Cal Snatches Defeat from Jaws of Mediocrity

This past weekend Liz and I joined Don and Muriel Wilcox for our annual Cal-Stanford Football game--known in California as "the Big Game." It's a great weekend. Donny and I have started to attend the (past) players lunch at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club on Friday where we connect with old pals while Liz and Muriel shop in the city. Yeah, we tell the same stories every year but no one really seems to care. On Friday night we make our way over to Fenton's Ice Cream in Oakland. For nearly 40 years I have ordered the same thing--a Black and Tan, substituting, swiss milk chocolate ice cream for vanilla. On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Durant hotel and then grabbed a Top Dog before heading over to Palo Alto for some tailgate parties, with old college friends before walking into the game. I mention this only to say, that we conclude long before the game starts that the outcome of the game is really incidental since we've already had such a good time.

Cal ended up losing--but that's OK. We had our moment in the sun when we were officially #2 (and unofficially #1) six weeks into the season. Sure they dropped the past 5 / 6 games but somehow still squeeked into a bowl game (the Armed Forces Bowl).

An added bonus was seeing Mom and Dad on Thursday. Mom made a Christmas "kringla" for our arrival.