I’ve never been a real fan of baseball. because of that, I don’t know much about the sport. I’ve probably been to less than 10 baseball games my whole life.

Since moving to Oakland I’ve been torn about team loyalty. It’s fun being a Warriors fan but it’s really hard being a Raiders fan. For baseball I liked the idea of going to the giants stadium with the views of the water. But I like the idea of being loyal to the home team whenever possible.

So we finally got the chance to go to an A’s game this past Sunday. It was Mother’s Day so they had a deal for half off ticks. We got great seats for $16 a pop. Saturday night I insisted that the husband and I “study” for the game. We looked up the stats for all the players on the A’s roster to see who were the stronger players which immediately highlighted the fact that we didn’t know what all the abbreviations stood for. It felt really weird to know so little about a sport that you’ve grown up with a strong awareness of.  I had heard of RBI and ERA but what was CS? (Apparently it stands for “caught stealing”).  Thank God for wikipedia: baseball statistics abbreviations.

So we were sort of prepped for the game. The weather forecast said rain but we were optimistic because the sun was out. After church we headed to the game, inhaled a couple of burgers from In-and-Out, and went to the game.  Next time we go to a game, maybe we’ll eat there since they seem to have a lot more food options than at the Oracle Arena.  The family in front of us smuggled in an entire picnic!  We sat next to this big man with a well worn A’s cap and was watching on his own which I concluded must mean he’s a pretty die hard A’s fan.  It was nice sitting next to him since he could spot the strikes and balls well before they were scored on the scoreboard.  I clapped and hollered when he hollered, and pumped my fist when he pumped his fist.

Halfway through the game, I turned to the husband and said, “Aren’t the Tampa Bay Rays supposed to be pretty good?”  The husband shrugged and I chalked it up to good luck.

It was fun to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and I was amused by the fact that the big guy next to me sang it enthusiastically with us.

Towards the end of the game, I didn’t exactly know what was happening.  I just thought our defense was really good!  The Rays were never at the bat or long and we did pretty well at the bat.  The game felt fast.

We then heard people talking about it possibly being a perfect game.  I wasn’t sure what a perfect game was.  I figured it was like a no-hitter.  Which I thought was pretty cool but I knew Nolan Ryan alone had 6 or 7 (for the record he had 7).  The last out of the game was pretty nerve wracking.  The Rays had a hit and I held my breath as the outfield got the ball the first base in time to get the batter out.  The stadium (not very full of fans) erupted in cheers and applause.  The big guy high-fived the husband over me.  It gave me chills to see the dugout rush the field and it was touching to see Dallas Braden (the pitcher) talk to his grandmother after the game (great article here).

I don’t really know how to explain this but it felt really really good being there to watch this happen.  And I’m not even a baseball fan.  I can’t imagine how it felt for the big guy to be there.  He looked like he was getting a bit emotional.  I can now say that there is something charming about being at a baseball game.  I’ve always loved cheering and yelling at refs at sporting events but there’s something about baseball that just feels so leisurely and so oddly patriotic.  Yeah patriotic.  Best way to describe the feeling.

As we were leaving we overheard people talking about how it’s only the 19th time this has happened to MLB history.  Crazy talk.  I am lucky to have witnessed it.

We flew back to Texas for Christmas and some change.  Good times with the family, immediate, extended, and further extended with all these first cousins once removed (or are they called second cousins) running around now.  It’s quite confusing.  What do you call the children of your first cousins?  Wikipedia says you call them first cousins once removed but several dictionaries call them second cousins.  This whole time I’ve been calling them my nieces and nephews.

I was able to sneak in a Chick-Fil-A run while I was out car shopping with my moms.  It was as good as I remembered.

Car shopping was really strange this time around.  It wasn’t my first time but this time it felt especially awkward and uncomfortable.  We went to three different dealerships and all 4 salespeople that we spoke to used to same exact line on us:

“What can I do to earn your business today?”

