meowmix

OK, this is the best potato chip I have ever eaten.  By far.

BuffaloBleuKrinkle2

Finally, in our last match, my USTA Men's 3.5 team won for a change.  We didn't win OUR doubles match, but the team won, so we did not finish in last place.  I finally, for the first time, got to play on the indoor courts at the San Francisco Tennis Club.  I really liked playing indoors, but that shit was hot!  It was too hot in there!

Everyone knows I'm pretty much a hermit.  I do not like having social plans, especially during the week.  This week I have too many.  I have to go to dinner tonight with a coworker from our New York office who is in town.  Thursday night I have to play a tennis match with my USTA team at the San Francisco Tennis Center.  Friday is Tony's birthday and we are going to the opening reception for the Frida Kahlo exhibit (I am so not into this,but Tony insisits. I don't know why we can't just wait a couple weeks and go to the show.  The opening reception is going to be a nightmare.)  Then I'm taking Tony out for his birthday dinner.  I wanted to take him to Mexico DF, but the timing is all off because of the reception at MOMA.  I think we'll just have to head back to Oakland after the reception and grab a late dinner at Tamarindo or Dona Tomas.  Yuck, that's three late nights in one week.  So not my style.

OK, anyone who knows me knows i so don't believe in this kind of bullshit, but i am totally freaked out by something that happened to me a couple hours ago.  I either went through a time warp or there was some sort of spirit or ghost playing some shit on me to freak me out and it worked.  Something fucking weird happened tonight and i am totally dumbfounded.

I left work.  Got in the car.  Drove across the bridge.  I needed to buy dog food and stuff for dinner. So I decided to go straight to the Safeway at 51st and Broadway, because I could also pick up dog food at the Pet Food Express that's right next to the Safeway (only Pet Food Express carries the brand my boys like).  So I pulled in, parked midway between the Safeway and the Pet Food Express.  I decided to go to Safeway first, since it would most likely be the more painful of the two stops.  Did my shopping.  Got to the checkout.  Paid with my  bank of the west debit card.  Took my groceries and went back to the car.  Put my groceries in the back of the car.  Then I went to the Pet Food Express.  Got my bag of Premium Edge Senior Lamb and Vegetable.  Got to the register and paid with my bank of the west debit card.  As usual, the woman at the checkstand had trouble running my debit card.  I have trouble at WHole Foods, Pet Food Express and Market Hall (except not the meat market there, just the produce and pasta shop). She had to punch my number and name in by hand.  I told her I always have a problem with that card at Pet Food Express and Whole Foods, but that I had just used it at Safeway with no problem.  So she types in my info, prints out the receipt and I sign it.  I pick up my bag and head back to the car.  As I am reaching in my pocket for my keys, I feel that I don't have my wallet.  I pat all my pockets, reach in and check them all.  No Wallet.  So I throw the dog food in the front seat of the car, and head back to Pet Food Express, figuring I must have left my wallet at the checkstand.

I get back to Pet Food Express, go to the checkstand and ask if I had left my wallet.  She says no, and we both proceed to look around for it.  No Wallet.  She says maybe I took it out over by the dogfood aisle.  I go over and look, no wallet.  I retrace my steps from the dogfood aisle, to the checkstand and through the parking lot.  No wallet.  I get back to the car and think maybe I put my wallet on the seat when I put the dog food in.  Nope.  No wallet anywhere around the seat.  I think, maybe I put my wallet down in the back of the car when I put the groceries back there. No wallet.  So I think I must have left my wallet at the checkstand at Safeway.  So I head back to Safeway to check.  On my walk through the parking lot though, I am thinking.  If I left my wallet at Safeway, how did I pay for the dog food at Pet Food Express?   I think, I must have put my Bank of the West debit card directly in my pocket after I used it at Safeway and left my wallet behind.  So I am entering the Safeway, and I go to checkstand #6, which is Dorothy's, and I ask her, did I leave my wallet here?  She says no.  But the bag boy at checkstand #7 overhears, and says I found your wallet. He walks me the few feet to the customer service counter and signals to the woman behind the counter that I am the guy for the wallet.  But I have to wait while she deals with some other customers who were ahead of me.  I am standing there waiting, thinking it was lucky that I had put my Bank of the West debit card in my pocket by accident, or I wouldn't have been able to pay for the dog food.  But I am saying this to myself while my hands are in my pockets.  And my hands aren't feeling my Bank of the West debit card in my pocket.  I check my pockets more carefully.  Nothing.  My cell phone and a 20$ bill.  Nothing else.  Now I am freaking out.  So I left my wallet at Safeway and lost my Bank of the West debit card somewhere else?  What a night.  And I am someone who never loses my wallet or credit cards.  So I am standing there waiting in the customer service line thinking my Bank of the West Debit card must still be at the checkstand at Pet Food Express, because I had to have it to pay for the dog food.  So I am thinking once I get my wallet, I need to go back there again and look for my debit card.  Or, I think, maybe I threw my debit card on the car seat when I put the dog food in the car.

