See Mikey on a boat

Mike's blogging from a boat! Sorry, a ship. The Esperanza, to be exact. You can keep track of him

• on his personal blog, Look at the Wee Beasties
• on his work blog
• or on the official Esperanza ship tour blog.

My favorite dispatch so far is this photo of Mike with a shit-eating grin, a helicopter casually perched in the background. No biggie.

Banned books

Trying to ban a book pretty much means you're telling everyone that book is awesome, so I'm baffled as to why people keep trying to ban books. But they do.

Check out some of the big bad books here.

Next June, ladies

Miss Manners on her 50th Wellesley reunion. Almost time for our 5 year, holy crap.

This weekend

I am starting off this weekend with margaritas in the Mission. Oh yes, oh yes I am. Then I am going to Tour de Fat in Golden Gate Park tomorrow (bikes and beer! bikes and beer!).

And on Sunday, oh my lordy on Sunday: there is an apple pie contest at the Divis Farmer's Market. I am sooooo going to hover for samples.

I'm ok, guys

I am, really. Thus far this week I have

• cuddled with my cat, who is still pissed that I am not Mike
• let my apartment get really messy
• gone to two spin classes
• flown to LA for the day

Also, in what I acknowledge to be an overshare, I peed on a stick because I felt weird and bloated. And you know what? I'm not pregnant, I'm just straight-up bloated. And weird. The sad thing is, it was a lose-lose: either holy shnikeys I'm pregnant, or else I suddenly have a gut that I hadn't noticed before. Cheers to the latter!

But I did get to go to LA yesterday, and that was pretty cool. I had a good publisher meeting, and I got to see Lianna, who is all MBA'd up in that shit down there. She needed to shop for an 80's party (sponsored by her school - is that really what grad school is about? recreations of middle school dances?) so we went to American Apparel. Because that is what American Apparel has become: a costume shop for all but the most unfortunate of the hipsterati. Oh, and 13 year old girls and boys. And me, apparently, because I bought two skirts, though I went easy on the spandex.

(Side story: Mike was very disturbed by the amount of spandex worn by the pasty and often doughy Irish men and women during our trip. Occasionally it would get to be too much for him and he would shout, "People of Ireland! Please! I beg you! Look in the mirror before you leave the house!" Then he would grumble about whatever particular kind of spandexicated unfortunateness that individual was embracing - metallics, dots, plaid, etc.)

LA was actually quite lovely (though the traffic blew), and I had a nice dinner by myself on a pier in Long Beach. One irritant associated with eating alone: the waitstaff either doesn't make eye contact with you, or they are really really nice. Four different servers asked if I wanted more beer when my glass was empty. Since I doubt that I had somehow landed on the magic table that was in every one of their sections, I guess they were assuming that I must be drinking heavily because I was forsaken.

But not too shabby, right?

Information is beautiful

Seriously. Check out the Billion Dollar Gram, which visualizes how much money is (or could be) spent on various things - the Iraq War vs Walmart revenues vs the Global pharmaceutical market.

Via Information is Beautiful.

Boo

Mike is gone, and I am blue. After dropping him off at the airport last night, I stopped at McDonald's and got a McFlurry, because gnarly chemical-filled junk food seems like it is the right response to impending loneliness. I got it not because I was so sad, but because I anticipated being sad. After half a McFlurry I started to feel sick, and my premonition came true. It was a real low point.

And now I have all this TIME! We spent the weekend running errands and seeing people before Mike headed off, and now I am in a weird state in between the craziness of getting him ready and the craziness I intend to indulge in while he is gone. I have a feeling that tonight I will go home, do a yoga routine from YouTube, watch some Hulu, and nurture the introverterted part of me that has been locked in my creepy Austrian basement dungeon for many years.

Or I might just beg people to hang out with me.

I totally know models

Look, it's Alia!

Now if only I had kept the issue of the Advocate from when my friend was featured on the subscription cards. Because that is just the best gayest thing ever.

I feel like ASS

That is all.

Repeal DOMA

The Defense of Marriage Act blows. Help repeal it here.

The New York Times needs to not do this to me

Heart attack.

I keep forgetting Obama is a lefty

Here's a cool video on the 10 letters that Obama reads every day.

Hell yeah we are

San Francisco is Named One of the "World's Happiest Cities"

Separation anxiety transmogrified into fun

Mike is in Austin this weekend and then starting the 20th he is gone for a whole month, sailing the South Pacific. I have made a list of the many things I will do while he is gone, so that I stay busy and don't wind up drinking wine alone in my pajamas all the time.

Many of these things are embarassingly girly, and I blame them on my addiction to Groupon.com (I have already booked both a cheapo facial and a manicure/pedicure) and on needing to squeeze these things in while not having a dude around.

• Ambiance is having a sale, and there are things that I need. Just NEED, ok?
• The Brewer's Guild is having a boating and beer-ing event this weekend, and I want to go.
• Also, Power to the Peaceful is on Saturday in the park. It looks...hippie.
• SFMoma and the DeYoung both have exhibitions I want to see,
• and I haven't been to the Cal Academy yet.
• Maia is here now
• and Leslie is visiting in the middle October.
• My dad is visiting in the beginning of October, and we're going out to Katie and Larry's farm.
• And to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, of course.
• Tour de Fat is on the 26th,
• which is also the day of the Sierra Tahoe Century ride, for which I have paid two entry fees already.
• I kind of want to see The September Issue. I go to the movies only a few times a year, and I can't explain why this is something I feel motivated to watch. But I do.
• Tour the Anchor Brewery.
• Eat at Bar Crudo, which opened on Divis a few months ago and looks to be all seafood deliciousness.
• Get the roast chicken at Zuni Cafe, because people rave and rave about it.
• Try kitesurfing. Or hang-gliding. Something exciting but overpriced.
• Take some yoga classes. I'm going to assume I've stopped growing now, and it is safe to once again aim for some flexibility. (The story behind this has to do with freakishly tall adolescent me and a mean gymnastics instructor, and is not really worth telling unless you are really good at expressing sympathy while being bored.)

So, ready, set, go!

Galway Girl

We heard a ton of music while we were in Ireland - everywhere we went there was live music, much of it traditional Irish tunes. The one song we listened to the most was Galway Girl, and it became the soundtrack of our trip.

Our best Galway Girl moment came at about 3:30 in the morning at my great aunt's house. My cousin had thrown a party in our honor, and he was in the living room with the glass doors shut, falling asleep over a glass of whiskey with some of his farmer friends. We opened the doors, put on Galway Girl, and he instantly woke up and started doing this:

Aside from the fact that I am unfortunate, I don't know that I've seen anything better.