Las Vegas New Years!

Well 2008 has come and it’s now more than two weeks old and I have yet to summarize New Years Eve or New Years Day, the trip home, the drama between friends, updates on Uncast or anything else for that matter.

So on to the trip.

The Vegas strip on NYE can best be described with the following flash images: The obvious casinos, hotels, flashing lights and stores. Add to that Mexicans flicking cards with barely dressed (or fully nude) women on them at passersby, others trying to sell t-shirts and tacky personal party ornaments (flashy hats, beads, silly string, horns, etc), two gallon translucent measuring cups with “Budweiser” on the side sold for $8 on the street, lots of Asians who are confused as to where they are or where they want to go, lots of teens with parents looking like they don’t want to be involved, college kids on vacation looking for booze and chicks, business men in suits doing what the college kids are doing, babies in strollers, the slight hint of pot in the air (No wait…that’s vomit…smells like someone got started early), and cold. A lot of cold in fact.

So now that you have an accurate picture of the strip, let’s go into our trip. We got to the travellodge around 12:40pm or so. Las Vegas Blvd was already backed up and turning into the parking lot with all the pedestrian traffic was damn near impossible. We park in a lot behind the hotel, go up an elevator that’s made of aluminum at best and probably hasn’t seen an inspection since the Nixon administration, into a room where we have to slam the hotel door in order to close it, crack stains on the bathroom floor and I don’t even want to think about what’s on the comforters.

We get a couple text messages letting us know lunch will be at the America Restaurant in the NY/NY Hotel & Casino with Keith, Chemda, Brother Love and a few listeners. Turns out to be a great time as we meet with the DaHonays, The Grundle, Memecherry, Legion, Mikey, Eric and Brad. BTW, we didn’t see Brad again all weekend. Odd. The burger that Victoria and I shared was good. On the way out Victoria had to shoot a pic of their sign “You are now leaving America”. Huh?

So we head back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. We start to get ready but then realize something is missing. The bag with our personals and hygenic items isn’t here. I run down to the car and lo and behold, we left the bag at home in San Diego. No toothbrushes, hairbrushes, mousse, shampoo, body wash, nothing. We would make a trip out to Walgreen’s after sound check and pick up all that stuff.

Sound check is at 5pm so we head down there and after some apprehension I get myself in pretty easily by talking to security. I video tape a disaster of a sound check and we all leave a little bit more frozen and a lot confused as to what shit might sound like later that night. I get my orders to return on stage at 9:45 to tape the concert.

At this point Victoria, Aldo and I decide to take in some dinner and settle on Chin Chin’s. Our waitress from Belarus takes our orders and plays herself off as fun but then ends our dining experience by telling us not to do anything to bring shame on our families. OK. Not a chance in hell we’ll follow that advice. Still, the pineapple fried rice and peanut noodles are amazing so we’ll be back.

Describing the feeling of being backstage on New Years Eve at a concert in Vegas is a bit difficult. Well, to be honest, it felt natural. Yes, at first I was a little apprehensive about going into the green room because I figured BroLo and Chemda would be focusing and prepping themselves for the performance and the last thing they needed was me coming in to break their concentration. Couldn’t be further from the truth. They welcomed me with open arms (literally) and the band didn’t even notice I was there until just before the third set.

So I walk the band to the stage via cam, part the curtain at the back of the stage, walk on stage and immediately I’m struck with two impulses. First is to cower in the corner (which I do for the first song) taping the concert. The other is to grab a mic and join in on backup vocals. Now I don’t think I have a voice to lead a band but I can carry a tune and I have a decent range so backup isn’t out of the realm. Still, that’s not what I was brought on stage for, so I swallow that impulse and get to doing what I’ve been asked to do.

Paradise City pops in. The whistle, the drums, the girls singing backup, it was all there. They play Brother Love’s song “Push” and halfway through a verse, BroLo steps back and his legs get entangled in the monitor on the stage and he goes tumbling backwards. “I told you I’d fall!” and he laughs but doesn’t miss a word.

