Two Random Items

I neglected to mention that on Saturday's outing, I was able to confirm that the hands-free-phone function on my new GPS does, in fact, work as advertised on incoming calls. The sound quality is not ideal, but then, I often have problems with phone sound quality, no matter what sort of line and device I'm using. (One of the things that led me to ask for a hearing test at my recent 50-year-tune-up appointment. Alas, my language-interpretation problems are not blamable on any hearing impairments. I'm at the same place I was back in grade school: "I can hear you perfectly; I just have to ask you to repeat it several times before I can figure out what the words are.")

And I'd like to remind readers that I'm holding a 4th of July games-and-BBQ party at my place (on, duh, the 4th), starting noonish and culminating in walking over to the Emeryville marina to see how many fireworks displays we can spot. The downstairs tenant has a couple of German friends in town who are delighted to partake in our quaint local cultural celebrations, so I have a core group no matter who else shows up.