As Per Usual

It’s all about #1.

I was checking my texts a couple days ago, mainly for the latest war plans, and I get one from #1, who is in Jina (aka China). He expressed his “disappointment” about there being no recent blog. After I responded with “I got your disappointment right here!", I decided to look in on my Statcounter. Nothing from China, which was no surprise given their gubmint keeps a tight rein on everything. My count is up to 48,053, but that is inflated because it usually counts double.  Here’s the latest example.

That one happens to be The Wolv.  I’ll be including his street address on my next post so you can send him fan mail when he wins my Yahoo March Madness tourney.

Happy Birthday #1

March Madness

Today is Selection Sunday so check your email for an invite to my Yahoo tourney.  My girl’s school, UCSD, is in it for the first time after going D1 a few years ago, so it will be a very inviting underdog pick.

I wrapped my weekly training session earlier today, but I still have tons of energy to deliver a post.  My personable trainer accompanies me on my walk and then we get to my PT exercises. I do that by myself the rest of the week but it sure is nice to discuss NFL free agency.  Gosh, where will Aaron Rogers end up?  Maybe the Steelers should check into what Y.A. Tittle is up to. Wait, scratch that.

We had a big week socially. We went into the city this past rainy Thursday for a breakfast for The ARC San Francisco, a fantastic organization that works with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We heard inspiring stories of how ARC has changed the lives of many.  My bud #1 is on the board and his younger son is one of ARC’s clients. They have quite a waiting list, but you could help out in that regard by making a donation here. Put that boomer cash to excellent use.

https://fundraise.givesmart.com/f/3iz4/n?vid=1ibvtu

Friday night we had my high school buds TK, UK and 4M and their spouses over for dinner.  4M dug deep into his wine cellar to produce a magnum of 1974 Mirassou Cab. It was a knockout. 1974 was the year of our high school graduation. He also brought a magnum of Franck Bonville champagne and a 1999 Turley Petite Syrah. The UK gifted me a Ridge Petite Syrah, which lasted until about 9pm.  We served the recipe below.  It is tasty and very easy.  You didn’t think I was going to expend too much energy on these guys, did you? My wife used her fine baking skills to provide a relatively low-cal cheesecake.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017327-roasted-chicken-provencal

The news always has a good item for the blog, even excluding Trump.  We’ll get to him next, but I was taken aback by this recent headline. It sounds like animal cruelty to me.  I’ve mentioned my boyhood pet turtle Oscar a few times.  I never put Oscar in my pants.  He had a great life until I had to bury him in the backyard of my abode on Monastery Dr. in Latrobe, PA

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/man-found-live-turtle-hidden-pants-new-jersey-airport-rcna195942

There’s been a lot of news, as usual, about our Mountebank-in-Chief. He was at the Justice Dept. on Friday and he had vengeance on his mind.  With this guy, every day is Festivus as far as the airing of the grievances. When he’s not doing that, he’s on the White House trying to sell cars. What a clown!

With Love, DJ

The Duchess of Sussex has a new Netflix show out and I am fully on board.  I see a lot of parallels with my blog. The show’s reviews of “so awful it is almost compelling” and an “exercise in narcissism” could readily apply here.

I had a recent email exchange with my pal The Phoenix Flyboy.  He is one of the ten graced with being on the blog’s email list. He said he has made multiple efforts to report it as spam, but it just keeps showing up in his inbox. He’s just pissed because he doesn’t get enough mentions.

My sage elder brother reaches a big milestone on Monday. I’ll be calling to wish him a happy 70th birthday. We make a point of calling each other on our birthdays, carrying on the fine tradition of our father and uncle. If I forget to call, at least I have this post to let him know I was thinking about him at some point.

I’m not sure if I blog too much.  I got a reminder last night from #1 that he’d not seen any recent production when he was over for dinner.  Then I got an email plaint from JB this morning. I think the people on the email list think I blog too much, and most of the rest couldn't care less.  Then there’s outliers like #1 and JB.

I got a text yesterday from The Running Beast, brother of Wig.  Sadly, he has dropped FB, formerly our main communication vehicle. But he still makes an effort to keep me informed about important matters. He let me know JLo was pissed about all the pics of Ben and the other Jen. I feel for her.

