Home Sweet Home

The Ten S clan is finally home again. We visited several interesting places, saw good friends again and gave Californians a good reason to grow more grapes due to the sizable dent we put in our friend's wine cellar. I did not forget how good the wine is out there and our friends live in Amador county, an up and coming wine region. I can tell you that this region seems to specialize in Barbera and Pinot Noir, my two favorite varietals. Enough about the wine.

First stop on the tour was Monterey. The above picture was taken in front of a tank of jellyfish. Bink loves jellyfish. We all loved the aquarium and personally, I was way more interested in the otters hanging out in the ocean than the ones in the tank. My family is scourged with phobias, so I was unable to go out on the boat to do some whale watching. Maybe next time. I think the theme of this vacation was Phobomania. Between the lot of us we know now that collectively we have phobias of the following:

Airplanes
Bridges
Caves
Spiders
Boats
Height

We are a twitchy bunch. We still managed to have a great time. It was just a little extra interesting at times. Guess which item on that list is mine.

We then took a tour of San Francisco, where Mr. Ten S delighted in making the kids squeal as he drove up the steepest street he coud find and then let the car roll backward just a little bit. We went to the beach and had a lovely lunch at The Cliff House. They recently restored The Cliff House which was good and bad. It now is back to one of its original footprints, which is cool, but the National Park ranger station is gone and so is the arcade of old games from days gone by. In its place is a kind of upscale restaurant, nice, but not the same. You can still watch the birds and the seals, but it has lost some of its pedestrian charm.

From there we went up to Jackson. Our friends Glenn and Sandra live there. Jackson is up in the foothills, in old mining country. The downtown area looks like an old Western town with the saloon down at the end of the street. Their house is up on the side of a hill and overlooks a beautiful valley. I enjoyed this part of the vacation most. We relaxed and played cards and drank REALLY good wine. I'm happy to say that after one night of gaming, Mr. Ten S and I were up four dollars.


Next it was on to the home of our friends Stuart and Loretta and their kids in Stockton. Stuart was the pastor of the church we attended when we lived out there. He is originally from Austalia and at one point was a race car driver. He is an anomaly. His first question for us was, "Have you ever had a passionfruit martini?" They cooked traditional Australian food for us one night and we drank, ate and talked until the wee hours. The kids all hung out and reestablished their friendships.

In the end, this trip was less about the place and more about the people. While I certainly enjoyed revisiting old favorite hangs, I enjoyed catching up with old friends more. You could have put me in a paneled basement with these people and we would have had just as much fun. I also realized that moving back to Chicago was the best thing that ever happened to me. I love where I live and I love my life here. I guess the image I have in my mind is of an empty cicada shell. Our life used to be there, but it's somewhere else now.

Presented Without Comment...

Courtesy of Nerve's Scanner blog...

It's Not Like We Didn't Warn The Boy...

I distinctly remember saying: "I really don't think it'll go down..."

Dear Faithful Readers,

When I said I wanted you all to rock 'n' roll....well, let's just say this wasn't what we had in mind. Always practice safe sex!

Truly Yours,

The Management

Tenacious Terms, Vol I

I really don't know when exactly Tenacious S decided to abandon her GEWish roots, but I think it was somewhere around the time she decided to become an *academic*. I know academics. Some of my *best* friends are academics. I've seen what can happen when people decide to get smarter-er...

I do, however, applaud Tenacious S in her academic pursuits. I just wish she had more time to post her feelings on GEW-ology. I wish she would take her studies a little less seriously and her rock'n'roll a little more seriously.

That's why I am promoting a new concept based on old school ideas. When I was in college, I drank liberally, inhaled robustly, and studied as little as possible. I graduated and found success in my life. If it worked for me, it can work for you too! It's Dianetics for GEWs and we call it: *Slackademics*!

Study a little - you know? Just enough to be able to converse at the most superficial level on those topics that will have your friends and family thinking you're a genius! It only takes a few minutes a day, but the reward of snookering those around you and getting a high paying job in the future for those miniscule efforts is enormous.

Don't wait! Act now! Study *Slackademics* and you too will reach your full - albeit limited - potential!

And Now A Message From The Schrute

Dear Readers of Slum-acious S,

I have taken over this blog due to the inability of one *Tenacious S* to fulfill her duties in providing welcome packages to new GEWs (Dig through the Unofficial if you need more info). Consequently, this blog will now be dedicated all things *Schrutey*.

Please take this time to look through your worthless souls and realize the many times you have improperly employed a verb tense or the many times in grade school you incorrectly defined the pluperfect. Am I clear? That will do.

Tenacious S will be allowed to return only after she has returned to fulfilling her duties to our GEWish faith.

