I ride an electric vehicle several days a week...light rail! Or I walk, which uses no gas. Once or twice a week I drive my 18 year old station wagon...round trip, 4 miles. Occasional short jaunts on the weekends. I bought the car for $3000 five or six years ago. I might buy a hybrid or small gas-efficient car when this one dies--or I might not buy one for a while and see what happens.

Average gas use 2-3 gallons a week, based on the fact that I fill my tank about once a month. I figure I'm using less gas than Prius owners   making a round trip from Roseville or Elk Grove five days a week.

65 percent of the levees finished...which means 35 percent of the levees unfinished, I'd assume? Doesn't sound too good to me...a friend of mine at DWR has some bad things to say about much of the levee-reclaimed area up in that direction.

The Antelope area is basically a safe-but-boring cookie-cutter suburb. It was open fields until about a decade ago, when people felt confident enough that the unexploded bombs that rained all over the neighborhood in 1971 (the result of a munitions train explosion that leveled the original town of Antelope) were all found (although they did find a couple more in subsequent years.)

The Elverta/Antelope area is outside of the city of Sacramento by quite a stretch, as mentioned, between North Highlands (an unincorporated area around the former McClellan Air Force Base) and Roseville. It's fairly safe, if boring. It's close to Roseville, where there are plenty of patrician things to do, and driveable to Sacramento.

Sacramento isn't really that bad crime-wise. If you're used to San Francisco levels of hinkiness it's really nothing to worry about: I walk around late at night in downtown Sacramento, where I live, and feel perfectly safe, but I wouldn't feel too safe doing the same around Market Street, or the lower Mission, or Hunter's Point.

One thing about Antelope is that there is almost no public transportation: there are one or two buses that run during peak commuter hours and that's it. You'll need a car.

Oh yeah, Antelope isn't quite in the foothills but it's above the worst parts of the floodplain.

Natomas is in legal limbo right now...until ten years ago it had 10 year flood status (it was expected to flood every ten years.) But then they got that upgraded to 100 year flood status (floods once a century) basically by convincing FEMA to change the status on paper because it didn't flood for eleven years--even though there weren't that many improvements to the actual levee.

Now they've downgraded the levee. Flood insurance is required in many parts of Sacramento, including much of downtown, and it's recommended pretty much anywhere in the city. The new rules, that the city is fighting tooth and nail, require any new construction in Natomas to be built on a three-foot berm, although I hear part of FEMA wants a 10-20 foot berm.

Elk Grove is ten miles south of Sacramento or thereabouts, and basically identical to Roseville except it's flatter and even less exciting. It's technically "safe" except the kids there have pretty much nothing to do and they're forming gangs because they're bored. It would also be really darn silly to live in a suburb south of Sacramento and commute to a suburb north of Sacramento through the worst traffic in the region, when one could live in a suburb north of Sacramento that is at least close.

yeah, they go on the inside of the window. Not sure how it would work for, say, motorcycles.

Affordable housing--meaning housing affordable to people who work downtown, folks like restaurant employees, state workers, and office workers. Rents have skyrocketed in the central city as a result of real estate speculation, and many who work downtown can't afford to live there. A decade ago, you could get a two-bedroom apartment for around $450-600, now they cost $1000 or more--and median income in Sacramento certainly hasn't doubled in the past ten years! There is a lot of construction going on, and a lot of homes for sale, but so far there is still a wide gap between the prices people can afford to pay for housing and the prices posted for the available housing stock. Until that gap is filled, we will be stuck with the ridiculous situation of increased homelessness amidst a multitude of vacant houses.

Generally the area around 21st and K is the epicenter of Sacramento's LGBT scene. This includes the bar scene and other non-bar social hangouts like cafes etcetera. The Lambda Center on L and 20th might provide some helpful resources.

If you can go to sleep right after a workout, go for it.

They're just waiting for the next unexploded bomb to be discovered!

Probably better to eat after. Have a big glass o' water before you jog, then jog, then eat. Otherwise your blood is all in your stomach working on  digesting breakfast instead of out in your limbs carrying oxygen. Also, supposedly there is a "protein window" of about an hour after exercise when your body is much more able to utilize dietary protein.

Exception: If you wait an hour between breakfast and jogging then you can use all that extra chow as fuel. A relatively light, good-carbohydrate breakfast (like oatmeal with some fresh or dried fruit) is best for this, rather than, say, ham and eggs.

