Monday, January 30, 2006

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

I celebrated Chinese New Year yesterday by completing the Chinatown YMCA Year of the Dog 5K, and I am pleased to say that it went as planned: ran the first mile, walked the second, and ran the third. I did this one about five minutes faster than the one back in November, which probably doesn't mean a whole lot (this one had a couple of downhill parts), but it made me feel good (esp. after the corresponding uphill parts).

What didn't make me feel as good was the large number of dogs with race numbers...who beat me. This particularly cheeky husky kept glancing back at me with this look that seemed to say, "Really? That's the best you've got? I've had five litters of puppies, for Christ's sake!" Bitch.

Friday, January 27, 2006

And we live on Av...Goodnight!

Earlier this week, I was reading this article in Newsweek about the failure of Broadway shows in Vegas, and how new and existing shows are "trimming down," meaning they are cutting out intermissions and even editing out some content to get the overall running time down to an all-American hour and half. I mentioned this to my wife, and we agreed that we sure hope things are okay for our trip in February, since we've already purchased tix to see Avenue Q.

Guess who called yesterday? A helpful operator from the Wynn, asking us which other performance we'd rather see, since they are canceling the one we reserved, cutting the number of shows they perform per week, and eliminating the intermission. The operator assured us that they are not losing content, but of course, I've never seen the show, so how the hell would I know, anyway?

Those puppets are going to get a piece of my mind. Excuse me...Felt Americans.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Strutting with Ron

Added some good 70s funk to my iPod this weekend. Groovy.

This morning, while I was coming up out of the BART and walking down the gray streets of Oakland, the random song that popped up was "Superfly," by Curtis Mayfield. Groovier.

Now, if you've seen the movie, you know that it (like Shaft before it) starts with Ron O'Neal strutting down the gray streets of New York. Super groovy.

Am I super fly? No. Am I even a little fly? Probably not. But did I strut just a little as I listened to the song, imagining myself in the lead role as the credits rolled by, and therefore, for one shining moment, was myself a little groovy? You bet.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Dreamworld of magic

Saw The Chronicles of Narnia yesterday; going in, we all agreed that we had memories of having read the books as children, but to a person, we couldn't remember a single specific detail. The movie is good: entertaining, escapist fun. The Christian imagery is certainly there, but not so overpowering or annoying that it gets in the way if you aren't looking for it to get in the way. And the CGI is actually pretty good, given that the characters are actual animals, rather than poorly drawn racial stereotypes. George, I'm looking at you.

My only regret? We got to the theater too late to go to the concessions stand, where I would have made a "Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equal crazy delicious" comment. That would have been gold!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Where's Meadowlark?

I am 98% sure I saw the Harlem Globetrotters this morning. Here is a list of my reasons why I think I saw the Harlem Globetrotters:

1) When I came up out of the subway, I saw three extremely tall men, all wearing Harlem Globetrotters warmups.

2) They were standing in front of a huge tour bus that was painted all over with the words "Harlem Globetrotters."

3) A young child walked up to the tall men and asked, "Are you the Harlem Globetrotters?" Two of the men said yes, and proceeded to give the kid their autographs on official Harlem Globetrotters team photos.

This is why I think I saw the Harlem Globetrotters this morning. Cool.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Roller Coaster Monday

Monday was a good day. I thought it was going to be just awful, but then things turned around, and partly due to my low expectations, it turned out great.

To start, I handled a trial that should not have been a trial: there were no real legal issues, but instead a parent wanted to take the stand and talk about what bad kid the minor was, and the minor wanted to take the stand and talk about what a bad person the parent was. I am not usually in the mood to allow families to waste court time and resources so they can act out their favorite scenes from The Jerry Springer Show, so I was dreading going in there and trying to settle it. I also ended up coming into the office on Sunday (a big government lawyer no-no) to prepare for Monday, doubling my displeasure. Not off to a good start.

But then things took a turn. I was able to talk the parent into settling, I got what the minor wanted/needed, and things only disintegrated into reality television in the hallway, not in the court room. Very nice.

Then, on the way back to the office, I spotted what looked like a dollar bill on the sidewalk. I looked around to see if anybody was walking by who may have dropped it, but I was alone. I bent down to pick it up, and that wasn't Washington looking at me, but Jackson giving me a little wink. Not wanting to offend the seventh president (he once killed a man for insulting his wife; the least I could do was spend him!), I offered him a ride...in my wallet.

When I got to the office, two lawyers I work with, but who work in another court (and therefore I don't know them as well as I'd like), asked me if I wanted to go to lunch. I had settled my case, had an extra 20 spot in my pocket, so absolutely! We had a nice chat, blew off some steam, and I was able to subsidize a large portion of our salads.

Like Ice Cube said...today was a good day...

Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Year to me!

How did I spend my New Year's day? Playing in an online poker tournament, of course...but this time, I actually "monied," coming in second place out of a field of 686. A very fun way to spend a rainy evening.

The tournament lasted about 3.5 hours, and for all of that, my share of the prize pool was...$6. That's not a typo: six bucks. It was a free tournament that only paid the top three places, and we split $20. So if you do the math, I earned approximately $1.72/hour yesterday. I think they pay better in prison.

The good part is that I had a lot of fun. The better part is that I won a couple bucks for free. But the best part is that now I can play a couple paid tournaments (emphasis on "couple") with their money. Game on!