Are they all reading from the same script?  Car dealerships are sort of one of those places that feel so out of place, like stepping through a time warp.  I get the same feeling when I step into a laundromat or a shoe repair place.  Most service industries have changed but there are a few who have hardly changed at all.  What’s especially awkward is when the salesperson slips out of the picture to get the sales manager and he/she comes to try to break it down to you and close the deal.  It feels strangely like an intimidation play but it’s so hokey and unbelievable that I don’t know why they do it except that I have to believe that it works quite often which is why they still do it and haven’t changed the way they do things.  I wonder if the car sales industry will change in the next ten years.  Like a Redfin but for cars?

I’ve been batting around the idea of starting a separate photoblog but I think I’ve decided to just intermingle the photoposts with this content.  We’ll see how it goes.

We spent a few days in Reno/Tahoe when we got back from Texas and that was really nice and relaxing.  We skiied at Mt. Rose which was ridiculously close to Reno.  It’s a pretty small resort but because of that there were zero lines and we went up the lift right when we wanted to.  It was snowing most of that day and now I know why powder is so prized by skiers and snowboaders.  I only fell twice (as opposed to the fifty times I fell when snowboarding) and both times were pretty painless as the snow was fluffy and soft.  I like skiing a lot more than snowboarding.  I’ll admit a big part of the reason is because it’s a lot easier to pick up and the boots don’t feel as heavy and clunky so I’m not tired so quickly.  And I like that you can ski right after you get off the lift since you don’t need to strap your boot back in.  And I feel much more in control so I’m not endangering others on the slopes.  All good reasons to pick skiing over snowboarding.  I think the only thing snowboarding has over skiing is that it looks a bit cooler.  I’m willing to give that up.  Haha seriously.

Ski resorts have the monopoly on laid back effortless cool.  It’s like a tropical beach resort without the sleaze.  What a cool part time job for a teenager.  Where else can you put your expensive ski equipment unattended and not worry about it getting stolen?

We went snowshoeing at North Star the next day.  It was really exhausting but a cool experience.  North Star is super nice, we’ll probably try to go there again MLK weekend.  I love that it’s only a 3 hour drive away from where we live.  That’s got to be one of the biggest perks of living over here.  It’s also nice to use our 4runner’s 4WD to its potential.  The husband was really excited that we were finally going to drive through snow in it.

Yesterday we played 3 hours of tennis in which the husband beat me 20 games in a row.  He’s a good coach.  I’m making improvements, slowly but surely.  I spotted a girl wearing a burnt orange t-shirt and excitedly asked her if she was from Texas.  She looked confused and explained that her tshirt was from some local Alameda league that she was in.  I don’t know, I thought we had exclusive rights to burnt orange?

We went to this showing tonight of ten different short films from the 2009 Sundance Festival at the San Rafael Film Center and my favorites were:

• John and Karen – Matthew Walker
• Omelette – Nadejda Koseva
• Countertransference – Madeleine Olnek

Picking up the camera from the UPS station on Monday.  More photos coming to you soon.

No special effects, no 3D glasses, and no computer graphics but it had a killer soundtrack and a decent script.  A surprisingly good movie using old formulaic movie magic.  It was sort of refreshing to see a movie not try too hard.

George Clooney is the main character and his job is to fly around the country telling people that they have been laid off.  Some of the firing scenes were pretty difficult to watch — it hits a little too close to home these days with so many people losing their jobs and out of employment.

For my birthday this year we went to a great resort in Sausalito called Cavallo Point.  It was an incredibly relaxing time, soaking in the large heated meditation pool, lounging by the fireplace, having a fabulous tasting menu at Murray Circle (I believe it’s the first restaurant we’ve been to that has any Michelin stars!) and a relaxing evening in our contemporary junior suite.  It was tastefully modern (not the over the top modern that the W hotels like to do) and really comfortable.  I wish we could have stayed there longer.

We stopped by the Marin Headlands for yet another amazing view of the Golden Gate bridge.  I’m still not tired of that silly red bridge.  I then bought a new bike (2009 Fuji Absolute 3.0 Hybrid) and then we went to a fun Warriors game.  The Warriors can be frustrating to cheer for but it’s a fun rowdy crowd on the upper deck (more fun than the Toyota Center I dare say) so we had a good time.  We bought Warriors tshirts today (what a commitment) so we’ll hopefully be going to more games next year.

