Final week in July

This picture is of Michael McClure who was my freshman English teacher when I was a student at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Standing behind him with a six-pack in this picture is Jim Morrison of the Doors. Apparently Michael was not pleased with having his picture taken here. Recently, we had the good fortune of having Ray Manzerek visit the CIA for a cooking demo around a month ago.He was the famed keyboard player for the group. I got his autograph and found him to be a very congenial fellow.I told him about my association with the beat poet Michael McClure and as it turns out, Ray is a good friend of his and they have done some events together long after Jim Morrison's passing.

Wednesday Wonderland

Today is a beautiful day here in the Napa Valley. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. I will be giving a tour later on today for the Nextel people who are visiting Greystone. My job is a blast. I meet people all day long and they are generally in a good mood when they get here and hopefully in a better mood when they leave. Our company picnic is coming up soon and I will be helping out Susan from the campus store with the games. I think that thier will be a cherry pie eating contest where some lucky person from each department will be quaffing down a gooey red, syrupy cherry pie. Oh what fun !

Middle of the month

Already? Gee, it seems like I hardly have any time to digest my day to day experiences however mundane they appear to be. Friday is not MY Friday... It's my hump day. I work weekends, so Sunday is when I can sorta let my hair down. I'm still waiting for my digital camera to be returned to me from the people that are fixing it's download port. When it arrives, I will be able to download the pictures I take onto my IPod Photo. Then I will be able to do slideshow presentations on someone's TV using only an adapter cable and my IPod. I can hardly wait.I will also be able to start taking pictures again that I can add to my website, weblog, videoblog etc. I MISS MY FUJI MX 3200 !!

Taking my time

It is cold this morning. It feels good because the days have been hot. I had two oatmeal cookies for breakfast. During the week, the Spice girls offer me cookies to take home with me. I usually take a bag of cookies and a loaf of bread. I give them to the families in Tortilla Flats ( my hood ).The kids here appreciate the gesture. Most of them are sugar junkies who leave their wrappers strewn up and down the driveway here.It seems like it has been a long time since I've had a good nights' sleep. I average about five or six hours a night.Today it is very slow at the CIA because it is still semester break here. Besides that, their are no Special Events happening today.
That suits me fine, because I could easily curl up behind a stack of books and go to sleep for a few more hours.

July 6th, Wednesday

Today I chipped my tooth ( a midsection molar) while biting into a Chicharone which is basically a pork rind. My Mexican neighbor Raphael, prepared this delicace for me and I didn't feel the roughness of my chipped tooth until later.All I was thinking about is how I am going to have to make an appointment with my dentist to have a crown put on or just have the tooth filed down.Other than this event, my work went okay today. I am going to give Charles Henning a grand tour tommorow at 2pm. He is our new Operations Manager at the Culinary Institute. I think that this will be a good oppurtunity to shine. Right now it is 11:30 PM and I am still experiencing a little indigestion from the Chicharone. I hope I have a good night's sleep.

Independence Day

The car alarm in the neighboring yard woke me today with continuos honking. Then the guy downstairs started his day by dry heaving or trying to cough up some kind of phelgm.Wonderful. It's July fourth and I am here at the computer, plucking out my experiences. I have few plans other than perhaps taking in the fireworks tonight at the fair. But then again, if I stay home, it won't disappoint me because I have followed this same ritual in years past. I have a bug bite on my thumb that is bothering me, If it turns out to be a "Brown Recluse Spider" I will be in for some added problems.