We’ve had enough excitement this weekend. When the little man declared we were staying home all day today, I didn’t argue. I might not make it out of my pajamas.

Yesterday we were pummeled by the same storm twice. Before we left St. Paul the hail started. Had to wait it out a little so we wound up ten minutes late for the Vampire Hands in-store at Treehouse, but still caught most of it. And that was a good time. But just as their set ended, the storm caught up with us in Minneapolis. Hanging outside Treehouse in the rain was fun, but walking in wet shoes is a much less pleasant sensory experience.

Looking to the week ahead there is much in the way of general grown-upness:

• Errand-running excitement, including hitting up the always hellish Home Depot.
• Going to We the People with J, for all of our legal needs. I like how divorce is listed as a “product” on their site.
• Need to transfer all of my automatic billpay stuff from my old checking account to my new one. Soooooo tedious yet necessary.

Bonus: Happy movie news abounds. I hadn’t been following the unfolding of Batman/The Dark Knight, but Veronica has an excellent summary. The movie doesn’t come out until 2008 but there’s already a Harvey Dent campaign site, and a similar one, hacked by The Joker. Also? The Golden Compass trailer is now up. As usual, with my favorite books turned into movies, I am a wee bit wary yet compelled.
Plus: Catching up at More Cowbell made me realize…I missed The Clientele show last Thursday night. I kinda forgot about it, but likely couldn’t have made it anyhow. Part of the Sharyn-can’t-do-it-all reality. But I can make it to the kid-friendly shows. Until this morning I’d never heard of Pershing Park in Minneapolis. But it turns out that Harry and the Potters are playing at the park on July 16th. We’ll be there.
And: Miss Amanda is alive and well in Alaska…and leaving bras behind on her travels. The sure sign of an excellent journey.

The last 24 hours have contained equal parts brilliance and annoyance.

Brilliant:

• Being sober when friends are not. Can be very funny.
• Hanging out with and hugging old friends and getting to know new ones. I am an extreme extrovert after all.
• Strolling down to the neighborhood coffee shop this morning for vegan cherry streusel and a quick fix.
• A friend painted my dining room “pepper spice” yesterday, which is a fancy way of saying kinda brown-like.

Annoying:

• Being sober when friends are most definitely not. Can be incredibly frustrating.
• It’s pouring rain, but my gutters are not currently attached to the house.
• The contractors have made such a mess. Understandably so, yes, but I don’t feel like cleaning up enough to cook anything.
• Knocking back three shots of espresso is not an adequate substitute for sleep.
• The city followed up on their vague warning letter by appearing, en masse, in my backyard yesterday. While it’s nice to finally have the lawn mowed, I don’t look forward to footing the bill for it. Also? They completely obliterated my Dame’s Rocket patch that lined the side fence.
• Not being able to remember where I stole this post title from.

Bonus: I’ve had a fangirl crush on Marjane Satrapi for years, and reported a while back about Persepolis being made into a movie. Now there’s a teaser up for it. In French.
Plus: A little preoccupied right now with the choosing of paint. Still need to settle on colors for the kitchen, the hallway and two bedrooms. Behr’s ColorSmart thingie helps, but it’s sooooooooo sloooooooow.
And: Listening to Radio K. They just played a song by Willy Mason and mentioned that he’s just 22 years old. I saw him open for Sondre Lerche and would never have guessed. He looks and sounds much older. But I have to quit getting all hung up on age.

It’s been nearly a week since my last post (what sort of penance must I make for this transgression?) and in that time life has rolled along in its usual exhausting ultimate roller coaster ride mode. Random highlights and distractions:

• Many of my most favorite people have already turned or will be turning 30 this year. One of them happens to turn 30 today. Happy Birthday Tom!
• Finally got my hands on Runaways Volume 3 (which is where this post title came from).
• I want the Destroyer Bot by Tubes. Hey, my birthday is coming up…
• Soon I Will Be Invincible is at the top of my reading list. According to wikipedia: The novel is a spoof and hommage[sic] to comic books, featuring a mad genius supervillain, Doctor Impossible, who suffers from “malignant cognition disorder.”
• Took care of a bunch of the boring stuff like bills, appointment making, and renting yet another dumpster. Which arrived yesterday and is already nearly full.
• The soundtrack of my life is often the soundtrack of the little man’s too, since we spend so much damned time in the car. It makes me happy when he enjoys what I play. Lately he’s given me the thumbs up for Andrew Bird, Love of Diagrams, Man Man, and The Plastic Constellations. Particularly the song Let’s War, because it’s about slaying a dragon.
• It totally looks like Robert Smith painted my toenails.
• Anton, who’d been out of town while I was in Chicago, gave me a ring the other day and broke the news…I had been staying very near the all-vegan Bleeding Heart Bakery but had no idea. I’ll definitely have to head back down soon to try it out.
• Courtesy of jeansays: the actual no one belongs here more than you site that everyone should click at
• Underground Artists Take on the Sith in The Vader Project - pop surrealist, graffiti, tattoo, lowbrow, comic and underground artists Shag, Tim Biskup, Frank Kozik, Marc Ecko, Amanda Visell, J. Otto Seibold, Gary Baseman, Joe Ledbetter, Urban Medium and Jeff Soto, among others, show their allegiance to the dark side by customizing Darth Vader helmets. Very cool stuff. More on flickr.
• The exterior of my house is now 3/4 painted and looking good. The other night I was tag-surfing on flickr, looking at other Dutch Colonials, and came across the porch project in NYC. Wouldn’t mind kicking back on many of those porches this summer, with a glass of lemonade.