TagFest: DMV
Department of Motor Vehicles Webcam!
Delicious Meat and Vegetables Yummy!
Dancing Men on Vacation Note: not in San Francisco
Dirty Mean Vagabond I'm surprised I got any results with this one.
Drinks Mai-Tais on the Veranda See 2:19 Local Time
Democrat? Might Vote. Obama/Clinton 2008!
Daylight Makes Vitamin The photo cracked me up.
TagFest: Weather
After many dry days we're finally getting rain here in the Bay Area. I'm glad it was dripping on me as I left my car yesterday morning because I remembered to tuck my umbrella in my bag. I sure needed it at night. It was raining hard enough in the City to need it just for the walk from my office to the station. Once I arrived in the East Bay it was really coming down. The wind was blowing but not hard enough that I had to choose between fighting it or getting wet. My new Rick Steeves umbrella survived.
I like rainy days a lot. Granted, I live a life inside. (My time out of doors can be counted in the minutes, usually less than 30.) There's something about the sound and the light and the smell that speaks to something inside me. Sunny days get tedious around here, even when there are clouds or fog in the sky.
After checking with my WeatherBug gadget, I see rain is predicted for the next three days. Woo hoo!
TagFest: Rants
Rant: to speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way.
The word "rant" is from the Dutch word "ranten" which means "to talk nonsense". I think that's highly appropriate for most rants I make, and have to listen to. It's not the words that are spoken but the fire behind them that is important. You just need to get something off your chest. You might not have the perfect argument backed up with icy facts and stony figures but you have an opinion and someone needs to hear it, dammit! (Ah, there's the shouting.) Powerful gestures from the arms and hands often help.
My obligatory rant for this TagFest post is:
Some people think they can just criticize someone's spelling when they really should be offering their congratulations on an important anniversary in their friend's life. I don't need to hear about where the parentheses should be. I want to hear, "Hey, great job sticking with your stupid blog for a year. I never thought you'd do it."
TagFest: Work
The last few times I've talked to the prepress guys over at our printshop, they've kidded me about being behind the times. I was the one who converted to InDesign first (from PageMaker and Quark Xpress) and was able to help them out with a few questions they had when they first switched over. Now they think I'm lagging.
It's true. But I work for a non-profit and we can't afford to be buying the latest Adobe software for hundreds of dollars. We have to buy it through another organization that gets discounts for non-profts and they don't always have what we need.
Take Adobe's Creative Suite Premium for example. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Acrobat Pro, etc., all cost loads of cashola: $1199 But I just ordered it for $150! Of course, I've been checking the TechSoup website for months and months and it's always been on back-order. Not today. I'm so excited to finally catch up with the masses.
Welcome to my First Annual Tag Fest!
In celebration of my one-year anniversary and the advent of the use of tags for organizing my posts, I'm planning to take each tag on my list and write a post during February pertaining to that topic. Some posts may be general observations about the tag. Others may have specific relevance to current events in my life.
If you'd like to promote your favorite tag for early inclusion in TagFest, leave me a comment and I'll try to take it into consideration.
Congrats to myself for one year of blogging! To celebrate, I recently switched to the new (and improved) Blogger format which allows the use of tags, or labels, to better organize my posts.
You may have noticed tags at the end of posts the last few days. I spent a few hours on Sunday applying 23 different tags to the over 300 posts I made in the last year. Some unsurprising results were the high number of TV, books and sports posts but I was a bit shocked to have only a couple family-related entries. I guess I need to start talking more about my fam.
Another change is that instead of showing a list of the most recently posted titles (the Back Burner), my new template only allows me the monthly archives (The Collection, formerly known as Cold Storage). However, it does show how many posts were made during those months. I've definitely been slowing down over the last half year. I sure was a busy little blogger last May (46 posts) and June (51). Not surprisingly, that was right after I got my new camera and my computer at home.
My anniversary celebration will continue all month so get ready to share your POV and post lots of comments.
My favorite pitcher Jeff Weaver is headed to Seattle though he didn't look too happy at the press conference (ha, ha). I'm pretty happy he's back in the AL West. I might have to go to some more A's game this season. Let's see ... the M's are in town April 25–26, just when I get back to town. What good timing! We'll see if Jeff pitches either of those games. I might have to wait until the first weekend in July. Anyone want to go with?
Most of my family live in cold weather climes. They're getting to experience some fun weather right now so a weather report email thread has developed over the last couple days with (paraphrased) comments like these:
Western Lower Michigan: "The weather is so bad they've called off church. The library was closed and the line at the video store was 20 deep. The snow has drifted two feet up against our sliding glass door."
Minnesota #1: "It's -16º here."
Illinois (outside St. Louis): "It's 20º with 20 mph winds."
Indiana: "It's been below 15º with windchills between -5º and -15º for the last couple days."
Pennsylvania: "Our temps are normal: highs in the single digits. We have about 6–8 inches of snow on the ground."
Northwestern Lower Michigan: "Our low overnight was 0º and it's now 1º. We had our lot snow-plowed four times this last week. It takes me about 20 minutes to clean off the cars."
Western Lower Michigan: "It's 2º here now. The snowblower was only up to doing half the driveway. It's resting now. It was crazy on the road last night. I was stuck in the street but I made it out. I left my cell phone on in the car so they could know how my progress was getting home."
Minnesota #2: "We'll get close to the record of 84 hours below 0º. They're expecting windchills of -30º today."
Minnesota #1: "We made it to -18º this morning."
Western Lower Michigan: "The kids' school just cancelled. Snow is blowing around again."
Pennsylvania: "Wind is howling and blowing snow. School is on a two-hour delay. The TV is listing 95 delays or cancellations."
Minnesota #1: "It was -11º with a windchill of 120 (must be a typo!) when the school bus came on Friday. Windchills were below -30º on Saturday night."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I so so want to reply to all these emails but what would I say? "It's 60º here at 8:00pm with a high of 65º for tomorrow. Guess I won't be needing my jacket." My family would kill me.
Today we had our monthly staff meeting. Near the end of each meeting we have check-ins where everyone has the opportunity to share things others might need to know about what they're doing and if they are going to be out of the office. As we went around the circle none of the other adminstrative and finance staff had anything to share and had passed so when it came to me I didn't want us to have a big goose egg on the check-in scoreboard so I said, "Instead of passing, I'm going to open it up for a one minute Q&A." There was a tiny moment of stunned silence then people started to laugh, and ask questions.
Our Executive Director, knowing I had a vacation planned: "Where are you going in April?"
Me: "Oh, I'm just going to visit family in Michigan."
Our Founder: "What book are you currently reading?"
Me, fumbling: "Uh, I haven't started it yet but some historical novel that takes place in the UK by some guy whose name I can't remember." (It's actually The Last Kingdom, a ninth-century adventure by Bernard Cornwell. I didn't want the mention the horrid book I had just finished, Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie. And her stuff is usually so much fun.)
My Boss: "How old are you going to be on April 1st?"
Me: "The big 4-0!"
Everyone applauds.
Me: "But that's two months away and there's plenty of time to plan a big party!"
Have you watched Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network yet? Tonight I caught an episode where the chef had to cook a dinner for 200 on a Maine island in 8 hours with two sous-chefs and a handful of volunteers. He had one tiny kitchen and one barely working oven. Right now there's 2 hours left and he hasn't raised his voice to anyone except to call for progress reports from his guys in the next room. All the food they're making looks really great too. Lobster mac & cheese? Yes, please.
Every year my taxes are so easy. I always file the EZ forms online. This year was no different. I filed both federal and state in a matter of an hour or so. Yea!
I usually get a few hundred dollars back mostly because I have my 403b contribution deducted from my paycheck before taxes are taken out while still using the same old withholding status. Last year after doing my taxes I decided to change it to S-02 so less would be withheld each month. I was very curious to see how it would affect my refund. Would I owe the government money this time?
I'm claiming an undeniable success. I owe the feds only $43!
I can't remember if I changed my state withholding to S-02. I don't think so because I'm getting $85 back from the state. So I'm going to get a combined net $42 refund. That might just about pay for my dim sum lunch today.
