Hello, all! It’s a beautiful day here in sunny San Jose. For all you loyal readers, your two correspondents are alternating posting duties, and since Erin started us off so well on Monday, I need to make sure I keep the tone high.
I did maintain a blog for awhile over the last few years (California Cracker), but my pen, or at least my inspiration, ran dry last May. It’s not like things stopped happening, but writing about the good things began to seem boastful. And writing about the bad things seemed, well, a little too painful. So I stopped.
But now, Erin and I are working together, to bring you a wide range of fun things to read and see and do. She has some great ideas, and I hope you enjoy Cracker Sisters as much as we do.
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I’m going to start by recounting our Thrilling Adventure on Saturday. But, in order to do that properly, I need to give you some background. See, I listen to a lot of podcasts. I always love to learn something new, and I get bored easily. I was also raised in a house in which music was a near-constant presence. If I’m reading or working, silence is golden, but if I’m folding clothes or vacuuming or, even just brushing my teeth, I want to be listening to something. I want my brain to be at least partially engaged. As you can imagine, it kind of drives Charles crazy, having to repeat everything he says because I’ve always got my earbuds in and can’t hear him the first time he says anything.
So, anyway, I periodically go looking for new podcasts. Just the other day I found an awesome one about Doctor Who … oh, wait, that’s a tangent. Ahem. A couple years ago, when looking for new material, I ran across a mention of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a podcast written and recorded in the style of old-time radio. Well, I had to check this out. Those of you who have known Charles and me for a while may be aware that we are fans of old-time radio, like The Saint, Richard Diamond, Box 13.
Well, this new podcast was kind of wonderful. Charles wasn’t impressed when I made him listen to one episode, but I was hooked. What’s not to love about comedic stories involving space cowboys, time agents, a self-important hero called Cap’n Laserbeam, and Nick and Nora Charles knockoffs? Nothing, that’s what.
The Thrilling Adventure Hour came this year to the San Francisco Sketchfest, with two shows on Saturday, and – wonderful husband that he is – Charles encouraged (i.e. pushed) me to buy tickets, because he knew I would really enjoy it. We wanted to go to a show on Thursday night too (RiffTrax), but the timing wasn’t good, so it was just Saturday, and we made an afternoon of it.
We left San Jose about three, drove up 280 and into downtown San Francisco. We tracked down the chocolate shop we had visited ages ago when Shelly came to visit us (see this post) and got a little dessert for later. Then we wandered a bit and enjoyed the sights:
That last one is what it looks like – a man dressed in a long kilt, sheepskins, and stilts that look like goat legs, playing the bagpipes. San Francisco always has something interesting to share.
Dinner was here:
good food and atmosphere, but not very busy – at least not as early as we were there. Charles was clearly trying to make this the kind of date that I really like – fancy chocolate, fancy dinner, show that I was excited about. He basically admitted that he was trying to max out on husband points. (Don’t tell him, but he did a really good job.)
The show was fantastic – even, you might say – Thrilling. Very funny and well done. And, as a bonus, two of the guest stars were from RiffTrax, which we hadn’t expected. So we got to enjoy them even without going to the Thursday show, and Charles was rewarded in a way for being such a thoughtful husband, by having a much better time than he had expected.
And then we drove home under a bright, nearly full moon, listening to actual old time radio.
KS
crackersisters 