OAC in Big Sur, a photographic retelling

The Outdoorsy Adventure Club rebanded and made its way south to beautiful Big Sur, the subject of at least one novel, one song, and many, many pictures. The weekend involved tents, squirrels, kebabs, a beach, a swimming hole, and go karts (that was later).


$300 worth of food and supplies.


There was no bad blood between mortal enemies/BFFs Brian and Audrey this time.


A taste of the California coast.


Long exposure with embers.


The gang.


The most delicious kebabs. They come in beef and shrimp.


Our tent village.


The girls.


The boys.


The squirrel we loved to hate. I threw a little rock at him to scare him off and it caught it and tried to eat it.


The swimming hole. Yes, I'm throwing out two peace signs.


The beach bums.


Bringing glass bottles onto the beach. We're so punk rock.


My feet meet the ocean.


THE cove.


Tunnel under Highway 1.


Audrey sent 793 texts in 3 days.



Brian sets up chips for poker. I beat his 3-of-a-kind with a straight on the river. Sucka.


Some dead plants. They're now my wallpaper at work.


We ended a day of driving by racing little cars.


73 seconds. The best time.


Audrey wanted to keep Alexis safe, so she drove her car at a walking pace around the track.

Eff the farmer's maket

The "eff" is for "forget."

Lately I've been seeing lots of veggies being harvested, including Joshua's giant cucumber, so my green thumb started itching to dig into some soil. That being said, it's not easy to find a good bit of ground for seed sowing in an urban area.

Lucie suggested community gardens, which I thought was a great idea. With enthusiasm, I started dialing all the numbers I could find. To our disappointment, every garden I called had a 3 to 8 year waiting list. Ridiculous! I also emailed a couple places, but had already given up the fight for a plot. Surprisingly, the person running the 25th & De Haro St. garden wrote back and offered us two "very small plots." Man, was I excited. I saw tomatoes, okra, pumpkins, and eggplants flash before my eyes...until I was told that those were all warm season vegetables. Fuck. Well, that didn't stop me from being excited.

Yesterday I went to see the garden with Audrey and even cleared off one of the plots. I also got a couple pairs of gardening gloves and a bunch of cool season crop seeds.


Seeds w/ pretty illustrations


Hangin' at the gate


Someone else's zucchini


One of the plots before it was cleared out


Weeding the garden and shredding my hands


The view of the Mission, Noe Valley, Castro, and Twin peaks from the garden

Goodbye, silver tooth fillings

Today marks the fourth(!) time I've been to Dr. Atrouni's office in the past three weeks. Every visit has been a sweeping success. Most of my disgusting silver fillings have been replaced by enamel-colored ones. Dental artistry indeed! Besides from the great dental work, the hospitality of the staff is hands down the best I've ever received from a dental/medical office. They talk to me and ask about my day. They even take pictures of me with my phone for my blog (thanks, Lauren!).

Whenever my teeth are being worked on, I get headphones and a DVD of my choice. For some reason I always pick Friends. I guess I'm just hoping it's one of the Thanksgiving episodes. Thank you, Dr. Atrouni (and various assistants), for being there with me when Rachel and Ross broke up and for being there when they got back together (remember when Monica had to cook with Mockolate?!!).

Till we meet again, I promise I'll floss (more) regularly!


Dental dam doesn't taste good.


A shot of my digital x-rays that I snuck in.


My mandibular central incisors.

Also...

The best Jezebel post I've ever read.

I loathe scammers; or how I learned my lesson

Having sold some useless and some not-so-unless stuff on Craigslist myself, I assume that most people who sell on there are like me and describe their products honestly and don't try to scam. I was wrong.

The last few months I've been trying to get my hands on the Sony Ericsson W880i phone (there's nothing wrong with my old one, except that it's not new anymore), which is pretty price here since it was only released overseas. The price finally came down low enough where it was fathomable to buy one. Current price is about $300. I found a guy on Craigslist that listed it for $300 but after some sweet talking, I got him to give it to me for $280...if no one else offered him more.

Long story short, I bought the phone. I tried to import my address book via Bluetooth and that's when my troubles began. I called Sony Ericsson and they said that it would be free for the original owner, but if I couldn't show them proof that I was, it would cost $100 just for them to inspect it, and then another $200 for them to fix the problem. I laughed, said "That's absurd!" and hung up.

So I called the guy and said that the phone is not working properly and I'd like to give it back in exchange for my money. Obviously, this idea was as ridiculous to him as Sony Ericsson's price quote was to me. "What am I going to do with a broken phone?!" he asked rhetorically. "No one's going to want it when it's broken. How do I know that it was broken before I sold it to you? You probably put a virus on it!" I wanted nothing more than to reach through the phone and smash his face in with something large. After many more lies and accusations that I was responsible for the phone, I told him I just wanted my money back, that as a seller it is his responsibility to give me my money back for a faulty product.

In the end, he gave me back all but $40 of the money I paid for it, saying that he didn't feel right giving me back al my money since the phone doesn't work correctly. If I had ever had to hurt anyone physcially, it was this guy.

Goodbye, Rossa Jean (or Ross Goodman)

Today marks the last day of Ross Goodman, web author of Gyro International. It also marks the first day of Ross Goodman, a man who enjoys spending time with his wife. He's been an exceptional co-worker, in-house computer expert, cubicle neighbor, and unconditional friend (except the times when he doesn't want to speak to me). I wish him success with his upcoming endeavors. I'll see you on the courts, my friend.


Ross passes webbie-type knowledge on to Lucie.