Hello Happy Pitbulls

Reflections on 2008

There's nothing new and original about an end of year blog post, reflecting back on all the major events of the year.  In fact, I must have read about 100 of them so far.

There's been so much on my mind the past few months, and as I start to plan for the year ahead, I had to take stock in all the things that happened this year that will help shape my year to come.

1. Work.  Too much work.  I love work, but anyone who knows me or who has been reading for a while knows that I work way too much.  Sometimes I think it's a way to avoid real life, the stuff I have going on at home, with family, etc.  Sometimes I know it's just the overachiever in me.  So for 2009, a little less work, a little more efficiency, and a little more "me" time.  That's the menu.
2. Woodland.  Our hometown hero, Dustin Pedroia, won the MLB MVP award.  How cool is that.  Enough said.
3. Change.  Yes We Can. Yes We Did. We elected Barack Obama president.  Again, enough said.
4. Social Media. I've gotten serious about my Tweeple, my Facebook pals and my Mob Wars Mob.  Both personally and professionally.  And because of item 3 above, we have a real hope of having government be truly transparent through the evolution of social media tools being used for communication, first through the campaigns, and now through the change.gov site.  Love it!  And as a government employee, I'm working hard to introduce the same level of transparency through our web communication strategies.  It's exciting (a contributing factor to item 1).
5. The Dead Pool: George Carlin. Paul Newman. Eartha Kitt.  Tim Russert. Majel Barrett-Rodenberry. Bettie Page. Odetta. Michael Crichton. Studs Turkel. Don LaFontaine. Isaac Hayes.  Bernie Mac. Harvey Korman. Sydney Pollack. Danny Federici. Charlton Heston. Anthony Minghella. Steve Fossett. Heath Ledger.  My mother-in-law, Angela Cabias. RIP, all of you.
6. Mexico. A perfect end to a hectic year. I have had my personal reboot.

The list could go on and on. It's almost time to call it a day for 2008. Here's hoping 2009 brings happiness, health, and prosperity.  And peace.  Yeah, we need us some of that.

Fancy Night Out: Tazzina Bistro

Mmmmm.....wine,
originally uploaded by marlinex.

It's been a while since Mike and I have gone out for a nice dinner. We're saving up for our trip to Mexico next month! We decided that with the weather turning colder, it was a perfect night for some wine and some great food. If you haven't been to Tazzina Bistro lately, you have to get over there. They just opened up a new bar area, which is very cool.

It didn't look like the economy was having too much of an impact on business - the place was absolutely packed. Even though we had reservations for a table, we decided to eat at the bar (or what used to be the bar, before they opened up the new bar area).

I felt like wine, but not too much, so I just got a glass of Rosenblum Zin, which was quite nice. But Mike had some difficulty finding a suitable wine by the glass, so we ended up with this bottle of Seghesio Zin (and I helped a little with that too).

Dinner was fabulous. I had warm bitter greens with goat cheese, candied pecans, and a vinaigrette dressing to start, followed by diver scallops with potato-fennel-onion hash and micro-celery. Mike had crab-potato croqettes to start, followed by lamb ossa bucco, with lentils and wild mushrooms. For dessert, we had churro bread pudding with warm caramel and vanilla bean ice cream. Yum!

If you Woodlanders (or you Sacramentans too!) have yet to check out the fall menu, I insist it's worth the drive to Woodland!

Where's Marilyn?

I just had to read about this on another blog: I guess I have been in hibernation. It's been 2 weeks since my last post.  Where the heck have I been?

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll see that I've more or less recovered from my bronchitis, and spent a bunch of time in San Francisco at a conference.  If you follow me on Twitter, you'll see that I've been spending a lot more of my time writing in short, 140-character bursts, than spending time writing here.  I guess I'm guilty of being a bit lazy.  I've also been spending lots of time on Facebook. Are you my friend yet? Friend me up!

My 25th high school reunion is coming up next year, so there's this flurry of activity and reconnecting happening with my old pals.  I went to a tiny school.  I don't even think there were 100 people in my graduating class.  The problem is, I blocked out a lot of those years from my memory.  It's kinda fun seeing what everyone is up to and how they are mostly normal people now (relatively speaking, of course).  Facebook is a great way to reconnect with people...I've even found people from my 10th grade Jewish summer camp in the Berkshires!

