Good morning, good morning, good morning - guh!

5:15 a.m. -- gunshots. Definitely not firecrackers. Not close enough to be on my block, though, so I decide not to check it out. 5:45 a.m. -- garbage collectors come by, con escandalo typico. The garbage cans are all plastic now, but that doesn't stop them from making big hollow thumping noises when they're set down or moved. 6:15 a.m. -- can't go back to sleep, so I get up. The cats are happy about it.

Did anybody not in SF see one of the Giants games that were nationally broadcast this weekend? Fox did the Saturday afternoon game, ESPN did the game at 5 on Sunday. If so, you got to see San Francisco summer weather at its finest and weirdest, particularly the fog-plagued game on Sunday. The Giants lost both, but they were close, getting the tying run on base in the 9th in each game, and they were interesting, good games. Fun to watch.

The Giants just aren't making it this year, though. I take those two losses as a predictor for the second half of the season: close to winning, but not enough.

In a speech this weekend in Aspen, Sen. Hillary Clinton compared Bush to ALfred E. Neuman, saying the President's philosophy was "What, Me Worry?"