Furry Drama

No, not "furries" as in the people who dress-up as such.

I'm talking about the four-legged variety.

In the last couple of days I've had two different friends approach me to pet-sit. One friend asked me to crash at their house and watch over their cats while another asked if it would be possible for me to put up her dog.

The crashing-at-someone's-house thing is unattractive on a whole series of levels. The allergy to cats just makes that totally impossible. I'd suck it up, but actually sleeping over at a house permeated with cat-ness would push me over the edge.

I feel worse for my friend with the dog. I was honestly surprised she even asked me (in the roundabout way she did). I guess I'm a little flattered that she even implied she'd trust me with her dog (which is a cute little Shelty-mix).

Alas, not only would my allergies hit me, but my landlord doesn't allow pets in my building. I'd suck up the allergies (in my own apartment I'd have a bit more control over space), but the landlord would be unbending. Given that I'm totally unfamiliar with how to handle dogs, there's a whole host of terrible problems that would arise and unlike the cat-sitting (which would only be a weekend) the dog-sitting would be at least two weeks.

My family obligations (which will kick me squarely in the head during that time of October) would not mix well with dog-sitting.

I guess it's no big thing, but I do hate to let friends down.

Reading Materials

I re-read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss over my week off. The paperback is the perfect size for me to dump in my jacket pocket and the story is engaging enough that I could re-read it a dozen times before I started to get tired.

In all honestly, I was putting off reading "Bloodheir" by Brian Ruckley. I liked "Winterbirth" well enough, but it's a bleak setting Ruckley has and it takes me some time to work up to getting into it. Ruckley also writes as though he's telling a Celtic/Norse saga with these great tribal blood-feuds and the like. It sort of drags at points and makes me crave something a little faster-paced.

With that in mind, I hit the local bookstore yesterday during lunch hour and found a series my friend Charles the Book Pimp recommended: the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

"Mistborn" (the first book) was on some kind of $4.99 special, so I grabbed that and the second book. The first chapter was a fast read, so I suspect I'll enjoy the book. It already reads like something Erik would be into, so I may pass this along to him when I'm done.

Ugh

I don't remember Monday mornings being this difficult to handle.

Of course, I don't normally have my next door neighbor's kid (I assume... I suppose it could have been my neighbor herself) thrashing about in the apartment like (s)he was playing handball.

fsck I have a lot of random email, too.

Gonna be a long day.

Ow

I am experiencing new and interesting forms of pain as I attempt to move about today. For a change, this has nothing to do with the beer I drank last night at my friend Steve's condo warming party.

No, this pain is purely from moving friends to the South Bay.

Lots of furniture. And it was hot. Very hot.

Getting out of bed this morning was physically quite difficult.

In preparation for work tomorrow, I examined my bike and noticed the front tire was flat. I couldn't find the hole, so I decided to pay a shop a few bucks to deal with this for me. I inflated the tire, then rode to the shop.

Just the act of pedaling hurt. And those are not the right muscles to match what I used yesterday for the move.

That ain't right.

I think I'll drive tomorrow, thank you very much.

Ow.

Ow, ow, ow...

Where's my Advil?

Ach du lieber

I just got back from SF. Specifically, I just got back from an Oktoberfest at Schroeder's.

Boots full of beer.

It's beer with sole.

I've beat that pun to death.

Lovely event after the presidential debates. I watched about an hour of Obama and McCain go at it, then I decided I've long ago made up my mind who I'm voting for. Nothing at this point is really going to influence me to change my mind. Time for beer.

Thus... Schroeder's (and the reason I came to the City to begin with).

It was also nice for my inner-voyeur. Lots of good people watching (especially lots of attractive ladies). I'm of course too much of a coward and social retard to think of ways to ice-break and talk to any of said ladies, but I had beer (and pretzels) so I'm fine.

I was a responsible(ish) lad and cut out early. Got to move friends to San Jose tomorrow.

Good times.

A few musings

1) Why is it called "Kirala"? There's no 'L' sound in Japanese!

2) I find it amusing to see people's reactions when one takes a "stay-at-home vacation" (or a "staycation", as they're now called). People give you this odd look and ask "you're not working today?" in a tone that is tinged with suspicion and a little smidge of judgment.

Makes the time-off all the sweeter.

3) I hate when I print up photos (in this case a good sixty or so) and realize too late that I opted for one size too big for my existing photo albums. D'oh!

4) French toast may well be the perfect breakfast food. French toast with a side of crispy bacon (mmm... bacon...), fresh squeezed OJ, and coffee is just heaven.

5) It's taking me longer to recover from hangovers every time I drink.

6) Sake doesn't give me hangovers... so far.

7) We've got about three months left 'till Xmas. No need to panic.

Yet.

Subarashii desu ne!

Okay, I remember a liiiiitttttllle bit of my Japanese. Chotto.

Today has a decided Japanese theme to it. While I pretty much wasted most of the day being a bum (is that truly "wasting" the day? Ask a philosopher...), two events stand out to me:

1) A package from my good friend Megumi arrived. Bless her. Any communication from her is a wonderful gift. Actual gifts are nice too. ;-)

2) Dinner with Vicky at Kirala for tasty sushi, yummy sake, and awesome company. Bonus: homebrew.

Okay, the homebrew isn't Japanese. Still... subarashii desu. In a couple of weeks, I'll taste it and expect to say "oishii desu ne!"

Look it up if you're confused.

In any event, Megumi and Vicky rock (of course).

I've otherwise spent the day watching last night's episode of "Fringe", hitting SF for no constructive purpose, and jogging (to pretend I'm healthy).

Re: "Fringe", I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised that Abrams has hooked me on what is, on the face of it, an "X-Files" ripoff. I certainly enjoy it far better than I liked the season three opener to "Heroes".

Now, to be fair, "Heroes" didn't suck nearly as bad as I expected, based on how awful last season was. That said, it wasn't exactly good. I'm pretty much done with Sylar, half-assed time-travel stories, Claire whining, Peter-being-Peter, and Hiro and Ando being dorky.

They did all this in season one.

The attempted "freshening" of the plot by giving more characters super powers isn't helping. The new villains... okay, that's not bad. The present-Peter a victim of future-Peter pretty much kills any interest I might have out of that storyline, though.

Now, "Fringe"... I don't think that will last even a full season. The characters are intriguing enough. They'll get annoying pretty quickly, though. That's just a given.

Ah well. I can get past that as long as I have tasty sushi and excellent sake in my belly as well as fun packages from Japan.

Good times.