The Busted Brother's side of the story

The busted brother claims he was holding those six packs for friends. The guys are twins, and they were friends with my brother in high school. My brother claims they left the beers for him to look after, and then rode away on their bicycles, never to return. Probably they could come back for them now, since they both have drivers' licenses.

Twenty Four Bottles* of Beer on the Floor

My brother apparently had a reputation as a big partier when he was in high school. While I've heard the stories, I was in college then, and I didn't witness anything first hand. These days, he rarely drinks, and it would seem that his former party days are a thing of the past.

Until earlier this week. While doing some work in the basement, my dad found 24 cans of beer in a bag on the floor of the nonfunctional and rarely entered basement bathroom. They were cans of Bud Light. With an expiration date of 1998. And they were apparently so fermented that my dad couldn't open the cans to dump them down the drain.

In 1998 my sister was a senior in high school and then a college freshman. I lived in Washington, D.C. that summer - between my junior and senior years - and I was of legal drinking age. I had parties. I'm sure my sister went to parties. Neither of us would have offended guests or hosts by bringing Bud Light anywhere. Our brother just got busted. There weren't any consequences, since it's been almost a decade, though maybe he had to haul the beer out to the trash, and we all had a laugh at his expense. And maybe next time he'll buy better beer.

*They were really cans, but that just doesn't sound as nice.

Countdown; alternately titled: Going Hiking

The kickoff meeting for Hike for Discovery isn't until Jan. 26, but when I emailed to get more information in advance of the meeting, this is what I got in return. I'm so excited!

Hello,
Thank you for inquiring about our upcoming Hike For Discovery season. An email might be an easier way to give you the Hike scoop, and of course, if you can make it to an Information Meeting, that's the best way to get your questions answered, meet the coach, etc. Here's a brief overview:

Hike For Discovery is part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. When you join the Hike team, you'll be a part of a group of about 65 people from all over the Bay Area who are training for a hike in either the Grand Canyon or Yosemite, and fundraising to help people with blood cancers. The Hike team includes people with a broad range of hike experience, from beginning hikers to back-country adventurers.

TRAINING
The team will be hiking in Marin, East Bay and San Francisco. Team hikes are on Saturdays, starting with a 1.5 hour hike and progressing to 6 hours over the season. In addition to team hikes, we'll have clinics on boot & gear selection, trail safety, and more.

You'll have a daily calendar in case you miss a hike, and you can also follow along with your own cross-training activities during the week.

EVENTS
You have a choice - Yosemite or the Grand Canyon! The Yosemite trip is June 15-17 (hike day is June 16) and the Grand Canyon is May 17-20 (hike day is May 19).
You'll choose from one of five different trails which range from flatter, rolling trails to steep, unmaintained routes - there's a trail for every hike level.
All hikes are one-day hikes, and most are 6-8 hours.

The events are capped - 32 slots for Grand Canyon and 33 for Yosemite - and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

FUNDRAISING
When you fund raise as part of Hike For Discovery, you'll receive:
* 4 months of training, with an amazing coaching staff!
* A one-year membership to the American Hiking Society.
* Airfare to AZ and three-nights hotel stay at your event in the Grand Canyon and two nights in Yosemite.
* Two event weekend dinners.
* A great way to meet new people and explore trails all over the Bay Area!

...and most importantly, you're helping our mission - to cure blood cancers and improve the lives of patients and their families. We give you lots of ideas and fundraising support throughout the season - you can even use the 'best of the best' sample letters, emails and event ideas. Plus you'll have an online fundraising page to make it easy for donors to use credit cards. We've trained hundreds of participants to be successful fundraisers - you're not alone!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

In the past two days, my sister has broken her foot (in two places, as a result of a kick sustained during a soccer game), and my brother has failed his police academy agility test. My mom's injured her leg and my dad's not getting around too well. But we're all able to be together for Christmas, and we're lucky for that.

It might be a stressful holiday this year, but it'll be a good one. Hope yours is too. Merry Christmas!

Bullet points

First, everybody needs to jump for joy: my little brother (all six feet, two inches of him) has his police department interview tonight, and his agility test on Saturday, marking the official start of his Police Academy interview process. He's waited two years for this, and it's very exciting. I hope he had time to get his suit pressed and his shoes polished.

