I found them, on the sale rack in dark wash denim, and you know what? Yeah, I can't get them in the States...they were, of all places, here. If anyone sees Disco Jeans here, give me a holla....

It's Thursday, which is one day closer to Friday, which means a three day weekend fast approaches...i've got plans aplenty, but right now, they consist of heading off to work....

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And already...broken camera, broken sunglasses, signed up for one of the wrong classes, lost my cubicle, and all my beer went flat.

Logically, Wednesday will be shades of great with a sprinkle of radness...followed by two days of awesome until the best weekend ever

That's my story, and i'm stickin' to it...

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Mondays just kinda happen and you've got to roll with it....

It was one of those days where i've got lots on my mind, but nothing I want to share. Or that I think anyone really wants to know about.

Oh well, it can't be all excitement, all the time...

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My camera is totally busted. I actually didn't break it, per se, it has just reached the end of a long and illustrious life...i'm pretty bummed, 'cos now i'm camera-less, but i guess it's a chance to get a new, exciting one....

So, it's Monday - time to rock...new week, new seat, new stuff on my list of stuff to do!

And, oh yeah, I just bought the tickets....!

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As is wont to happen...I'm losing my cubicle...

It could be worse (Oh wait...no it couldn't) My new spot is kinda tucked away and, like, half an open cubicle...but it's not my cubicle.

So, here's the thing, well, my theory, anyways about "open workspaces" and the like...being an 'artist' (ha!) i've always been really reclusive - work is for work, putting on some headphones and getting shit done and if you're a paranoid theory conspiracy-ist, you won't like feeling so...exposed. (Or, in first person jargon - i'm always watching my back...). Well, whatever, i've worked in all sorts of places and spaces, and the thing is - I really, really love my job , so whatever, I could work underneath a desk and be good with it. (Don't get me wrong...whoever gets my cubicle is so going to be getting the stink eye!)

So, yeah, i'm bummed, but that's the way the cookie crumbles...it's good to move places, it keeps things interesting I suppose, but i've got misgivings;

I suppose if it ends up being the height of suckitude, i'll just use my magical powers of persuasion to get my cube back...

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We went out and had a quiet dinner at Tied House here in Mt. View, and I had a delicious pint of Alpine Gold, - we got our Growlers filled, stuck 'em in our backpacks, and started riding our bikes home....

On the way we got a call from a rad friend we haven't seen in awhile...home to sleep you say? Oh no, it was into the car and down to the downtown to while away the evening...and what an evening was had!

There was arm wrestling, and the bartender even put bets down on us, but there's no pictures (because I lost.)

We stayed until last call, (which explains why I didn't get up until 11 am today), but the fun didn't stop...

The unsuspecting Schwinn was the "butt" of our consternation...

Lyds showed us how one correctly get one's groove on...

We said our farewells and everyone went home happy and safe...good times all around!

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...or my birthday. Or, you know, just because;

That, and the beer to go in it. I mean, really...a BEERTENDER! How rad is that!?!

Now, I know, it's not as white-trashy or gutterpunk-y as a kegerator,

...but really, let's not split hairs here. This puts the 'class' into 'drunk-ass'.

Some poor soul tried to argue the point "But it only holds 6 beers...that's it."
Well, they obvs missed the undercurrent of Black Flag in said statement;

"Thirty-five dollars and a six pack to my name
Six-pack!
Spent the rest on beer so whos to blame
Six-pack!
They say Im fucked up all the time
Six pack!
What they do is a waste of time
Six pack!

I know itll be o.k."

Ahhhh, memory lane! Anyways, I doubt anyone will peel off three Benjamins for me to have said 'tender, but I will gladly accept a pint whenever someone is feeling generous.

I'm just sayin'...

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Worried abut the bowel movements and what-not...but it seems like i'm sorted out now...

It's good to be back a work, back into the swing of things...My cubicle is my little warm nest of comfort. I had this fear that I would return from Scotland only to find i'd been relegated somewhere else, somewhere...not a cubicle. That would have been horrible. Seriously, i'm not even joking. Those who don't live in the Silicon Valley may think i'm trying to be ironic, but i'm not. Cubicle=Happiness.

I'm territorial about it...that's all...

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It's happening, it's really happening oh joy of joys! We still have the occasional fence hopper - but only very occasional...our sleep has been largely undisturbed thanks to the lovely, lovely new fence!

Now, turning attention back to the Bay Area, and bikes, and the like...

