July's End

We drove to Los Angeles tonight to meet with Sofie and Romi and say goodbye to them. It’s hard to believe that they got here on July 8th–it seems like yesterday. They left us, as I mentioned, on Wednesday and headed for Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. They’ll fly out of LAX tomorrow morning [...]

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My friend Mark Malloy all but dared me to “out” the wine shop I was writing about last night. His point was a fair one–if I’m going to write about it, have the courage to name it so that the owners can, perhaps, right their ship as it were. Well, it’s too late for that. [...]

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A brief-ish post, gentles, as I prepare for a story I need to write. The last couple of days have been fairly busy, though not impossible–but for whatever reason, I am deep tired. I’ve been exercising a lot and I attribute much of it to that. Sue, Laurie and I attended a small wine and [...]

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The Belgians texted me this afternoon that they’d arrived in Las Vegas safe and sound. They got up this morning and were a little noisier than usual which woke me–and Peanut, too. That’s no problem–no worry. We miss them now that they’re gone. Shannon came into our room at 7:30 this morning asking if she [...]

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Tonight is Sofie and Romi’s last official night with us. They’ve been here since July 8 and it has gone by so very fast. They’ll leave early in the AM for Las Vegas to wind up their “American tour” and take a quick run down to the Grand Canyon while out in the desert. Then, [...]

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I’ve fallen asleep here on the couch no less than two times this evening. It may have actually been three, I am unsure. It was unintentional, though I knew going to bed this morning at 1:00 and waking at 7:00 would do me no real good. I had to be in Santa Paula to interview [...]

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It’s not quite enough to have the weekend when I’m working–but I can’t really call it work. I’m covering a food and wine festival known as A Taste of Camarillo today. This little burg of ours has, over the years, created one of the more successful fundraisers in the area and it attracts quality food [...]

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Peanut’s summer workshop, day-camp thingy ends today. The past three weeks, she has been a marine biologist, a dancer, learned about how to handle money and made products (bookmarks) to sell to unwitting family and friends and made all manner of arts and crafts resulting in about a zillion God’s eyes laying about the house. [...]

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I learned today that the NY Times, for whom I now officially work as a freelance writer does not allow me to make story pitches. The Times has always decided what the news is and now is no different. So, if they find a story worth covering in my area, I’ll get a contact and [...]

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Sunday was a brilliant day. Up around 7 and out the door before 9 down to Disneyland with Sofie and Romi. It was an incredibly wonderful experience. The heat wave broke cleanly and nicely and it never got much above 85 degrees in Anaheim. There was a cool breeze, too. If you stood in the [...]

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