Giants vs dodgers

Giants

D d n m

house hunting

after several weekends house hunting in sf, i think i'm ready to start getting serious about it. gotta start with my finances. get myself pre-approved for some loans then get my ass out there lookin at some more homes. fortunately, my parents said they could help me out with my down, but i still have plenty i need to come up with. hopefully, within the next couple months, my stock will come up so that i can cash in. i was doing well about a month ago before it all came crashing down. shoulda sold when i had the chance. i'll give it another couple months though. i'm pretty sure it'll come back up again. if it comes back up to 60, i'll sell em all and use it for my down.

one of the variables i need to eliminate to simplify the process is the vagueness around the TIC option with D&D. I really need to sit down with them and see what they're looking for and when they'll be ready to buy. i've seen several 2 unit tic's that i'd be interested in moving forward with, but it's all moot unless dnd actually get to see it too.

another variable is my credit history. did an online fico report and scored average. at 725. my car loan from b of a really screwed me. my payments were set to auto-deduct from my checking on a monthly basis, but for some reason the final payment did not go through automatically. so for almost a year after i had thought my car was completely paid off, it was actually still open. b of a marked my credit history with 30/60/90 day delinquencies and sent a collections agency after me. unfortunately i had moved home addresses and none of the correspondence had found me. eventually all this caught up to me and i called bofa to plead my case and clear my record. they said that they would. but i don't think they actually ever did. now i have a pretty nasty blemish on my history and i'm anticipating a bitch of a time getting it back to a clean state. will have to clear that up before applying for any loans.

Mission sunset

Mission sunset2

B2b 05

Bad robbie

Da end

B2b 05

Bison

Naked people

Under bridge

Baloons

Me n chris

Team russia

Globetrotters

Bonfante gardens

Mika n duck

Family

Crazy tree

bay to breakers broke me

got up at 7 and got ready. headed over to chris's, then over to the j church line. grabbed coffee and a crepe on the way. took 71 up haight and to baker. met up with Rob, Allie, Sarah, Mark Lee and Sai. two kegs and a team of friends. ran into kenna, alex, rachel, joe and a few others through the course of the day.

when we got to the park a large gathering, maybe 100 or so had formed around a couple who were wrestling. i was packing my yellow mexican wrestler mask and thought to myself, "i have to step into the ring". the match ended with a 3 count pin. Someone with a bullhorn started yelling into the crowd. I heard, "who wants to step into the ring". So I stepped in and put my mask on and ran straight for him, pushing him into the crowd. Next he starts calling for the "hulkster" to come in. Some scrawny dude in a torn t shirt starts waving his arms around. I run up and start pushing him around. I think they were getting pretty annoyed at this point. i kept at it, pushing and shoving until the crowd gets into it. guy on the bullhorn calls out for the 2nd wrestler, "the proctologist". he's some dude in a costume with a bunch of blown up latex gloves taped to himself. apparently, this was a set match that i had busted into. the hulk was supposed to go toe-to-toe with the proctologist, but with my breaking into their plans, and getting the crowd behind me, one of them was forced to fight me. hulk wussed out and it was me facing the proctologist. guy on the bullhorn labels me as "random dude".

"And it's random dude vs. the proctologist!" is the last thing i hear. the round starts and i'm all over this guy. pushing him around trying to throw him into the crowd. then i go for the legs and we tussle around for a good minute or two. we''re both on the ground and before i realize what's happening i feel a tickling sensation in my butt. this guy's trying to get medical on my ass. hence the name. before he manages to get his first knuckle in, i flip him over on his back and drop a couple elbows into his helmet. it was all over pretty quick.

I get back up, dust myself off and run over to my fans.
the rest of the day was pretty fun. we ended up at the beach with 2 empty kegs and some seriously inebriated teammates.

oh, one other pretty funny story. so this guy was standing in front of his friends with his pants down. his back was to me. some inner-child urge got the best of me. i ran up and grabbed a hold of his boxers and in one quick jerk brought them straight down to his ankles. it was pretty funny. as i walked away i turned back to see him standing in shock with his friends pointing and laughing at him. made sure my pantstrings were tied up tight before moving on.

