My favorite photo thus far from this Cubs season of 2008

This is Carlos Zambrano, Cubs pitcher. On his back is Mike Fontenot, Cubs backup second baseman, also known as "Little Babe Ruth." You can see why . . .

Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune.

UPDATE: Here is the story of this picture--it's part of an every-game routine.

Not much has made me laugh out loud lately . . .

. . . but this did:

Introduction

Hi, I just moved to Dallas from South Louisiana, and I was afraid that I wouldn't find any fellow Republicans to share my concerns and thoughts with. I am so glad to see that there is a group dedicated to those very things!

I have been perusing meet-up groups in Dallas and this was the post by a 30-something woman on the Dallas Republican Party Meetup Group site. She didn't think she would find Republicans in Dallas? That's like saying she thought the rodeo would be short on manure!

On a lighter note . . .

I bring to you this Justin Timberlake gem:

Timberlake
by bsap11

I cannot hold back any longer: DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO

Seriously. You will experience less pain if you pluck a fork from your cutlery drawer, heat it in the oven until it is very, very hot, dip it in jalapeno juice and then repeatedly poke yourself in the eye with it.

Last April, I bought a Sony Vaio notebook computer--the SZ440--that cost multiple thousands of dollars. I invested in portability and souped-up speed and memory so I would have a computer that travels well and would hold up under my frequent use.

Here's what I got instead:

• 10 months into my ownership of the computer, it experienced a sudden, completely unwarned, total hard drive meltdown (approximate time on phone with Sony about this: 4.2 hours)
  
• An onsite tech replaced the hard drive, but the data is still unrecoverable from the original hard drive
  
• just under 12 months into my ownership of the computer, the fan became freakishly loud and stopped cooling the computer (approximate time on phone with Sony about this: 1.2 hours)
• The onsite tech sent to repair the fan managed to somehow burn out the hard drive while repairing the fan, and was so incompetent he wasn't even able to reassemble the notebook without pieces bulging out of the back (approximate time on phone with Sony about this: 3.8 hours)
• Sony then insisted I send the computer to them for repair--they installed another new hard drive and, presumably, a fan, then sent the lemon back to me
• Less than 2 months after that repair, my laptop experienced its third hard drive meltdown
• Sony refused to permit onsite repair and insisted I send the laptop back to them--I wanted an exchange, but they said there was no way they would exchange it, so we wrangled over that topic for quite some time (approximate time on phone with Sony about this: 2.2 hours)
• I returned the laptop to Sony and--miraculously--they proclaimed after 2 days that they would exchange it for an SZ680. However, they have had my old Vaio for 10 days and haven't ordered the exchange computer, haven't shipped the exchange computer, haven't provided me with its specs, as I have repeatedly requested, and have not returned to me the hard drive from my old computer (so I can try to retrieve data from it, including the photographs of my mother's first major league baseball game and first trip to Wrigley Field) or provided me with any information on when I will receive it (approximate time on phone with Sony about this so far: 1.9 hours)

The lesson?

DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. DO NOT BUY A SONY VAIO. v

i am in love

Note: I'm sorry I have been absent . . . my Vaio melted down yet again and has returned to San Diego (yet again) for servicing. I will confess that at the moment of this latest meltdown, I had unclean thoughts regarding what I would do to Sony if it was standing in front of me. Not sexy unclean thoughts--the other kind. So here I am typing on my trusty "old" Vaio that--thank goodness--I kept as a backup. If I had not just dropped a ridiculous amount of money on the new Vaio one year ago, I would have already given up and purchased an Apple notebook. Anyway, I have been computer-impaired and am trying to catch up now. So, on to my new post:

***********************************************************************************

Not with a boy, silly! With my new iPhone! Yes, I have been freed from the chains of the Palm Treo, stepping into the light while blinking and wondering how to live on this other side that is free of technical errors, user unfriendliness, my phone dialing people from my purse at the precise moment when I am talking about them, etc.

I did not suffer through yesterday's craziness of the "Launch Day." I had an early (7:30 am--yikes!) doctor's appointment and afterward, thought I would just hop on over to the AT&T store and take my place in line. Yeah, right . . . so, seeing 80+ people in line at a tiny store that would not open for another hour and a half, I turned around, walked back to my car and drove to work. When I read about how Apple's system responded to thousands of new log-ons in 22 countries, I felt relieved that I had been spared that agony. But hearing that many stores would receive new shipments this morning, I thought I might see how my luck ran with a Saturday morning purchase attempt.

Despite my being an early-morning-challenged person, I sprang from my bed at 7:00 am today, dressed, popped into Starbucks and was in line at the AT&T store near me by around 7:40 am. I figured either there would be no one or I would have lots of company--I was wrong on both counts, as I was the third person in line. By 8 am there were 13 of us in line, and I'm guessing there were around 40 in line by the time the store opened at 10 am. Just before the opening, the store manager assured us that at that point, there were iPhones for everyone in line, so long as we did not want the white model. But I have jumped ahead in the story . . . here is the story of how my iPhone and I got together:

I had come prepared with a book to read: Ann Patchett's "Truth and Beauty," which I read and loved before and wanted to revisit. Concrete sidewalk notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed the all-too-rare experience of uninterrupted reading time with no pressure to be somewhere else.

