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for current monkey biz go HERE new year's eve, amongst the el pasoans...            12.31 okay, so the big, jolly fellow in the red suit disappointed us again, spent the better part of xmas and the day after looking hither & yon, but No(!!!), no Nigella L. awaiting yourstruly underneath the xmas tree, nor nattily attired in xmas bodystocking, goshdarnitall, no matter how good a boy he'd been all year long; those of ye who've found thyselves oft disappointed on xmas morning, well, l'marquis be certain you can imagine his disappointment. Perhaps, just perhaps, there was someone who deserved such a wonderful gift more than ourowndamnedself, who's to say, whomever it may have been would have had to be one righteous fellow, s'all we got to say. By the way, it has been our pleasure of late to gaze admiringly upon the lovliness that is Elizabeth Vargas on the ABC evening news as she stands in for a certain Mr. Jennings, and as far as this bigapefellah be concerned, the network ought to consider making her the anchor there, we'd wager they would triumph in the ratings against those johnnycomelatelys who'll be helming the other network news programs & yessssss.... isn't it about time we saw something other than a male face in that environment, eh Binky? oh yah, the Cold from Hell: caught a bug while in the bay area, which kind of simmered along without screwing up our days too much, that is until tues of the 14th where it just kicked l'Marquis' ass. Ever had one of those cold/sore throat things where you avoid swallowing because it HURTS TOO DAMN MUCH? Hid out in motel room so we wouldn't share any of this wonderfulness with anyone generous enough to put us up while visiting the Albany/Berkeley environs, spent weds entirely abed the whole day, Thurs enough of an improvement to pack up and move back into the Albany house, where over our last weekend there we completed the largest task of the many small projects we'd made the journey west to accomplish. Anyone interested can see the handiwork here, we mentioned last time around our gratitude to Coach S. for her inspiration and willingness to lend a hand & break a sweat. Anyway, that cold continued to linger even after our return to EPT, revisiting us with that kickass fury almost a week to the day from the days we hid out in East Bay motel, oh we wuz feelink Y U C K Y indeed. Made certain to get much rest and medicate as throughly as possible to enable our surviving the approaching holiday, and thank goodness we managed it, plenty of hot tea, Vitamin C, and bedrest making it all possible. Oh yah, the holidaze are nearly passed us, and then in between those major occasions, nosotros aqui in the Clan Pivarnick were acknowledging an anniversary, one year ago our beloved paterfamilias Vinci departed this vale of tears and, oh boyz und gurlz, it has not been an easy thing at times, bereavement exacts a particular sort of emotional distress, and, hoooo boy, sometimes yourstruly can be feeling fine and thinking we got it managed and that the passage of time has been a healing & helpful thing, but next thing you know, we'll be driving down the street and some mention or memory of the ol' guy will burrow directly into that most tender spot in l'Marquis' psyche and next thing you know there's tears streaming down his face and he can't speak a word 'cause the only thing that would pass his throat at that time would be the first of many sobs. Yes, we still missin' our ol' Dad, good thing that we are here amongst those souls dearest to us, this likely be a more difficult anniversary to experience otherwise. Some other things to mention in passing: enjoyed visiting with pal Joseph G., in town from Tucson over the xmas holiday to visit his Momz and Sister, we had occasion to spend two evenings together, hours spent talkin' story, commiserating over the terrible shape this nation is in, we even managed to catch a little hoops action during the Sun Bowl b-ball tourney, and a welcome distraction it was, too. The Momz and ourself went to movie the day after and caught Meet the Fockers, and again, we putting this directly in the category of Welcome Distraction; certainly not high art, but funny and enjoyable, kind of a blast to watch DeNiro & Hoffman goofing it up, had the Momz laughing so hard it got worrisome for a minute or two when she caught popcorn kernel in her throat and began coughing, thankful that passed without anything more than a few moments of worry and concern. And, katz und kitteeez, when do you know you have been watching too much cable TV? well, para exemplo, l'Marquis was enjoying his night's slumber recently, dreaming of this and that, experiencing fine kind of erotic/romantic dreamtime episode, his hands on shoulders of woman as he stands behind her, bending to kiss her shoulders, lifting her blond hair up and away from the nape of her neck to enable him to nuzzle, nibble and bestow all manner of sweet little nothing kisses there on tender flesh of her neck, her earlobes and then, as he turns her around to face him so he can deliver major league smootchiness, Hokeysmokes Bullwinkle, it be none other than Carmela Soprano!!! "it's alright Ma, I'm only bleeding..."       