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Well, it seems that I suddenly have a break. No stories due today or tomorrow. I have a couple of interviews I’ll do in the afternoon Monday, but today–Mother’s Day, I am free. So–we lavished Sue with all kinds of stuff.

First, it was awakening to her “Mother’s Day Card” that we all put together by using my handy little digital video camera. I videoed a good lot of her friends all sending Mother’s day wishes, then the family, Laurie, Sofie and Ms. Peanut. We made a good lot of images and best wishes and set it to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” It’s really cool to see and Sue loved it.

Yesterday, she got a bouquet of her favorite Gerber Daisies in a vase with four roses, one each for me, Laurie, Sofie and Peanut. We also bought tickets for the whole family to see Wicked and we’ll go to the matinee on May 31st.

Off to church for the Mother’s Day pancake breakfast and the service. Back home and readying for this evening’s romp over to Sue’s favorite place, Ventura Harbor and the arcade where she can play Skee ball and eat dinner at Andrea’s Fish Market.

I need a nap something fierce. The play at the high school was just sort of the straw on the Camel’s Back. It was one thing too many and I got too little sleep, too much work, and so little downtime that I don’t know what to do with myself now that I have some. So, I thought I’d post since I haven’t been as consistent on that. The play goes well–the kids are utterly fantastic in their roles and they’re having a good time with it. I dropped an entire set of lines last night and the student to whom I am talking with those lines, covered it right up. He was great.

Now that rehearsal is over, all that’s left is the three shows next weekend and that makes me happy.

Yesterday, I got the opportunity to speak on wine and food pairing at Fess Parker’s Wine Country Inn in Los Olivos. Sue’s Central Coast Dietetics group was having their “end of year” meeting and so she asked me to come up and talk about food and wine. The two of us drove up, Sue spoke a bit, I spoke a bit and then the keynoter was Dr. Doris Dorillian who is just wonderful. She’s trying to put the food back into dietetics; move it away from its clinical housing into the realm of what tastes good as well as what’s good for you. I spoke to her at length and just thought she was tremendous. What a wit, an intellect and a passion. Those are great combinations and she was a real joy.

So–I think I may take a nap. After I walk Scoop, of course. He’s staring at me as I write this. He’s actually standing behind me in an attempt to make me nervous.

It’s working…

OK, last night’s performance was attended by the fam and so once again, I was so tired when I got home, that I didn’t even sit at the computer to answer e-mails. I’ve put myself in a position of rather extreme proportions until next Saturday. The fact that it is only until then is a good and wonderful thing. I’ve a performance tonight and then three more to go–next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. However, in between–I’ll be much happier, I think.

Spent a lot of time with Peanut when I got home from school and she came to the play. The schedule has not allowed me to do that and I have been swamped from A-Z. Tired as the day is long, overworked and, naturally enough, short-tempered and frustrated which has not helped anybody, including me.

Today, Sue and I get to go up to Fess Parker’s Winery where Sue is hosting a luncheon for a bunch of Dietitians from the Central Coast Chapter of the California Dietitians Association for which she is past President. She asked me to come along and speak to the group about wine and food pairing to the group and I’ll do that. Should be fun. We’re drinking Pinot Gris, Viognier and Syrah. The latter two are from Craig Jaffurs’ winery which in my humble opinion is one of the top tier wineries of the Central Coast.

Got a couple of deadlines rolling along as well and tomorrow is Mother’s Day so it’s a busy weekend, but it should be a relaxing one as well. I’m honored to be a part of it. Peanut is slowly waking up as I write this and she says “Good Morning” to all you folks reading this. Nice kid, Peanut. She’s thoughtful, she’s courteous and she’s wonderful. But, then I’m biased.

Well, on with the day. More posts to come later…

Pardons, please. Busy times and I have had no blogging time. It’s late now, too–and we just had opening night for the high school’s production of Rumors. Fun play and the kids were fantastic. Shawn and I held our own as Welch and Pudney. Tomorrow, the family comes and I am excited about that.

Tired to the bone, I’m afraid, but amped too. I’d like a few nights off, but that’s not coming until Sunday night I’m afraid. Meanwhile, the change in routine, along with a lot of other changes going on, has put Peanut on edge. She’s acting it out by claiming tummy aches whenever she sits down to eat, or separation anxiety stuff. Normal, so I’m told, but still nerve-wracking. Some kids just go with the flow—not Peanut. Then again, neither her mom nor I did either.

