a vivid and continuous dream

feng shui

2008-05-08T19:17:35Z

This book sounds great

1. Remove toxic products from your home and garage
2. Clean, declutter, clear and organize your home
3. Buy/use environmentally friendly products
4. Learn how to place objects to manifest change in your life

We are well on our way.

I love this for some reason

2008-05-07T20:25:42Z

GW Bush, who cured his alcoholism with "prayer", must be so jellllus

story time

2008-05-07T18:30:56Z

This is much funnier when you imagine the part of me being played by Larry David.

Monday morning, I got off my bus and walked to the ferry terminal to await my boat. I reached the double glass doors and when I stepped inside, saw that the corridor was being blocked by a few people. I wanted to get by them and stand on the other wall, where I wouldn't be blocking the exit. So I said "excuse me" and moved past. One guy I passed kind of jammed his elbow into me as I went, but I thought whatever, it's crowded. I stood by the other wall and waited to walk on.

So, we're all walking on to the boat and going to find seats or whatever. The guy who elbowed me came up next to me, going, "Excuse me, miss" so I looked at him. He was an older guy with a beard and glasses.

"I would appreciate it if you would have said excuse me when you walked by me. You bumped my arm."

"I did say excuse me," I said.

"No, you did not."

"Yes, I did."

At this point I noticed he's wearing A HEARING AID.

"No, you did not," he said again.

"I did," I said. What else could I say? I decided this conversation was now over and went past him to find a seat up front. I was a little shaken -- why was this guy so fucking upset that his arm was nudged by a woman half his size? Are his bones hollow?

Later I thought about it and realized this is the shit Larry David is always putting into his show, except if I were him, I probably would have pointed out to the guy that maybe, just maybe, he did not hear me saying "excuse me." And then I would have hung on to my argument like a pit bull until f-bombs were dropped.

Then later on I would have run into the guy again and he would have exacted his revenge on me or something.

I love that show.

The end.

curbed

2008-05-07T05:45:03Z

I gotta get to bed but tomorrow I have a story about something that happened to me earlier this week that easily could have happened to Larry David in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

check out this dude I married

2008-05-06T03:39:33Z

No photoshop, wires, or trickery were used to create this picture.

oh no, money!

2008-05-04T05:18:34Z

I read tonight that the first cruise ship of the season arrived in Juneau, Alaska on Wednesday. It was in a small article on the Juneau Empire website. Below the story, there was a place for reader comments -- ALL of them locals griping about how annoying the tourists are and the ships and the seaplanes and the gift shops and how companies come into town for the season and "take" money out of Juneau. Wah wah, I'm stayin away from downtown all summer long! etc.

Of course there were only twelve comments total. I would have to assume that most residents of the capital understand that since they live in an economy that is essentially fueled by tourism, if those dollars went away, so would half the jobs and businesses. Would they rather be Fairbanks? I mean sure, I bitched about the slowly-shuffling looky-loos on Powell Street in SF, but I still understood that the city needed these people.

I love Juneau and can't wait to go give them some more of my money in the near future.

IN OTHER NEWS, we did a bunch of yardworky stuff today. I scattered a bunch of wildflower seeds in a little plot by the deck, planted my rosemary bush in the ground, and pulled a great many weeds. Our lawn is completely invaded by moss and I don't know if we should kill it or leave it. I'm leaning toward leave it, unless it destroys the grass. The grass isn't looking too happy. But then Brian cut it way too short last weekend.

Tomorrow we're going to Target to find deck furniture of some sort.

green

2008-05-02T18:31:29Z

Tuesday night we were having dinner in Belltown and Peter Buck from R.E.M. walked by. Ok, 99% certain it was him.

What was funny is that I think he was... exercising? He was dressed in some kind of stretchy black top and black leggings, listening to an iPod, and looking very purposeful in his stride.

It was bright and sunny and we were sitting by the window, so we got a very good view. He hadn't even passed yet and I was already thinking, is that the guy from R.E.M.? Man, he's lookin' rough.

Ok that was mean, but good for him anyway, getting a good walk in on a cold Tuesday evening. We were all cozy inside, enjoying our fishies and wine.

omg shoes

2008-04-30T17:37:27Z

So those boots I wore ten days ago, the ones I immediately threw into the trash when we got home because they had killed my left foot?