Second set they have the crowd in their hands and Brother Love plays four of his own songs in a row and the crowd eats it like candy. Chemda re-writes “Back In Black” by rocking that song harder than AC/DC. Is that even possible? Must be cause it happened. We say goodbye to 2007 with some Poison and “Talk Dirty To Me” as Chemda brings Keith on stage. Amazing. I stand there on stage trying to get footage of the fireworks but all I am thinking is “I’m on stage, at a major venue (to me), in front of thousands of people, in Las Vegas, on New Years Eve, ringing in the new year”. I hug Brother Love. I hug Chemda. I hug varios band mates. I even hug some dude who was standing on the front of the stage but who I’d never seen before and didn’t see after. This is when it clicks in my head that I haven’t kissed Victoria yet.

I look down and spot Victoria getting hugs from people and I jump off stage to give her the biggest kiss of my life. We hug, sway, hold each other and finally I stumble my fat ass back on stage to do some more hugging and go back to the green room. On the way, a couple of ladies point my way and scream out. I do an obligatory “OWWWW! Happy New Year!” a little devil sign and head into the green room. OMG I rock so hard.

So after the show we hang out at the Nine Fine Gentlemen Irish Pub at the NY/NY Hotel & Casino with the DaHonays, The Grundle and Memecherry while waiting for the stars to arrive. Apparently the DaHonays have left all their booze in The Grundle’s room and The Grundle and Memecherry are having issues getting into the room with his card. Once the party arrives, we head upstairs to a tiny little room. There’s about 16 of us and room to seat 12. The DaHonays stand against the one lone empty wall and that wall is JUST long enough to fit 3 people side by side so Victoria takes the last spot by the door leaving me standing IN the doorway so that I can be in the way when people need to come and go.

After about 15 minutes of this, Corey comes in to see BroLo and tells him the surprise is ready and he can bring two friends. Naturally, he grabs Keith and Chemda and they head out which frees up 3 seats so the DaHonays sit down. Someone else comes in and sits down and we hang out for a bit. Mr DaHonay gets up and arrives shortly after with drinks that he’d bought for them AND (Surprise!) two extras for Victoria and I. NOICE! Sooo grateful!

Then Chemda comes barreling into the room and goes, “C’mon guys! They gave us a penthouse suite!” We sit there for a moment completely confused. Then we beam, scream and get out of the room. We all follow Chemda to the Empire elevator and up to the 40th floor where she had a key to the smaller bedroom. We hang out there for a bit until Keith barrels through the door and goes “Well what are ya doin in there? C’mon in!”

We head into the main part of the suite and Chemda makes us move the chairs and stuff into a circle so we can all hang out together and talk. Drinks are made, The DaHonays are re-married and shortly afterwards Mr DaHonay and The Grundle head back to the other room to get their alcohol. When they get there, it turns out Legion was asleep in their room and so they wake him up and bring him back with them. He was so drunk that he’d fallen asleep in the Casino and Memecherry had helped him back up to The Grundle’s room before he got kicked out. Now he was heading up to some strange place and he was as confused as hell.

SO they come back, Mr DaHonay pours champagne, we all toast to the new year and we hang out until about 7ish in the morning. All I know is the sun came up, we ordered room service, it was terrible and then Chemda said “Hey guys. What do you think about we make today today and we make later today another day?”

So we get up and leave, head down to the casino towards Las Vegas Blvd and I smell pot. Hmm Odd. Victoria puts a dollar in a slot machine and wins $3.25 on the first spin. She cashes out and we keep walkin out to the pedestrian bridge. We get across the street and there’s a group of young Mexican gentlemen hanging out. The scent of pot gets stronger and I’m thinking “Oh! They’re smoking out! That’s awesome!” and we walk towards the hotel. A few minutes later I smell it again and I’m like, “There’s no one around me but Victoria. Where’s that sm…oh yeah. It’s me. Cool.”

