Last year, we'd taken the easy way out of trying to find some place to party, instead opting for the 2nd story back deck and a multi-show extravaganza of small fireworks shows in the distance.

Ma and I were expecting to do the same thing this year, but then suddenly, not only was Scott awake from a 3 day hibernation, he had yummy news: we were going to do a complete splurge dinner at The Warehouse, this upscale seafood place over in Marina Del Ray. We'd gone there two years ago, and Scott figured 'Why not do it again?'

Why not indeed. We left later than we had last time, dodging through traffic at 6:30 playing Ray Stevens' "Missouri Revival Tour", arguably the funniest musical comedy album in near memory. When I first saw the line stretching around the koi pond and knife-riddled bamboo stalks, I figured there wasn't a chance in hell we'd get the yuppie deck again.

See, we'd left a reservation, but apparently they couldn't guarantee a seat. We'd have to wait like buzzards over the table we wanted.

This first meant, of course, getting drinks at the bar. Scott recommended a Yellowbird/Zombie, a multi-rum concoction, getting me my original pina colada idea on top of it. And so Mom and I strolled onto the yuppie deck, getting glances and a sneer from the near and over 40 crowd there. We waited semi-inconveniently near the narrow walkway between the upper and lower decks, chatting amicably, sipping steadily, and wondering where in the fuck the hostess was that Scott was trying to get.

Finally, though, the hostess came out, vaguely gestured to our four seat roadkill extravaganza, then went back in. That was all the officialness we needed. We sat down, ordered more drinks, and got to talking about pleasant non-particulars.

Oh you should have seen this dinner. I ended up having, over the course of 4 hours, about 7 of those Zombies and a pina colada. The food line-up was even more impressive: white and herb garlic butters for the bread, tiger prawns twice as wide as my thumb, and my slab of lamb that cut like ripped tissue paper. It was extravagant, wonderful, everything you could want with a decent fireworks show to top it all off in the distance. We lingered like mofos as car-to-car traffic percolated out, then mossied back home.

I did feel pretty crappy from indigestion in the car--probably the lamb, the tender bastard--but eventually that subsided. My fingers were working all fine and good, though, so I hopped online to visit the rose (as opposed to peanut) gallery. Aside from the lovely folk in d-land chat, though, was Old Goat himself, The Captain.

Captain had been tempting me with Spiderman 2 plans for a few days, and it just so happened that there were plans for a July 5th matinee. Now, bear in mind I was still moderately drunk and indigested, so I was on the fence about doing something that sounded so..moving-oriented. But I decided my monkey ass could handle it, so I agreed, drank more water, and babbled on into the night.

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And now, one of several new shots I'll be posting:

Shogun

Comment: Believe it or not, this is 2am and that is the full moon. I love the bit of dark near the bottom and sides of the huge red corona; gives you the illusion that it's dawn, I think.

I'm still re-working the print version, but rest assured it'll be coming today.

Also, I noticed that some of you have made some lovely donations to the cause. My deepest thanks for helping out! It means alot to me that you enjoy the work that much.

With that in mind, if you have donated money recently, read the Donations FAQ about what sort of gift you can receive for the amount you contributed. All the info should be there, including my e-mail address.

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