grandpease grandpease the vault july 2009 Seeing green Posted Thursday, July 9, 2009 On Tuesday morning Tiff and I awoke to the sound of our front door closing, a sound that officially ended one brilliant evening. Eyes half open, I shuffled into our living room to find dozens of empty beer bottles, a stale sweaty smell and a few discarded blankets. But what made this different from any other day was a camera filled with vaguely familiar faces and a post-it note: Chris and Tiff: Thank you guys Had a wonderful time in San Jose! Thanks for the memories. Wayne, Grainne Tadgh  Memories indeed. A night that began in a somewhat pedestrian fashion became one of the most international experiences of my life, and one damn good time. We met The Rooks (Kelley and Chris) at San Jose Bar and Grill, and amid an afternoon of good discussion we befriended three college students from Ireland who were visiting San Jose for the day from their summer studies in Berkeley. We soon learned that the Irish quite fancy Irish pubs in America, large snakes, magic tricks, 40s and good conversation. Just don’t bring up Dublin or the English. After many, many, many pints and pitchers, and a round of trivia at Trials we invited our new friends back to our place for more revelry, some foosball and many, many laughs.  Grainne (Gran-Yah) with a boa constrictor. Yes, this happened.  Tiff and Tadgh (like Tiger without the errr)   Wayne showing us how to open a bottle.   Kelley being a superstar. Keeping up with the Irish will result in a headache the next day, but it’s well worth it. Cheers ye fine lads and lasses. Good times indeed.  Catching up on the rest of the month: Tiff and I caught the Tigers for their stop in Oakland and scored some prime seats. As always we got to the game early for some excellent tailgating.        And we feasted on America’s birthday.    We’ve spent the rest of July preparing to move out of the South Bay. With our jobs moving to Walnut Creek we’ve been checking out places in the East Bay with varying degrees of success. Stay tuned. -cmg
Tour de California Posted Thursday, July 15, 2009  After a weekend in which Tiff and I hosted some unfamiliar visitors from Ireland, we were lucky enough to have three very familiar faces this past weekend.   Straight from Spain and the Tour de France, the one and only Pamela Pease was in San Jose promoting her new pop-up book on the Tour at a Lance Armstrong event benefitting cancer.  Longtime friends T.J. Berka and Mike Kern also dropped by for some baseball and sightseeing. Despite a flat tire on Mission Street in San Francisco Tiff and I were able to guide them through the usual tourist destinations: Alcatraz, Cable Cars, Giants game. Kern is on his way to law school at Boston College and touring California and Texas before he starts in the fall. Berka is a journalist, and like Tiff and I, may someday require Kern’s services when we become homeless.     As usual there was more than baseball to watch at AT&T Park.      Afterward we met up with Pam for some ribs at Henry’s Hi-Life.   Berka got the full rack.  Berka and Pam took off on Monday morning and Kern, Tiff and I toured the Bay: Half Moon Bay, Marin Headlands, Muir Woods and finally a Coldplay concert at Shoreline in Mountain View.  Kern and I blew up the bridge.  Bambi likes redwoods too.      Even though Shoreline is probably the worst concert venue I’ve ever been to, Coldplay put on an excellent show, highlighted by a cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and some really terrible singing from some whacked-out guys from Eastern Europe.     It’s been a crazy week between seeing friends and family and planning to move, so before we head down to L.A. next week to meet up with Berka and Kern again it’s time for some...  -cmghttp://www.paintboxpress.com/whats_new.htmlshapeimage_6_link_0
It’s been a long, strange month Posted Friday, July 31, 2009  I am now officially as worthless as these elephant seals -- only not as handsome. This week, after many days of consideration, I opted to leave the Mercury News and the newspaper business I have loved and dreamed of joining since I was a kid. It was not an easy decision, especially in an economy like this. But in the end the prospect of a drastic pay cut, combined with the industry’s uncertain future and a transfer to a smaller newsroom was too much to overcome. And so I join the millions of Americans floundering in unemployment, but am buoyed by a six-month severance, a desire to reinvent my career and the emotional support of my beautiful wife. It’s been a long, strange month, starting with an unexpected Irish party and finishing with my unemployment. I’ve written about most of what’s happened in between except for our trip down to Los Angeles via Highway 1 to visit Berka and Kern. In sticking with the theme of “It’s been a long, strange month,” the trip to L.A. was extended by half day thanks to an ant invasion in our car. I’m not talking about a couple ants either. I mean, quite literally, thousands and thousands and thousands of ants crawling around the car as we navigated L.A. morning traffic. Once that became unbearable, we parked near Westwood, layered the car with a bottle of Windex and spent the next couple hours at the Getty Museum while the little beasts filed out on their own or perished from the fumes. Nasty. Aside from the ants, though, it was a great weekend trip. Some scenes from Highway 1 (vistas, elephant seals and yes those are zebra):         We stopped for some drinks in Pasadena on our way to a Dodgers game, where we sat in Mannywood. The “world famous” Dodger Dogs did not live up to the hype, but the experience in general was a good one.      Manny passed Mickey Mantle on the all-time home runs list with this shot (above), plus a look at some crazy Dodgers fans (below).    Tiff and I at the Getty as we wait for the ants to go marching.      We finished the month with a life-changing decision before celebrating the Rook’s 31st at Trials and, um, Farenheit (?), where Tiff fell asleep after an Ohio State fan wouldn’t let her join a strangely sober game of Rock Band. As for the rest of the summer, we’re moving up to Rockridge on the Oakland/Berkeley border at the end of August, and hoping to visit some friends. Oh, and I’ll be looking for a new job. That’s not scary or anything. Here’s to new beginnings. -cmg