Fashionista Fantasy. Or No to Coco. Make...

We’ve been invited to the San Francisco Symphony Gala. While we love the Symphony and have been attending for over twenty years, the idea of a gala means only one thing: the need to shop. And if you know me, you know how I feel about clothes shopping. I do it once a year whether I need to or not. . .and mostly at REI. No, when forced to go shopping other than my annual two hour...

How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On the ...

Still suffering from jet lag after flying in from Beijing Monday. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that I’m now logging late hours of Olympics watching on TV. But crops wait for no man, even Usain Bolt the world’s fastest man, so Wednesday I went up to Sonoma to check the state of the crops. I was expecting a scene of devastation in the orchard since the pluots...

Bleary Wrap Up and A Word About our Spon...

  It’s probably dangerous to post in this condition. We’ve been traveling since noon Shanghai time with a plane change and delay in Vancouver. The clock says we arrived six hours after we left, but we’re not even sure what day it is. And that’s not just jetlag. Posting from China poses its own Twilight Zone weirdness. I thought I’d keep everything...

How About That Heat?

 Did I mention how hot it is in Shanghai? So hot that within 5 minutes of stepping outside, you are dripping with sweat. So hot that within 15 minutes, your clothes are as drenched as if you’d just jumped in a pool. So hot, that sweat pours down your face and into your eyes practically blinding you. It was 96 degrees with 83% humidity. Then at night, it cools to a balmy 94...

Shanghai-ed: Journey to the REAL China

The Olympic portion of our China trip is over, but I feel like we saw everything. We saw Michael Phelps swim, Bolt run, the US women gymnasts medal and Kobe and crew trounce their opponents.  So we set off for a two day stopover in Shanghai before heading home. And we landed right in the middle of the REAL China or at least the China that resembles what I’ve come to think is...

Random, Rambling Thoughts on Track &...

 So far, nothing at the Olympics has been as I suspected. But everything is as expected at Track and Field, or Athletics as they are calling it. I was hoping we’d get tickets to something in this category because 1) it would be held at the Bird’s Nest and 2) I figured it would be the only sport where, even if I wasn’t close, I’d be able to tell who was...