I think they caused a stress fracture. My left foot still hurts, a lot, all day and night. There's no bruise, no discoloring, in fact just by looking at it, it's a normal foot. I can move all my toes, though when I stand on my tiptoes, there's a tingly sensation along my instep.

My poor stupid feet. They never did take to high heels, and I guess never will, which is all the more unfair due to my short stature. At least I can wear wedges. QUALITY wedges, that is.

A stress fracture is the only diagnosis I can think of. Or some kind of other internal strain/tear. Ugh.

The only cure is to rest as much as I can, and apply ice then heat, and wait like a month.

So much for bike riding, or getting any exercise at all.

Burn in hell, shitty Steve Madden boots!

That's what I get for buying cheap shoes. You get what you pay for.

shortage

2008-04-29T17:37:39Z

To go with an earlier post about our efforts to live more green, today I'm thinking about how the world food crisis and rising fuel costs impact me directly.

Because we own a hybrid car and only spend about $20-25 per month on gas, the cost of fuel doesn't impact us DIRECTLY, per se. But it does affect us indirectly, as it does everyone else, particularly due to the costs of transporting goods thousands of miles by truck, plane, and ship.

It is more important than ever to seek out local food and other products. So I'm making that my goal this summer. Of course we will be eating the most local tomatoes possible -- ones grown in our yard, virtually for free. I am going to start getting some of our weekly food from the farmer's market in town, though it's pretty small and I might check out the market on the island which I know will be a lot bigger. I would love to have local cheese and eggs, too. When I'm at the supermarket, I am going to pick produce grown in WA instead of Chile.

Many of the items in the typical American home were made in China. There is very little getting around it at this point. Americans are addicted to cheap crap. The cheaper the better, who cares where it came from and how many weeks it spent on a freighter getting here, burning oil the whole way. So I try hard to find non-Chinese goods when I can, specifically American if possible. Yeah, you pay more for this stuff. Because unlike China, we have a minimum wage. Hopefully when we get a new bed at some point this year, it will be one from a furniture maker in Tacoma. It will last forever and only travel 30 miles to get here.

It's very very difficult to find affordable new clothing that was not made in China or other distant lands (Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc). So you either budget to buy a few pricey, American fashions, or you do what I'm going to do, which is buy my clothing used. Which is kinda what I always did before I worked at Gap and got my (boring) clothes for 50% off for nine years.

What are you doing to deal with inflation and gas prices? Are you changing your lifestyle? Do you conserve energy, re-use things, recycle more aggressively? Anything?

sorry

2008-04-28T01:24:39Z

Look at what's happened to me
I can't believe it myself
Suddenly I'm up on top of the world
Should have been somebody else!

BELIEVE IT OR NOT I'M WALKIN ON AIR
I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD FEEL SO FREE-EEE-EEE
FLYIN AWAY ON A WING AND A PRAYER
WHO COULD IT BE?
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, IT'S JUST ME

aaaaahhhhhhh

you wanna see a picture of my bike?

2008-04-28T00:27:17Z

[click to enlarge]

Today was grey and lovely. We did a bit o' housework and then went downtown for coffee. Stopped at the grocery on the way home to get food, tonight I am making tofu veggie stir fry. I am going to make brown rice to go with it and hopefully Brian won't complain too much. I *heart* brown rice.

Riding in the car, taking pics of the back of me head

[click to enlarge]

"blogger"

2008-04-27T01:41:44Z

Today is the tenth anniversary of this blog. I don't even know if that word was yet in wide usage back then. I had just registered my domain name the day before and was trying to figure out what I would do with it. Then I decided to just do an online version of my paper fanzine. It started like this:

Sunday. 26 April.
Welcome to Hex Magazine. I am chilling out here in the Tenderloin,
listening to some Modest Mouse and taking in the soothing sounds of
my man doing the dishes. Tonight we're gonna indulge in pesto and
asparagus and pasta, wine and cheesecake for dessert, Simpsons and
X-files on the stupid box.

Meeeemories! I really gotta get all that old stuff back online though. I only started using Livejournal for this in 2003. Before that I seriously handcoded every entry. So smart. I love you, CSS.