Also, in other news, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 12.1MP Micro Four-Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 from Amazon.  The estimated delivery date is sometime next week so I’m pretty hyped about that.  If I get into a good habit of taking pictures everyday I might finally put up a photoblog like I’ve been talking about for so long.  Many thanks to Enoch for his advice and help.

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So okay, I know I was going to write a healthcare blogpost and I put it off for the longest time.  The reason?  I started to read up what I could about it and the more I read the more I got confused and the more I realized it was more complicated than I originally thought.

These two articles were particularly enlightening, give them a read when you get the chance:

The Cost Conundrum (The New Yorker) — Atul Gawande

How American Health Care Killed My Father (The Atlantic) — David Goldhill

If you have any other healthcare articles that you have read that have impacted what you think of healthcare in America and health care reform, please send them my way.  I would love to read more about but honestly don’t feel ready to write about it.  Will the bill pass before Christmas?  We’ll see.

Happy Holidays, folks.  See everyone on the flip side.

[The husband and his bike, a Fuji Absolute SX, on Chinquapin Trail at Huntsville State Park]

I never properly learned how to ride a bike as a kid.  I had a bike with training wheels and I never took the wheels off.  The bike rusted over and we stopped playing outside so that was that.  That hasn’t really stopped me from riding a bike.  I have 3 examples.

[1] We rented bikes in Austin to ride around Town Lake.  Of course we got lost downtown, my bike chain got off track and a homeless man (who used to fix bikes for a living) helped us fix my bike.  This is a story we like to tell and retell to everyone we meet.  Apologies to our friends who have heard this story at least 3 times now.

[2] We rented bikes in NYC to ride around Central Park and I just ignored the people gasping and yelping as I swerved to dodge them.  This was especially frightening because the place we rented the bikes from was not THAT close to Central Park and we had to ride through some street traffic.  This probably accounts for my fear of sharing the road with cars.  Especially because cars in Houston don’t like to share the road with anybody.  Not even other cars.

[3] We rented bikes in Mexico — this one was the worst bike ride because the path was pretty narrow and I had to dodge these small trees that grew randomly in the path.  It felt a lot like that one level in Battletoads (NES) where you have to dodge the blocks.  It looks like this:

Except it was in real life.  By the time we got to the end of the path my shoulders were sore because I was tensed up the whole time. Man, I remember thinking that the graphics in Battletoads were so good.  It’s crazy how far video games have come.

So yeah, when it comes to bike riding, I just sort of fake it.  And I think that’s the trick to riding a bike.  Pretend like you know how and it just works.  That’s how I’m going to advise my kids in the future about learning how to ride a bike.  (Unfortunately that method doesn’t work with swimming.)

So a few months ago, I decided I needed to master riding a bike.  We bought a super comfy easy ride for me, the Jamis Explorer 1.0.  I like to pronounce Jamis like “hummus” for fun.  I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with it.  It just takes a bit of practice and getting used to.

As some of you may know, the husband is riding in the BP MS150 (150 mile bike ride from Houston to Austin to raise money for the National MS Society) this April and as a result he’s really gotten into biking.  When the husband gets into something, he sort of gets fanatical about it.

A few weeks ago, I caught the husband waxing his bike.  With car wax.  Haha.  I knew he was in the habit of wiping down his bike and cleaning his chains after every ride — I guess this was the inevitable next level.  I gently teased him about it and he said that it was perfectly sensible to wax a bicycle for the same reasons why someone would wax a car.  It makes it shiny, easier to clean the next time around, and protects the paint.  I couldn’t really disagree with him.  But I also couldn’t stop laughing.  He then disclosed that he used to do this as a kid– clean his bike while his dad washed the car.  And when his dad was waxing the car, he’d give the husband a little bit of wax to put on his bike.  I guess some things never change.

[Check out that shiny, waxed chrome and those rad built-in knee pads!  It's like the pants version of a tweed jacket with elbow patches.]

P.S.  I’ve decided to start a “Husband” category.  I’ll go back and retag old posts later.