So we stumble down the wet and sticky street, back to the room and crash out. We both wake up around 2pm and I’m in more pain than I’ve ever felt in my life. I want to scream out but my mouth and throat hurt. I want to see if I’m injured but the inside of my eyelids hurt too much to open my eyes. I want to move so that I can find something with which to kill myself but I can’t move. So about 2 hours later, Victoria gets some naproxin sodium and about 30 minutes from that I finally start to feel better. So we decide to head out for dinner. ..The MGM Grand Hotel’s buffet.

The buffet was expensive ($34 a person) but delicious. There was sushi, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, kids fare, BBQ, a meat station, pastry and breads station, dessert and other great things like salads of all kinds and soups. It was very tasty. Afterwards we start to walk through the casino and the hotel’s main drag of stores. We see the lions they keep there and I snapped a few pics.

We walked most of the way through the hotel when we realized we were going to just have to walk all the way back through the hotel again so we headed over to a cigar bar called “Rouge” where I watched Georgia destroy Hawaii and I had myself my first Isley scotch…a Lopphraig 15-year old scotch. Peppery, clean and nice. I could taste the wood and it was cool. It’s not Johnny Blue but it’s still awesome.

Afterwards, we head to the M&M store, the Grand Canyon Experience, then over to the NY/NY to hand the DaHonay’s their camcorder. On the way through the casino, Victoria turns her $3.25 in winnings into $9.75. Then she turns $5 of that into $11.75. So she turned $6 into $19. Very good work. We notice Keith at a poker machine with Chemda and BroLo hanging out next to them and we say hello before heading to Chin Chins where we’re supposed to meet the DaHonays.

When we get there, we meet up with The Grundle and talk for a bit. The DaHonays arrive, we hand off the camcorder and head back to our hotel room because we’re feeling a bit in the mood and it’s 2008 and we haven’t had our sex yet. So we get there, hang out, check email and the forums and soon we realize…we STILL haven’t fucked. So we get that out of the way and by the time we’re done we crash out again and wake up on the 2nd.

After waking up, we gather our shit, I put a majority of it in the car and we head out to the Paris Hotel for breakfast buffet. Let’s just say they have the best crepes there that I’ve ever had in my life. They were freshly made in front of me with fresh blueberries inside and I poured strawberry topping on top. AWESOME.

After breakfast we get a text from the DaHonays. The Mrs got sick so she’s not going to make it but we’ll have Legion joining us. So they head over to our room and we record an episode of Uncast together using my Zoom H2. It turns out well, we say good bye and load up the car with the last of our things then drive out around 12:30. 48 hours in Vegas was just about enough but those 48 hours are the best of my life!

Then there was the ride home. Over 7 hours, a six mile line at the California Agricultural Inspection and then rush hour traffic through San Bernardino, Ontario, etc. and finally home to a cat that missed us SOOO much. Really, was there a more rockstar way to start a year?

Getting ready for Christmas

This has been a pretty normal Christmas season and yet it hasn’t been.

We have our normal late gift shopping, financial woes, lack of planning, trips cancelled or altered, heart warming family moments, heart freezing family moments, stress, crowds, colds, a persistent cough, baking and gift exchanges.

This year we added a new car (Silver 2007 Honda Accord SE V6) and the events surrounding the holidays just totally don’t make sense. When did I move backwards? When did I start acting 16 again? Why do I say this? Just trust me. I feel bad enough. I don’t want to go through it all. Just know next year will be different. I’m not going to feel like this next year. I won’t let that happen.

Christmas is coming and it will be enjoyed but there’s going to be saddened hearts all around and I’m admitting now that it’s mostly my fault. Should have managed funds better, been more responsible, gotten a new car sooner, kept in touch with family, etc. All of these things I’ll take care of properly next year. I’m not going to feel like this again.

Now, if I could have a little time to make some lists so that come January 1st, I can start the year right, I’d appreciate it. Thanks folks. And Merry Christmas.