I’m off for sleep, gentles. Read Lileks. He’s always brilliant.

Here’s me glad I did the Sunday post because I lost Monday night in a hurry. I’m barely here tonight, actually. Got a bit of downtime since rehearsal today went from 3 to 5:15 and so I was able to get home between 3 and 4 (Shawn and I don’t come on stage until the last 15 minutes of the play) to see Peanut and then I came home at 5:30 in time to go over and do the Italian wine tasting with my pal Matt Knauss from the Henry Wine Group at Enoteca Tosacana here in town.

Some good varietals tonight including a truly mineral laden and powerful Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Now, that’s the grape, Montepulciano, not the town. It was fantastic.

The only white of the evening was a Trebbiano which was also really good. A lot of peach or nectarine flavors, no oak which I like a lot on white wines and a good balance of acidity. It was Sue’s favorite and our friend Karen’s, too.

Meanwhile, I’m working on a couple of news and feature stories for the paper and I enjoy those a great deal. I wrote a piece today that I’ve been researching a couple of days and it’s turning out to be a bigger pain than I thought. A lot of nuances in this piece and a need for quite a few quotes, which I’ve gotten, but that all need to be in the piece. Well, I cleaned it up and answered the editor’s questions before I came here, so we’ll see how I did in the morning.

Six weeks until the end of school and a two week (6 performances) run of Rumors which I have to get through. I tell you I’m as tired as I’ve ever been. But I’m also just as enthused. I love what I’m doing and I’m learning what hard work really and truly is.

I’ve got a bunch of political stuff, but I may try to avoid it. Should I? Well, no. I can’t. I have to mention just this one story:

So, Henry Waxman who is a California Congressman is holding hearings yesterday and he’s angry. What has him worked up? Apparently, he’s upset that his home-state’s biggest city, Los Angeles, is simply unprepared for a major terrorist attack. According to Waxman, whose information comes from hospital doctors and state officials, L.A. would not be able to handle the casualties if a terrorist attack resulted in the high hundreds or thousands of injuries.

OK–so what? Well, here’s what. Waxman is a mouthpiece for his whacko Speaker, Mrs. Pelosi, another of our state’s monuments to mediocrity. These are the big D’s–the Democrats who are also famous for arguing some other points of view as well, no? They are the ones who argue terrorism isn’t all that big a threat. They argue, and on their fringes–which are hard to distinguish from their core anymore–that in fact, the Bush family is responsible for 9/11 and Pelosi, Waxman, et. al have given lip service to their belief that the terrorist threat is exaggerated and there really is nothing to worry about.

In fact, they’ve gone even further–their two nominees for President argue that we should precipitously pull our troops out of Iraq, apparently ignoring the consequences that such an act would bring. Mrs. Clinton, however, depending on the day, will threaten to bring the American might to bear on Iran and destroy it utterly if needs be. But, apparently this depends on whwat day she’s talking. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, in keeping with his radical, Chicago-machine politician roots, believes we need to run away from the Middle East, bring the troops home and nevermind the consequences. Well–there’s your choice for President in the “D” column.

So, if Mr. Waxman is so worried about L.A.’s unpreparedness for a terrorist attack, then why does he vote in concert with policies that would make such an attack more likely? Does that makes sense? Why does he agree with his party that getting out of Iraq would be the right thing to do?

Let’s go further. Now that we have established that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had numerous contacts with various Jihadi groups including Al-Qaeda and Ansar Al Islam (though those facts seem to somehow get buried on the 24th page of the NY Times and other media outlets) and that he was providing them with money in some cases, with safe harbor in other cases, with information in some cases, why should we leave Iraq? Indeed, why was it a bad idea to go in? True, lots of mistakes and that does happen in war. Read your history. I shudder to think how Normandy would have looked on Foxnews and CNN. I daresay we’d all be speaking German now.

I digress. That’s enough political stuff for one night. Lots of links, though. So follow them.

And remember, if you have had enough–then you need to vote for the man who has more integrity than all of them put together. And you need to vote for him because he will win the war.

It is a Sunday and in the recent past, I don’t blog on Sundays. I have no specific compunction against it nor aversion to it, I just find that Sundays really kind of belong to my church, my family and such. It’s a good way to deal with it, I think.