There's been lots of celebration about the change that's going on in our country.  Have you seen the new transition web site: change.gov? I am enormously encouraged by what I am seeing in terms of openness in the upcoming administration.  I made comments previously here about how the candidates embraced web 2.0 concepts during the campaigns, but then questioned whether they could make the transition to candidate 2.0 to president 2.0.  I think that's where we are going.

Also, I stumbled upon this site as well: http://obamacto.org/, a site that is gathering info from the wisdom of "the crowd" regarding technology priorities for the yet-to-be-appointed Chief Technology Officer in the Obama campaign.

Other things?  The Dead Pool.  RIP to those who have recently passed:

• Mitch Mitchell (drummer from Jimi Hendrix Experience)
• Yma Sumac
• Michael Crichton
• Studs Turkel

And November, I remember my mom, who passed away November 12, 2000.  As I said on Twitter, it's gotten easier, but I don't miss her any less.

Oh, and on a lighter note: Dustin Pedroia wins the MVP!!!  (Sadly, I was briefly friends with his imposter on Facebook, but I won't give up my campaign to get him to be grand marshall at the Woodland Christmas Parade!)

Every vote counts!

I am surprised by how little I have posted about the upcoming election.  Typically, I am very vocal about the subject.  You may recall I posted my support of Barack Obama back in 2006, and have been following the campaign with great excitement since then.  I'm so nervous about this upcoming election, as you remember what happened in 2000 and 2004.  Every vote counts!  Be sure to make yours counted. (Don't let that cuckoo bird get into the White House!)

This is the first year I've felt strongly enough to place lawn signs in front of my house.  I feel comforted knowing there's some company for me with the Obama Biden sign that's out there, but I'm feeling a little lonely with my No on Proposition 8 stance.  I have a hard time articulating my feelings about this attempt to eliminate a right for a large population of the state of California. Regardless of how you feel about this issue, we should not eliminate rights for any Californian. Prop 8 would mandate, under the laws of our state, that one group of people would be treated differently form everyone else. That’s just unfair. 

 

For the love of the Pit Bull

I live in a community where you're more than likely to get some kind of pit bull mix when you go to the animal shelter to adopt a dog.  And this began my love of the breed and its mixed cousins.  Unfortunately, there are still so many people who need some education on the importance of spaying and neutering pets, especially folks who are not responsible pet owners and allow their dogs to run rampant and breed.

My one Fifi dog is a mix of who knows what, but we know she's got some pitty in her.  She's the best dog in the world (sorry, Zero, but it's true).  She's smart, she listens, she gives hugs, and she fetches the paper and the remote control, when it falls off the bed.  She's also super loyal.  And little.  Whatever she's mixed with (rat terrier or something) is really little.  She's been 29 pounds since the day she became a full grown dog.  Her only vice is chewing Kleenex and her avid hatred of cats (I think she gets that from Mike).

Then there's Zero. He is a big piggy. We are pretty sure he's a full American Pit bull Terrier. We rescued him from what we think was a horrible existence.  He's a beast, and sometimes I think he has rocks in his head, but he is completely lovable and a big licky dog.  To us, at any rate.  He doesn't care for other dogs much, of course, except for his sister Fifi, and she is definitely in charge of the house. Owning a pit bull is a full time responsibility.  They need a lot of attention, and a lot of love.

So, what's this all about? Well, there's going to be a special on Animal Planet called Animal Witness: The Michael Vick Case. It chronicles the events of the case and goes into the investigation that led to the conviction of Michael Vick.  It's also going to show what happened to the rescued pit bulls.  So many people said these dogs should be put down, that they were unsalvagable, but this video that shows the outcome of the 10 pit bulls rescued by Bad Rap, a San Francisco Bay Area based rescue and pit bull advocacy group, proves otherwise.

Fifi and Zero are planning to watch this show.  They love shows that have a happy ending.  Jail time for Vick, and freedom for the pups.

Dining at Silvina's Basket in Woodland

Woodland sure has its share of Mexican food.  Everyone in town has their favorites, and every now and then a new one will pop up and we'll decide to check it out.  Silvina's Basket has been on Main Street for over a year now, but we'd never gone in.  I read about it on a local rating web site and we decided to check it out.

