We have a TV!

For the first time since moving back... and just in time to see Bey at the halftime show. Let's take this, 49ers! Let's make San Francisco the city of baseball and football champions!

haven't even made it through the door

Mumsy meets plants she can't leave behind at Trader Joe's. $70 of a $150 receipt are spent on plants.

Not for dogs

After driving some friends home I returned to a crime scene: caprese skewer on the floor... puff pastry bits in the hallway... did Soleil lap up some rum punch?

A bit of a mixup

I'm not saying that kicking cancer's ass isn't great, just saying that this isn't the custom cap I ordered for a friend. It's even funnier when you consider that I paid for expedited production of the cap and, well, this is what I got! This didn't happen last time I ordered a custom cap from Lids.com...

Sorry fellow customer, I have your order!

Someone in Pennsylvania is probably wondering who Mr. Pagan is.

packing it up

It's finally started. I'm packing my things in preparation for my big move on Friday. And where are Soleil and I relocating? Back to Mumsy's house. I am her Christmas present.

Freedom and independence aside, I'm going to miss living here. Sure there are a few shady neighbors in the Sunset but it's so nice being just 2 blocks from the beach instead of 4 blocks and a hill. Instead of a Walgreens, I'm just a block away from a freshly stocked greengrocer and bakery. And my landlords are awesome people.

There are plenty of pluses to returning to the Richmond... I'm looking forward to a speedier and more reliable commute, a guaranteed parking slot on the driveway, and the beauty of ocean views with the tsunami-resistant quality of being at tbe top of a hill. Soleil will be thrilled to return to such a large playspace, though Johnny Cat will not be pleased. Poor Johnny Cat.

Soon I won't be able to stockpile my much-loved vinho verde without risking a reprimand...

Soleil woke me up...

... just in time for the outer Sunset blackout!

The view from my bed. I'll be seeing a lot of this today.

Oh yeah, time to turn off the 4G to save power.

I am a grammar nazi

At a trivia fundraiser for a school... a friend explained that in football, a "bye" can mean a free pass (not the throwing kind.)

But honestly, teachers organized this fundraiser! I just hope - for the sake of the children! - that the author of this flyer meant to use the football definition.

Guilty

Muni strands Sunset-bound passengers at Church and Duboce by conducting not one, not two, but three switchbacks. Will I ever get home?

how is this a five-star day?

Only if 5 stars mean "maximum effort required!"

my Friday after Thanksgiving

This is what Black Friday is all about: extra-long dog walks!

Both Soleil and Lulu got spooked by this miniature lawn cow... much more entertaining than navigating the hordes on Black Friday.

animal crossing

If only they lived in houses decorated with odds and ends salvaged from town!

The story of Soleil and Jackie has been mildly entertaining these past few days...

Soleil is very intrigued by and very scared of Jackie.

Jackie does not share these sentiments, all she wants to do is sniff out her surroundings, sleep, and eat in peace.

Jackie craves solitude so much she has taken to facing the wall.

But that doesn't mean that Soleil has given up on getting closer to the mustachioed cat.

Something like that. I'm sure Jackie thinks Soleil is a stalker.

kitty love

If the blissful catnip flavor worked for Johnny, then it would work for Hitler Jackie, right?

She bites... but does it work?

Nope, she's hissing as much as ever.

historic reenactment

I am catsitting Tater's unique cat Jackie for a week. I say "unique" because she is a calico that sort of looks like Harvey Two-Face Dent. She likes to smell and hiss at me at the same time. And she has a distinct Hitler mustache.

Girl with a 'stache. Watchout world!

So Jackie has been hesitant to explore my place but last night she finally ventured out from beneath the sofa. She claimed this pillow the way Hitler claimed Czechslovakia. She hops around my coffee table as if it were fellow Deutsch-speaking Austria. She is preparing fo dominate the world.

I'm not sure how she sees me but I hope I'm not her Poland.

Jackie already has a minion... my cat flashlight.

Scary eyes of doom!

date night

Last Friday was Tater and Muddy's engagement celebration, and though he wasn't invited, it was held at the Cheers-like bar/restaurant of my ex. He didn't show (amazing! he used to be there every Friday night like clockwork) but I was relieved. Until I got to talking with a few of his friends; now I have doubts about the veracity of his reasons for breaking up.

And all of this made me think of him throughout the weekend, which I haven't done since thirty minutes after he broke up with me back in June. And then I started wondering... is there something wrong with me? I know, relationship fail.

