Archives_october 2008

Doing Fall stuff
Posted Friday, October 24, 2008

It doesn’t exactly feel like Fall yet -- it’s 85 degrees today -- but we’ve been doing our best to enjoy the best season of the year by doing Fall stuff. Hard cider: check. Caramel apples: check (kind of. we bought them, but haven’t had time to make them.). And this past weekend we drove over the Half Moon Bay to pick some pumpkins from Farmer John’s patch on the ocean. On the way we stopped at this old-school hobby store and bought a badass kite that we flew on the beach. We munched on some fish at Moss Bay Distillery, which is supposedly haunted, before making taking a quick lap around the Redwoods at Big Basin. Here’s to hoping the football part of Fall gets better starting this weekend!

-cmg

Three cheers
Posted Friday, October 17, 2008

Football. Weezer. Hockey. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday. We were fortunate enough to have three days off this past “weekend,” and celebrated with hundreds and sometimes thousands by screaming our heads off. In what has become a satisfactory Sunday tradition, we sloughed off another trying week of work by staggering to and from (staggering for different reasons) San Jose Bar & Grill for a morning/afternoon of NFL football. I have to say: I really dig it there, and after 2 1/2 years of living here, I place my first seal of approval on a San Jose sports bar (it’s got nothing on the Old Pro in Palo Alto or just about any sports bar in the Southeast, still...). The Lions lost, Dallas fans were obnoxious and the world was in equilibrium (except that Carolina lost too).

On Monday we landed at San Jose’s Japanese Tea garden to watch the carp before somehow wandering into Historic San Jose: A fairly creepy reconstruction of the city 100 years ago. Walking down its deserted streets evoked thoughts of Stephen King and questions about why anyone would build such a place (the cost must have been outrageous and we could have been the first people to visit in weeks).

Our nighttime entertainment was an incredible performance by Weezer on the campus of San Jose State. They still rock out like the day they came out. Monday’s added twist was inviting almost 20 members of the audience to come play with them for the encore. They get it.

We completed our weekend with a Sharks game. We’re not Sharks fans, per se, but they were playing Columbus, so it was easy to root for the team in teal. A hockey game is always good times. Besides Tiff thinks she’s a shark.

-cmg

Another incredible comeback
Posted Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Catching up on old news (this blog is worse than a newspaper): We spent the final days of September and first days of October in Michigan, where my Wolverines added another classic to my growing list of greatest games. Down 19-0 at the half, and boasting an awe-inspiring negative-7 passing yards, Michigan offered up another blissful moment by somehow pulling off a 27-25 victory in the 500th game at the Big House (soon to be bigger house as you can probably tell from the photos).

As always, the game was only half the fun. A 3:30 kickoff gave us five good hours of tailgating with friends and family, and mom put on a show as always with plenty of food and drinks. Tiff and I teamed up with Kern and Arun for most of the weekend, stopping at Dominick’s for some Sangria and Constant Buzz, Ashley’s (twice), Bell’s and Pizza House. Tiff and I also made a stop at the world’s greatest deli (apologies to Katz’s in New York, but you lost), Zingerman’s.

We finished the weekend relaxing in tranquil northern Michigan. We played some golf surrounded by the spectacular fall colors and then won some money ($2500!!!) at the Traverse City casino.

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Nerd alert: Do not read further if you have no interest in my Michigan football geekdom (accompanied by youtube highlights).

Inspired by the Wisconsin game, here is my brief list of top games I’ve attended: 1) Michigan vs. Ohio State 1997 (No. 1 Michigan beats No. 4 Ohio State during my sophomore year thanks in large part to Charles Woodson. The Wolverines went on to win the national championship by winning...)
2. Rose Bowl 1998 (pre-psycho Ryan Leaf and Washington State can’t keep up in the end)
3. Michigan vs. Michigan State 2004 (Braylon Edwards leads a rally from down 17 to win in triple overtime. Afterward I punched Mike Thiel in the face, which was not a good thing but somehow everyone I know associates one moment with the other.)
4. Orange Bowl 2000 (Tom Brady leads Michigan to a 1-point win in overtime over Alabama. It’s the last game for me as a student. Celebrating the new millennium in south beach didn’t hurt this ranking.)
5. Michigan vs. Wisconsin 2008 (hard to imagine a team playing so bad in one half before going on to beat a top-10 team giving the new regime it’s moment.)

The remainder of my list would consist of a dozen victories over Ohio State and Notre Dame, the loss on the Hail Mary to Colorado and the comeback against Virginia.

Nerd alert over.
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This past weekend we took it easy: Saw Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, watched football, ate cheesecake, played golf, had tapas, vegged out.

In other news....

Just before putting together this blog I voted Senator Barack Obama to be our next president (love the California vote by mail). I bring this up for three reasons: 1. I’m proud of my vote 2. While at a hotel bar in Michigan I met the winner of the World’s Biggest Racist Convention... and we discussed politics over drinks for 45 minutes. Although there were several references to rap music in the White House and spinning wheels for the presidential motorcade, his favorite line was this: “There are two types of people in this world, Americans and terrorists,” which led to references to “Obama bin Laden,” who he believes will lead Islamic radicals in a takeover of America. After much arguing and finger pointing he showed me his badge, and told me to watch out. Scary, but not as scary as 3. Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. We received this little DVD treat in the mail on Monday. Apparently 28 million other Americans received the same DVD. The theory is this video is supposed to scare stupid people into voting for John McCain because McCain will take a much more aggressive military stance against the middle east. There are also references to Islam working on a plot to plant their own man in the White House (presumably Obama). The video is ridiculous, but I have no doubt my racist acquaintance has already seen it and is pushing its ridiculous ideas onto his fellow cops/criminals.

I encourage everyone to vote.

-Chris