I've even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi.

This is better than one long entry, right?

We got back feeling rather exhausted, and chilled, since the weather in Oakland was about 20F hotter than in the Mission District (it hadn't been sunny for very long either). So we put on warmer clothes, set up our tent in the backyard, and tried to relax. Steve and Ry and the kids were at the circus, so it was nice and quiet for a while. I was re-reading I, Lucifer since I'd finished all the Curse Worker books twice, as well as the other books I'd checked out from the library. I'd eaten a ton at the wedding party, so I didn't want to eat too early, but I was starting to feel weak.

I decided I needed a drink, texted Steve before remembering to check the fridge. Steve does a liquor club once a month, so I knew SOMETHING would be there, and I was rewarded with Stoli Gold. (I don't go out much, so if I do, I try to order only Stoli.) I mixed myself a drink after sipping it. Of course when Steve got home, he brought out his rye and rum collection. "I like this one, it sort of has a plastic taste."

We had dinner at Radish, a small restaurant that feels trendy yet homey. I'm not sure how they do that. Probably because the food isn't very expensive (because of small portions) and amazingly delicious. So yeah, there was that, pulled pork sandwich for me, fried chicken strips for Reg, really tasty. I showed Steve that if he checked in on Foursquare, he'd get a free beer, so that happened. (Reg and I had, this whole trip, been Foursquare/Twittering (I also had a few Tumblr posts) everywhere we went.)

Reg and I wanted to go dancing on Saturday. I figured that it being San Francisco, that wouldn't be hard to accomplish, so I asked Erik (whose LJ name I forget, along with his North Dakotan heritage) what was going on. Nothing I'd heard of, of course, but DJ Garth at Public Works back room for $5 before 11 sounded great. Unfortunately we didn't get in before 11, but what can you do? "It's a vacation," Reg kept saying, and I even paid for coat check (since it was now 55F).

Now, I haven't gone dancing since I was trying to pick up boys at Electric Tea Garden in 2009, but I've been to a lot of shows, seen a lot of DJs, big names, smaller names, there's never a guarantee that a DJ will be fantastic. DJ Garth was. He didn't play a single track I knew (which I fully anticipated), but every track made me want to dance. At 11:15pm it was still a bit of a mellow groove, which he slowly, track by track, song by song, sped up. Ninety minutes later, it was a LOT more crowded, but we found the A/C vents, and were dancing our asses off.

Just before 2am I was starting to hurt. Spending the day in the car, then dancing for the first time in three years, well. We went over to Erik's for a bit - his rental is about as amazing as Steve's place, both are classic SF townhouses - before going back to the car and driving back to Steve's. We had the rockstar parking right in front, at least, but it was so bloody cold and windy.

I had tried to get Travis to come out dancing with us, since the DJ was so sick, but he'd already gone to bed. But both he and Erik said they'd come to brunch with us. I didn't wake up till nearly 10am, which sounds late, but I fell asleep around 4am. We decided on the Pork Store, one of the few places I remember going in SF before, although I did get lost on the way. But we got there - both Travis and Erik beat us - and were seated reasonably quick. Pretty good greasy spoon fare, if you like that sort of thing, and boy, do I ever. Do. I. Ever. I caught up with Travis, tried to get him to watch Sherlock, and devoured my delicious cheesy egg sandwich and half my hashbrowns.

And that was about it for San Fran. Travis came by to check out Steve's place - they hadn't seen each other in a couple months either - and then Reg and I packed the car, hugged everyone, and headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. Along with the rest of the Bay Area, apparently, it took bloody forever. The weather cleared up the second you got on the bridge, but none of the dumb tourists could see shit from it. Oh how we laughed.

I took over driving around Santa Rosa, and then we thought about staying in the Redwoods, but camping spots were $35. "We could get a hotel for $70 and shower," I exclaimed. Plus, the weather turned crap, so we stopped after about 350 miles in Eureka, CA. (Not Yreka.) Yeah, we decided to take 101 back. We figured if we weren't making good enough time on Monday, we could skip over to I-5. But for Sunday night, we got takeout Chinese (I do NOT understand how every shitty small town we stop in has better fried rice than almost anywhere outside the International District) and turned in early. (The motel was actually $67 with tax.)

anyone going to infected mushroom thursday?

I poached some chicken breasts, made Annie's mac&cheese, and then settled in to finish Enchantress From the Stars. Newberry winner from 1970 and hasn't aged badly at all.

By the time I finished it, Reg had showered and dressed, so I changed and we headed to Baltic. Invited Ang to join us. We hadn't seen her in a while so that was cool. Sol and skiplogic joined us for a bit, and EVAC was pretty cool. Everyone started talking about their brushes with the law, except me, because I was a goodie-goodie. Except for that car theft but that was my roommate and she didn't press charges.

I seem to be developing a tolerance for alcohol or something, though. How annoying. Took me a while to sleep and then I dreamed about CAMPING by a LAKE. It was pretty.

Nortec Collective at Trinity, hell yes!

subject: do your research "snobs"

Whoever wrote up the "preview" for Dave Ralph at Element must have some sort of deficiency. I imagine that all the person did to find out anything about Dave Ralph was see he was on the same label as Paul Oakenfold. And of course, as everyone who knows anything about electronic music knows, anything even remotely connected to Paul Oakenfold has to suck. Except, of course, only idiots who are pretending to be techno snobs think this.

If the writer had done even a cursory Google search, the writer would have seen evidence of a brilliant DJ career of over twenty years. I personally showed up at his show at Element and was amazed at the range of discs being spun. House, funk, 70s and current pop songs being mixed live, industrial, and yes, a few trance records. But no prog, as a matter of fact. Dismissing him as "one of Oakenfold's boys" is truly purile and ignorant.