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A heavy, soaking rain lumbered through the Bay Area on Saturday. Ironically, I had just pulled these two ‘cats and dogs’ Far Side panels from my desk calendar this week. They are also amazingly funny…and a tiny bit sadistic 🙂

The rain had passed by Sunday morning, leaving a brilliant blue sky devoid of pesky particulates. We ventured out to Ocean Beach, to see if there were any visible signs of the terrible oil spill in the Bay on Wednesday. On first glance, everything appeared normal, except for some understated “no swimming” signs. However, along the rocky coast, you could see the bands of oil-stained sand at the high-tide mark. Still, these patches didn’t seem to convey the true ecological damage done…and in fact people seemed to be playing on the beach as normal. There was even a family playing with their kids and building sand castles, while nearby volunteers picked up oily trash with oil-covered rubber gloves.

On a more pleasant note, we did take advantage of the sunshine and had lunch today at the Park Chalet. I tried this amazing thin pizza piled high with wild mushrooms, whole cloves of roasted garlic, and creamy goat cheese. Amazing.

Lastly, we passed several “pumpkin patches” as we crossed the city. Naturally, they are all being converted into Christmas tree lots. This lot’s transformation caught my eye in particular, because of the unfortunate pumpkins skewered atop the poles surrounding the lot. We need to return in a few weeks to see whether a snowman or Santa gets skewered next!

Sacramento is the land where the bland and the insane mingle in broad daylight.

At the same time that the Hilton lobby is blasting a shameful Muzak piano rendition of Hey Jude, there is an overweight guy standing here with baggy shorts and a snowflake-covered ski hat. It is 70 degrees outside.

Then again…nothing else is going on here!!

My all-time favorite airline word is “buckle”. My fascination dates back to the classic United on-board safety video with the reassuring blond flight attendant with the 80s hair. (She must have been horrified when United continued to show this video until about 2005…although not as horrified as the female passenger with the 80s hairspray frizz!!)

Anyhow…my favorite line has always been the instructions for the low-IQ passengers about how to release the seat belt: “Just lift the buckle.” But I’ve seen the video 100 times, and the word “buckle” always makes me smile.

Can you believe I’ve wasted precious Blogger storage space on THAT story?

Oh yes…the must-have gift of the season from the Sky Mall catalog: the TimeMug. “The world’s first and only 100% dishwasher safe, time-telling drinkware.” Available with rhinestones, FYI, for that special sweetheart gift. You can just imagine the Chinese container ships loading up with this baby!

(Although I am fascinated by the table lamp that is also a slide projector. #1 how niche a market is that? And #2 who would $250 for it?)

By the way, I think the chatty female retiree next to me is stoned. She smells like the dorm room nextdoor in college.

As I download and process the gazillion pictures we took on our European adventure, I thought I would throw out this tidbit…

Crossing the 40-year mark wasn’t the only milestone on this vacation. On the return trip (somewhere over the Canadian Northern Territories, I believe), I passed the United 1K mark for the first time. One hundred frickin‘ thousand miles in a bit over ten months. ICK.

So, what does it take to make that mark?

• Frankfurt
• Paris
• DC x 5
• Seattle x 4
• Orange County x 3
• Las Vegas x 2
• Chicago x 2
• Raleigh Durham
• Denver
• Atlanta
• Kansas City + Philadelphia
• Miami
• Boston + NYC
• Orlando
• Portland
• LA

FYI, Jeff passed the Premier Executive mark on our return trip–a first for him. Given how little he flies for business, this was truly an extraordinary (and painful) achievement.

Oh, and by the way…I’m curious if anyone can tell me why United calls its 100,000-mile mark “1K”. There must be some historical significance.