So now it is my turn, she checks my name and id and hands me my wallet.  As I am walking away from the customer service desk, I check my wallet.  And my Bank of the West debit card IS IN THE WALLET!!!!!!

How the fuck did I leave my wallet, with the debit card in it, at Safeway, and then go to Pet Food Express and pay for the dog food WITH THE DEBIT CARD??????  This totally freaks me out.  Something fucking wierd happened here.  I have the reciepts to prove it  I paid with my debit card at both stores.  WTF????????

Insoles

So it's Friday morning.  I hate Friday mornings because I have to drive Tony to the gym in the city and he has to be there by 6:45am to see his trainer.  So he gets up, puts on his workout clothes, grabs his gym bag, and is ready to go.  I, however, have to take a shower, figure out what to wear, watch some news, take ten minutes to put on each sock, etc.  So Tony is always annoyingly after me with "hurry up" "we are going to be late"  "what is taking you so long" and I hate it.  I have never gotten him there late, so I don't know why we have to go through this every week.

Anyway, this morning, I'm all dressed and ready to go except for shoes.  I grab my brown Tsubos.  I go to put the first one on, and the inside looks funny.  It's bright white, with glue spots.  I don't remember the insides being so white -  i thought they were dark, so i figure the insole must have fallen out in the closet.  I am about to go rummaging through the closet looking for it, when I notice the other shoe looks the same inside.  I'm thinking, the insoles couldn't have fallen out of both shoes, at the same time.  They must have come this way and I never noticed.  I am sitting there looking at my shoes, pondering why I don't remember them looking this white and unfinished inside.  And also wondering why a $95 pair of shoes would look this shitty inside.  And then Tony is on me again, "why are you sitting there staring at your shoes?  I am going to be late!"

Then the thought hits me and I ask him, "did you take the insoles of my shoes out?"  Of course he answers no, why would he want the insoles of my shoes.  So I put them on anyway, depsite my misgivings, and we head to the car.  Once I'm on the pavement walking in them, I can feel every pebble and crack in the concrete.  I'm thinking that something definitely feels different about these shoes.  So before I get in the car, I ask tony again if he took my insoles.  He gets all offended that I would ask him again, when he already told me no.  Why do I not believe him?

Drop Tony at the gym, find a parking spot a couple blocks from work, and get out and start walking.  OK.  The insoles have definitely been removed.  It feels like I am walking on two pieces of cardboard taped to the bottom of my feet.  Like Jesus sandals.  I wait until I know Tony is done with the gym and call him.  I ask again, did you take out my insoles?  And now he says it, YES, sorry.  "Why did you take my insoles?"  "My new shoes are a little too big for me and i didn't have time to stop and buy insoles."  "Why didn't you just tell me that the first time i asked? I would have worn a different pair of shoes if I knew!"  "I knew if I told you the truth, you would spend another ten minutes deciding which new pair of shoes to wear and I thought we would be late."

Can you believe that?  I took off my shoes and looked more closely, and he totally RIPPED the insoles out of my favorite shoes.  He'd rather have me walk around in pain all day than be late for his trainer.  What is up with that? 

And after just 15 minutes, i have the quotes of the night (so far):

Randee to Hulk: "I've got all the gas in the world and I'm gonna pump it all out right now!"

Randee to his son  "Did you see the big man push me down and make it hurt?"

Maybe that's how he got all the gas.

Ok, something is going on with the earthquakes.  Almost constant earthquakes in Reno for a week or two?  Two earthquakes today in southern california (palm springs and i forget the other one)?  I think something is up and there is going to be a full release soon.  Not a happy ending.

Second, what's up with food?  Rationing rice, prices soaring and two times in the last couple weeks my Safeway has been completely out of something.  I'm talking at 7pm on a weeknight. Last week there was absolutely no chicken for sale other than boneless skinless breasts, and not many of those.  Completely bare shelves.  Last night, absolutely no ground turkey.  Barren. There were two packs of nasty looking ground chicken.  I mean, I know we're all spoiled from living here and I feel shitty complaining about no chicken, but I'm not really complaining, I am forewarning.  I think something is up.

