The downside to the San Diego Police Department’s decision to disband their horse unit is that there will be no more pictures like this one, and my fantasy of someday seeing one of those horses trample the Westboro Baptist crowd will never come to pass.

Yes, we went to Comic-Con last Thursday and Friday.  Yes, I took lots of photographs.  No, I didn’t post here timely, though I had a few tweets and Facebook updates.  Spent the weekend on another web project that has a set go-live date coming up, so that’s been taking priority.

Comic-Con was great fun as always.  Going two days allowed us to spend more time at the sessions and not feel like we were missing too many of the booths.  A four-day pass would have been nicer, but we knew prior obligations would keep us from the weekend stuff.  Maybe next year.

Our celebrity autograph this year was John Barrowman of Torchwood.  Celebrity sightings were numerous.  Toys include a model of the Tardis, a Max bobblehead, a Comic-Con exclusive of Ninja Joe the Egg, and lots else.

Really loved the one CLE session I was able to attend.  Kinda upset with the organizers for scheduling two others at 10:30 in the morning when Comic-Con and the convention center were incapable of processing crowds fast enough to get people in the doors by 10:30 in the morning.  Also a tad upset with the Peanuts people for promoting a special Snoopy figurine commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the moon landings, then being unable to deliver.  Manufacturing defects don’t cause false announcements, bad management does.

Still happy with the experience though, and props to the unfortunately renamed SyFy for going all out.  Free shirts, a themed restaurant (offsite), lots of swag of every variety.  They really set the standard for the other studios and networks in promoting their shows.

Every year around this time the rumors that Comic-Con will leave San Diego for greener pastures start rumbling around town again.  Comic-Con is huge, maybe too huge for the convention center.  Comic-Con needs more parking and hotel rooms than the eighth largest city in America can offer.  Blah, blah, blah, they always come back next year though.  Inertia’s a wonderful thing.

Unfortunately that’s not the way with every big gathering though.  Las Vegas appears to have stolen the USA Rugby 7s tournament. This tournament was a part of a larger Rugby gathering that drew Cal Rugby to San Diego the last two years, giving me two enjoyable February afternoons watching the Bears beat up on OMBAC and Wyoming.

Cal sports teams come to San Diego rarely enough as it is.  I hope they’ll still find a reason to visit this far south, but I’m afraid this will just be another opportunity for the UC penny-pinchers to cut some more on the great drive to mediocrity by at least eliminating a road trip for the national powerhouse program.

Spent a big chunk of the morning in a Denny’s trying to do some work, with a crying baby in the booth behind me and a curious toddler watching me from the booth on the other side. Other kids seemed to be trying to see how fast they could run down the aisles, but mostly they just screamed until their Madre screamed back. Despite all that, I got more done and had a more comfortable wait than I would have in the awful seats and and with sludge called coffee they offer at my mechanics’ place.

Started smelling antifreeze in the GreenTracer’s ventiliation last week when I was in Ventura, and figured I should get it looked at before the fumes’ brain damage became irreversible.

End result: I’m going to be driving a car without a heater for a while. The estimate from the mechanics was high, much higher than expected, but the bigger problem was that they wanted the car for at least two days to replace the heater core. Sorry, it was tough enough clearing the calendar for one day, and they weren’t offering a loaner. Better to bypass the heater, stopping the radiator leak in the process, until a change of seasons forces me to re-prioritize. Wait, I live in San Diego. We don’t have seasons here. Maybe Santa will bring me a new heater core. Or gloves and a little blower for fog on the windshield.

At least I got a good swim in after they finished trying to find my wallet. Very relaxing.

Personally, I doubt either of the two initiatives mentioned in the article will qualify for the ballot.  Even if they did, I don’t think they’d pass.  C’mon, this is California.  Regardless, this was interesting to see in the afternoon news:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would fight an initiative to amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage if it qualifies for the November ballot.

Schwarzenegger said he was confident that such an amendment, which already are on the books in 26 other states, would never pass in California and called it a “waste of time.”