Here’s his outfit:

Spyder Evade Systems Jacket – Blizzard/Atlantic [$239.96]

Spyder First Tracks Insulated Pants – Blizzard [$165.00]

Now we just need to buy some goggles and we’re set!  Any goggle recommendations?

Also, time to start hitting the gym again.  I hear snowboarding is tiring.

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I’m starting to get an itch for an HD video camcorder.  Maybe the prices will drop with the bad economy?

Thanks to my awesome brother-in-law, John (affectionately nicknamed “Virus”), we get to play cool PS3 games that we didn’t buy.  One of those games is Ridge Racer.

Usually when I’m busy with schoolwork, the husband plays either NBA 2K8 or this game.  The graphics are pretty sweet and the customization of the cars is pretty complex.

It’s really funny because the husband talks to the female announcer lady that talks to him throughout the race.

For example:

When she says, “Good luck!”

He says, “Thanks!”

When she says, “See you at the finish line!”

He says, “OK!”

When she says, “Are you ready?”

He says, “Yes!”

When she says, “Give it your best shot!”

He says, “I will!”

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I better graduate soon or else these innocent conversations might develop into something more.

We went in wanting to buy Army of Two but walked out with The Simpsons Game.

As much as the husband and I enjoy video games, I have to admit, video game fanatics are freaks.

Customer: So, are there some cool powers that you get to use?

Clerk: Oh man, that’s the best part.  You have so many cool superpowers that you get to use.  There’s this one power where you can look into the water to target the enemy.  That’s the one I like to use the most.

The Simpsons Game is really fun.  Lots of puzzles to solve as a team — a lot like Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance.  But it’s ten times more hilarious.  Great Simpsons humor — in typical fashion their comedy targets a wide range of topics: Grand Theft Auto, tree huggers, EA executives, play on words, Jelly Donuts, etc.

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The husband made a ridiculous confession on Sunday night.  As he was opening his Taco Bell Big Bell Box meal, he looked over at me and said dramatically, “I have a confession.  I think Taco Bell might be my favorite fast food place.”

I, of course, was outraged by this.  When I went on to name all the other great fast food establishments, Whataburger (my personal favorite), Jack in the Box (with their sirloin burgers and ciabatta bread), he interrupted me by saying, “– I don’t know, I just really like the ground beef.”

Shocked, I started to stutter, “But, but, it’s the cheapest meat ever!  We can just buy tubes and tubes of ground beef and make it ourselves!”

I will admit that Taco Bell is probably the most cost effective.  The Big Bell Box includes a crunchy taco, a bean burrito, the new queso crunchwrap, cinnamon twists (which he gave me!) and a large drink.  All for $4.99.  That’s pretty darn cheap.  If I’m going to eat TexMex fast food though, I still prefer Taco Cabana.

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I’ve been buying furniture for the student lounge in my college and because of that, I’ve become intimately familiar with craigslist.  I’ve used craigslist in college and sporadically since moving to Houston but I’ve never monitored it day to day like I have in the past few weeks.  First of all, people on craigslist are crazy.  Their descriptions are crazy.

I know you want to try to make your product sound good but when you start describing your couch’s color as “organic” because it’s brown, you’ve crossed the line.

Also, people are selling their Cantoni (Italian import) designer couches for ridiculous amounts of money on craigslist.  Are they successful?  Do people who can afford Cantoni couches go on craigslist to look for used furniture?  Don’t people with that much money hire interior decorators?  I don’t know.  This is a mystery to me.

I also think it’s funny when someone writes “vintage furniture” or “retro furniture” and you click on the photo and it’s just modern furniture that’s just plain old and worn.

I also think it’s funny when people get personal in their ads.  When they start talking about how they just moved in with their boyfriend and girlfriend and they have to get rid of furniture.  Or the new place they moved into is just too small.  Or maybe that they need money for a new TV so they’re selling their barstools.  Does personal connection sell better?  Maybe.

I am also amazed at the number of ugly couches that exist in the world.  Horrendous flower patterns that could not possibly be fashionable ever.  I have never seen a floral couch that I liked.  Sigh, I guess there’s a couch for every taste.

