memory from a summer of yore

whiskers on kittens

did you know that -- in addition to her wildly popular "oprah's favorite things" episode -- she now has an "oprah's favorite summer things" episode? oh yes, the madness continues (see parody here.

and i thought, why don't i have the same thing? so here it is -- the robot's favorite things -- SUMMER!

* air conditioning - i don't have it, but it would be my favorite thing if i did.

* "weeds" season 3 - with the mister out of town and me recovering from losing a chunk of my big toe this weekend, what better way to spend an evening than lying on the floor and catching up with about 14 episodes of weeds, back-to-back. the 2nd season lost me, but the third season is pretty darn good. i especially like their concept for a drug front business -- "aquatecture"...fountains in the shapes of mini-mansions. yes, please.

* rose'. don't be a hater. it's delicious and it's not white zinfandel. for realz!

* the promise of a four day vacation in a locale with a high of 68 degrees.

* "the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford" -- i suggest watching it over a couple of sittings as it's nearly 3 hours long, but casey affleck is amazing, as is everyone else in it, and the cinematography is incredible. i suggest watching with the subtitles as that is a mumblin' bunch of fothermuckers up in that movie.

* midnight swims

* "we tell ourselves stories in order to live: the collected nonfiction of joan didion" -- i'm not kidding when i say that reading joan didion is what prompted me to move to california, so i was predisposed to begin with towards loving this, but having all of her nonfiction in one $30 volume is just too good to be true. i like to just open it and read a paragraph each day. strangely enough, here is what showed up yesterday (a sunday when it was 105 degrees, or felt like it anyway) when i did just that:

It is three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and 105 degrees and the air so thick with smog that the dusty palm trees loom up with a sudden and rather attractive mystery.

* oatmeal/peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies -- i found this recipe in sunset magazine last month and they are incredible. when i have more time, i'll post the recipe here.

vacation, all i ever wanted

i had myself a serious revery today thinking about how amazing it was to be thirteen-ish and having the whole summer to lie in the sun and go to the arcade and sneak cigarettes and get a savage tan courtesy of hawaiian tropic #2. now i'm thirteen x three (well, almost) and i am pining for some time off. the good news is that i'm headed up to sea ranch for four days of r&r; the bad news that is it's only four days and i need something more like forty. however, i did just receive a $50 companion airfare certificate that will get me and the mister to hawaii for a quite-reduced rate, so i feel a drunken air reservation coming on.

speaking of islands, spent friday with the mister's parental units in catalina, which was pretty great as always. the distinguishing event of this outing was that we rented a john boat and took it out around the island, which was cool. i've never skippered on the pacific before, and the looks of fright on my passengers' faces eventually abated.

ps -- emmylou harris has a new album out, and aside from the adult contemporary touches in too many places to count, it's ok. her voice, though, is still totally chill-inducing.

a lot more where that came from

i wonder how often this will happen between now and november:

roller boogie

Flight of the Conchords - Ladies of the World - Click here for more home videos

crackerjack

this reminds me of the story of mine and the mister's own little crackerjack(son)

friday funny

when i was young i appeared in a video

can you spot me?

mann about town

the new aimee mann is out, and i haven't listened to it beyond the initial single, 'freeway,' which is yet another i'm-ambivalent-about-living-in-the-golden-state song.

as with all of her stuff, i expect to half-like it at first and then proceed to wear it out the rest of '08, but i'll keep you posted.

i would share 'freeway' with you, but it's come to my attention that since it was purchased on itunes, it's unsharable. my apologies, but it's only 99 cents at itunes, and why not spend those pennies on a nice single vs. some cheap plastic thingy from china that's caught your eye?

(in other news: we watched 'recount' on hbo on demand the other night, and laura dern is as good as people say as katherine harris)

brows high & low

we hadn't planned on watching the primary coverage last night, but we did, and it was amazing. you really did get the sense that history was being made (maybe the syrah helped that perception along? i don't know). obama/hillary ticket sounds good to me.

now for the lowbrow:

say what you will about angelina and brad or madonna -- they are at least using their fame for something good, questionable motivations aside (i happen to think it's genuine, but then i'm a starf**ker so don't listen to me).

on the other hand, you have sarah jessica parker, who has got to be the most vapid celebrity ever put on this planet. she icks me out. my eyes literally bugged out in incredulity while reading this:

sjp responds to 'fashion disaster'

random notes

i'm having a renewed love affair with the camera on my iphone, and i'd hoped to share with you some photos i've taken recently that are coolish, but my new macbook is not cooperating. in fact, moving from my old ibook to this new macbook was an arduous, time-wasting process and i'm pretty over apple at the moment. but not as over it as i am over microsoft office for mac. i don't know how you could make the 08 version of entourage more buggy than the 04 version, but, by gates, they've done it!

now for a list of random snippets:

* of course i saw 'sex and the city,' despite not really giving a hoot about it. turns out, i enjoyed it thoroughly, probably due to my incredibly low expectations, but still. it was by far the largest crowd i've seen at any movie theater in palm springs. since you couldn't experience it for yourself, let me set the stage: imagine 350 international mr. leather contestants and 25 trans-am-drivin' young ladies, all of them high on 48 oz. coca-colas and bitchy quips. now multiply that by 4000.

* i really want to see that horror movie 'the strangers' with liv tyler. does that make me weird?

* i've been on a crazy reading jaunt recently -- seems to be the only thing that stops my brain from pondering work-related stuff. i can recommend 'the tenth muse' by judith jones (julia child's cookbook editor writing about her life in food), 'sharp teeth by toby barlow (a novel about werewolves in l.a. that masquerade as stray dogs, written in verse, of all things), and 'the nine' by jeffrey toobin (inside history of the most recent iteration of the supreme court).