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The Livermore RodeoI pretty much hit the ground running this week. Between work and catching up with Debbi and catching up with two weeks of comic books, my week was pretty much filled. Then we got to the weekend. My friend Syd had extra tickets this weekend's Athletics/Astros series, and I took him up on the Friday night game. Syd's a long time Astros fan (he's from Houston), and is also an A's fan, and has half a set of season tickets to the A's, so, as he put it, he couldn't lose (or, more cynically, couldn't win) this weekend. The game was pretty lively. Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt struggled out of the gate, throwing nearly 40 pitches in the first inning, and the A's eventually broke through to the tune of two Terrence Long solo home runs and a few other runs. Mark Mulder looked to be entirely back from his recent injuries and dominated the game, and the A's won 5-3, though the game never really felt that close. Two interesting notes: First, A's second baseman Randy Velarde was hit on the wrist again, the same wrist he broke back on opening day, though apparently this time he just has a bruise. Poor guy, talk about rotten luck. Second, the A's managed to run themselves out of the seventh inning. With Eric Chavez at second base and Jermaine Dye at third and one out, Adam Piatt grounded into a double play. Dye was caught in a rundown on the found ball, and was out third-to-catcher-to-shortstop. Piatt apparently thought Chavez would advance to third, and ran to second base - where Chavez was still standing! So the shortstop threw to first base to double off Piatt and end the inning! A very wacky play. My estimation is that Piatt should have realized Chavez wouldn't try to advance on a rundown between third and home. But, he's young. I had a pizza and an ice cream cookie sandwich. Syd and I had a great time talking about ourselves and baseball with each other on the drive to and from the game. Plus, he got to see my house when we got back. A good evening!
 Saturday Debbi and Lisa and Michel and I drove out to the Livermore Rodeo. Okay, most of you are probably now saying, "Huh?" Well, the three of them are all into country line dancing, and indeed that's how they met (so they tell me). They also listen to the Bay Area's country music station (there's only one now, based in San Jose; the San Francisco station changed over to "world music" last fall), and well, it turns out that they enjoy rodeos. So, having never been to one, I was up for giving it a try. In some ways it reminded me of a science fiction convention: It had masses of people, many of them dressed up. There was a dealer's "room" (a strip outside the rodeo arena) where memorabilia and western-themed merchandise were sold (a lot of cowboy stuff, of course, but also a lot of southern Confederacy stuff, which rather surprised me). And it was mostly kind of informal. The rodeo itself consisted of three hours of rodeo events in the arena, and is pretty much what you'd expect: Wild horseback riding (bare-back and saddleback), wild bull riding (!), wild cow milking (!!), ladies barrel racing, and varieties of calf and cow roping. The wild animal riding was different than I'd expected: Rather than trying to stay on as long as you can, you "only" need to stay on for eight seconds, and you're graded on your form. Most of the horse riders managed to stay on, but only 3 of the 24 wild bull contestants managed to stay on for eight seconds, which Lisa says is fairly typical. It was pretty impressive actually, and especially impressive that no one seemed to get hurt! The horses and bulls who didn't want to return to their pens were also entertaining. The wild cow milking is the most ridiculous event, and maybe the most fun: A rider has to rope a wild cow, and his partner - the "mugger" - has to hold the cow down, while the horseman then comes over and milks the cow for a few seconds and then runs to the finish line. The cows aren't too happy about this, of course, resulting in some funny scrabbling around. I don't see rodeos becoming a regular thing for me, but it was pretty fun for one day.
Saturday evening Debbi and I went to Borrone where I finished reading James Morrow's Only Begotten Daughter for the Kepler's book discussion group. I was largely nonplussed by the book. Morrow's sense of humor mostly didn't work for me (other than some assorted wordplay - "It's all holy water over the damned", for instance), and I was somewhat prejudiced against a second coming story from the start (what, another one?). The story itself is strangely nonstructured: Julie Katz, born to a celibate Jewish lighthouse keeper in 1970s New Jersey, is divine, but her father wants her to keep her abilities a secret, or her enemies will destroy her. The devil - who already knows all about her - has other plans: He plans to use Julie to create a new church, which from his perspective is the best way to spread evil in the world. It's a highly irreverent story, about a woman with great powers who doesn't know how to use them. She's chastised for not living up to her potential, and strangely the "solution" to this "problem" is for her to lessen her potential, not try to fulfill it. Julie's odyssey taker her to hell, and to a fairly standard future religious dystopia. Her story arc has an unsatisfying ending, and she makes several decisions which I don't believe she'd really make. It's good for a few chuckles, but I think the story goes dreadfully wrong once Satan shows up. This could have been a charming little book, but it ends up being rather unpleasant.
We wrapped up the weekend with a bunch of errands. We went by Costco where Debbi picked up drinks for her office. I was tempted there by DVDs of the complete Monty Python's Flying Circus and the complete Prisoner, but I resisted. Then we brought her cedar chest - bought a few weeks back and sitting in my living room since then - up to her apartment, where it's now at the end of her bed, right where she wants it. It's a nice chest - I might look into getting one myself. After that we ran by Home Despot where I bought a screen door to put on my front entry. It took me a while I figure out exactly what I need to do to install it, and the net result is that I need to go buy a hacksaw anyway. But it'll be good to get it installed, since having my front door open (without allowing the cats to roam free) will really improve circulation on my first floor. Lastly, we used a hand truck I've been borrowing to lug my dwarf orange tree from my patio up to my porch, where it will both get more sunlight and clean out some space on my patio. I have remarkably few chores left to complete to have my house all set up the way I want it. Not bad, considering I've been here less than seven months!
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