A couple vignettes:

This Sunday I’m getting on the Ritual Roasters Tour Bus to go to Petaluma for the Western Regional Barista Competition- Whoo hoo! I’m pretty sure this doesn’t make me a groupie (hey! I’m not putting out!) or a fangirl (well, I am going to ask for autographs and take photos) but I might be a roadie (hey can I help with that?). Either way- I am totally freaking psyched about this! Whoo whoo serious barista magic!

And for all of your Steampunk fans out there- Wholphin has a pretty awesome film by an Australian team, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.  Their website, Gothia Gazette is a steampunk lover's dream come true.

Read this description by the writer on IMDB:

Sunday was nice- I went to a new pâtisserie and cafe shop near my current apartment, called Pamplemousse- I had a really amazing due of salads for breakfast- beets with goat cheese and a wild mushroom salad- I didn't dare get the desserts, but they looked beautiful.  I just love fancy desserts.  I need to figure out how to use my damn new phone camera- all my photos look horrible.

After Pamplemousse, my friend picked me up at the caltrain and we drove up to the American Cafe aka Happy Chef Cafe and American Grill for a truly bizarre meal that consisted of Vietnamese, American, and Italian food.  I had a simple beef/noodle dish, and those weird cream cheese and jalapeño breaded things you find at bars or American restaurants.

Then we went to the zoo.  The Lions were my favourites until the birds of prey- although, the tapir was pretty neat looking- it was like a cute fuzzy mini-elephant.  The zoo was fun- I wish they had a better petting zoo- the one in Flatbush in New York had wallabies you could cuddle and pet. I went in the early days of January in 1996 or so, and I was the only person at the zoo, and I had all the wallabies to myself.  It was pretty nice. 

After that, I clarified with the boy that we’re pretty much done, and that I was moving to either SoMA or the mission, but “we’d still be friends”.  So I guess that’s that.  I've been pretty unhappy the last week since the WoW expansion.  Feh.

And I suppose this gives me a chance to rescue a great dane.  I know they are dumb, but I've always wanted to have one.  So, thats the current plan.

I sent out this “here is my current contact info, hi! Lets get back in touch” email recently- and it has been amusing to see what the response has been.  Everyone seems to know only one of my co-workers, the person I actually work with the most.  His name is Rob Ginda, and doing a quick Google on him, looks like he wrote chatzilla and the js debugger for Mozilla.  Small world. 

I finally saw Pan’s Labyrinth two nights ago, and it was less fantastic than the trailer and website had led me to believe, but it was better than I had hoped.  It isn’t the sort of movie I could see again, and I was crying at the end.  Luscious, beautiful, thrilling, and magical.  Some of the moments were just perfect.

 I’ve been using the word “ponk” a lot- I don’t know where I picked it up.  I think "ponk" is sort of like, a weird "ponking" sound accompanied by neon pink and blue colours experienced by the person being ponked.  However, Random House has different feelings on the subject,  "Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, punk was coming into use in the late 17th century meaning 'rotten, SLOW BURNing wood, used as tinder'. The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology says that it may have been borrowed from the Algonquian word PONK which means, literally, 'LIVING ASHES'..."

 Yes.  Punk is Algonquian.  *facepalm*  Take that Johnny Rotten.

Went to Maciej’s housewarming last night.  Mundane, hipster, blogosphere, digerati, and warm and cuddly things happened.

I snuck in to Dosa when I saw a friend sitting at the bar, and stole a piece of his Dosa.- mm… I really want to go and have a proper sit-down.  Maybe this week.  Anyone want to go?

Looked in at Senses - I kinda want to go there, too.  How can you resist things like "Goat cheese lollipop, onion marmalade and porto reduction", the "Marinated asparagus, poached eggs and black truffle vinaigrette", or the "Seared foie gras, honey roasted figs or Lobster cappuccino, coconut and vegetable ragout."  Oh god.  Food. 

Had some random guy start talking to me on the street asking me if I know where Ritual was, and of course I did, and told him.  He told me he loves that place, but would I like to go get some margaritas at a place down the street?  *ptth*  I get picked up on the street for the first time in SF, and it's just worthless.

Went to Ritual, turns out the next bay area latte pouring competition is in a few weeks, and my favourite barista, Ryan,  from Ritual is actually judging.  But, feh.  Ritual is filled with laptop hauling hipster digerati (just like me bah!) which sort of ruins it. 

Anyway, I ended up getting some delicious vegetarian sushi and azuki/mochi dessert soup form Chaya, and heading over to Maciej’s where we snarfed it down with Anselm. 

 
A little later, Sonic/Ann came, and she was just absolutely awesome. One of the most interesting people I’ve met all year.  Later, Jack from twitter came (he took that picture to the left).  I had actually signed up for twitter last week, but couldn’t figure out the freaking point of the service.  Ah well, even though his service has a horrible website and message, Jack is a right fine fellow.  He and Ann and I just huddled in a corner of Maciej’s lovely mission area sublet and laughed and cooed and had a wonderful time.

I’ve been listening to The Knife, Zeigeist, Lily Allen, and Poni Hoax nonstop lately.  I’m such an indie poseur. 

In 1999 I got a t berd for valentines day from Brad.  I’m not sure what that means.  Or why I’m thinking about that.  Or more importantly, why I’m confessing it on a damn blog.  Feh.  I’m buying myself a vat of foie gras for valentines this year, and scarffing it all by myself.  Damn all boys.

Holy god- John Crowley is on LJ as crowleycrow.  Will the wonders never cease.  giantmoose must be thrilled.

And interimlover's NYE 2007 mix has been making me happy lately.