Informal poll to the few readers of this blog... do you tend to prefer shorter-but-more-frequent blog updates with stuff like what I've been up to, random observations, and such? Or do you prefer the lengthier-but-less-frequent pontifications I am sometimes wont to write? Let me know via the little-used guestbook/message board linked at the right, or find me on IM.
Side note... thanks to Reni for becoming the first person to post a message in my guestbook/message board!
Bunch of stuff to talk about...
Giants lose the World Series
In my last blog of half a month ago, the Giants had just won the League Championship Series putting them into the World Series for the first time since the Bay Bridge Series. I wrote this:
“In the grand scheme of things... sports doesn't mean a whole heckuva lot. But perhaps the greatest benefit of sports is that it fosters community… Following sports gives you the chance to learn and critique the game, but more importantly, gives you the chance to enjoy the highs and be disappointed in the lows of your team, along with all the other team's followers.
Tonight was definitely a high.”
Even after following the Giants for 14 years, sticking by them in down years and agonizing in the years where they just weren’t quite good enough, this postseason was both a real treat and a real emotional roller coaster ride. Because the Giants are an old team without a lot of young talent, this was probably their last real good chance at taking it all – playing a beatable team, and everyone was hot at the same time. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. While I missed the clinching Game 7 because of a prior commitment to be at a friend’s surprise birthday dinner (Joy, you know you’re loved when a bunch of Giants fans give up Game 7 for your birthday!), the real low of the series was in Game 6. Despite a 5-0 lead and some of baseball’s top relievers on hand to finish off the game and the championship, the Angels just made a miraculous comeback, and I have to tip my cap to them. That didn’t lessen the continually rising frustration I felt while I watched everything unfold.
Even though the short-term future of the Giants is unsettled, with Dusty Baker being let go and all the players getting another year older, I have to appreciate the scrappy bunch of overachievers that showed up in the playoffs and almost brought it all the way home. I appreciate the fact that I got the chance to enjoy the team with my boss and other friends. I’ll have memories of the baseballs that Barry Bonds absolutely crushes. And I’ll still be there next year, supporting the team. Hummm Baby!
NBA season starts
I didn’t have a whole lot of time to wallow in the end of the Giants season because the NBA has begun. I won’t go into a whole lot of detail, as any of you who is reading this should know how much I enjoy basketball and the NBA, but suffice to say that I love this time of year.
I’m in two fantasy hoops leagues this year. One’s with old Cal buddies. One’s with old Canaan folks. Let’s get it on!
On a disturbing note, I read a news snippet out of New Orleans before their season opener against Utah. Before the game, the announcer asked the crowd and teams to bow for a short moment of prayer (not prohibited by the NBA). What did he pray for? Safety for the players? Nope, he said: "Heavenly Father, we ask that you help the New Orleans Hornets to win tonight's game, and go on to win the championship!" And the crowd goes wild!
Does this sicken anyone else?
Hanging out with the Married Folks
This past Sunday and Monday, I got the chance to spend time with two couples of friends from college that are now married. Kinda trippy, but really neat, for somewhat different reasons…
On Sunday after church I went up to Danville to visit Pam and Andy’s place, and watch the 49ers-Raiders game with a bunch of old Cal buddies. First off… people drive really fast on 680. I mean, I was going around 80 mph and people were still passing me on both sides. Yeesh…
Pam and Andy live in a sweet house in a nice suburban neighborhood in Danville. I think that was the first thing that sort of threw me for a loop – of my other friends from college who are now married, most are still living in apartments. So, when I walked into this spic-and-span 4-bedroom house with white carpet, artwork on the walls, and slippers at the doorway for guests… I half expected to see a few kids running around. It felt so… grown-up…
The afternoon was fun… got to catch up some with Pam and Andy and some of the other guys who were there, watch the 49ers barely eke out a win against the Raiders in Oakland (see Danny’s blog at http://www.geocities.com/messydanny for an account of how I almost jinxed the Niners), and of course, consume lots of meat (and… ahem… salad, for me). I guess it’s not so weird that my friends are married now, because for the majority of time that I’ve known them, they’ve been inseparable, so it’s not a huge mental leap to see them as married… but it did take a bit of reorientation to remember that they don’t have kids yet and aren’t planning to for a few years. It certainly looks like a nice place to raise a family.
On Monday after playing hoops at National (and having one of the worst all-around basketball-playing days in recent memory), I had dinner at Vicky and Drew’s place in Mountain View. After they got married, I house-sat for them for one night amidst a bunch of unopened wedding gifts, so I had been in the apartment before, but I hadn’t had the chance to see what they’d done with it. The place is set up nicely, very homey… and I was quite amused at the “restricted parking” road sign perched above the commode… heh…
Vicky’s a good cook, and I had the privilege of sampling her catfish, snap peas with chicken, and bbq pork noodles. Good stuff. To top it off, they introduced me to a Chinese dessert which seemed to be sesame seed paste wrapped in sticky rice and then boiled to make a sweet soup type thing. I don’t eat a whole lot of Chinese sweets, but this was pretty good. We then looked through some of their wedding pics, and played MarioKart and Perfect Dark on their sweet Dell projector – it’s cool to play multi-player and have your portion of the projection be as big as a typical big-screen TV.
The thing that was kinda trippy about hanging out with Vicky and Drew was that I knew both of them as friends, but not so much as a couple. However, since I knew each of them on an individual basis before, I had some preconceived notions of how they’d mesh, and it was pretty cool to see some of that in the way they talked to each other, prayed together, and even romped through room after room in Perfect Dark gunning down bad guy after bad guy together. A very pleasant evening.
