Not how I expected to spend my Friday night, but still entertaining nonetheless.

Liza and I spent the evening playing together as Kate and Mike went to see Sin City. Mike had been wanting to see it for a while now, talking about it, complaining that he wouldn't get to see it for a long while because of various circumstances.

So, I offered to watch Liza while they went out for the evening.

Liza's 2 years, 10 months. At this point, she has a personality. The great thing is that it's a pretty wonderful personality. When she laughs, oh my, the room and the world light up. When she giggles, oh, you have to giggle, too. It's great. She's great.

I'm sure if she were my child, however, I'd be less enamoured with her. But for now, heh, since I can give her back, she's still magical.

At nearly 3, Liza is fascinating to me. I find watching her and learning her interpretation of the world to be entertaining. For example, at some point in the evening, she wanted to wash the dishes. Well, okay, not something I would put on the top of my Friday night list, but sure. So, she found the scrubby pad for me, and "washed" the dishes with me. Her version of washing dishes is to stick her hands in the water, and thrash them around. After that, the dishes are magically clean!

Throughout the evening, we also played checkers (which involved stacking the checkers then knocking over the stack), hid under the covers, read Stray Dog at least 10 times, built a cushion house, and played with her blocks (twice!).

She was so funny with her blocks. She would take an 8 block, and put 8 one blocks on it, then another 8 block, then another 8 one blocks. She repeated this until she ran out of 8 blocks. Of course, at that point, she was bored. But when I asked if she would help me clean up, she did so without hesitation. I certainly didn't do that when I was young.

She currently has a way of using, "Sure!" instead of yes when answering in the affirmative. I'm not sure she knows the difference between "Sure!" and "Yes." but her use is terribly cute.

So, we went to see Mark and Megan perform in the Mikado.

The show was in downtown San Jose, where I had worked when I worked with Bharat and Jamie at Fusion One. I didn't work particarly long at f1, but I worked as long as I could,Given my lack of interest in the product and hesitaation with the company buyout of Sinia.

We were suppose to meet up with Keith and Katie and carpool to dinner with them, but we arrived at K & K's place too late. So off to the show we went, Kris driving. Tragically, we didn't know where we were going for dinner. I called up Katie, but she didn't know either. So, they promised to call when they arrived.

Turns out, where we went was a familiar lunch spot for me when I worked at F1 - the House of Siam on Market (there being two locations, the other being the VA Software Thursday night drink night dinner location). Even Kris recognized the place.

After dinner, off to the show. It was done in the original format - the choreography and music of the forst opening show. It was so poorly received the first time it opened that it immediately closed and was rewritten and re-choreographed to be shorter and, presumably more entertaining.

This production was 3 hours long and, well, I'm glad Mark and Megan were in the show so that I had something to focus on.

Yay, Mark and Megan!

Many studies have been published recently that show pets are good for their owners health. People who had to speak in public, for example, had less (dis-)stress if they were able to stroke their pets before speaking. Pet owners have lower blood pressure overall. Blah blah blah.

This kind of calming effect is, however, seen only when there is both an affinity for the type of animal, and some sort of positive bond between the pet and the owner. This bond is most typically seen when the owner chooses the pet, instead of having it foisted upon him (say in the case of marriage or other live-in relationship).

Well known is my struggle with Kris' dogs.

Oh, so now they're Kris' dogs, eh?

Well, for this moment, yes.

I'm not a dog person. I'm a cat person. I like cats. Cats are cute. They're cuddly. They're quiet. Except for their litter boxes and their butts, they smell good. They're small. In every way they are superior to dogs.

However, Kris is a dog person. And this round (this round!), Kris chose the pet. We have dogs. And they annoy me. They hover around me whenever I'm in the kitchen. They never quite beg, but they definite whine for food when Kris isn't looking. They vomit on the floor. They pee in the bed. Yes, that's right, our dogs pee in the bed. And the scrounging. Argh!

So, best to make the most of the situation, right?

I've recently trained Annie to dash out of her crate, spin a circle and dash back into her crate before she gets her food. Her dashing is hysterical. She surprised me by running around me this evening. Oh, so entertaining.

Better yet, while making my smoothie today, I offered Bella the yogurt container. She was far too tentative about the container, so I offered it to Annie. When she, too, was too dainty with the container, I shoved it onto her nose.

  

Ah, much more entertaining.

Me:  "How are you doing in the standings?"

Kris: "I dropped to eighth. But today is the first full games of day."

*pause*

Me:  "Uh huh."

Last Wednesday, when working out at ASA, G came up to say hello and visit with me. Kris and I haven't seen him in forever (also known as two months), so it was great to see him. He's been working overtime at Cabrillo, and had to cut back on time at ASA. Sucks big time for us. But things have been going well for him. He has a potential job offer as a head coach, one where he can actually play, too. How cool is that?

I asked him about Pat Frost, too. Pat was one of the other trainers at ASA. He was working at ASA while he was training for spring training. Pat had a walk-on tryout with Kansas City as a pitcher.

Well, it turns out he pitched really well, and landed a contract. He goes out in spring training to pitch his first game ("all excited like," says Kris). Throws a pitch, and *ow* he tweaked his shoulder. The doctors looked at his shoulder and, yep, sure enough, tore his rotator cuff.

Boo.

The good thing is that he had a contract, so his medical expenses are covered. The bad thing, it's his rotator cuff. So, Pat's back in the Bay Area.

So, anyone who knows me knows that I don't drink caffeinated beverages. Nor do I typically drink carbonated beverages. The former is because I was told caffeine can trigger migraines, the latter because I was told the phosphor in carbonated drinks contributes to osteoporosis.

This second connection is actually dubious. The original observation was that women in recent generations have more osteoporosis than older generations, and, hey, they drink more sodas, so there must be a connection, a link between the rise in soda consumption and the rise in osteoporosis. The first theory that developed was that the phosphor in the soda was leeching the calcium from the bones, causing the osteoporosis increase.

The link, however, is that the increase in soda consumption resulted in a decrease of milk consumption, and therefore a decrease in calcium consumption. This decrease in calcium consumption meant less calcium in the bones of the latest generation of women (and men, actually), and hence an increase in osteoporosis.

There are probably a larger number of factors, such as reduced sunlight exposure (vitamin D!), increased toxin consumption, less weight bearing exercise and the other factors we don't know about, but the one I kept with me (quite irrationally) is the phospor in carbonated beverages can cause oestoporosis, so don't drink it!

So much did that stick with me, that ten years later I actually recall an otherwise unremarkable hike with Hester Bell. Hester and I were hiking in the San Gabriel mountains, on a hike similar to hikes where the idea for Amerigon was fostered by Lon Bell. I very much enjoyed spending time with Hester. Lon, on the other hand, intimidated the hell out of me.

And I still don't drink many sodas. I will on occasion, however. Take last week, for example. Kris was at work until after 4:00 am. I stayed up as best I could waiting for him. The next day, I was tired. So tired. So, at lunch, I had my first full Coke in years. Yes, years. Not just a sip from Kris's cup. Not a shared Coke. A full Coke.

Caffeine and all.