Crawdad Fishin'

I went over to a party at one of Scott and Jen Anderson's relative's place. They had this modest house in Point Loma that had an amazing back yard. It was a big back yard, was terraced, had saunas, and had this huge pond full of koi and crawdads. The owner was in the process of relocating the crawdads to another pond at the school where he teaches. In order to accomplish this we helped him fish for crawdads all afternoon! A bamboo pole, some string, a lead weight, bacon tied to the end of the string, and lots of patience were all that was required. Too bad I didn't bring the camera.

Last minute preparations

I went to Target today to purchase some last minute items for my trip. I've been working on my list of necessities and have checked off all but a few random items. I walked up to the checkout register with my red basket of goodies and the girl simply stared at the items in the basket, then at me, and then started giggling. I had purchased a bag of underwear, insect repellant, and goggles. I looked her straight in the eye and said, "This is all I EVER bring with me when I travel. How about you?"

Botanica Chango

Botanica
Originally uploaded by buckyreed.

There is a Santaria store in North Park called Botanica Chango. It is basically a South American cargo cult that is based on Catholicism. I've stepped into this place a few times and have seen couples and young girls sitting in the waiting area. Presumably they are having their fortunes told or some other rite is being performed. Freaky! I tried to be polite and unobtrusive, but was obviously not welcome when I took a picture.

Cowboy up!

Yesterday as I was walking home from the shuttle I passed two cowboys arm-in-arm. They were fully decked out in painted-on black denim, compensating belt buckles, and even bigger black hats. I chuckled, walked a few hundred feet and saw another similar couple, then another. Then I noticed a HUGE truck parked near my place with a rainbow "Cowboy up!" sticker on it, then another one almost identical. I'm thinking to myself, "This Brokeback Mountain thing is getting WAY out of hand. I'm mean, what's next: Gay wrestlers?". Today I learned that the National Gay Rodeo was being held in San Diego and that the pre-event party was at a bar near my house. These guys were actually for real! Apparently this is causing quite a stir because they decided to have the Gay Rodeo in redneck East County instead of at the Del Mar Racetrack where it has been held for decades. Only in Southern California!

Taste of Hillcrest

Cheryl and Kiel invited me to go with them to the Taste of Uptown/Hillcrest. Here is a slideshow of some pictures that Cheryl took. $25 each got us a ticket and a map to 30 restaurants around Hillcrest. I was puzzled by the "Uptown" portion of the name given that all of the restaurants were in Hillcrest. Online I learned that this was changed recently because "Taste of Hillcrest" scared some people away and offended others. Uptown doesn't actually exist, except as a euphemism for Hillcrest used when businesses want to attract straight yuppies. :)
We only made it to about 18 of the restaurants in 3 hours, but I went back and hit two more after Cheryl and Kiel went home. The biggest shocker to me was the taste of Hash House A Go Go. They are famous for serving obscenely large portions, but their taste consisted of a tiny spoon-sized ketchup cup half full of milky corn chowder. The best taste was at Taste of Thai; They had a full-on mini plate consisting of four yummy entrees.

African Drumming at Claire de Lune's

I went to Claire de Lune's last night with Harrison, Andrew, and Crissy to see an African drumming troupe. They were really good, but I was completely distracted by the fact that the group was mostly made up of 30-something white chicks. Maybe I should take up learning the drum. :)

First evening surf session

I went for my first after-work surf session of the year. I hustled down to Mission Beach after work and surfed for about an hour. The conditions were small but good since there was almost no wind. Since the water temp is still in the 50's I paddled out in Holly's diving suit with the yellow penis on the front. All the dudes in the lineup took one look at that and paddled far away from me. :) I caught two really good rides, fell on two more, and then saw two dolphins swimming north about 30' from where I was in the lineup. After watching them swim away I rode the white in and watched the sunset.

Barbara's After Party (Pic stolen from Micheal Ma)

Barbara's After Party: Pic stolen from Micheal Ma
Originally uploaded by buckyreed.

This is a great shot taken by Micheal Ma of the group that went for coffee/tea after Barbara Lumalu's birthday celebration at Costa Brava. Barbara and her fiance are the lovely couple in the middle...

Dario at Big Joy Family Bakery

Dario
Originally uploaded by buckyreed.

Dario came down from LA and we drove up to Daniele and Aiyun's house to hang out. We stopped by the Big Joy Family Bakery on the way for a pastry (as if Aiyun wasn't going to stuff us like pigs when we arrived). Here is Dario trying to explain to me the intrinsic connection between surfing and yoga. Shortly after this he became distracted by the Italian opera the Korean ladies were playing in the bakery. As for myself, I was distracted by the fluffy, buttery custard croisant poised in the foreground of the picture. Mmmmm, Korean bakeries!

Birthday

Travel Kit
Originally uploaded by buckyreed.

My birthday turned out to be really fun! Cheryl organized a lunch for me and Barbara Lumalu with my coworkers. She also put together this handy travel kit complete with Amodium AD and bug repellant. Very nice!

My friend Janet took me out to dinner to this new Vietnamese restaurant I've been dying to try. The coconut shrimp and pineapple fried rice kicked ass. It was swanky, fusion, and uptown... but they still had pho on the menu! Janet had to go to class at 7:00, so I was left to my own devices. I ended up going downtown to the House of Blues to see Gregory Page play. He and this other act called Berkley and Hart were excellent, but some of the acts were godawful. I laughed my ass off at the socal surfer dudes doing bad alt country with fake southern accents.

It rains in San Diego?

I went to see a Padres game with a friend from WIS after work on Tuesday. The only problem was that it was raining like crazy (by San Diego standards) and the game was cancelled. I've only been to three professional sports events in my life and two of them were rained out. After wandering around the park in the rain we decided to go to the Sod to listen to Irish music. The session was unusual in that it was crowded and that there was a flamenco player on stage. How could I tell he was a flamenco player you ask? Well, he was playing pretty good Irish backup, but he was using a flamenco strumming technique and had a beautiful custom-made nylon string guitar. After the session was over he smoked out some amazingly fast flamenco stuff. It was surreal hearing this back to back with Irish music in an Irish bar. Only in California.

Gregory Page

Angela, an Irish friend of Barbara's, had a house concert Saturday night and was kind enough to invite me. The performer was Gregory Page. I didn't know what to expect but was pleased at how good of a performer he turned out to be. He did the emo singer/songwriter thing but was an excellent musician and a good performer. His lyrics weren't too maudlin, but instead were rather clever and only occasionally sad. It was fun being in someone's livingroom watching a real pro sit on his amp and pour his heart out to 25 strangers.

Thai food for doggies

This past weekend started on Thursday evening due to Cesar Chavez day. My friend Atsumi came over for dinner with her sister Ryoko (visiting from Tokyo). They were all over the dog and literally smothered him with attention. He was a happy pup up until when we started to leave for dinner. When I pulled out the shock collar he pouted and Ryoko started asking questions about it. When Atsumi explained she became very concerned and was quite upset by my barbaric anti-bark doggie torture device. Instead of causing her further anguish I decided to take Rufus with us to dinner! We went to a nearby Thai place where Rufus curled up around Ryoko's feet and mooched spicy chicken off of his benefactor. At that moment he was the luckiest dog in Hillcrest and he damned well knew it. Rufus eagerly awaits her next visit.