JLo is a fashion icon, so she’d look great in this number.  I have 4M to thank for alerting me to this new creation. I think my wife would look good in it as well, but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t handle the cost.  On the up side, we’re getting all the ducting in the house replaced, so I could try to produce a knock off using the old ducting. Couture is my love language.

I just got back from my rigorous .7 mile hiking pole-assisted walk around FC neighborhood 2.  The local kids call me Mr. Sticks. I’ll be bumping it up to .8 on Monday.  I often listen to Pandora with the new ear buds my wife bought me, but today I was alone with my thoughts, a frightening miasma.

Remind me. Are tariffs on or off this week? Are we still in NATO? When the leader of the free world is both an apex predator and a clueless son of a bitch, it tends to give a person news whiplash. I should probably stick to tmz.com only. Also, all future posts will be in English as that is now our official language.

Selection Sunday is a week from tomorrow, so I’ll be sending the Yahoo Tourney invite to the usual suspects. One of the Cinderella candidates from a recent Athletic article is UCSD.  Go Tritons!!

 

We, The Incompetent

The wife and I had a fun trip to SF this past weekend.  We decided to stay at the Hilton on Kearney, a few blocks from Bix, our dining destination for the evening. We took Caltrain in from Millbrae, where the Clipper card comedy of errors began.

She needed to add value to her card, but the machine did not want to cooperate with our credit card.  Fortunately, I had a crisp Jackson in my wallet, so we thought we were on our way. When I tried to scan my senior Clipper card at the platform, it was a no-go, even though it said I had $40. Somehow, I created a new Clipper card, and it worked, but it didn’t carry my geezer discount. After we got to the hotel, I made every joke imaginable, like we need to scan the Clipper card to get into the hotel room, to get the “walk” light on the street corner etc. I will wring every last drop of humor out of a situation and then some.

We met up Friday night with four of the wife’s relatives at Bix. We had a discussion on what exactly the relation was, one being a second cousin, but another further removed. Regardless, they are all considered family, and we had a fantastic meal, including multiple appetizers and some Italian and Californian wines. I got the chicken hash, which was pretty good, but I should have been a little more adventurous. After dinner we headed over to the Comstock Saloon on Broadway.  Sazeracs were the favored drink at this seating, but DJ, the paragon of restraint, stuck with water.

Before heading back to suburbia on Saturday, we got an early lunch at House of Nanking.  They were just setting up, so we grabbed an outside table on this sunny and warm late morning. The fare did not disappoint but the dumplings could have been warmer.  That’s what happens when you show up too early and get in their way when they’re prepping.  I told our waitress that I used to come there about 30 years ago when I worked in the city.  She giggled when I added that I was old.

We decided to Uber back to the train station.  I didn’t want to climb the hill to the Muni station and was also a little wary of Clipper issues. Guess what? When I tried to scan my new card at the train station, it squawked. I finally got my senior card to work, when it hadn’t the day before.  But by that time, we missed the train and had to wait another half hour. Back in Millbrae, the wife’s car wouldn’t start. I opened the hood, waved the Clipper card around, and that fixed it.

I had failed to mention in recent posts that we had another SF trip recently.  We went to MOMA to see the Amy Sherald exhibit and her portrait of Michelle Obama. I mention this because we went to lunch at Fang afterwards, which is the newer, higher-end entry from the owner of House of Nanking. We highly recommend it.

The Eagles have refused a White House invite. I loved them when they stepped on KC’s neck, and I love them even more now. My only problem is the email I received from Elon Musk telling me I had to justify my blog.

This dress is from last night’s SAG awards.  The wife is getting one for her birthday. I want the suit below. Keep your hands off me lucky charms.

Internationally Famous

I got this blog hit recently.  Either the Hotelier told his cousin to throw me a bone or the UK is messing with me.

I saw the Hotelier recently along with his wife, whom I’ve decided to dub with the bar/blog name of Janet.  We all were invited over to #1’s house for my favorite Hallmark holiday.  I was hoping they’d be serving Mountain Mike’s heart-shaped pizza.  I love lousy pizza.  But #1 headed south with enchiladas suizas and a shrimp and grilled pineapple salad.  We rarely saw pineapple when I was a kid, and we certainly never went near the BBQ with it. I guess that is because we didn’t have a BBQ. Did I ever tell you about shoveling sidewalks or mowing the lawn with a push mower? Of course I have. OK, so in addition to Valentine’s Day, we were celebrating Janet’s retirement.  She told her boss that day that she was packing it in, right after she checked her bank account to make sure her annual bonus check had hit.