Early December Reflections

If it weren’t for this cough, I’d be totally enjoying the evening. It’s been raining all weekend and now I’ve got that wonderful feeling of a freezing cold house while I’m wrapped in a fleece sweater and a fleece throw. So here I am huddled in front of the computer and having a GREAT evening…if it weren’t for the cough.

So the week. Hmm how to describe it. I’ve found myself in a bit of a funk brainwise. I know that at work I really need to spend MUCH less time on the ‘net surfing the KATG forums or digg but I just can’t seem to keep myself away from it. I’ve been given a tedious project to work on and that should help. My boss doesn’t mind my surfing, so long as work gets done but I don’t like the way it makes me look when every time he comes up to talk, I’m online. So I’ll do something about that starting tomorrow. I hope.

Had a great week of football last week. Watched the Bucs win in the morning, Chargers win in the afternoon and the Patriots win in the afternoon. Today, not as nice (Bucs lost) but still pretty decent (Chargers and Pats won).

I really love the cold weather, the rain and all this gloominess. I suppose I might like it less if it happened as much as it does in the Pacific Northwest. Doesn’t matter. We get a few days of rain a year in San Diego and I cherish each and every one. What about you?

More corruption and cheating…

OK I really do NOT want to make this blog a political one but this has got me a little stirred up because it’s a bit personal.

For those that know me, I am a Latter-Day Saint and the second Home Teacher we had in our ward was Matt Romney, son of the Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Members of my ward have been leading campaign workers in the San Diego area for Mitt Romney.  Based purely on what I knew of Matt and how good a guy he seemed to be, I was a pretty strong Mitt supporter. As the campaign has moved on though, I’ve become less and less a supporter and I’ve lost respect not just for Mitt but now I have to ask Matt what he was thinking.

First, was the comment during a GOP debate in May. Mitt Romney mentioned both that he wished to DOUBLE Guantanamo and he also was for enhanced interrogation techniques. This shocked me. Mitt is also a Latter-Day Saint. Guantanamo has become notorious for it’s poor treatment of prisoners and there are also documented cases of prisoners who not only don’t belong there but also have suffered these “enhanced interrogation techniques”. How could Mitt not only condone this but call for more?

THEN two stories came out surrounding people in Mitt’s campaign staff. Robert Lichfield was a major contributor to the Mitt Romney campaign and it turns out he founded an organization known as WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) which was masquerading as a camp for troubled teens when instead it turns out it was simply a torture & rape camp against teens. Then, one of Romney’s campaign aides, Jay Garrity, was investigated for impersonating troopers. Some supporters have tried to claim this wasn’t the case when recordings of the call and traces on the cell phone match Mr Garrity AND in 2004, the Globe reported, “Garrity was cited and fined for driving a Crown Victoria with red and blue lights mounted in the grill, a siren, a PA system, and strobe lights; and for having a nightstick and identification showing a State Police patch that read “Official Business.There has also been votes of fraud.“

Yet another major campaign supporter, Alan Fabien, was indicted on fraud charges. He quickly ceased volunteering for the campaign.

NOW, we learn that at the recent Florida Straw Poll, Mitt supporters were allowed to vote more than once per voter (some as much as 80) AND some supporters of other candidates caught CHILDREN voting, some as young as FIVE YEARS OLD. It’s no wonder that at 200 strong, Mitt Romney was able to secure over 800 votes and win the straw-poll. When people complained to the committee in charge of the event, they were threatened.

I occasionally check out the website that the Romney kids have put up as a sort of family blog compiling journals of their work in helping get their dad elected. Here I see pics of Matt and family at the Florida Straw Poll.  Matt, did you know this was going on and if so, whether this was within the rules or not, how did you not stand up and fight against it?

I was taught growing up about how pure and true the church is. I was given hope that while we’re all still human and prone to mistakes, Latter-Day Saints just didn’t lie, cheat and steal. While I can’t pin the entirety of the church and it’s doctrines on the actions of one person, when Mitt said he wasn’t running “to be a spokesman for my church,” he wasn’t kidding.

