Los Angeles Times

As a San Francisco resident for almost 25 years and frequent visitor to New York City (parents and brother live there), I consider myself a urbanite. So that I get an idea of what's going on in my favorite big cities, I've had bookmarked SFGate and the New York Times for several years. This past year, I added the Los Angeles Times.

For me, 2 reasons:
1. Timothy Parker's online crossword puzzle.
Updated daily and 3 colossal crosswords published on Sundays. My crossword fix is achieved sans pencil and/or ink smears and dog-eared paper (from too much erasing).

2. The entertainment section.
Entertainment is what put Los Angeles on the map. My favorite feature within the entertainment section are the photo galleries. A recent one titled, " 'Indiana Jones' and the Rip-offs of Doom" contains a selection of photos accompanied with a story. Numerous other photo galleries links from previous publications are also listed. Reading these hones my movie/TV trivia skills.

If nothing else, it also gives me perspective on how different these cities are to San Francisco and why I live here.

Foster City library

I took my car this morning to Costco in Foster City to get my tires rotated. I bought the tires at the South San Francisco/Daly City location about 2 years ago which includes free rotation and balancing for the lifetime of the tires.

The first time I rotated the tires in SSF/DC, it took about 3.5 hours. I did shop while waiting, but shopping for me at Costco never takes more than an hour. I was able to kill another hour with a magazine to read, but still had another 30 to 60 minutes before my car was ready.

Now knowing I had at least 3 hours to kill, I researched nearby wi-fi spots to Costco locations. The nearest wi-fi in Daly City was the library at Serramonte. But it's about 2 miles away and would require me to sprint across multiple lanes of traffic to get there. Foster City's library was only 2 blocks away from the nearest Costco, so I decided to head there.

It's been probably 15 years since I last visited a public library. The only other public library I've been to in San Mateo county was Millbrae, which was a decent size. Foster City's is much larger. Free wi-fi is all over the library, and there's 6 tables with outlets specifically for plugging in laptops. There's 3 plug-in outlets on each side, so one could conceivably set up an office while there. There's also a few desktop computers with free internet access, and not surprisingly, all of them were occupied.

I left the library after about 2.5 hours. The heating/cooling system was rattling loudly and so was my stomach. I headed back to Costco and picked up a quick lunch. My car was just being worked on, so I spent another half-hour and picked up some cold cuts and cheese. I checked back at the tire center around 2 p.m., immediately got my keys and departed for home.

All in all, a fairly productive day. It was so much better to kill time at the library as opposed to the cemented stoop at Costco's Tire Center.

Bite me

Well, that's what the mosquitoes did during our hot spell last week. I currently have at minimum 15 red welts on my arms and legs from the carnage. Mosquitoes have always loved me from the time I was a child. I really think my scent somehow whets their appetites. As a teenager, I had bites so bad that it swelled my eye shut.

As Chico Escuela would say, "Fog is bery, bery good to me..."

August 2008 high school reunion

Yesterday, I got a classmates.com e-mail notifying me a new guest "signed in" to view my profile. I don't have too many, but it's nice to know who visited. It was one of the guys from my graduating class. He was one of the popular guys, so the 17-year old in me got a thrill out of it.

I then noticed a bulletin board posting from another classmate who mentioned that a 30-year reunion (OK, so you now know how old I am) is currently being planned for this August. I attended the 10 and 20 year reunions and had a lot of fun. As it stands now, I should be able to attend the 30-year reunion.

If the reunion does indeed take place in August, I'll be faced with the challenge of finding attire to look hot in and stay cool.

An Unforgettable Act of Sportsmanship

As a former softball junkie and torn ACL victim, a college softball game played earlier this week between Central Washington and Western Oregon grabbed my attention.

Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky hit her first home run with 2 runners on base. After Sara rounded first base, she tripped and tore her ACL. The umpires told Western Oregon Sara would not be able to score with help from anyone on her team. Western Oregon's coach asks the umpires if she can make a substitute. They tell her no. It later is determined the call is incorrect, but in no way does it diminish what transpires next.

Mallory Holtman, Central Washington's first baseman, asked the umpires if she and a teammate (shortstop Liz Wallace) could carry Sara to touch the bases to make the home run official. It brought tears to my eyes and reinforces why playing sports isn't always about who wins.

Central Washington lost the game. What Mallory and Liz did would have NEVER happened in a men's game. Period.

Scream for Ice Cream, the sequel

It has been a little over a week since my I raved about Dreyer's Slow Churned Butter Pecan. Well, the next trip to the grocery store was last weekend, and we tried a new flavor, Take The Cake. It tastes just like yellow cake. Sprinkles included. MMMMMMMM.....

Luscious, tasty, satisfying. Not overly sweet and definitely fulfilling. My compliments to the flavor developers at Dreyers. You're coming up with some yummy tasting ice cream at half the guilt. I'm jealous of the tasters that work at the plant. If any of you should happen to call in sick, I'd be more than willing to sit in for you pro bono.

Gotta scoop me up a bowl right now.