Larry and Robin came into town for the weekend. They fixed us a nice dinner. Anytime, guys, anytime! And thanks!
Tuesday March 28, 2006 -
Kings lose again at home. We didn't go to this one and that may have been a good thing.
Sunday March 26, 2006 -
Happy birthday to brother John (family). Kings game tonight too. They lost. Will they make the playoffs? Probably? And we had the granddaughter Josephine most of the weekend. She's pretty wonderful.
Still no real update but this top ten list is pretty funny
Top Ten Things Overheard During George W. Bush's Trip To Cancun
10. "Feels great to get away after three straight weeks of work"
9. "As president of the United States, I pledge to do whatever's necessary to help the Cancunians!"
8. "Couldn't we have stayed home and gone to Chi-Chi's?"
7. "Cozumel? Isn't that the chick I made Secretary of State?"
6. "When do I get to meet Zorro?"
5. "Holy crap, how'd they move these pyramids from Egypt?"
4. "I'll have a non-alcoholic pina colada...just kidding, juice me up, Pepe!"
3. "NAFTA? Don't they make auto parts?"
2. "Secret service! He's choking on a nacho"
1. "Once you get a little buzz going, my poll numbers don't look so bad"
Tuesday March 21, 2006 -
Now this is funny:
Top Ten Reasons Dick Cheney Won't Resign...
10. Trying to fix up Condi Rice with his daughter
9. Turns out when you shoot somebody, if you're not vice president, you gotta do time
8. Bush leaves at two every day and then it's margaritas and Fritos
7. Set the solitare high score on his office computer
6. Wants to see if he can help Bush get his approval rating under ten
5. Too hard to give up Vice Presidential Discount at D.C. area Sam Goody stores
4. Wants to stay on the job until every country in the world hates us
3. Extra-zappy White House defibrillators
2. Undisclosed location has foosball and whores
1. Why quit when things are going so well?
---Late Show with David Letterman
On a different note, after two sad road losses, the Kings won tonight at home! Karl and I went and watched. It was a good game, hard fought the whole way with the Kings pulling away at the end. Will they make the playoffs? Email me here.
Sunday March 19, 2006 -
Took the kids home. Josephine had a cold but she seems a bit better. My cold is still hanging on ;-)
Saturday March 18, 2006 -
The granddaughters J and J are here to spend the night.
Friday March 17, 2006 -
Another appointment with the resonstructive surgeon. Another ounce of fill. Maybe once or twice more, then wait three months for the surgery. It seems like forever but he wants to do what the thinks is right.
Tuesday March 14, 2006 -
The Kings beat the Lakers in a great game. Hard fought the whole way, then the Kings took off in the fourth for a big win.
Sunday March 12, 2006 -
Larry and Robin came home last night from their trip. This morning they took me to breakfast (thanks) and I hit the road for home. This was a great vacation for me and I think they enjoyed theirs more too, knowing that I was watching over the dog and the house. It's a "win win".
Saturday March 11, 2006 -
After that horrible lightning, thunder, and hail storm last night, it was actually sunny today. Well, cloudy sometimes but more sun than clouds. So, even though it was pretty cold, Elvis and I went for a walk, for a little over a mile or so. He had a great time walking me and I enjoyed it too. Later in the day I decided that since it is my last day here, I better get down to the ocean at least once more. So, I walked there, then walked along the oceanside path for a ways. I was enjoying it so much I decided to just go ahead and walk downtown. It was a ways, but the brisk air and sun felt good. Of course, by the time I got down there I was hungry. That happens to me a lot. So once again I went to Pizza My Heart for a slice of the pesto pie. It was incredibly crowded but I had made up my mind. And it must have been the right decision because when they rang up my order, they said, "that piece might be a little small, take this second one too for free". Well, it's their town, who am I to refuse? So then fully full, I began the long walk "home". A quick stop at Streetlight Records, where some kind of wicked gravity drew me in. I fought temptation though, and didn't buy anything! Then back to the walk...
But wait! It's the last full day here, I better go see the ocean again! So I lumbered off toward the ocean. I got the idea that I should go to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and ride the Giant Dipper, the famous old wooden roller coaster. But sadly, the Boardwalk was closed today because they "thought" there would be bad weather. They were wrong. So I walked along the water's edge for a ways, that is always so peaceful and calming. Then up the big hill and back to the house. Whew, a long walk but really nice. Larry and Robin come home in a few hours. I will stay the night and then leave somewhere around noonish tomorrow.
