1) My dad's visit. We packed SO MUCH in the two and a half days that he was here. On Friday after I picked him up at SFO we went to Karl's school and toured his P.E. facilities, then drove around Berkeley to see the Cal campus. We also drove way up a mountain in Berkeley that neither Karl nor I had been up before, and came to the most magnificent lookout of Oakland, San Francisco, and the bay. Unfortunately none of us anticipated seeing this great view and therefore none of us had a camera handy. I'm sure Karl and I will go back up there to take pictures sometime, so when we do I'll be sure to post a few.
That night we went to a Giants vs. Dodgers game in San Francisco, which turned out to be one of the best baseball games I've ever been to. The Giants and Dodgers fans were all chanting against each other and the game was action-packed, complete with the suspense and thrill of the new replay system for home runs in MLB, extra innings, and finally a Giants victory in the bottom of the 10th. The best part though was that Karl got to be on the big screen (or "jumbo-tron", whichever you prefer...) He was asked to do a trivia contest between the 6th and 7th inning and he was a natural in front of the camera. He won a Will Clark bobble head doll and made a new friend with the Giants promotion guy who interviewed him. My dad and I teamed up to get some photos of him from different locations, two of which you can see below:
Saturday we went up to wine country, starting our day at Hess Collection, which is one of Karl's and my favorite wineries in Napa. After that we continued on to Bartholomew Park Winery in Sonoma (wonderful!) and Kunde Estate Winery in Sonoma for a barrel-aging cave tour (this one was just okay...) We finished the day with a quick visit to the Jack London State Historical Park to see London's old house and his dream house, which burned down three months before he was to move in. It was never rebuilt. We completed our wine country excursion with dinner at Mondo in Sonoma and then we called it a day!
All of us inside the barrel aging caves at Kunde Estate.Sunday we took my dad to church at Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church in Orinda, then showed him the Saint Mary's campus. We spent most of the day Sunday in San Francisco, checking out Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Haight Ashbury. We topped off the day with pizza from Zachary's, and then the visit was pretty much over. It went by way too quickly but it was so wonderful to see family, cure some of our homesickness, and get out and experience more of the Bay Area.
The Golden Gate Bridge.To see ALL of our pictures from the weekend, just check out my Kodak Gallery when you get a chance. There are a lot of pictures! :)
2) The Cubs are in the playoffs!!! I wish sooooo badly I was in Chicago right now. When I first moved there in 2003 it was the last year they made it to the playoffs (until this year) and it was an amazing experience. The entire neighborhood (I lived in Wrigleyville) had a completely positive vibe to it...you could feel it riding on the train to work, going to restaurants or bars, or just simply walking down the street. Of course that feeling was quickly squelched when Steve Bartman made his infamous "catch", thus becoming yet another curse on the Cubs. Without a doubt, my favorite thing about living in Chicago was being just a few blocks from Wrigley Field. I loved being so close that I could walk to any game I wanted. I recently found all of the ticket stubs I saved from games during the three baseball seasons I lived there and I had over 50...and those are just the stubs I kept. If I could take a leave of absence to spend the next few weeks in Wrigleyville, trust me I would. Their first postseason series is against the Dodgers and Karl and I are strongly contemplating going down to LA for one of the games this weekend. If flight prices drop about $50 between now and then we'll definitely be there. If not, we've got free tickets to the Cal-Arizona State game so we'll be taking in some fine athletics regardless. In tribute to my Cubs, here are a few of my favorite pictures from when I lived the life of a Cubs fan up close and personal:
The third annual "Girls Night at Wrigley", which I started with all of my girl friends the first year I lived there. Here we're sitting in the infamous bleachers.
The most beautiful place on Earth.3) Hess Collection 19 Block Cuvee - heavenly. Karl and I picked up our Hess Collector's club September shipment when we were at the winery this past weekend, and tonight we are enjoying the 2005 Mount Vedeer 19 Block Cuvee. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, and Karl and I both agree that this wine is on "another level" than most that we drink on a regular basis. We will definitely be buying more of it the next time we go to Hess. If you want a really good dry red, check it out: Hess 19 Block Cuvee.
4) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler - another SNL hit. I laughed so hard at the latest Tina Fey/Amy Poehler SNL skit about Sarah Palin. The gig is up...she's clearly severely underqualified and looked like a deer in headlights during most of the Katie Couric interview. Check out the SNL skit below. It's hilarious! I'm so glad Tina Fey has agreed to make these special appearances to play Palin!
4) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler - another SNL hit. I laughed so hard at the latest Tina Fey/Amy Poehler SNL skit about Sarah Palin. The gig is up...she's clearly severely underqualified and looked like a deer in headlights during most of the Katie Couric interview. Check out the SNL skit below. It's hilarious! I'm so glad Tina Fey has agreed to make these special appearances to play Palin!
If you want to see a segment from the REAL Katie Couric-Sarah Palin interview, check out these two clips...they are part of what SNL parodied:
And here's one more I just can't resist putting up:
Finally, I've had enough of Sarah Palin's "bright eyed and bushy tailed" bit. The sugary sweet image she's trying to portray just doesn't work for me. The "gonna's" and "I'll get back to ya's" and "tryin" and "takin" are just too much. My advice to Palin: speak as though you are truly a professional human being, don't try to appear cute to the American public. Add the necessary "g" on the end of those words, or say GOING, not "gonna"...even my college students know not to say "gonna" when they're being interviewed. It's completely unprofessional. We don't need "cute". We need someone who can fix the problems facing our country. I can't wait for the VP debate on Thursday...it should be verrrry interesting!
That's all from me for now! Enjoy your week and stay tuned for more posts later in the week! :)
2 comments:
In all fairness...I think that's just how she talks.
Have you ever spent significant amounts of time with someone from Minnesota, Canada, or Alaska?
Yep...most of them talk like that. Even the "important" ones.
Haha...I should've known you'd play devil's advocate on me. :) Yes, I've met people from those places before but I still think that when someone is in the national public eye as she is, they should make an effort to sound a bit more intelligent and not so down-home hokey. One thing my mom always tried to teach me was to speak properly as opposed to "gonna" and "tryin". I know I'm not perfect in this regard, but I can guarantee that if I was the Vice Presidential candidate I wouldn't be speaking that way!!!
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