I can’t see how a goodly Mormon man can condone and call for the expansion of “enhanced interrogation techniques” or accept money from the types of people he’s accepted money from or continually change his stance on various issues or now allowing this cheating and stealing and overall dishonesty to go down in Florida straw polls. How many of the other straw polls has he won in this manner? I’ve also heard he’s been caught talking about purposefully dodging questions at debates and joking about stuffing the ballot box. Why? Why can’t you just be upfront and honest about who you are and what you believe?

Whether you like it or not, you are representing the church and to continue changing your opinions, dodging questions, cheating and lying I’m only losing more and more faith not only in you as a person but in the church itself.

Who to vote for?

I got a picture today from my father. He depicts it as scary and “should be forwarded on to all your friends if you know what is good for the country.”

What is it? A picture of Senator Obama NOT putting his hand over his heart or reciting the pledge of allegiance. I’ve seen a similar picture recently of our President rubbing his belly during the National Anthem.

So if that’s one down, who’s left?

Hillary Clinton wants to go to war with Iran and has committed campaign felony on tape.

Mitt Romney wants to double Guantanamo (with who…US?) while his staff are too busy running teen torture camps, committing fraud and impersonating police officers to worry about his campaign. Plus Mitt is all for “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” (as stated in previous link on Guantanamo) which is just a funny new 21st century term for TORTURE. He would also never consider hiring a Muslim for a cabinet position. Maybe one of the lower-level positions though.

Rudy Giuliani is running on a campaign of his heroics during the 9/11 tragedy when in fact he closed streets to avoid victims families, has FDNY and NYPD and families of victims crying out against him and has the following to say about our freedom: “Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” Besides, as I hear it, he’s not even supposed to be able to run for President so long as he holds a knighthood. Check the last part of Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution. Even his daughter doesn’t want him to be president.

Now we get down to the people who don’t have a chance of being elected as anything except perhaps a Vice President:

John Edwards is just a hypocrite. About campaign contributions, SUVs and the war.

John McCain can’t control his campaign staff either with one being arrested trying to bribe a police officer with oral sex and he still supports the drug war. Apparently he has also joined the John Edwards Train of Hypocracy. He’s also joined Hillary in his support of attacking Iran with military force.

Ron Paul is too pro-gun, anti-environment and isolationist for my taste. Besides, his support staff are too busy spamming the ‘net to care.

The only candidate left who’s even showing in any polls is Dennis Kucinich and while I support him on a number of issues, I’m just not convinced yet that he’s the candidate for me. Then again, look at all the people above. We’ve got a stack of boobs and a few nuts but no solid foundations from which we can build the future of this country. Oh well. Here’s to at least another four terrible years.

Conclusions

So I haven’t posted a blog entry in like 3 weeks. Well, I think it’s high time that little streak ends. If you’re reading this, the streak is over. It’s too late. I don’t want to see any “Save the streak” signs and picketers outside my apartment or place of employment. Thank you.

Now,  I’m sitting here at work on a Monday morning and trying to reflect over the last week. We recorded two episodes of Uncast, did some shopping, some chores, and I’ve come to the conclusion that lying is boring. Lying is for the weak. I don’t like that phrase “for the weak” and so I only use it when I feel it really applies and I doubt I’m going to get many arguments about this unless it’s coming from liars.

Here’s my first truth: I’m unsure about a lot of things in life. I get gut feelings but when I tell someone that I don’t like them, they usually want an explanation and I like to have one. So, if this should ever be you on the wrong side of the conversation, I’ll let you know.  I always give people the benefit of the doubt but I also tend to trust my gut feelings since they’re nearly always right.