Friday March 10, 2006 -
It was a day to mostly stay in. I wanted to work a little on this site and as you can tell above I did get some photo slide shows done. Also played the guitar for a while. Ran out to pick up some food from Charlie Hong Kong, that was about the only exit from the house. Tonight the storm was awful, intense but short hail storms and hella thunder and lightning. Yow! BTW, the Kings won again tonight. They are finally getting into gear. Is it too late? You know you can always give me your opinion here.
Thursday March 9, 2006 -
As a wise Beatle once said, "I got blisters on my fingers". That's what comes from trying to play the guitar after so much time. Oh well, no pain, no gain. Today I went downtown shopping, bought a few things for the grandkids and others and of course had to stop at Pizza My Heart for a slice and Santa Cruz Roasters (or something like that) for a latte. Not to mention that it was Taco Thursday at the wharf. But I can't do it all, I'm only mostly human, after all! I'm enjoying Larry's extensive reggae music collection, man he's got a lot of it so I can check out groups that I hadn't heard before. Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru. Now that's it's evening it is raining like a sumbeech, as my distant cousin Bucky-Bob used to say. Well, it could have happened...
Wednesday March 8, 2006 -
It was purposely a more relaxing and less eventful day. I'm here to relax and de-stress, after all. After a leisurely morning and those critical cups of coffee, I put some new guitar strings on my guitar. No, my guitar is not named "Lucille". It had been years since I had done that and they certainly sounded good to these concrete ears. I played around with my 'axe' for a while (Ha!) and then Elvis the dog and I went for a walk. It was only a mile or so, but Elvis liked it and I enjoyed it too. When we left the house I wanted to turn right but he insisted that we turn left, the direction of the dog beach. But I wasn't going to be outsmarted by a dog. I went left but then took a corner, then another, and before you knew it we were nowhere near the dog beach! Anyway, we had a nice walk. I worked on the laptop a while, played a little guitar, ate some pizza, and then talked on the phone to Petra B for a while. She had a GREAT time seeing Ed K, lead singer from the band LIVE. She won tickets to a small (less than 100 people) acoustic show that he did tonight in Sacramento. Woo! Yow! Then I watched some Beatles related stuff. The Lennon Legend DVD and A Hard Days Night DVD. What a great man and what a great band. RIP John.
Tuesday March 7, 2006 -
More rain and sun, off and on. Make up your mind! And the live-blogging of the vacation continues. After a leisurely morning (my favorite kind) I headed out toward nearby Watsonville to check out a store called Music Madness. There is something about that name that makes this Obsessed With Music boy need to know more. Anyway, Watsonville appears to be a very poor, very hispanic town, at least the small part of it that I saw. The store was large, about 10,000 square feet or so, but that was kind of deceptive. Close to half of it was t-shirts, stickers, dvds, etc. Another 15% or so was spanish music,and another 10% was rap. What was left was a mix of genres, with the rock section being my main focus. There were more new than used titles, they really need someone to bring in some used stuff. I didn't find much but I did scour their bargain bins and found three CDs for less than $10 total(!):
The Juliana Theory "Understand This Is A dream"
Freedy Johnston "Right Between The Promises"
Garrison Starr "Songs From Takeoff To Landing"
The first is emo-ish modern rock and pretty good, the second is folk-rock and somewhat mellower but catchy, the third is a woman someone used in Mixmasters, singer/songwriter pop/rock and I was waiting to find an album cheap to check out.
Then I headed down to the wharf for "Taco Tuesday" at Olitas mexican food. They have a special where you can get a margarita (or beer/wine) and a taco for $5. They even have a vegetarian option for the taco, and of course the margarita was meat free to begin with. Thank goodness for that, I just hate pork margaritas! Anyway, I had the special. The margarita was very good and not weak at all. The taco was black beans, red cabbage, guacamole, cheese with sour cream and tomato on the side. It was so good, I had to have the special all over again! Don't worry, I didn't go for three, though I thought about it!
Then I came "home" and regrouped, then took a walk to the ocean and walked along the path near it for a bit, then back here. This is the life. More soon, wait right there please...
See, I told you I would be right back. As far as you know, that only took seconds. Anyway, I finished the day with a nice phone conversation with Petra B, aka "love of my life".
Also I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD.
