Still in escrow (or at least no one’s told us differently).

Still free of prostate cancer (confirmed by the official finger of BorgHealth this morning).

Still wondering why I decorate for Christmas even though I have a dog.

Many of you have probably heard the news elsewhere, but we’re moving.  We’re in escrow on a townhouse in nearby San Marcus and hope to complete the move by the end of the year.   There will be more details and more photos down the road, but as a teaser some shots from the inspection yesterday have been posted over at the photo gallery.

While the place is in good shape, there are certainly a lot of things we want to do to make it a home we can really be proud of.  A perfect example is the lighting.  Sure, this works in that utilitarian sense that it provides illumination and prevents people from falling down the stairs.  But something like this would be so much more fabulous, wouldn’t it?

Took some time after a business trip to San Jose (Yes, I know the way to San Jose) to drive down the coast and take a few photos.  Not as many photos as I would’ve liked due to some weather, but it was still a worthwhile couple of days. Cleared out the head and listened to a lot of old music too.

Found an interesting new map of California too, though I suspect I’d have difficulty getting it into the glove box.

Except for a run to the gym and the bank, it looks like Friday will be spent chained to the desk coding the Great Unbillable Project, the website that gives me karma instead of cash.  After work though, going to try and get down to La Jolla and watch UCSD and Long Beach State play a little water polo.

Cuz, ya know, that’s a good way to start the weekend.

This will be the first game of the season for us since we skipped the Triton Invitational last month.  Besides, at the rate California and the UC budgets are going, we can’t really count on these things being around forever, so we better catch local match ups when we can.  Yes, I’m being pessimistic, but it’s getting harder and harder to be anything but.

Taking a break from dealing with the real world for a bit.  Time to focus on the wild and fantastic sides of life, and celebrate the announcement the ComicCon will be in San Diego for at least five more years.  Time to par-teh like a stormtrooper!

Normally by this time of the year I’d be looking forward to the Triton Invitational Water Polo tournament at UC San Diego.  Four years ago 14 teams participated.  Three years ago the tournament was down to a field of eight teams.  At one point there were five UC teams participating from what were then nine campuses.  Even with Cal  (Berkeley) itself never making the journey, it was always great as an alum and most-of-my-life Californian to be able to see water polo teams from five of the nine campuses competing against each other in some quality match-ups.

Just finally saw this year’s schedule this morning:this year’s tournament is down to five teams, with the host being the only UC present.  No brackets, just each team playing every other team once.  I’m sure there will be some quality games, but the trends are difficult to ignore.  Hard to not see it as just another step on the UC’s ongoing Drive to Mediocrity.

At least from our vantage point, the Comic-Con organizers seem to have finally figured out a registration process that makes sense.  We went to the off-site location, showed our IDs and e-mail registrations, and were politely handed our badges.  Twenty-one minutes from parking to putting on the lanyards.

Photos from this year will be going up in this album.  I’ve thrown together a dynamic album of all my Comic-Con shots here for those interested in past years as well.

Saw in the server stats this morning that this photo of Randy and the wonderful John Barrowman is now the ninth most viewed photo in the local gallery here at Howling Point. Out of 1367 posted photos, this is the first non-sports photo to crack the Top 10.

Randy met the actor who played Captain Jack Harkness (not to mention “Lead Tenor” in The Producers) at the 2009 Comic-Con.  I stood several feet away with the camera and tried not to be too jealous.  Hopefully they can rekindle their relationship at Comic-Con this year, which by the way starts in only 27 short days.

One week ago today, thirty or so very good friends and family gathered at The Linkery in San Diego to celebrate Randy’s 50th birthday. The people at The Linkery outdid themselves with great service and great food, and while the Big Five-Oh is easy to poke fun at (and there was a ceremonial presentation of Spinner’s first AARP card), the rapidly-marching-to-death jokes were kept to a minimum, and as far as I could tell a great time was had by all.

Very early the next morning we left Diego and the Great Basil Forest in the care of a wonderful housesitter, and set off for Hawai’i.

In hindsight we’d redo the itinerary. It seems ridiculous in hindsight to fly 21 minutes from San Diego to LAX, then sit on some very uncomfortable seats at LAX draining the batteries on various portable devices for three hours until our flight to Kona. We could’ve driven to LAX in less than two hours, and still left home at least 90 minutes later than we did. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice… As for Delta – I know it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything but a hop from here to the Bay Area, but $25 to check a bag and no food except a bag of peanuts on a five-hour flight? Ohmygawd you’re cheap bastards and you’ll get no linkey-love here.

Once we got off the flying metal deathtrap though, life was renewed. I suppose for Randy it was like how Logan’s spin through carousel should’ve been. Hours of people reminding you of approaching mortality, more hours trapped immobilized in a sealed metal tube, then whoosh…PARADISE!

In our first two hours on the Big Island we swam in the ocean, swam in the resort’s pool, then had mango daquiris and kalua pork quesadillas at the hotel’s poolside bar.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: we shopped, we ate, we swam, we bodysurfed, we paddleboarded.  Lots of details in the photo captions over at Vista.

Yes, I got injured a couple of times, but it was all still absolutely worth it.  I got stung by a jellyfish or something, but I got stung swimming the water portion of the Ironman course in Kona.  I beat up my ankles on some silly rocks, but I did it body surfing at Magic Sands on the Big Island.   I suppose I should mention the dead brain cells from several rounds of Mai Tais too, but that doesn’t sound nearly as butch as the swimming and bodysurfing.  Would it help if I said they were flaming Mai Tais?

We visited palaces and churches and archeological sites and generally behaved like gawking tourists we were.  Spent lots of time sitting on the seawall just watching local life: the triathletes and open-water swimmers, the locals playing, the outrigger canoe clubs, the birds and crabs doing their things.

We had a great time.  The vacation was way too short.  Probably wouldn’t have come back but for the grim realities of modern life spelled out by Quicken, even given my responsibilities to appear in court this Tuesday.

The flight home was relatively uneventful: same tin-can of death, same lousy service, still no love for Delta.  Diego not only survived, but seemed much better after five days with the housesitter than he’s ever seemed after any time at all in the kennel.  The Great Basil Forest is thriving.  After 36 hours the mountain of laundry finally seems surmountable.  I’m back and I accept it, happy or not.

– Randy, the husband, also known as Spinnerdude, is celebrating his fiftieth birthday today.

– I found out last night that I won an Honorable Mention ribbon at the San Diego County Fair for a photo I took back in February 2009 of a Cal Poly SLO – Navy Academy rugby match down at the Del Mar Polo Grounds.

–  Today is Friday.