With coming fires and Fallen Soldiers

I have cried a lot since the 15th. There have been a few close-to-home hits over the past few days...

For starters, the Southern California Wildfires. I have a lot of friends and family members who were in harms way during the uncontrolled periods these fires were raging. It completely reminds us that we are NOT in control of everything in our lives, no matter what we think. It doesn't matter how much money you have, you can still have your ass handed to you by Mother Nature. It's a sad, unfortunate state... and tons of families are now going to have to deal with the unbearable process of rebuilding. Good luck to them, and anybody that can spare anything at all should donate to the cause...

The smoke from the fires spanned hundreds of miles..casting a morbid smog on everything, creating perpetual mid-light, suspending solar-induced good moods into an uncertain fog of depression.

This is about a block from my friend Tia's home, in Lone Pine, CA. I lived there for 2 years, from 1999-2001, graduating HS. It's a town with roughly 2,000 people in it. My class was about 25.
On October 18, a friend from that time and town, Wayne Geiger, was killed in Iraq. He was the first deployed Military personnel from either Inyo or Mono county to die during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The first since the war started 6 years ago.
There is so much to be said about Wayne. We were relatively close in High School. He was a very close friend to a very close friend of mine, and also my younger sister. We are both hard headed and did not get along at times, but such is growing up. I loved who he was.
He will be missed. Thank you for everything Wayne...


nothing else matters right now. Call your friends and family and tell them how much you love and appreciate them.

"robots are not to be trusted"

Today I am home. Today I feel shitty. The weather is cloudy and cold...I like that...I just wish I could enjoy it without feeling flu-ish.
There has been a lot of random stuff going on lately...some of which I will gladly show you now!
How'd you like to be the guy in this shower stall in the sky?


this baby is intense


My mom found this bit of Breanna-childhood-memorabilia. Note that one of my favorite things at the time was "Sizzler"


winning scrabble game du jour 365 to 2something. go me!


Homemade spaghetti squash vegan pizza. your mouth is watering.


a gigantic Bouvier de Flandres

roosters roosters!!



We went to the home opener for the Sharks the other night...they lost.. boo.



As you can see...we were bummed


I hope these guys know satan has emblazoned himself upon their vehicle muuahahahaha

dark pictures and dark lives

So a week ago I drove up to the city to visit Nicole. She moved up to the Mission to live with the hipsters and Mexicans and work at being the best damn Lab Manager a girl can be. Jealous? Who, me?
KTF hopped a Bart and joined us in an excursion through the streets of the city, looking for a certain bar called The Gestalt Haus (It literally means "shape house") which is one of the apparent up-and-coming biker bars in the city. It was replete with a double decker bike rack inside the front door across from the pool table. A full bar of German Oktoberfest beer awaited us and holy god there was TWO vegan versions of German sausages. Now granted I am not one for sausages at all...but I had to try one and it was yummy. There were lots of dudes with one pant leg rolled up and dead animals on the walls too...




I went to the little girls room and found some art that looked as if it had come from Krink himself



We had a good time with our candy necklaces from the tender of bar. then it was off to the Bart and KTF and Nickel had to do their goodbyes


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A few night later Barrett and I had a date with Earthless in Oakland at like 11pm so we decided to head back to Gestalt to sample more vegan delights and liter beers

We then went across the Bay Bridge to this Gallery/Venue/Flop House to see Earthless play. We were first met by the impossible parking of Oakland city streets, driving around for a few laps before parking. Then greeted by fucking "guard" dogs. Two pit bulls guarding a car lot. I think one was pretty friendly. The other was more unsure. They were both very interested and wagging tails furiously...but as we know...that's not necessarily a happy sign, just a reaction. Such a misuse, it really made me furious. I took a couple pics, but as the night would prove to be, it was all too dark for them to show up. The inside of the "club" was odd. Art, multiple rooms, bathrooms with no tp, people dancing to old music, a small bar serving about 5 different things. Then we walked upstairs and into the wall of noise. I'm not sure how we did not hear this all from downstairs, but the venue room was damn loud. We couldn't even converse.

Earthless proved to be really good...but I was so tired we had to drive back...more for next time!

lifeblood in a glass pitcher and a guitar

WHOA I have been slacking! There's been a lot going on for sure. Here are some mandatory puppy pictures:


Bryant and Lillian



The sweetest little blue slate colored chi puppy. It was sleeping on my shoulder.

Poe likes to sit on the computer monitor and kind of "supervise" things.

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Hunter came up to visit for a couple days last week. There is little work in Temecula if you're a sane, so we're trying to get him interested in the Bay Area. We spent time in the city, hangin out in San Jose downtown and over in Santa Cruz. He and Barrett probably spent the majority of the days over at the skatepark, but hey, I hear its awesome if you're into that.
Here are some *also* mandatory Zeitgeist pics

Travel Scrabble can sometimes hurt your brain, as Hunter is so perfectly demonstrating



the walls are scuzzy, graffitti'd, comfy.



oh no...what to do, what to do?



The red truck in the corner has asked you nicely.



everyone loves the Tamale Lady.....mmm bean and potato..damn this bar is great.

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I also said I'd post a picture of this for Nicole.
"The little shot glasses look like soldiers lining up for battle....look!"

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The following day Nicole, Barrett, Hunter and I went over to Santa Cruz. We had burritos at Planet Fresh with their buddy Mike from T town. Smoked Tofu...mmmmm.
The boys went off to sip pbr and pass some certain things from the left hand side. Apparently there was a late night bike ride, some bum sightings, and a gopher/cat fight.
Nicole and I had tickets for the Matt & Kim and Against Me! show. Against me is one of her favorite bands but she had lost faith in them recently due to a botched "new music" show. They redeemed themselves.....tenfold. We were drunkenly standing on chairs and singing in no time...

Matt and Kim being happy...its what they do



they have this totally infectious energetic viral upbeat thing going on. really good.



fucking Against Me!







I will be seeing them again.
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This week was ultra hectic at work. Today I trained in adoptions. It was actually a nice change from what I'm normally seeing. Its much less raw, demanding, sad with a touch of hope, and much more interviewing, marketing, and a touch of appeasement. It creates a balance. Sometimes its nice to deal with nice people.

this bastard, however, eats kittens