Second, it looks like I will be going to Bodega Bay for New Year's. I decided the time spent with friends, and at the beach, was definitely worth the travel hassles and car rental. I'll probably go up the morning of Dec. 31. Perhaps I'll even do the final grocery run before I leave civilization. Plans are still in the works, but I think it'll be a blast.

I think I've finally got my Christmas shopping in order. Sometime around 9 pm yesterday the excitement of traveling for the holiday and visiting my family kicked in, just as I was folding the last of the clean laundry. Now my packing is almost finished and tomorrow I leave for NY. Yay!

A dilemma; alternately titled: Possibly too popular for my own good

In chatting with a friend about her plans for New Year's Eve, I got a verbal invitation to her weekend bash with friends in Bodega Bay. I'd had a little too much to drink that night, and, believing she had too, I figured she wasn't serious. I'll only be returning to San Francisco on the 29th, and I thought I'd see my favorite band and hang out with some friends in the city on New Year's Eve.

This afternoon I got an email from the person organizing the house, also a friend, with directions and a note about how great it is that I can come. So now what do I do? I have commitments in the city on Dec. 30, but could rent a car a drive up that night or the next morning, and stay the night of the 31st. But I know my trip to NY isn't going to be easy, and I don't know if I want to be so surrounded by people so soon after crossing the country.

What would you do?

Unescorted shopping spree

My Visa card went Christmas shopping on Saturday at K-Mart. In Louisiana. Without me. How my Visa card got to Louisiana remains a mystery. What's very certain is that I did not go to Louisiana this weekend, leaving Visa fraud protection and myself pretty sure that my card has been frauded. I still have my card, so it would seem that somebody's using a duplicate card with my name on it and my credit card number.

I've already been through an identity theft scare once this year, so I knew what to do, and within about 30 minutes I'd put a fraud alert on my credit report and called all the credit card companies. I need to look into whether or not I should file a police report, and I want to call the Social Security Administration, just to find out if there's any sort of alert that should be attached to my social security number.

But this card is my REI Visa, and any purchases I make with it are credited to my REI membership. Because REI is a cooperative, as a member I get a share of their dividends each year, determined by how much I spend at the store and charge on the card. So then I had to call REI to make sure my membership wasn't in jeopardy. It's not - at least not at this point - and they made me feel pretty secure that I won't lose my dividend.

So my mind is at ease. But if you run into somebody using a card with my name on it, please chase him/her down and beat him/her until the cops come. Because this really makes me mad. And K-Mart? That's totally ruining my reputation.

Vicarious living

My employer held its annual holiday party yesterday, a luncheon at a Chinese restaurant overlooking the Bay. The view was spectacular and the food was awesome, but the immediate seating and splitting the group over two rooms led to a feeling of being trapped and stuck with a table full of people I'd rather not have joined for lunch.

The office closed at noon, so after lunch, three coworkers and I went for a drink. The Budda is a scary bar in Chinatown, but we had an enjoyable half hour. Then they went shopping and I went to get new glasses. Very boring.

You can read about a way better holiday celebration here

Live vicariously, unless you can top that tale.

There's no crying in baseball, unless your teammate is stabbing a needle full of steroids into your ass

George Mitchell's report on doping in baseball was released to great fanfare yesterday, but I'm not sure this $60 million venture did more than point out what the country already knew was a problem: our athletes - both first class ones who could break records without any help - and the second string ones who probably won't be outstanding in their sports - are using performance-enhancing drugs at an alarming rate.

The problem is not confined to baseball, but has proven rampant in professional sports. And while it's nice to know there's a problem, I haven't seen anyone offering a solution. Other professional sports test for drugs, and I think it's time for Bud Selig, or his replacement if this report is indeed signaling the end of his career, to call for mandatory, random drug testing in each dugout in the American and National leagues, and in every AA and AAA franchise in the nation. I'd also like to see a public education campaign aimed at high school athletes highlighting the serious dangers of steroid and other drug use, but I'm realistic.