So Barry has a "new" car.  My loyal readers know all about Barry, he is basically this guy on my street that runs a little "car repair" business on the street.  Which means he basically finds old clunkers that people want to get rid of and he has anywhere from five to twelve of them at a time lined up and down our street as he tinkers away at them.  Some of these cars he has been pushing around since we bought our house in 2000.  Eventually some of the will rotate out of the pool and new ones will rotate in, but this happens rarely.  A couple weeks ago, this copper pickup truck with a completely smashed in front end was towed away, and Barry apparently wasn't able to get it back.  So over the weekend he rotated in a new member of his car family, a beat up old white Volvo.  Unlike most of his cars, this one actually runs, so he seems to have put it at the head of the class and uses it as his main mode of transportation.  So I see him driving around the neighborhood in this white Volvo recenlty.  Last night, as I was walking home from the bart station, he passed me in the Volvo and I noticed a faded purple bumper sticker that caught my eye.  I thought it said "Gay."  So after I got home and went out to bring the trash cans in, I stepped across the street to see what the bumper sticker said.  It says this:

i feel pretty and witty and....  GAY!

I think it is hilarious that Barry is driving around in a car with that bumper sticker.

I had to go on a major grocery shopping trip after work last night.  I drove to Safeway and got there right about 6:45pm.  Had to restock on a ton of stuff - cat litter, coffee, toothpaste, cereal, paper towels (has to be Viva!) plus all the groceries for producing dinners the rest of the week.  So I had a pretty full cart when I got to the checkout.  After all my items had been scanned and bagged and my Safeway Club Card run through (total savings:  $21!)  I realized that I had left my Bank of the West debit card on my desk at work.  My total was $128.00.  So I have my Amazon card that I purposefully carry with me because the limit is $400.  I know I charged some stuff over vacation, so I am not sure I can fit $128 on that card.  And I was right.  DECLINED.  So I have one other card that I keep in my wallet for emergencies only.  I pull ilt out and it is declined as well.  EXPIRED IN FEBRUARY.  I have no other cards because I cut them all up so I would not use them.  By now everyone in line behind me is sighing and huffing and puffing.  So I tell the checker that I have to go home and get a check.  He says they will put my cart in the back area and to come see him when I get back.  So I drive back home, get 1 check and drive back to Safeway.  As I am entering the store, I run into Jonathan, my checker leaving.  He says to go to checkstand 5 and my cart is sitting right next to that checkstand and the checker who took over for him "knows all about it."   So I get in line at checkstand five, and when it gets to my turn, I point to my cart and say "that's my cart."  Which elicits absolutely no recognition.  I tell him I had to go home to get a check, but that everything was already rung up.  I pull the cart over and hand him the reciept.  He asks the manager to come over because he is not sure how to proces the payment.  The manager, of course, tells him he has to ring everything up again.  So I unload all the bags, and he takes the items out, one by one, rings them up, then puts them back in the bags.  Total comes to $128 again.  I write a check.  DECLINED.  Now I know I have way more than $128 in my bank account.  He calls the manager over again.  People in line behind me are restless and making threatening noises again.  "Is this the first time you've written a check to Safeway?" she asks.  Yes.  Your first seven checks have to be for less than $100.  So since I only brought one check and no cash, the cart goes back into cold storage while I return home AGAIN to get a check and some cash.  This is not my night.

I am tired of typing this depressing story.  Anyway, I got back with check and $40, but now since it was after 8, the number of checkers on duty had gone down from 6 to 3, and two of those were express, so there was a LONG ASS line in the non-express lane.  I eventually got out of there with my groceries.  But what should have been a 45 minute job had turned into nearly 3 hours.  And why are the employees at Safeway always arguing with the managers about their breaks, their shifts, etc. in front of all the customers?  I've noticed this in the past, but since I spent so much time in line last night, I really noticed a constant level of loud complaining from the checkers.

my goal this summer is to finally get my backyard into complete shape.  i am always halfway there, but i think an all out effort can get me over the top.  my lilac bush is finally beautiful.  i need to fill in the front of the borders and just behind the border with some interesting medium sized plants.  I have all the big plants in and they are all doing well (except my poor magnolia tree).  i finally have all the hardscape done, the vegetable garden paved, the gravel patio in, the raised patio at the back in.  then i need to build the last part of the walkway, build a new gate from the backyard to the driveway.  then i need this:

Palmslounger