So, when I started bike commuting, I used to work in Sunnyvale and take the trail to work. Now my commute is closer, but I still take the trail for fun rides and errands and what not. What I was always impressed with was the number of Google employees scooting around on their little bikes or jogging to work...

Microsoft, on the other hand, always struck me as a "Look at my car, look at me on the Microsoft shuttle - I can't be bothered!!" I think I was proven right this morning by a story in the Mercury news about this dood;

" All Richard Roeder wanted was to park his sports utility vehicle and cut his gasoline bill. He wanted to declare an end to 45-minute, three-mile, traffic-jammed commutes.

Instead, he says, he's been harassed and treated like a criminal.

Eight months ago, imagining a smooth transition to a new life of zero emission, he bought a Segway PT, the little battery-powered scooter, and began riding to his job at Microsoft in Mountain View on the Stevens Creek Trail."

First - A segway? Second - Three miles? Who drives three miles? Why not bike or walk and get some exercise? Third - A segway on a RECREATIONAL trail?

I'm sorry, sir, but you've lost my vote...

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(My apologies for the lack of photos, I keep getting an Internal Server error, DRAT!)

I've always thought of Nescafe as being this ubiquitous insta-coffee drink that no one ever really drank...I think i've only had it once before, during an interview..

And then there was Scotland.

There were coffee shops that served espresso drinks, but if I wanted a plain 'ol cup of joe, it was NESCAFE. Everywhere. I had packs of it in the B&B, at the donut shop, f***king Nescafe....

Maybe i'm in the wrong about this, but there is truly nothing delicious or tempting about 'granules'. I'm thinking hat perhapsit wasn't the food or water that got me, maybe it was the Nescafe granules...

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Sheeeeeezly - Scotland messed me up. Srsly.

My stomach has been a mess of mess-taculness...I think there was something in the water, or the food, I have no idea...i'm going to try to peel myself away from the toilet and go lay down today...

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I am a true champion. Yesterday, I thought, "maybe I should just go into work...i'm jet-lagged, but it's not all that bad...i'll just take a little nap first..."

So, I fell asleep at 2 pm and woke up at 6 am today. That's 16 hours of glorious, wonderful sleep.

I have pictures and stories aplenty about Scotland, but i've been checking my work emails, and my now flattened bank account, and need to get my nose to the grindstone...

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No pictures this time around, i'm finally back from Scotland and i'm BEAT.

Being a Californian through and through...being a SILICON VALLEY Californian, that is, I just assume that there will be free WiFi and Interweb and doodads wherever I go. Not true, as I found out. My intent had been to be online whilst in Scotland...yeah. Didn't happen.

I'm SO HAPPY to be back, so happy...I hella heart the Bay Area y'all...now, it's time to sleep....

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Today I will be on a plane all day. Literally, all day. I won't be officially off a plane until 2:35pm tomorrow....

My entire Tuesday, and half of Wednesday, will be either in an airport or on a plane.

I used to be terrified of flying, but now I see it as one, big, boring sit-fest with no fresh air, cramped bathrooms, an shitty food.

My biggest fear now is a delayed or cancelled flight, airports are not the most interesting places to be for hours on end....

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...is with some stranger for the next nine days.
Sigh.

I'm pretty bummed, no lie.

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Today will be a day of relaxation...

Oh, we have plenty to do that needs getting done, but i'm going to be relaxed the whole time i'm doing it....

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...usually has a WAY better time than the company who doesn't. We had our second outing to one of the more flavorful semi-dive bars, The Sports Page, and it was good times...despite the phone call where my husband said, "I'll be home a little late, i'm at the emergency room..." !!!????!!?!

Nate and the hand grinder had a little argument, and the hand grinder gave him a little love-bite on his knuckle - he's totes fine, he got to get those crazy liquid stitches...

It's another glorious Saturday, and I am doing laundry and getting stuff cleaned up for our trip. I don't like the art of traveling, but then the memories always end up being worth it...

Other than that, I plan on having a rockin' Saturday indeed!

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...of a boozy hipster lifestyle. Unfortunately, my liver, my wallet, and my concentration are less enamored of it, so it's the regular 'ol for me.

I'm trying to get stuff together for the trip to Scotland, and I keep running into the 'ol electrical flummox...while some people would see this as a change to 'unplug' for awhile, I really get a little bit freaked out by the idea of no computer or no iPod for any amount of days, and so i'm scrambling to find plug converter doohickeys and my cords and other assorted gadgetry...

I get very flustered when my normal routine gets fussed with (don't believe me? Look at how neurotic I got when had to answer phones for one week) and planning for a trip is no different. I'm getting all kinds of rankled up....

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