As I was watching the four-hour season premiere of 24, I couldn't stop thinking that the possibly former terrorist who Jack saved from being blown to smithereens looked really really really familiar. So tonight I looked up who's playing Assad and it's Alexander Siddig (aka Siddig El Fadil) who was Doctor Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Now that was a great show. Worf. Dax. Kira. The list goes on.
Turns out he's also in Kingdom of Heaven which I had just watched on Saturday. No wonder he seemed so familiar!
Check out his birthname: Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi. I'm not joking. Poor kid.
Sal doesn't like pretty boys (like me) but she said she liked Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven so I put it on my queue and watched it last weekend. I was afraid it would be one of those "brown" movies that I can't watch because everything is sepia-colored as if the audience has to be reminded it's a historical picture. Luckily it wasn't. I thought it was beautifully filmed and acted. I enjoyed it a lot.
Kingdom is the story of Balian, the bastard son of a medieval knight of the crusades. After his wife and son die in England, he follows his father's path to the Holy Lands to serve the Christian king of Jerusalem. Part of me wished I knew more of the history of the setting, but I later read some reviews that said the movie didn't stick very close to actual people and events. So it was probably better for my enjoyment of the story not to know much. Next time I get it I might run the pilgrim audio commentary track to see what the movie producers have to say about the history the movie was set in.
As far as Orlando went, even with big muscles and facial hair, it was impossible for him to not be pretty. Mmmhmm.
I can't get over how much phlegm (is snot in the phlegm family?) my body is producing. And in such interesting viscosities and colors. But just a continuous, never-ending river of the white/greenish/red-streaked-yellow stuff. Amazing.
I'm fairly certain I'm developing calluses on my nostrils from all the nose-blowing and tissue-wiping activities from the past week. I think I need some salve.
Some dude (with my same initials) changed the email address for his Amazon account to my Gmail address. Oops!
I now know what he's been ordering (ink cartridges and an estate planning CD-ROM) and where he lives (Oregon). I graciously forwarded all the emails I've received so far to his old address. We'll see if he emails me back.
ETA: Just heard back from him and he changed it back. He was very pleasant about it too. I could've just made a new friend.
All I can say about the new season of 24 is OMGWTF!
For a translation of the above acronym, go to your local UrbanDictionary. Rated R.
I've been neglecting my NetFlix recently so when I woke up early on Saturday I decided to watch the two movies that have been sitting around here for awhile: Elizabethtown and Billy Elliot. I really enjoyed Billy Elliot though the disc was damaged and I missed a couple really important scenes including the "Dance of Defiance" when Billy kinda comes out to his dad showing him how good he can really dance. Maybe someday I'll get to see it. I saw part of the Dance by watching the special features. That's how I know about it at all.
I thought Elizabethtown was going to be a romantic comedy but it wasn't really funny and it really wasn't that romantic. I liked it but I think my expectations going in ruined it a little for me. Maybe I just liked it cuz it was Ooo, Ooo, Orlando the entire movie. I kinda like him juuust a little bit. Which may explain moving Troy and Kingdom of Heaven to the top of my queue. They were both in my mailbox tonight so I decided to watch Troy. That's where the melodrama comes in, not necessarily in this order.
First there was the heaving, desperate romance of the beautiful Paris and Helen. Then there was the angsty, brotherly confrontation between the beautiful Paris and Hector on the boat leaving Sparta. Then there was the supernatural Achilles taking down a muuch bigger man with a single stroke. Then there was the yummy Odysseus trying to persuade a petulant Achilles to go to war with Troy. Then there was the saccharine reunion of Hector and his wife and son. Oh the longing glances. Oh the manly shoulders. Oh the flowing locks of gold.
Oh, then there was the petulant disregard of kingly orders. Then there was the bloody sacking of Apollo's temple. Then there was them thar fighting words. Then there was the heaving, desperate romance of Achilles and that dark-haired girl. Then there was the brave self-sacrifice then the cowardly self-preservation of the beautiful Paris. Then there was lots and lots and lots of fighting which I fast-forwarded through. (Did you know that even when fast-forwarding, if you have the subtitles on, they still show up? Ducky for me!)
Then there was the great big burning balls of fire!! Oooo! Then there was lots and lots and lots of fighting which I fast-forwarded through. Then there was the stupid bravery of Achilles' cousin and the aching self-doubt of Hector. Oh, the teary, kohl-lined eyes. Oh, the cute rosy baby. Then there was the heaving, desperate call of "Hector!" "Hector!" "Hector!" (not what you're thinking!) and then the fiercest, coolest, fight between men in skirts you ever did see. Then there was the dragging through the sand. Then there was the old man crying. Then there was the satisfying redemption of a soul.
Then there was the wily yummy Odysseus and the big black horse. Then there was the smart, beautiful Paris saying "Burn it" and the foolish old men saying "It's a present. Let's take it into our impenetrably walled city and dance around it!' Then there was lots and lots and lots of fighting which I fast-forwarded through. Then there was heaving, desperate running and running and running and oh just a little more running. Oh, the sad parting words! Oh, the beautiful Paris and his bow! Oh, an arrow through Achilles' Achilles' heel!
Whoo. I'm tired from all that heaving and running and fighting. I think I need some popcorn.
Wikipedia.org has a random article link that takes you to...you got it, a random article. It's cool like that. So follow along as I click "Random article" repeatedly.
Centennial (miniseries): a TV series from the late '70s based on the Michener novel that takes place in Colorado. I don't remember this show. It was probably a bit too mature for someone my age at that time. It starred lots of famous actors including Richard Chamberlain, Mark Harmon and Andy Griffith.
Happiness (film): a Cannes Film Festival award-winning black comedy from 1998, starring Lara Flynn Boyle, Jon Lovitz and Philip Seymour Hoffman, among others. I have to say I never heard of this film. I bet you have though.
Wisdom (surname): the names listed are Jack, John, John Minor, Norman, Olli, Peter and Robert Wisdom. Oh, man, I'm so tempted to click on the Olli Wisdom link but I will not. I'm on to the next Random Article!
Sensory neuroscience: which studies the behavior of neurons in our sensory systems in order to understand more about how the brain works. Cool.
S/2004 S 11: one of the satellites (moons) of Saturn. It's about 6 kilometers in diameter which doesn't sound very big in the scheme of things. Did you know that moons have an eccentricity as well as an inclination?
Landsbankadeild 2006: the elite football (soccer) league in Iceland in 2006. Included in the article are the top goal scorers. My favorite names from the list are: Tryggvi, Guðmundur, Sævar, and of course the winner, Björgólfur.
Hematon: part of the process of making blood cells. Other fun words in the article are: preadiposcytes, mesenchymal, megakaryocyte and haematopoiesis. Yea for science!
Dimocarpus: a genus of flowering plants in southeast Asia that includes longan fruit. Something else I've never heard of but I bet I'll be seeing longan fruit everywhere from now on.
Annemarie Moser-Pröll: an Alpine skier (downhill, giant slalom, combined) from Austria who won gold in the Lake Placid Olympic Games in 1980. She also got two silvers in Sapporo in 1972 not to mention lots of World Cup titles. She is now a grandmother and runs a café. Sounds like she's had a good life.
Karl-Maria Kerbeny: a 19th-century Hungarian journalist who came up with the word "homosexual" and wrote at least 25 books. He was inspired to argue for gay rights by a friend who was being blackmailed and then comitted suicide. Wow, so much information here. I could spend loads of time following all the links in this article. But onward...
Metaflow Technologies: a microprocessor design company in California. Not well-known to the general public. It was owned at one time by Hyundai.
WHIM (AM): a Florida radio station known as "Christian Heritage Radio" broadcasting since 1998.
Uses of podcasting: a list of reasons why you might want to create a podcast, including being subversive and communicating from space.
--oOo--
Well, that was probably too many pages of stuff. But it sure shows the variety of information on the great resource that is Wikipedia. Go Wiki!
Break No Bones
Kathy Reichs, 2006
ninth in the Temperance Brennan series
Kathy's site
After not really enjoying Cross Bones, the previous book in this series, I was curious to see if things got back on track with the latest Temperance Brennan story, Break No Bones. I was not disappointed. I loved this book. There's a great balance between Tempe's personal struggles in her relationships (estranged husband Pete, boyfriend Ryan, friend Emma) and her investigation into the mysterious forensic evidence found on the bodies of some missing persons in South Carolina. What she discovers is not what anyone expected.