Yours In Battle,

Dwight K. Schrute
Assistant to the Regional Manager

Smelly Unwashed Hippies

We're heading to San Francisco today. Hippies, hipsters, and a fabulous cast of thousands. See you when we get back!

A Very Good Day for the Ten S Clan

Today my father got remarried. This is a very good thing. His new wife is a lovely woman. After such a painful recent past with the loss of my mom, it was good to go to a happy family celebration. They were both desperately lonely after losing their respective spouses and finding each other has been very healing for both of them. I met my new step-family today and they were all very nice and just as happy as we were to be celebrating.


To cap off a great day, we stopped by Harms Woods on the way home so that Bink could get to view the cicadas. There are none by our house, but the woods are full of them. After being all buttoned up at the wedding, he appreciated the chance to frolic and play with his beloved bugs for awhile. We all arrived home a little lighter, a little happier I think.

What Do I Need?

Because I can't seem to resist a meme, I pinched this one from Lulu and discovered just how fun it was. As instructed, I googled my name and the word "needs." Oh my! I think I have some issues.

1. Sharon needs to be told to stop shooting and start talking. (I am pretty good with a squirt gun)
2. Sharon needs a new word. (Maybe one that would adequately describe my state of sleep deprivation)
3. Sharon needs more time to work out a peace policy. (Bink and Sweetness are about to be *sprung* from school. I definitely need more time!)
4. Sharon needs therapy. (duh!)
5. Sharon needs understanding. (Maybe this is why I need therapy)
6. Sharon needs to create a new special unit to do the dirty work. (Yeah, baby! Have somebody else do all the crappy stuff.)
7. Sharon needs some more money. (Again, duh! Graduate school + home project=Killer Debt)
8. Sharon needs a friend. (With Lulu leaving soon, this couldn't be more true. Who will go to all the concerts with me?)
9. Sharon needs your gowns. (My life is so posh, I've run fresh out of gowns.)
10. Sharon needs to hear from people tonight. (On second thought, no. I'll be writing a paper.)

Well, that was fun and a lovely way to avoid my homework for a few minutes.

San Francisco Memories Vol. II

We were young when we lived in San Francisco. At least it seems that way now. The first year Mr. Ten S and I lived there, we lived in The Haight on Cole Street. Right in the thick of it. Hippies, gangsters, punks, and smelly hipsters of all sorts. One of our friends called it "The Human Zoo." Part of the Human Zoo was the drug scene. And I can't say that we were innocent by-standers. In fact, I blame my memory loss on the time I lived there. It was all too available and so much a part of the culture that we were amateurs compared to most.

One Friday night after work, Mr. Ten S, myself and a co-worker friend of mine were hanging out and, well, enjoying life. I can only say that you haven't fully experienced Nature's wonder until you've had some from Humboldt County in Northern California. This stuff was wicked. All natural and really potent. I had a healthy respect for the stuff after a bad incident where I mistook it for the cheap stuff and had a total paranoid freakout. This would be part of the reason why I'm done with it now.

Anyhow, we had been hanging out, talking and partaking all evening. I felt woogie, but fine. It came time for our friend to leave. We said our goodbyes and sent him out the door to walk home as he lived a few blocks from us. About a half an hour went by and someone was ringing our doorbell. We wondered who it could be at such a late hour. We opened the door and found our friend that we'd sent home. He looked a little stressed out, so we invited him back in. This is when he proceeded to tell us that he had tried to walk home, but had gotten lost and had been wandering around the neighborhood for the last half hour. He asked if he could stay for awhile until he could think straight.

I'm sorry brain cells. It all seemed like a good idea at the time.

Reading Fantasies

With a little more than a week left and not nearly enough time for everything that I need to do, I am having fantasies of vacation and more specifically, fantasies about having time to read something that is not a textbook or a scholarly journal article. When the pressure gets to be too much, I imagine myself on the airplane with Sweetness, taking off and cracking open a new book.

I mentioned this before, but I am completely serious when I say that I am looking for recommendations for a good vacation read. I am not a huge fan of chick lit, so you can throw that genre out. I love to laugh, out loud, when I read. I could use a good laugh. I am not afraid of non-fiction, and in fact seem to read more and more of it as I get older. Please recommend away.

I like to bring three or four books with me, as I am kind of fickle about what I like to read and when. I'm like most of you, as far as I can tell, in that I have several books going at the same time. I'll be bringing a couple of these alond with me, but I want to have at least two more. Our flights and hotels are booked, I'm wrapping up my quarter and I am dreaming of a good read.

The Official Seal of Tenacious S

I think I want a t-shirt. Is that wrong?