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Blog Archive - December 2007

31-Dec-07 -- I'm looking forward to a healthy new year for myself and this country.  I'm excited about the President Elect as she's going to reinvigorate the pride I had in being American, when intelligence accounted for something among our leaders, even if the ignorant masses voted otherwise.  I'm frightened by how few (what I call) 'reasonable Republicans' are left in this world.  I meet them and hear from them in the media so seldom.  I knew a few in law school, but New York Republicans are different.  Even Rudolph Giuliani, who I once saw speak at an Italian American lawyers dinner at the Waldorf, was the most liberal guy in the room besides me, including the lesbian attorney who sat next to me.  Still, I don't think I'd ever vote for anyone who is affiliated with that party.  I like the two party system as it does check and balance, but the Republicans are bound to go the way of the Whigs if they don't modernize, which I believe they will be forced to do.

Josh returned to Oakland airport today.  Sabina and Mom picked him up.  I got out of work at 2pm to my surprise.  Josh and I had dinner at a mediocre steakhouse with Vance Coleman.  Vance walked us through the crack-ridden Tenderloin District and then took a bus home.  Josh and I had paid for Bearracuda tickets.  The first time we went we were unfashionably early, but frustrated that we had wasted $100 on a meal when there was a bounty of food there.  Met a triad who got us to take our shirts off and dance.  They live on the other side of twin peaks apparently.  Guido and Eric had some champagne back at the hotel room and even though we did very different activities in the city that night, we got back about the same time.  I could only tolerate a sip of it, so the rest of them downed the big bottle.  

30-Dec-07 -- Had a nice day shopping with Mom; had breakfast with my dear friend Mike from law school who stopped to visit and rest while driving from Las Vegas to Portland.  My Josh comes home tomorrow.

29-Dec-07 -- Today is my friend Donita's actual 40th birthday.  Mine is coming up in July and I'm hoping to have a big bash for it.  Josh is in Rochester, NY this week visiting his folks for the holiday as his company pays for this week off each year apparently.  My law school friend, Mike O’Rourke, stopped by to crash overnight while driving from Las Vegas to Portland, OR.   

Assassination -- I'm upset about the assassination in Pakistan of Benazir Bhutto.  I really think she would have been key to finding bin Laden.  Despite the candor and good nature that Musharraf seemed to have on The Daily Show when he was promoting his book, he can't be trusted.  I don't care how mountainous the area between Afghanistan and Pakistan is, if we had cooperation and if Bushy was willing enough, he'd find him.  Obviously it's not a priority.

28-Dec-07 -- Hopefully I'll continue to blog on my site more often, even though I don't have an RSS feed set up or any formal blogging program.  I have kept a personal journal for sixteen years, but I think more content about my day-to-day life should go here, as this web site will be more of my legacy than the tidbits of data that I've been backing up with my financial files and other boring documents.  At the same time I want to be careful not to divulge anything that would hurt people's feelings or give too much away about the plans that I have.

I did recently update my travel page as I think it makes sense to plan one's vacations well in advance if they are ever to come to fruition, and one can bank one's paid time off to maximize the effect. 

I have a lot of plans for cleaning up this web site, including mastering CSS, which a friend had offered to help me learn.

Today I accidentally called Donita prematurely for her 40^th birthday.  She had car trouble yet again.  Had a lovely evening with Garrison and Kevin and Jon and the kids, plus Garrison’s actress friend and her male companion were there with their two adopted girls from Cambodia.  Kevin’s neighbor with her dog came over; we had a fabulous Asian soup and rolls dinner. 

27-Dec-07 It is really convenient having the car in the garage as it does not have to defrost in the mornings, although that isn’t the case every morning, and it gets pretty chilly in the garage.  Received a handle I ordered for the garage door.  Catch up call to family and friends.  Made reservations for IBR and New Years Eve and tentative plans for going to Barcelona for Bearcelona. 

