today is national trivia day. if i could only figure out how i know all kinds of bizzare trivia facts but have trouble remembering where i put my keys...watch jeopardy with those you love tonight in trivia day celebration.

q. what does the j in homer j simpson's name stand for?
a. bullwinkle. who's middle initial is also j. matt groeing borrowed it for homer.

i used to read trivial pursuit cards for fun when i was a kid...anyone want to play? today is also national humiliation day. do these two days somehow go together?

oh, those pictures from joshua tree? i should have them later today. they're just more of climbing and the dogs, though. nothing exciting. don't hold your breath. i don't want anyone turning blue and dying on me.

a fast food rant i read in the paper today. i like. :) yes, i eat fast food, too. but very very rarely. and usually in n out.

i am slowly becoming musically enlightened. my sister, in gift giving brilliance, gave me u2s 'all that you can't leave behind'. wonderful, right? well, it's exactly what she gave me last year when i specifically asked for it. she wanted to give me something i wanted. she thought i had said, when i went to the u2 show a few months back, that i didn't have their new album. huh? exactly. best buy was in order the day after christmas. yes, i was intelligent enough to decide to return something the day after christmas. along with 99.9% of the american population. i was leaving orange county soon, and i didn't want to deal with going to best buy here in sac. i pulled in the parking lot. found a space no problem. sweet! store didn't look too crowded. sweet squared! picked up ben fold's rockin' the suburbs. sweet cubed! now, all i had to do was find the exchange/return line.

ah! there are the signs in the corner. ah! there is the line. i found out why the store wasn't crowded. every single person was in the return line. at least 30 people long. was i crazy? hmm. there are four cashiers. shouldn't be too bad. and at this point i was geeked on getting the ben folds cd. i had been wanting it since i heard the interview on npr. i got in line.

and stood in the exact same place (well, i shifted my weight and fidgeted a little, but close enough to the same place) for at least five minutes. began to wonder if the line was moving, or they just hired a bunch of people to make a line to discourage people not to return things. finally! two steps forward...inch inch inch...inchworm (sorry, now i am singing that damn burl ives song. if you don't know it, don't worry. you don't want to)...finally, 30 minutes later, i had ben folds. yay!

i dig it. a lot. 'annie waits', the first song, i love. it has been on repeat in my car. i do that with songs...until i learn the words and can sing them gloriously off key at the top of my lungs. it reminded me of something though....and i couldn't figure out what...something i used to listen to in high school. ding! (cue light bulb. one of those energy efficient swirly ones) - jude cole. that song makes me think of one of his songs. never heard of him? i don't think anyone has. i don't remember how i heard about him, but used to play 'view from 3rd street' as i dealt with teenage boy troubles. haven't listened to it in ages. anyhows...'annie waits' reminds me of 'baby it's tonight' . now, the ben folds is far superior, but it somehow brought that memory. strange, i don't know why.

with a borders (why do i always want to spell that boarders?) gift certificate, i bought another samples cd and radiohead's 'the bends'. now, i have heard a little radiohead before. i know many people who rave about the music. why did it take me so long to buy one of their discs? oh.my.god. it's fantastic. absolutely fantastic. for the first time in a long long long - i mean really long here - time, there are no dave matthews band, dave and tim, dave in any way shape or form, discs in my car 6 disc changer. woo. not that i'm giving up on the boys. but i am so damn excited about this new music. well, not new, but you know.

yeah, i am slow to catch onto things sometimes. cause i'm sure most of you have been listening to this stuff for ages. it's great music, isn't it?

11am thursday: from the sacramento bee, '2001 one last spin' music round up: 'albums that maybe didn't break musical ground but were fun anyway' - rockin' the suburbs. goofy lyrics about growing up and perky piano romps straight out of sesame street made for a groovy pair.

hmm. perky piano romps? sesame street? hmm again.

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself. ~Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"

happy 2002. palindrome year. why is the word palindrome NOT a palindrome? it would make the word easier to understand, i would think. does that mean that the year will read the same back to front as it does front to back? that would be interesting...everything goes forward until the middle of june, and then reverses itself. hmm. or maybe not - that sounds like a bad movie plot.

blogger no mas spellcheck. bah. pardon le typos.

dinner at my favorite restaurant last night, millenium. (yeah, i know, we're past the new millenium, but...) the food is all vegan, not animal products whatsoever, organic produce beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. you'd never guess it was vegan. i wish there were more restaurants like that - to show people that healthy and good-for-the-earth eating does not mean rabbit food. fabulous wine pairings, too. oh.so.good. it would make such a huge impact if more restaurants focused on healthful foods that are so tasty - instead of the processed, sodium laden foods americans are used to. doesn't even have to be vegan (though, that would be better), but organic milk, free range beef, cage free eggs....the menu from last night:

Course One: Blackeyed peas and eggplant caviar on grilled flatbread with creamy saffron and white bean hummus, roasted garlic and a tuft of heirloom micro herb mix. Topolos Sherry Fino
Course Two: King trumpet and almond agaricus mushrooms sautéed in olive oil and finished with almond butter, served in baker's parchment over a light salad of rice noodles, sea vegetables, tat soi and mizuna dressed with meyer lemon and cold pressed almond oil vinaigrette. Reverdy Sancerre, Loire 2000
Course Three: Creamy puréed potage of Tierra farm's salsify and leeks served hot with dried cherry and smoked cippollini onion relish and accented with a reduction of pinot noir and porcini mushrooms. David Bruce Pinot Noir
Course Four: A filo pouch stuffed with beets, black chanterelles, black Peringord truffles and grilled seitan served over kamut risotto with blood orange and housemade zinfandel vinegar infusion and an emulsion of gold beets and saffron. Tobin James Zinfandel
Dessert: Lemon Pineapple Extravaganza...almond cake layered with meyer lemon custard served with caramel pineapple compote and creamy almond sherbet.
Bernard Delmas, Blanquette de Limoux Brut, France NV

mmm...a nice way to celebrate the new year...

2pm - after i wrote the above entry, i went for a run. listening to npr on the radio. they were interviewing eric schlosser, author of 'fast food nation'. if people really knew what fast 'food' is made from, would they still eat it?

hi there. i'm back. don't get too excited. i didn't do anything interesting while i was gone, aside from facing the crowds of mad shoppers intent on stimulating the economy the day after christmas at south coast plaza. or experiencing a very, just, well, odd christmas...had a great time in joshua tree, climbing. not the joshua trees. the rocks. i think climbing joshua trees is illegal. if not illegal, painful. the sky there was just amazing. took some pictures, in hope of capturing the brilliance of it. gonna get them developed tomorrow. i have experienced enough southern california to last me for a long long time. funny - i lived there for ten years and loved it, and now can only take a weekend or so at a time. it was a l o n g drive back to sacto today. zzzz....zzzzz...zzzz...more tomorrow. gotta get caught up on my internet reading. i was without it (aside from a small stint on christmas) for a week. a week! i was starting to get shaky. withdrawals. :)

anyone see the simpsons tonight? the kids travel to school in a terrible snowstorm...

marge: but how will they get back?
homer: the internet?

hee hee. hope y'all are preparing for some new year's fun. :)