Another conclusion I’ve come to is that there’s enough negativity in life that pops up on its own. Why add to that with things that aren’t that important? This might seem to contradict my “lying is for the weak” mantra but it doesn’t. Yes, telling the truth is hard sometimes. There are times that the truth brings about hurt feelings, confrontation and pretty negative situations but as far as I’m concerned it’s just one of those moments in life.

The negativity I’m talking about is bitterness, hatred, anger, etc. If I don’t like someone, why harp on it? If I don’t like what someone does or says passed talking to them about it, why drag it on in my head? If I make a mistake, I can express my regret, work to rectify it and then try not to do it again but why beat myself up for it? Drivers pissing me off…why? Is my life truly in danger or is it just costing me a few second time? Was it just a fleeting moment but now everyone’s safe so why lash out? It’s not about lying. It’s about telling the truth without letting situations become bigger than they need to be. It’s about not overreacting to things and it’s about being helpful and supportive to those around me.

Now these two conclusions are enough to work with for now. They’re each pretty heavy on their own. So why don’t you reflect on them yourself and see if it doesn’t fit you as well.

It’s that time of the month!

Some of you may not know but Victoria and I have this little podcast called Uncast. Now I warn you, it’s not for everyone. I know some of you would rather not hear us curse or talk about sex or anything dirty, vile or violent but for the rest of you who haven’t checked it out at all, didn’t know about it or haven’t been able to yet…take a little time RIGHT NOW and listen to an episode. You can start at The Beginning and move up, you can start at the most recent or even in the middle like episode 25.

NOW when you’re done there AND FOR THE REST OF YOU, please at least support us by going to Podcast Alley and voting for us. They’ll send you an email. You click on the link in that email and your vote counts. Fail to do any of them and the vote won’t count, we’ll be sad. You don’t want us to be sad do you? THEN GO VOTE FOR US!!! There are over 35,500 podcasts listed on Podcast Alley. We started at the bottom.

In September we were 205th and in October we were 61st. We’d like to continue that exponential climb to the top 10 if possible. The more of you that listen and the more that vote, the more possible that is. IF YOU LIKE IT TELL YOUR FRIENDS! They might like it. Even if they don’t they might spread the word at least and that’s good enough. More people need to know what a podcast is and what great podcasts are out there. Check out the side bar on this blog. A few are listed there.

The counts change on the 1st of every month. Being on the front page means more potential listeners. More listeners means potential future moneys but most of all we just love people and the more people who listen, the more will like us and that’s always a good thing. So go go go!

Oceanaire Restaurant

It’s always great to have a few connections.

So Victoria’s parents book their cruises through a couple of friends who just so happen to have a good number of connections around the city. SO, they were invited by these friends out to The Oceanaire Seafood Room. The executive chef here is Brian Malarkey, also seen on Top Chef. Along with his sous chefs, Sean Langlois and Tyler Thrasher this has got to be the best seafood meal I’ve had EVER. Now I haven’t been to Alaska, Maryland or New England so forgive the ignorance but San Diego is known for a good deal of seafood and this has not only won awards for the best seafood restaurant in San Diego but Brian won the 2007 award for Best Chef in San Diego so that’s not too shabby.

We got reservations for 5:30 and I can say the only negative thing about the restaurant (and I don’t know that it’s the restaurants fault) is the valet driver wasn’t available until 5:30. If he could maybe come out 30 minutes earlier that’d be great. Still, when we got there the place was nearly empty and by the time we left around 7:30 there wasn’t a seat to be had in either the main room, oyster bar or main bar. PLUS there was a line of people waiting to get in.

This is no cheap restaurant either. The menu changes every night based on what fresh meats they got in that morning. Entrees ranged from the fried fisherman’s platter of $24.95 to the Tuna for $45. Mind you the entrees are just what they describe and nothing else. Want a side of veges, fries, hash browns, etc? Those are extra. The bill for a salad, 3 appetizers, a side, 4 entrees and 3 drinks was $260 after tip. Not cheap but not OH MY GOD expensive either.

