Baby names

If you’re in the process of debating baby names like Melissa and I are, you might be interested to know about this blog, which is surprisingly interesting. For example, I learned that we both appear to be “fashionable traditionalists” about baby names, and that boys' names ending in “n” have skyrocketed recently. Fascinating, no?

Most people are either enthusiastic about our name ideas or, if they seem not to like them, politely reserved. But my Grandma never holds anything back. She HATES Peter, our pick for a boy, mostly because of “Peter Peter, pumpkin eater.” She tells me she can live with our current girl name--Sally--but would prefer Marie (which is on our short list). Incidentally, all of our best name ideas came from Melissa, who, fortunately for me and our future kid(s) and notwithstanding my Grandma’s opinions, has good taste in names.

Things I recently learned

My folks just visited us for about a week and while they were here I learned a few things:

1. A 21-foot-diameter redwood isn't as impressive as it sounds, especially after a six-hour drive to get to it.

2. The best part about visiting national parks is getting your national parks passport book stamped.

3. Ukiah, California, is the center of the white trash universe. Who knew?

4. My dad loves getting breakfast at Denny's and starts talking about it two days before he is scheduled to go.

5. My mom loves it when the flight attendant gives you the whole can of pop. (Although, who doesn't love that?)

6. I hate oysters. I ate one for the first time while Marcy and my parents egged me on. I almost ralphed in their faces--that would have showed 'em!

7. I have become an expert at spotting the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill.

8. I am tired of small towns with quaint shops and restaurants.

9. Alcatraz is still cool after five visits.

10. My mom never outbids anyone in Rook, no matter how good her hand is.

11. I am also tired of hobos.

Harry Potter eventually gets really good, right?

After I read that Stephen King was standing in line at midnight to get the last Harry Potter book I finally decided to stop being a snob about it and get on board. I finished book one a couple nights ago and thought it was fine, but not totally awesome or anything, although wizard chess seems pretty cool. Anyway, I'm withholding judgment until I get to book three because I understand that's when everything gets good. Right, Carly, Kacy, and all you other Harry Potter freaks out there?

That's amore

I always wished I was Italian American. Instead I'm a boring old Scandinavian/German American. No big extended-family Sunday pasta dinners, no Cosa Nostra, no cool names like Corrato Soprano or Santino Corleone, no cousins-who-I-love-like-a-brother. But at least I can get my groceries at Lunardi's, which is where your grandmother would shop if she immigrated from Italy to the Bay Area, and at least I can eat mortadella sandwiches, which I've decided I love. I hope I never find out what's in mortadella because that might ruin it for me.

I'm into Gilmore Girls now

Have you ever had the experience of being sucked into a TV show despite yourself? Well it's happened to me with Gilmore Girls. I used to laugh derisively whenever I saw Michael's picture (now gone) on Hoss's sidebar, with a caption about how he and Hoss were watching the entire series on DVD. But the last laugh is his. I like to think I'm a sensitive, new-age guy. For example, I recently made a batch of brownies for my wife to take to her book club (I totally support women's literacy). But even I couldn't take Lorelai and Rory at first, when Marcy started taping reruns of season 6. All the self-conscious cuteness was just too much. Yet somehow it sucked me in, and now that we've just finished watching the season 2 finale on DVD, I'm dying to find out if Rory will dump Dean for Jess (I should say when because she is so going to dump him), and when will Luke and Lorelai finally admit that they are in love with each other?

My weekend in Utah

A few highlights from my four-day weekend in Utah:

1. French toast stuffed with cream cheese (Hoss rules the griddle).
2. Bubba Burgers (look for them in your local supermarket’s frozen food section).
3. Watching Marcy clean everyone’s clock in air hockey.
4. Listening to my grandma insist that I write a novel about her life. And her preferred pseudonym for the book is “Mrs. Gotrocks” (got-rocks). Don’t ask me where she came up with that. Oh, and the Breathsavers she started sucking on because her saliva is drying up give her really bad gas so she doesn’t go to church much anymore. Just FYI.
5. Squatting with my siblings in the park so the photographer can get a nice “head shot” of us all.
6. Three consecutive days with one-hour-plus naps.
7. Wearing shorts around for the first time in almost a year.
8. Discovering Warren’s fries and fry sauce near my parents' house.
9. A little Apple Beer.
10. Waiting at a road block while the cops, with their guns drawn, took down a Suburban full of hoods two lanes over on the way home from the airport Tuesday night, with 4th of July fireworks in the background.

Thursday is farmer’s market day

The best thing about being a professor is keeping professor’s hours.

The best thing about living in San Francisco are the farmer’s markets.

The result of these two facts is that every Thursday morning I am at the Daly City farmer’s market. I’m pretty sure I’m the only thirtysomething, unaccompanied, non-professional-chef male who has ever been to this (and maybe any) farmer’s market. So I feel a bit conspicuous when I go, but I still love it.


And I usually get a little carried away. This week I came home with:

Tomatoes
String beans, both green and white
Apricots
Nectarines
Peaches
Raspberries
Lemon cucumbers
Herbs: rosemary, dill, thyme, parsely, basil
Green onions
Snow peas
Fresh eggs

It seems weird to have a produce shopping problem.