Oh.: In the aeroplane

It has been a fabulous couple of days in the Life of Me, despite rain and wind and lots of work.

Friday Mike and I finally hit up Una Pizza Napoletana, which was as good as everyone says it is. We showed up toward the end of the night, were seated almost right away, and wound up with two gorgeous tender (tender! did you know pizza can be tender?) pies in front of us. Mike gets a dreamy look on his face when he talks about them - ask him sometime.

We stopped by a friend's metal show, where I was one of 3 ladies in attendance. One of the bands had a pole dancer performing during their set, and she was completely amazing. My feminism had some weird spasms. Based on the sweatshirt she put on after her show, she's part of the National Poledancing Team. And now you know that exists.

Saturday we went for a hike in Point Reyes, but first stopped at Cowgirl Creamery for fortifications.

Despite our lazy intentions, we wound up getting in an 8 mile loop.

We hit Iron Springs Brewery afterward, a place that I have always ignored at Bay Area beer fests because I don't like their logo. I know that sounds unfair, but when you've got only 3 hours and have 50 breweries to hit, you have to be ruthless. There's a type of microbrewery that is really just a glorified semi-corporate pub with blah beer (cough, Marin Brewing Company, cough), but Iron Springs is legit. And I would know, because I ordered two separate samplers so I could taste em all.

Sunday I kicked my garden's ass. I dragged everything off the patio, cleared all our neighbor's potted veggies off the lawn, and weeded like a mofo. Then I hauled all the pots back and set down an old bookshelf to serve as raised beds. Mike helped, for a little while. He weeded like a temporary mofo. Leaving the backyard in slightly reformed chaos, because that is how I tackle projects, I swept and mopped our entire back porch. At this point in the year, with the rainy season still hovering, the porch smells like mildew with a slight perfume of cat pee. But no longer! It's now spic and span and ready for Mike's birthday party next week. To celebrate, we went to Fly for delicious beverages.

Monday we had delicious greyhounds at Cafe Van Cleef before the Jeff Mangum show at the Fox Theater. The show was absolutely stunning.

Sans drums, sans theramin, with only his guitar and voice and occasional guests on horn, dude totally did justice to Neutral Milk Hotel. You'd expect that from Mr. Neutral Milk Hotel, but I didn't realize until I was at the show how completely affecting it would be to hear live an album that has been a part of some of my most important moments for the last 7 years. The first time I heard In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was in Katie's farm van, on the road between Arcata and Eureka, when I was just out of college and new to California. We were heading from one market to another, Hilary put the CD on, and I thought it was complete shit. What was wrong with the singer's voice? Now both Katie and Hilary have babies, I haven't been up to Humboldt in years, and Jeff Mangum has the voice I most like to hear. Sigh.

So, you know, that was pretty rad, singing along with thousands of people in a beautiful space to music that hasn't been heard live in a decade but that so many people have taken to heart. It really blew me away.

Then we went to Molotov's and a dog was sitting on a stool at the bar. Amazing! The end.