Tonight, for me, it was the “Dover” Sole stuffed with shrimp, crab and brie and topped with a lemon blanc beurre. Don’t know what all that meant except I know my tummy loved it. My appetizer was the escargots which was the best I’ve ever had. We had a BLT salad which was simply bacon, tomato and lettuce with a spicy peppercorn bacon ranch, or at least I think that’s what it was. Either way it was easily the best salad I’ve had in a long time. Add to that their wonderful crab cakes and a side of The Oceanaire Hash Browns and it was heaven on a table. The hash browns easily could’ve fed 10 and were just a bit spicy. They went perfectly with the fish and my God I’ve got to come here every night but I just can’t do it.

So there it is. The Oceanaire Seafood Room may have just surpassed The Prado as my favorite place to eat. Especially after the mediocre service I got at The Prado last time. It wasn’t bad but if you’ve been to enough restaurants in this price range you come to expect a certain level of service. This was something I’d expect at a Claimjumper or Chilis. However the service at the Oceanaire definitely met the level I might expect for a place as expensive as it was. Excellence all around. Now just get that valet out a little sooner and you might have yourself a lifetime customer.

FIRE!

We had a pretty good scare the last couple days with fires in the San Diego area. You may have heard we’ve become Rancho Hell West.

I don’t want to bore you with too many details. Those in the area have already heard enough but for those not in the area, a fire started in Witch Creek between Ramona and Julian (Witch Fire) Sunday afternoon and around the same time there was a fire in Tecate up to Barrett Junction dubbed the (Harris Fire). Both fires headed in a westerly direction.

We watched these fires closely on the news as we watched Game 7 of the ALCS. As the fire crept through Ramona we started talking about what we’d take if we had to evacuate. At about 2am Monday morning, the fire was still 7-8 miles off so I felt pretty safe. I woke up at 5am to advisory evacuation warnings for our area. So we filled our suitcases with clothes, grabbed my main desktop computer, some hygenic products, my camera bag, mixer, microphones, laptop and all our important papers. We filled the car to the point where there’s no way we’re going to fit anything more in there without blocking sightlines. Lastly we grabbed the cat, some food and treats and toys and we put her in the carrier and took off at about 6:30am.

I realized when I turned the car on that my car was nearly empty on gas but I felt I could make it to Black Mountain Road without going empty. Then I hit traffic on Bernardo Center Drive heading south so I had to pull a U-Turn and hit the Chevron station on Rancho Penasquitos Dr. Then we headed south on I-15 to Chula Vista. Victoria’s in-laws live on the west end of the city so we felt safe.

The Witch fire burned through Ramona and forked. The NW fork went towards San Pasqual and the SW fork went towards Poway and Scripps Ranch. That NW fork followed south of Escondido and along the northern and western rims of Lake Hodges. The SW fork hit the NE corner of Espola Road and then split again with one fork going along Rancho Bernardo Road and the other heading south on Espola Road.

The Rancho Bernardo fork burned through northern RB within 2 miles of our apartment and NW 4S Ranch meeting up with that NW fork and heading west to Rancho Santa Fe. It burned Fairfield Ranch and The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe and headed towards Del Mar.

The Poway fork hit some homes in Poway and I hear it hit Carmel Mtn Ranch but I haven’t heard any real news there so I’m not sure if our apartment is safe or not. I did hear this morning that the fires there have settled down a bit so hopefully it won’t flare up again.

At the moment we’re at my in-laws house in Chula Vista west of the 805 and east of I-5. The fires that hit near our apartment seem to be either settled down or well west of us so I’m crossing my fingers that we escaped and our apartment is still there and just fine.

If you pray, pray for us. If not, any kind thoughts or words would be helpful. We’re not asking for any more than that until we learn about our apartment. Thanks for all the kind words and offers already.

Missing The West Wing

CJ Does “The Jackal”

Bartlet picks apart Biblical Quotes

Take Your Legislative Agenda…

Butterball Hotline

and since we’re on the net…here’s the lemonlyman.com scene