Favorite part: I really liked the development of Pete's character in this book. We've seen him a few other times but we really got to spend some time with him as did Tempe, of course, which led to part of the tension that helped to make this book so good.
Least favorite part: There were a couple times that the story got bogged down in long explanations, especially at the end when the sheriff was reporting back to Tempe and Pete.
Next BART Book: ummm, haven't picked one yet
Previous BART Book: Four to Score, Janet Evanovich
Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
One Good Knight, Mercedes Lackey
Hard Day's Knight, Katie MacAlister
Sins and Needles, Monica Ferris
Angel's Fall, Nora Roberts
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton
Four to Score
Janet Evanovich, 1998
fourth in the Stephanie Plum series
Janet's site
Since I had so much fun re-reading Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone alphabet series, I decided to try the ever-entertaining Stephanie Plum books again. I got as far as the fourth book, Four to Score, and decided to stop. I just wasn't in the mood for the hijinks of Stephanie, Lula, Grandma Mazur and, new in Four, Stephanie's new puzzle-solving, transvestite friend, Sally Sweet. Even an appearance by her evil nemesis, Joyce Barnhardt, couldn't keep my interest. The whole series is hilarious though so the next time I'm ready for some comedic reading, I'll be sure to pick up with High Five.
Favorite part: eveyone in the neighbor thinking Stephanie is preggers
Least favorite part: that someone got scalped. Youch!
Next BART Book: Break No Bones, Kathy Reichs
Previous BART Book: Splintered Icon, Bill Napier
Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
One Good Knight, Mercedes Lackey
Hard Day's Knight, Katie MacAlister (a trend in the making?)
Sins and Needles, Monica Ferris
Angel's Fall, Nora Roberts
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton
One of my Christmas gifts this year (thanks, Sal!) was a book called Off the Map. It's a collection of satellite images and commentary by two Scottish brothers who author GoogleSightseeing.com. The images are of natural formations, oddly-shaped buildings and even a sword-shaped swimming pool. They include coordinates so you can look up the images yourself in Google Earth or on Google Maps.
I was excited to see that my favorite satellite image was their first entry in Off the Map: the Richat Structure in Mauritania. I first saw this image on NASA's Earth As Art website and have used it as the desktop on my work computer for many years.
My place just shook with a jolt and I thought maybe it was another quake (there was a 3.5 near here on Saturday), but then I remembered that they've been calling for rain and high winds for the next few days (maybe even a thunderstorm!). I just checked my WeatherBug and it said 22 mph. Wow. And that's from at station about 3 miles away. I live in a little valley that seems to be windier than closer to the bay (where the station is) so who knows how fast the wind is blowing here.
If you guessed chicken korma, you would be correct. Paul and went to the Indian place that had korma for $8 and it was pretty good. It wasn't as sweet and coconutty as I had in the UK but neither was it too hot to eat. I might go there again if only to have the roti that I ordered to accompany the korma. I usually get garlic naan but the menu said roti was whole wheat bread cooked in the tandoori oven. So I said what's wrong with that? Nothing! It was delish.
Now competing for your musical attention...
In one corner, a solo cellist outside the Starbucks is featuring the soothing melody of classical refrains...
While over by the exit to the plaza, a mariachi guitarist sings songs of his people.
Who will win? Or will the cacophony serve only to alienate the transit-riding public?
I'm still not at 100% and it seems the lingering super-phlegm is interfering with my ability to read comfortably on BART. So on the way home today, instead of reading -- and feeling nauseous -- I just sat there and thought about...
Identity
The new gameshow, Identity, premiered last night. The premise is to match up 12 strangers with 12 identities which may range from sumo wrestler to shark attack victim to professional bull rider to retired English professor. If you match all 12 you get $500k. Some of the strangers have obvious visual clues (a sumo outfit or cowboy hat) which the player can easily match to one of the identities on the list, while others are less obvious but still have visual clues (white-bearded, argyle-sweater-wearing older gentleman, dark-haired woman in a bikini top with a long Hawaii print wrapskirt).
Then the potential matches get harder and it's pretty much just guessing at that point. I found it entertaining for a little while but the easy matches irritated me with their predictability and the hard guesses annoyed me because really there wasn't much intelligence involved with guessing. I won't be watching it again, I don't think.
Korma Revisited
Yesterday while walking to the burrito shop, we walked by one of the four Indian restaurants within a few blocks of my office. I checked out the menu in the window and they have chicken korma for $8. Woo hoo!
The place I went to for lunch last week didn't have korma so I ended up getting chicken tikka kabaab which was too hot even when I told the guy I needed it mild. Paul got the chicken tikka masala and his was milder than mine. Plus the Bollywood music was hellaloud. We checked out the closest place to the office on the way back and they're quite pricy with korma at $13. Paul and I will be going to Little India on Thursday and I will report back on the $8 korma. I hope it's good! There's only one place to go after that.
Loud Music on BART
I like listening to my iPod on BART. The headphones discourage strangers speaking to me and the tunes provides a nice background to whatever I'm reading or thinking about. I don't listen to it very loud; I like being able to hear any announcements that might come over the PA system, you know, in case of emergencies. There aren't any signs banning it or anything but most people know it's not nice to play a boombox or radio out loud on BART.
Unfortunately the guy sitting behind me this morning didn't get that particular memo. I don't like calling attention to myself so I wasn't about to turn around and ask him to turn it down. No one else was brave enough to do it either so we all suffered through his jams the whole way in. It's sad because the more we let people like him get away with being rude, the more he's going to think he can do it. Or he just doesn't care.
The Nerve
Speaking of not respecting social boundaries, my phone rang on Saturday night around 10pm and the second ring was a higher pitched tone meaning the number was known to me. Now all my close relatives live in either in the Eastern or Central time zone and I don't really talk to my friends here on the phone that much so I couldn't think of who it might be. Of course, my first thought was that something bad must've happened somewhere to have someone calling me that late (which would be much later for most people I talk to).
But it wasn't a friend or a family member. No, when I checked my Caller ID the phone number was my office number. Say what??! Just who would be at work on a Saturday at 10pm much less calling me from work on a Saturday at 10pm!! Obviously, someone really really needed my help.
I thought, well, maybe our new IT guy wasn't back from his father's funeral in Oregon yet and something serious had happened to a computer. I could see someone calling me for that. But no, there was no computer emergency. There was no emergency at all.
In fact, as I listened to the never-ending message being left, I couldn't understand why this person would be calling me at all. It turns out she was asking about a situation she had talked with me about on Friday. She had shown me a letter to see if it made sense. It seemed okay to me but I had no experience in the matter so I didn't see how I could help her that much. I just don't know why she thought calling me about it, much less on a weekend, late in the evening, was appropriate. Really, the nerve.
This morning...
I was late leaving the house for work...
but then...
I got green lights the whole drive to BART.
At noon...
I saw some drunk guy pissing right on the sidewalk*...
but then...
The steak burrito I had for lunch was delicious.
Tonight...
The BART car was full when I got on after work...
but then...
I got a seat at the next stop.**
*Seriously! We were walking back from picking up our burritos when all of a sudden this guy pulled it right out and starting peeing right into the base of a tree. It was so disgusting. I nearly lost my appetite.
**Another woman and I were about equidistant from the open seat and she made a move towards it at about the same time as I did but she caught my eye and mouthed "Do you want to sit down?" Now I could've been nice and said no, but I had six more stops to go and I wasn't about to stand the whole way if I didn't have to.
Just my luck tonight I got stuck behind a train that had a medical emergency. I was in a full car and people weren't very happy. We had to go three stations north of where our route normally goes, then reverse back through those stations to get back on track (so to speak).
BTW, I really don't think you need to be calling your friends every five minutes to give them an update on which station you're at and bitch and moan about still being stuck on the train. Take a chill pill! It's not like you can do anything about it. Just relax!
Of course, I had my iPod on and my nose in a book. Sure pays being prepared.
I think I have a cold. I'm sneezy and my sinuses are achy and stuffy. I woke up with a sore throat this morning though that's better now. I'm taking some cold medicine and have been drinking tea all morning. I should've bought a teapot as a souvenir in England. I keep having to heat up the water to refill my mug.
