(John Kerry’s) vote against the first Gulf war was, he says, a sign of his support for the first Gulf war. Whereas his vote in favor of the Iraq war was a sign of his opposition to the Iraq war. And his vote against funding America's troops in Iraq is a sign of his support for America's men and women in uniform. On the same principle, I think the best way voters this November can demonstrate their support for John Kerry is by voting against him.--- Columnist Mark Steyn

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at a table trying to push the CASA program to people at the Home Show. Most people, when the woman next to me asked, "have you ever considered being a foster parent?" recoil in horror. We did get a couple of people who were interested, but I think they were sold anyway.

They had manufactured homes set up. The first one I saw, 2450 sq. ft., I fell in love with. It would probably fit on this lot... I can just picture demolishing this one and slipping that one in. Hey, that way we wouldn't have to paint the living room, fix the ceiling, repaint the outside, and on and on and on. Though I suppose I'd still have to clean this place up. (Moving is easier than continuing to live in, however.) We also know what that would do to our taxes... but oh, I can dream.

Today Rich was honored for 100 donations of blood (platelets count for two.) We had a great meal at the Convention Center and Rich's prize to go with his lucite star of last year is a lucite clock. If they'll start taking his blood again, he could get $15 next year. In any case, he's permanently a member of the "club" and can come to this every year. There were 1500+ people at luncheon.

We heard quite a few people thanking us for saving their lives. Afterwards, we were musing as to why we donate... it's not really to save people's lives, I don't think. Just because someone should and now I can.

Heh. "Let's Talk about Health Care."

I wanted to find a Painted Lady locationless, and to my surprise, the Stanford Home hadn't been picked. First we found another Victorian mansion which we hadn't even known was there, but it wasn't the one we wanted. We drove around to the Stanford place and took some pictures of it behind the fences, and here is what I posted:

This is the Stanford Mansion in Sacramento, now a State Historic Park. It was built in 1856 for the merchant Shelton Fogus, and bought by railroad magnate and later governor Leland Stanford and his wife. Their son Leland, Jr. was born here in 1868.

The house was originally two stories, but in 1871-2 it was jacked up and a new ground floor put in, and a fourth floor added. President Rutherford B. Hayes visited here in 1880. It was used as a temporary Capitol while the Capitol was being built.

Leland, Jr. died aged 15, in 1884, of typhoid fever in Italy. His parents intended to memorialize him with a wing at Harvard University, but were snubbed by the eastern elite as rough westerners, and so Stanford University was born.

After Leland died, Jane donated the house (1900) to the Catholic diocese to be "used in perpetuity for the children of Sacramento." When we first moved here, the Sisters of Social Work cared for teens here. They also did outreach with the street kids.

We're not entirely impressed with the Sacramento City Council. They always seem to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on some scheme or another and then spend millions to fix it. An example is the youth hostel Marky posted earlier... it was moved, then moved back to the original lot ten years later, at great expense both times. (Sacramento has the only Youth Hostel that comes to you!) The Stanford Mansion is another example. In the 1980s, the city used eminent domain to take the house. They traded the Sisters for a parcel of land out by Arcade Creek. The Sisters moved a nice old brick building to the parcel, and were getting ready to reopen "Stanford Home" when the State stepped in and said it was on a floodplain, can't do that. So Stanford Home is now an assortment of group homes indistinguishable from any other group home foundation.*

Meanwhile, back at the Mansion... there was talk about refurbishing it for mayoral dinners and business conferences, but that got shouted down, and eventually it was given(sold?) to the State.

You see the condition this lovely old home is in. Supposedly it will open this year and be available for tours and functions. According to the 1988 book, it should have opened 10 years ago. We'll believe it when we see it. Jane Stanford is likely spinning in her grave.

*The book we used for some of this information, SACRAMENTO by William M. Holden (1988), tells a slightly different version, without the city being involved, but this is how we remember events, true or not.

Another person who's posted a Painted Lady is "Hairy Little Dwarf" in New Zealand. Gerhard!

I cleaned out my email. Yesterday someone posted on our virtual, Camp Union, and basically said he'd walked past it then realized at home "oh, hey, there's a cache" but he didn't remember anything about it. Chutzpah. I emailed him and gave him a week to actually look at it and mail me the answers to my questions before I delete his posting.

Tonight, we were watching Cold Case about a 1981 murder of a young girl runner. After the commercial, I thought I'd missed something because they were looking at a 2000 hit-run of a guy. Wait a minute. It turns out that CBS showed 15 minutes of the wrong show and then changed when they discovered their error. I'm not sure which error is worse. I long ago gave up on CBS news. I enjoy a large numbers of their entertainment shows, but not if they're going to do this sort of thing!