cranky penguin

Yes .. it’s been awhile. Way over a month. There are reasons for this.

I’m pretty sure no one reads my blog from work these days, so I think this
post is safe. If that’s *not* the case, then .. oops. I may need to beg my wife
for temporary health insurance. I’m pretty sure that’s the biggest risk.

Aaaaaanyway .. for reasons that have been well documented and lamented to people
in the know (and if you’d *like* to be one of those people .. email or call me.
I’m happy to reenact with stick figures or emoticons if you are far flung)
I was put in the scary position of making forays into the job world. It was scary.
It brought up all my weird insecurities about not being techie enough and generally
made me a SMASHINGLY AWESOME person for my family to be around.

The long version of the short story is ..

- I interviewed at some cool places.
- They made me do math.
- They made me do puzzles.
- I was looked at coooly and assessed over rustling papers by various people.
Some of whom are younger and CEOs.
- I studied .. STUDIED .. crammed as much computer science theory as I could into
my tiny pin-head .. and also was never asked any questions related to anything
I specifically studied .. (O Cour).

And now I’ve accepted a new job at a really frickin cool place. I’m excited and happy
and nervous. On Monday, I’ll resign and there are people here I will really miss
a lot .. but them’s the breaks.

This experience has taught me a lot about self-confidence and my ability to WORRY about
the ridiculous. Seriously. Today I’ve spent way too much time wondering about whether
or not the Fruitvale Bike Station will fill to its 200 bike capacity. Way too much time
until I actually *called*. And was told .. ‘Uh. No. Never.’

Yay for Me !

It’s our one-year wedding anniversary. All of my parts remain intact.

I’m still shaking my head at how lucky I was to find and keep that amazing person.

I am also still occasionlly surprised that the person I ended up with is her. Sometimes
I will randomly think about her in some prior context, like my roommate Wendy’s hot
best friend .. or my cool single mom neighbor who leaves witty comments on my blog.
And then I think .. “HEY ! That’s my Wife ! ” It’s quite tickling ..

Yay for us ! One year .. 49 more till the presidential certificate !

Life is progressing merrily along. I am a little stunned it’s almost fall.

Tennis as far as seasons go has ended. The last tournament was the O’hana,
which was only doubles, only lesbos (well, mostly) and tons of fun. It’s nice
to see everyone playing happily together, well, except for me and my petulant
moments. My two teammates T-Bone and D (nickname pending) won their division, basically
by kicking serious butt. But we all had fun. I’m taking a break this week because of hurty body parts (knee, ankle).
WebMD says I’m a big baby and I only need to see a doctor if bones are protuding.
Or I have a fever.

The puppy is getting quite large. She’s a good girl though .. adjusting very well to
her crate, figuring out how not to jump on people and chew stuff. Biscut still remains pretty
skeptical, but I saw them curled up together yesterday, so I think he’s accepted his lot as
Big Doggy Bro.

Giant Puppy Invades Kitchen

lucy

Originally uploaded by duckus.dilecti

Some lady found me next the duckus house. She thought I belonged to them.

She brought me to their door wherein they have decided to ‘foster’ me.

See, the thing is, I am so very charming and sweet and adorable it is becoming less and less likely some other family will be allowed to take me.

Really, it’s the tall one (relatively) with the black glasses that appears to be the easiest to win over. The beagle is a little skeptical, but I’m sure with time he will succumb to my charms.

Did I scare you all ?  Did I just give my mom a heart attack ?  Because it would be just like me to announce something major like a pregnancy on a blog.  HA HA !

Our Friends D. and K.
The Park Baby Has Arrived

Cracks me up he has tagged that post with things like ‘genitals’ and ‘nude’. A Nude Baby. For some reason, I find that really amusing.

Anyway .. that baby brings a RIDICULOUS amount of cute to a couple that was already brimming way too much with it. And he’s already cost *ME* five dollars since I bet the Wife he’d be a girl.

Yay !

This weekend was the Lesbian Tennis Throwdown of the Century. The two GLTF queer teams met to
determine who REIGNED SUPREME in the cutthroat world of Northern California East Bay Combo (3.0/3.5)
GAY LADY TENNIS.

My team (Sweet Spots) versus the Other Team (Lean and Mean). My partner and I played the eponymous
#1 team .. and well. We got one game. It was rather humbling. But fun .. Humbling and Fun. Plus afterwards
there was beer and cookies. And one girl who had a high QTBD (queerness to be determined) factor and had
ALL those girls in a tizzy (she was a little bit femme-fancy). Because she was going to be someone’s ROOMMATE
(whoa!) but she didn’t look gay ?! Somebody had to be tasked with *detective* work !

One game in particular was especially amusing. I was heading toward the net to pick up a ball, then I looked
up at my posse and they were all wearing .. SHARI-MASKS ! WOO HOO ! It was .. hilarious. And reminded
me once again that I have some cool peeps. Although it was a mite disturbing afterwards to come
face to faces (heh) with several images of yourself. Especially on six year old legs.

In other news, I just dropped the little one off at Circus camp. She really is very adorable. And patient
with her always lost mom. After I made her walk several miles before we finally found the place, we are
signing ourselves in .. putting our things in our cubicle .. then she looks up at me with her big eyes and
whispers .. “what do we do now?” It was very cute. We got ourselves changed and I took her to the big
floor where she was excited to find both a SMALL and a HUGE trampoline .. she gave me a big smile and a
little wave and she was off to the exciting world of Bela Karoly and his Little Girls Dancing.

