There's a panhandler downtown who has two orange cats. He's got them on leashes, and they seem to spend their days sitting on a green quilt on top of his shopping cart of posessions. This morning he passed me on the street, wheeling the cart, the cats watching the ground and licking the corners of their mouths as if they'd just had a snack.

Today I gave some blood away at the Blood Banks of the Pacific's Irwin Center, and as a reward, I got myself some sushi for dinner. Salmon, tekyu maki (tuna w/cucumber) and toro, fatty tuna. So delicious. I figured it would be a good time to get my weekly servings of omega 3s and mercury.

Went to Zebulon last night with some co-workers. Denis scored us some space on the little mezzanine level. Service was slow and had about an 80% accuracy rate...but at least they were nice about it. I had a couple of excellent Blackberry Mojitos -- real blackberries muddled along with tons of lime and mint (fiber with your alcohol!) Watch out, ( Read more... )

I'm trying to think about translation again, so I can get back to work on the manuscript I completed for my thesis and maybe make it publishable. The problem is, lots of other poets seem to be thinking about translation (and maybe always have), and what if they do it better than me? Kate Pringle is working on a cool series of "German Sonnets" ( Read more... )

I saw Sherman Alexie last night. I read his story "The Toughest Indian in the World" 5 or 6 years ago and loved it. I bought the story collection by the same name and then One Stick Song, a collection of prose and poetry, equal parts sardonic wit, self-deprecation, pain, and reverence. I had a little crush on him for a while. Anyone seen Smoke ( Read more... )

I'm going to try an experiment: LJ-ing every day for a month. My apologies if it gets insanely boring -- I expect to produce at least the occasional nugget of goodness ( Read more... )

We finally called an exterminator to do something about our mouse(mice)/rat(s). He came by yesterday and apparently told my housemate Kyle that it was physically impossible for rats to get into our walls because of the way they are constructed. What we were hearing, he insisted, was the tree outside brushing up against our house. Wow. I never ( Read more... )

Something is gnawing at my house. Housemate Kyle saw a mouse in the kitchen a month or so ago, but that's been the only siting, and we've had no luck with live traps. Though I am loathe to admit it, the voracious gnawing noises that come from our walls sound like they're made by something bigger than mices. I think it's time to admit that I ( Read more... )

Last night I was at a party where two of the guests brought small dogs. Percy the 12-year-old white poodle came in a black bow-tie. Percy is blind but it's really hard to tell because his senses of smell and hearing are so sharp. He's even good at jumping up to snap at toys that you dangle over his head, provided that you tap him on the nose ( Read more... )

About a week ago I was waiting at a bus stop after saying goodbye to some friends at a bar. I hadn't been waiting long when a small man with a big white beard and a nice hat and a growth on his right eyelid asked me if I was coming home from work. I thought this was an odd question for 11:30 at night, and I told him no, just going home ( Read more... )