This morning as I passed through the BART station on my way to work I heard the familiar refrain of a Christmas carol. I think it was O Come, All Ye Faithful. The odd thing was that it was coming from a solo flute. Not the instrument you would normally think of when considering buskers in BART. A folk guitar with suspect vocals, an oddly voiced Chinese stringed instrument, occasionally a string trio, sure, but a flute? Not usually.
It made me reminisce a bit about the little green books our band director would pass out before the holidays: Christmas carols. We always played some in our December concert for a carol sing-a-long with the audience. We groaned and complained about them. They were not our favorite pieces, that's for sure. Thus our not-so-affectionate name for those books: the Grodie Greenies.
Which of the following was not a cowboy name as seen during the bronc competition at the PRCA National Finals in Vegas tonight?
Splintered Icon
Bill Napier, 2005
on Amazon
If you're looking for a good historical adventure mystery, look no further than Scottish author Bill Napier's Splintered Icon. Sal was reading it on the trip and I couldn't get her to listen to me cuz she was reading this book at every available moment. I've been enjoying it on my BART rides since I've been back.
The book itself is splintered into two points of view: our hero antiquarian Harry Blake, and the young sea-going writer of the 16th century journal Blake was hired to decode, James Ogilvie. From Oxford to Jamaica, the search for the secret meaning of the journal quickly involves murder, terrorist plots and centuries-old religious politics. Throw in some theories of Elizabeth I's astrologer and spy John Dee and sabotage on the high seas and you have a fast-moving, complex story of curiosity and survival.
Favorite part: bribing the ladies in the records office in Jamaica to stay open late
Least favorite part: when Ogilvie's journal ended -- I wanted to hear more about his life in the New World
Next BART Book: maybe The Devil Wears Prada
Previous BART Book: too long ago to matter
Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory
I never knew how damaging on your fingernails traveling is. I think I broke all but two of my nails on the trip. I just broke another while typing here at work (which made me think of it). I checked with Sal before the trip to see if she was taking her clippers, in which case I wouldn't take mine (to lighten my load). I'm pretty sure I had possession of her clippers more than she did during the trip. Next time I'm just going to clip them all short ahead of time and avoid the hassle!
I was just on the phone for a long time with one of my sisters going through all my trip photos. It was really fun. I feel somewhat proud of my photos mostly because I've never been one to take a lot of pictures and I think they turned out really good. Even though I'm proud of them I don't want to force them on people cuz I certainly don't expect anyone to love them as much as I do. It's kinda like when someone shows you a slideshow of their vacation -- you weren't there so why should you care. Going through them with her was, however, a good way of telling other stories that aren't included with the photos.
I've never had a digital camera before and it has really changed the way I've thought about taking pictures. I can experiment more and just take lots of shots of things and see what works and what doesn't. I've learned a lot about my camera but realized about halfway through the trip that I should've taken my manual along. There were some difficult lighting situations where I didn't know what setting would be best. It was also hard to tell from the little screen what the photos would really look like. Some came out even better than they looked; some didn't turn out that great.
Here's one of my favorites: the gardens at Hampton Court Palace.
I've never thought I liked Indian food thinking it was too hot, though various people have told me I might like this dish or that. I figured while I was in the UK I should give it a shot. India was part of the British Empire for a long time so there are Indian restaurants all over. Sal loves Indian food but is in a similiar boat as me in not being able to handle spicy food. I thought if she would shepherd me through the menu I'd be okay.
Our first night there, in York, we walked by a place but were a bit too early for dinner and went back to our B&B for a meal of cheese, chicken and rye crackers and an early night instead. We tried it the next day after going to evensong at York Minster. Sal told me to get the chicken korma saying it was a very mild dish. We also got garlic nan, a bread I already knew I liked. I immediately liked the korma. It's a creamy yogurt sauce flavored with coconut, tomato, ginger, cinnamon and who knows what else.
I was a bit embarrassed to admit later that I couldn't wait to have it again. I had to wait until Bath but then we ate at Indian restaurants twice there and twice in London. I ordered chicken korma each time and there was only once that it was a little too spicy.
Sal told me that you can get korma sauce in jars at places like Cost Plus World Market so I was excited to try cooking it at home. Well, I happily found it at my Trader Joe's yesterday and made some up today. Unfortunately, it was more similiar to the "a little too spicy" version I had in Bath, even after adding milk. I'm not giving up though and will continue my seach for a mild korma sauce. If you have any brand suggestions, please let me know.
Today I went to the post office to collect any mail held for me while I was gone. I checked my mailbox here at home first and it was full of those stupid advertising flyers that seem to always be in my box. I can never get rid of them. It's like they just pop back in after I put them in the recycling bin.
Anyway...the post office had a big stack of mail for me and I was about to go out the door when I decided to sort through it there and leave the junk mail in their recycling bin. It's a good thing I did cuz I saved myself a trip back to the post office. Of the many items in the big stack of mail, only three were for me. I was taking home someone else's mail!
I'm so sleepy and it's only 8:00. I really need to stay up at least another hour but the hockey game I'm watching isn't holding my interest. I'm glad I have another whole day to recover proper sleeping and eating patterns before going back to work on Monday.
I spent the last two days organizing my photos and writing captions. I didn't think it would take that long but I wanted the photo selection to tell the story of the trip and I wanted to include some additional information or opinion instead of each caption just saying what was in the photo. I think I was successful.
If you want to see the photos, click on Photos in "Go Here Next" in the sidebar, then click on "UK Trip" at the top of the page. The slideshow setting runs through the photos rather quickly. It's best to pause it and use your right arrow key to control it. If you have any questions about anything we saw or did on our trip, leave me a comment here and I'll try to answer them.
Good news! I made it home last night after 22 hours of travelling from London.
Sal and I cleaned up on the inflight multi-player trivia challenge on the flight to Minneapolis. I think we played over 4 hours. We didn't have a lot of quality competition other than each other and my quick-draw, two-fingered, click-the-first-answer-to-get-highest-possible-points-when-you-don't-know method prevailed. The questions didn't seem biased U.S. or UK -- they asked both baseball and snooker questions in Sports. The grammar was horrendous though. I hate that they're perpetuating bad punctuation skills.
Our trip was amazing. Yes, we got rained on. Yes, we had to sit with our bags in the aisle on commuter trains. Yes, I ate too much bad food. But we also saw amazing skies and sights. We rested our weary bones in comfortable seats on our way to the next destination. And we sampled the flavors of our host country. I even ate Indian food!
I had fun blindly taking pics as we quickly travelled along by car or train. Some turned out, some didn't. This one is a typical countryside scene of sheep in a pasture, by the River Avon between Bath and Salisbury. More will follow as I get things organized.
There's a tightness in my chest. I'm going to call it nervous excitement. I have just a bit left to decide upon and pack and I'll be ready to go tomorrow. I'm heading out around 8am. I like to get to the airport early. My flight to Minneapolis is at 12:15pm, where I'll meet up with Sal. I don't think I'll be able to fully relax and be on vacation until I see her at the gate. We then fly to London Gatwick where we'll catch a train to London King's Cross (Platform 9 3/4?) and then another up to York. If we arrive at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon (as per my schedule) I will have been travelling 22 hours. I think I'll need a nap.
Here's our itinerary with links to Google maps:
Nov. 15-16 York
Nov. 17-18 Bacup with Elizabeth's wedding in Rawtenstall and reception at Samlesbury Hall
Nov. 19 Keswick in the Lake District
Nov. 20 Chester
Nov. 21 Cardiff, Wales
Nov. 22-24 Bath with a day trip to Stonehenge and Avebury
Nov. 25-29 London via Salisbury
We probably won't have internet access until we get to London but I doubt I'll be posting until I get home. I'll have lots of photos to organize and willl try to post some over the weekend.
Okay, enough procrastinating. I better get back to my suitcase.
I thought that getting the magazine off to the printshop yesterday would make today and Monday rather stress-free but I was wrong. I feel like crap and wish I could just go home. There were tiny changes to all three files I had sent last night so I had to re-send them all this morning. Then I had to change one file to be able to print onto tabloid paper here. I had a long list of things I need to do before leave I Monday and my boss just added a couple more things. Ugh. I really need to take a break for lunch. My tummy is yelling.