But, in a little less than an hour, I have to go off to “rehearsal” over at the school. My pal Shawn and I are making a cameo appearance in the school’s production of Rumors. It’s a funny show and the kids are doing a great job. Shawn and I are just bit parts and that’s the way we want it. I have no desire to take over the stage from the kids who earned it. I have my scruples, you know….

And because last night was a late night with, perhaps, a bit overmuch wine, I didn’t sleep nearly well enough to be able to handle going back to work tonight. At times today, I felt like I didn’t sleep at all last night and I was sitting here earlier reading, I fell asleep over what was really a fine article.

So, I’ll make a cup of espresso before I go and hope to get myself a little more awake between now and rehearsal. It’s not a late night, I’ll be home by 9:30, but it’s enough to throw me off my game considering last night’s lack of shut-eye.

Drank a glass of Cline Zinfandel with dinner. Chicken Piccata, fresh bread, pasta and salad was the fare. This is consistently one of the best wines for less than $10.00 I’ve ever had. I don’t know the Cline folks, but I’d like to. I intend to spend some time up in Sonoma and Napa this summer, and if they allow visits, I intend to pay one. Their Zin, anyway, is really top-notch.

Onward tomorrow–a couple of zinger stories I need to be on top of. Hopefully, there’ll be sleep this evening.

This moment, a breather. From this time, a space, a a free time, a think I’m not used to. It is a Saturday and it could not have come sooner. Time for dinner, for friends, for green lawns and croquet, for good wine and food, for children’s laughter and even for love. For a moment, just a moment. Love.

And it’s better to watch this river from the banks, to pull off and tie up and let the water flow on. I’ve been swimming it as though its destination depended on where I took it. It didn’t, of course. It didn’t at all. It kept going and I didn’t need to be in it.

These moments, a breahter. These times, spaces, I choose, we choose as a family, together. And we share the moment and we care about where it goes, but not enough to guide it. For this time, we choose not to captain the ship, not to steer the plane. We choose to be free of all of these things and watch.

We couldn’t do it, of course, wouldn’t do it, if we never jumped back in and had some say, had some choice in the course. But tonight, we sit on the banks and watch the river roll by while we sit, careless, noiseless and focused.

All that is big comes through here and all this is small, too. In the end, there is no choice but to live this way, to care enough that you are steering, but to back away from it once in a while.

Sleep beckons.

It’s an odd feeling I’ve had these past few weeks. I’m so busy that when I do get a chance to sit down, often I’m asleep within 10 minutes or so. I’ve not even walked the dog regularly for the past three weeks and my cardio-walking-exercise routine is nearly a religion in my life. I do it regularly between 4 and 6 times a week and right now, I’m lucky if I get to go twice a week. Scoop feels it, too. He’s not happy.

But frankly, between teaching, writing–and all it entails, interviews, notes, meetings and the like, finishing the yearbook, managing the student paper and lastly rehearsals for the student play at school (my pal Shawn and I have cameo roles), I’m simply tapped out. There’s no way I can get my mind around all of it at once. Then, unfortunately, nighttime comes and as spent as I am, I cannot sleep. It’s after 10:00 P.M. and I’m awake. I shouldn’t be. I can feel it in my very bones.

Tomorrow, it’s up early again as I promised I’d help proctor the SAT over at school. Beyond the fact that I have to be awake, it won’t be taxing. I don’t have to work that hard–just sit and watch the kids do their thing.

There’s a rehearsal tomorrow afternoon, but I’ve begged out of it on account of I haven’t spent very much time with my daughter and I miss her. She told me she misses me too. Generally, she’s not awake before I leave for work and these days, I get home just about 3 hours before her bedtime. Now, I know that a lot of dads have it a lot worse than me. So, this is not a complaint. It’s merely a description of how different my life is just now. It’s a little confusing and I have yet to find my sealegs in this topsy-turvy world. But, I will. I’m certain it won’t be this way forever. It can’t be. Scoop won’t allow it, not to mention the unbridled rebellion of a 7-year old girl if she doesn’t see her dad a bit more often.

