Baseball.

There is no other sport I’d give up a precious vacation day for. No other sport that begs for me to play hooky in the middle of the work week so I can catch an afternoon game with my girlfriend.

And when the day is the first warm and sunny one you’ve seen in about two months, there’s no other sport with which to take full advantage of the weather.

Yes, baseball is back, and today I enjoyed my first game of the new season at Pac Bell… I mean SBC… no, make that AT&T Park. Ying and I took the day off, and we were rewarded with gorgeous weather and a great game, with a Barry Bonds home run to add to the excitement.

Today’s game was the rubber match between the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants. After winning the first game, the Giants dropped the second.

(It’s been a rather difficult series for me, since I’m a New Yorker at heart, with 18-plus years of rooting for the Mets, and only eight years rooting for the Giants. In the first few years living out in California, it was easy: I rooted for the Giants when they played anyone except the Mets. Things are more complicated now, and I find myself rooting for the Giants against all-comers, including the Mets, yet I still find myself disappointed when the Mets don’t win.)

Today’s game was fantastic: the Giants lead early, the Mets tied it up then went ahead most of the game, then the Giants tied it up in the bottom of the ninth on a two-run pinch-hit home run by Barry Bonds, before the Mets took the game in 11 innings.

It was a hard-fought game, and very enjoyable. The absolute highlight of the game, of course, was the homer by Barry. With the Giants down by two runs with two out in the bottom of the ninth, Bonds came in to pinch hit, against the Mets’ closer Billy Wagner. Bonds had never before hit a home run against Wagner, but that all changed with one massive swing of the bat. It was Barry’s 711th home run of his career, this time several rows into the center-field bleachers, leaving him only three bombs behind Babe Ruth for second on the all-time homers list.

This is another history-in-the-making moment for me and Barry: back in 2001, I had the pleasure of watching him take a pitch to deep right field in Dodger Stadium for his 67th home run of the season, on his way to hitting 73.

I’m looking forward to home run 714 and then 715. I hope against hope that he stays healthy and productive enough to make to 755 and beyond.

One of the reasons I love living in the Bay Area is how close we are to interesting activities outside “the city”. One of these activities is visiting wine country, either Napa or Sonoma. And going to wine country is a day trip at worst, even from the south bay: a couple hours drive and you’re surrounded by grape vines and group tours.

We decided to head up to Sonoma Saturday, to satisfy a craving Ying had: visiting J Vineyards & Winery to buy a bottle of their pear brandy. She’d thought it sounded good, but without having tasted it, was hesitant to buy a bottle (which starts at about $45 for 375 ml).

After hearing positive reviews from a couple of friends, she decided to take a chance and splurge, so we took the drive north. Joining us were Dave and Becky, two of Ying’s friends from college.

I’m a big fan of J’s, and not just because of the cool baseball cap, so of course I couldn’t leave empty handed. While Ying bought her pear brandy, I tried (liked and bought) their Ratafia, a golden dessert wine that’s sweet but not cloying (and comes in a nicely designed bottle). I also picked up a bottle of the pear brandy for myself, and found the one remaining bottle of their 2004 Viognier. I enjoy viogniers, so I’m looking forward to opening this bottle.

(I also really like J’s Pinot Gris, but didn’t buy any this trip. I’ll have to head back up there soon.)

Of course, even though the destination was J’s, we expected to hit a few other wineries, and hit them we did. I don’t remember all the wineries we made it to, but among them were:

• Rodney Strong Winery, mostly because it was next to J’s. They reinforced the reputation they have with me for mediocre wines.
• Foppiano Vineyards, where we had a decent 2003 Petite Syrah and 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (I bought two bottles of the Cab Sauv. At $7.50 each, it will make a perfectly acceptable table wine. Their tag line, in fact, is “Pure and Simple”.)
• Martinelli Winery, which isn’t the sparkling cider people as we’d hoped, but which had a surprisingly good 2004 Zinfandel (a grape I tend to not like), and a very good 2003 Syrah. They were pretty expensive wines, though, averaging about $45 per bottle. I picked up the “Giuseppe & Luisa” Zinfandel, which was only about $25.
• Taft Street Winery, where most the wines seemed rather dull (but it was the last winery we hit, and our taste-buds may have been overloaded). The best of the lot was a Chardonnay, which Dave picked up.

I think we went to four or five wineries. By the end of the day, we’d tasted 20 or 25 wines and bought at least two bottles each.

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday.

Here are the wines I purchased this trip:

• 2004 Riverside Cabernet Sauvigon (Russian River), Foppiano
• 2004 Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel (Russian River), Martinelli
• 2004 Hoot Owl Vineyard Viognier (Alexander Valley), J Winery
• Ratafia, J Winery
• Pear Liqueur, J Winery

Ying does it again. Last night, once again, we’re lazing around, this time after a day of wine tasting in Sonoma County. On tv is Pretty Woman. At some point after Julia Roberts is offered “the deal”, Ying turns to me and asks:

“This may be a stupid question, but if you hire a hooker for the week, do you do it as often as possible?”