“I will always be there to fight against that,” Schwarzenegger said, prompting loud cheers and a standing ovation from about 200 people at the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest gay Republican group.

If you have a strong stomach and nothing breakable within arm’s reach, the comments section on the same AP article in the Union-Tribune is, ahem, interesting.  I guess that shows the difference between San Diego and San Francisco. 

One of my gripes about San Diego is that the city is really good at promoting huge for-profit sports franchises, and really horrible about promoting the countless other sports and cultural events around town.  In my gut I think it’s true of most cities, but now that I’m in my seventh year here I notice it more than I have anywhere else.  That comes with being professionally homeless (a term from the Foreign Service days) for so long – no long-term memory of the annual events and not enough time to find all the hidden treasures.

So even though it was on my calendar, it was great to have the local alums remind me last night about the upcoming Crew Classic regatta.  Not that I would have forgotten, but they were using my photographs from last year’s regatta in their plea for housing for the visiting athletes, and the ego boost from that helped brighten the morning. 

 Weather permitting, April 6th will be my seventh Crew Classic.   My first was in 2002 and I haven’t missed one since.  The alumni tents, particularly Cal’s, are first rate venues to relax and catch up, with occasional walks to the shore to yell and cheer when the good races are on.  The competition brings together the best collegiate rowers in the county in spring weather that only San Diego can offer.  Still not sure?  Check out the photos from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.  Even though San Diego’s not going to promote it, we will.  Come join the thousands of fans, have a beer and some meat off the grill, and watch the races.

When a freak snowstorm closes a highway and strands hundreds, in most parts of the country you’d be lucky to get a hot meal and some shelter outside of your car.  In San Diego, welcome to the Golden Acorn Casino.  Let our scantily clad refugee coordinators get you a warming beverage.  Come see if those karma points earned during the evac can be translated into slot-machine winnings.  The whole thing certainly sounds much better than our little refugee experience last fall.  I see a new marketing slogan -  San Diego: Where Even Disaster Has A Silver Lining.

An emotional Mayor Jerry Sanders revealed Wednesday that his daughter is gay as he signed a legal brief asking the state’s high court to overturn a prohibition on same-sex marriage, which he had vowed not to do.The San Diego City Council voted 5-3 Tuesday to join Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Jose and Oakland in the amicus brief, or so-called “friend-of-the-court” resolution in support of gay marriages.[from 10News]

Interesting how fast things can change.

“I acknowledge that not all members of our community will agree, or perhaps understand my decision today,” Sanders said. “All I can offer them is I am trying to do what is right.”

I’ve been in San Diego six years now and just had my first Night Zoo experience.  Apparantly, just like in the wild, the cool animals do the interesting stuff in the dark.

Instead of floating like a rock, the hippo was doing high-speed laps by running underwater on her toes in a scene that brought the original Fantasia to life.  The wild puppies were running around and fighting over a bush instead of looking for ways to beat the heat.  Monkeys, gazelles and a poor lone polar bear were ‘doing things like they do on the Discovery Channel.’  The giraffes were moping around like their turn-down service was running late, and a peacock was prancing around the grounds of the Horn and Hoof Mesa mocking the caged land animals with both his freedom and his plumage. 

But despite all those sights and spectables, all those examples of the wonderful diversity of the animal kingdom, probably the most memorable experience of the evening was enjoying a young tour bus driver entertaining the pedestrians near his empty vehicle by singing sea shanties as he made his required but pointless rounds.  So, what would you do with a drunken sailor?   Remember, it is Pride this weekend in San Diego.

How often do the paths of gluttony and charity intersect?  Well, tomorrow, for starters.  That’s Thursday, April 26, 2007, for those of you not reading along as I type.

Dining Out For Life.  The concept is simple: eat out, pay your bill, and then the restaurant or bar gives 25% of the check to HIV/AIDS programs.  So why not take the opportunity to buy another round and know it’s for a good cause?  As a new resident of San Diego’s northern burbs, I’m a bit disappointed that most of the participating restaurants are downtown (no HIV here in the burbs, dontcha know?), but what are a few more carbon emissions when karma is at stake?