Four teenagers

A few weeks ago Drew and I took Dylan and 3 of his friends up North to ski. We had a ball and boys were gentlemen - for the most part!


Dylan, Matt, Bridger and Griffin went off and skied the whole mountain on their own and had a great time.


One night we went to Flatbread's for pizza. And yes, those bottles are root beers!


The pizza is cooked in a big wood fired oven that throws off a huge amount of heat. There's a big log in front and the kids love to sit in front of it and watch the action. Cameron, Drew and Brandon did just that.

The most interesting part of the trip was listening to the boys talk in the car. If you just keep your mouth shut and listen, you sure can learn a lot!

Doreen and family got a real education in teenagers while we were there! I think they were thankful that their kids are still young. The house held up well - we slept 11 people that night and it was cozy but fine.

Yes we can

Women making decisions

A Dog's Life

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Sleep

First of the lasts

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stood to introduce George Bush at last night's State of the Union address. She began, "It is a distinct honor and privilege to introduce..."
the LAST State of the Union by George Bush - Huzzah!"

OK, so that was me who said that last part.

How about that initiative to broker a peace plan in the Middle East? Yeah - they're already lining up in Stockholm to award him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Does anyone remember that he began his tenure in office promising as Slate says to "change the tone in Washington and write big chapters in history. In his last two annual addresses to Congress, he pledged to kick the nation of its oil habit and overhaul the Social Security system." An oil man, kicking the oil habit. When monkeys fly... And since he's screwed the financial future of a generation with spending, did anyone really think he'd fix Social Security.

From Slate: "The sad thing about President George W. Bush's final State of the Union address is that he seems to have learned so little about the crises in which he's immersed his nation so deeply."

Sad? It's appalling. And I don't mean Bush. I mean that we let him do this for eight years.

We need to throw Bush and his kind out, but also all those pandering, gutless Dems in Congress too. Time for a reboot.

Of skiing and swimming

Drew got a helmet cam for Christmas. Last weekend he strapped it to his ski helmet and cut his first movie. The audio is not so strong - at one point he says "I'm as good as Mark Spitz! Wait. Mark Spitz is a swimmer!"



That got me thinking about Mark Spitz. Check it out - he has an official site. I was in LOVE with Mark Spitz when I was 10 and on a swim team. Well? Look at him! What's not to love?

Now Drew is on swim team and obviously I've mentioned Mark Spitz more than a few times to him. Spitz is the most amazing swimmer I've ever seen.

Here's Drew at his last meet. The coaches draw that ferocious face on each of the kids right before they swim.

Zzzzzzzz

Mema gets caught in the act...Nancy sends this pic of her saying she's got " legs crossed, dressed nicely, scarf on ---- and sleeping........."

Dan's great adventure

Love is everything.

But love gone wrong is, well, worse than anything.

I bet all of us can relate to this. You're going along and it seems like everything is OK. You've got a plan. You're in a relationship and, yeah, there are problems. But you figure it'll be alright. Right? Except as time goes by, it isn't alright. And it gets worse. And then it's not OK. Not OK at all.

Yeah that's what happened to my nephew Dan. And it all culminated on New Year's Eve. It's a long story. But he realized his fiance, the woman he was planning his life with...wasn't the one. Not by a long shot.

So the day after the split up, he showed up at my house with a broken heart.

Bob was in San Francisco. (Oh, by the way - that's where Bob has been since about New Years Day. He's coming home Friday for the first time in weeks. Yay!) But when Bob heard about what Dan was going through, he immediately knew what Dan needed. A road trip.

This goes back to when Bob got his first job in Boston. He thought it was going to be a great job. He almost had himself talked into it. But it wasn't good for him. And apparently he wasn't good for them either. Because one day he got fired. So after they escorted him out of the building he called me and said he just got fired from his first "real" job...but the good news? He was hopping on a flight to Washington DC to visit me.

So Bob said...it's just like that...Dan should get on a plane and come to San Francisco and stay with him.

Crazy right? I mean, Dan had to start a new job in a week. He had to move. His fiance and he had just ended their relationship. He was a wreck. But the more I thought about what Bob said, the more I agreed with him.

A road trip to a place he'd never been - to a place so different from anything he'd ever seen - it's could help him do a full reboot. A reset. Life is good. The world is big. It will be OK. There is fun to be had. Places to see. People to meet.