Monday March 6, 2006 -
After a night of intense rain, the storm broke. And no, I'm not going to try to fix it. It like it with the sun and some clouds out, like now. This Santa Cruz newspaper takes some getting used to. It took about 5 minutes to read and is small small small. Of course, they do have that ocean here, which is sort of cooler than a newspaper. So then I went downtown, had a slice (pesto) at Pizza My Heart, but Larry and Robin left me a Streetlights Records gift certificate, which was burning a hole in, well, something or other. SO I bought:
Elvis Costello "My Flame Turns Blue" - his new live jazzy CD, packaged with a bonus CD that has a suite from his classical CD. And when you buy that, they were giving away a free 4 song sampler at the store too, that has him introducing two tracks. $14.98 new
Shawn Mullins "9th Ward Picking Parlor" - his new one, has a drill hole in the case but was LOTS cheaper than the one without. A fave of Petra's that we saw at Bumbershoot one year. $9.95 new
Hot Hot Heat "Make Up The Breakdown" - I like the most recent CD and this is an earlier one at a decent price new. $9.98
The Faint "Danse Macabre" - opening act for No Doubt when we saw them a few years back. I don't really remember them from that, but they have been used in Mixmasters, sort of electro-goth-synth-rock (!) and this was cheap and used. $8.95
Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel" (first solo album) - upgrade from the vinyl. Bargain bin used $3.95
Janis Ian "Billie's Bones" - bargain bin, vocals by Janis, some guy, and Dolly Parton!! new $3.95
Rickie Lee Jones "The Evening Of My Best Day" - bargain bin also, promotional full album used $3.95
Death Cab For Cutie "Title And Registration" promo only 3 trk used CD with two non/lp tracks Free! (4th bargian CD is free)
Then I stopped by Robin's favorite, the Pacific Cookie Company for a cookie. In Robin's honor.
Oh, and I got my last Mixmasters review done for round 13!
Oh, and it just started raining again. Nice that it was sunny when I was walking around downtown!
In the evevning I watched a Woody Allen double-feature on DVD. First was Manhattan Murder Mystery, a funny comedy with Woody reuniting with Diane Keaton for one film in the 90s. Then Bullets Over Broadway, a period comedy with John Cusack in the lead instead of Woody, and a great cast with Diane Weist, Jennifer Tilly, and many more.
Sunday March 5, 2006 -
This morning I reviewed another Mixmasters CD, only one more left go now. I will get that done this week too. I went to the Safeway market here in Santa Cruz to pick up some groceries. No parking and it took me forever in the store. I got sourdough bread, a few cheeses, yogurt and also a frozen pizza, some three-mushroom soup (!), some baked flavored tofu, muffins, chips and salsa, some fruit, etc. I am going to gain some weight here, I know it. It sprinkled for a while a couple times here but not bad. The wind is picking up a little and it looks like probably more rain later. I'm mostly staying in today, no walk for Elvis, but he's staying dry and I'm sure everyone likes that. The Oscars are on later and I'll watch that. A lower-key day.
It is evening now and it is hella rainy. I would say it is raining cats and dogs but I'm not sure if KC and Kitty-Tah like that expression. Much less Elvis. So, I watched the Academy Awards show. I liked Jon Stewart, even if he could have been a little less nice. And almost no political humor? With the incompetence so obvious and pervasive in the white house? Oh, well, I guess everyone was being respectful. Hmm, that could get boring, which it occasionally did. Oh, for the days when Brando would send an Indian woman to refuse his award, or stars would talk about how invading a foreign country and killing people there was wrong. Maybe next year.
And talking of killing people, I watched part 2 of Kill Bill. It wasn't as violent as part 1 but still had some grisly scenes. Of course, with Tarentino it is always stylized and the movie was cool in many ways. But Pulp Fiction is by far his best film. And no, Petra, you would not have liked them. Maybe parts, but not all, trust me.
Saturday March 4, 2006 -
It is a good thing. Yes. I am in Santa Cruz California for a week, dog and house sitting for friends Larry and Robin while they vacation in Hawaii. So somehow I get a vacation here! I got here today in the afternoon and chilled out for a while with Elvis, their dog. I'm sure he's named after Elvis Costello. Well, maybe not. Then I took a walk to the ocean and walked along it on the path down to the Boardwalk. We used to take the daughter there every summer when she was younger. Then I walked back to house. A longer walk than I expected but pretty nice. Seeing the ocean is never a bad thing. I came back, opened up a Guinness, and worked on reviewing a Mix CD (see Mixmasters). And on updating stevenology.com, of course!
