is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Working. Eating. Pissing.
I�ve been getting a fair amount of what seems to be good work done lately. I�ve also managed to have something of a social life at the same time, which is an accomplishment. On Friday night Stephen really wanted to play Pictionary and Marco agreed, so eight of us sat around playing a board game until fairly late. This was an interesting development since neither Evany nor I are particular fond of board games. Evany made a taco bar and cupcakes, and various of us brought wine and beer, and it was a party of sorts. Marilyn and I were a team, and at first we were at a disadvantage because the other three teams were made up of couples who are used to communicating to each other in shorthand.
Now, Marilyn and I have known each other since we were 14, so there is no shortage of shorthand with us, either, but also neither Marilyn nor I had played Pictionary since back in college when we used to spend weekends up at Heidi�s parents place at the Russian River. So for the first half or more of the game our sad little game token did not move at all. But then we began to wow the competition by guessing a bunch of strangely difficult words and phrases, like �hole in one,� �budget,� �leather� (which I got Marilyn to say by drawing an ass in chaps and a leather jacket, ha), and �Rembrandt� (which I got Marilyn to say by drawing �sounds like� stem + ant next to a drawing of a guy painting a portrait). Marilyn is better at guessing clues, and also better at drawing things, so I guess I make kind of a sucky Pictionary partner. As she herself put it: �you think in words!� It�s true. I do. And she thinks very conceptually. There was one time when I was supposed to guess �disguise� and she had drawn some sort of thing that looked like a moon to me, so I was all, �man in the moon?� �cheese?� etc. We both started laughing and gave up. Wine is tasty at such moments.
On Saturday night Marco, Evany, Jeff, Caroleen, Marilyn and I had dinner at Panchita�s #3 here in the Mission. Panchita�s #2 (and yes, #2 is not such a good name for a restaurant, no?) is yummy, but also very downscale, so I was surprised to find that #3 had white table cloths and linens and candles and flowers, and $7 glasses of wine. The food is more upscale there, too. I had some excellent Camarones in green mole sauce. Got home early-ish and did some more work.
This morning Evany and Marco went to the beach at Pacifica very early so Marco could surf, so at 9:30 am Evany was instant messaging me asking if I wanted to meet them at St. Francis at 10 or so. I hopped out of bed and threw on some clothes, and had a lovely meal. Then I came back home and got to work. Again.
In other news, apparently Hans Blix (tcntunwi) is utterly fed up with my absence, and has begun waging a campaign of urine destruction. He has peed on the couch numerous times, destroyed two floor pillows, and who knows how many blankets, not to mention my poor subletter�s backpack and who knows what else. He doesn�t appear to be sick, from what I can tell from what I�m told, so it can only be misbehavior. I�ve suggested some possible correctives, but who knows. He has never been this bad before, and he has had housesitters before. But he has never had a housesitter stay with him for this long, so maybe that�s the moral to the story. In the past he has had people stay with him for up to five weeks, and he has been an angel the whole time. But maybe at around 9 weeks he�s all I AM MAD AS HELL AND FULL OF URINE TO BOOT. (Maybe this is his way of saying "I'm Pissed Off. Literally.") Hold on little puss, sound and furry, massive cattack, it's only three more weeks!
Still, I�m hoping things get under control, because I do know how sucky it is to have to babysit for an animal who really tries your patience. I feel bad for my subletter, who has spent loads of money laundering various objects from the apartment, and buying febreeze and cat deodorizer. (I am sending her cash, of course.) Still. Of all the problems I thought my subletter might have with Hans Blix this summer, this is NOT one of them. If only I could reason with him, so he could see that it would be far worse if he had to make two more cross-country flights and then spend the summer moving from house to house, having to get used to new smells and other animals all the time. Cats! There's no reasoning with them!
11:42 p.m. - July 30, 2006
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