It’s nearly 11:30 p.m., and we’ve finally finished packing for our trip to Texas for my 20-year high school reunion in Sweeny, followed by a quick stop in Houston to see M. and K. and our lovely goddaughter, and then finally off to Wichita Falls for my grandmother’s 99th birthday. Yee haw! Our flight leaves at 7 a.m. That sucks. But other than that, I think it will be both an fun and fascinating trip.

Woof!

Yesterday, I flew to Portland for the premiere of Nothing But the Truth (actually it’s second premiere, if there can be such a thing; it debuted in LA on Tuesday). The movie is fun, lots of crazy-to-watch skateboarding, with a interesting handmade feel. My ego was stroked when I saw my name under “Thanks to” in the credits.

The flight up there was kind of a nightmare, due almost entirely to the Blue Angels, who were practicing for a “Fleet Week” air show this weekend. Because they were using the runways, flights all through the airport were delayed. We were delayed getting on, and then spent an hour sitting in the plane with no air conditioning, finally departing nearly an hour and half late. I hope the people who go to the airshow are very entertained. I heard them practicing today as well, buzzing loud low over the city. Great. And good for the environment, too! I personally need to go buy a few carbon credits; I’m flying 10 round trips this year.

But, back to Portland … we stayed at the fairly new Ace Hotel, which I will recommend, with a caveat that it did get a bit loud in my room due to a bar across the street (nothing like the nightmare of being above the bar at the Seattle Ace, however). The place is nicely done; my room was quite comfortable, with a glass shower right by the bed that was so enticing I showered immediately. Every room has different art; one of my compatriots had some topless mermaids, the other had a mountain/man portrait, but I got this awesome puppy you see above. Perfect.

The restaurant/bar there, Clyde Common, was yummy, with a sweet happy hour. I had a drink called the Anemic Mary that was so good I had to have another one. They also had generous low-priced happy hour aps. Off the lobby opposite the restaurant was a Stumptown Coffee cafe that is apparently open all night, or at least enough of the night that I was able to visit there after 11 p.m. and again at 6 a.m.

I flew back this morning on an 8:25 flight (before the Angels got back to practicing), so tonight I was back in town to see Helvetica, which I really found funny and engaging, and that was great because I’m exhausted and was afraid I might fall asleep during a documentary about a font.

K. had her scooter so I rode home by myself on the BART, still carrying all my clothes for the trip in my backpack and armed with my iPod loaded for flying. I listened to Steve Reich’s “You Are Whereever Your Thoughts Are,” which had the effect of making me a little freaked out and disoriented on the train. Probably just the effect he’d hoped for.

Waiting for a bus that would never come

My dad is here for a nice long visit, and, yes, we’ve been making him ride the bus. In the picture above he’s waiting for a bus that wasn’t actually running that day. My fault - oops! I’m sure a two-hour trip home from Land’s End via public transportation is a great way to learn about the city, though.

We’ve done nearly everything: hiking in the parks, going to a ball game, taking a cruise on the bay, hitting the museums, going on walking tours … and of course, eating. We’ve been to Moki’s, Pizza Delfina, Alioto’s, Ti Couz, Zante’s Pizza, Louis’s and Taqueria Cancun; still to come, A16 and Greens, plus whatever else we can squeeze in.

Pit stop: Swenson’s

This weekend, T., my LIttle Brother from Austin, came up and spent the weekend with us. We had 12-year-old energy carrying us through the weekend, and it was a hoot to see the city from his eyes. He took this picture himself; it’s a self-portrait with Swenson’s ice cream. He’s pretty good with a camera, and he took a lot of pictures! I just dropped him off at the airport a bit ago. I decided to take the afternoon off today, and it’s a good thing, too, because I could really use a nap!

Above is a picture of Bartlesville, OK, on taken on Monday, July 2 (not mine, borrowed via Flickr). I arrived for my cousin’s wedding there on Thursday, July 5, and by Friday most of the water in town had receded. We parked in the parking lot right by the antique store you see in the picture on Friday night to go to the Solo Club. No visible water then, but it was very, very stinky. Really stinky. Floods suck. (But the wedding went off without a hitch!)

Yesterday was my birthday, and I celebrated. I took off from work a teeny bit early and K. and I met at Osento for some relaxing hot-tubbing and massage, and then went out for a fabulous dinner at Kokkari. It was awesome. Incidentally, it was January the 11th when we arrived San Francisco. Time to change the blog name again — we’ve been here for six months now.

And, now for something completely different. Today I went to the post office to mail something. I went directly to the fancy postage vending machine where you can weigh your packages and pay with a credit card. And as I’m standing there, using this enormous stamp machine, which is located inside a post office, a hipster-type guy walks up to me and says, “Excuse me, do you know where the nearest post office is? I need to buy some stamps.”

No Parking during the parade

We spent the Fourth of July in Half Moon Bay, mostly; we spent the night before at the San Benito House, to which I’m sure we’ll return. We got up the next morning and strolled around town, watched the parade, and had a lovely lunch at Pasta Moon — great salads there. Then we walked to the beach and enjoyed the ocean … with a lot of other people. It was packed, and quite festive! In the afternoon we headed back to town via Oakland afternoon where we stopped and enjoyed a backyard barbecue, then went home at a reaasonable hour so I could pack for my trip to Oklahoma tonight.

We could see the fireworks at Pier 39 from our back deck — we could also see lots of fireworks everywhere, people shooting them of in the streets and off roofs. Big Roman candles and that sort of thing. The explosions continued well after midnight, consistently. Luckily, our Sound Soother allowed me to sleep through it with no problems.

K. and I are headed to Texas today … on separate flights! I’m flying out of San Jose, and she’s flying from Oakland. After this we’ll be able to compare notes on flying from remote airports. Is it worth the cheaper tickets? We will see. I’m looking forward to some good Texas eating, though. Pass the salsa, pardner!

A pedal car and a Dairy Queen

Well, M. and S.’s wedding was beautiful, if I do say so myself. I officiated, which was a little nerve-wracking, but it really was such an honor to be asked. And I think the brides were happy with the ceremony (even though I managed to forget my pants, and had to be rescued by the ever-patient K. who drove back across town to pick them up).

It’s a very pleasant time of year in the Norfolk area. After getting together for a Bachelorette luncheon at Bubba’s Crab House (which has awesome crabcakes and she crab soup), K. and I headed to the boardwalk on Virginia Beach, where we rented one of these two-seater pedal cars. I’ve always wanted to do this, every time I’ve seen them, but I’ve never done it before. It was just as fun as I thought it would be, and cheap - $16 for the first hour! We even got a dipped cone at this Dairy Queen. It was quite a weekend.

I’m back in Texas, but nowhere good. I’m sitting in the Dallas airport. I used to say that if you wanted to go to hell from Austin, you’d have a layover at DFW, and it’s apparently true for San Francisco as well. We had a two-hour layover here on the way out to Virginia, and now I’ve got more than an hour to kill on the way back. K. is actually headed to New York on the train, so I’m on my own here today. I tried to get on standby for an earlier flight, but they told me it was full, so I decided to rent a laptop from one of those machines to kill some time. It’s a pretty good deal — $7 an hour, and the Dell laptop I have is performing nicely. I look forward to being on my way, though.

I’m back from Mexico and a bit sleepy, what with the usual late planes and general travel exhaustion. However, I have posted some pictures of my trip, and you can see them here.