Today, I will spend the 39th anniversary of my birth on the I-5 travelling between the Bay Area and the Valley, hoping to mediate any quarrels between my sister and mom. The two-year old daughter of my hosts has just given me a chocolate-and-vanilla muffin, disguised as a birthday cake, which I have graciously offered back to her as a good will gesture (I already warned her that if she misbehaved one more time, I was going to leave). Up here, they are going to have two playoff games and a 49'er-Ram tussle at Candlestick; it's been some time since there was anything like that down in LA.

One of my hosts told me that for someone who's so funny in person, it's a shame that my site is so deadly serious, which is her way of saying that I'm dull. Such criticism weighs heavy on my mind.