I started packing today. This is the worst part. Wanna come help me?

Dear Mother Nature,

We can no longer be friends. You have let me down. I miss winter.

Tearfully,

Atlanta Daniel

James Lipton recites Kevin Federline’s PopoZao

My aunt invited me out to dinner on February 18th to celebrate her and my dad’s birthdays (14th and 25th, respectively). She said they were coming over this way so I could just meet them. Score! I get two birthdays out of the way and I don’t even have to drive far for it.

But then she told me where they were going. Some place called Ruth’s Chris Steak House in “downtown” Virginia Beach.

Steak and Virginia Beach. Yay. Sounds great.

Just look at their menu. 50 points to the first person who can pick out the only thing on that menu that I would even consider eating.

What is their obsession with eating steak whenever I have to have dinner with them?

I’ve been cleaning out my computer at work and going through the ol’ music files. I only have 3 days left at work!!!

Here is a new mix in celebration of my upcoming freedom.

The last song is from the Icelandic documentary I was just talking about. It’s an amazing performance, I can’t wait for you to see it.

1. DeVotchKa - Vengo! Vengo!
2. The Tiger Lillies with Kronos Quartet - Weeping Chandelier
3. P.O.S. - Music For Shoplifting
4. Coldcut - Man In A Garage (Bonobo Remix)
5. Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
6. Balkan Beat Box - Adir Adrimi (Featuring Victoria Hanna)
7. Ampop - My Delusions
8. DeVotchKa - We’re Leaving
9. The Dresden Dolls - Pierre (Live)
10. Steindór Andersen, Hilmar Õrn Hilmarsson, Sigur Rós - Hrafnagaldur (Odin’s Raven Magic)

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We’re going to Iceland May 10 - 15.

In celebration, last night I finally sat down and watched Screaming Masterpiece, a recent documentary on Icelandic music.

My favorite part was when they were interviewing this guy from NYC and he was sitting in the Blue Lagoon with mud all over hid face. Yes!

And there was a performance from Björk at the Keyspan show we all went to.

Jules and I think we should go in May and just forget about the whole June thing. It would’ve been nice to have our “wedding” there, but it’s just too expensive in June. And I don’t want to be there for a week. Rather, I don’t want to pay to be there for a week.

We think it will be quite fun and appropriate to have our “honeymoon” before our “wedding” anyways.

I’ve been emailing with Hlin, and she said she’s got availability in May, we just need to let her know our exact dates. Staying with her is only about $30 a day more (per person), but I think it’s worth it. We’ll have our own kitchen and super-friendly information source. At a hostel we’re gonna have to eat out all the time and find transportation on our own.

I think we should go for 5 days / 4 nights. We should count on about $200 a day, and that may be a bit generous, but those day trips are probably pricey. I think we paid like $60 each to go to the Blue Lagoon for only two hours.

I’m up for using CouchSurfing for meeting folks, but I’m not staying at a stranger’s house. I’m a host, not a surfer. And Julio doesn’t even like to spend the night at a friend’s house, so he sure as hell won’t be staying at a stranger’s house.

On Friday, right after I arrived, we met Kelly’s friend, Jessica, at the Alamo Drafthouse to see The Lost Boys with some comments from live comedians. It was hysterical. We had dinner and beer there. The food was pretty OK for a drafthouse. I had a veggie burger with roasted red peppers and steak fries. The comedians stopped the show at half-time and put on their own little version of the story. I really think that everyone must experience this at least once. When are we going to Austin?

Kelly and I met another of her friends, Julia, for a Mexican lunch on Saturday (complete with TURBO-CHARGED Margaritas that we couldn’t finish…). Then we did some shopping, sight-seeing, and Apples to Apples playing. Cool game. Later in the evening we went for proper Texas BBQ at the County Line on the Lake. I put aside my
anti-beef / anti-pork policy for the night and ate WAY too much meat for one living creature to eat in two months, let alone one night. It was an experience. It tasted really good, but I felt awful afterward. I had horrible dreams (dinner isn’t completely to blame), and still feel bloated.

Later we rented The Exorcism of Emily Rose and nearly pissed both of our pants. Within 15 minutes, each of us had screamed bloody murder twice and decided that this was the scariest movie ever! We couldn’t really watch it. We had to either put the TV on mute or cover our eyes. Both of us slept in the living room with all the lights in the house on. When I woke up at 3:00am, I had to wake Kelly up to endure the witching hour with me. I couldn’t even sleep Sunday when I got back. Last night, I was almost back to my regular sleeping habits. The Ring affected me for longer, but I was also having major life problems when I saw that movie.

I met Kelly’s boyfriend, Ryan, on Sunday. He seemed like a great match for her. We had brunch at some place whose name I forget. It was delicious. We had queso for appetizer and I ate pumpkin pancakes (not as bad a combination as it sounds). I also had my share of cheap mimosas to knock me out for my flight back. After brunch, we went straight to the airport.

Kelly and I solidified our summer roadtrip plans. I’m meeting her in Austin in the middle of July and we’re heading west from there. We’re taking a tent!

It’s becoming more and more apparent: I need a lot of adventure in order to feel alive.

I got this book called Hipira over the weekend. It’s about a little vampire called Hipira and his buddy Soul, who is a Sprite that came from a spell gone wrong.

It’s super cute and I recommend it to all.

My favorite line

If we drink the blood of those sprites, we vampires get to go to hell.
‘Cause when it comes to vampires, hell is heaven!

uploaded by iso.bot.78

Julio has now officially fallen into the “Gypsies Stole My Heart” camp.

The show was so awesome. It was only 40 minutes long, but it was 40 amazing minutes.

Eugene Mirman opened, and he was pretty funny. He reminded me tons of Michael Bondmass.

Gogol came on immediately after he was done. The crowd was a bunch of stupid Cake-sniffers. They were just standing around. Mostly I heard girls around me asking when Tegan and Sara were gonna come on. Bah! They all sucked. (of course)

We had a comrade right behind, and then up beside us, who sang along to every word. He was fun. We kept wanting everyone in front of us (we were about 4 rows deep) to get the hell out of our way.

Sergey was as precious as ever. Julio got to fall in love with him this time. After the show he signaled him over and gave him a ring. He said his hands were so rough and felt like wood. I just smiled at him, I was in such awe. He is soooo cute!

I heard a bunch of people after the set saying how good they thought they were and that they were going to buy the cd before they left.

At one point, Eugene hopped into the crowd and was right in front of us (swoon), but my little cameraphone just wasn’t up to the job.

I can’t believe we couldn’t take cameras. Stupid Cake.

Now all Julio and I can think about is when we will get to see them again. He wants to know if they need a full-time caterer.