space aliens: please form a line to the left.
We have had so many visitors the past few days. And we're past the visitors-as-helpers stage already, so we went out to be sociable, 'cause God knows we weren't going to be doing any entertaining ourselves. Sophia has been mostly agreeable, although a few times she's been a pain (not that she meant to be, it wasn't intentional, she was just being a baby).
Tuesday
Jim and Renee came to town to buy Renee a new Honda Insight, which is a gas/electric hybrid vehicle. They came down here because Honda dealerships in Northern California -- at least in the Bay Area, where everyone has a few million to spare -- a)have waiting lists of a year or more and b)are asking for and getting ridiculous premiums on top of the price of the car. Renee, who just loved the car, got on the Web, found a list of Honda dealers, and started calling.
The Honda dealership they found it at was but a hop-skip-jump type proximity to our house, so Darin, Sophia, and I went over to meet them and then have lunch with them at Zankou. Jim attempted to give Sophia the secret blue-eyed handshake, but Sophia feigned sleep. (Ha! You know I kid.) Actually, Sophia woke up and cried on the way to Zankou...although while the car was in motion she quieted down. The way her crying ratcheted up as the car slowed down and eventually stopped had Jim in hysterics.
Thursday
My sister, her husband, and her baby Madeline came for a one-night visit on the way to San Diego for a short vacation.
Me, Madeline, Sophia, and Deirdre
Madeline was here just two months ago. I was -- dare I put it this way? -- shocked at how much she's changed. She's big. Her head is huge. She's turned into a kid, even though she's not quite walking yet.
We had dinner at Buca di Beppo, which was great.
Friday
We had sushi for dinner.
That was the highlight of our day.
(I will skip the part of the day in which I tell you about the many, many times Sophia threw up on me, or screamed for no apparent reason, or was awake and cranky instead of awake or (better yet) napping. I did not leave the house until I went to pick up our dinner. Sushi made things much better with the world, believe you me.)
Saturday
Darin's friend Jim Jacobs from Highland Park came by to meet Sophia. The four of us went to brunch at the Marmalade Cafe.
Sophia had another Poop Explosion (thank goodness you can wash the seat covering of an infant car seat) and then she needed to nurse (not surprisingly, after losing a third of her body weight). So she nursed for a while...and then proceeded to shower me with a fountain of regurgitated milk. Oy. After Friday's antics, I was in no mood. After chatting with Jim (who, as you may remember, has two kids himself and knows all about baby antics), I excused myself to go lie down. Whereupon I fell comatose for three hours. It was wonderful.
Sunday
Scott Knaster and his brood of two (Jess and Devi) stopped by to meet Her Serene Highness. We went to brunch at the Daily Grill, where I talked a bit with Jess and Devi and Scott and Darin talked about a mile a minute with each other.
Deirdre, Greg, and Madeline stopped by on their way back from San Diego -- literally arriving just as Scott and Co. left -- so that they could pick up my old desk, which used to be my mother's desk and I believe is on its way back to her...or maybe Deirdre's taking it; I'm very unclear on where it's going, I just know that another piece of furniture in our house is gone, thank God. They also took our old TV, a 30-inch unit that was taking up space here and relieves them of having to buy a new one, so a good time was had by all.
Like you need me to tell you this, but...if there's a domain name you want, go get it. I looked up the domain name for my mythical production company several months ago and didn't get it, didn't think I needed to, because it's a word in a different language. (Okay, fine: it's in Gaelic.)
Checked again today: taken. About two months ago.
I am a fool.
Darin looked at me and said, Go register whatever damn domains you want so I don't hear any more about these regrets, okay?
The answer to Wednesday's question: Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke a little over a week ago, which put him into a coma. The Liberal Democratic Party evidently took 22 hours to announce this tragic occurrence. This delay, combined with the way Obuchi's successor, Yoshiro Mori, was chosen in closed-door talks, made the opposition just a wee bit upset. Politics as usual in Japan, I guess.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com