Saturday, March 31, 2007

Moving On.

This college basketball season is now dead to me. The same two teams that played for the football "championship" are playing for the basketball title. Fine. I'll see you next year. The O's open on Monday. Play Ball!

Back to reality...

Spring Break is drawing to a close, but not before the first cookout of the year, which will take place in our courtyard later today. Charcoal smoke and meat vapors will fill the air, and the hoppy flavors of west coast beers will tickle our tongues, thus signifying the true arrival of Spring. Baseball season is nigh, my thesis is done, and all is right with the world.
The big news in the Arranging Your Lamp household is that we will be leaving the Bay Area for New Jersey this summer. I'll be starting on my Ph.D. at Drew University, so it looks like we'll be there for 5 years or so. We're excited about the move, but currently very anxious about it, as no details have been worked out. While we have already done one cross country move, we do not savor the prospect of another. We'll be less than an hour by train from Manhattan, and back on the East Coast, so we're happy about the location.

K and I returned on Thursday from our Pacific Northwest Spring Break trip. We spent a few days in Seattle, which is a cool town to explore on foot. We tackled the Experience Music Project, where I had a semi-religious experience upon being 3 feet from the guitar Jimi Hendrix, my first musical idol, played at Woodstock. Pike Place Market is actually very cool while retaining its touristy character. We opted not to climb the Space Needle, as the Columbia Center downtown is a) significantly taller and b) free. Our hotel was across the street from the new Seattle library, which is an amazing building. Other Seattle highlights included the Bodies Exhibition (headed to Durham next- check it out if you're there), the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Underground Tour, and some really good beers.


We then took the Victoria Clipper up to Victoria, BC. Victoria is all of 5 miles from the border, but the town feels distinctly Canadian. It's a beautiful city that, while known as the retirement capitol of Canada, also had a decent array of cook restaurants and pubs. We tried poutine, which is a dish that will offend some readers of this blog and delight others. The poutine we got consisted of french fries topped with cheese, bacon, and... wait for it... gravy. Decisively unhealty, but really, really tasty.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

odds, ends

"We'd like to remind you," said the P.A. announcer at yesterday's Cal vs. Rhode Island baseball game, "that Evans Diamond is a non-smoking facility. Smoking of any substance is prohibited. Additionally, the use of tobacco in any form is not permitted in Evans Diamond." Gotta love Berkeley.

My bracket is in tatters, but the Heels are still in it, so I don't care.

Thanks to all who participated in the baseball hat polling. Chattanooga looks like the winner for this year. K is thrilled. She loves my baseball hats.

The thesis was approved with minor revisions, which is great, but it means I still have a little work to do on it. I'd rather not ever look at it again.

Spring Break is next week. That will be very nice.

My wife is making empenadas for dinner- they involve ground chicken, a multitude of spices, and mexican chocolate. Good stuff, my friends.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Reader feedback requested

First off, a resounding "Hell yeah!" for the Tar Heels, ACC Champions, and #1 seeds in a tough-ass bracket. Georgetown and Kevin Durant are in the bracket (I am not complaining- we are clearly the 4th of the #1 seeds, so the tough bracket goes to us), and both of those scare me. Kudos to State, who seem to have announced that they are back in action. I'm looking forward to that. Let's assert a little State-school dominance in the Triangle.

Ok, here's the real purpose of this post. Every year, I buy a baseball cap. By baseball cap, I mean a hat for an actual baseball team. I already own two Orioles hats, (a road cap and a throwback) and an A's hat, as they are the only other MLB team I root for, though the Giants often gain my sympathies. I've got all the major league gear I need, so it's got to be minor league again this year. Style counts too, folks. This year I have two options currently already under consideration.
  1. Norfolk Tides, International League (AAA) home cap, fitted (note- road cap is pictured, home cap not released yet). The Orioles moved their AAA club, which was located in Rochester (!) when I was a kid and in Ottawa (seriously) in recent years, to my childhood home of Southeastern Virginia. In one sense, I totally like this move. In another sense, it's about 26 years late. So there's the organizational allegiance and geography there. Additionally, I generally like the look of Tides gear, though I anxiously await the release of this season's home cap, which will hopefully include a dash of orange. Negatives here are that they play against the Durham Bulls, a minor league franchise I may soon become a regular patron of once again.
  2. Chattanooga Lookouts, Southern League (AA). I have loved the Lookouts caps for well over a decade now. It's simple yet humorous. I like the black cap, as I already have one red hat (Carolina Mudcats, in the same league as the Lookouts), and I think the red "C" looks sharp on it. Advantages are location in Chattanooga, a town I've enjoyed in the past, a particularly cool team name, and humor. The primary negative is the NC State colors.

