Summer solstice

As I was leaving work this evening, my co-worker Rich mentioned that tomorrow is the longest day of the year. Go outside and enjoy. There hasn’t been much fog in San Francisco this week so we should get to see a decent sunset.

Even though I love fog, the part that bums me out after tomorrow night is that daylight diminishes continuously until December 21. I remember on a trip to Banff, Alberta in late June 1997 that the sun didn’t set until 11 p.m. Incredible.

If only we were in Alaska right now. The sun won’t set until midnight.

J.T. Snow update

While watching tonight’s Giants/Angels game, the trivia question of the evening asked was “Who won Gold Gloves as both a Giant and an Angel?” For me, this was an extremely easy question (and listed on my blog last night). It was nice to hear Giants announcers Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow mention J.T. was one of their favorites as well.

Duane went on to say that J.T. got put on “assignment” today. What this means is the Red Sox have 10 days to trade or release him. I hope a team will pick him up. But I can’t think of any team at the moment that needs a role player with J.T.’s specific skills.

Former Giants Kirk Rueter and Marquis Grissom were also designated for assignment before making the painful decision to retire. Snow, Rueter and Grissom were all well-liked and consummate team players. But like those longtime employees we don’t want to see laid off, this is a business, and sadly, we have to see them go.

There has been discussion that J.T. may return to the Giants, but it’s not likely. New utility players Mark Sweeney and Jose Vizcaino are more versatile than J.T., as both play more than one position and have done well off the bench this season. Travis Ishikawa has also gotten some playing time and appears to be groomed for 1st base full time should Lance Niekro’s nagging injuries continue.

Whatever happens, good luck to J.T. I’ll be following your status for the next few weeks.

I'm Gumby, dammit!

I haven’t blogged in awhile and it wasn’t because I was ill or on vacation. I’ve been operating from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. non-stop this week. Monday – laundry night. Tuesday and Wednesday - gym night. Tonight – condo meeting. Tomorrow – haircut and color.

I know I could have made this less stressful by skipping a gym night, or not insisting on cooking a dish last night for our potluck lunch today. But when the CFO said my Pad Thai tastes great, then I'll cook all the time. This only has meaning for people like me who enjoy cooking. I only wish I had more time to do it.

Then tonight’s condo meeting went on about an hour too long. The problem is that we had 2 parties on conference call. Neither had the agenda Pam sent to our condo group website, and there was a tendency to ramble. It looks like the closing date will be mid-July. Our move out date is July 31. We’re cutting it close, but I’m fairly certain we’ll make it.

Work continues to keep me busy and I prefer it that way, but it can be too much. For the past 3 years, I haven’t been able to take more than a week’s vacation. If I take any time off, my work will sit there because I really don’t have a backup person. The longer I’m gone, the more work I have to do when I get back. My vacation hours will stop accruing if I keep going at this pace. I try to prevent this by taking off a Friday here and there.

My next Friday off is the end of this month. Can't wait.

photo courtesy of presentationresources.net

Oh. I see it now.

Take it from Josh to tell me why he likes my phone so much. He commented on yesterday’s entry about my inability to transfer pictures from my phone using Bluetooth. Well, I found it a few minutes ago. It was very simple.

From the “My Stuff” menu, I go to: Pictures>Cameraphone>Send>Bluetooth. I didn’t bother to go there. I attribute this oversight to the same fatigue I’ve been suffering for the past week. Tell me anyone is going to read an 87-page manual before turning on the phone and not want to play with it.

I also read the battery could have reduced capacity the first few weeks the phone is in operation. Let’s wait and see.

I should shutup and go to bed now. Before other brain functions begin to suffer needlessly.