Welcome to the Non-Working Week

Well, dear readers, I have not been in much of a blogging mood lately but the spirit has hit me this morning.  Count your lucky stars!

We just had a nice visit with my sister and LA yesterday.  They were in town to see LA’s mom and for a Napa event with their old Oakland pals. It also happened to be our 35th wedding anniversary so it was great to have them here to celebrate with us.  They brought a couple fine Pinots and spent the night before heading back to the East coast today.  I made my Coq au Riesling, which several of you fortunate folks have probably experienced before.  This morning I eschewed my usual healthy breakfast of Bob’s Red Mill oatmeal and had the tasty pastries my sister brought.  I’ll probably have my usual salad for lunch in case you are wondering.

The weekend before this one we had a fun get-together on Gull for the newest member of the village, the grandson of The Banker and Tina. The cute little guy got a stroller and a cool seat that can stand alone or attach to a table.  My wife and Katie put together some excellent finger foods.  Later on, a few of the stragglers decided to go outside for a cigar, so we turned the heaters on and made an evening of it.  The topic veered towards our kids and how we were going to handle whatever money is left after we have 20 years or so of a partying retirement.  Those with older parents still around discussed the fact that everything is all lined up and they can write checks on their parents’ accounts etc.  I chimed in that nobody is putting me in a room with my kids with them expecting me to sign anything over.  The dough is mine and I’m still working on angles to take it to the grave with me.

I donated blood last Monday afternoon, after taking care of my volunteer duties for a local food bank. I’m expecting canonization soon.  The guy drawing the blood told me to squeeze gently, not hard, while they were taking it.  He said he wanted to stress that because I’m “on the muscular side”.  He was a slight, yet perspicacious, phlebotomist. 

As usual, I am keeping up with the celebrity news.  There seems to be a cheating kerfuffle involving folks from Vanderpump Rules. I’m happy to report on your standard D lister but these chuckleheads don’t even make that level, so I’m more focused on Olivia Wilde showing off her butt tattoo and her ex Harry Styles making out with Emily Ratajkowski.  Don’t worry, the Kardashians are still taking pictures of themselves.

In politics, I’m getting tired of waiting for the hammer to come down on Trump. That guy would burn everything down to save his orange skin. The KFC and Coke will catch up with him before the law does. And it was lovely of him to hold a rally on the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian fiasco in Waco. Yet Meatball Ron still doesn’t stand a chance against him. In that vein, I wanted to let everyone know that I was geographically raised in upstate NY but culturally my upbringing reflected the effete snobbery and San Francisco values of the Bay Area.

It looks like my Michigan-bred Massachusetts-based bud The Wolv is branching out.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/24/1165765068/wolverine-oregon-habitat-mountains

I missed a call from my pal The Wig yesterday.  I’ll need to check in with him later, but I think he understands that I need to get this blog out first.  Hey, it’s my passion, at least a couple times a month.  Maybe he wanted to discuss the NCAA tourney.  My wife’s alma mater SDSU goes up against FAU in the semis. And I’d like to congratulate Z, son of The Exec, for already wrapping up the win in the Extended Village pool. He leads by 14 points and is the only one with potential for more.

I shared this with my high school bros.  I was thinking it might be a good fit for my old school.  The UK and I have already contributed articles to our alumni newsletter and we could maybe get something like this launched.

https://www.theonion.com/catholic-high-school-newsletter-has-updates-on-which-al-1850218796

OK folks, I gotta go. Rick Ross’ buffalo just got into my back yard and I have to give it a carrot.