 25-Dec-07 Took Josh to airport late at night after we had a very nice day with Jon Logan and Kevin Woodward at the house in Berkeley with their friends, including a lesbian couple and their sons who I remembered from Ptown.  Josh took a few pictures, but not of our hosts, unfortunately.  Their injured orange tabby was very similar to Mr. Kitty. 

24-Dec-07 Went to Mom’s in the late afternoon.  Sabina, Ken and Brooke were there.  I got a lovely letter from my sister Rose in Texas.

23-Dec-07 April and Italo weren't able to come over, but I went to pick mom up and we did a little food shopping while Josh got ready for our little xmas gathering.  Donita and Hannah were on time.  Doni had a hoarse voice.   I was glad Hannah liked her gifts and was able to play with Alex's Bratz dolls.

20-Dec-07 Giuseppe e Claudia will have a baby boy!

17-Dec-07 Went to Castro after work and met Josh.  We took muni to Cole Valley to have dinner at Burgermeister with the Bears of San Francisco.  It was crowded but we had a pretty good time and spoke about IBR plans.  On the way home we were frustrated by waiting in the wrong area for the muni to take us to BART.  Did a little shopping for xmas.

16-Dec-07 Had dim sum in morning with the South Bay Bears in Cupertino.  Got to meet some new bears and got further acquainted with Frank and Shane.   

15-Dec-07 Videoconference with mom and Joseph in Florida.  Went to Rob & Dylan’s xmas party in SFO, which was beautifully catered.   

13-Dec-07 Josh had his wisdom tooth pulled so I won’t be going to my company holiday party stag tonight.  I was underdressed anyway since I didn’t anticipate going.  I got a xmas bonus at work that I wasn't expecting.   

12-Dec-07 Spoke with Mom and her boyfriend Joseph at work.  Joseph tried to let me hear the waves of the Atlantic on the phone, not that it would be novel for me. 

11-Dec-07 Had a periodontal cleaning during lunch.  Dentist said that I may need another deep cleaning in a year or two if the pockets don’t improve.  That would be frustrating with the diligence with which I'm maintaining my diabetes/blood sugar and my dental hygiene.

10-Dec-07 I had a doctor appointment and got off Byetta at my behest.  My doctor thinks it was overkill, so now I'm back strictly on oral meds. 

9-Dec-07 Spoke to Alex a few times; she saw me on webcam and I remoted in to her mom’s pc to try to get hers to work, though msn, but didn't have much luck.  Alex didn't seem to care that I didn't.

8-Dec-07 Sabina brought Brooke over in the morning for me to watch for a while, which was fun.  Josh and I did a lot of things around the house. 

7-Dec-07 Drove into San Francisco instead of taking BART again.  We went out with Rob and Dylan in the evening to the Castro and had dinner at The Cove.  Afterwards we enjoyed their hot tub; there was no wind so it was quite pleasant.   

6-Dec-07 Josh made an emergency dental appointment for Monday; he may need a root canal.

4-Dec-07 Long phone call with Jan Marble Feinberg in the evening.  She is one of my best friends from high school who sheltered me when I ran away from school.  She married my best friend from middle and high school and they live in Colorado now. 

3-Dec-07 We stayed in Eric and Guido's extra bedroom last night and left very early for the xmas parade in San Jose with the light rail.  We went to lunch at Johnny Rockets and then took the lightrail back to Eric and Guido's house.  On the way we got to share the ride with a crack whore from hell who made quite a spectacle of herself in front of all the kids returning from the parade.  How nice. 

1-Dec-07 Watched Pursuit of Happyness which made Josh and me cry even though he did not see it from beginning to end; I called Alex about it because it reminded me of her and me and my custody battle with her mother, plus some of the struggles I had to deal with as a single parent.  Josh and I my mother mom to the airport in the morning for her big adventure in Florida.  She called me when I was eating al fresco in Willow Glen (part of San Jose) with Josh, Eric and Guido at a Mexican food restaurant.   At least one of the guys who works there is a major hunk.

This page was last updated 06-Mar-2008.