Oliver SantaCruz defiantly declares, after drinking a bottle of syrah at the Wine Cabana in Old Town, San Diego and having tequila and watermelon margarita shots at Fred’s Mexican Cafe.

What kind of beer do you think Skip Gates, Obama and that racist cop are drinking?

Last night I tried to make a gourmet dinner including menu and drinks. This is the salad, the best looking dish. Sad.

FRUITS & VEGETABLES

young cucumbers, civic center farmer’s market, san francisco

in a light vinaigrette, compressed watermelon with blackberries, roma tomatoes & herbs

Here is the rest of the menu:

FISH AND SHELLFISH

wild caught ahi tuna steaks, f/v westlake, trader joe’s, daly city

gently poached in basil oil, lime, ginger, chardonnay & squash plantain, piccoli bracci gouda

DESSERT

apple strudel

a lá americone dream

cranberry oatmeal cookie

americone dream & organic blackberries

BEVERAGES

blue heron, pale ale, micro brew, mendocino brewing co.

coastal ridge, 2007, california, shiraz

fruitini

muddled cucumber, banana, grape, watermelon

with lime juice, simple syrup & Skyy Citrus vodka

gimlet

cucumber

lime

This is the spider haven house we stayed at. Two decks - upstairs and downstairs and a jacuzzi. I almost got into the jacuzzi until Peter told me about the time he stayed here and was viciously attacked by a raccoon while in the jacuzzi. I spent most of the time cozied up in front of the fire reading New Moon (gross) and watching 16 and Pregnant. I guess it is a good thing we don’t have cable or a television, for that matter, in San Francisco.

We were also 12 miles from the house they filmed Godfather III at. Amazingly awesome!

* these are the only links I’m posting in my Truckee-Tahoe post because they deserve further explanation on why I do not value my mind or my time.

Here is a shot of Emerald Bay, the green side of Lake Tahoe. This place is so gorgeous. I think there are some good trails along the bay but it was too windy to hike. There also is a waterfall hiding behind the rocky ledge I took this picture from.

We decided to ditch the Truckee River experience and drove 15 miles south to Sugar Pine beach. Way less fraternity-boy-party-central and more quiet, secluded, family style beach. I have my suspicions that the beach might have been pretty empty because EXTREMELY COLD WATER does that to people. Despite the warning I jumped in and had a good swim. The water was very beautiful and clear and, oh yeah, cold. I peed to stay warm. Keep Tahoe blue.

But…I did go to Truckee, north of Tahoe, this past weekend. I had a splendid time not showering for three nights and fearing for my life against healthy spiders, hence the not showering part. The spiders loved the bathroom, our cool and dark underground bedroom and the laundry room.

As promised, a recount of me meeting Dave Eggers. Peter already did a write-up on our little meet-up and so I will just link to it. I am way to lazy right now to write about it and to think Mr. Eggers gave me a writing assignment. Hmm…

I MET DAVE EGGERS TODAY AND THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TO ME!

Look for an update on this later this evening!

“Well, that makes sense,” Jay Leno said recently. “I mean, the state’s broke. If we’re going to start selling stuff, who better to be governor than the head of eBay?”

referring to Republican candidate, Meg Whitman, the former eBay C.E.O.

pureblog:thepublics

I’ve been trying to get my hands on a copy of this book.

Susan Sontag in Reborn.

I have read some of these books but not most.

shaneguiter:

janewilkins:

In 1987, UT’s College of Liberal Arts released a document titled “The Texas List of Unrequired Reading,” a four-year reading plan of books in philosophy, science, literature, and history. The 48 books and 48 on an alternate reading list ranged from the Bible to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At the time, Dean Robert King said the college was immediately overwhelmed by the response. The Alcalde picked up the list and ran it in its March/April 1987 issue, and for 20 years, the Alcalde staff has been directing callers back to that issue. It is perhaps the most requested page ever published in the magazine.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of that great hit, because we’re overdue for another, and because a lot of great books have been written in the last two decades, we set out to create a new list. We considered going back to the College of Liberal Arts, or even to the Department of English, but quickly concluded both approaches would be too limiting. But neither did we have the means to open the survey to the entire 2,500-member faculty.

So we contacted all 90 members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers — a body that was created in 1995 by President Robert Berdahl to honor the University’s top profs — and asked them to list their top five books of all time. We were intentionally vague about the criteria. We told them to imagine they were giving a friend five titles to read before they died, taking five books to a desert island, or any other cliché that worked for them. Twenty-one took up the challenge, and when it was all sorted out, we had our list of 89 books.

See the list here