We've seen the continued impact of this problem with every athlete who sustains a season or career-ending injury; every athlete whose temper tantrums result in injury to other players and coaches; and every athlete, trainer, and dealer who is either in jail or enmeshed in the judicial process over doping allegations. It's time for baseball to take a stand. But unless they're serious from Selig down to every batboy, consequences won't have any meaning.

Officially promoted

I got the offer letter today, signed and returned it, and did a little dance of joy in my cubicle. Tomorrow, the monthly HR announcement about promotions and departures is distributed, and I'll be in it. Horray!

A little less frustration

Thanks to Brian for putting last week's job frustrations into perspective. I'm happy to say there's been a verbal offer, and a handshake in agreement. Still no official paperwork, but my promotion will be retroactive to Dec. 1, which means I'm already doing some of the new job (yay!), still doing the old job (not so much yay!) and expecting a huge paycheck at the end of the month.

And the coolest part? My boss wants me to be the supervisor for the person we hire for my original job. That might give HR a heart attack, as none of that was in the job description we posted, but no worries. We'll figure it out and I'll get it officially sometime around Groundhog's Day.

Car Envy; alternately titled: Popsicle. In a hat.

In the two years since I sold my car, it's rare to have a moment of sheer envy for the car driving residents of this city. They have to hassle with minimal parking, high car theft rates, and $3-plus gasoline.

Waiting for the bus on a recent night, however, I had my first real moment of car envy. I was standing outside my apartment building waiting for the 43, which usually runs every 10 or 15 minutes. I didn't have to travel far, but the huge hill between my home and my destination is not easily walkable. Especially at night; a night so cold there were frost warnings at sea level. I stood outside the building, bundled in a wool hat, warm scarf, fuzzy gloves, and my rarely-worn wool pea coat. I chatted with neighbors going in and out of the building, and I waited. For half an hour. My toes were getting numb and my fingers were starting to tingle.

Several other buses came by, taunting me on their way to the garage, appearing to be following my long-delayed bus' route, only to turn cruelly into the bus yard a block from my apartment.

At the moment I was about to give up on ever getting to the party, two buses rolled down the hill, one right after the other. I got on the first one, and about 10 minutes later was at my destination.

Please Stay Back 500 Feet

I left friends after dinner on Friday night and went to the bus stop. I was less than a mile from home, but it was late and cold, and these friends don't like that I walk about my neighborhood, alone, at night.

After about 7 minutes, the bus came. I was four stops from home, and we proceeded through two stops quickly and without incident. Then we crossed Divisadero St. I was four blocks from home. The bus pulled into the stop, picked up a few passengers, started rolling backward (as the buses do from time to time as they are pulling out of a bus stop), and hit a Mercedes that was parked behind the bus.

The driver got out, talked to the witness, examined the car, and finally found the driver, though where she'd been among all the closed restaurants at 10 pm I wasn't certain. The owner got on the phone, the bus driver called MUNI headquarters, and I got off the bus.

I walked up the hill, turned onto my street, and was half a block from home when I saw the bus, driving the last little way towards the garage.

Next time, I'll just walk.

Frustration

My job interview was close to a month ago, and I am still without an offer letter. I am seriously overworked, working well outside the bounds of my current job description, and underpaid, and I'm starting to get more than a little frustrated. The good news is that my boss met with HR this afternoon, so maybe that letter will be in the mail (or whatever) before Christmas. In the meantime, I think a work slowdown is in order. Any thoughts on how to spend my time?

There's no snow in Tahoe

For months now, I've been looking forward to a weekend of cross country ski lessons that I signed up for through the university. The plan was to leave Friday evening, learn to ski on Saturday, put those skills to use on Sunday, and come home sore but successful.

I had several reasons for doing this: it's trip for beginners, and I want to learn to ski; it's a cross country skiing weekend, and I'll never be able to downhill (nor would I want to ever ride downhill on anything without brakes), but this seems much safer - almost like hiking in the snow; I'd have had a nice weekend in the woods; and I really want to make new friends, and what better way to do it than through a weekend away? I'd also like to see Tahoe, and my last trip was cancelled due to wildfires.

The trip is next weekend, but there's no snow on the mountains in Tahoe. No snow at all.



See, no snow. No skiing for me. This is very sad.