drscott | Weekend

Saturday, after some gardening and much-delayed deadlifts at the gym that left my lower back spasming nicely, we headed off to

excessor's for dinner. He made us a wonderful potroast in a pressure cooker -- shades of my mother's Sunday ritual! Now that pressure cookers are "in" again, maybe we will get one.

After dinner we watched Sordid Lives on DVD -- you can tell how we lag behind y'all in that we had never seen it, though by Paul's ability to do all the roles by heart I gather he had seen it a few times. It was a lot of fun, though why anyone would make a movie featuring my relatives, I don't know.

Today Mike went off to finish up his friend Sam's garden, so I went up to meet

excessor/Paul at his friends John and Mark's house, which is a nice .75-acre spread in Atherton. I refrained from reciting my hobbyhorse theory which cites Atherton as an excellent example of how the wealthy subsidize their lifestyle using their political power -- the land there would in the absence of low-density zoning be worth far more to middle-class people (and society as a whole) when used for more high-density housing, particularly near the commuter rail station. Instead the wealthy and connected preserve a place near the city with artifically low land prices for their desired use.

Anyway his friends are delightful, even if they benefit from the oppression of poor outsiders and force them to commute from the East Bay. The day was beautiful, the pool blue, the grounds perfect (easier when you have groundskeepers!) I consented to a little vodka in my iced tea. John collects artistic physique photos, and he took me through his collection before we left for....

The Lone Star. Where it was either too loud or too crowded for me. Something about the sound system inside was deadly to my overprotected hearing, with really piercing highs being drawn out of some songs. Had to flee to the patio, where you couldn't move. Saw LJers

dhbearguy,

bigreddee (at last we meet!),

handlebear and

nanocub, and

ricksf (and probably others, but I can't yet see individuals very well in a crowd like that unless they're right up against me.) It seemed to me that nobody noticed I was there, but when I'm with someone at a bar I tend not to notice anyone noticing me. In any case nobody was after my body [sob.]

Then it was off to dinner in the Castro and home.