If you have an ugly couch, you could enter it in Regis and Kelly’s Ugly Couch contest.  The winner gets $5,000!

I think it’s fascinating that wherever I go in the world (not counting Asian countries or the U.S.), most street vendors assume I am Japanese and call out Japanese phrases to me.  It’s not because I look Japanese or dress Japanese (very far from it), but because Japanese tourists seem to have been EVERYWHERE.  I haven’t traveled to too many countries but in Italy, Belgium, France, TURKEY, and Mexico, someone somewhere on the street will call out to me in Japanese.  It’s usually just “konichiwa” or “ohio” but sometimes it’s complete phrases.  Sometimes people try to start a conversation with me in Japanese!  I was in Italy and a young man in the clothing store told us in Japanese that there were more men’s clothing upstairs.  It’s not like it was a dodgy old fruit stand peddler who was stuck in WWII days.  And then he was really surprised when we told him we spoke English.

When I was visiting schools in Turkey, the kids would run up to me and ask, “Japon?  Japon?”

Someone needs to applaud the Japanese tourism industry because it’s done a heck of a job taking Japanese tourists to all corners of the globe.

Sanky says that Japanese tourists are found in even the most remote villages.  The husband hypothesizes that the Japanese are the first Asians to have enough money to start participating in world travel and tourism and so most tourist places cater to that.  Sanky says the Japanese value traveling more and it’s one of their few forms of leisure.

The first night in Playa del Carmen, we heard several shouts of Japanese directed towards us as we walked along 5th Avenue.  But after a day on the beach, we were both about 5 shades darker and the second night we walked to dinner, we no longer got the Japanese greetings– as if no self-respecting Japanese woman would let herself get so tan.  I think towards the end of the trip, some of the waiters we encountered considered giving us Spanish menus.  Especially because we tried some local restaurants off the beaten path where not many tourists ventured.  I’m not even joking.

All joking aside, I really am pretty dark.  My mom’s not going to be happy about this.

I just hope this doesn’t mean I have to drink more freckle juice every day.

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We watched the end of Federer vs. Nadal in the Cancun airport (in BerryHill of all places) and it was a lot of fun to cheer for Nadal with the rest of the Spanish tourists.  The husband, however, was cheering for Federer and was pretty disapponted that he lost.  But even he admitted that it’s a bit much for Federer to put on his preppy sweater right after a long, sweaty match.

That’s kind of like this post (without all of the confusing punctuation). If someone were to ask me what my favorite song was lately, I would want to claim:

Flobots – Handlebars

Shucks, I can’t put the video in here because they’ve disabled embedding for this music video. If you’re curious you’ll have to click through the link.

It sounds like bad Eminem at first but the lyrics are smart and I think the music video is powerful. I also think the trumpet solos are creative. In full disclosure, I first heard this song in Forever 21 at Willowbrook Mall on the northwest side of town.

But then I would be compelled to admit that my actual favorite song lately is:

Jesse McCartney – Leavin’

I don’t like the lyrics, don’t like the video (although Jesse is cute in the video, in a Jonathan Rhys Meyers kind of way), but it’s catchy! Such is the way of pop music, I suppose. I had no idea who Jesse McCartney was so I looked him up on wikipedia. Apparently he co-wrote “Bleeding Love” for Leona Lewis. Which is cool.

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I should have wrote about this in the raves post but the husband came home with Virtua Tennis 3 on Tuesday night (for only $20 at Radio Shack!). We’ve been anticipating this since our days of playing Virtua Tennis on Sega Dreamcast! The graphics are gorgeously rich, the gameplay is fantastic, and the details are impressive. On clay courts, the dust stirs up when you run, you slide on the court depending on your momentum, the ball leaves marks on the court wherever it bounces and the players move very fluidly. My only complaint is that they don’t have enough players to select from (they’re missing Justine Henin and Novak Djokovic) but they make up for it by allowing you to create custom players.