There is certainly a lot to watch on the teevee.  We’ve finished a couple SNL documentaries and the 50th anniversary special.  White Lotus season 3 debuted Sunday so we will certainly get to that. What you don’t want to get to is Apple’s The Gorge. It starts out as your standard Cold War era drama until some 1940s B horror flick monsters come out of the gorge and scale the walls.  Unfortunately, they were susceptible to high powered rifles, which allowed the story to continue. At that point we decided to go to a 30-year-old Homicide episode.  That show still holds up.

Elon remains in the news.  A lot has been made of his Oval Office show during which his kid picked his nose.  They said Trump sat there like a groveler, but he probably had crapped his diaper and couldn’t move. Elon went on a spiel about “unelected bureaucrats” running the show, without even the slightest sense of irony. And we recently learned Elon’s “lucky” 13th kid was born to a 26-year-old MAGA influencer a few months ago. She said, "I have not previously disclosed this to protect our child's privacy and safety, but in recent days it has become clear that tabloid media intends to do so, regardless of the harm it will cause." This is likely a crock of shit and she’s just pissed that Elon did not swing by with a Mountain Mike’s heart-shaped pizza.

My brother just checked in with me to see how I was doing.  He clarified that he meant physically, as not much could be for me mentally.  This type of cruel humor has been used on me since the early 1960s and is one of the reasons we rarely speak.  I told him I’d get back to him via email.  Since he’s on the blog email list, I’ll let this be my response. 

Before closing, I’d like to alert you to the fact that Meghan Markle has re-branded the rubbish she is selling from American Riviera Orchard to As Ever. She had some trademark issues with the first and now they are popping up with the second.  I get the feeling she is not wicked smart.

Eagles Win Nailbiter

That was my kind of ballgame yesterday, with the Iggles absolutely crushing any hopes the Chiefs may have had for a threepeat. It was such a snooze, albeit a delightful one, that we switched to “Season 11: The Weird Year”, the last SNL documentary episode, in the 4th quarter. It looks like MAGA did not enjoy the halftime show.  It did not exactly float my boat, but if it pissed off Trump’s followers, I’ll take it.

I wrapped up my tax return yesterday and e-filed via Turbo Tax. Elon is reviewing it as I write this. I’m happy Trump established a WH Faith Office. I just sent them an e-mail that I have faith I’ll be seeing the IRS refund I’m supposed to get.

I got nothing else going on, so I thought I’d share this pic of lonely recycling bins on Gull that were supposed to be picked up Friday. They finally showed up today. I got on my high horse and left a voice mail for Recology, as I imagine my neighbors did. I hate it when my recycling schedule gets thrown into a state of flux.

I Have Concerns

El Loco Naranjo has been up to his usual tricks, sowing chaos every time he opens his mouth. His Gaza plan is completely insane, and if you can get past the paywall, you’ll see that Mr. Pierce completely agrees with me. But Bibi seems to be on board. Today, in an early morning Truth Social screed, Trump said Palestinians would be moved to “new and modern homes”.  He somehow thinks the Arab states will pay for it, but that’s news to them. When he’s not advocating ethnic cleansing, he’s calling for 60 Minutes to be terminated or scamming Dept. of Education employees out of their buyout packages. Today was the wrong day to read the news.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a63677891/trump-gaza-ethnic-cleansing-plan-insane/

It is a cold and rainy day here in FC so my wife came up with a plan to head to beautiful downtown San Mateo for a bowl of ramen, and I am completely on board.  I’ll have to do my arduous 1/3 mile walk and stretch routine this afternoon, as long as it does not get in the way of presenting a gourmet meal this evening.

I would have had this post up a little earlier, but I got a call from my old high school pal TK. He was checking in to see how far into geezerdom I had descended, but I had good news for him. I regaled him with the tale of how I walked, swam, stretched AND did my strengthening exercises yesterday. I decided to post now since I can’t out of this chair. Oh, I kid. TK has recently transformed himself into a 200-pound beast, working closely with his trainer. I think the last time I saw 200 was the late 90’s. 

GO TK AND GO IGGLES!!