Oh my blogs have gotten away from me...sorry guys. The tree in our backyard is a Brugmansia -- I believed crossed with "Candida" -- according to the website I looked it up on. My Mom and Steve and I (lo these many weekends ago) asked in a local horticultural shop. The man there was right about the Brugmansia, but WRONG about the Bottlebrush. My favorite trees on SF's streets are indeed called CRIMSON BOTTLEBRUSHES and you can look them up to see how cool they are. Mom -- you were right!! Whatever weird pine the man suggested did not have any kind of flowering appendages at all...

It was a busy weekend this weekend, with Leslie and I having quite a bout of bad transportation luck -- due to slow buses, miscommunications, our own ignorance about the numbering of SF's piers, and all out crowds and confusion, it took us about 2 whole hours just to get to Red Bull's Flugtag on Piers 30-32 Saturday. Flugtag is basically Redbull sponsoring people to create "flying" machines which they then pilot off a ramp 30 feet up from the water, and whoever gets themselves the farthest wins a pretty sweet cash pot -- $7500! The second and third placers get cash prizes too. Leslie and I got there just in time to see the last two teams go, the very last one being the winner, so at least we got to see that. The winners created a human catapult -- with one guy seated at the lowest end and four pullies attached to the highest end. His four friends then held on to the pullies and jumped into the water, thereby yanking the catapult down and sending the man 61 FEET!! It was hysterical (they were wearing kilts no less) and fortunate that we saw it.

The night before we had time to kill before the 8:30 showing of Kill Bill, so we ended up exploring Yerba Buena Gardens and Center, and boy is it beautiful at night. Really thoughtfully constructed waterfalls involving well placed rocks, artful use of surface tension, carved spouts...all lit up and set up so that you can sit right at the edge. As you can imagine, it was teeming with young couples, but they proved unobtrusive. -_~

I am in love with swimming at night right now -- it somehow gives me more energy to swim when it's dark and cold than during the daylight hours.

That's about it here -- me and my team are otherwise having a great time at work, and Halloween should prove quite fun this Friday, as the Castro is the hotspot for revelry and Fred is joining me out here. I'll be sure to let you know how THAT goes!! Happy Halloween and drop me a line, you people!