Back from California yesterday; my ears are still plugged up but otherwise Southwest Airlines treated us well. Aside from from the inconsiderate father and grown son in my row on the flight home, but I'm going to hunt them down and garotte them later. No undue delays in airports, indeed we were never more than a few minutes at any security checkpoint.

Sacramento was bloody hot, as expected, though apparently it was just as hot here. West Nile virus scares in Sacto required a chemical envelope application before I could go out on the balcony and smoke. San Francisco was far more pleasant; warm sunny day at the ball park (each year I go see the Giants play their park has a new name: first PacBell, then SBC, now AT&T park. What will it be next year?) and the proper team won. Then dinner in Chinatown at a restaurant where most of the dishes seemed made of duck tongues, then a visit to City Lights. I had forgotten the title of Oriana Fallacci's last book, so didn't ask for it to see if I would get told off for asking for a book by a fascist. I did get a few books on my father's dime, so I got that working for me. Sacramento has some very good restaurants and naturally my father has scouted them all out. Monday lunch before we left was at a houseboat restaurant called "The Virgin Sturgeon"; not actually particularly good food but you cannot resist it.

We boarded the dogs at a pet hotel near the airport. Basically a bunch of kennels inside a former warehouse, with all the dogs allowed to mingle and play for most of the day. They barely seemed to have missed us, the bastiges. Boris was apparently allowed to bark for three days straight without someone yelling at him to shut up, as would happen at home. He is hoarse and his barks are mere pathetic wheezes. Both dogs are exhausted and have slept almost every minute since we got them home yesterday evening through this very moment; hopefully this will continue for awhile. Vinnie just raised his head to look at me and immediately began to fall back asleep, head nodding and eyes fluttering closed.