Wow. First post in a LONG time. It’s like many things – you mean to post, then you don’t, then suddenly you’re so far behind you can’t even remember what’s happened since the last post, and… I’ll try working my way backwards to my last post, which ought to (eventually) bring back the pleasant memories of being in France. Well, it’ll bring them back to ME, as I type this. Obtaining one’s own pleasant memories of being in France is left as an exercise for the readership.

So let’s see… On Saturday night, I was in a neighborhood lesbian bar watching (some of) the Miss America pageant – you just have to love living in San Francisco. We were there for our friend Joe’s birthday, and they had the pageant playing (muted, thankfully) on a couple of TVs in the bar. This made up for it being too chilly out to go sit in the amazing secret garden they’ve got out back. And even though the bar is in easy stumbling distance from our home, I didn’t even get anywhere close to drunk. Sad, that – I was young once, I swear it.

On Friday, we met up with our friends Karie and Donovan at The Punchline, where Arj Barker was headlining. He’s a fantastic comic, and this was the first time I’ve seen him as a headliner. He did a pretty long set, and he killed. Mike E. Winfield and John Hoogasian opened, and while Mike did really well, John had a *very* awkward set. But overall, a really good night out watching pro comedy. As much as I like watching bad comics (I’ll be going to The Uptown tonight to do just that, and even dragging Em with me), it’s fun to see a great comic do a great set once in a while. It was also a great way to end the week, most of which I spent at a client site near Sacramento. And much like Mudville, there is no joy in Sacramento.

Meanwhile, over in Geekville, the big news is that I’m now the proud (giggling? giddy with joy? glutinous with self-approbation, even??) owner of an HP iPAQ h6315. Otherwise known as my preciousssssss. Finally, finally, finally – a PDA *AND* cellular phone (quad-band GSM and GPRS, Baby!) phone, with built-in WiFi *AND* bluetooth. Yes, oh YES! I made the switch from Nextel to T-Mobile, and now, at long last, I have a single device (and calling plan) for both voice and data. It does just about everything. Pocket versions of Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, and Outlook. MP3s, and MPEGs (yes, I can watch movies on it). In the right light, I swear it’s grail-shaped. If you see me in person, be sure to gaze at it longingly. On second thought, don’t even look at it. Mustn’t let others look at my preciousssssss.

Way back on September 5th (you didn’t think I’d go day by day, all the way back to July 18th, did you??), we spent a nice part of a nice day chillin’ in Golden Gate Park with our friends Janna and Sebastian, and their daughter Ava – it was Ava’s second birthday! Wow, hard to believe that girl is already two years old… She’s at that age where she has a pretty good idea of how cute she is, and how to milk that for all it’s worth.

Oh, and a few weeks back I picked up a new pair of eyeglasses. I thought my vision had gotten worse, but a vision test said otherwise. Maybe street signs really HAVE gotten smaller. But I’d had the same frames for quite a few years now (brought here from Toronto, in fact), and it was time for a change. If you see me in person, be sure to mention how nice my frames look. Em picked them, so I’ll redirect all compliments (sincere or otherwise) to her. And in fairness, I hadn’t been wearing them more than a few days before a gentleman of discriminating taste whom I hadn’t seen in some months greeted me with a completely unsolicited “Nice Frames!” I swear it happened exactly that way. And when you look like I do, you need all the help you can get.

Where was I? Drifting backwards… Late August had a quick weekend trip to Toronto, for a friend’s wedding one day, and then the unveiling of my late father’s monument the next. Emotional trip, that. We flew to Toronto on the red-eye Friday night, then drove up to Muskoka, which is where our dear old friend (and my former college roommate) Melanie Hill was getting married to her boy Lee. It was a really beautiful wedding, held on the shore of the lake that’s just across the road from Mel’s mother’s house. The bride’s father paddled her to the ceremony in a canoe, which has to be one of the best entrances I’ve seen in a long time. Bonus points to Mel for being able to get out of a canoe while wearing a wedding gown, and not getting it wet. Lee will always be fondly remembered for crying his eyes out (that was SO cute), and Mel’s father gave a really beautiful wedding speech. Unfortunately, we were still quite wiped from the red-eye, and had another big day ahead of us, so we packed it in relatively early, and spent the night at a very sweet B&B in Bracebridge.