Aside: Last night as I was writing some of this post, my parents were in the dining room listening to music from musicals and singing along to them together. Kinda cute… even if my dad’s kinda off :-). Maybe that’s where I get my vocal pipes from…
I’ll do my best to update more often.
Side note... thanks to Reni for becoming the first person to post a message in my guestbook/message board!
Bunch of stuff to talk about...
Giants lose the World Series
In my last blog of half a month ago, the Giants had just won the League Championship Series putting them into the World Series for the first time since the Bay Bridge Series. I wrote this:
“In the grand scheme of things... sports doesn't mean a whole heckuva lot. But perhaps the greatest benefit of sports is that it fosters community… Following sports gives you the chance to learn and critique the game, but more importantly, gives you the chance to enjoy the highs and be disappointed in the lows of your team, along with all the other team's followers.
Tonight was definitely a high.”
Even after following the Giants for 14 years, sticking by them in down years and agonizing in the years where they just weren’t quite good enough, this postseason was both a real treat and a real emotional roller coaster ride. Because the Giants are an old team without a lot of young talent, this was probably their last real good chance at taking it all – playing a beatable team, and everyone was hot at the same time. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. While I missed the clinching Game 7 because of a prior commitment to be at a friend’s surprise birthday dinner (Joy, you know you’re loved when a bunch of Giants fans give up Game 7 for your birthday!), the real low of the series was in Game 6. Despite a 5-0 lead and some of baseball’s top relievers on hand to finish off the game and the championship, the Angels just made a miraculous comeback, and I have to tip my cap to them. That didn’t lessen the continually rising frustration I felt while I watched everything unfold.
Even though the short-term future of the Giants is unsettled, with Dusty Baker being let go and all the players getting another year older, I have to appreciate the scrappy bunch of overachievers that showed up in the playoffs and almost brought it all the way home. I appreciate the fact that I got the chance to enjoy the team with my boss and other friends. I’ll have memories of the baseballs that Barry Bonds absolutely crushes. And I’ll still be there next year, supporting the team. Hummm Baby!
NBA season starts
I didn’t have a whole lot of time to wallow in the end of the Giants season because the NBA has begun. I won’t go into a whole lot of detail, as any of you who is reading this should know how much I enjoy basketball and the NBA, but suffice to say that I love this time of year.
I’m in two fantasy hoops leagues this year. One’s with old Cal buddies. One’s with old Canaan folks. Let’s get it on!
On a disturbing note, I read a news snippet out of New Orleans before their season opener against Utah. Before the game, the announcer asked the crowd and teams to bow for a short moment of prayer (not prohibited by the NBA). What did he pray for? Safety for the players? Nope, he said: "Heavenly Father, we ask that you help the New Orleans Hornets to win tonight's game, and go on to win the championship!" And the crowd goes wild!
Does this sicken anyone else?
Hanging out with the Married Folks
This past Sunday and Monday, I got the chance to spend time with two couples of friends from college that are now married. Kinda trippy, but really neat, for somewhat different reasons…
On Sunday after church I went up to Danville to visit Pam and Andy’s place, and watch the 49ers-Raiders game with a bunch of old Cal buddies. First off… people drive really fast on 680. I mean, I was going around 80 mph and people were still passing me on both sides. Yeesh…
Pam and Andy live in a sweet house in a nice suburban neighborhood in Danville. I think that was the first thing that sort of threw me for a loop – of my other friends from college who are now married, most are still living in apartments. So, when I walked into this spic-and-span 4-bedroom house with white carpet, artwork on the walls, and slippers at the doorway for guests… I half expected to see a few kids running around. It felt so… grown-up…
The afternoon was fun… got to catch up some with Pam and Andy and some of the other guys who were there, watch the 49ers barely eke out a win against the Raiders in Oakland (see Danny’s blog at http://www.geocities.com/messydanny for an account of how I almost jinxed the Niners), and of course, consume lots of meat (and… ahem… salad, for me). I guess it’s not so weird that my friends are married now, because for the majority of time that I’ve known them, they’ve been inseparable, so it’s not a huge mental leap to see them as married… but it did take a bit of reorientation to remember that they don’t have kids yet and aren’t planning to for a few years. It certainly looks like a nice place to raise a family.
On Monday after playing hoops at National (and having one of the worst all-around basketball-playing days in recent memory), I had dinner at Vicky and Drew’s place in Mountain View. After they got married, I house-sat for them for one night amidst a bunch of unopened wedding gifts, so I had been in the apartment before, but I hadn’t had the chance to see what they’d done with it. The place is set up nicely, very homey… and I was quite amused at the “restricted parking” road sign perched above the commode… heh…
Vicky’s a good cook, and I had the privilege of sampling her catfish, snap peas with chicken, and bbq pork noodles. Good stuff. To top it off, they introduced me to a Chinese dessert which seemed to be sesame seed paste wrapped in sticky rice and then boiled to make a sweet soup type thing. I don’t eat a whole lot of Chinese sweets, but this was pretty good. We then looked through some of their wedding pics, and played MarioKart and Perfect Dark on their sweet Dell projector – it’s cool to play multi-player and have your portion of the projection be as big as a typical big-screen TV.
The thing that was kinda trippy about hanging out with Vicky and Drew was that I knew both of them as friends, but not so much as a couple. However, since I knew each of them on an individual basis before, I had some preconceived notions of how they’d mesh, and it was pretty cool to see some of that in the way they talked to each other, prayed together, and even romped through room after room in Perfect Dark gunning down bad guy after bad guy together. A very pleasant evening.
Aside: Last night as I was writing some of this post, my parents were in the dining room listening to music from musicals and singing along to them together. Kinda cute… even if my dad’s kinda off :-). Maybe that’s where I get my vocal pipes from…
I’ll do my best to update more often.
posted by Bob at
9:51 AM
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