The call of the road trip

Friday's sun went down and the Oakland air turned cool. At the water's edge stood the statue of Jack London, "The Call of the Wild" author and one of my favorite writers during college. An excerpt was inscribed at its feet:

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Greetings! I hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving weekend. I spent mine in the Bay Area - logging 970 miles either driving or riding shotgun in a 2000 red VW Beetle.

We left Long Beach at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, tore ass up I-5 and reached San Jose by 1:30 p.m. We had a nice dinner, and a laid-back night of poker (yes, I was the first of five players to run out of my $5 of chips).



Friday, we drove 50 miles north to San Francisco. We used free passes to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The museum, finished only a year ago, offered exhibits on 20th century, Native American, Aboriginal and African (right) art. The crooked tower (Aren't they all, metaphorically?) was one of the highlights, offering clear views of the city:





From San Fran, we headed to Berkeley and checked out Telegraph Avenue, a strip of shops adjacent to UC-Berkeley. Berkeley is about as liberal as it gets in the United States - and Telegraph has a higher concentration of head shops than any street I saw in Amsterdam. I also checked out the legendary Rasputin Music (pictured), a record store which is a half-block from another audio landmark, Amoeba Music.

For dinner, we drove to Oakland and met a group at Yoshi's restaurant (below), which offers a unique combination of upscale Japanese food and jazz. Yoshi's is the premiere jazz spot in Oakland, and we saw Tuck and Patti. Tuck plays guitar (I think it was a hollow-body Gibson), while Patti sings. They were incredible, and Patti was the first scat singer I've heard in person. However, they played two lame covers: "Sweet Dreams" and "Time After Time." Whatever happened to "Girl from Ipanema"?



Saturday morning, we headed down Pacific Coast Highway, cruising through Big Sur and along some of the most beautiful coastline I've ever seen:





Saturday night, we stayed in Pismo Beach, a funky little community just south of San Luis Obispo. Pismo is known for its clams (pictured). While I was there, I had only barbecue, beer and Patron.

Sunday, we left Pismo and ate a late lunch in Ventura, making it back to the LBC at around 3 p.m. I survived a frantic and fun Thanksgiving weekend, and I realized how much I missed the ol' road trip.

Dorks: The Gathering

Thursday afternoon, a coworker and I drove a mile from my office to the Anaheim Convention Center for Gen Con So Cal, a huge four-day gaming convention. Everything from Warcraft to Magic: The Gathering was offered. And there were an unsettling number of grown men dressed in medieval battle gear - as Josh's photo can attest.

I scored some cool Magic schwag: a mousepad and two booster packs. I also bought a print by artist Terese Nielsen. She does a lot of green-card art in Magic. Here, she's holding one of her more familiar paintings, the running cheetah, and another titled "Eternal Witness" that I bought and she re-signed:



Here's the weekend schedule of Magic. They had a few $100 sealed-deck tourneys:



Here's another cool tournament:



They had some original Magic art that run as much as $1,000:



I sent a photographer to the Gen Con costume contest Saturday night. Once The Orange County Register publishes them online, I'll post the link.

Vacation

Here's my second and final installment of vacation pics. Check out Beaver's new tat. He and I were born on the same day and the same year:



From the Clemson-Va. Tech football game, here's my oldest brother Kenny, my 83-year-old dad and me:



Two days after the Tech game, I headed up to Charlottesville to see Virginia - the weak sister of football in my home state - beat N.C. State. Here's the Rotunda:



From Tallahassee, Fla., here's my two nieces and Mom:



And finally, one last shot from the late-night crew. I don't think any amount of red-eye reduction would've helped this photo:

From pageant winners to bone necklaces

Got back from my vacation Sunday night. Here are a few photos. Will post more later.

I ran into Miss Virginia and Miss Virginia Teen at the Clemson-Va. Tech game. We - meaning my group - had 50-yard-line seats:



I also went to Tallahassee, Fla., to see my two sisters, two nieces and bro-in-law. Here we are outside Susie and Mark's house after a walk around the neighborhood:



My last night in, I had friends over. We hung out in the basement's blue room. Jeff brought his new guitar, and we jammed most of the night:



When worlds collide: Here, Steve describes the finer points of carving a deer-bone necklace to Jen, who was kind enough to bring two pounds of Annapolis crab dip:

I feel their pain

Well, it looks like the Dems won both houses of Congress. The Senate majority hinges on Virginia's Webb-Allen battle, but Webb has an 8,000-vote advantage. No amount of Republican cheating can overcome that.

A lot of Democrats are gloating right now, but I remember 1994. I remember the pain of my party getting its butt kicked. I just hope we don't retaliate for six years of immature Republican rule. Also, as liberal as I am, we have to strike a moderate legislative agenda. We need to gradually establish some sense of social and economic justice - before we make everyone ride bicycles and wear Mao hats!

Seriously, those who believe the world will end in religious apocalypse are just waiting for a reason to polarize the nation again.

In other news:

- I got back from Florida yesterday. Had a blast, and ate way too much.

- For Halloween at my house in Marion, we had 140 trick-or-treaters in 90 minutes. My brother had to run out to get more candy before we ran out and turned off the porch light. It's reassuring to know that some neighborhoods still get overrun for Halloween.

- Planning a small get-together Saturday night in Marion. We're planning on grilling, drinking and talking a bunch of BS.

- Returning to the LBC Sunday.