I did stay late last night working on directions for the car part of our trip. I made screen shots of the roundabouts and other intersections, put them together on a couple pages with written directions, printed them out and highlighted our route (stay to the left!). Sal will be driving so I'm the navigator and need to know where we're going. I fear the roundabout though. I hope Sal is more confident.
Today during staff meeting, a new co-worker used three words not normally heard in everyday conversation.
iterative: relating to or involving iteration: the repetition of a process or utterance. • repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem
cogent: (of an argument or case) clear, logical, and convincing
salient: most noticeable or important; prominent; conspicuous
It was refreshing.
It was just odd to see Jeff Weaver be the hero last night when for so long he's tried so hard and not gotten the best results. I always apologize when I say he's my favorite pitcher saying he's really not that good. I need to start holding my tongue.
One of the reasons I love watching him is his obvious passion for performing well. It also seems to be his downfall when he can't keep it under control and allows it to negatively affect his game. It didn't seem to be a problem last night. I wonder if he'll recognize the improvements he's made with the Cardinals coaching staff and stick around if they want him.
It bothered me that the announcers kept talking about how he hadn't gone longer than six innings for a long time. One of his strengths in his career has been long innings and high pitch counts. In the National League starters often get taken out due more to game situation (need another bat for offense) than to number of pitches or fatigue. Which is one reason I prefer the American League and the DH: in low-scoring pitchers' duels, the manager isn't forced to replace the starting pitcher just to get some runs. I'm not sure I'd want Weaver to go back to the AL though; I do love to see him bat. He's just so gawky and awkward.
I was working late last night and decided to listen to the game on the radio instead of trying to wait to watch it at home. I was just finishing up my project when the game was getting over. It was a nice coincidence. When I got home I discovered that my DVR recording only went 180 minutes so I would've missed the end of the 8th inning and the 9th. I'm glad I listened at work. That would've sucked!
I stopped in at DWS during lunch (my two erswhile companions bailed on me) and perused the athletic shoe sections. Women's trainers are always so girly-looking I almost always buy from the men's collections nowadays. I found a couple possibilities, tried on one pair which felt great, then tried on the other and realized I had picked up the wrong size. I went back to see if they had mine but no luck. I liked the first pair enough to get them though. They're from the adidas outdoor collection and have insulation and antimicrobial moisture-wicking. Supposedly they're also waterproof which should be good for walking in the rain!
If you look at the close-up images you can see the odd closures they have. You just pull on the black ball while holding the other black bit. I like it. The shoelaces are elastic so they give a little when your feet swell up. Just what I need. I might put them on right now.
I got the khaki color and for $15 less than Zappos. Bargain.
My inside source in London tells me that it's been raining a lot so I'm even happier to report I received my splurge of a rain coat from TravelSmith this week (thanks, M&D!). It's really long! But it'll keep the rain off, which is the point. It's not too thick so I can wear a couple layers underneath depending on how cold it is and how much exertion I'll be...exerting.
My other big purchase this month was my BritRail pass. I got it from RickSteves.com so I could get a discount on his online store. I wanted the push-button umbrella. Of course I ended up getting some other things as well. Because we're travelling off-peak and we waited to buy our passes until October, we were able to get 25% off a normally $469 pass (that's $352 for you non-math-whizzes).
I also finally recieved my new passport a bit ago. I was getting a teensy bit nervous about it, especially since I couldn't track its progress online like the Passport Control website seemed to think I should. But I have it now and my birth certificate so I can make multiple copies of everything to take with, and leave behind, in case of any emergencies, like a lost passport (god forbid).
Other purchases left on my list are shoes and glasses. I might head over to the mall on Saturday and check out the Sears Optical center. I discovered they're on my new insurance list. Now I just have to find that insurance card Leti gave me...
I sure wish Elizabeth were here to help me with my shoes shopping. One time she accompanied me to DSW and served as my shoe saleswoman by bringing me various pairs to try on. I got to just sit there and relax.
Only three weeks to go and even tho' work is going to be hell between now and then I'm getting excited about finally visiting England. See you soon, Eliz!
So I was hoping the Tigers would win any game Jeff Weaver was not pitching and I've received the opposite. I guess that means the Tigers will win tomorrow (Weaves is on the hill) and hold off the trophy presentation for the weekend. I thought for sure Detroit would pull it out tonight but they just couldn't hold a lead. The soggy field and even soggier fielding didn't help.
It was nice to see Aaron Miles have a good game. A friend of mine went to school with his brother (and him, though he's a few years older) so we enjoy following his career.
Wow, what a Game 7. Tied 1-1 until the top of the 9th when Molina hit one out. The Mets kept hitless from the 2nd through the 8th but had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th. Game over on a called strike three from a rookie closer. Man, that is awesome. Gotta love the curve.
So the Cardinals face off with the Tigers in the World Series beginning Saturday in Detroit. I'm going to root for the Tigers except for any games (former Tiger) Jeff Weaver might pitch (of course). I always hope for a long series just to hang on to baseball a little longer. Hockey can wait.
I am a lucky, lucky girl. Last night I went to set up my DVR to record the NLCS Game 5 but it wasn't on the schedule yet so I thought I'd wait and do it in the morning. I forgot. And Jeff Weaver was starting. And I knew I wasn't going to be able to leave work early today. So when I realized this, I resigned myself to missing the game. But it was postponed, due to rain. Yea!!! Lucky, lucky me! Weaves is still scheduled to start in the game tomorrow so I'm setting up a recording right now.
purgation: the purification or cleansing of someone or something; (in Roman Catholic doctrine) the spiritual cleansing of a soul in purgatory
bespoke: (of goods, esp. clothing) made to order
bromide: a trite and unoriginal idea or remark, typically intended to soothe or placate
oracular: (of an utterance, advice, etc.) hard to interpret; enigmatic
rapprochement: (esp. in international relations) an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations
apposite: apt in the circumstances or in relation to something
shambolic: chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged
denigrate: criticize unfairly; disparage
Wow. Could it have been any better in Detroit today? To advance to the World Series on a home run in the bottom of the ninth at home? A different hero every night, it was Mags smacking his second big fly out to left field with two guys on and the game tied up at 3. Ah, there's nothing better than the scrum bouncing at home plate waiting to pummel the hero.
I thought the A's had a chance today, especially after loading them up in the eighth. They just didn't have the bats to compete in this series. And I'm not sure what Macha was doing having Huston Street face so many batters today. Bringing him in in the 7th?
So who will face the Tigers? I'm definitely rooting for the Cardinals. Just so I can maybe see Jeff Weaver pitch again.
Sure looks like the Tigers' year, doesn't it? I can hardly believe it. Rogers was awesome, giving up only two hits and walking two. And the bullpen was perfect, setting down their batters in order. We'll see if Detroit can close it out tomorrow.
As far as the A's, I thought Harden did great today considering his lack of work recently and really through the season with his injuries. The A's sure miss having Bobby Crosby and Mark Ellis up the middle on defense and their bats in the line-up. I wonder if Macha is going to start Mark Kiger at second base tomorrow. Here's a guy who made his major league debut today in the 8th inning on defense and could possibly start in an ALCS Game 4 with his team's survival on the line. Talk about pressure.
I'm watching the game delayed by about a half hour. It's the bottom of the 9th. Two outs. Bases loaded. The A's are down by 3. The Big Hurt at the plate. Oakland lost last night so they really need to win tonight and they need to score right now to have any chance to do it.
Strike one. 0-1.
Ball in the dirt. 1-1.
Man, things are getting tense. The crowd has its towels a-waving.
Damn. Fly ball to center. Three outs. Tigers win.
Well, that was a downer. Frank hasn't had a hit in either game in this series. Just an inch and it would've been a grand slam and an A's win. He just missed that pitch. The Tigers' pitching has been really impressive so far. Last night the A's looked completely ineffective, especially when they had guys on base.
Looks like 'geek might have been right when he said the Tigers in 5 and that the A's would be lucky to win that one. It sure would be cool to see Detroit clinch at home. Can you imagine the celebration?
Wow! I can't believe it! The Tigers beat the Yankees today to win the series three games to one and move on to meet the A's in the ALCS. So either the A's or the Tigers will be in the World Series. So exciting!
