How about an attempt to make up for my absence?

In case you didn’t notice, I took the day off on Friday.  Although I was working in the early am, I could not bring myself to write my usual Friday bullets!  Please forgive me, I’ll try to make up for it by entertaining you with fun pictures from the weekend.

What did I do on my day off you ask?  It was a perfect way to spend a free day.  After I finally logged off my computer, Lucy and I went for a walk around the Lafayette reservoir.  It wasn’t too hot at 10am (70 degrees or so) but poor little Lucy had a rough time.  This dog could run 10 miles non-stop in cool weather, and it wouldn’t faze her, but the second the sun & heat become a factor, she wilts very quickly.  I ended up carrying her the last 1/2 mile.  Then we picked up Ayelet and drove into the city for a fabulous lunch at Cafe Claude  with Jackie & Anna.  Cafe Claude?  “Oui Oui” is all I can say (I will write a Yelp review soon).  It was very nice in the city but Ayelet and I decided to head back to beautiful Danville.  After a quick stop to pick up a costume for Lucy to wear to Dog Days of Summer, we settled into our favorite hangout spot, Sideboard.   A couple of glasses of BR Cohn Chardonnay  and life is very very good. 

Poor Pete had a root canal on Friday so he wasn’t the most pleasant to be around this weekend.  Guess I gotta cut him some slack given he’s the big bday boy next weekend. 

Saturday was a LONG but fun day.  I had planned to go to Dog Days of Summer for months.   Had a few last-minute cancellations, but luckily my parents are troopers and I conned them into coming along.  We met up at the park and (gotta love ’em) they had gotten there early enough to score a great spot in line.  I dressed Lucy up in her costume and we were ready for the parade.  My only complaint – although I do understand why they do this – is that they shuffled us along so quickly that I couldn’t get many good photos of Lucy strutting her stuff at the ballpark.  The second I stopped to take a photo, one of the attendants would scream at me, “keep moving!”, irritating.  Nevertheless, it was a really fun day.  Memorable moments: #1. Bud e. Luv sang the National anthem, #2.  Barbara stating very matter-of-factly, “Barry Zito has a nice ass”, #3.  Giants win!

This post has gotten long.  Otherwise I’d tell you about long, fun day #2 (Sunday). 

Watch this space.

Good Samaritan!

Yep, that was me yesterday.  I am not typically deserving of such a title, but I did so much good yesterday, I feel the need to milk it!

Lucy and I went on our usual walk and just as we were getting ready to turn onto our street to come home, I noticed a leather wallet lying by the side of the trail.  Recalling my experience a month or so ago when a wonderful couple found my cell phone on the trail and tracked me down, I decided to see if I could find the owner of the wallet.  There were quite a few bills in the wallet, a couple of credit cards, ID cards, etc.  I felt strange, almost dirty, going through the wallet to identify an owner.  I could not find a phone number but a CA Driver’s License identified that the wallet belonged to a kid who would turn 21 in 2012 – a baby! The address listed was an Alamo address, so, I decided to be even more Good Samaritan-like and transport the wallet to his home.  I did a quick mapquest search, learned that he lived 1/4 mile away and in a flash, I was ringing his doorbell.  I forget that “normal” people are not awake at 8am on a Sunday morning – oops!  I woke up a very tired looking dad.  He was a bit out of it, so it took him a while to register that I had his son’s wallet, but he seemed thankful.  I didn’t expect fanfares… just trying to put some pennies in the good ol’ karma bank!

Upon depositing the wallet, I then drove to BART to head into the city for a full day.  I had signed up to volunteer at the Plate-to-Plate run  at AT&T Park.  My shift was from 9:30 to 1pm.  The event seemed pretty well -organized and I noticed many volunteers in yellow shirts standing around.  I was a bit worried they would not have a need for my services, but before I knew it, I was assigned to help out at the children’s craft booth. 

So for the next couple of hours, I helped kids make beaded bracelets, necklaces and decorated socks.  It was really fun!  I could tell the kids got such a sense of accomplishment out of creating something for themselves.

I may need to look into more volunteer opportunities as it truly is a rewarding experience.

I even made myself some jewelry!