Casino Express, take me away...

On certain mornings, I am walking to work right when the River Rock Casino Express bus pulls in to pick up loads of lucky people, off to the hills of Sonoma for a day of gambling fun.

On certain mornings, it takes a lot of willpower to keep walking to work.

Hanging out with Barry

We went to another Giants game today; for two people who don't really care for baseball, we've gone to an awful lot of games this season. The picture I took of Barry at bat (with Mike Piazza playing catcher; if that means very little to you, join the club, but the real baseball fans around us seemed to get very excited about it) shows how good the seats were, which is why we go. That, and a good excuse to eat a hot dog. Nice.



One of the best parts is that I did not get sunburned this time, a rare feat for me when I am outdoors, let alone in direct sunlight. However, the sun did manage to bleach some of the hair in my beard white...yeah, that's it...the sun...

I'm drunk and phlegm free!

I had a kid tell me yesterday that it was no big deal that she had been drinking so much cough syrup, because she was "just sippin on sizzurp, you feel me, like Three 6?" I proved my level of hipness by recognizing that, although the words she spoke were in English, I had no idea what she was saying.

Thanks to Wikipedia and YouTube, I now know. I now "feel" her. (And by the way, that's "Academy Award winners Three 6" to you, thank you very much)

When I was in Basic, I remember guys buying cough syrup at the PX so they could get drunk. Those guys were known as "morons." Who knew they were so far ahead of their time?

Road trip...kind of

We needed to get out of the house on Sunday, so we took a drive to San Jose. You may be asking: why San Jose? I am not sure I can answer that, but it was good to get out of the house, and out of the land of fog and actually see the sun again. It is good to remember that "July" and "warm" go together for most of the country.

We did some shopping (specifically for shirts), some eating (we shared the lasagna, and were not impressed...but how much do I love the photo of that guy on their website?), and even got the baby cleaned (they even took out the mats and washed them...nice!).

Good day. Not an exciting day, but a good one.

Brendon to Breakers, part two

Here I am with my brother and uncle running the Bay to Breakers 12K. My smile was purely camera-driven, I can assure you.

I finally figured out how to scan photos with my printer. Like many other features on my Mac, it is so ridiculously simple that I was over-thinking it and didn't try the easiest solution first. Damn you, William of Ockham.

Damn you, Poindexter!

I enjoy Tim Busfield as an actor.

I did NOT enjoy losing to Tim's pocket Queens in poker.

The guys and the Mus aren't clapping along in my head anymore, Tim.

Mmmm...pride...

If you're going to a barbecue during Pride Week, what else could you make? Had a fantastic visit at the house of good friends, with other good friends in attendance. Nothing bad about that.

This marks the beginning of photos on my blog, and I want to thank Jen for helping me realize how important it is to share the visual as well as the written.

I also need to thank Verizon, my new cell provider, and the people who sold me my fancy new phone with the built-in camera. Should be lots of fun.

Kyrie elison...

We went to the symphony last night for their production of Verdi's Requiem. I thought it was...okay. I read the notes ahead of time, and if I understand them correctly, this was intended as a "holy" mass, written for a dead poet, and written by an atheist. Huh. We went to the symphony a few times when we lived in Atlanta, and while this group seems technically more proficient, the music we listened to in the ATL was a lot more interesting. This looks like it would be more fun.

They played it all the way through without an intermission (we were almost late from dinner, and I had thought we'd maybe miss a movement and then get seated...glad we got there at the beginning, I guess), which was hard on the ol' glutes. Not the comfiest seats in town.

Game over, man...game over...

This headline epitomizes how idiotic it is to think that you can fight a "war" on terror. Did someone in the Defense Department think that Iraq is a game of Stratego, and al-Zarqawi was the flag?

The Number of the Beast...sort of...

Hey, if you go in for the apocalyptic, then today should be a fun one for you. Not only can you now see the remake of The Omen (which, based on ads I've seen, was made purely to use today's date in advertisements...well, that and to save money on a script), but according to this site, you should spend the day blowing out your eardrums, as well as the eardrums of those around you. Enjoy!

Ahhhh...

My wife gave me a wonderful surprise this weekend: a trip to San Francisco! It's a fun city; I highly recommend it.

What was great about playing tourist for the weekend was that the simple act of getting out of the house made all the difference in the world. We checked into a swanky hotel, did the tourist thing, relaxed, and then had a fantastic meal before calling it a night.

Very relaxing, very fun, and after the last few weeks (which have involved a car accident and our hot water heater going kaput), very appreciated!

Lost?

If you enjoyed the season finale of Lost as much as we did, and if you are equally as confused as we all are, the Lostpedia is a fantastic way to get sucked into the twists and turns of your favorite passengers of flight 815. If nothing else, it's a great way to catch up over the summer while we await season three. Also, the official website of the Hanso Foundation is a lot of fun, too. Namaste!

