Green Apple Booksis a San Francisco institution. A friend of mine came to visit and - over the course of his five days - managed to visit TWICE! They've got a wonderful selection of new and used books and tons of wit and love for the tongue in cheek...
With all due to respect to the Republicans who were as overjoyed as I was (for different reasons, of course) by Sarah Palin's nomination to the McCain ticket last year, Green Apple is donating 100% of the profits from sales of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life to the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.
For a respectful and professional review of the book, instead of our touchy-feely knee-jerk urban liberalism, see Michiko Kakutani's review in the New York Times.
Kind of reminds me of the folks who, during the 2008 election, donated to Planned Parenthood under Sarah or Bristol Palin's name.
Now if only I could employ similar logic to a real life situations.
I'm not doing a great job with the online dating thing. I'm being completely passive and not even responding with any sort of regularity, which is probably making me come across as a total asshole. Which, sometimes I am... but in this case, I'm just not feeling terribly motivated to email with the randoms - and I'm having a tough time finding a free evening to even go out with anyone. (Which, we all know is actually code for "I'm not that interested," since I would move things around for the right person.) The beauty of the free site - no commitment. I'm going to finish up current conversations, give them my regular contact info if it seems right and be done within the next week.
I'll try to share funny stories with you anyway, since you seem to enjoy them.
Like this one:
Kissing Southern Comfort (this was a few weeks ago and I forgot to tell you)... and I smelled, something unusual... I blurted out, "Do you use self-tanner?"
"Uh, well, yeah, I did today, cuz, you know, I was taking Vicodin earlier this week since I hurt my back, and I looked really pale."
"Ok."
Needless to say, I was not so into kissing him anymore. Yuck!
1. I want someone to deliver Straus organic non fat plain yogurt, cottage cheese, bananas, chicken, celery, veggie burgers and Lara Bars to my door. Also, maybe something for dinner. (Yes, there's take out, but I don't actually want to call anyone, or wait for it. I'm looking for magic elves, or my non-existent mind reading boyfriend. Damn it, Edward Cullen, where are you?)
2. Bike ride today, because I had the day off.
I am blaming the shittasticness that is my riding speed and endurance on my 200 pound 3x deadlift yesterday and not on the fact that it's been about a month since I've gone on a ride.Yeah, I'm out of biking shape. But, damn, am I proud of that deadlift.
On the second half of my ride, I encountered a kid who had a nasty wreck on the Sausalito bike path. Was going to call 911, since his head was bleeding, but enough of us assessed that he was okay - knew his name, was talking, pupils looked normal and he remembered his phone number. So I called his mom to pick him up. It looked like one of his pedal arms seemed to have fallen off his bike. OUCH!!! Poor kid. He was fine - bunch of road rash and bruises, but he also had a cut on his head and his helmet was there... but obviously didn't do the job. I see BMX kids riding around with their helmets unclipped all the fucking time. It's stupid. The helmet's not going to do anything if it's not properly secured to your head. I felt like an asshole, myself, because I stuck around for a little while, but then had to leave him with two other bikers because I didn't have lights on my bike and it was getting dark. And I don't want to tempt the irony gods quite that much.
3. In addition to elves, I'd also like a cleaning person. I am very seriously considering this one. Just 2x a month. I can't imagine it'd be that expensive, since my place is so small. It seems sooo bourgeois... but I really always come up with something better to do than wash my floors.
4. Did you know you have to floss the very back of your last tooth? Even though there's no other tooth next to it to trap anything in there, you're still supposed to run floss along it to help reduce plaque (or tartar?). I went to the dentist on Monday and came away with that fun fact. I'm pretty sure I'd gag myself if I actually had my wisdom teeth and had to floss all the way back there.
5. Oh, and hi blog stalkers! I didn't know I had so many silent readers. Hope I make you laugh sometimes.
6. I hope to see this band on Friday. Pomplamoose. Hilarious cover of Beyonce's Single Ladies. FF to around 1:55 for a little artistic license action.
Or, perhaps you're more into Michael Jackson, complete with xylophone? Oh yes.
From a friend of a friend... (I watched the six finalists and was impressed. They're ~ 1 min each, so you've got time for it. Really.)
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Recently, some friends and I entered a 60 second water conservation video contest with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and we are among the top 6 finalists! The winner will be determined by votes and will be announced at City Hall on December 8th. The winning video will also get some air time on a local TV station.
We need your help! Please take a second to vote. I won't say which one to vote for but ours is called "Shower Your Garden." Also if you could pass this on to your network of friends, that would be greatly appreciated.
By living in San Francisco vs the burbs.
I buy this if you live & work in the city. I'd like to take a look at the data - like, what if you live and work in Pacifica (monthly transportation estimated at $1246). Wouldn't that bring you closer to the Bay Area Burden's San Francisco figure of $792? I don't know. Check it out later on today when that site goes live with a calculator!
Since getting rid of my car, what are my transportation costs? I'm going to shoot for the high side of my potential cost...
Take the bus six times. $12
BART to Berkeley & back, twice. $16
Get two flats, need new tubes. $8
Plus my own time to fix the flats. Estimate 15 min per flat. Say I'm a $60/ hour kinda gal. $30
General bike maintenance, let's call it 30 min. $30
Cab fare. Estimate $10 a trip, three trips. $30
Get a ride from a friend, pay the bridge toll/help with gas. $15
= $141
Sweet.
It'll go up when/if I do ZipCar. A $50/year fee and then whatever trips I take in the ZipCar. And then longer trips where I spend more on gas money, or even renting a car. Let's say $200/month, on average. Still, pretty great. Of course, that does NOT include the $400 I just dropped on a plane ticket to go to Illinois this weekend. Or what I'll spend on my Christmas airfare. Or what I'd have to spend to get a new bike, or the $150-250 I expect to drop on getting my ride set up with some new panniers and rack. Regardless, I'm really friggin lucky to be able to be car free.
We've got a woman who says that first dates should be arranged via phone and a guy who thinks that texting can be appropriate. All in a very cute iPhone text-ish format, for your reading pleasure.
I agree that I like a phone call. It does, as the woman argues, seem to show a bit of courage on the guy's part. They did leave out the making plans via email method, which seems to work well for me. I'm not too much of a phone person, but I am online pretty often.
I definitely blew off a guy that I met this spring who only sent texts. Last minute, hey are you around now?, sort of texts. That definitely didn't work for me and I would always respond that I was busy (which, I probably was, but I'm sure could have made myself free if I really wanted) and finally suggested that he call me, or make plans in advance. And he texted back, asking if it was ok to call me, or when he could call - something like that. Yeah, I never responded to that one.
