FRIDAY FROTH...

RN74, a Michael Mina restaurant in San Francisco, completely wowed me and "the blondes" on a recent, and regular old Wednesday evening.  Dressed in our Sex and the City finest, we made the trip to hip South of Market for an evening of what was to be delicious food, great wine, and impeccable service, all served up in an atmosphere that transported us to a place way more glamorous than our everyday lives.  The picture above, taken from the restaurant's website, doesn't do it justice--the people and the decor give the restaurant an energy that moves you to another place.  In the bar you could fancy yourself at Gare Du Nord in Paris waiting to board a train to Burgundy for the weekend--the "departure" boards along the wall list the names of wines instead of destinations.  Once seated you can imagine yourself on the Orient Express, having a great meal on your way to St. Petersburg.  One of the "blondes" mentioned that the lighting was perfect, beautiful in reality and effect.  According to another blonde (her second trip) the people are a mix of all ages with the commonality of cool, sophisticated chic.  The champagne (a sparkling wine from Burgundy) was even a beautiful color--rose' with a hint of gold--perfect for blondes and non-blondes alike.

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Brad Pitt shaved--finally!  His graying, scruffy goatee (that he was inclined to wear in a ponytail) is now a normal, hip, trimmed goatee.  Maybe he heard that my sixteen year-old daughter said that he looked like "an old Chinese man."  What is it with very attractive people defacing themselves?  If it's an attempt to become invisible then I have big news:  time will take care of that problem for you, and it will happen sooner than you think!

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I tried to watch the USA vs. England World Cup soccer match but those incessant vuvuzela horns put me right to sleep.  I woke up, watched the 30-second highlight reel, and knew everything about the game that I needed to know.  Horns that create a beehive sounding white noise should not be legal at games where a high score is 3 to 2.  World Cup soccer has just passed golf for the "best sport to sleep to" award.

On the other hand, if you even blink during a basketball game you miss something--especially if it's the Lakers vs the Celtics.  In game seven Kobe had a hard time making his shots, but even the best players' shooting can go "cold."  To his credit (and one of the reasons he'll go down as one of the game's best) he took up his own slack by hitting boards--getting 15 rebounds, and by not losing his temper or his focus.  Tiger Woods should take some "Kobe lessons" for life on, and off the court/course.

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A couple of summers ago mid-way on a flight from Boston to San Diego I finished the book I was reading.  I must have looked panicked to be book-less because the nice woman sitting next to me quickly offered me a book that she had finished.  Water for Elephants, thoroughly researched by author Sara Gruen, takes place amid a traveling circus in the 1930's.  Spending over three hundred pages and three hours with circus people would not normally be my idea of a good time.  I started reading and found out that Jacob Jankowski, the protagonist felt the same way.  After a series of tragedies Jacob drops out of Cornell Law School just short of graduation, suffers a breakdown, jumps on a train that he soon finds out is a circus train.  Like me, Jacob had nowhere else to go so he makes the best of things by putting his veterinarian skills to use, falling in love (with a woman and an elephant) and finding out that humans can be more wild and dangerous than animals.  In the end, we both enjoyed our adventure.