ironymaiden | dude, am i the only person who didn't like Kill Bill v.2?

it's been a nice week. not just the weather, but largely in a sense of inner peace. we cleaned the lanai and moved the plants outside. there's an outlet, so despite the faulty battery, C can clatter away in the fresh air and i am free to inhabit my own house. we've worked out things so that we take a rambling walk in the early evening and then settle in at home so he has a few dedicated hours nightly. and we've even combined the walk with completing errands and some parallel play in varied coffee shops...Cafe Bella with the fabulous selection of board games (i gave C a drubbing at Genus 5 Trivial Pursuit. i swear they've dumbed it down.) and Guiness on tap, and Cafe Zingaro with the window bar and latte in a tall glass (they also have a cardamom coffee cake that will be the end of me).

a new branch of Twice Sold Tales is opening in the old Titlewave space and they're looking for genre paperbacks. we've got the owner's cel number. she's a peach, and very excited about the map of Middle Earth that will be gracing her wall.

work ended friday with the christening of the Loaded Dock. we have a loading dock on the first floor, and what started out as jokes about using it as a bier garten and painting it the color of the drug that is bankrolling the expansion have become reality. at 4:30 we tapped a keg of Red Hook ESB on the cheerfully orange dock. good times. C held back to get me safely home, and then we walked down to Pesos and had tacos and their big-ass margueritas together. the roses on the walk there are all about to bloom. there are a fragrant few out already. there's a house just off Aloha that has terraced the median along the length of their property with roses. permanent drip irrigation system and everything. i love walking that way, even if it does make the trip uphill both ways.

my buzz wore off in time to join up with

weahawk,

livingdeadpan,

scifigal, and Led for karaoke and cards. i knew i was in over my head when my companions alternately pulled out their own CDs and song slips :) i was delighted to discover another Dead Nazi drinker, and i sang with only the help of Diet Coke, although alcohol might have kept me from Sunday Bloody Sunday. C won't take the mike, but joyfully sings along to whatever is on. all and all, a good Walpurgisnacht and a happy birthday to

livingdeadpan , who remains my hero for sensing that i had finished my bottle of syrup and bringing me another (and telling

weahawk that it's easy to pick on the cripple).

we've had a gentle and beautiful Beltaine, including another sumptuous meal at Marrakesh. on the way home from the early seating, we stopped to watch the International Fountain and the people who love it. while we were there, it went into a dormant period and C walked a full slow circuit of the dome trailing his hand in the water. i just sat back and watched. he's lost so much weight and changed shape entirely the past several months. i love to watch him. he's taking a childlike delight in moving his altered frame through space, and i can't blame him. the opera house has these odd fountains that are just a quarter inch deep sheet of water that runs across a few feet of pavement and then disappears into a grate. i love to kick off my sandals and pad through them in my bare feet.