Today is also Sasha's sixth birthday. He's cuter than ever.

Today I am having an extremely good hair day. It doesn't happen that often, so I'm enjoying every minute.

One more: Today Brian and I went to Silverdale and bought bicycles. I am kind of in love with mine. It's a Raleigh women's detour 4.5, which means no crossbar -- for someone with a 28" inseam, that is like gold. It's so pretty, the color is kind of a rosy copper. Swoon! It's actually my first ever new bike. Before this they came off craigslist and cost $50 and were crap.

So. Brian is mowing the lawn, it's a warm day, I'm going to go turn on the baseball game and make dinner. Ta!

bad movies

2008-04-23T22:17:03Z

I am finally in a financial position to treat myself to a present. Congrats on getting the job three months ago, Jane! I am getting this Cole Haan bag.

But not for a couple of weeks. I'm going to get it during a cardholder's rewards event at Nordstrom and rack up a crapload of points. That's right, a crapload.

It will be a cute spring bag and the messenger strap definitely sold me on it.

I will also be stocking up on socks. And stockings. You're welcome.

Last weekend Brian and I watched a movie called "Gregory's Girl." It came out in 1980 and is supposed to be some kind of British romantic comedy "classic."

I have gone through sincere periods of Anglophilia in my time, and have a true appreciation of British music, film, and television. But this movie sucked. It was soooooo dated and corny and awkward and poorly edited and much of it made no sense at all. God it was bad. Why do people praise this movie so much? It was just average, at best. The music was absolutely awful, the kind of stuff that conjures up memories of the very worst of 1970s background music. The main character has a Jam poster on his wall; they couldn't afford to get a song by them into the film?

So many things in the movie are never explained. Am I supposed to truly believe that at a tryout of ten Scottish boys and one Scottish girl, the boys are so rubbish -- at the most popular sport in Britain, the sport invented by the British -- that the girl is picked for the team? Really? Really. I mean, I believe in girls' athletics, I really do, but wow what a hackneyed device it was. Why did we need the subplot about the desperate friend striking out with every girl in the lunchroom and then... deciding to hitchhike to Venezuela from Scotland? Why does Dorothy flake out on Gregory at the end? The last time we see her she is dancing (?) with the creepy male coach in the locker room. Can't help but wonder what that was all about. But we never know. Why does Gregory like her so much, apart from her sexy appearance? Because she seems very dull and deeply ambivalent, if not hostile, about him. Also (spoiler, like you care), I don't even know if we found out the name of the girl he ends up with at the end, she had about 45 seconds of screen time up until the last scene.

This movie could have been so much better. I can name many others in the teen romance genre that were miles ahead of this thing. But I won't because I'm sick of typing about it.

Tivo kept recording for another 30 minutes, so we were also treated to a rather excruciating one reel short from 1930. It was hosted by Jack Benny in his second-ever screen appearance, dolled up in a lot of masculine eye makeup. It was the style of the time.

The short featured eight song writers of the day, all on stage at once with their own pianos. A few of them spoke in Yiddish. Benny keeps making weird jokes about each one. There are long awkward pauses after each "joke", where I guess the audience in the cinema is supposed to "laugh." A young lady comes out to sing a song about how her man abuses her but she loves him anyway ("Mean to Me"). Then she is abused by Jack Benny. At that point we could take no more and made Tivo delete it.

love

2008-04-23T17:46:17Z

Three years ago, we got married. It has really flown by, or I have no concept of the passage of time.

For our anniversary, Brian bought me a snazzy hairdo and a couple of fancy hair products. He also surprised me yesterday by letting me know he bought us really good tickets to see the Mariners on Friday. This will be my first ballgame of the season and my first time at Safeco. And it's Ichiro bobblehead giveaway night!

I got him this

I gave it to him this morning while we were still laying in bed listening to KEXP. The watch. I gave him the watch. Hee.

Tonight we are going to dinner but I'm not sure where.

In other news, I hope the weather is warming up for real because while I adore my North Face jacket, I am getting a little tired of wearing it every single day. My other jackets are getting sad.

new look

2008-04-22T05:21:04Z

Had a lot of hair chopped off tonight. Before it was extremely long, thick, heavy, and the ends were about three years old. It was dragging me down, man. So I had much of it hacked off and got some sessy layers.

