Sunday, September 29, 2002

yesterday phil and tara and

yesterday phil and tara and kel and i brunched at Q, so we were all blissed out by the time we left.  they were kind of tripping out on all the stuff on clement, the traffic and unrecognizable fruits and bizarre children’s toys and general weirdness, when kel remembered that we needed a shower curtain and that we were in front of the only store in the neighborhood that sold them.  this seemed incongruous, but i know far better than to second-guess kel on a matter such as this.  i don’t recall ever having even seen this particular store before, though by the tired awning and dusty displays and general worn out feeling of the place i could see that i’d just overlooked it.  we went in and the place was deep and narrow and they seemed to have one or two of everything, including shower curtains.  phil pointed out that the marketing copy on the shower curtain packaging made special note of the apparently critical information that the curtain was both non-poisonous - a quality i have come to expect from my shower curtains, and tasteless.  yes, that’s the word they used.  which raised, phil pointed out, the question whether it meant the curtain actually had no flavor, which seemed unimaginably improbable to me, or if they meant that it was a tacky piece of shit, which seemed likely but a strange exercise in truth in advertising. 

our next stop was 6th avenue aquarium and flowers.  they have a staggering selection of mollusks and sponges and coral and anenomes; octopuses and eels and huge nautiluses that look dangerously alien; newts and lungfish and mudskippers… and the upstairs gallery has cool stuff too but it’s ludicrously cramped so if you have a fear of heights, fish, and hip hop you shouldn’t go.  on the way out i was standing by an upstairs window and a big black persian cat came running up, purring and rapturous.  i petted - him, i think, and felt hard tight matting ripping at his hair, and scabs on his head, thick and crusty.  his eyes were clear, though.  i took away my hand from him and went down and outside.

last night dave and kim and andy and heidi and the kids came over.  we had carnitas sandwiches - with homemade and best ever carnitas - and sweet potato/red pepper soup and banana cake with chocolate glaze.  which was all very good, and andy had brought over cosmo fixin’s so things went extra smoothly… at the end andy was standing by the carnitas pot with me and we were munching on random chunks.  he was telling me that today he’s going to an east bay street fair where some of his patients, who own and run a very excellent restaurant, will be roasting and carving two whole pigs.  they will surely do an excellent job of it, but andy will be regaling them in his effusive loquacity about the most delicious carnitas he’s ever eaten… at my house last night…