I'm not dead

        I'm still alive, I promise! I've been absent from this blog for almost two weeks, and I really don't have much of a good reason for it. Just got lazy, I guess.

       Quick synopsis of the last couple of weeks:

       Went for a walkabout in Berkeley with Ben two weekends ago. It's starting to be spring here, or at least whatever passes for spring in this ridiculous climate. The crabapples are blooming, tulips and daffodils are coming up, and the area has been innundated with songbirds.  

         A kitty has showed up at our house. I've named him “Kitty.” So far, he's killed or scared away all the mice that live in the compost bin. Don Petronilo bought some cat food for him and we're hoping he sticks around, because he's adorable and pretty tame. I'll have to get some pictures of him sometime.

        Last weekend was the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year celebration. The official Chinese New Year was some weeks ago, but whatever, I guess. We went into the city on Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon and evening there for the street fair and parade. The street fair wasn't as much fun as I thought it might be. There were a LOT of people and it just wasn't worth it to fight through all of them. Now I know how salmon feel when they try to return from the ocean into the mountains to spawn. Rough trip.   

I'm really not a fan of Chinese food, but this was pretty darn good.  I ate it with chopsticks
so that all the Chinese people in the restaurant wouldn't judge me. 

         The parade started at 515, so Ben and I decided we were going to get good seats. So at about 430, we struck out, trying to find an outside corner of the parade so that we could hurry off to the BART station once it was over (I had to work yet that night). Seemed like everyone else had roughly the same idea though, because there were lines of people 3 deep against the barricades on the street. We got lucky though, and found a spot where the barricades hadn't been set up. So we loitered on the corner like a couple of degenerates and waited until the police set them up. Then, presto!, instant awesome seat! Here are some photos from the parade:

          Afterwards, it was getting close to time for me to be at work, so Ben was like “OMG WE HAVE TO GET TO THE BART STATION NOWWWWW!!!!” and took off running. Unfortunately, I had been standing for so long that my feet were numb. It was like running with concrete blocks instead of feet. We made it to the BART station just in time, but then at the transfer point, the train was 15 minutes late. So I was late to work. Stupid transit.

         I also made a skirt. Here it is. I wore it to church on Sunday, and afterwards, Ben and I ate with Jonathan and some church members at a burger place in the Mission. Great food.