Mika

Flower

Me n mom

Jaja n mika

Alan stuck in maze

Diplo

Lets go 2 brents

Lastcall

Mia

Mia

Tgif

Madden 06 crash

Intramuror

Intqamuros

Aic opening

Karzy Kayak Adventure Part2

The next morning at around 6 am i woke up with my head feeling like a cement truck had driven over it and then backed up and finished the job. Mr Daniels was not too kind to this cowboy last night. i painfully rolled over onto my side and into a huge puddle of rainwater that had collected beside me. My tent rain cover had been yanked off over night since it was tied onto the tarp and the overnight downpour had leaked into my tent... geez, what a great start to my mother's day.

I chugged a half liter from my waterbottle, hit my mental snooze bar, scooted away from the puddle and passed out for another 2 hours. i woke to the sound of rain and wished it the hell away. it turned a deaf ear to my request and kept on coming down. got into some drier clothes and stepped out into the rain. scanned the horizon hoping for a glimpse of a blue break in the clouds. no such luck. howie and amit were up. somehow amit dodged the cement truck that howie and i hadn't. bastard.

i had a bad feeling about this day. we had about 4 hours to get back starting right then. we decided the best course of action was to get the fort back up. we had to reinforce it against the wind and make some adjustments to the profile to get it to stay up. looking around the camp it looked like the 3 of us had passed out leaving everything out. the cooler was open and exposed to the rain, cigarettes were soaked. plates and bags lay about in the sand. we found the stove and pan, gave it a quick rinse in the bay to get the steak crud off, then heated some water for the first course of breakfast. oatmeal. 2nd course was a hodge-podge of what was left in the cooler... cajun salami, cheese and a few sausages. after having our fill, we sat around in peace, trying to shake our hangovers while at the same time mentally preparing ourselves for the pack job.

feelin a little antsy to get on with things, i hurried to pack my shit together. managed to get my shit all squared and into the canoe by 9:45. then sat down and told the guys we had to get a move on. i had a feeling that the way back would be a lot longer than the way here. howie and amit packed up pretty quick and we were back in the water by 10:15.

by 10:45 we were halfway across the bay. the first half hour wasn't too bad, a little wavy and wet, but we were in good spirits. we would probably make it back by noon if we kept it going at that rate. the wind kicked it up a notch or two as we continued east trying to make it across the bay to shallower and calmer water. the current beneath us took hold of our rudder as we slowly zigzag-turned our way further north. slowly and surely, with every passing minute we began to lose focus. we took breaks every so often as the wind pushed us back. the wind kicked up some more and soon enough we were facing strong winds going straight against us, sending wave after wave our way. the cold ocean water, the wind, the rain, and the exhaustion began to take over us as we finally made it to the other side. we were forced to shore up for a break and to empty our kayaks of water weight. We had gotten all the way across the bay and it was about 11:15. There was little chance that we would get back to the rental place by noon. It had taken us an hour to get to where we were and we were only 1/3 of the way.

Howie had it the worst I think. He was in his kayak on his own. at least when amit or i took a break, the other could keep going to keep us from losing too much ground. if howie took a break, from paddling he had no backup to stay put. i remember watching him from a few hundred feet back and seeing his arms flail around with the paddle... looked like his arms were turning into jello.

I had it pretty bad too though. halfway across the bay, i started getting sea sick from the kayak rocking up and down. i had to fight the urge to hurl every time i stopped rowning and took a break. I don't know how bad amit was, I didn't hear him whine or moan or cuss nearly as much as i did.

after our break, we got back in and did our best to keep going. we looked ahead at a white house about a mile away on the shore and set that as our next goal. we thought the kayak place must be right around on the other side of that house. the wind kicked up ANOTHER couple notches to add to the challenge. after another 45 minutes or pure hussle later we were almost there. the last mile against the storm had taken a lot out of me though. i was soaked to the bone, and the wind was hitting me like needles. my body was shivering, my guts were twisted up in knots, and my head was spinning. we positioned ourselved past the house and noticed that the kayak place wasn't just around the corner, it was yet another 1/2 mile to go. the wind howled around us as the rain kept coming down, now heavier than ever.

