Hope and Expect, Two Times

I saw two of the old Oregon cohort over the weekend:

1. Out of the blue, my homie Zapata called up Friday and informed me that he was in Santa Cruz. The missus and he and I went out to 99 Bottles and had delicious beer-battered onion rings, beer, and catching-up. I was delighted to see that he's forging ahead accumulating tattoos as the same rate as I did when I could afford it and that his PHD program in Minnesota looks promising.
   
2. A premeditated visit from my homie she-should-have-a-blog-by-now L went off without a hitch yesterday. I whipped up some curry and we drank vino and verbally walked through solving all the world's problems.

It was also my father in-law's 60th this weekend, so we went to Golden Gate Park and rocked the paddle boats around one of the little lakes. There were turtles and baby duckies galore. Then we had a delicious picnic on the side of the lake, featuring tiny little wine bottles (my father in-law is no slouch when it comes to picnicing accoutrements.) Then we rolled back to Novato and spent an enjoyable afternoon rocking the croquet, eating the salmon, and watching Little Miss Sunshine. Hot damn is that a great movie ("You have taken a vow of silence because of Friedrich Nietzsche?")

And with that, I had better get my ass in gear to get to work. Power to the people.