So, I’ve found myself reading more about the economy lately. I’ve had to dig into understanding mortgages and investments and such. Big brother Doug is convinced, Mark Steyn like, that demographics is destiny. I’m a big Mark Steyn fan and I’ve found that I agree with everything the man says. But, I’ve yet to convince myself of the meltdown depression scenario. I’m a bit more optimistic. There are, however, some interesting bad signs out there. There are good ones as well, of course. But the boomers are retiring and they won’t ignore their entitlements. Honestly, I talk to friends of mine that are my age or younger and most of them agree with me, for example, that the healthcare for life promise from our school district isn’t real for us. Right now, if you serve 15 years in our district and are 55 or older when you retire, you get your healthcare coverage until Medicare kicks in. But that won’t be there in a few years. There’s no way to fund it.

And what of Medicare? Soon, nearly the entire population is going to be on it. Big brother Doug is a pharma rep. in the world of oncology and as he points out, most oncology docs essentially work for the government anyway. The majority of their money comes from the government. Well, that cannot continue forever.

I know that many of my left-leaning friends indicate that this is why we need nationalized health-care, but I disagree. In fact, it’s insurance, which is essentially a form of communism, that has driven prices up in the first place. If insurance companies weren’t involved, the fee for medical services would be much lower because the market would drive it. I’m not sure that’s the absolute solution, particularly not now after years of healthcare provided by employers, government entitlements, etc.

And this isn’t even a healthcare rant. This is a demographics and economics rant. So, as bb Doug says, and I agree with, remember–debt is dumb, cash is smart.

Well, there is a deadline tonight and it’s a story I have to read my notes to write. Unfortunately, I don’t want to sit up at the table reading notes just now. I’m tired enough that I think I’ll write it tomorrow when I’ve slept on the interview and the note-taking. Normally, I don’t do that. And right now I’m trying to justify it to myself. It’s rare enough that I’m a little uncomfortable with it. The question is what’s more uncomfortable…waiting until tomorrow or sitting up tonight? Right now, I’m inclined to think the latter. But who knows? I might awaken at 4 A.M. with a burning need to finish the piece. I’ve written two paragraphs. That is not unusual for me. I have at times found that I start a piece the night before or the morning before, sleep on it or spend a day doing other things and when I come back to it, I have a fresh look. Fascinating for you to read, no doubt?

So, while I sit here contemplating whether or not to stay awake to write this story, I’ll simply point out that the weekend is coming and a fine one it should be. Weather looks to be better than last weekend when it was just darned hot. We’ve had a string of nice spring days now and it’s that warm sun, cool ocean breezes with temperatures hovering right around 68 degrees. It’s magical.

May is here which means mom’s birthday, Mother’s day, Memorial Day and….Rose season! Yessir, in terms of wine seasons this is the one I look forward to most. Now, I love Christmas-time but you know, I don’t think it’s particularly a wine season, per se. But spring is most definitely rose season and rose, pink wine–blush wines…are a great thing.

Sola Rosa has a beautiful Rhone rose that’s worth drinking. I like the rose’s of Pinot Noir I’ve tasted, but they lean toward expensive and rose needn’t be expensive. Some of the best I’ve tried were the rose’s from Provence. These were truly spectacular and I cannot wait to try them again.

OK. I’ve run out of time and excuses. I’ll go read Lileks. If anyone can get me to write, James Lileks can. Good night.

Now, I have to admit, I was not prepared for the argument. Down below, on a recent McCain post, I had a good dialogue going with my pal Marc. Even brother Jerry pitched in and we all found common ground to talk and where we disagree, we agreed to do so. Marc runs left of center, Jerry and I both right of center. It was a good, sound discussion of events and situations.

But then there was this morning at school. I have good friends that I have coffee with in the morning for a little bit before class starts and someone, though I forget whom, brought up the Obama situation with his pastor and how he had to disown him. Now, these guys are definitely left of center, though most won’t admit it. They don’t like labels they say. But I was surprised at how they felt that Obama was being unfairly smirched with Pastor Wright’s comments.

They said they thought it not fair that Obama get painted with Wright’s brush. They said it was too much like guilt by association. They said that whole they don’t agree with Wright’s comments (some of which they’d read only this morning), they didn’t think that meant that Obama could be judged by them.