The store is in a strip mall near the lake, and its parking lot was really busy early this morning, with lots of people who had apparently taken part in a group walk or training run of some kind. I tried not to think about what it meant that I chose to be the person sitting on the sidewalk, in line to buy a phone at 7:30 am, rather than the person walking next to a beautiful lake. Some of the runners/walkers passing by looked at our line as if we were wild animals of a species they had never seen before, and others wished us luck at buying our phones.

Speaking of a different species, a 20-something girl wearing a hot pink t-shirt, jeans and metallic flip flops walked up just before 10 am and appeared confused by the line, and surprised she couldn't just walk into the store. She kept looking from the locked door to the line, and back at the locked door. Finally, she asked the first guy in line what was going on. He looked briefly stunned, then said, "The iPhone? We are all waiting to buy the iPhone." She gazed blankly at him, and it appeared she still did not understand but did not want to admit it. She paced back and forth a few times, then left.

Shortly before the store opened, an off-duty police officer arrived for his shift. He stopped at the front of the line and told us, "Now, I'm about to walk over to that doughnut store to pick up breakfast for these people, and I don't want any comments when I get back." We looked at him innocently and being the smart aleck that I am, I said, "What kind of comment could we possibly make in that scenario?" He laughed uncomfortably and we all tried not to look when he returned with a large box of doughnuts.

One woman joined our line with a baby, which seemed odd. Thankfully, the baby was relatively quiet. The guy to my right is apparently some sort of technology guy, as he told his friend who called from London that he had helped build the 3G network the iPhone uses. He also provided more than an hour of tech support to his London friend, sometimes so enthusiastically that I was forced to subtly plug my ears in order to maintain focus on the book I was reading. The girl to my left was studying for the MCAT exam; she had taken her parents to the airport at 5am and thought she might as well wait in an iPhone line because she was up anyway. A father and daughter duo to her left fetched their laptop from their car and watched a Transformers movie on it, with him seeming more intensely involved in it.

The MCAT girl saved a spot for me when, seeing all the spaces left by the departing walkers and runners, I stepped away briefly to move my car closer. But I needn't have asked her to do that, as everyone respected the sanctity of the line and one could freely leave and regain his/her spot at will.

And then, in the blink of an eye, I had been "pre-qualified" and let in the door. There were glitches in the cash register I was assigned to, but I was still out of there by 10:25 or so. Whenever I started to feel annoyed by the glitches, I dove back into my book.

The rest of the day?
(1) car wash/detail--badly needed
(2) Cubs game
(3) iPhone setup, which included an iTunes upgrade, the loading of unloaded CDs and downloading of 2000+ songs to the iPhone

What a wonderful weekend in Chicago!

Lunch at Italian Village
Millenium Park
Taste of Chicago
Vance Kelly at B.L.U.E.S.

Lunch at Schaller's Pump
Cubs v. Sox at Sox Park
Dinner from Taste of Chicago
Drinking wine while listening to folk music at Millenium Park
Sushi snack

Brunch at Bongo Room in Wicker Park
Failed attempt to visit Chicago Botanic Garden
Successful visit to Lincoln Park Zoo
Coffee
Airport
Cubs v. Sox at O'Hare

And lots of time spent with friends . . .

Small World!

Phil brought up this fun topic, which brought back two nice memories for me . . . the "small world phenomenon. Go check out his take on it, then come back here!

My two small world stories, both from the trip I took with 4 friends in the summer of '94 after taking the bar exam:

(1) Our youth hostel in Interlaken, Switzerland had a bar in the basement (it's the infamous Balmer's). We were there socializing one night and a guy walked past my friend Amy, immediately catching her attention. Turns out, they went to school together back in Houston, from elementary through high school. The guy was working in Bern and happened to choose that night to go to Balmer's to hear some American accents that would remind him of home.

(2) Our adorable hotel (more like little apartment rooms built into a hill) on the island of Ios, Greece hosted drinks on its patio each night to encourage the guests to meet each other and hang out (you may be sensing a theme). A guy at one night's social hour looked incredibly familiar to me, but I could not place him. We started talking and realized we had studied for the bar exam every day for several weeks that summer, at tables in the Rice Business School Library that were right next to each other.

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In yet another example of how the world is becoming smaller, I will actually meet "Jenn from the blog" this weekend in Chicago, in real life! I will be there with my friend G from college, and I did struggle a bit with how exactly to explain to him, a "non-blogger", that we would be meeting someone this weekend who I consider a friend, but have never seen or talked to "live." He seems to understand, and we're looking forward to hanging out with Jenn!

Remember when Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative"?

I don't think the Texas GOP is trying to sell that brand anymore, as evidenced by their platform.

I literally had chills while reading it.

Crickets

Either you guys really disagree with my last post, or you are off barbequeing.

