Lee.org

I’m well.

Home is nice. Housemates are nice. It seems that every time I get home, I’m offered a beer. The place itself is ‘ok’; not the nicest, not the worst but it’s got a very good location (see next line-item) in The Mission, it’s near stuff, near busses, and near highways :-) And nice housemates go a long way. Rent is a cheap $650/month.

It’s almost always sunny in my neighborhood :-)

I went to a Fire Arts Open House at The Crucible last week. It was way cool. Giant Tesla coils, lots of crazy flaming things including The Hand of God a sculpture that shoots burning gasoline(!!) 200 feet in the air. Gasoline is much more dangerous to use than the usual propane or LNG. When they were getting it ready to fire the thing, all the fire fighters suited up and they pushed the crowd back about 200 feet, yipe!. They also had all manner of beautiful flaming structures… a super-powerful wood stove that shot amazing sparks 30 feet in the air, a propane heated metal sphere that glowed white hot, and other flaming structures. There was flaming Simon Says game: you stood inside a 10′ ring and 4 buttons were positioned around you; flames shot up from each station and you had to push the buttons to mimic Simon’s flames. :-) Favorite concept of the evening was Dance Dance Incineration. Start with Dance Dance Revolution and go from there. The player puts on a shiny silver fire-proof suit with respirator and plays DDI in front of a projection screen TV. When you do well, it shoots timed jets of flame into the air; when you do poorly, it shoots jets of flame IN YOUR FACE! And yes, the video game title bar reads “Dance Dance Incineration” with a cute icon of a dancer on fire.

I took a welding course this weekend.. 10-6 Sat & Sun. It helped to get me going in ARC welding and Oxyfuel cutting but to be honest it wasn’t the best class in the world. I might have done better to just buy an ARC welder, watch some videos and practice in the back yard all weekend.

My part-time job has just about started. I signed the contract but it’s taking a little while to get going. My boss/co-worker was out for a few days with his brand spanking new daughter.

I really like that a couple days ago, I was able to walk out of the house to a good restaurant. I went to Herbivore on Valencia. I’m not veggie but I like trying different foods. Their (veggie) ceviche was excellent! :-)

I still need a bicycle and I’m still thinking about the idea of getting a motorcycle. Still looking…

I bought a used desk from this couple in Palo Alto. It’s an Ikea Jerker computer desk. I liked it so much I went to Ikea and bought an extra shelf for it.

I’m having trouble with the idea of buying food for the house. You see, there is this place down the street that sells gargantuan (and yummy) burritos, including chips and salsa for four bucks. I’m not sure but I think it’s cheaper to eat there than it is to eat at home. And burritos are rich in many vital nutrients!

I’m figuring out the tight parking around here. I got my first parking ticket just a few days after I moved in but I think I’m doing well. I see a lot of cars with boots on them. You get a boot by having 10 unpaid tickets. One of my housemates decided to let the city keep his car when it got towed away; the tickets cost more than the car was worth. Well, since it’s going to take a while to get a CA drivers licence, I got a 6 week visitor parking permit for $30. What is the deal with cities sweeping their residential streets every week? I’m thinking that it’s just a money making venture. When I lived in Jersey City, there was a brand new street that didn’t have cleaning yet; I watched the dirt and garbage pile up for 6 months. I would say that it took 3 months before the street needed to be swept. So of course the city put in 2x per week sweeping. I’m sure the tickets issued paid for the street-Zamboni in no time. I just noticed today that on some of the really steep streets in the area, there is no street sweeping. I’m planning on using that to my advantage now!

I miss Vickie and the kids, Julia, Melis, Noni and Bamph!

My UPS Ground boxes arrived on Friday. It was a pain in the neck to wait around for the UPS guy all day but it’s done. My 2nd day air computer boxes computer arrived too. Some of my stuff was damaged a little. Maybe I’ll follow up with UPS… grrr.

It’s all coming along!