What does it say that the most exciting thing that happened this weekend is that my fantasy football team won their fifth straight? In fact, I'm undefeated since I've been back in the States. And all this despite drafting Daunte.

So this weekend there was this Open Studio thing going on in the hood where various artists would show off their stuff. Some of them showed it off in their art space, some of them in various studios, some of them in their homes. And when I say home, I mean home- there were paintings in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the hallway, in the parking garage.

I have to say it’s a little weird to be wandering in checking out the artists work in their homes. It’s just a little, well, personal. It’s one thing to see their art work in a studio or some place. You're supposed to see art work there and possibly by it. Go into their home and they’re not only asking you to check out their art work and possibly by some, but also check out their apartment too. And yes, I didn't really want to engage any of the artists in conversation because it would make feel that much more guilty for not buying any of their ridiculously priced items.

As for the stuff, it was about what you’d think. Some of it was a little pretentious, some of it really good (seriously), and some of it really awful. One place we went to was this really fancy, big home up near Dolores Park. The artists' paintings were all nature stuff and animals. In fact, she advertised herself as someone who paints pet portraits (raising the question, of course, who the hell would get a painting of their pet?). Her non-portrait stuff was of nature pictures, like ducks taking off from a lake or a deer wandering through the forest. The duck picture, by the way, went for about $8000. The artwork mainly consisted of stuff you’d find in hotel rooms. I mean, it was just awful, like bad Thomas Kincaid or that guy who painted stuff on PBS. Except worse. The weird thing was that the artist in question was lesbian, as were all of her friends sitting around telling her what a great artist she was. I guess it really does show we've come a long way when lesbians can come up with perfectly crappy, cheesy nature paintings too.