What have I been up to? Mainly, organizing for Obama and swimming, swimming, oh so hard through the mass of work I have to do (at my paying job). Next weekend, I will travel to Chicago to see my beloved Cubs take on the White Sox at the enemy's park . . . I am sure the series will be scintillating, given that the Cubs swept them this weekend at Wrigley Field. Also, will attend Taste of Chicago and various other fun things.

I need to work out 2x per day this week (and thereafter). Please encourage me!

Thinking about what is important

Like so many others, I was shocked and saddened by the death of Tim Russert. A talented and likeable guy, his life ended unexpectedly when he was at the top of his game. He was too young to go and both those who knew him and those who didn't are pained by his loss. Tim Russert's news colleagues and political friends have mourned publicly, in tributes on the Today show and Meet the Press and many other news vehicles. For hour upon hour, they have cried, laughed and otherwise remembered Tim Russert and what he meant in their lives. It seemed appropriate, until . . .

I saw these pictures, and others, of the Iowa floods. My perspective tilted. I had not realized how severe the flooding was. I had not realized how many homes were displaced, literally and figuratively. And I started to wonder: why we aren't hearing more about the Iowa floods? Why aren't people doing more to help those affected by the Iowa floods? Why are we not hearing hour upon hour of coverage of the Iowa floods?

I also wondered why we are not using Tim Russert's death as an opportunity to prevent others from losing their fathers and sons from heart disease at a ridiculously young age? This article is one of the first I have seen that focuses on the health issue. But overall, not a lot has been said about that.

Life is for the living, as they say. I certainly realize the importance of mourning and have done enough of that here regarding the loss of my own father. But the public airwaves are for the public's benefit, aren't they? And isn't the greatest public benefit one that looks forward . . . to flood relief and health hearts?

Just my two cents.

Happy Father's Day

Here is a nice story about a father's secret, and his daughter's Father's Day gift to make it all right.



Happy Father's Day, Dad.

I've been thinking about buying an Apple laptop

the next time I need a laptop and this story makes me want to do that even more.

In short: Girl's Apple laptop is stolen. Girl uses Apple technology to track down the guys who stole her laptop. Cool!

Overheard at the White House gate

as I walked by on Sunday afternoon:

"Is George home? Can I help him pack?"

--From a very funny (and smart) citizen, talking to one of the guards.

Please do not put your feet on the wall.

I arrived early today for a conference at the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City. While I waited for my meeting to begin, I explored a bit, having stumbled upon an "attorneys' lounge." I was curious about what would find in the lounge. In addition to a comfortable-looking leather couch, a conference table and a telephone, there was this:



I should add that the cab driver who took me to the courthouse, a 20- or 30-something guy, is of the opinion that the current President of our country is "doing a pretty good job."

To the person from Korea

who arrived at this blog as a result of a search for the phrase "why Bush won": many of us in the U.S. are still wondering exactly that.

Not what I expected

This afternoon, I stopped by a lovely neighborhood restaurant to pick up two gift certificates. I always imagined the chef and staff of a restaurant like this one--which is one of the best in Dallas--to dine before their shift on a simpler version of the food they will later serve to their guests. So imagine my surprise to see a bag of Ruffles potato chips on the white tablecloth in front of the guys in chef's jackets!

Do me a favor?

Hey, guys, I have a tiny favor to ask.

The City of Dallas is choosing a new name for a road that runs near downtown. They have come up with a pretty lame list of choices, with only one really good choice: Cesar Chavez Blvd. They are conducting a public interest survey to choose the new name, and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you would please vote in favor of my choice, Cesar Chavez Blvd.

Will you help? Just go here and vote on the "public interest survey" phrase.

Thank you!

A peek inside the Obama campaign

This is a really great article about the people at the top of the Obama campaign. There are many reasons I support Senator Obama, but a big one is the skill he has shown in running a drama-free, solvent, effective campaign.

Finally, a way to explain it.

Sometimes it is difficult to explain to others what it is like living in Texas. I grew up in Illinois, where we don't even know what the state flag looks like, for goodness' sake. In our lovely little flatland state, we didn't talk about religion or even know what religion, if any, our elected officials practiced.

Not so in Texas. As my California friends who recently visited can attest, one cannot turn around without seeing a Texas flag. And religion? It is mandatory for public officials, apparently. This is the "farewell video" the mayor of Sugarland, Texas (a Houston suburb) gave his employees after losing his reelection effort . . . watch it and weep (or laugh):



Via Susan at Kiss My Big Blue Butt.

UPDATE:

This story also provides another example of something that could only happen in Texas: naked mom accidentally shoots self after argument with son.

Sad day for progressive people.

One will always remember where he/she was when X [insert historic/memorable event] occurred. X varies depending on the generation. For my generation, it includes the attempted assassination of President Reagan, the explosion of the Challenger and, of course, 9/11. For me personally, X also includes the moment when I learned of my father's death.

Now, in addition to these things, I am pretty sure that I will always remember where I was when I learned that Senator Ted Kennedy had a malignant brain tumor. I hope that isn't the case. I hope he is treated successfully, recovers and only leaves us years from now as a result of something totally unrelated, rendering today's news but a faint memory. But watching so many grown men cry on the floor of the Senate Chambers today makes me worry that this outcome is highly unlikely.