I didn't think the Tigers could actually subdue the bats of that New York line-up but they did. The pitching was awesome. Bonderman was amazing today and I was so happy that Leyland took him out in the 9th so he could feel the love from the Detroit crowd. And it was so great they could win at home and so decisively. That stadium was rockin' today. I loved how the team went out on the field and sprayed the crowd with bubbly. Especially Kenny Rogers. So funny.
My favorite sign:
SpidermanSo Oakland vs. Detroit, beginning Tuesday, best of seven. That'll be hard to predict. I'm gonna have to go with the A's in six.
Superman
Bonderman
I'm finally getting around to watching Survivor from Thursday. Some people don't think it's as good this time around. I don't see it. I'm still enjoying it. Here we go...
Okay, Aitu's getting back from Tribal Council from last week. I really hate all the footage of the crabs and rats. It's so disturbing. I could go without food and showers and wouldn't really mind the dirty clothes but the constant rat infestation would really get on my nerves. Ugh. I'm shuddering just thinking about it.
Now (my favorite) Yul's saying TC was really tough. I guess he didn't believe Cao Boi and Flicka would really vote for Cecelia. He could've been in real trouble if Becky was gone. Or he would've been forced to use his idol waaaaay too soon.
Ozzy looks devastated. He obviously was blindsided by the vote and is feeling really alone. He doesn't seem interested in participating in tribal life. He better wake up or he'll be voted off next.
Candace is being brought back from Exile Island. The way they're shooting the shot of her in the boat makes it look like she doesn't have anything on below the waist. Now they're asking her why she thinks the other tribe choose her. Like she has any idea. I don't think even the other team knew why they did. I swear she had a tongue piercing. She's talking really oddly. And the way she opens up her eyes so widely -- makes her seem kinda dumb.
Okay, over to the other tribe, Raro. Oh, Parvati is so annoying. Can she act any more blond? The guys are getting a little big-headed. "Oh, we're so strong!" Too bad they don't have mirrors, they could just admire themselves all day.
Ah, the reward challenge. I love when they're attached together by ropes. Seems like this one might be rather easy. So...they've chosen the littlest people to be attached to the ropes. It's pretty funny to see them get manhandled. I don't think they'll be too happy at the end. Bruised for sure. Yea! Aitu's winning! Swim, Ozzy, swim! Now they just have to figure out the puzzle. Oh, Raro's catching up. Brad's swimming hard and he's back. Who will solve it first?
JP's trying to eavesdrop. He's evil. Aitu thinks they've got it....yes! They've got it. Now who will they send to the island? Not exempt from TC this time...Adam's going. Not that it matters. He'll be back for the immunity challenge and the idol's already been found. Aitu gets to fight over the reward hammock and pillows now.
What's that? Ozzy's catching fish? I guess he woke up and decided he needs to prove his worth to the team. Wow, that's a big fish!
Raro's bummed now. All the women are still doing all the work. JP is playing the king in camp. Get me this, do this. Like I said, evil. Parvati's trying to get in with the guys. She's got Nate wrapped around her finger. I hope they lose the immunity challenge just to see what might happen.
Back to Aitu. Oh, here comes the scene they showed at the end of last week: Cao Boi molesting the wildlife like the madman he is. He's climbing the tree to get the bird's eggs. I hope he loses an eye. That poor bird. Jonathan just found the chick that fell out with the nest. Geez. Now they're trying to put the nest back up. Like the bird is going to want that nestling now that it's got Jon's cooties all over it. "We're so sorry!" Stupids.
Now to the immunity challenge. Adam's back and they didn't even show him on EI. I guess he did nothing interesting. I do love Jeff's hat this season. Very sexy. Hmm. A rescue challenge. I wonder why. Have the challenge producers been watching too much Baywatch? I think the Raro boys have an advantage in this. They should be able to run through the jungle as a well-matched quartet.
Wow, they have to swim a long way. You definitely have to be good in the water to be successful on Survivor. Let's see if the girls can keep up on the swim back. They're pretty close. I still think the Raro boys will be able to run better through the jungle. Oh, Aitu's back already! Build that fire! That crazy Cao Boi is good with fire. Raro has no idea. Jenny just got cut! She needs first aid right away. Looks like they're going to TC. Aitu wins!
So Raro has four guys and five girls. The boys are for sure sticking together, it seems. Will Parvati vote with them in exchange for staying longer? So who will it be: Stephannie? Jenny? Rebecca? They didn't do so hot with the fire. (ha ha)
Oh, Stephannie. Now why'd you do that? Volunteering yourself? Easy out for the rest of them. Unless the women can vote together. Man, looks like I was right about Parvati. I hate her. Brad? With the women? Could it work? I do like that they don't seem to be voting along ethnic lines. I'm not sure it's better to vote along gender lines though.
Now they're at Tribal Council. Who will it be? I do love how Jeff seems to relish putting them all on the spot. Adam still is saying nothing. I think the producers have it in for him. So it's down to Steph and JP and the deciding votes are Brad and Parvati, I think.
Here we go....Steph...JP....Steph...JP... Don't you love how they always re-shuffle the votes so they go back and forth...JP...ooo, out of order! Could Steph have only received the two votes?...JP...Again! He's out! JP's gone. He's can't believe it. The king is dead, long live who?
Jeff has a good point. They just voted off a strong player. It might bite them in the ass in challenges.
Let's see the votes: Both Brad AND Adam voted for JP! And Parvati. Why did we never hear anyone talking to Adam? Brad must've gotten to him. Nate's gonna feel so out of it now. He and JP were the only votes for Steph.
So next week Cao Boi gets upset with the girls doing no work. Why, oh why must we watch them comparing their underarm hair? I really don't need to see that!
I like this stage of the game when there are so many people in each tribe that even with some firm alliances, there are enough people that each week the votes are uncertain. Both tribes are unsettled enough that new alliances can form up in an instant. Can't wait until Thursday!
A's win! A's win! Oakland swept the Twins today to advance to the American League Championship Series against either New York or Detroit who play Game 3 tonight. Woo hoo!!!
I just got back from taking Sal to the airport for her day-long trip back to MN. She's flying through Arizona so she won't get in until after 8pm. It was soft weather this morning; a bit of a shower here and there. The bay looked amazing -- calm and reflecting the soft grey light coming through the big fluffy clouds. I wish I had taken my camera.
Yesterday we spent watching TV (A's win! A's win!! now up 2-0, sorry Sal) and reading and napping. I cooked a bit but mostly we were just relaxing. In the evening we did some trip planning. We've decided that while we have the car and will be as far north as the Lake District that we should go on up to Carlisle and visit Hadrian's Wall. So we researched the best places to do that that won't be too far out of our way.
Then we researched entrance fees and hours so we can make sure we have enough cash for each day. We determined which sights had highest priority for us and which ones we'll do if we have extra time. It's hard to gauge how much time it will take to walk from place to place. I don't know how big these towns are.
I think Cardiff will be the tightest schedule because we're doing two out-of-town sights: Caerphilly Castle and The Museum of Welsh Life in St. Fagans. We're heading to Bath that evening which isn't a long trip (1 hour) but our B&B in Bath would like us to check in by 6pm. I might contact them and see if we can check in later. That would give us more time at the Museum because we have to take the bus back to Cardiff and then go collect our bags before catching the train to Bath.
We had a bit of a scare yesterday when I checked Sal's flight; the price had gone up by $60. We'd been holding off on purchasing it, hoping the price would go down because it was at $527 which was $80 more than mine (and I'm coming from San Fran!). We checked again this morning and the price for hers had gone back down to $527 so we purchased it immediately. She had a $300 voucher from getting bumped off a flight a few months ago so she's only going to have to pay $227. Pretty good for a flight to London!
Yesterday Sal and I watched the A's beat the Twins and a little of the Cards/Padres game before going to REI to check out rain gear. She wanted to see what they had but likes to shop at Cabela's (which we don't have in Cali).
I was also looking for a long-sleeved top I can wear like long underwear to keep me warm while trekking about in the rainy UK in November. We checked the men's section and I found some nasty feeling capilene tops but they feel like plastic. How anyone could wear that next to their skin, I don't know. I finally found a satiny one that came in both long- and short-sleeved but I decided to check the women's section in case they had any larger sizes.