That was my breaking point. It was 12:30. We were already past the deadline. There was no point in trying to rush back to get the kayaks back. Now was about survival. We needed to get out of these kayaks, get back onto land, and get some help. I was through and I think the guys agreed. We paddled over to shore and pulled the kayaks up. Getting out of the kayak, i realized I was completely drenched head to toe. All 3 of use were, and we were shivering. there was nowhere nearby to get shelter. All we saw around us was the large white house a few hundred feet away, some signs saying no trespassing, and a short field of icicle plants, leading up to some private property dwellings. we grabbed the tarp off a kayak and wrapped it around the three of us like 3 oysters in a single shell. we stayed huddled there until the shivering stopped. we discussed our options for what to do next.

1) we stop being pussies, get back into the canoes and power through to the end
2) we pitch a tent and get in it and wait the storm out
3) one of us hikes up to find the road then hikes over to the kayak place and gets someone to come pick up the canoes
4) we go to the private properties and find someone to give us a phone to call the kayak place with.

as much as i'd like to saw we chose number 1, we didn't. and in the end i'm glad we didn't. who knows what would have happened had we tried that. i'm pretty sure it would not have ended well though.

We went with 4 and hiked over the icicle plants and a few hundred yards further we found ourselves knocking on the front door of someone's porch. The door opened and we were greeted by an older man wearing purple pants and an orange "the doors" shirt. I started with,

"H-h-h--i. Sorry to bb-b-other you. We-W-ww--we were out kayaking, trying t-t-o make it back to the rental p-p-place. but we didn't make it. Do you mm-m-ind if we borrow your phone to c-c-c-all them?"

Howie called and explained our situation to the kayak guys. They explained that they had been looking for us for a while. Of the handful of overnighters, only one kayak of 10 had actually made it back.. The rest were picked up by boat through the morning. We were the last ones still not accounted for. That's cuz we were hardcore and gave up last :)

The purple pants guy's name was John. He was really nice. He gave us the phone with a phone number to use, some coffee to warm us up, and helped us give directions to the kayak guys on where to come pick us up. He would have invited us in, but we were all drenched and a mess, and he had guests over for mother's day. He said we could wait for the kayak guys at the bird library (the white building we had used as a landmark earlier). The private property we had landed on was some kind of bird sanctuary. John had lived there for the past 18 years doing some kind of research. What a job, he gets paid by the gov't to live in tomales bay and study birds. We headed back to the kayaks and pulled them further up shore, then headed to the library. we couldn't find an entrance, so we climbed in through an open window, making a bit of a mess inside. It felt good to be indoors. Just as we were settling in, the kayak guys arrived. We emptied the kayaks of our gear and got into some dry clothes. Amit drove back with one of the kayak guys and picked up his car. We were all dried up and back at the kayak place by 1:45. We thanked the guys for helping us out and the three of us headed down the road over to the Marshall store for some bbq oysters, clam chowder, and beer. That was probably one of the best meals i've ever had.

The end.

Krazy kayak adventure part 1

Saturday morning, Howie, Amit and I departed for a wild winlderness adventure in tomales bay. We grabbed some coffee in the morning and headed out to pick up our kayaks from Blue Water Kayaks in Marshall. Having only been kayaking once before, Amit and I split a 2 man kayak with howie rockin a single. we packed tents, cooking equipment, a cooler full of food and beers, and a bottle of JD. the weather was beautiful on saturday as we hit the water lookin forward to an adventure ahead.

