Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

iamradar very generously gifted me two Giants tickets she could not use, provided I could get up to Fremont by 4 PM to collect them, which I did manage to do. Alas, none of my friends in Fremont whose phone numbers I had were answering when I called, or if they were, they were out of town, so I had both seats to myself. Since I had to go to Fremont, I rode BART to the game, then walked down to AT&T Park. Friday's game was also "Perfect Cain" night, as the Giants celebrated Matt Cain's perfect game that he threw a few weeks ago. I got a commemorative pin, and there were ceremonies on the field honoring Cain's first-in-franchise-history perfect game. I ended up with several extra pins, in fact, as the family sitting next to my two seats was visiting from Chicago and didn't want their pins, so they gave them to me. While talking to them, I mentioned that I'd be at Wrigley Field in a few weeks along with a bunch of my friends, thanks to there being a Giants-Cubs game going on the Friday of this year's World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. (As usual, I had to explain what Worldcon was, how it wasn't always in Chicago, how I've attended every one since 1989, how it's in different cities and not always in the USA -- he seems startled at the idea that I'd travel to a science fiction convention in Australia or Japan or Great Britain, but that's typical.)

A foul ball was hit into my section, which was in the lower level down the left field line (section 130, for those familiar with the park). It landed only ten seats to my right, but that was I think closer than any ball has ever come to me in my years of attending Giants games.

Unfortunately, the Giants bats fell asleep tonight, and the Rockies, the worst team in the division, were able to score three runs. The Dodgers won as well, so now they're tied with the Giants again for the division lead.

Since I was on BART rather than Caltrain, I didn't have to rush out of the game and hotfoot it to 4th & King to catch the post-game express train. Instead, I took the longer walk down the Embarcadero along with many other people and rode BART back to Fremont, arriving there just before midnight. After finding a gas station whose pumps were still working (I was almost out of fuel), and picking up a few things from Walgreen's (saving me having to go out and do those errands tomorrow) I headed back to San Jose.

As it happens, I'd planned on some errands in Fremont on Saturday anyway, and between getting the tickets from iamradar and catching BART to San Francisco, I was able to get them done. This means I have no plans to go anywhere on Saturday and will stay in the apartment, probably getting some "home" work done that's been pending since Westercon. But more importantly right now, I don't have to set that dratted alarm clock this weekend.

Cheryl and I had business in San Francisco yesterday evening. When we were done, it was past 9 PM and we were near the 16th/Mission BART station. (I was parked at San Bruno BART.) We decided to have dinner in the Mission district, where -- unlike Fremont, where everything but Denny's closes around 9 -- there were plenty of places open and bustling. Walking along Valencia street, we encountered Limon, a Peruvian restaurant. We had a good experience with a Peruvian place in San Jose before ConJose, so we decided to give this place a try. The result: excellent seafood. Cheryl had the Picante de Mariscos and I had the Arroz con Mariscos -- similar meals, although hers had the potatoes, and potatoes are something that Peruvian cooking does well. We had one appetizer, Anticucho de Pulpito, which I found a bit chewy, and one side dish, truffled macaroni and white cheese, which I liked a lot. We were too full to have dessert, and I'd had too much sugar in the form of a can of Inca Kola, so I wouldn't have felt comfortable adding yet more sugar anyway.

Total cost of the meal including tip was $90. Cheryl pointed out that in the UK she's often paid a lot more -- this meal cost approximately GBP22/person -- for a meal that was nowhere near as good. We'd be happy to go back here, and to take others.