I said I didn’t understand. I said we’re talking here about a close personal relationship. Obama has said on numerous occasions that he was very close to Pastor Wright, that at various times it was Wright who led him to faith in Jesus, Wright who married him and his wife, Wright who baptized his children, Wright who served as his spiritual mentor. Then, he took several weeks to offer tepid defenses and denunciations of Wright. He didn’t agree with much of what he said, but then much of what he said was “taken out of context.” So, the blogosphere went to work and provided the context. If anything, Wright’s comments amplified a more mean spirited, racist and angry view of the world. Then, on Bill Moyer’s, Wright played the victim saying he was mis-understood, taken out of context, knew that Obama had to say what politicians say, etc.

Then came yesterday. Wright went off the deep end. He accused the US govt. of being as bad as Al-qaeda, he accused whites of being permanently racist and he said that in fact, whites and blacks were different and he even said that blacks have more rhythm than whites. Imagine John McCain saying that. Imagine President Bush saying that. Imagine….Look at recent history to see what happens when whites make racist comments: Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Jimmy the Greek–the list goes on.

Now, I’m in full agreement that Barack Obama may not agree with his wacky, nutty, racist, xenophobic, far-out Pastor. I’ll even go so far as to say that maybe you cannot paint Obama with the same brush. But then, Obama did say that Wright was his spiritual mentor, didn’t he? And Obama did say he was a member of Wright’s church for 20 years, didn’t he? And many of the sermons we now have of Wright are from the 1990’s, aren’t they? And Obama has said that while there were some things he disagreed with, Pastor Wright was taken out of context, didn’t he?

Here’s the thing. I’m a church goer. And I’m very close with my pastor–he’s a good, close, personal friend of mine. And I know that we don’t see eye to eye on many subjects, politics among them. But my pastor has never said anything so inflammatory that I’ve been moved to leave the church. He has indeed made me uncomfortable, mostly in his targeted and right-on preaching of the Gospel, making me uncomfortable with the fact that I am, often times, not in line with the Word of God as I read and believe it. This, I believe, makes him a good, strong messenger for God. He’s a man of integrity and faith with a devout and deep faith. For all I know, he could be listening to Pastor Wright and sympathizing with him. But if so, he has not said it out loud to me or to anyone I know. And generally, he’s too busy preaching about Salvation by Grace, teaching how we are to love one another and be resources for good and messengers of God’s grace in the world to talk much about how the US is a terrorist state.

So, that’s what surprised me this morning. As I said, I’ll even go so far as to say you cannot paint Obama with the same brush: But, you can go as far as to say that a 20 year Pastoral relationship is a lot deeper than most people are willing to admit. And, I think you can go as far as saying that if Obama is just now denouncing Pastor Wright, it shows a serious lack of good judgment on his part. How’s he going to deal with bigger issues than his Pastor’s sermons?

Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton is basking in the glow of…well, not glowing. She hasn’t been given the camera or the microphone as my friend Marc rightly points out, the press dogs this particular issue to death. And my man John McCain is still waiting for the other shoe to drop so he can finally have one opponent to face. McCain is savvy, he knows how to wait it out–and he knows how to handle the Democrats by not handling them. It’s rather like having an aquarium in front of you holding two rattlesnakes. You’re at a slight distance and you know that the snakes can get out at some point. Realistically, one will get out eventually. What you don’t want to do is knock the thing over and expedite the process. That’s McCain.

I think you should vote for him for President. But hey, what do I know?

I am truly in awe of yesterday and I apologize for the lack of posts. Home around 9:00 PM from Disneyland and I pretty much went straight to bed. It was about 90 degrees down in Anaheim yesterday, but truly, it was not unbearable. The crowds were down and we were able to navigate the park and ride rides pretty easily and well. We used the fast pass system for our first time yesterday for my favorite ride, Splash Mountain. Peanut claims not to like the ride, but she comes on every time and giggles until she loses her voice afterward. It’s priceless.

Sofie and Sue, Peanut and I went on all the biggies including the new Finding Nemo ride which is really fantastic. The animation done underwater, the sound effects, the movement of the submarines, all of it is a real treat and hearkens back to Disney’s roots of telling stories in their rides. When they do this, they’re successful. When they don’t, they’re not successful at all.

From Big Thunder to Pirates of the Caribbean, from Soarin’ over California to Space Mountain for the rest of the family (the only rough rides I’ll do is Big Thunder and Grizzly Rapids on account of my neck and such), we really had a great time and a fine family escape. It’s just what we needed except that Aunt Laurie didn’t come this time.

Well–another couple of articles to write and a few more lines to go. I’m sleepy still and ready for some shut eye, too.