I found the perfect shirt but it only came as large as 1x. It felt so nice and soft (and was a v-neck!) so I tried it on anyway. It wasn't too small and for the purpose of wearing it close to my skin, I thought it would work fine. They didn't have it in a short-sleeved version so I decided to get one of the satiny men's shirts as well.
I also found a toiletries bag and some plastic flip-top bottles for shampoo, etc. They had a couple varieties of money belts, so I got a nice soft smaller one that I think will work great. Gotta protect that passport!
While we were down in Fremont we just had to eat at the Outback (okay, that's why we were there in the first place). We ate way too much so when we went to CostCo you'd think I wouldn't want to buy anything. Guess again. I got tomato soup, chicken stock, a roast (it's in the oven now), hot dogs, Kashii bars, aluminum foil, tylenol and what I was there for in the first place: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Sallie got X-Men: The Last Stand which we watched last night (it's so good!). At least we were able to resist the temptation of the glorious hand-dipped ice cream bar. We were just too full.
Today it's a triple-header of baseball playoff games, plus the opening of hockey season. I have to record Lost and The Nine for Sal and Dancing with the Stars, Top Model and Project Runway for me. Sal will be up late tonight! She's flying back to MN at noon so won't have any time for TV tomorrow.
The A's won a close game this morning 3-2 against the Minnesota Twins to go up 1-0 in the American League Division Series. Barry Zito walked the first batter who was subsequently thrown out at 2nd base and Zito didn't look back. He gave up only four hits (the first in the 5th!) including one home run to Rondell White in the 7th. The Twins didn't score again until the 9th when they benefited from a fly ball the A's right fielder lost in the Metrodome roof resulting in a triple for Michael Cuddyer who then scored on a ground ball. A's closer Huston Street got the save in his first opportunity in the playoffs.
The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas, was the offensive hero for the A's with two solo home runs to left field, one off starting pitcher Johan Santana who gave up only two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts but took the loss, his first at home since August 2005. Both pitchers were very impressive.
The second game is tomorrow morning. We'll see if Oakland can pull out another one, or if the Twins rookie starter Boof Bonser can stop the A's.
Go A's!!!
Why is it when you need a street to go a certain direction it's a one way street or you can't make a left turn or you can't go straight or turn right? Seriously, we had all those problems today driving around in San Fran.
We left for the North Bay and Muir Woods at 10:30 after a leisurely morning of breakfast, showering, the post office and getting gas. The sky was cloudy but the air was clear; we could see for miles. We took the Richmond/San Rafael bridge over to Larkspur and down to Highway 1 and over the tiny twisty turns out to the Woods. I had my camera so our planned 1 hour walk turned into a stop-n-go tour that took 2 hours after our decision to take the longest walking route. We enjoyed every minute.
We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge down to the City and (after stopping at Fort Miley for more views, pictures and walking) had a really late lunch at the Bistro in the Cliff House. The view was fantastic and the food was pretty good (though super pricey).
Sal had not been to Coit Tower so we made our way across the City through a few tunnels making not a few wrong turns. A word of advice: Don't drive through Chinatown and especially avoid Grant Street whenever possible. We finally made it to Coit Tower and after walking around and taking some more photos we headed for home taking some more wrong turns before finally getting on the Bay Bridge right during rush hour. It was a long trip home and we're sure glad to be here.
Here are some photos from the day. For more, check out my photo album.
Sal is in this photo. Can you spot her? (Muir Woods)
Roots are so cool. (Muir Woods)
My favorite photo from the Woods
This trip seemed to be all about trees. Here are some hella cool ones at Fort Miley.
Sal is much more easily seen in this pic. (Fort Miley)
The Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Miley
The Bay Bridge from Coit Tower
Coit Tower
I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted. I guess I didn't feel like sharing. I hope you weren't too worried.
Today I pickd up Sal at her hotel over on the peninsula. She's all done with her Borders job in SF. I visited the store on opening day on Thursday. It was pretty busy! We had lunch in the new food court and got grilled chicked kabobs at Asqew. It was terrific. For dinner we ate at one of the restaurants on the fourth floor (same as Borders), Straits. Instead of ordering entrees, we got several "small plates." I like the chicken satay and the spring rolls the best. Sal liked the samosas.
We ate pretty good for a couple days cuz the night before I went with all the Borders trainers to The Stinking Rose in North Beach. I usually order the 40 clove chicken but I branched out and got the meatloaf. It was super and just a tiny bit spicy. A successful trip off the beaten path.
For lunch on Friday I went with Paul to the new food court. We decided to try out the SF Soup Company. I tasted the split pea but wasn't impressed so got the tomato bisque. So yummy. I'll be getting that again for sure. We had a much harder time finding seats in the open area than Sal and I did the day before. There were so many people! I hope it settles down in a month or so.
So Sal's here until Thursday and I've taken the week off. We're going to Muir Woods and the City tomorrow and then the Oakland Zoo and shopping on Tuesday. Wednesday we're going to watch baseball and Harry Potter movies and let Sallie rest up before heading back to work in MN.
Today we're watching the Twins game on my DVR. We purposefully don't know if the Tigers won so we can folllow along with the emotions of the race for the AL Central Division. I just hope whoever ends up playing the Yankees kicks some butt. I could happily cheer for any of the other three teams: A's, Tigers or Twins.
Well, my lunch is done so I better eat it before it gets cold.
Go A's!
Yesterday I woke up pretty early so decided to watch my NetFlix offerings before running my usual Saturday errands.
First up was Legally Blond 2: Red, White & Blond. I wasn't expecting much but it was suprisingly okay. The wackiest characters didn't appear until near the end and they had small roles. The plot wasn't entirely predictable. And Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from 24) was in it!
Second was In Her Shoes with Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding/About a Boy) and Cameron Diaz. This is a super movie; I don't think I've cried so much in a long time. It's the story of two sisters who are polar opposites: Rose, a hard-working, plain-looking laywer, and Maggie, an unemployable, beautiful party girl. After yet another night of drunkeness, Rose finds herself saddled with Maggie yet again. When Rose comes home one night after work to find Maggie in bed with Rose's current hot boyfriend, she throws her out and subsequently can't find her. Maggie discovers a long-lost secret and we gradually learn the reason behind why she is so unsuccessful in school and getting a job. I found the most touching part (most tissues used) when she finds someone to help her through her problem.
I skipped the library (I didn't have any books due and nothing on the hold shelf) and went straight to Trader Joe's and then the farmers market. My usual organic farm stand was out of my usual yellow tomatoes so I had to settle for red ones (oh no!). And it must be approaching the end of nectarine season, because the ones I was looking at were really big and not very pretty. I bought a couple anyway. We'll see if they're any good.
When I got back I watched some Michigan football and then the A's game. After beating the second-place Angels Friday night in 12 innings (with another walk-off hit by Marco Scutaro), their magic number was 2 and they could clinch the West with a win. They didn't win. Maybe today. I hope they do it today and can celebrate at home.
I started watching the Giants game afterwards but I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer so went to lay down. I'm not normally a successful napper but when I woke up it was dark. I had slept for three hours! So my evening was spent zoned out trying to recover from the nap. I really hate that post-nap feeling of lethargy and mental muddiness. By the time my mind felt clear, it was bedtime. Luckily my long nap didn't prevent me from falling right to sleep, though I couldn't sleep in this morning. That why I'm posting at 8 in the morning!
Sal met me at the A's/White Sox game on Sunday and brought a couple other people from her job. We had already gotten tickets so the boys got tix when they got there and sat a couple sections over. They moved over to our section when the people in front of us left with a few innings to go. They'd had enough sun as it was. We were sitting under an overhang so were in the shade. It was a beautiful day for baseball. I'm guessing mid- to high 70s and breezy.
I had remembered to stick a couple score sheets in my bag so Sal and I could score the game. I wasn't able find a extra pen before I left home and Sal couldn't find one in her bag so after she filled out a contest form at the GMC booth outside we stole a pen from them. She got a white A's t-shirt for her troubles. She didn't put it on but I was pleased she had thought to wear green.
Sal was cheering twice for the price of one as she likes the A's but her home team, the Twins, want the White Sox to lose to help their post-season picture. Regardless of how Chicago's doing, those Tigers better keep winning cuz the Twins are really breathing up the back of their necks!
It's only the bottom of the 6th inning and the Tigers are already leading the O's 15-2. Crazy! Inge just hit a grand slam. Crazy!!