I'm not a nutritionist or anything, just someone who used to work out more than I do now. I'd normally work out between 1-4 hours after eating and eat something high-protein just after getting home from the gym, with good results. Work out too soon after eating and I'd have a rotten time and a tummy ache.

it looks like the giant woman on your homepage is about to eat the house with her amazingly white giant teeth!

What squalor do you mean?

Forwarded from NAST, Neighbors Advocating Sustainable Transportation:

> VERY TIME SENSITIVE - PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY AND MAKE YOUR DONATION NOW!
>
> *********
>
> On June 25th Caltrans approved a project to add lanes to Highway 50
> for what APPEARS to be a noble cause:  carpool lanes.  What's not to
> like?
>
> The PROBLEM:  These lanes will only be carpool lanes a few hours of
> the day.  The vast majority of the time, they will be UNRESTRICTED,
> BUSINESS-AS-USUAL HIGHWAY LANES which means 25% MORE CAPACITY for
> CARS AND TRUCKS and the GRIDLOCK and POLLUTION THEY CREATE.
>
> Despite that,  Caltrans has the AUDACITY to claim that the project
> "will not have a significant effect on the environment."  YES, YOU
> READ THAT RIGHT.  They claim that adding new lanes will not increase
> car trips, gas consumption or air pollution.
>
> More lanes means more cars and more AGGRAVATION.  Who hasn't felt
> ROAD RAGE being stuck in traffic, burning ever-more-costly gas,
> breathing fumes  and getting nowhere? There is an epidemic of OBESITY
> in this country, partly because most of us are stuck in our cars and
> can't easily walk or take transit to our destinations.  Serious car
> accidents, skyrocketing insurance premiums, lifelong health
> problems.  IT DOESN'T HAVE BE THIS WAY.  We CAN become a society less
> dependent on cars, with healthier, more enjoyable and less costly
> options for getting around quickly and conveniently.
>
> We believe that carpool lanes have a place in our future
> transportation plans.  But WE THINK OUR GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE HONEST
> ABOUT THEIR REAL IMPACTS, and allow for public debate about their
> total costs and benefits relative to alternatives like light rail,
> commuter rail, expanded bus service, and neighborhood shuttles.
>
> The time to shift our public investment to support more sustainable
> transportation is NOW.  RIGHT NOW.  LET'S NOT ALLOW THIS BEHEMOTH
> BUREAUCRACY TO PRETEND THAT EXPANDING ROADS WILL NOT EFFECT OUR
> QUALITY OF LIFE, OUR HEALTH OR THE ENVIRONMENT.
>
> Neighbors Advocating Sustainable Transportation (NAST) is a
> Sacramento coalition of neighborhood, community and environmental
> associations.  We have no staff.  We have no budget.  But we have a
> vision of a better future for Sacramento.
>
> WE HAVE ONLY UNTIL JULY 25, 2007 to file a lawsuit to STOP THIS
> PROJECT, so we need to raise money to hire a lawyer RIGHT NOW.
> Friends of ECOS is hosting a litigation fund for NAST.
>
> Please spread the word about this critical need.  MAKE YOUR CHECK OUT
> TO "FRIENDS OF ECOS", include a note directing it to the NAST
> Litigation Fund, and send your donation NOW to:
>
> FRIENDS OF ECOS
> 909 12th Street, Suite 100
> Sacramento  CA  95814
>
> **************
>
> THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIMELY SUPPORT!!!
>
> For more information about NAST, please visit http://nastsacramento.blogspot.com/

A colonoscopy? Is there something wrong with Bush's head?

I typically return any included postage-paid envelopes, stuffed with the shredded remains of the original letter, including the envelope it came in. Let 'em pay the postage. Too bad the post office banned affixing those letters to a box of, say, bricks, and making the junk-mail company pay the postage for that.

I have so many pet peeves I could start a peeve zoo.

The beautiful CREST THEATRE is proud to present the fourth night of the 2007 TRASH FILM ORGY series, featuring the 1975 David Carradine classic "DEATHRACE 2000"! Come out and you'll see race cars, hot chicks, manly men, appalling violence and high-speed stunts--and that's just RIGHT THERE IN THE THEATER, in addition to in the movie on the screen! Show starts at midnight--full details are available at http:///www.trashfilmorgy.com