12.19 s'pity, as usual, that the news get out late to print the media on occasion, but this story has nothing at all to do with a certain d'monquis' own reappearance in Bay Area, and I'll be very happy to tell you that what l'Marquis wants for Xmas, more than anything else in the whole wide world---     he wants to come home some evening to discover Nigella Lawson awaiting, yes, indeed, a memorable dinner, the first of many, many more to come. ahh, Santa, he's been a very good boy of late, let's be especially generous this year... got some work done today, type of labor that I've not invested effort in very much of late, being clever with tools and making some little planting box/wooden portico thingie, involving (much credit to Coach S for her inspiring example of getting one's hands dirty...) a bit of work with concrete pavers, gravel and sand, handled pretty damn adroitly for a couple of amateurs, finishing late afternoon and enjoying delivered pizza dinner bliss. Watched heretofore unseen movie with Denzel as high school football coach and felt manipulated like a muthafukka but kind of enjoyed the experience, nevertheless...   it's just after midnite and Boz Scaggs is on KQED and it's been a long day, maybe not a whole LOT to say about anything in particular. Awfully damned difficult to avoid notice of this holiday time of year, maybe easier for hermits gone cold turkey on their mediabullshittvradiosattelitecableegads habit... whew...  . so, on with the show ( a quiet and uninspiring one, Binky, to be sure, it is the holidays after all, so you should not imagine us doing anything really resembling anything like work hereabouts, eh... ) HEY, melanie's back (hurrah!) and yesssssirreeeee Binky, we know exactly what she be speaking of when she refering to that Election from Hell. Twice in a row!!!! who'd a thunk it? yeeeeeshhhh...... another good thing that happened recently, especially for those of us who appreciate the efforts of S. F. Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, well, he's baaaa-aack, yes he is, back to Five Days a Week, after some kind of "use up that accumulated vacation time or else, Carroll" cutback to thrice weekly, and we'd like to point you in the direction of this recent item by JC and also mention that his friday column was damned fine also, whilst inducing some feeling in yourstruly that wasn't exactly envious, but something somewhere in that neighborhood. Happy Holidays, Melanie; Happy Holidays, JC... alright now, truth be told, it is now Sunday, we paused last night, somewhere after that mediabullshitcabletvradio etc..., watched Boz for a bit then decided to hell wit'it and called it a night. Took a long walk thru the neighborhood this morning, a really lovely morning here in Albanyville, and just tried to soak up the goodness of it all, as we heading back to the desert southwest sometime dark thirty tomorrow morning. Been nice to back, good to catch up with a few pals, and my apologies to those with whom we were unable to hook up with, only so much time available and we spent a good chunk of it in the company of our Momz during her brief visit here yet we'll be back again, y'all just keep in touch and l'Marquis promises to invest more effort in meeting up with the pals he missed this time around. But y'all not off the hook yet, Nope, no way babykakes. Out of the same pages of the fishwrap that publishes J. Carroll, Joan Ryan delivers a heartbreaker, makes you wonder just what the fuck we've got ourself into (yah, like you haven't wondered that a hundred times at least already...) and Oh Yes, Would I EVER love to have that simpering moron president and every one of those empty suits surrounding him have to spend hours with those photographs, and even better, the families of those men, just to see if they could look them in the eye and tell them why their loved one is lying there like that, justify all the lives shattered, lives lost... amigos and compadres, gonna have to leave ya like this for now, get my bag packed and be ready for that early am ride to the oaktown aerodome. Thought we wanted to share with you more of what we've had a taste of during our brief go-round hereabouts, and mebbe we'll do just that once we got a leeetle perspective on it, certainly given ourself plenty to think about in terms of New Year's Resolutions and Related Possible Intentions. Passing by small retail emporium on upper Solano, deck of cards on display in their front window with U-Know-Who's face over pinup girl figures (and if you don't know who, we talking 'bout GWB), and while we did smile, it struck us as humourous, nice touch was the entire deck on display to peruse and enjoy, but wasn't more than a scant moment or two later that yourstruly was thinking to himself that there is actually nothing funny at all about this hugely incompetent and arrogant fool, nothing funny at all about the fact that he is the President, that he feels completely at ease, confident he has won his mandate and fully intends to force his agenda upon us, oh oh oh oh oh...     why we be in the mess we in, Binky? Just where'd we go SO wrong? okay, enuf already, gettin' depressing 'round here and you sure don't want to spoil your holidays, give us a week to recover and you'll hear from us sometime soon, ciao for now, katz und kitteeez.... where da hell dat d'monkey been?       12.9 so here we are back in the bay area environs, just over a week now, and presently in the company of the Momz, who flew out yesterday