Took us about an hour to cross the bay. the wind was blowin us back and bit and we took our time gettin familiar with the controls of the kayak. how to paddle effectively in unison and how to steer the rudder. checked out a couple beaches before we decided on a perfect strip of sand to call our very own. there were a few other overnighters who had taken some of the beaches closer to the rental place, we waited until we happened upon one that all 3 of us were happy with, just about half a mile south of hog island on the western side of the bay. after unpacking and settling into our new digs, we commemorated our new home with a few beers, some cajun salami and some dubliner cheese. we chilled through the heat until about 4 when we headed back out to explore further north. there was an incredible amount of wildlife around us. seals would pop their heads up from under the water every once in a while. one of us would spot one out, call "seal!" and point in the direction of it. 9 times outta ten, it was a duck with it's head in the water, or a buoy, or a rock. but i gather altogether that we must have seen about 4 or 5 through the course of the day.

At first we headed north towards some white cliffs on the horizon. when we realized how far that was, we decided to check out hog island first. we were told that we could beach onto the western side, so we paddled up and got off to explore it. hog island was about i'd say an acre. there was a small beach that looked like it was underwater at high tide. most of the island was covered by some dead trees. we hiked up to where the trees broke and heard this totally insane and menacing noise coming from above. we looked up to see the tops of the trees were filled with nests, and that in each was a large dark bird that we later found out were cormarants.
when we approached the nesting area, they called out to scare us off. the sound was the weirdest sound i ever heard coming from an avian species... you know the sound that your vocal chords make after a bender? when they're all dried up from the smoking and dehydration? when each vibration comes out as a small cracking noise? well, imagine that sound 20 times louder and 10 times slower and you get the idea of what these things sounded like. we stepped away from the nests and back onto the beach and scanned the treetops to discover even more birds had flown in since we beached. altogether i'd say there were over a dozen large bird species there. from turkey vultures, to ducks, to blue herons, and beyond. it was really cool.

we hopped back into our kayaks and continued on towards the white cliffs that we were heaqed to earlier. the cliffs were eroded from the water and kind of resembled limestone, except not as porous. at the highest point, i'd say they were maybe 50 feet. i posited that they were maybe granite, but what the hell do i know about rocks? the water had created interesting patterns and formations into the stone. in some parts, deep moss had grown over the stone and completely carpeted it in a layer of grass. but here and there the smooth face of the rock would peep through. a lot of the moss covering the stones was a bright greenish. but some stone was covered in a bright orange algae/moss that we wondered about. did the moss turn orange due to some minerals and metals that were sucked up from the stone? below the tideline the rock had formed some underhangs,and i noticed there were tunnels that formed through years of erosion. one of the tunnels was deep and high enough to walk into. amit and i got a little closer and i jumped out to explore it.. didn't get too far before realizing there wasn't much in there. and that i was too chicken shit to get too deep :)

further past the cliffs was a deep cove that opened up into a green hillside. we saw some tule elk grazing on the grass and sat quietly as we watched them skitter away. next we decided to head back to the campsite and found some more interesting discoveries on the way. howie had noticed that under the water line, there were a ton of starfish clinging to the rocks. bright orang, deep purplish-brown, and some bright yellow. all of them had little white specs covering their bodies. they were everywhere along the rock, some of them above, but most of them below water. we saw more of the bright orange colored stones. as we proceeded south we noticed some large driftwood sitting on the rocks. getting closer, we discovered that it wasn't actually driftwood, but he remains of some large animal. at first we thought maybe it was some kind of elk, but then realized it was much bigger than that. maybe a cow or a buffalo or something we thought next. then as we got closer, we realized that what we were looking at was the vertebral column of something larger. the individual vertebrae were about a foot wide, and what we recognized as ribs seemed to be as long as 3 feet. what we thought we recognized as washed away skull was actually a pelvis that was maybe a yard wide, with the long horn looking things coming out of it that were actually leg bones. here's a link to a picture of what we saw. whale skeleton. we noticed that there was actually some fleshy blubber still attached to one area of the bones. there were flies buzzing around it... yuck.

