Weddings and Water

Living out of a rolling suitcase on a thirty-something foot fishing boat (big time thanks Matt and CONGRATULATIONS Sherry on the new family edition*) berthed in the Oakland 'Marina Cove' marina, suffering from an attempt-at-dancing injury last Thursday night while out on the town for Pete's 'last night on the town as a single guy' night, cutting a rug with MT at the Silver Cloud in San Francisco's Marina district and this pretty monster storm is blowing through and its damn cold. The head onshore at the top of what now seems like a long ramp seems really far away, and I can barely even walk. My knee just popped out, all of a sudden-like - sideways - and now I'm on the Disabled List or the 'DL', like those guys in the majors, awaiting proper treatment when I get back to Buenos Aires.**

But I'm wireless on the boat, works going well... and the catalyst that sparked this trip home to California was this monumental wedding - Peter Kruse and Blair Campbell are now MARRIED! And OMG... what a wedding it was. Not only was it a great party with all of my closest friends in beautiful San Francisco settings - The Swedenborg church Hotel along the cable car tracks, with a view across all of and then The University Club at 800 Powell Street at the corner of California on the side of Nob Hill, right below the FairmontSF's majestic skyline (pics soon) - but it was a great union between these two lives, crossing at this point and merging together.

Danny got the squirrel story wrong but it worked anyways, causing a low-level stir that began as a whisper, then rising to a hum across the room as the wedding-revelers dining gracefully at the lovely candle-lit white tables began turning towards one another with expressions of morbid curiosity and 'oh no... this must be a joke. He didn't really do that'. No joke people. We ate squirrel catchatoire down there in Cambria California at Matt's b-party. It was good, just perhaps a wee bit 'rabbity'.

Cal Santos wasn't even the drunk guy, it was Disco Bisket's guy from Ireland with the gay dentist downtown with all the broadway musical posters in his office. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even the Shelves. Keith and Mandy hung tight, Fortner and Kimber looked bright and even Dukes and Harper stayed on throughout the night. Pato and I ended up with the latest of the late crowd at the Bamboodha Lounge, where my camera finally died. Pato tried and he tried (even told a couple of girls that I worked for the LA Times) but we finally gave up (last call) and off to the East Bay we did fly.

Now Pete and Blair are in Croatia. SUERTE!

* Sherry gave birth to her second baby girl this morning around 3:30am and all sounded well. Super Dave got called off the Res Ipsa next door to watch Violet Honeysuckle, their first daughter, while Sherry and Matt were down at the hospital.

** From what I've gathered up to this point, there's a one-two week period that patients wait through for the swelling to go down before any medical treatment is performed. If I had health insurance I'd go see a doctor. I was investigating different private health care options in Argentina before I left and was getting ready to sign up and I came back to CA. And in the USofA, helth care is fucking expensive, even if you have a good plan at your job.

*** Thanks to EVERYONE (yes Pato, you too) for all the helping hands since I've been back visiting California.

Coastline Design

sigh...

Epic Poker, Epic Spot, Epic Weekend

That's PTK on the right, with the beard. He's getting married in less than two weeks! One of my closest and dearest friends, he also hunts and eats arboreal, bushy-tailed rodents of the genus Sciurus, of the family Sciuridae - aka SQUIRRELS (best diet in the forrest - nuts and berries)! Go Pete GO and CONGRATS!! Super stoked I could make it up from BsAs for the festivities.

Overview of Tomales Bay, NorCal

Beautiful country indeed - Tomales Bay

Ken Shelf

Ken didn't like his last name and wanted to change it to something more... utilitarian, so he picked 'Shelf'. This picture was taken up on the CA coast at Dillion Beach near Tomales Bay, CA. Visit www.theshelves.com for more.

Carla in San Jose

I'm hot, I'm 22 and I'm Brazilian... ta bien?

El Farolito, San Francisco's Mission District

Some of the best Mexican food in the world is made in California... NOT Mexico and CERTAINLY not Argentina. Que viva carne asada burritos!

Ride the Whirlwind

It’s 1am - Buenos Aires - and I haven’t even started to pack. Since my Argentine visa expired a few months ago and I need to travel back to CA for PTK’s and BC’s wedding, I decide I need to be at the BUE airport early to deal with the immigration officials to ensure a successful departure out of the country… better leave at 4am for a 7am flight.

After a $50AR ($17USD) fine at the airport for the expired visa (sin problemas), more than twenty hours of flying on three seperate flights through Lima and then San Salvador (first time flying into Salvador after sixteen years), I finally make it back to my home state of California, just in time for a super carne asada burrito at El Farolito in the Mission and a Bohemia beer with Cal Santos, who graciously met me at SFO, not only providing a couch to crash on but an entire room to disengage from the whirl.

Then there was one full day to debrief, fight off jet lag and then a good twelve hours of sleep before it was back it – up at 5:30am to catch a 6:20am train to San Jose, just over an hour south of San Francisco for non-stop meetings both day and night with other team mates from across the country. Then a Friday afternoon run back up to SF in hellacious Friday afternoon traffic, on to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and then over to West Oakland where DM was waiting in the BMW Z3, up to Pato’s place in Berkeley, hop into the Jag and on up to Dillon Beach on the California coast at Tamales Bay just an hour north of SF. What an amazing place - the northern California coast - like no other place on earth.

But enough about me… here’s some recent pics.

Bush is Back in Latin America

GW is heading south again but won't make Argentina one of his stops after his last visit in November of 2005 when Argentines took to the streets in protest and burned McDonalds and the Bank of Boston. Or perhaps the Bush twins made such a scene when they came here to celebrate their 25th birthdays - for two full weeks - that he's not too eager to return.

Check out this article on his jorney south, quoting the President saying "The working poor of Latin America need change, and the United States of America is committed to that change." Really?

The article also mentions Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, "a fiery leftist who recently called Bush the "king of liars," [will] also will be on the road. He'll host an anti-Bush rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday in advance of Bush's stop in neighboring Uruguay." Can't believe I'm gonna miss this one!

Bummer in the Bombonera for Boca Jrs.

Got up late, threw on some clothes and cruised down to La Boca with Luis to get tix for todays futbol match against arch rivals San Lorenzo. We found two entradas for $35AR each on the street, bought some Boca fanwear - gifts for friends back home - and sat down at the street parilla on Almirante Brown, the one set against the open fields in front of the stadium just down from the Casa Amarilla and macked downn on vacio (tri tip) sandwhiches. DAMN they were good!

This was my third Boca Jrs. match and I finally made it to the bara brava or La 12 or La Hinchada de La Boca, the hard-core Boca Jrs. fan base inside La Bombonera. Despite the riot cops scatterd everywhere, it was pretty tranquilo. I only saw one guy get robbed, no beatings, a few people nearly trampled when everyone is forced to jump, got pushed by the same riot cops with the batons on the way out, pero mas o menos todo bien.

Unfortunately, Boca got slaughtered 3-0 and it was painful to watch. Afterwards, we saw a gringo walking with a couple of friends amidst the throngs of people escaping La Boca get jacked by three dudes passing in the opposite direction. One guy grabed him around the neck and pulled him to the ground while the other two tried to strip his pockets of thier contents as his friends stood by watching, stuned. Just as I was about to run over to help, he struggled free, got up and they just looked around and walked away, with nothing.

We hit El Rincon Salteño for a couple of beers, a chori, grilled provoleta and some excellent french fries. Que dia!