You can either vote for one of the above, or suggest another minor league hat. Additionally, all readers of this blog are invited to know that fitted baseball caps make excellent gifts, and that I wear a size 7 1/2. My wife will be thrilled, too- she loves the hat collection both in principle and in practice.

mayor, basketball


Gavin Newsom update: The Chronicle has run an interview today with Jennifer Siebel, B-list actress and girlfriend of the SF Mayor (also his date for the parade- mystery solved). In a nice little bit of "stand by your man"/kick the other woman while she's in rehab and her marriage is in trouble, she says this about the mayor's affair, which occured well before he met Siebel:

"I shouldn't say this, but there are two sides to every story,'' she said in an exhausted tone. "If people did research into the scandal ... the woman is the culprit. Alex Tourk is a nice man and it saddens me that his wife did that to him.

"This 'scandal' is selling papers -- sensationalized tabloid papers,'' she added. "Gavin's a wonderful human being, and I wouldn't be here (continuing the relationship) if he wasn't.

"All of this stuff that happened and came out was in a darker period of Gavin's life: going through a divorce, losing his mother, being under all the pressure he is under. The supervisors and The Chronicle have not made things any easier. It's amazing that he's as sane and healthy and down-to-earth as he is."

She's right of course; she shouldn't have said that. Of course it was the woman's fault, and not the highly influential politician. There's really no way he could be in any way accountable for whether or not he has sex with his friend's wife. I'm sure he had no idea what he was doing.

NCSU/UNC in about an hour. Our boys played their best game of the season yesterday. I'm hoping they can keep it up, though a tourney invite for the 'Pack would slightly soften the blow if we lose. Psycho T was a man possessed yesterday. I loved it.

Thesis defense Tuesday. Can't wait.




Wednesday, March 07, 2007

back to normal...

The thesis handed in, I am returning to a somewhat normal pattern of life. The Big East tournament is on TV, muted, with a baseball game (currently Washington/Houston) streaming off the 'net. It's nice to have baseball radio back again. There is much reading to be done, but no sources of mood-altering stress. Just went to Trader Joe's right when it opened, which is by far the best time to go to Trader Joe's, and stocked up on provisions. The Organic Ginger Limeade is new to me, and will be a staple of any Trader Joe's trip. It's nice on it's own, and if mixed with vodka on the rocks, would nicely accompany Thai food. Will cook dinner for K tonight, and then head over to a jam session with a professional African musician, who plays mbira music. I've been dabbling in mbira lately, and am ready to get taken to school by one of the big boys.

The Chinese New Year Parade was cool, if overrated. Highlights, aside from the expected dragon dance teams and an unbelievable amount of firecrackers, were ridiculously cute groups of kids, many of whom were dressed in pig costumes (we have entered the Year of the Boar). The parade is difficult to take pictures of, as it was constantly moving and was at night, so I borrowed one from the Chronicle. If you ever arrive slightly late to the parade, avoid Union Square, as it is so crowded that one literally cannot move through the crowd. We had good luck a little further up towards Chinatown.

The other highlight, aside from the really cute kids, was the Gavin Newsom (SF mayor, recently admitted to knocking boots with his campaign manager's attractive wife, has now entered an alcohol treatment program, not pictured) sighting. He was dressed casually in some sort of pseudo-asian silk shirt, and got rock-star level applause from the crowd. He was even with a rather attractive blond, whom I have not been able to identify, and was pumping his arms triumphantly in the air (think of th SNL skit where Darell Hammond's Bill Clinton steps up to a podium and says, "I...am...bulletproof"). The girl behind us was excited to see him. The following is a pretty good paraphrase of her commentary: "GAVIN! I LOVE YOU GAVIN! GAVIN, I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABY! I WANT YOUR BODY GAVIN! OH MY GOD, GAVIN!" Yeah, he's gonna be just fine.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

A long time coming...

Carolina is better than we are.
Mike Krzyzewski said that today after the game, and for now, he's right. I've been waiting a long time to hear that. I've seen some stellar Duke teams, and will no doubt see some more, but it's good to be on the winning end for a little while.


I know there was not the intent to do that. And the game was over before that. I mean the outcome of the game, let’s put it that way. That’s unfortunate, too, that those people were in the game in that play.
Mike Krzyzewski said that today, too, about Gerald Henderson's shot to the face of Tyler Hansbrough, footage of which is at the bottom of this paragraph. To say that the shot was in some way a result of starters being in late in the game is the basketball equivalent of saying, "It was a lamentable circumstance."



Nonetheless, the Heels swept Duke for the first time in way too long, and I handed my thesis to my advisor today. Life is ok.



Saturday, March 03, 2007

quick update (more to come)

K and I went into San Francisco to see the Chinese New Year parade tonight. That will warrant its own post once I get a little time to download the pics off the camera.

I've been making revisions to my thesis. The defense is on the 13th, and I am quite ready to have that experience behind me. I have reason to expect an approval, but it may well stipulate revisions. I can live with that.

We had a reasonably significant earthquake on Thursday night. I measured a 4.4 on the Richter scale, so no damage or injuries, but the shaking lasted about 10 seconds, and was strong enough to make one consider heading for a doorway. It's odd to see one's home shifting from side to side. K has announced that she is now done with earthquakes.

That's all for now. A more significant update, complete with images, sarcasm, and general cynicism will appear sometime around Monday, not coincidentally the day my committee gets the thesis.