I, on the other hand, managed to get totally lost on my walk back to my car. Stupid Emeryville. Not only
do they have train tracks running through the middle, they also have things like High Schools and Condos and
Large Giantic BioTech companies that you have to trek AROUND to get to where you want to go because
you missed that *one* tiny alley that will take you straight through (the one with no sign that is not on any
map anywhere). Oh well. And then when I got to work .. I realized I left my lunch on top of my car and
it’s now sitting quietly in my driveway, probably being stared at by non-plussed cats.

Happy Monday !

I know .. I know .. it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. So long that I’ve actually
seen ‘UP’ again.

We took a nice little vaycay out to the Arizona desert. Looks like a lovely place to
retire. Contrary to my initial belief, I did not melt in the heat of the sun. It was
actually quite comfortable, but that may have been due to the seven pools we were constantly
dipping ourselves in.

I also drove a boat. While terrified I was going to get us all killed. Thankfully it was
only for a few minutes.

Had my first golf lesson. Was WAAAAY FUN! I like the golf. I got to use ‘Big Bertha’. Which I
now know is a driver. Maybe my gayness gives me natural golf talents.

I also won a singles match for our tennis team. YAY ! That was fun. Against a hostile crowd even!
Okay. Well not really hostile, but about four people standing behind me cheering on my opponent.
My teammates were considering going over to watch, but they were afraid it would mess me up. Our
team won our overall match as well (our first win of the season .. which was also the last match of
the season). Next up, doubles. My current favorite candidate for our team name: ‘Victorious Secret’.

In other news, looks like it’s going to be a slammin’ 4th. We have my charming niece E for a sleepover.
I hung out with her and Little P on Sunday and was told by both of them in no uncertain terms that
they were to have 100 sleepovers. The number got progressively larger .. I think eventually it became
100 million zillion. So yeah, I’m not one to miss a hint. There’s going to be crafting and socializing
during the day and a jaunt over to a park to watch fireworks in the early evening.

I don’t know if my movie tastes are skewed now because I only see kids movies, but UP was a damn good movie.
We saw it yesterday and it was awesome. The Little One liked it but she didn’t like ‘the bully’, and I did
think the villain was especially ‘villainy’ toward the kid.

And I should have brought kleenex. Then again, I also teared up during the short before. I told by co-peep
about this and he said .. ‘yeah, you sound like you were in a mood. A hockey game probably would have made
you cry.’ It was TOUCHING THOUGH !!!

What else? Weekend was good .. played some tennis .. had some very nice family time. Lost a 10 minute baseball
game to the big girl 4-1 or something .. she’s a gap hitter, I’m more a POWER girl .. She is Joe Morgan to my
.. (yeesh, I can’t think of any sluggers I actually like) .. how about Adam Dunn? For the record, this was NOT
on the WII (where she beats me with Harlem Globetrotter like regularity), but in real life.. with a styro bat and
a tennis ball.

Oh .. and Note to Google Maps .. You are so not helpful sometimes. Why do you tell me about Fire Trails? Don’t
you know that fire trails are mostly closed to cars? Fire trails are for FIRE TRUCKS ! Especially when my
destination was very simple to get to just another two exits away. I of course found this out with no help
from you. Thank goodness for the ladies at the El Cerrito Valero who put me in the right direction.

Google Maps = Dead. To. Me.

Well. I’m sad about yesterday’s decision. I favor a protest T-shirt that says: ‘Married-ish’.
I was hoping those ‘activist’ judges would rule in our favor, but this shiznit is far from over.
I suppose I could give this just a bit more mental energy, but I’m tired of feeling yucky/bitter/angry.
Let’s just reinitialize this effer and change it to how it’s supposed to be.

I still hope for two things at the Federal level, marriage benefits for all (though it will probably be
civil unions before anything else) and repeal of the ridiculous DADT.

Regardless .. I had a stellar four days off, including one solo day with the Little One. That kid is hilarious.
Yesterday morning as C was taking her to school, she told her she had a ‘date’ later. That ‘date’ was
with me. We went to Applebee’s where we were both shocked .. SHOCKED .. to discover an older gentleman ordering
the kids’ mac and cheese ! Seriously. There were wide-eyes all around.

This last weekend was one of our many anniversaries. Memorial Day weekend two years ago, we commenced with
the reeeeeeermantic part of our relationship. WOO HOO ! Also, it’s good to have about twelve zillion anniversaries ..
okay .. three ..

I would like to wish all da momz out there a belated Happy Mother’s Day. Moms are cool.
Especially mine. And also the one I’m married to.

Who, I’ve realized my mom likes better than me. She actually asked to talk to her ! On the phone !
I mean, believe me, I am *fully* aware of the little ball of charm that is my wife, but
still, I was a mite surprised. I like it though. I’m a big fan.

Speaking of little balls of charm .. I was quite happy to have The Little Lady curled up next
to me while I caught up on an old episode of ‘Lost’. It made me think, Gosh, if I had just started
watching this show I would be … that’s right .. TOTALLY LOST ! Thank you .. thankyaverrymuch.
It’s a good thing she napped through it.

Seriously. My understanding of time travel is of a Back-To-The-Future level at best. All of the
multiple attempts to explain (’..This is your present ..’) just made my head spin a little. I mean ..
I thought you couldn’t change the past ! Except for this one major thing that will cause everything
else not to happen ! GADS ! I fell asleep with a headache.