It's typical morning rush hour on 101 Southbound.  Four lanes, one for carpools and buses.  Me trying to maneuver over to the second from the left, a calculated guess as to which will be the "good" lane. 

 Also typical:  Bright sunshine overhead, this far north, rockin' the… Read full post »

So, yeah, that line ain't working for me now.  The girls just roll their eyes and say, Mmm-hmmmm.....

 Nutshell:

 Went home to Kansas weekend before last for my Dad's 80th Birthday Party, which I was hosting.  My girls and I flew in Thursday afternoon.  The party was Friday e… Read full post »

Going to Kansas City!

Kansas City, here I come!      &nb… Read full post »

"For what can be more beautiful than the heavens, which contain all beautiful things."

                                   &nbs… Read full post »

What the hell is going on here?

Whither the rage?

Wherefore art the… Read full post »

           Happy Birthday, Dear T'eo, Happy Birthday to You! Read full post »

My local movie house is doing a film series called "The Films of My Life", ala François Truffaut's "The Films in My Life".  To quote the cinema's website:  "This series emphasizes the emotional connection between the participants and the works they select."  

  &n… Read full post »

I'm all for the Truthiness Doctrine.

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However....

Two Truths/One Lie:

1.  I first flew a plane at age 18.

2.  I had a small character based on me in a mystery novel set in Key West.

3.  I was once clinically dead for 3.7 minutes. Read full post »

 Well, last night we went to see "Earth", the 99-minute pseudo compilation via Disney of an epic BBC work called Planet Earth from… Read full post »

Y'all know my predilection by now for sound, and mu… Read full post »

I like Sky.  Always have.  Everwhere I go, I'm shooting the sky, for one reason or another.

Big ol' comforting mountains, north of Durango, last July. 

                 &nbs… Read full post »

As you may remember, I traveled to Vegas Alone in February because the Children would not behave.    http://open.salon.com/blog/conniemack/2009/02/25/its_vegas_baby

They're again off in April (why don't the teachers want to Teach?) and I'm torn.  Should I re-do the Vegas route - w… Read full post »

 For those of you in the ShiKaGo (Chicago) area a couple of days after St. Pat's Day, here's a cool party.  Free drinks!  Complimentary copies of the new issue!  7 - 9 p.m.  To attend, email:  rsvp@stopsmilingonline.com.

 I dunno if that rsvp thingie a… Read full post »

So, I'm over to the Farmer's Market - you know the one a couple of blocks behind your office,

Get me some wasabi almonds, some hickory almonds, some… Read full post »

I grew up reading the classics.  Ma made sure of that.  Well, she had them on her bookshelf.  And thence I  trod.  But when poetry is twined with music or movies or both - then I really feel it.

Who can forget the end of Sophie's Choice?  That poem by… Read full post »

                      Yeah, it's the old P-BEM!

                        &n… Read full post »

                     Escape from Mundanity

So it's a Beauty day on the Bay, after multiple days of pounding rain.  I figure, Gee, it's going to be easy to get to Las Vegas!

I w… Read full post »

 Stop Smiling is this wonderful magazine I've been hooked up with for a couple years now.

 I couldn't figure out how to insert a doc or a .pdf or any damn thing into email, so I'll post this for/to the Chicagoans who might be able to attend:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~… Read full post »

   or...

 So I'm reading some tax code junk, some policy behind the Investment Company Act (I swear, it's for work; Updike this is not... and yet....) and I have to go t0:

§ 80a–43. Jurisdiction of offenses and suits

and I… Read full post »

SO, this is the kinda fun you're having when not running a restaurant (or terrorizing Glens)?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWU0bfo-bSY Read full post »

Cacao (Theobroma cacao) (Mayan: kakaw, Nahuatl: Cacahuatl), or the cocoa plant, is a small (4–8 m or 15–26 ft tall) evergreen tree in the family Sterculiaceae (alternatively Malvaceae), native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. [source - Wiki]

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All's… Read full post »

I Completely friggin forgot, but I was driving the girls to their dad's in Carson City and found this bead store in a strip mall:

 Look, it's Umber!

They have a Plethora of Beads!

My oldest:  "What?"

I said, Oh, her handle is Umbrellakinesis.  You know.  And… Read full post »

1.  I love music.

2.  I love writing, reading, and, hopefully, creating, via the written word.

3.  Law, Politics - and, within them, the everpresent Words - are seminal to my existence.

 4.  I love to play.  I love… Read full post »

Inspired by Hyblaean earlier today, I must share something a supervisor shared with me  (it's gonna be on a Big screen at his retirement party).  The song is from "Jerry Springer, The Opera" (who knew?), and the vidmix is exhilarating:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cMD4p2HfEo&fe… Read full post »

I'm not Happy!  (There's a joke I'll tell another time)   I turned on the lamp last night and wrote this poem that's in my head and it can't come out and I scribbled it down, and scratched some out, scribbled some more.  This morning, I put it (I thought) in my… Read full post »