Pics here and here. Taken with a cameraphone, which explains graininess and low light.

After that, Brian and I went out to this Japanese/Hawaiian place called Ohana. I was feelin so foxy. Had a virgin pina colada with an umbrella in it, had mahi mahi tacos, and a supposedly Hawaiian dish with rice, pork, cabbage (?) and macaroni salad (??). It was yummy but of course the portion was big enough for three people. Leftovers! Brian had a bento box.

We are home and I am hoping my hair will look this good tomorrow.

via claire via andrew sullivan

2008-04-21T04:26:33Z

Hippies are stupid.

From a protest in SF, of course.

triple chocolate

2008-04-21T00:26:55Z

I love learning cheesy new CSS tricks.

Pretty busy day so far. We took a long walk downtown and had hot sandwiches for lunch (1/2 Reuben here), then coffee at the usual place, then walked home, all without getting rained on.

Brian mowed the lawn and pulled weeds, I went grocery shopping and got a whole bunch of good food for the week. The Farmer's Market yesterday was a disappointment -- nothing is really ripe yet around here, so it was all stuff like cheese and coffee and a few young plants for gardeners, but I didn't feel ready to buy a strawberry plant just yet. So I settled for supermarket produce, plenty of it, including organic carrots with greens still attached, brown mushrooms, small fuji apples, a sweet Texas yellow onion. I also stocked up on things missing from our pantry like peanut satay sauce, coconut milk, and dried tarragon in bulk. Buying dried herbs and spices in bulk is truly the only way to go. The product is fresher, and I can get what amounts to an entire bottle of it for about 30 cents every time.

At the deli/bakery, I got some fresh feta, gherkins, and pitted italian olives, and was lucky to get a huge sample of superdark chocolate cake. It was soooo good. Didn't buy one, but probably will next time we have dinner guests. Which will be soon I hope! No one has even seen our house yet :( Except the cable guy.

John Adams ends tonight, alas. If you haven't been able to see it and are interested in American history, you should try to find a way, or wait to Netflix it. I listened to a commentary on NPR recently about what a shame it is that HBO was the only network to produce this film, because if a major network had wanted it, more people would have gotten a little mini-education. But then again, I can't imagine how some network like CBS couldn't have fucked this up to appease sponsors.

Oh one last thing, I had some weird dreams this morning, as one does when one wakes up at 5:30 and then drifts in and out of sleep for the next three or four hours. Something about navigating my way home through a swarm of bumblebees, and noticing that the dandelions nearby were about ten feet tall. Oh and I went to Starbucks and the person in line behind me was Beyonce Knowles. No one seemed to really notice or care. What the heck was I doing at Starbucks? Hmmmmmm.

pickcha post

2008-04-20T00:13:08Z

We had some very spotty bananas in the fruit bowl so today I made a loaf of banana bread with pecans. I used the recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook, one of the best cookbooks I own, which I bought after browsing through ludickid's a few years ago (he made us the italian sausage pasta dish).

(click pic for enlargement)

It came out pretty much flawless, if I do say so myself. The last one I made used a different recipe and involved chocolate chips. It was disappointing.

Last Saturday it was 85 degrees in Seattle. Today it's 38 and hailing. It was a brief summer. Anyway, I got to hang out with aforementioned ludickid and it was kool.

He had just finished describing for me in detail everything that he was wearing.

Here is the cool dude I married almost three years ago:

Yes, our anniversary is Wednesday. Cheers!

Later I was watching baseball and noticed this amusing typo:

Well that's it for now. I wonder how many other things I can find to distract myself with in order to avoid cleaning up my office?

arctic blast

2008-04-19T01:28:15Z

So, it's snowing right now. Not sticking, yet. But yeah, that is definitely white flakes floating toward the earth and landing on the lawn. And the budding trees and flowers and plants.

