Unfortunately I could only watch due to my mangled paw, but this place was packed with every kind of person for me to oggle and take sneaky pictures of. Not only is it $1.25 a game, but you can have pitchers of beer and an assortment of fried foods delivered to your lane, and they are open until 2 am! If you can tolerate blasting top 20 hits and hoards of giggling teens, this is a pretty fun way to spend an evening on a budget.

couldn't agree more

So I drank and cheered on my uninjured pals through a few games before we headed across the street to a once dive-y bar, The Hotsy Totsy, of which an elaboration will have to wait for another day.

Ah, San P…what other adventures await me?

The boys, minus one...

We managed to choose one of 3 weekends a year that it rains to be in Los Angeles, but no biggy. Most of our time was spent in a car or a mall or a bar, naturally.

At the food court in one of many Westfield Shopping centers. Riveting, isn't it?

Birthday cupcakes for Laura

We spent our first evening at Roger’s Exciting Tattle Tale Room in Culver City, which hosted an excellent karaoke night. I arrived thinking it would be full of annoyingly hip kids (like us) fighting over who gets to sing the week’s latest ironic classic rock song but was surprised to find that it was a genuine dive bar with genuinely dive-y customers. We had all our favorite ironic hits to ourselves.

none of us know who that girl is

We ate. We drank. We karaoke’d. And then we karaoke’d some more. More unflattering pictures here.

In Oakland a week before it was more of the same story. Everyone at home was eager to spend some quality time with Cory before his departure, and massive partying ensued.

picture by Sadie Mellerio

Here’s me really showin’ ‘em who’s boss with a little Rod Stewart at one of Rhett’s awesome parties in a West Oakland church-turned-loft. Sadly, one of the last.

So goodbye for now to Cory. Next stop: New York!

There’s some pretty graphic images that follow.

You’ve been warned.

Ok, I didn’t really get mauled by a monkey, but that is certainly what I’ve been telling people.

The real story is that I required an upgrade for my defunct personality chip. Being a robot isn’t all fun and games, you know.

And so it was a very bloody Valentine indeed. Sunday night was spent in the emergency room with a hole in my palm. Yum.

Is it weird to say that I kinda had fun? I had to get eight stitches and a tetanus shot; two days later and the shot hurts more than the flesh wound, but still. Maybe it was the adrenalin. Maybe it was because I’d been drinking. Maybe it’s the awesome scar I know I’ll have. Or the fact that I can hold this over the responsible party’s head for as long as I need free drinks at the bar.

Pluses (+) :

• Awesome scar
• I get to take a few days off work
• I have an X-Ray of my hand, which is pretty rad
• Everyone will be really nice to me for at least a week
• Aforementioned free drinks
• I have insurance, so it only cost me $5. (Kaiser required that I give them this $5 before they stitched me up)
• I got to ride in an ambulance and watch my boyfriend yell at an EMT

Minuses (-) :

• My hand hurts
• My arm hurts
• I’m going to be broke from not working
• I have to go back to the E.R. in 8 days to get the stitches removed
• I’m running out of fake stories to tell people
• Vicodin makes me constipated

I made a stop the other day to my favorite discount fabric store in Berkeley, aptly named Discount Fabrics. This place definitely goes into the “awesome” category of San Pablo strange. There’s just something about the light here.

More to come.

Home to all manners of weird shit is House on the Rock. I’ve had a hard-on for this place for years, but just can’t find an excuse to go to Wisconsin.

The story is some crackpot built a very unusual looking house on top of a very high rock that folks really liked to come look at. This crackpot was also a collector of sorts, so he opened his home to visitors and that’s that. It’s still there. People still come to see it, and why wouldn’t they? It’s magnificent.

If you’ve ever lived in Oakland it’s likely that you’ve been to – or at least heard of – the East Bay Rat MC’s fight parties. Last night was the motorcycle club’s 15th anniversary and while it certainly wasn’t the gnarliest of fight nights, it still delivered the usual debauchery.

Pregnant women and those with a sensitive disposition not recommended to attend.

I also wouldn’t recommend showing up if you are made faint by: blood, fire, loud noises, daredeviling, filthy lavatories, repressed homosexuality or sweat. More photos here.

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Well, I finally drank the cool-aid, goddamnit, and I’m sorry I waited so long. I accept it as a necessary technology and possible means of artistic exploration, and this is my first adventure – the locker room at one of my 483 jobs. Clicky on the Picky to see ‘em bigger.

Just a new thing I’m trying. I thought it could be interesting to translate some of my drawings into somewhat three-dimensional paper cutouts. I miss my X-acto knife and I’m growing tired of only two dimensions, although they’ve been good to me. I just feel that the introduction of this third dimension might spice up our relationship.

Tucked away in one of Jack London Square’s many old warehouses lives a brand new winery by the name of Urban Legend Cellars. Only in their second year of winemaking, the two person operation is in full swing, with barrels of wine piled high. It certainly isn’t your idyllic winery with a cottage nestled in a rolling vineyard. Instead, it’s stark and clean and smack dab in the middle of gritty metropolitan Oakland.

The owners are regulars at one of my many places of employ, and were nice enough to let me take a peek. With backgrounds in technology and molecular biology, one might wonder what led to winemaking. “It all started with a case of wine a friend gave us”. And why in Oakland and not a Napa hillside? “There are only so many sunsets you can look at before you say ‘Ok, now I want to get a latte.’” (translation: booooring)

I know it’s my first official post and already I am stretching the interpretation of my theme, but a “vignette” is also a small vineyard or vine, so it sort of fits. Anyway, Urban Legend plans to have their tasting room open in the spring and I can’t wait to check it out. And with Linden Street Brewery just around the corner and Hangar 1 through the tunnel in Alameda, you can make a day of boozing out of it.

p.s.- I’ve added the new category “Matters of the belly” to cover everything gastronomically delightful.

‘What the heck is a vignettist?’, one might ask. They might also ask ‘Is that a made-up word?’ Probably, but it makes sense to me so here it goes…

Vignettes in this context will be anything self-contained. I am a searcher and creator of vignettes, thus a vignettist. I will share with you my vignettes in the following categories (that will most likely change due to acute fickle-itis):

matters of the heart – a personal post about me, turned into a yummy little morsel of storytelling

matters of the hand – things that I make. Some may refer to this as “art” but the jury is still out.

matters of the earth – I occasionally do some indoor gardening with succulents I steal from others’ yards.

matters of the home – maybe I’ll toss in some interior design for good measure

matters of the road – or sky or sea or whichever way I decide to travel. This will also include the section “Obscure Oakland”, my guide to the city I live in and it’s surrounding areas.

matters of the cloth – I really don’t want this to become a fashion blog, but it wouldn’t be true narcissistic indulgence without pictures of me in cute outfits.

So there you have it. I hope Terry and all my imaginary readers enjoy!