After our trip, after doing some research online, i concluded that what we originally though was a skull and then thought was a pelvis, actually WAS a skull.

I scolded myself for not bringing my camera with me and amit and i decided to come back early the next morning with a camera to capture the whale on film.

We got back to camp at about 6 and chilled for a bit before deciding to try to hike up the hills, west towards the ocean. We huffed it up the hill for close to 40 minutes before realizing we had a much longer way to go before reaching the peak. the view from where we were was spectacular. we must have climbed up a good 300 feet in altitude. we could see the entire bay and beyond from there. we sat and chilled in a cypha before heading back down to camp for dinner.

as we busted out the kitchen equipment, we started to feel some drops of rain. we put together a makeshift fort from some tent rope, the paddles, and a brown tarp to cover us while we cooked. amit fired up howies brand new camping stove and i panfried several ribeyes and warmed up some grilled zucchini for dinner. after dinner we broke out the jd and got down to the heavy drinking. don't really remember too much after that. at one point i recall totally baffling the two of them with the 3 red hat riddle. i think we must have passed out at about midnight.

i'll tell the 2nd half of the story later.
it gets better.

Coachella pt3

i find myself scavenging the perimeter fencelines in my hopeless attempt to recover some shred of evidence, a clue to my lost bag. nothing.. just empty garbage bags and pretzel boxes. a blue beam of light catches my eye as i bend down to pick up a lost cellphone. i flip it open, check the last outgoing entry and hit call.... brrriiing .... brrring. a voice on the other end.

"hello"

"hi, i think your friend lost their phone, i found it and am calling from it"

the connection drops.

i call again

"hello"

"hey, i have your friends phone, let's meet ssomewhere so i can give it to you"

i'm compelled to karmically retrieve my lost bag with this gesture of do-gooding. spent the next half hour trying to meet the phone's owner's friend. we finally connect and 'fabrizio' tells me that his friend is a pretzel vendor who's been looking for his phone for the past couple hours. we spend another half hour locating his friend in the vendor area... he zips by on an empty golfcart and we make the exchange. after a brief exchange of gratitude, i ask him for a lift back to the front entrance.

"Sorry man, I'm really busy, i got a lot of shit to take care of"

In my head, i'm holding a blunt object and bludgeoning this ungrateful prick to submission. He picks up some aural cue from me and reconsiders.

"get on back, i'll take you"

fucker drops me off as at the front gate. i wave 'later' and wonder how people get to become such assholes. is most of the world a bunch of assholes? Or is it just in palm springs?

I rendezvous with the posse back at Julia's car in parking lot 5. we wait around for an hour for shannon, who's managed to lose the location of her car. ish's stuff is in her trunk so we wait some more since we're there anyway.

the next day, i wake in the hopes of being able to cajole ticketmaster into issuing another ticket for me... this should be a breeze, i think. of course, as my luck would have it, ticketmaster has a policy where once tickets are issued at will-call they cannot reissue them. they tell me that i'm at the mercy of the event management staff. great. how am i gonna convince the box office that i lost my ticket inside the venue last night and that i need to get another one issued?... we leave for the 2nd day of the festival as i begin to swallow the idea of having to pony up another 80 bucks for my 2nd days worth of fun.

geez, this story is much shorter when i tell it.
i'm just gonna wrap this up now.
so basically, we get to the box office outside of the gates and i explain my situation. of course nobody in the event staff knows how to help me, they're all just volunteers. i ask how i can get to the lost and found so i can check to see if my stolen bag is there along with my stolen ticket. but nobody knows where the lost and found is, so i'm sol. chris and i run into another victim of theft from the previous night. she's with 3 palm springs policemen who are assisting her in finding the lost and found. they'd been with her all morning in the hopeless attempt to try to get some clear answers from members of the staff. we share stories and part ways. as they walk away, i hear the girl ask the cops if they can get her back in through the gate (as there are no in's and outs).
...
seconds pass as the flashbulb triggers in my head
... i chase after the cops and throw this out there, "would you guys mind getting me in as well?"

