Today in My History

2000:  It's a Small World After All
2001:  Blue Christmas
2002:  Well, It's About Time
2003:  Egg Nog Gala
2004:  Here We Come a-Wassailing
2005:  How the Grinch Found Christmas
2006:  It's Better to Give
2007:  Pals
2008:  Will It Always Be Like This?
2009:  Here We Come A-Caroling

BITTER HACK
A Christmas Carol

Books Read in 2010
 Updated: 12/7
"Tripwire"

Recipes for Cousins Day Drinks
(updated 3/17/10)

Tug of War from Bev Sykes on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving 2010

Following my friend Jim's example, I'll put in this brief introduction for people who might stumble over this jounal on Holidailies. 

I'm a middle-aged (if I plan to live to 134)   grandmother, retired from full time work, though working as a part-time theatre critic.  I foster dogs (usually puppies) for the SPCA and many of my entries end up being about dogs and/or puppy poop.  Walt and I raised five children and buried two of them.  Our remaining three are married to three fabulous spouses, all of whom I love a lot and we have, of course, the most beautiful grandchild in the world. 

This journal started in March of 2000 and I've pretty much updated daily, with very, very few misses, ever since then.  (I even wrote an entry on a coin-operated computer in a tiny town in England!)

(MODIFIED) JOY TO THE WORLD

13 December 2010

"We're fixing your DSL," said the man across the street, waving cheerily from his AT&T truck.  "We know," I said back, waving back, as we got into the car.

We knew they were working on the DSL line because the internet had gone out about half an hour before.  But I wasn't concerned because we were going to be spending the day in San Francisco and it would all be fixed when we got home.

Oh how naive I can be!

We were going to a Christmas party thrown by our friend Roger, whom we have known through The Lamplighters for many years.  It is always fun and there are always good Lamplighters friends there.

First I wanted to make a stop in the Castro District to see if I could find a post card.   The new person on Postcrossing that I'm supposed to send a postcard to mentioned that he liked "gay themed" postcards and where better to look for that than the Castro?

Walt dropped me off at Walgreen's across from Harvey's restaurant (named for Harvey Milk) and I set off exploring.  I didn't find any post cards, but I did see these musicians performing in front of the big Christmas tree.  I gave them a donation.  I also stopped to talk with an animal rescue group huddled in dog cages with adoptable dogs.  We compared notes on our organization vs. their organization and my fosters vs. their fosters.

The place I was looking for, a card shop, had gone out of business in the 5 years or so since I was last there and all the shops I tried didn't have any cards, but I did stop in a shop where all income went to help AIDS organizations, and I found a greeting card that I really liked, which I will cut into a postcard.  Definitely gay-themed.

Then we drove out to Roger's.  He lives across from the ocean beach and we parked about a block away, across from a sandwich shop.  "Is that the Sykeses?" a voice called out.  We turned, expecting to see some Lamplighter friend but instead saw Sara (Sarge), a friend of our kids.

She asked us what we were doing and Walt mentioned we were going to a party at a friend's house and that he just lived around the corner.  "Oh, Roger?" she asked.  She knows him well and, in fact, had been invited to the party.

The last time we were at Roger's it was night (and pouring rain) and I hadn't noticed the view.  In the bright sun, it was breathtaking.

That's the Cliff House up on the hill,overlooking what used to be Seal Rock, before the seals moved to Pier 39.  And the expanse of ocean continued off to the left.  If I lived in that house, I'd never leave the living room.  My desk would go right where those bubble Christmas candles are!

The house was decorated beautifully (see Photo of the Day) and one of the house cats had taken up residence in the cat tree with Snoopy, where he could oversee everything.

Among the things that were set out was this wonderful music box, which played the Nutcracker and had several scene changes. 

It delighted this little girl and later, a young man with Downs Syndrome sat in front of it literally all evening long, applauding each time one scene ended and another scene started.  Even Walt was fascinated by it, especially how quickly the scenes changed.

The guests were a nice mix of Roger's work friends, neighbors and Lamplighters (and probably other people). 

I spent a long time talking with a couple of nuns (how women in religious orders have changed since I was in Catholic school!)  Delightful women.  

I also talked with a couple of guys who had graduated from Skyline High School in Oakland and had been classmates of our friend John Gilkerson (who died in the late 1980s) and Tom Hanks (who mentioned John in his Oscar acceptance speech for Philadelphia).   One of the guys had a friend on the faculty of Berklee College of Music and wondered if Jeri knew him (she doesn't), and said over and over and over again how impressed he was that Jeri was on the faculty there.

We finally left the party around 5 and drove home, expecting to find our DSL line restored, but no luck.  Once again, we had no internet.  I made plans to go to Mishka's in the morning to post this, but after Desperate Housewives was over, Walt did some investigating and discovered that somehow they had switched lines on us.  We have two phone lines coming into the house, one for the phone and one for the DSL.  He found that if you call our house phone, you get a busy signal.  If you call the DSL line, the house phone rings.

He switched the two wires and now I have internet connection, but we have no house phone.  However, that arrangement will work all right until morning when we can call AT&T to come back and fix it again.

All in all, it was a nice day and it was particularly nice to get an e-mail saying that Shiloh and his new friend Angela had bonded nicely, and were having a good time with each other.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Roger decorated just a little...

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