Food4Less

lkm and i have been staying at jonny and sara's when we go back up to SF for doctor or physical therapy appointments. they moved into our old place on bernal, and they made the house look better too. its a great setup, and we're really fortunate that they let us crash whenever we need to.

we raided their piggy bank last week, after a great salmon dinner (jonny brought a bunch back from alaska), and went to the nearest coinstar.

this is what happens when you get $72 of free money from a vending machine:

carmel beach and kiting

found yus pics from the carmel weekend. he's really good about taking pictures everywhere he goes, even if he runs through a digital camera a year due to sand. here's some pics of laura killing it at donkey balls. we played all afternoon, with intermittent breaks for boogie boarding or making fun of the guy on crutches on the sand.

this is the trainer kite yu lent me. very fun when the wind is up.


This is an older pic from ocean beach of a guy with a kite. when the wind picks up, you can get sling shot around over the sand by the kite. i got a video of it, but it seems i'm video retarded on the blog for now.

update: just found a good site for video- vimeo.

ocean beach kiting, jan 08 from kevin smith on Vimeo.

swiss cupcakes and bolivian dice

look at these fine specimens:

alicia sent me these all the way from switzerland for my birthday. three different kinds of cupcakes with three different frostings. they were delicious.

had a great birthday weekend in monterey. played a lot of cacho - the bolivian dice game - with friends. for most of them it was their first time, which can be daunting to start, but flows smoothly after a few beers. i think moses and kim were losing in this pic... they don't look too happy.

spent the rest of the weekend on carmel beach. yus was kind enough to leave me his trainer kiteboarding kite, which i'm planning on picking up as soon as i'm able. i'll try to post some pics of the handicapp kiting soon- i think yu got some good pics over the weekend.

big sur

lkm and i went got out to big sur last week. it was mid-week camping in september at big sur, which is the equivalent of catching beck playing at a taqueria when no one else is watching. big pfieffer was empty, so we got a site sitting in a redwood grove way in the back and made a little hippie camp:

went for a short "hike"

cous cous is the best camp food. if you remember to take it with you.

the next day pulling out of the camp site parking spot, a suspicious tree stump jumped out in front of the car and caused some havoc. when i took a look at the bottom of the jetta, there was gasoline spewing from a line under the car. turns out we crushed the gas return line, that blue tube right there.

duct tape fix? maybe. but probably not. its a pressure line and the gas would work its way past the tape. so if we drove home, we'd be looking like something out of a cartoon: a long trail of gasoline trailing us home for 30 miles, with only a spark needed to start up the fireworks.

with no real place to be after camping, we were able to stick around a day to get a AAA membership reactivated and take the tow home. back in monterey we found a great garage that took to the problem like a mechanic should: chuck and duane of fraley's auto repair (which was named del monte auto repair before) went out to supply shop and found a metal coupling to replace the damaged section, rather than replacing the whole line. a tire rotation and $60 later, we were set to go. can't say enough about those mechanics... they were great.

accordianrockmake festival

a few weeks ago smitty, andrew, angela and i skipped out on the outsidelands fest in sf and headed up to the cotati accordian festival. its a sleeper of an outdoor festival. and its free if you sit in the park outside the gates and play donkeyballs while listening to the music. unless you have to go to the neighboring bar for drinks. accordians hold a unique interest for me, and also apparently for 50 year old party animals.

the next day was the rock make street festival in the mission. brian of tartufi helped put it on. i love tartufi's albums (new one later in september) and they're great live. also found my new favorite band: man/miracle. there were also local shops selling goods, like this t-shirt shop. it was a hot day, showcased great bands, and had some choice sights.

umm...

this is noah sakamoto, adrien (my old roommate)'s boyfriend. he's super nice and kinda quiet, so quiet that you wouldn't expect him to be flat out bonkers.


Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

do not bite

saw this a few weeks ago on folsom. its worth contemplating for minute. and then calling the person to heckle. 

From summer biking

thanks to ksenya for reminding me about it.

word from the post-op room

in the best news of the week, i got my cast off 2 days ago. the leg feels great now that its not bound in an unnatural position anymore. the doc took a few photos during the surgery. they're pretty gruesome, fyi: here's one before the fix (blurry), and one after the fix. it looks like something from a sam rami movie.

the doctors are deliriously happy about the procedure. apparently they didn't find a single case on record for the repair of the posterior tibial tendon and the flexor digitorous (?) tendon rupture. they're going to publish a paper on it... it's bound to be a scorcher.

looking for work

we just completed our move down to monterey (more on that later) and we're settling into the sweet life. when's the last time you had blueberries on your cereal? i just did this morning. with iced coffee and the paper. thats the sweet life.

looking for work now. something i can do 1) while crutchified, 2) thats engineering or water work, and 3) makes me rich, and quick! 

after a thorough search, this is the craigslist posting that most meets the stated criteria:

need extra cash?
Reply to: job-825273952@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-09-03, 8:37AM PDT

Bad Ass Coffee needs someone to dress up in our donkey costume for one
hour in the morning between 8-9 am.

If interested, stop by Bad Ass Coffee Company, 130 Fremont Blvd Seaside

Must be willing to dance, hold signs, and be goofy :)
Nobody will know who you are, its a full suit but it does get hot!

You can listen to your ipod while you work!

this photo (courtesy of DKG) was not in the original post, but should be.