Take me out to the Ballgame

So last night we went to our first A's game. I am officially an A's fan now that I own an Athletics T-shirt.
Anyway, Curt's boss won some tickets somehow. So he invited Curt and me to the game. We had fun. And the A's kicked Cleveland's booties.
Since it was a Monday night it wasn't super crowded. I didn't even have to wait in line for the bathroom. And I had my pick of many stalls. Ohhhh-Ahhhh!
They had good beer there, too. Gordon Biersch. Yum!
The final score was 13-4.
Curt's boss, Phil, is a pretty big A's fan. One of his cats is named Zito--after Barry Zito--an A's pitcher.
Phil is taking the MacWorld online crew out for a game tomorrow. Day game. And it is Rootbeer Float Day. I told Curt to take a cooler and save one for me.

Celebrations and visitors

Well, my dad was here last weekend for a visit. He coordinated his visit with a trip to Yoshi's (jazz club) on Saturday night. He was excited to see Pete Escovedo and family. The group put on an amazing show. And they are entertainers, so it was funny, too. Always a plus in my opinion. Sheila E. is a family member and part of the band. She was truly amazing on the drums.
Sunday we had lunch at the Thai Buddhist Temple. That is starting to become a regular for us. If you come and visit we will take you.
Monday I met Curt and my dad in the city for dinner. Yummy pizza and wine at an Italian restaurant in North Beach. Oh, and the cheese plate. YUM! I LOVE cheese.
Oh, and my dad just had a birthday. We gave him a painted frame for his new home, which I painted and with a picture of two wonderful people--hmmm, I wonder who they could be???? And we gave him really cool cufflinks: little salt and pepper shakers.
Curt's parents took off for the Pacific Northwest today. Next month is their 4oth wedding anniversary. Isn't that amazing? They are celebrating it in Washington state and Victoria, B.C. For two nights they are staying in the same room we stayed at for our honeymoon at Spinnakers. Our gift to them is two nights there. Curt's brother and wife provided their plane tickets. Glad they get to take this special trip. They deserve it.
Our friend Deb is in town this week for work. David and the kids are supposed to come up today. We are going to see them sometime this weekend. Should be fun.

Holiday travel

Well, our flights are booked. We are going to Missouri for Thanksgiving and deer-hunting season. Yum, venison jerky! And we are coming to Tucson for Christmas.
We will be in Arizona for a week and anticipate a day up in Phoenix.
Looking forward to seeing friends and family in Missouri and Arizona.
Just think ... in the newspaper business we could never travel like this. But for both of us work actually slows down around the holidays. What a concept!

Back 50 years or more?

Women's rights have always seemed to be in jeopardy. It's 1 step forward and 2 steps back. Women's rights have come a long way--but there is still such a long way to go. With a nominee like Judge John Roberts our rights are in jeopardy even more so.
I am, of course, a liberal. But I thought a moderate nominee would be fair for conservatives and liberals.
But Bush was not thinking that way. He wants to strip us of any rights. Apparently he wants more unwanted children in this world, alley abortions and more hungry families to feed.
Now I know not everyone is OK with abortion, and I respect that. I am pro-choice all the way. But if I were faced with the decision I don't know if I could go through with one. But I, and all women, should have that choice.
As my friend Jen said in her blog, here is the address to sign MoveOn's petition to let our senators know that we expect them to oppose this nominee.
I am scared to even think what would happen if Roe vs. Wade is overturned.

128 and a happy birthday!

Aren't you glad you don't live in Death Valley? CNN on Monday morning said Death Valley hit 128 Sunday. Ugh, now that is hot!
CNN also said Phoenix hit 116 Sunday, a record for that date.
Are you all melting in Arizona?
Curt and I were in the city last night. We took the cable car up to North Beach. Curt said, It is mid-July and we are freezing our @$$es off!
Today is my dad's birthday. He is 29! Woo-hoo! :)

Girls' Night In

I just recently finished a book called "Girls' Night In." I had bought it for my friend Stephanie as a going away gift when she moved to Salem. I decided to get it for myself. It is a book of short stories. And there are some hilarious ones in there. Some stories are a little odd or weird. But for the most part I thought it was a great collection. You should check it out.
Speaking of short stories my friend Bryn and former co-worker is a writer. I came upon one of her short stories online. I thought it was a great, well-written story, which I enjoyed a lot. And I want to share it with you. READ.
I have now started on "The Secret Life of Bees. I have only read the first chapter and I already love it.

