what an exhaustingly fun weekend! i got back from a business trip to NY on thursday evening, and my brother arrived right after work on friday for his first trip to california as an adult. i felt a heavy burden to show him what i love about this amazing corner of the golden state.

we picked up our new car on saturday morning, and drove it (mostly top down) all around the bay area all weekend. we went down to half-moon bay, up to tiburon, over to sonoma, and all around the city. we climbed up telegraph hill, bought italian pastries in north beach, took the alcatraz tour, walked by at&t park, ate at the ferry building, and visited the local brewpub.

tonight i caught up on all kinds of things around the house, including catching up on reading the newspaper, and emails. below are some things i've particularly enjoyed lately.

i've been meaning to post a link to this store, which you should all check out. nifty!

be sure to refresh this site about what obama's done for you lately several times. after all, you don't want to be unaware of all of his goodness!

speaking of politics, i've read two op-ed pieces that i really identified with. since the newspaper sites are a pain to link to, i'll paste them here.

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here's dave egger's piece from the sunday nytimes about how san franciscans seem to feel about the recent super tuesday results:

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Losing to Idaho by Dave Eggers
Published: February 17, 2008

WELL, it was fun to be part of it. At long last, the California primary was scheduled early enough that the opinion of the country’s most populous state would be heard. There were near-record crowds at the polls, and everyone seemed happy to be there at all, like a bunch of distant relatives finally invited to the wedding. And what did our groundbreaking state do with its chance at making history? Nothing all that interesting. As the Obama wave swept across the country, we watched from the beach.

California (or much of it, anyway) prides itself on the leading edge of everything — technology, environmental policy, prevalence of bumper stickers, the continent itself — and yet, in choosing Hillary Clinton by 52 percent to Barack Obama’s 43 percent, the state proved itself more conservative than, for example, Kansas.

It was hard not to detect, at least here in the Bay Area, the sense of disappointment in our state after the subsequent primary results. To be out-progressived by Alabama, Maryland and North Dakota? Painful. If Mrs. Clinton won by nine points in California and Mr. Obama won by 62 points in Idaho, does that make us 71 points more conservative than the “Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations” state? (No disrespect is meant toward that beautiful state, or its flabbergasting former slogan.)

The odd fact is that in this year’s contest, Mrs. Clinton is actually the most conservative choice. Not conservative in a policy sense, but conservative in that with her, voters can be very sure of what they’re getting. There is almost no risk, no element of mystery.

With Mr. Obama’s newness comes a certain element of chance, and Mr. McCain, though he leans ever more doctrinaire, is still erratic enough that on the Internet he can be found singing — to a classic Beach Boys tune, mind you — about bombing yet another sovereign nation. So a vote for Mrs. Clinton, as capable as she is, is a vote for the known over the less-known, the establishment over the insurgent.

Which makes it all the more exasperating for Californians, who assume that every new idea originates here, to watch the Obama revolution begin in Illinois and proceed happily everywhere — Delaware! — without us.

Delaware, whose slogan is “It’s Good Being First” can now boast of being 20 percentage points more first than California. Utah, which once sighed, “This Is Still the Right Place,” came out 57-39 for Mr. Obama, making it 27 percentage points more correct than the Golden State.

The Potomac primaries just rubbed it in. Virginians went Mr. Obama’s way, 64-35, making them 38 points braver than Californians. Maryland, whose state tourism office used to advise visitors to, really, “Seize the Day Off,” voted for the Illinois senator 60-37, making their state 32 points more, let’s face it, daring than ours.

Heading South, it got worse. South Carolina was 37 points bolder than California, Georgia 44 points more future-embracing.

What’s our excuse? Er, we kept it interesting? After all, if Mr. Obama had won in a landslide here, we wouldn’t have the pleasure of this continually fascinating race, no?

O.K., you’re not buying that, so it’s time to accept responsibility. It wasn’t our fault! It was theirs, down there!

Northern California went Mr. Obama’s way by significant margins. Guess who voted for the establishment, for the past? Los Angeles.

Almost a third of Mrs. Clinton’s votes came from that county alone. So don’t blame us. It was them.

We’re with you, Idaho! With hope and change! The future! Great potatoes! Tasty destinations!

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and, on a more serious note, here's an op-ed piece that elizabeth wurtzel wrote about hillary for the wall street journal. i have been so torn about how to feel about the two democratic candidates, and i identified with this quite a bit.

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Hillary Agonistes by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Published: February 15, 2008

I've been told that I no longer need to do yoga, take up Pilates, or study Kaballah, and I can even stop listening to Bruce Springsteen. Apparently 45 minutes at a Barack Obama rally -- preceded by two hours and 45 minutes of waiting in the snow outside to get in -- will be all it takes to change my life. Forever. An open mind, a free spirit, a loving heart, a renewed appreciation for democracy -- and possibly even thin thighs -- will be mine for keeps, if I just take in the junior senator from Illinois at a high-school gymnasium in Waukesha or a Nascar track in Pocono or an arena in Dallas. In less time than it takes to get through a single session of psychotherapy, Mr. Obama can cure me.

