Saturday we spent the day with Jeff’s mom and aunt in Pittsburg (California, near Concord, which makes me wonder why the settlers couldn’t come up with more original names) at that city’s annual Seafood Festival. The website, unfortunately, leaves a lot to be desired: there’s no map of the festival nor even directions on how […]
I’m not sure how I missed this back when it actually took place, and I was even still working at the State Department then (though it was during my last two weeks there, so I was somewhat distracted by the pending cross-country move). From an Essence Magazine interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as […]
Ah, I just remembered something else I had meant to post about my experiences with license plate numbers. Writing the earlier post reminded me of the first time I took my Saab 9-3 convertible (the car I owned prior to the Prius) back to the dealer for service. I gave the keys to the mechanic […]
Today at work we had the first three-hour session of our 20-hour mandatory NERT training (yes, that’s a “T”). The AVC (associate vice chancellor) for our division has arranged for in-house training by the San Francisco Fire Department in what is, essentially, disaster preparedness. NERT stands for “Neighborhood Emergency Response Team” and aims at creating […]
The current California license plate standard is one number followed by three letters followed by three more numbers. So for each initial number-three letter combination there are 1,000 possible plates, from 000 to 999, for all of the millions of cars in the state. Granted, the plates aren’t distributed randomly across the state–when you register […]
We had intended to see the San Francisco Mime Troupe‘s new show, “Godfellas,” on Independence Day, but we ended up at the hospital with Jeff’s dad that day. Julie had been encouraging us to see it, and Peg and her family had really enjoyed it when she was visiting around that same time, but we […]
Back in my Virginia condo, food seemed to have a fairly long shelf-life. Here in Daly City, though, things seem to spoil rather quickly. Raw fruit, especially, seems to grow mold much sooner out here. Is this common for the Bay Area? Why might it be so much worse here? There are differences in climate, […]
I was just saying to Jeff about an hour ago, as he was musing over last Sunday’s New York Times (his aunt had picked it up at the airport on her way back to SFO from Manila, go figure), that I wished that New York were closer to San Francisco, and that it really belonged […]
My friend David Levine was awarded the Hugo for Best Short Story at Worldcon this past weekend. Way to go, David! His winning story, “Tk’tk’tk,” can be read online. The Hugo (which is a really gorgeous statue; the rocket is based on the hood ornament of an Oldsmobile 88, while a new design for the […]
The San Francico Chronicle reports that up to 14 pedestrians, including one child, have been injured, as many as half critically, in a “hit-and-run spree” in western San Francisco this afternoon. One person was hit across the street from my office, where the sidewalk now is cordoned off, a bicycle with its wheel and frame […]