and will be here for holiday shopping and brief holiday from the high desert of EPT. BIG thanks to Coach S., for putting up with the company of yourstruly for the last few days and sharing access to the net via her laptop and DSL connect, been able to catch up with ALL of my bloggos favoritos here in the last week or so, what an indescribable pleasure to have them load in instants rather than the many long minutes of death by dial up... have had the best of intentions in re gettin' round to updating with more recent post, but somehow or another the opportunity remains just out of range for one reason or another. That shithead Rumsfeld shouldn't be the only one doing a Q&A with the men and women shouldering the load of the cad-ministration's incredible war of ineptitude, ourowndamnedself would like nothing better than to see the resident himself squirming and smirking his way thru some of those tough questions. Oh, yah, there be lots and lots of things we were able to catch up with over the last week that we enjoying sharing with you all, but anytime you curious about what we be checking out, just stop in at those links you see above, l'alliance & les autres, and follow that up with any fine chewy linky goodness you find therabouts, oh man oh man, just too many folks to try and keep up with these days, happy to have been pointed in the direction of the Progressive Blog Alliance, although we do wish we could remember where we chanced upon link pointing us in their direction. What else? well, one of our favorite places is celebrating 10 years of existence, and we always telling folks to read Ralph; mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, as we cannot recall (again) who might have pointed us in the direction Furl, but this kind of handy thing has always interested yourstruly, perhaps you too find it a useful widget. Oh, and a nice food related blog that we happened across, feeding dexygus seconds, sure was happy to discover the recipe for Ginger Snaps ala Chez Panisse on this fine weblog. Thinking that gonna do for now, maybe gather me wits (whats left of them at least) and try to get back here before hieing ourself off to some other place in the next week or so. That damnable bigtime holiday coming up and as for ourself, we just wants to spend it as quietly and peacefully as possible, so it gets out of the way and over with and folks can stop alla that holiday stressing they seem to enjoy so much. And the New Year? 2005? well, who knows what be in store, maybe yourstruly will finally (FINALLY) finish off that CD compilation thing that he be working and reworking, excising tunes, rearranging, is it gonna be one disc or two (likely two), after all the promises he has made to folks in re to it coming their way (hmmm, too much like the promises he has made to folk about his own large persona coming out their way), anyway, it might be worth waiting for, then again, if nothing else, be pleasant stuff to listen to when you on your next road trip. okay Binky-poo, just remember it really isn't about the thing, that present, that particular item, what counts is when you have opportunity to be with that person you planning on being so generous to, you make sure you give of yourself, nothing wrong with a big abrazo and kisses on each cheek, maybe share a nice dinner, or even just a cocktail (or two or three), spread lots of that personalized goodness around, and not just at the holidays either, maybe if we make it a more regular thing, we might all feel a little happier... and we thought we felt bad in November of '00 . . .           11.9 it all finally caught up with l'Marquis a few days ago, oh yourstruly was sick, sick, sick; had the bad tummy troubles and related intestinal miseries, experienced a severe bout of the pukies and paid homage to the porcelain god, spent a good deal of that day abed and simply miserable. dear Momz tried to brighten our spirits by pointing out Molly Ivins' take on the debacle, helped raise our spirits a bit, yes it did. Managed to get online for a bit here recently and saw some excellent stuff posted by amigos C.J. and Mark, of BookNotes and wood s lot respectively , gotta tip da ol'red fez to K.M. & his GITM, too. Not convinced that Molly has it right 'tho, yourstuly believes that you will occasionally run across a dog that is just too stupid to realize the error of its ways, might even come to enjoy the stench of that rotting chicken hangin' from its neck, and we will freely admit that these last few months have not gone as once planned, and we've not gotten out and about to the many locales we desired to spend some time in (and not referring to the eastern seaboard here, it was our intention to spend a bit more time in some other west/southwest locales...) but got to say that time spent in the places we have been, well good golly, there sure be a LOT of jebus loving, toby keith listening, SUV driving, walmart shopping, gasoline thirsting, homosexual marriage fearing, U.S. troop supporting morons afoot (especially enjoyed discovering the jebusland map mentioned at wood s lot that mark credits to sandhill trek). yeeeeeessssshhhhhh, you thought the shit got pretty deep here in the last few years, goddamn, better get yourself a snorkel, Binky the thirty-one days of trepidation and foreboding that was octubre hasta lluego, amigos, y que te vaya bien...