So after a night crying in our beer over the breakup and realizing that probably it was all for the best...we managed to find a way. Dan called his new job (oh and about the new job...he's really excited about it - his career is shifting into high gear - it's all good) and they said that he could start a week later - no problem. We made a few other arrangements. And by 7:30 that night he was on a flight to San Francisco.

Now, you have to realize...Dan had never been to California. He'd never seen San Francisco. On the way to the airport I mentioned that he might have the best food of his life. That he wouldn't believe how unlikely and fantastical the city was - and how unforgettable. I was so excited for him. Every time you see San Francisco - it's great. But the first time is the best.

Here are some highlights from his grand adventure with Uncle Bob...who did his best to expose Dan to all kinds of new experiences...such as...

Cable cars (yes, Dan the engineer investigated exactly how they work)...


Post card row - Victorian houses that used to house Mrs. Doubtfire and Full House...



Fisherman's Wharf...
Posing with the weiner-mobile...


Staying at the Gaylord Suites with Bob...no one questions two men staying together in San Francisco...


And now for the food. Bob exposed Dan to foods he never thought he'd try. Like Chinese food in Chinatown...


Sushi...apparently he even learned how to use chopsticks!


And wine! Yes, this is Dan is drinking wine. He discovered after many tastings that he liked Riesling, Pinot Gris, and anything from Alsace (that would be the eastern border of France, on the west bank of the Upper Rhine, adjacent to Germany and Switzerland.)

More Chinese...

And of course, many beers...


He took the fairy...er, ferry...to Alcatraz and toured the whole thing.


And he threw his engagement portrait off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Now he's back home. And it's going to be OK.

More than OK. His whole life is ahead and it's going to be great.

New Year's resolution 2008

So, there's been a lot going on lately. I'll write about it all later.

Penelope Trunk has blog post called "How to make a New Year's resolution you'll really keep." It's great - read it here. One of her premises is that you can really only accomplish one or two goals per year. When it comes to resolutions she says, pick only one.

Here's mine. I'm going to "just say no" to bags.

Have you ever noticed how many bags you get handed for "free?" Go to the grocery store and get 10-20 bags. Go to a high end shop and get a gorgeous shopping bag - with matching tissue paper. Go to CVS and buy a pack of gum and a magazine and they stick it in a plastic bag.

Bags are habits. We don't need them. And just for a second think of how many bags get handed out every day, in every shop, all over the world.

What happens? You get a bag. You get home. You throw it out. Or, if you're like me, you obsess over it and you don't throw it out. You try to reuse it. Lining garbage cans? Dog poop? But there are too many. And so you go to great lengths to recycle all these useless bags. And then, one Sunday, when you're spending an hour dealing with bags, you think - "Oh my God. What am I doing?"

The truth is that the average plastic bag is used for 12 minutes. After that it just goes into the world. They're deadly to animals. They clog our landfills, choke our city streets, float and gather by the millions in our oceans. They blow down every road.


So this year I decided that whenever I can, I will say "no thanks" to bags.

I'm not the only one - China has outlawed plastic bags.

There's a high-fashion movement, started in the UK, called I am not a plastic bag.

And today New York City passed a bill requiring large stores and retail chains to collect and recycle plastic bags they give to shoppers.

Not only do we not need all these bags, they are a plague on the earth.


So I bought a few reusable bags and I'm trying. It's kind of liberating. Recently I went to Victoria's Secret and bought a great bra. They started the whole ritual with the wrapping in tissue, the gold seal, the fancy bag. And I said - hey - no thanks. I tucked that bra into my backpack - and off I went.

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow

Take the time to watch the Obama acceptance speech.

Take a moment to read Frank Rich's editorial this morning in the New York Times...

"AFTER so many years of fear and loathing, we had almost forgotten what it’s like to feel good about our country. On Thursday night, that long-dormant emotion came rushing back, like an old dream that pops out of the deepest recesses of memory, suddenly as clear as light. “They said this day would never come,” said Barack Obama, and yet here, right before us, was indisputable evidence that it had.

What felt good was not merely the improbable and historic political triumph of an African-American candidate carrying a state with a black population of under 3 percent. It was the palpable sense that our history was turning a page whether or not Mr. Obama or his doppelgänger in improbability, Mike Huckabee, end up in the White House.

We could allow ourselves a big what-if: What if we could have an election that was not a referendum on either the Clinton or Bush presidencies? For the first time, we found ourselves on that long-awaited bridge to the 21st century, the one that was blown up in the ninth month of the new millennium’s maiden year." Read more...