And did I just see Matt Stairs in a Tigers uni? When did that happen? Ah, I remember the good ol' days when Stairs was playing for the A's behind Giambi in left.
This morning when I got on BART there were no seats to be had. So I leaned up against the wall near the doors and took out my book. When we got to the Coliseum, a bunch of people got on, probably coming from the Oakland Airport. So we were rather tightly packed in.
The woman standing to my left was having a hard time staying upright. She kept losing control and almost falling into me as her eyes would close and her head would drop. Several times I had to put my book up to block her falling into my face. I don't know if she was feeling faint or just falling asleep.
Whatever her problem was it must have been catching because when we were in the tube and not quite yet to Embarcadero I started feeling weak and tingly. I began to sweat and my skin felt cold. I was losing touch with my world, its edges fading and spinning. I turned and faced the wall, closed my eyes, and tried to concentrate on breathing in and out, in and out. I really thought I was going to black out.
I was able to hold it together until we arrived at Embarcadero and I snagged a seat freed up by the exodus of commuters. As soon as I sat down, I felt better. My vision began clearing and my heartbeat slowed down though my feet began to tingle. I was glad to have a couple stops to rest a bit before heading out into the sunshine and work.
Since I've here at the office I've had a headache the whole time and it's been hard to concentrate. Yeah, I'll be leaving work early today, no doubt.
JJ has not posted since last Thursday. I'm just saying.
(not like I've been posting much either. what's up with us?)
Our accountants gave us two free tickets to the Giants game last night so Leti and I went. She was sick the whole day and we tried to find someone else to go but they were either sick or had other plans. As I'm not a Giants fan and the tickets were free, I was willing to forget it. But Leti insisted she was well enough to go and I'm glad she did cuz we had fun.
The seats were in the Club level which is one level up from the field. You take a special escalator and there are special concessions just for the Club that are all inside. There are a lot of glass walls to see out into the ballpark. It'd be the best place to hang out for those cold foggy evenings. We had it pretty nice. (Other than the loud obnoxious guys sitting right behind us. Can anyone clap any louder?! My ears hurt until I moved down a few seats. Our section was not full by any means.)
I got a hot dog from the fancy concession stand for $5.25. It was totally worth it: a Hebrew National ballpark frank with brown mustard. I even ate the soft bun.
Sal & I are going to the A's game on Sunday. I tried to get us seats in the shade. I'll let you know how that goes next week.
Sal got here on time and happy last night. We stayed up late discussing and exploring housing options and preferences for our November UK trip. I sent a bunch of emails out to B&Bs last night and this morning and we've gotten several replies already. We even made one reservation (at Austins Guesthouse in Cardiff) and are ready to reserve two more if we get responses back to questions I sent.
Everyone who's replied so far has had a room available so we're not too late. Not that I'm surprised at that but I did stress out about it a bit while falling asleep last night. We want to stay at our first choices and not have to settle. We got a reply back from our first choice in London, The George Hotel in Bloomsbury. They even have a special price for 4+ night stay in the off-peak season so we're getting a good deal. We'll be staying 5 nights (4 days) there to end our trip.
We haven't heard back from our first choice in Bath yet, The Henry. I hope they reply positively soon. We'll be in Bath for 3 nights right before London. Those are the longest stays we have. We'll be two nights each in York and then Bacup (near Elizabeth's) to start out the trip. In the middle we have one night stays in the Lake District (Keswick), Chester and then Cardiff. Our other possible day stops along the way will be Carlyle (to see Hadrian's Wall) and Salisbury.
We have to wait until October to buy our railpasses. We can get them at 25% off if we wait, so we will. I think we'll be buying our plane tickets any day now. We're coordinating flights so I'll meet up with Sal when I get to Minneapolis and we'll fly to London Gatwick together. Our flights are the same price ($553) even though I'm flying from San Fran. I think I'll be getting mine through my Visa rewards program so I can use some points to get $100 off. I have enough points right now for a free round-trip ticket but it's only good for domestic travel for no more than $500. I fail on both those counts.
We decided while we were over at the mall today (Target, then Pirates at the cinema, then lunch at Chili's) to check out the luggage departments at Kohl's and Macy's. Sallie and I have the same 21" wheeled bag we bought at Kohl's with Anne a few years ago. I was thinking I could pack light enough to get by with it but it'd be tight with wedding clothes & shoes. Sallie also has a larger wheeled duffle bag that she loves but it's a bit too much for our trip. So we were looking for an in-between option and found one at Macy's. They're having a 50%-off sale this weekend. Lucky us. We bought High Sierra 26" wheeled duffles with backpack straps that are just right. Sal got the grey and I got the black. And we got them for only $80 each (sticker price $240) cuz Sal signed up for a Macy's card so we got even more off!
I'm going to have to stop myself from packing too much now. But I'll try to be strong. There'll just be more room for souvenirs!
I was fiddling with my glasses last night and they broke. Yes, you read that correctly. The left temple broke right off.
I searched and searched for my other pair but couldn't find them. I did find my old glasses so I'm wearing them today. I feel kinda woozy and tired. I'm hoping to find my other pair tonight while I'm cleaning up for when Sal gets here tomorrow. I just can't remember where I put them. I may have to wear my sunglasses all day if I can't deal with my old ones.
Maybe Sal and I will be shopping for new frames this weekend!
Why does VW think that showing us people having a nice conversation in a car, tooling down the road, and then getting violently slammed into a car crash makes us more likely to buy their cars?
It makes me angry and not just a bit violated. I don't care that the people in the car survive the crash without injuries. I don't like being surprised like that. It's unfair.
I shouldn't watch TV live anymore. I'll be fast-forwarding through those awful comercials from now on.
Not too long ago I accidentally left some grapes out for a few days. When I found finally them they were pretty nasty but even nastier was the sudden infestation of fruit flies. They're too quick to catch and too small to swat. How was I ever going to control these pests?
Enter my good friend, jj, and her pearls of home pest control wisdom. She said to put some yummy fly food at the bottom of a bread bag and let it sit open for a few days. Soon the flies will all congregate around the bait and you can close the top of the bag, trapping those annoying pests.
Well, I didn't have a bread bag but I figured any long-necked bag would do so I grabbed a plastic produce bag from the farmers market and tossed in some nectarine pits. I was making banana nut muffins from frozen bananas that day too so I dropped in a couple slimy blackened peels. Boy, did the flies love those! Within a couple days almost all the flies had fallen into the trap. I tied off the top of the bag and now my place is nearly fruit-fly-free.
Thanks for the great advice!
I work for a non-profit and in order to qualify for workplace giving campaigns (and other reasons) we have an independent audit of our financial records every year. As the bookkeeper, it's my responsibility to prepare documents for the audit and to answer the auditors' questions while they're at our office testing our paperwork and procedures.
The fieldwork was this past week (one of the reasons for being absent from this space all week). All three of the auditors who came to the office were ones who did the audit last year. It was nice to have the same people because they were somewhat familiar with our operation so they didn't have to ask as many questions. Plus I like all three of them and I find it easy to communicate with them (which has not been so true in the past).
I've never had any formal training in accounting or bookkeeping so I depend on the audit to teach me how I can do my job better. This year we focused on our procedures for incoming funds, payroll, authorizing expenditures, etc. It's important that certain responsibilities are kept separate so one person doesn't control too much. In a small non-profit, it's often hard to have enough people to keep things separated. I tend to be in charge of a little bit too much and therefore there's potential for fraud. In our internal culture of trust, we tend to scoff at those risks but that's why we have the auditors -- to keep that risk at a minimum.
I feel really good about the audit this year. I felt more confident in my answers to their questions and didn't feel like I had to pass them over to my boss for more complete or accurate responses. I also made an effort to improve my audit documents and to get advice from the auditors on how I can help make their fieldwork more efficient.
They didn't find any adjustments that had to be made which means that all the items that they tested were done correctly. I'm sure we'll have some recommendations from them on how we should improve our procedures, especially for decisions regarding how funds are spent. It's often been just me and my boss making those decisions but with our new organizational structure we have department directors who will be doing most of that. So our authorization procedures have to change, but that was in the works already.
It'll be an interesting year coming up with all the changes and I hope when my annual test comes around next summer I'll be just as pleased with the results.