But no, there's nothing wrong with me (nothing major, anyways!) And if you don't like what I am, then get lost! And whether or not what he told me is true doesn't matter (because if it's true, he's the idiot we all know he is and if it's false, then he's a liar... don't need those in my life.)

And it got me thinking about some awkward patterns in my colorful dating history. "When is the last time someone bought me flowers?" I thought as I was grocery shopping. "When is the last time a date showed up with flowers at the door?"

February 2011. Doesn't sound like such a long time but that is six males and five first dates ago.

So I decided to take myself on a date and bought myself flowers. And a baby deer table knick-knack at $5 to make myself really smile. I cooked beefy pasta with lots of garlic, opened a bottle of pinot grigio (because matching your wine to your pasta is really not necessary,) and spread some fashion inspiration on the table. Oh yeah, get out the romantic tealight candle because tonight is the season premiere of Season 2 of Revenge and I love that shamelessly juicy saga of a girl taking matters into her own hands. Go on Emily, get 'em!

Flowers... is that so much to ask? I should've known that he-who-blows-up-my-toilet doesn't deserve me.

Victims of another N line switchback

What did that judge say? Something akin to a slap in the fscr of muni patrons.

dear Outside Lands...

Dear Outside Lands music festival,

I still don't like you because you turn a 5-minute drive along the beach into a 25-minute tortuous crawl, you leave mounds of drug-laced feces in the park, and you sell yourself as the concert for everyone while charging a kidney for a ticket and the firstborn child in the family for a taste of SF's so-called best food and drink. Good thing you only come around once a year, right?

Well, I must admit that you are growing on me. Oh you are still self-righteously expensive and I won't be taking any walks in the park until the Department of Public Works has cleaned up Lindley Meadow, but I must say that something magical has happened this year. Traffic along the beach is not the monstrosity I expected, and I thank you for that. Perhaps I am just lucky, perhaps it is now bumper-to-bumper agony as I sit in my comfy home and type away. The parking lots at the beach are packed for such a nice foggy day but the roads are moving, and that's what matters.

Traffic along Ocean Beach was such a non-issue today that I had time to stop by the supermarket and pick up a few things for my mom. Oh sure, she's much closer to Safeway than I am but she doesn't like to leave the house on "dirty hippie weekend." Hey, you can't win them all.

this is real

For only the classiest Comic-Con fans, ticketmaster and GameStop are selling seats for the very short tour featuring The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. I would go just to see what it's all about but since tickets are about $75 and up, I'll leave this to those who live and breathe it.

I know the music played an integral part to the gameplay of everyone's favorite title OoT but a professional concert is, well, pretty hardcore. I wonder if guests will dress up... as a Cucco? A Skull Child? Or maybe everyone will follow suit and come in coattails like Shigeru Miyamoto.

Whatever the dress code, attendees should come prepared in case the music causes it to rain, to change from day to night and vice versa, or to take listeners back to their seven years ago... when they were probably playing Zelda!

microclimates

The heat wave across the Midwest and East Coast, the fires in Colorado... even the 100-degree-topping temperatures in the inland areas of the Bay Area (how's that for an oxymoron?) are making the news.

And then there's little old me, living right next to the ocean and for half the day, blissfully ignorant of any sunshine. My house is wrapped in a cozy blanket of fog, and that's the way I like it.

The exact border between fog and sunshine varies each day but it's always a very clear line that I cross on the commute to and from work. The gate to misty moors of Scotla, er, San Francisco can be as far west as 33rd Avenue and east as the Masonic-Presidio tunnel (referencing Richmond district landmarks.)

bling rings

I started my travel blog I hella went there! to encourage myself to engage in more adventuresome traveling, to pack less and less, and to wander further from the beaten track in the hopes that someday I might join the ranks of rugged mountain women who stride anywhere without fear or maps.

But my friends know me all too well... "You can't give up your bling!" says Cabbage.

Yesterday I took Miss Piggy, a gift from Tater, to work. This ring has a lot of character... not everyone can wear pigs on their person.

bling fit for a queen

The Cabbage surprised me with a gift in the mail: a menagerie of glittering creatures that transform my knuckles into the most happily gaudy cuff that I have ever had the pleasure of wearing.

these babies have got some serious sparkle

The funny thing is that this is just the start of my fantastically quirky collection of costume jewelry. There are many more rings, and tons more earrings, and even a few necklaces in the form of one animal or another. It's the easiest zoo you'll ever keep.

what is it?

I'm not sure to where these people are headed or what they intend to do with this glorified golf cart but it sure looks fun.

It brightens up any traffic jam at the Bay Bridge!