Judges and non-judges

So I had CNN on this morning while getting ready for work. When I got out of the shower a press conference was in progress with the leader of our country. Someone asked Bush if they are looking at nominees for the Supreme Court who are not judges. Bush's response: We are looking at all kinds of people. Judges and non-judges.
Well, thank you Mr. President. He sounded idiotic--which I know is not unusual.

And don't get me started on: We can't comment on an ongoing investigation with the whole Karl Rove issue. They had no problem flapping their jaws during the ongoing investigation when Rove wasn't a suspect. But now they can't comment. They are shaking in their boots. Just fire Rove already!

All this administration has done is lie to the citizens of this country. I am still not sure why we are still in Iraq losing our soldiers and killing innocent Iraqis. Everytime Bush is asked about it 9/11 comes up. Um, HELLO, Iraq and 9/11 have NO link!

OK, I am finished now. (For now anyway.)

Hotsy Totsy

Well, my car said 82. But this is probably one of the first times I walked out of my work building into the garage and I wasn't cold. It was comfortably warm. It was hot in our apartment. I opened all the windows and cranked up our one fan. I think we need to buy a couple more. We have no ceiling fans here. Boooo.
82 is probably the warmest it has been. It is gorgeous outside. A little uncomfortable in the apartment. But it is already cooling down here.
I am sure all you Arizonans want to tell me to shut up. Or even my Missouri family with their heat and humidity.
But at least it is warm here. It's about time. I was wondering if summer would ever arrive.

Don't waste your money

So I was at Target the other day and I saw that product Veet on the shelf. (It's for leg hair removal.) I have wanted to try something different from shaving. I was already a little suspicious when it was in the clearance section. But I decided to pay the $4.88 plus tax and try it out. I first tried it Thursday. It works pretty much the same way Nair does. But it comes with a bladeless tool--shaped like a razor, but no blade.
So I tried it Thursday and it worked OK. But not a very close "shave." So I thought I would give it a second try--maybe it had to work too hard the first time since I hadn't shaved in awhile. Just OK again. So I am back to the razor I guess.
Oh, when I first used it Thursday it made my legs totally itchy afterward. But it does come with a moisturizer that I totally love. So something good came out of it I guess.

I am not the only one who thinks Tommy is a nut

Check this column out from the Chronicle Web site:

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/

Whew!

So BART workers were threatening to strike today at 12:01 a.m. Luckily they didn't. More than 300,000 people take BART on a daily basis. Everyone who commutes to work, whether drive, take ferry, bus or BART would have had a horrible time getting to work today. Curt takes BART to work and had looked at some alternatives: telecommute or take the ferry.
I can understand some of their gripes. (But some of the gripes were over the top.) Management is totally inflated and the people who do the work: attendants, janitors, drivers, etc.--there just aren't enough of them. I can relate--at The Republic we had (and I am sure still have) so much middle management it was insane. We didn't have enough people to do the daily work. For one deputy managing editor's salary we probably coulda hired 2 copy editors and a designer.
Enough of my griping.

Happy 5th of July!

Curt and I had a nice relaxing weekend. We decided to keep it low key since last weekend was anything but.
I did a lot of knitting ... got to get those birthday presents done and start on Christmas gifts. After scoas (part scarf, part boa) I am gonna work on baby blankets and wraps. The nice thing about the scoas is mistakes don't show up as much. But with my wraps and blankets I will have to be more precise. But I have to say I am getting better and faster at my knitting. I really enjoy it. Before we know it I will be making sweaters.
We did clear out our spare room and put a bunch of stuff in our storage unit. Now you can actually see the floor in the spare room and there is room to lay out the blow up mattress for all of our guests. (We have had more people visit us here than we did the 3 1/2 years in Phoenix. Phoenix ... San Fran/Berkeley. I know, which would you choose?)
Yesterday we went to Oakland (Jack London Square) to watch fireworks with our downstairs neighbors, Jim and Jennifer. They are new to the area, too. I have never had to wear a sweatshirt to a fireworks show. It was rather chilly. The show was pretty good. Except for the kid who screamed everytime a firework exploded (or whatever it is they do). There were some smiley face fireworks--pretty cute. There were booths and stuff, too. Some food to eat and stuff to drink. Not a bad little set up.