GOD WILL THIS WINTER NEVER FUCKING END WTF DO WE LIVE IN NARNIA NOW JESUS CHRIST

blueberries and goat cheese

2008-04-16T21:59:20Z

Best lunch in a while:

+ mixed fruit, mainly berries
+ everything flatbread, which is an awesome cracker covered with seeds
+ local Bainbridge Island chevre with basil
+ tall americano from Vivace

Also I rode the SLUT for the first time today. It was quaint.

whole foods

2008-04-14T16:20:45Z

This blogger is going to lose weight eating real food only. Nothing processed or canned or packaged frozen meals or etc. Something to aspire to, certainly. I think we do a good job of that. Our freezer contains a tub of peach sorbet, some whole wheat waffles, and um... tater tots. And ice cubes.

The Farmers Market in my town finally reopened this past Saturday. I plan to make it a regular weekend trip.

Though I'll have no need to buy any $5/lb tomatoes. I now have nine healthy tomato sprouts. I am going to have so much lovely fresh fruit for free this summer.

john adams

2008-04-14T05:43:06Z

+ I have never actually watched a miniseries before, but I am certain this is probably one of the best ever made.

+ The attention to period detail is stunning, from the universal lack of dental care, to the sets and lighting, to the wonderful decision to put absolutely no beautifying makeup on any of the women. Except in the case of the Parisian court, who all looked rather like grotesque clowns.

+ The dude playing Jefferson is kinda hot.

+ Interesting to know that they shot the whole thing in Eastern Europe. Love the scenes of building the white house. Who decided to build our capitol on a swamp? That was a great idea.

+ Seeing it in hi-def has made it even more amazing, but I say that about baseball, too.

etait est ici

2008-04-13T20:00:26Z

Yesterday was hot. Feels like winter has lasted seven months here. But yesterday I walked around all day and well into the evening in a sleeveless shirt. Stood on the deck of the ferry with no hat, scarf, or gloves. It was glorious!

And unlike as with a sunny day in SF, there was no massive bank of freezing fog rolling in at 5:00 to spoil it all.

We headed to Seattle for lunch with ludickid and kudaspeaks at Blue Moon Burgers, which is in South Lake Union. After eating we walked to this park-like thing on the lake, which was actually kind of sad and gritty, but we did see a whole bunch of turtles, a few large beautiful ships, and I bought a kickass ruby-red 22 oz Nalgene water bottle that has the logo for the Center for Wooden Boats on the side. YES!!

After that there was more iced coffee to drink at Uptown Espresso, and then Brian and I went off to buy him some cargo pants. We met up with the gang again at Kuda's deluxe apartment in the sky, which is situated on First Hill just east of I-5. They have a rather spectacular view, especially from the roof, where we glimpsed a distant peek at part of the upper deck at Safeco, while simultaneously watching the game live on the communal flatscreen TV. Woo!

Dinner was fancy baloney sandwiches (no really, they were fabulous), homemade brownies, croissants with key lime marmalade, and diet coke. Oh and one sip of small-batch gin.

It was a lovely Saturday. Today is overcast again, but it's okay, still nursing that cold and hope to be closer to 100% by tomorrow.

coff coff

2008-04-11T16:00:31Z

I know I've always been sorta "opposed" to having a TV in the bedroom, thinking that the bedroom should be a sanctuary dedicated to sleeping, reading, and [censored], but I must say, having cable TV right there when I am as sick as I am is great. Plus the TV set is inside the armoire, and the doors are kept closed when the TV is off.

My cold has been getting steadily worse all week, and I am home today. I am hoping it peaks today, in a hurricane of coughing, sinus congestion, and overall misery. I've got my bed, pillows, cats, cable TV, and husband willing to go buy me cough syrup. I am doing *nothing* today, y'all.

Which by the way, sucks TWICE as much since a) today might be the first legitimately warm day of the year, and b) my old friend Leonard is in town for the weekend and has a tight schedule meaning I don't even know if I will be able to see him now.

But I feel like shit and leaving the house will surely add more days to this ugliness. So, night night.

janehex @ 2008-04-07T15:50:00

2008-04-07T22:52:57Z

I sent a box of treats to a friend today and when I got home, there was a box of treats waiting for me in the mailbox. Ert sent me a book, a pound of very pungent coffee beans, and ooooh! a bag of miette cookies! I do miss miette.

Ert is #1, btw