The food was really delicious, really fast, and really fresh.  Last Thursday, it had already been a rough week, and this hit the spot, along with a cold Pacifico.  (Mmmmm, beer!)

One of the most unique things on the menu were the mashed potato tacos.  Sounds funky, but it was really good!  We had to try it, just to see what it was all about. The owner, Silvina, explained that it's something that can be eaten during lent (yeah, this makes sense to the little Jewish girl) because there's no meat in it.

Anyhow, we spoke with Silvina for a bit today, and she was so cool and friendly and the food was so fantastic I decided I wanted to give a shout out for her restaurant.  It's got to be hard to be a business owner in this current economic climate.  So -- if you're in Woodland and you're looking for some tasty authentic Mexican food, check it out!

I Miss Target (my post about Woodland)

The mall is Woodland is going through yet another metamorphosis.  I am holding out hope that it's going to be all for the good.  The Target that was there has now been relocated as a super Target over on the edge of town next to our new Costco.  I have yet to go visit the new Target, since it's more out of the way than the old one.  The mall's new tenant is Burlington Coat Factory.

I'm a little scared of Burlington Coat Factory since it came out that they were selling coats that contained dog fur.  Apparently this has all been taken care of, but I don't think I'll be running in there in any kind of a hurry.

It seems like there's a lot going on in town, but I'm hardly around to see it.  Since I work in Sacramento, I spend most of my waking hours over there, but I've been reading that there's lots of stuff going on in town.

Here's some of what I have noticed:

• There's more new Mexican restaurants on Main Street (one where Don's Diner used to be, and one where Chubby's used to be).
• There's an Indian restaurant where El Charro used to be.
• I got a post card inviting me to an art opening called the Man Show 2.
• I read on Matt Rexroad's blog that we have a First Friday (is that like Second Saturday in Sacramento?).  I just learned on the Woodland Journal that his may have been going on for a while.

What else is going on in town?  I need to find a reason to stay in town more often, and of course, to work less!

Governor asks us not to buy fireworks: bad for air quality; bad for pitbulls!

Our Governor has asked us not to purchase fireworks this year due to horrendous air quality caused by over a thousand active fires in northern California.  The air quality is so bad that you can walk outside less than a block and then have your clothes smell like smoke.  Today driving home, the visibility was similar to driving through December fog. My eyes are burning and red. 

We almost never buy fireworks, but I encourage others to follow this ban.  The fire danger is high, and the air quality is poor.  I'd gladly donate money to local charities, volleyball or softball teams, to help our collective lungs. 

There must be some fireworks on sale right now, because there's been people lighting them off in our 'hood.  And this is bad because my scared little Fifi dog is freaking out.  She does NOT like it.  She tends to go off into corners and hide, or when it's really bad, she starts shaking then collapses her 30 lb. little body to squish under our bed and hide out.  For an 11 year old little pitbull with arthritic hips and ankles, this is not good.

She shouldn't have to hide like this!

Woodland Wiki

On my evening cruise through my blogs, I found a post on Matt Rexroad's Blog about the Woodland Wiki. I love wikis.  I know it's super geeky, but I just love community generated content, especially when it's generated by this community.  I know Woodland has its share of supergeeks, but I am hoping that this Wiki takes off, because it could be a valuable resource.  Just like Karl Krist's The Pile, this is a great way to link Woodlanders to content, businesses, information and more that they need.

I'm thinking about what I could contribute to the wiki.  Something about the Happy Pitbulls?  Information on my rockstar podiatrist and physical therapist?  Hmmm.  I'm sure I will come up with something in time...

Big Fix on I-5 Warning from Woodland

I have my secret route to Sacramento from Woodland and back all figured out while I-5 is CLOSED for the Fix I-5 project starting this weekend.  I am supposed to allow an extra hour "just in case" and that's horrifying.  If I could walk to and from the bus stops, I would take transit. 

So here's my warning: I will be leaving my house at 7 a.m.  No one should go the way I'm planning to go, but I can't tell you what that is.  Wait, here's a hint.  I'm not going on I-80. 

And to you people at work: everyday with no meetings on it is a potential telework day!  Yeah, if I am lucky there will be one of those during the construction phase.

I guess I'm picking the absolute worst time to start physical therapy for my ankle!

Good luck everyone, and drive carefully!