2008 superlatives (Dan’s edition)

Prior to 2008, last year in which I voted for the winner of a Presidential election: 1988

Best book with the worst title: The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy, Bruce Ackerman

Worst book with the best title: The Secret History of the English Language, M.J. Harper

Hotel with the most books: The Library Hotel, New York

Funniest thing that happened on our blog: Fictional roommates?

Something that happened before we started our blog: N/A

Footballer of the Year: (tie) Allie, Darren Huckerby

House of the Year: Spring Ranch (aka the Old Kent Ranch)

Drink of the Year: Belmont Stakes –by Jacqueline Patterson

Favorite Swedish tween vampire movie: Let the Right One In

Favorite lunch date: Noelani

Favorite California institutions: (tie) the Supreme Court of California and Cabrillo College, Aptos

Favorite puns: SALAD BARBER, CRUZE SHIP, UNISEXTON, NIELSEN BEAM, LANGFORD PINTO, MOTLEY KRUEGER

Favorite forty year-old: Troy!

p.s. “Poop.”

Family friendly blogging

You’ll be relived to know that an independent third party has rated our blog “G”. We did get dinged for the word “poop”, but are otherwise clean as a whistle.

Note: This tool also works on myspace profiles, livejournals, facebook, and most websites

What’s My Blog Rated?

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* poop (1x)

2008 superlatives (Troy’s edition)

It’s the time of year when everyone comes out with their year-end best lists.  Here’s mine (Dan’s is on the way):

 

Biggest high: Nov. 4

Biggest low: Nov. 4

Best new non-SIAJ website: Fivethirtyeight.com

Favorite quote: “I can see Russia from my house!” –Tina Fey

Best new restaurant: Orson

Meal of the year (restaurant): “Bacon and Bourbon,” Orson May 15

Meal of the year (home): T-giving at Spring Ranch

Best new coffee: Four Barrel Coffee –rich, amazingly consistent Americanos and salted caramel donuts

Favorite iPhone app: Flixster, Facebook, Nextbus (tie)

Favorite iPhone app (Noe): Scribble, Tris (tie)

Favorite iPhone app (Siobhan): Animal sounds

Favorite new way to let Dan know what we’re doing, without actually telling him: Google Calendar

Netflix rentals rated 5 stars: Control

Netflix rentals rated 1 star: Picnic at Hanging Rock, Cloverfield, (Not)Gay, Wet Hot American Summer

Movies seen at the Castro: The Seven Samurai, Michael Clayton, Barton Fink, Last Year at Marienbad, On the Beach, Contempt, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, [9 LGBT film festival movies], Three Coins in the Fountain, The Little Mermaid, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Milk

Best read: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Juno Diaz

Favorite passage: From Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie: “…which he took to Vijay Stores opposite the circumsizing barbershop in Gowalia Tank Road…”

Drink of the Year: Manhattan

Marriage of the Year: San Jose Earthquakes + Tottenham Hotspur

Weekend Report 12/28/08

We had a little mini getaway to Marin county this weekend.  Not much to report here– just got a lot of reading done.  Pediatric, Midnight’s Children and Founding Father reading.  Thanks to a tip from Andrea, we enjoyed a fabulous French meal at El Paseo in Mill Valley and spent the night overlooking the harbor in Sausalito.  Sunrise this morning was spectacular.  I had the promenade all to myself:

Is this your bumper?

Currently on the sidewalk across the street. If u know someone who is missing this, please forward them our email. Actually, it was left behind by another victim of a red light runner on Divis today. Witnessed audibly by Dan (Troy was in the shower).

In other news, The Moss Room in the new Acadamy of Science Museum features the best air hand-dryer ever. It feels like a mini massage and actually gets your hands *dry*.

Holiday spirit

They’ve got it. Do you?

A penguin in a snow globe!

p.s. A few weeks ago, Santa was flying a vintage airplane on their lawn … mysteriously, on Christmas Eve, he had departed. Coincidence?

p.p.s. That’s the second time in a week that I’ve used the “Coincidence?” gag.

Gingerbread AT-AT break

[post is primarily for the 3-10 yr old nephew readers of SIAJ]

A friend of ours went to a party last night famous for its humongous gingerbread house. I’m sure there were lots of Castro fabulati present, but did they have any Star Wars gingerbread items? We found some here.

direct from the ice planet Hoth

Have a merry TIE fighter Xmas

Holiday Commute

It was a pretty quiet weekend.  Our holiday shopping was done early this year, so we didn’t have to hop from store to store this weekend in the downpours.  We did have a nice holiday dinner out with Peter and Mike (see more at end of year) and saw Frost/Nixon.  Now we are awaiting the holiday festivities.  The Hawaii grandparents arrive in just a few days.

Dan dropped me off at the Ferry Building this morning, but a few days before Christmas, it was a ghost town:

No line at Peet's

The Bookshelf Meme (SIAJ style)

One of the blogs Troy reads recently posted his answers to the Bookshelf Meme. Of course, in this house, we change the rules of every game we play. And we have a lot of books. So here’s our version, tag-team posted for your enjoyment …

Book you’ve had the longest. [Dan] I’m ruling out reference books and kid lit, so that ancient copy of Hoyle’s Rules of Games that I’ve had since the 70s, or the Sign of the Chrysanthemum (by Katherine Paterson) won’t count. My answer: 1066, by David Howarth. It’s a year in the life of England, but what a year! If there’s one book that made me fall in love with history, it would be that one. [Troy] I’m not ruling out either reference books or kid lit, so my oldest book is either What Makes it Go? What Makes it Work? What Makes it Fly? What Makes it Float?, by Joe Kaufman … a Golden Book that deconstructs (in pictures) contraptions from an ocean liner to a telephone, or Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls.

how does a telescope work?

Baby it’s cold outside

My morning ferry commute was more beautiful than normal due to the clearing skies after our most recent storm and super cold weather (38 in SF!).  You could even see a kiss of snow on the top of Mt. Tam [will need click/enlarge]:

looking west at Marin Co.

And on arriving in Vallejo, what is this?  It’s like it’s winter or something.

How do you get this stuff off again?