A Blurry Window (cont.)

Need to do a quick update. Nicki tells me she actually talked to a live person at the unnamed window company (after 5 tries). And they agreed to an appointment to view the window.

I do need to point out that the fog is between the window panes. It isn't there all the time but seems to appear dependent on atmospheric conditions - like beautiful days when it would be nice to watch a sunset from the comfort of our cozy living room.

A Blurry Window

This isn’t a real entry to my blog - this text and the companion photos are hopefully temporary. The pictures are only here to “share” with the company that said they were going to make an appointment to examine our potentially defective blurry front window. Maybe the next time we talk to the company they can check this blog to see exactly what we are talking about. Just click on the little photo to see a bigger version.

Cavs Game & Weekend

We finally attended an actual Cavaliers game at the "new" Quicken Arena (the "Q"). We went last Thursday evening with Judy and Steve. Our seats were in the lower level behind one of the baskets - the last row before the loge level - just above and behind us was an empty loge - which meant nobody was really sitting behind us and therefore it was a little less noisy. A "little less noisy" though doesn't mean much as the whole experience is a deluge of constant noise. The music, announcements, contests, dance teams, cheerleaders, blaring lights circling the arena, and canned "Get out of your seats" screams have taken over the game. At one point they were handing out free balloons that turned out to be extremely loud noisemakers which the youths in the seats below and to our right found very entertaining. I'm not sure how they could use the noisemakers and talk on their cellphones at the same time but they could. The show seems to be everything - the game happens somewhere beneath and despite the production. But our seats were good enough and if you block out the noise and hubbub you can enjoy the athletic event. Lebron was good but the Houston Rockets were better that night. The Cavs looked a little slow and they didn't have Larry Hughes and their 3-point shots weren't even close. They fell way behind early (17 points) and made up a lot of ground late in the game but it wasn't enough and they lost 90-81 - which ended a six-game home win streak. Tracy McGrady was Houston's star and it was fun watching him work. And Lebron does have big-time aura and now we can say we've seen it firsthand.

Our weekend has been somewhat restful which was needed after this long week. We've watched 3 movies at home - Me and You and Everyone We Know, Broken Flowers, and Bad News Bears. "Broken Flowers" was very good but a bit slow. "Bad News Bears" has fun parts but is very predictable and follows the original almost exactly. ""Me and You..." was excellent as a sort of thoughtful modern art performance piece but quirky and a bit risque in parts. But this was the sort of weekend where planting ourselves on the couch with a couple of peaceful warm dogs while winter did its thing felt just right.

We do miss kayaking. How many days until the thaw?

California Rendezvous

Our excursion to Oakland was concluded very successfully. Wednesday morning Nicki and I took a 9:00 am flight out of Cleveland, arriving in San Francisco by 11:30 that morning - uneventful non-stop flight - leaving the chill of Ohio for almost balmy California. Rented a car and arrived at Sarah’s apartment just in time to see Martin heading off to play soccer with friends. After a bit of lunch we headed off to the Oakland Baha’i Center to help Sarah and Laura clean and set up for that evening’s family dinner.

Dinner was an opportunity to meet Sergio’s brothers and sisters and their families. Lots of little kids, good conversation and good food (P.F. Chang's take-out ). Sometimes a little translation was needed but overall it was a good way for our family to meet his family. Afterwards it was back to Sarah’s place for some Christmas gift exchanging. Nicki and I stayed at Nisa and Josh’s place while we were in Oakland (they were out of town). Nisa’s family owned our house in Oberlin before they moved west - her dad was one of my many principals.

Thursday started with a brunch at the Crepevine. A few of Sarah’s friends met us there. Again good exotic breakfast food. From there we dropped Martin off and Sarah, Laura, Nicki, and I drove through San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and up Highway 1 to Stinson Beach. The typical Highway 1 experience of twisty narrow road with great views of the ocean. It was a gray windy cool day but we were on the beach enjoying the surf. Perhaps the highlight was seeing a whale carcass on the rocks being enjoyed by the seagulls. Back onto Highway 1 heading back to Oakland this time over the Richmond Bridge past San Quentin and past a flaming construction truck. We collected Martin and Sergio and had dinner at the SFO Pizzeria Bar & Grill in Jack London Square. And we ended the day with TV at Sarah’s.

Friday we began the day by putting Martin on his flight back to New York. Then the 4 of us headed for the coast starting at Half Moon Bay and driving south first to San Gregorio State Beach where Nicki and I did get out of the car despite the high winds and a bit of rain in the air and as far as Pescadero State Beach where we didn’t get out of the car because of the higher winds and heavier rain. And did I mention rain? This is where the bad weather began for us. We retraced our steps back towards Oakland with a stop at a mall to procure the girls’ massage fix. Once back at Sarah’s apartment it was some TV and leftover food and relaxing. Finally about 8:30 Sarah and Laura headed for the Oakland airport to catch Laura’s flight back to Hartford while Nicki and I let the rental’s navigation system guide us back to the San Francisco airport where we joined the throngs as most flights, including ours, were delayed due to the monsoon rains outside. Finally at 1:30 AM our flight departed. The captain warned us the first couple hours might have uncomfortable turbulence but it didn’t really happen and the only thing uncomfortable was the awful sappy movie. I couldn’t watch it even with free headphones. And at 8:30 AM we landed back in Cleveland where it was 20 degrees cooler and just as gray but not rainy. New Year’s Eve Day was spent recovering.

All in all a good but short trip. Nice to have the family together. And certainly a memorable experience. For a more complete set of photos just click here.