Oh my.

Her theory is if you’re paying a flat fee for something, you might as well get as much “value” from it as you can.

I wish I could poke holes in her theory, but you know, she’s right….

Ying was over the other night, and as we flipped the stations looking for something to watch, we came across Deal or No Deal. I’ve watched it a few times before; it’s an interesting game of chance driven by greed, and injected with hot, well-dressed models with money-filled suitcases.

At some point, I asked Ying what she thinks the the models get paid for standing there, opening cases and looking pretty.

Now, before I go on, I must admit: I generally think of my girlfriend as a bit of an innocent. You know, someone who rarely rocks the boat, is generally nice to people, seldom says anything sarcastic. Basically, the opposite of me.

So I was a left rather speechless by her reply:

I don’t know. Would it be enough to pay for their breast implants?

Boggle.

Clearly I’m having an effect on my girlfriend. The question is, is this a positive or negative influence….

As I mentioned on Saturday, Ying and I went to see The Rivals, a laugh-out-loud comedy you may not be familiar with, but which has probably influenced you. It’s the play by Richard Sheridan that introduced Mrs. Malaprop, the woman who constantly used the wrong words, to hilarious effect.

For example, “She’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” instead of “alligator” or “He is the very pineapple of politeness!” rather than “pinnacle”. It was a fun play, and Ying and I chuckled often. The play is in the public domain, so you can read it for free online.

René Augesen, one of A.C.T.’s core actors gets better and better in every play I see her in and was delightful here as Lydia Languish. Her fellow core actor Gregory Wallace (as Faulkland), while an actor with great stage presence, seems to be doing the same character in each of the roles I’ve seen of him. I was also impressed by both Anthony Fusco as Jack Absolute and Charles Dean as Sir Anthony Absolute. Fusco, in particular was very good, and he and Augesen played well opposite each other.

Seeing shows like The Rivals reminds me of why I enjoy having this subscription. While I was familiar with the character of Mrs. Malaprop in a very general sense, I was unaware of the play itself, and would likely have passed on purchasing tickets specifically for it.

It’s likely I will renew first thing on Monday, for two reasons: there’s a deadline to guarantee my current seats, and I identified three plays from the 2006-2007 season I’d want to see:

1. Travesties, because it’s by Tom Stoppard
2. Hedda Gabler, because it’s by Henrik Ibsen
3. The Imaginary Invalid, because it’s by Moliere and stars René Auberjonois

I figure if I’d want to see half the plays, and would enjoy one or two others if I saw them, well then I might as well go all the way in. More as it develops.

I have an A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theatre) subscription which allows me to see the seven plays A.C.T. puts on each year. Today’s play is “The Rivals“. Perhaps I’ll give a report on it upon my return.

I’ve been a subscriber for two or three years, and I’m debating if I should renew for 2006-2007. The tickets aren’t cheap, especially weekend series I have. However, it’s a good excuse to get into the city on a scheduled basis, and to see performances I might not pay to see individually.

The other question is, can I find another theatre subscription series I’d enjoy, and which is either less expensive or improved in some way? Maybe I’ll do some research on that.

After several years of talk and no action, the New York Mets organization announced recently that they’ll be building a new ballpark for the team.

Tentatively named “Mets Ballpark”, instead of the one-size-fits-all symmetrical stadium meant to host rock stars as well as sports stars, the new field is more intimate (only about 45,000 fans instead of the 55,000-60,000 fans Shea can hold), and has asymmetrical sizing, more befitting a “classic” park, like Brooklyn’s Ebbet’s Field and several of the “new classic” parks like San Diego’s Petco Park. Here’s a comparison of the dimensions for Shea Stadium and Mets Ballpark:

Of interest is the short right-field porch: the eight foot difference will be an overhang that sticks out into the field. That should be fun. Kind of like Pac Bell.. I mean SBC… I mean AT&T Park’s right field. (Yes, I’m bitter. And we can expect more of the same with Mets Ballpark, since they’re looking to sell corporate naming rights.)

The Mets have a website describing the park, with a 3D tour and a video of the unveiling.

The new ballpark will be built in the parking lot of Shea, and Shea will be torn down. That will be a sad day for New Yorkers, definitely a sad day for me. If I find out the schedule, perhaps I’ll find myself there on the day they take it down.

I’ve decided that there very much needs to be an Undercover Brother Meets Austin Powers movie.

And soon.

If I had written an entry with this headline on April 1, everyone would have assumed it was a big ol’ joke for the geekerati. I may have even had people call me nuts for even suggesting such a thing. But no, it’s not a joke, it is in fact exactly what Apple has gone and done: new software from my favorite company will allow you to run Windows XP™ on an Intel-based Mac, like the diminutive Mac mini. The software is named Boot Camp and is available as a public beta.

Of course, as Apple notes on the Boot Camp website:

Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

And never let it be said that Apple doesn’t enjoy taking a good swipe at long-time partner Microsoft. The Boot Camp website also snarks:

Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

Man, you have to love Apple.