Bastille Day

We had a great Bastille Day bash with the Francophile friends we went to Languedoc with last summer. For the regular readers of this blog, that would be my #1 reader and the hard-driving hybrid driving Silicon Valley personage with the personalized plates, who will henceforth be known as The Exec. And their lovely wives, of course. We started off with an aperitif provided by #1. Everyone said they loved the Pastis and it had the added advantage of clearing my slow kitchen drain. When dinner began, I was quite embarrassed that my wife had forgotten to prepare an amuse-bouche, but made up for it by cooking a fantastic Coq au Vin. She wants me to make sure I mention that the chicken was cooked. I haven’t blasted this out to the blogosphere before but I’m pretty famous amongst my friends for a Chicken Sushi dish I made several New Years Eves back. We finished the meal the way the French do, with extra stinky cheese and a dessert wine.

The kids had a separate meal, the way it should be. They had steak and freedom fries. The Exec gave me and #1 a lesson in grilling steak. If thing go south down south, I think he has a lock on a job at any Sizzler in the Bay Area. The old folks also knocked back several bottles of rosé. We were OK with that now that rosé is hip again. I’m not sure if AOL has featured rosé in their lifestyle section yet but we may be ahead of the curve. I was looking for some Mateus, in a nod to some high school girlfriends, but ended up buying a couple French wines instead. We also had few bottles of red, including a top of the line Pique Perlou that The Exec smuggled into the country last year.

Nekkid

What's with all the mainstream nudity these days? 71 year old Sophia Loren will appear in next year's Pirelli calendar in the buff. I've always liked Sophia but, hey, it's time to pour a Campari and call it a day. I'm a mere 49 and nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to see me naked. And if you need to escape from the media glare, what should you do? If you're Britney Spears, you pose nude and pregnant on the cover of a national magazine. That makes sense, right? I remember several years ago, I was on the outs with my employer and I had to figure out a way to patch things up. I had a grand plan but my wife dissuaded me from posing with nothing but my name tag in "Cubicle Rat Monthly". I have to admit that she made the right call.

I hope everybody is adjusting to the fact that Star Jones has left "The View". I sobbed uncontrollably when I found out but I'm feeling surprisingly good now. I guess that's because I know she'll land on her feet. We're all rooting for ya Star!

Family Guy

Ever watch “The Family Guy”? I highly recommend it. It contains many life lessons. I’m a family guy as well. As I explained to a co-worker years ago as to why I was toiling in obscurity at the lower rungs of the corporate ladder, “I got three kids and a mortgage”.

The older son and I headed down to the DMV today and he skillfully passed the driver’s exam. I had a Ben Franklin at the ready in case it didn’t go so well. We got there a little early and went to the back of a 20 person line. Sonny Boy asked me why they didn’t open early. I hadn’t had my daily double cappuccino so I just grunted, “It’s a bureaucracy”. I think he understood. We were both quite nervous. After he headed out for the test, I paced around and realized the anticipation was almost like the day of his birth, except that this time I wasn’t hammered in the Haight. There will be a lot of upside to having a third driver in the house. My wife and I won’t have to get up at 4am anymore to get him to practice. We’ll just have to get up to yell at him when he forgets to set the alarm. The overall DMV experience itself was positive. After spending a couple hours there I’m not longer frightened by the grocery store zombies. Now I’m frightened by DMV zombies. The only problem I encountered so far with my son’s new status is that after he got his paperwork in order, he drove home without me. I made the most of it by going to a nearby KFC and having a little picnic by myself in the DMV parking lot.

It’s just the three guys at home for the time being. My wife and daughter headed out to a national basketball tournament in Tennessee. My wife came to hoops rather late in life but she has just blossomed. She has one hell of a jumper from within 20 feet. My daughter gets to play some too. She’s Miss Inside to my wife’s Mrs. Outside. I’m building a dynasty. But things don’t feel quite right with them gone. I asked my wife to send me a couple emails telling me what to do. There is a good chance, however, that she may be practicing some form of transcontinental mind control. I just cleaned out the kitchen pantry and I don’t know why.

On another topic, I received a question today from a reader, the curious one, regarding my last post. He asked if MOC had any special meaning. I explained to him that MOC has special meaning to me, since I’ve been pining for her since before the advent of the pet rock, but that to him and others, they are merely initials. He may have thought there was some cryptic message within, but I explained to him that I’m just not that smart. For that matter, neither are my readers.