Lunamania

More active

One of the best things about being on vacation was being outdoors all day and night. I didn't really care whether I was floating in the ocean or doing battle with blood sucking mosquitos--I was just happy whatever I was doing didn't require Windoze 2000 or Outlook. Now I'm back in the world of my pigeon friendly office and carpel tunnel daily existence. I decided rather than complain--ok, in addition to complaining--I'm going to marshall all of my Polyanna-Hufflepuff-esque qualities and get off my ass and be more active/sporty dammit.

Things I've done to be more sporty...
-- Played volleyball at the J-town league. This is a hard core league. I mean there's beer and chicken wings DURING the game. Excellent.

-- Directed admiring thoughts to Chris P and Jen K who are both sportily involved in marathon trainings. I also made dinner plans with Debbie K who has already completed 2 marathons.

-- Got inadvertendly involved in a search and rescue for a missing 81 year old hiker. In a genuine attempt to be more active, the Hiking Monkey and I planned a little outing in Briones Park. We roll into the parking lot through a roar of helicopter dust and noticed an encampment of ambulances and patrol cars cordoned off by yellow police tape. The park ranger asked, "Here to volunteer for the search and rescue?" I replied, "Nope, just here for a hike." The Monkey was much less of an asshole and figured if we're going to hike anyway, we should see if we could lend a hand/keep an eye out. After learning that a search dog was bitten by a rattle snake and a volunteer just passed out from heat stroke, we decided it was best to stick to our original hike. But we kept an eye out for Mr. Finney. Unfortunately, we didn't find any traces of him.

-- Secured $30 when I bet Harold that he would not complete a triathalon before the end of the year.

-- Travelled to the Tenderloin to do some heavy cocktail glass lifting exercises in honor of Nirej's birthday and Anita's completion of the CA bar.

-- Sprinted from SFO to Oakland and back in less than an hour-during rush hour. ok, I was in a cab. This whole experience could be worthy of a blog entry, but the message can be summarized as, "NEVER forget your paper ticket when flying United. They will do NOTHING to accomodate you."

-- Compared tales surfing and plate lunches with Heidi and Cheri-Ann. I'm thinking it's time for another visit to Surf Diva in San Diego. I'm having a little California appreciation moment.

Clearly not that sporty. In an attempt to reclaim my past sportiness, I've decided I must find some structured sporty activity. Marathons frighten me. I'm contemplating a sprint triathalon, but can't really swim. And in the screwy world of sports a biathalon is actually cross-country skiing and shooting. Where is the bike and run event? How is that not a biathalon? Who skis and shoots? It's so bizarre.

Anyway, I'm open to structured sporty suggestions.

Extended vacation

Hawai'i was perfect. There will be future posts with random ramblings on chickens, sailboats, roaches, sovereignty movements, tourism, oxtail soup in bowling alleys and a photogallery of the Na' Pali coast, dolphins, surfing action , pretty beaches, and animals. You have been warned.

Important to note, I followed my summer tradition of "Hogwarts on the Beach"; however, seeing that my fellow Harry Potter fanatic has not read the Half-Blood Prince, I will save the commentary and spoilers. I did read and enjoy Sightseeing (see sidebar.)

So, details to follow, but for now here's a pic of the view from the Macapuu lighthouse trail.

On vacation

I'm officially on vacation!

Sacrifice

I'm not bitter about missing the All-Star game for a board meeting. And I'm not upset at the 12 hr days or the limited leisure time. Why? It's about the cat calendar love and the prospect of 6 days in Hawai'i.

I'd like to make a Lunamania public service announcement and apologize for not being in touch with so many of my peoples over the last couple of months. My days have been parsed into 30-45 minute allotments and while I realize that's no excuse for being MIA, it's a brief phase borne out of necessity and I'm putting stuff in place to lead a more balanced life. I appreciate the comments on this blog and the off-blog signs of life.

Prior to the madness unfurling, I planned a trip to greet the AIDS Ride Monkey at the end of her 6 day non-Tour de France cycle through Hawai'i. I'll park myself at the finish line and feast on tasty food and drink. I will then spend the week loafing on the beach, reading (see sidebar), playing with my new travel scrabble, chasing sea turtles, eating pineapple and shave ice everyday. Joy.

Sniff sniff

I'm really touched by the responses to the Cat Calendar. Thanks for dropping a line--either on Lunamania or elsewhere. Given my frazzled state of mind these days, I appreciate the positive vibes.

Let's see, what have I been up to lately? My weeks are the same old, but I had a lovely Sunday. Ging and I spent the afternoon hurling ourselves into walls as we smacked a small black ball around. In less wordy terms, we played squash. We then lounged by the pool and where I also kicked myself for paying exorbitant monthly fees to basically not go to the gym. It was one of those blue sky, 80 degree days out. Gots to love it.

We then went to see March of the Penguins. I have a new respect for penguins, but it left too many basic penguin questions unanswered. It's rather unacceptable that after 90 minutes of doing nothing but staring at penguins I am no wiser on the following:
-- What is the mortality rate of penguin chicks?
-- Just how long does it take for a penguin to waddle 70 miles?
-- Are penguins oily or do they just look oily on screen?
-- How do you tell the females and males apart?
-- How to the queer penguins find each other?

We topped off our adventurous day with a fun rice, rice, fish, fish, dinner w/Cheri-Ann and Heidi. I think I ate too much, so I'm now blogging and licking a melon popsicle. I think that should help with digestion.

Batman sux

We wanted to go watch penguins, but ended up squinting at what I think was Batman in Gotham. I wouldn't know though since the movie was so dark.

None of the reviews warned me that this was a stealth orientalist movie. The first third of the movie takes place in some fucked up Shaolin Temple in the Matrix oriental-land. Liam Nieson glides around playing a knock-off Morpheus. Ken Watanabe speaks tongues as the dalai lama to Christian Bale's Golden Boy acolyte of some confuciabuddhistaotechingartofwar cult. It's so tired and stupid.

Sensing that the movie was just too stupid, the movie theatre took matters in its own hands by shutting down in the middle of the movie. We sat in the dark for about 10 minutes. When the film resumed, we realized the movie operator had skipped a chunk of the scene. I was actually just happy it meant less Katie Holmes and that the movie would end that much sooner.

On a much less snarky note, I had a lovely time belting tunes with friends at NRB. This place is a seedy motel that's been converted into a seedy karaoke box. Excellent.