After that, I finally got around to watching the DVD of Tarentino's 'Kill Bill (Part One)' (web site). Is it violent? Was Cheney drunk when he shot that guy? Does a bird fly? Does a fish swim? I mean, if there are no hunters or fishermen around, that is. Yes, it is very violent but the violence is stylized. Still, geysers of blood and lots of mayhem within a cool movie. And she never did Kill Bill. Maybe in part two. Anyway, it was good but not great. Tarentino achieved greatness in Pulp Fiction.
Friday March 3, 2006 -
Yowie zowie! The Sacramento Kings won two road games this week. Who woulda thought? They are still not quite high enough in the standings to get into the playoffs, but there is still about six weeks to go so who knows, they might make it...
The grandkids Josephine and Jasmine are spending the night and most of the weekend. They are a sucker for grampa reading them a story. It was a delightful tale of How Joe The Bear Met Sam The Mouse, followed by the classic Hop On Pop. Before that, we took them to the grand opening of the new IKEA store here. It was crowded but is such a cool store. We got some kids stuff: two small play tents, only $8 each, two plastic rockers that they love, again $8 each, and a crawl tube. I think that was it but I could be wrong. They say that the memory is the first, uh, what is it they say again?
Archive page
This morning I reviewed another Mixmasters CD, only one more left go now. I will get that done this week too. I went to the Safeway market here in Santa Cruz to pick up some groceries. No parking and it took me forever in the store. I got sourdough bread, a few cheeses, yogurt and also a frozen pizza, some three-mushroom soup (!), some baked flavored tofu, muffins, chips and salsa, some fruit, etc. I am going to gain some weight here, I know it. It sprinkled for a while a couple times here but not bad. The wind is picking up a little and it looks like probably more rain later. I'm mostly staying in today, no walk for Elvis, but he's staying dry and I'm sure everyone likes that. The Oscars are on later and I'll watch that. A lower-key day.
It is evening now and it is hella rainy. I would say it is raining cats and dogs but I'm not sure if KC and Kitty-Tah like that expression. Much less Elvis. So, I watched the Academy Awards show. I liked Jon Stewart, even if he could have been a little less nice. And almost no political humor? With the incompetence so obvious and pervasive in the white house? Oh, well, I guess everyone was being respectful. Hmm, that could get boring, which it occasionally did. Oh, for the days when Brando would send an Indian woman to refuse his award, or stars would talk about how invading a foreign country and killing people there was wrong. Maybe next year.
And talking of killing people, I watched part 2 of Kill Bill. It wasn't as violent as part 1 but still had some grisly scenes. Of course, with Tarentino it is always stylized and the movie was cool in many ways. But Pulp Fiction is by far his best film. And no, Petra, you would not have liked them. Maybe parts, but not all, trust me.
Saturday March 4, 2006 -
It is a good thing. Yes. I am in Santa Cruz California for a week, dog and house sitting for friends Larry and Robin while they vacation in Hawaii. So somehow I get a vacation here! I got here today in the afternoon and chilled out for a while with Elvis, their dog. I'm sure he's named after Elvis Costello. Well, maybe not. Then I took a walk to the ocean and walked along it on the path down to the Boardwalk. We used to take the daughter there every summer when she was younger. Then I walked back to house. A longer walk than I expected but pretty nice. Seeing the ocean is never a bad thing. I came back, opened up a Guinness, and worked on reviewing a Mix CD (see Mixmasters). And on updating stevenology.com, of course!
After that, I finally got around to watching the DVD of Tarentino's 'Kill Bill (Part One)' (web site). Is it violent? Was Cheney drunk when he shot that guy? Does a bird fly? Does a fish swim? I mean, if there are no hunters or fishermen around, that is. Yes, it is very violent but the violence is stylized. Still, geysers of blood and lots of mayhem within a cool movie. And she never did Kill Bill. Maybe in part two. Anyway, it was good but not great. Tarentino achieved greatness in Pulp Fiction.
Friday March 3, 2006 -
Yowie zowie! The Sacramento Kings won two road games this week. Who woulda thought? They are still not quite high enough in the standings to get into the playoffs, but there is still about six weeks to go so who knows, they might make it...
The grandkids Josephine and Jasmine are spending the night and most of the weekend. They are a sucker for grampa reading them a story. It was a delightful tale of How Joe The Bear Met Sam The Mouse, followed by the classic Hop On Pop. Before that, we took them to the grand opening of the new IKEA store here. It was crowded but is such a cool store. We got some kids stuff: two small play tents, only $8 each, two plastic rockers that they love, again $8 each, and a crawl tube. I think that was it but I could be wrong. They say that the memory is the first, uh, what is it they say again?
Archive page