"sure, where's your friend?"

and that was it, i get in with the help of these friendly cops who recognize the fact that there are people getting screwed here and were gracious enough to cut me a break. thanks mr. policemen.

and that, my friends, is what i call karma.

Coachella 2005 pt 2

so where was i?...

yes, so after the mental recap of my lost belongnings, the stress that goes hand in h and with being robbed started to die down. we headed our way towards the exit as i scanned the lawn for my green backpack. halfway there i was hit with another "FAAAAAWK" when i realized that my 2nd day pass to the festival was stashed in the top flap pocket of my bag.

"FAAAWWWWK" once again. not only was i out on my precious belongings, but i was also out on my 80 dollar entrance to tomorrows festivities. ok, think, think, think ,,, how the fuck are you going to get back in tomorrow? how are you going to convince ticketmaster to reissue a ticket that you've alredy claimed as lost and that has already been reissued less than 24 hours ago?

Ok, too tired to finish this chapter... after a night of boozin' i'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to finish this story.

late

coachella 2005

Got back last night from a fantastic trip to the coachella music festival down in indio. Ish, Chris, Brent, Julia and myself braved the beautiful 85 degree sunny weather to hear some of today's hottest up and coming rock bands along with some old school bands that somehow have managed to keep rockin even till now.
Hilites included chemical bros, M.i.a., the faint, the arcade fire. Also managed to hear miss kittin, sage francis, blackstar, and a bunch of others.

peep my coachella pics on my flickr site here.

lottsa crazy stories from the weekend...

Crazy story #1: my poor lost back pack
So ish, chris and i left friday after a morning's worth of work. I took the extra 5 minutes ontop of the usual 15 minute pack job to make sure I brought everything needed for our weekend adventure. 1 extra pair of socks, check, one extra pair of unmentionables, check, one pair of shorts, 1 hoody, 2 longsleeves, toiletries, shades, party favors, check, check, check.

the next morning as we were preparing to leave brent's parent's place in san marino, b half-joking asks, "everyone got your tickets?"
"FAAAAAWWWWWWWK!!!" I dropped to the ground into a helpless heap of humiliation. 360 miles away from my tickets that were pinned to my bulletin board that I had failed to check before I left.... boo
Shannon said I should call ticketmaster to try and get new tickets issued. Yeah right, i thought, like those effin nazis are gonne cut me a break. surprisingly enough, they did and minutes later we were on our way to palm springs headed towards a rendezvous with my reissued tix at willcall. sweet.

so that's enough back story on this one.
saturday night after rockin my ass off to the chem bros, i started lookin for chris whom I had given my bag to to look after for a while. i was wearin it for most of the day and since half the bag was full of his shit, it was only fair to do a mid-evening trade. so i see brent, julia and ish after the crowd starts thinning and say, 'you guys seen chris?' ... nope.. i wait around for a few and see chris walk through the crowd towards us. i notice that his shoulders seem a little bear... for some reason they don't seem to be covered by my backpack straps... hmm...

'hey chris, where's my backpack?'

'ummm, brent's got it'

'no dude, you had it'

'oh,,, shit'

'yeah'

'let's check next to the fence outside'...

need i continue?
so after looking around for a bit we realized my bag was long gone. i took a mental recap of the contents and decided not to trip. i had my phone and wallet on me, so i wasn't totally screwed. the only things that were in there were: my pingpong boy t-shirt, my laundry hoody (both of which i love), my phone charger, my earplugs, my earbud headset,,, and my Valentino and gucci sunglasses! (ouch!). All of which were replacable. some motherfucker out there is going to be stylin tho... bastardo.

it's gettin late... i'll try to finish the rest of the story tomorrow.
stay tuned