BTW, if you work at our Thai delivery place, and were wondering why we didn't call this past Wednesday, it's because the season is over. I promise, we're okay.

Brendon to Breakers

I ran 7.5 miles this last Sunday in the Bay To Breakers 12K race. Didn't break any world records, but I didn't break anything else AND I finished, and that's a record for me.

Yay, me!

Scrubs must die

After last night's sappy, thin season finale episodes, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it is time to retire Scrubs. It has been a fun show, I have enjoyed the wacky antics, and I admit that I would probably pay money to see Doctor Acula if it came out in theaters. But this last season has fallen into a formulaic syndrome that I found both sad and annoying: ten minutes of wacky, then sad music halfway through as we set up whatever lesson we're going to learn, back to wacky, and then finish with the overused song montage/voice-over to wrap things up with said lesson. Lazy.

During the finale, when they crammed a new relationship for JD into about fifteen minutes, and spent the rest of the time making penis jokes, I knew that the shark had officially been jumped. Time to go out on the highest note possible.

Oh...

I spent ten minutes this morning, looking all over our apartment for my belt. I got frustrated because I remembered where I had put it, remembered seeing it, and I just could not find it. I was convinced that my wife had moved it, and got a little more frustrated because of that.

Until she pointed out that I was wearing my belt.

I may need to start getting more sleep. And I probably owe her an apology.

New Google toy

By now, I imagine most people have had some fun playing with Google Maps (I got a kick out of the fact that, at some point, the owners of my former childhood home put in a pool...how many times, growing up, did I look out my back door and wish there was a pool?), so it is definitely time for a new toy.

Behold: Google Trends, for the hidden statistician (say that a few times fast) in all of us. If you need some explanation before diving right in (that smacks of reading directions, but I suppose some people enjoy such things), here is an article explaining how it works. If you are in need of a little geek-out time, you came to the right site. Enjoy.

Dirty, filthy Diana

We went to see the ballet Sylvia yesterday (by the way, if you are keeping count, that's two ballets in the last three weeks...that, and I wear a suit to work every day...what happened to me?), and overall, I was impressed. Like the others, I cannot stand it when they break the story to have a dance recital; this one was even worse, because not only did the story come to a grinding, screeching halt so the leads could have their solo time, but after they danced, they bowed to the audience! Why not just hold up "Applause" cards, and let the other dancers on stage drink coffee? My better half assures me this is normal for ballet, so the lead dancers can assert their alpha dog dominance over the others, but for me (the admittedly uninformed viewer), it is just boring and painful.

The interesting thing with yesterday's performance was that it was the last of the season for this particular show, so they let someone from the company (she's at the top of the window) dance the lead role. I am not sure if that means she is getting promoted, or if they were just throwing her a bone on the last day; either way, she was okay, but the male lead and the principal in the role of Diana were definitely the showstoppers.

Close, but no steroid-laced cigar

We went to a Giants game on Sunday. If you know me, you know that I am such a die-hard baseball fan that it would take me a minute to remember who they played, but I can tell you that I did eat a hotdog, and I did manage to get an awkward sunburn on the top part of one of my arms, leaving the rest of me nice and pasty. Sweet.

What I did not get to see was Barry Bonds hit a homerun. Even if you think baseball is as boring as I do, you are probably aware that he is closing in on Babe Ruth's record (714), and with last night's shot, is now within two hits of tying the Babe. Barry did hit one out to the wall late in the game, which got everyone on their feet, but that's as close as he came while we were there.

By the way, there was something oddly fascinating about seeing thousands of people with cellphones in hand when Barry was at the plate; we have become the paparazzi.

The Great Quake remembered

Not sure how much national press this is getting, but today the City is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake that devastated not only San Francisco, but towns up and down the coast. This site has some very interesting articles, photos, and videos about not only the earthquake, but also the resulting fires that destroyed the City, and the subsequent rebuilding efforts.

And, just to add the element of fear, here is an article that estimates the amount of damage a similar quake would have today, and here is a link to some new maps that show the liquefaction (when solid ground becomes sandy liquid due to the shaking of a large quake) risk when the next big one hits. Neat.

Celebrating the resurrection of Christ with hot man-on-man action

The subject line is one way of looking at my trip to the ballet on Easter Sunday to see the touring company of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. This version puts an new twist on the classic Tchaikovsky ballet, and while I admit that I have not seen the old version, after having read the synopsis, I am glad that I never did. The classic version sounds pretty stodgy, and while the new version certainly had its slow moments (the second act looked like a recital at a dance school, with various groups of swans running on stage to do their act, then running off, and the third act had a similar scene at a party where various groups of dancers had to get in their "solo" time), it had funny parts, sad parts, kept my interest, and even included what had to be the best dance combination ever: disco ballet!

Maybe if Antonio Banderas had taught that combination to sassy inner-city kids, his movie wouldn't have flopped.