We stayed up until 2AM last night watching WEC on Versus. Torres v. Maeda (bantamweight) was easily the best fight I’ve ever seen. I mean, come on, double toe holds?! It was a great fight on their feet, a great fight on the ground, and both fighters were aggressive. When Maeda first drew blood, you could tell Torres was a little shocked and shaken. But he came back strong. For those of you who didn’t watch, the fight was stopped by the ringside doctor because Maeda’s eye was swollen completely shut. I can only imagine what two more rounds would have produced.

The Faber v. Pulver (featherweight) fight was pretty impressive as well, considering how much of a beating Pulver can take and still keep coming at you. But it wasn’t as exciting as the Torres v. Maeda fight.

I really like it when fighters mutually respect each other. I also like it when fighters hold up each other’s arm in victory after the fight.

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I’ve recently come to the realization that ice cream is my favorite dessert. More than cake, brownies, creme brulee, panna cotta, sopapillas, etc. You would think that I would have noticed this favoritism in high school when I started eating ice cream for breakfast but I shrugged it off as wanting something cold and refreshing to wake me up in the morning. I don’t really discriminate when it comes to ice cream although I do have preferences.

I think Blue Bell Ice Cream is the best. I think it’s the best because it has a firmer texture than other ice creams and when you make a scoop you can actually see the bands of fluffiness on the scoop (visible in the photo above). I really like mixing in strawberries with my ice cream but I don’t like how it means that my ice cream is partially melted by the time I get it. Ice cream is meant to be firm. Not soupy.

I had this ice cream realization last night immediately after I told the husband that the pint of blue bell ice cream was so wonderful and fluffy that it seemed as though someone had hand-cranked and whipped the ice cream right before I took it out of the freezer. I knew how crazy that sounded and that’s when I knew ice cream must be my favorite dessert.

In all fairness, Haagen-Daaz is pretty awesome too. I have never been disappointed with their ice cream and they do offer a more interesting line of ice cream flavors like Dulce de Leche. I honestly have not sampled their line enough to choose it as a favorite. I don’t like the pricetag on Haagen Daaz ice cream. However, what I always think is a worthwhile splurge is their Vanilla and Almonds ice cream bars (pictured above). Haagen-Daaz definitely has Blue Bell beat when it comes to their bars. The secret is in the chocolate coating. They take their chocolate much more seriously than Blue Bell.

Ice cream stores in order of preference:

• Baskin Robbins (this is tops only because they serve Blue Bell ice cream, I don’t really enjoy the environment, decor, or menu options at Baskin Robbins)
• Amy’s Ice Cream
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Marble Slab
• Haagen-Daaz

Ice cream flavors & combinations I enjoy:

• Amy’s Ice Cream – Mexican Vanilla with Strawberries
• Blue Bell – Buttered Pecan
• Blue Bell – Pecan Pralines ‘n Cream
• Blue Bell – Cookies ‘n Cream
• Blue Bell – Moo-llennium Crunch
• Blue Bell – Strawberries & Homemade Vanilla
• Blue Bell – Peaches & Homemade Vanilla
• Blue Bell – Rocky Road
• Marble Slab – Cinnamon with strawberries
• Marble Slab – Sweet Cream
• Cold Stone Creamery – Strawberry Shortcake Serenade

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Car washes. I don’t like to segregate the genders but I have to ask. Is it a man thing? I mean, I like it when people take good care of their things. I generally take good care of my things. I keep my books and DVDs and electronics in nice condition and I care that the things I own are well maintained. With one huge exception. My car. Maybe it’s because I used to drive old junky cars that were passed down from my parents or because I’m a wimp when it comes to manual labor. I don’t know what it is. But it never, ever, crosses my mind to wash my car. Okay, maybe not never, maybe once or twice a year. But the husband, the husband talks about washing the car every 1-2 weeks. It’s amazing to me. And it’s not just washing the car by driving it through the autowash at the gas station. We’re talking about taking it to the coin-operated car wash where he races against the clock to manually rinse, soap, foam brush, rinse, and spot-free rinse. And then we take it home where he waxes it for 30 minutes. I helped him wax it once and my arms were sore for the next three days. We took it to Mister Car Wash and Bubbles once or twice but we just couldn’t stomach the price. I like shiny cars. I like it when my car is shiny. But a car wash is really low on my priority list.