Meanwhile, back in Hillaryland, all I'm promised is Hillarycare.
[Hillary Agonistes]

Of course, that's not fair. Like most Democrats this time around, I feel embarrassed with the richness of both presidential candidates. The first flush of Obamarama, this latest blush of Clintonism -- either would suit me fine. But it's obvious where the real heat is: If candidates were reading material, Barack Obama would be pornography -- he's got everybody aroused, fired up and ready to go. He's turned on the body politic as no one else has in my lifetime. And it's great fun. It's good for politics, it's good for democracy, it's good for America, it's good for messianism. Young people are excited, old people are nostalgic, middle-aged people are invigorated. People are so enthralled with Mr. Obama just because it's so easy to be enthralled with him.

Which is to say, there's no accounting for charisma. Some people are simply gifted, and the only way to respond is to clear the way and let them do their magic. But this collective cathexis that created Obamamania is obviously a deep desire for authenticity, and he is the natural repository of our hidden hopes.

Mr. Obama is what the future looks like: a biracial child of divorce, schlepped halfway around the world by a conscientious but confounded single mother, abandoned by a wayward but winning Kenyan father, international but somehow still all-American, a party-hardy Harvard Law graduate. That is, an ordinary extraordinary guy, the dreamiest of all our dreams. If only every kid from a broken home could turn out to be such a fine gentleman! How can we not love him? With a million other things he could be doing, Mr. Obama actually wants to lead us. Us? What did we do to deserve him?

That's how lucky Barack Obama makes us feel.

And then there's the whole Hillary Rodham Clinton situation. What can I say? She's been called the anti-Christ, but her problem right now is that she's the anti-Obama.

There is a special kind of hate that people -- particularly women -- reserve for Hillary Clinton that is unique in contemporary politics. It's nothing like the disdain liberals feel for W., which is only to be expected, and has no special edge: Liberals believe President Bush is an undeserving doofus who made a big huge mess, that's that. But the hatred for Hillary Clinton is visceral and venal, a lot of it is female and feminist, and some of it is simply off the charts.

A young woman I respect in northern California describes Hillary as "grotesque." A middle-aged successful artist I know -- herself a bit of a virago -- thinks she's "evil." And my mother, who is admittedly a Republican, is capable of going on and on about how Hillary is in it all for herself, that she'll do anything to win, that she'll kill to push her agenda through, that she's just a disgusting human being, that the sound of Hillary's voice is enough to send her racing for the remote control to turn off her beloved Fox News. The New Republic points out that many Democrats describe Hillary Clinton as "mendacious, brutal, willing to bend (or break) any rule in pursuit of power." And they're on her side.

This special anti-Rodham anger is especially troubling because it's impossible to separate from sex or sexism. Hillary Clinton reminds me that it's possible that all powerful women are, as my friend puts it, "grotesque." They are exaggerated humans, extreme cases, everything to everybody.

Hillary is grotesque because she has gotten to where she is, indeed, by playing it every which way -- by being a career woman when that made sense, a wife when that was advantageous; working on her husband's behalf when that seemed the way to the top, then working for herself when the coast was clear; standing by her husband despite infidelities because she loved him, while belittling Tammy Wynette for offering the very advice she was ostensibly taking; pooh-poohing the prospect of having teas and baking cookies instead of having a profession, and then becoming first lady and having teas as a profession for a full eight years. Yes, Hillary Clinton will do anything, bless her heart: That is how you amass power as a woman. We hate her, because she exposes the sordid business of having it all for the grotesque thing that it actually is.

Might she have played it differently? Of course, it's possible. No one can quite explain how it is that a woman who now campaigns on the virtues of electronic health records and streamlined financial-aid forms once gave the 1969 graduation address at Wellesley College that fantasized about "a more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating mode of living." Once upon a lifetime ago, Hillary Clinton could have been Barack Obama! When did she become a technocrat? How is it that Mr. Obama beat her at her own game?

Obviously, Hillary gave something up by marrying Bill. In their particular partnership, Bill is inspiration, Hillary is perspiration, that's the way it goes. She lost her voice, and no, she did not get it back in Manchester, N.H. on Jan. 10. She's been in the business of enabling charismatic men for so long, Hillary Clinton doesn't quite know how to facilitate anything but power itself.

Still, Hillary has won big states like New York, California, and even Sen. Ted Kennedy's native Massachusetts -- and by large margins. Because, finally, the ladies turn out for her, as they did for that surprise win in the New Hampshire primary.

Pollsters say that women are the most important element of the electorate, and hate her though we do, in the end, we can't help ourselves. We see Hillary, we see Barack, and we see our own version of hell: Here is this amazing woman, top of her class, implausible marriage to impossible man, works as hard as the day is long, masters all the forms and spreadsheets of governing, even manages to raise a pretty darn good kid -- and then along comes this guy, this groovy Obamarama, with his pleasing mien, his high style, his absolute fabulousness, and he wants the top floor, corner office that she earned.

And women -- women have seen this movie, women have heard this story, women know the drill, have had their manicured fingers ready to ring that particular fire alarm for years now. Women, finally, will say no to that. Real women don't care what Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver with their easy words and easy lives have to say about any of this. No one with a job takes advice from someone with a chef.

Right now, it looks like Barack Obama will be the nominee. Hillary Clinton is unlikely to win any more primaries for a few more weeks, and at that point, it may be too late for this championship season. But pundits count her out at their own peril. That woman is a force of nature. One of these years, Hillary is going to the White House. If she has to win every single vote one by one, she'll do it. If she has to take hostages, hold a gun to the head of every voter as he enters the booth, she'll do that too. She may even cry.

Never underestimate Hillary Clinton.