The next morning we got up and headed straight to my mom’s place, and from there to the cemetery where my father is buried, for the unveiling and dedication of his monument (a Jewish funeral ritual). It was, somewhat as expected, a hard thing to do, and worse for being rushed (we had to get back to the airport just a few hours later). On the other hand, the passage of time made the second trip to the cemetery somewhat easier than the first. I don’t really like those rituals, and I don’t feel that I get much out of them. Aside from my issues with the religious trappings, I find that they obstruct (in me, at least) the very feelings that they’re supposed to evoke. I have many moments where I think about my father’s life (and his death), but they happen at odd times, mostly beyond my control. For whatever reason, standing by his grave doesn’t give rise to those thoughts – that place holds no memories for any of us. Most often, those thoughts come at night, when I lie in bed trying to fall asleep, or else when something obvious (a photo, a song, a joke) reminds me of my father. Otherwise, it’s simply unpredictable, and it feels awkward to be at one of these events and *not* be having those feelings…

Going back to the end of July (and beginning of August), there was a LOT of travelling going on. Too much, frankly. The madness all started on Tuesday, July 28th, when I headed to Denver at the crack of dawn for a two-day client engagement. That meant flying back the next night, and meeting our friend Cathy Oh and her friend Lori at SFO. Cathy flew in from Toronto, Lori flew in from New York, and I flew in from Denver, and we all arrived at SFO (where Em was waiting to pick us up) at roughly the same time. Then on Friday, the four of us flew to Phoenix together, got into a rental car, and drove up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We spent the weekend there, hiking into the canyon each morning (So beautiful! So hot!). On Sunday, Em and I flew back to San Francisco, and Lori and Cathy stayed behind (they then went off on a road trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles). The next day, I flew back to Denver AGAIN (a late-night flight, this time), for another two days at the same client site. I flew back to San Francisco on Wednesday night, as did Cathy Oh (Lori wasn’t coming back through San Francisco). This would have been a replay of the preceding Thursday, except that Cathy was alone, and flew into Oakland instead of SFO. We had a few more days here in San Francisco with Cathy Oh as our guest, and then on Monday, August 9th, I took a flight out to Seattle, where I stayed throught the 20th. Some folks in our Bellevue, WA office had some work for me to do, so they coordinated things so that I could take one long trip up there and do them all, instead of making multiple short trips. The one-long-trip way is certainly cheaper, and involves less actual “travel” time, but it’s pretty hard to spend that long away on business. Fortunately, the company was fine with flying Em up to Seattle for the weekend (as opposed to paying the same amount to fly me home for the weekend), and we had a nice (if rushed) couple of days in the Seattle area. On Saturday, we took the rental car out to Bainbridge Island via the ferry (I’d forgotten all about driving a car onto a boat – whee!). On Sunday, we raced out to Mount Rainier, and hiked around the base a bit before coming back to Seattle to put Em on her plane back to SFO. Somewhat surprisingly, we had great weather and visibility both days.

Before all THAT travel madness, there was the sweet, sweet travel of a trip to France. I won’t bore you with details unless you call or write and ask for them, but it was just amazing. No lost luggage, no travel flu, pretty amazing weather – nothing really went wrong, and most things went very right indeed. My feet ache just thinking about all the walking we did, but we saw beautiful cities and countryside, countless great works of art (including many beautiful buildings), ate many good meals, and had thousands (perhaps?) of incredible coffees and pastries. I’m determined to re-learn French – I rebelled against the idea when I was an anglo kid growing up in Montreal, and am kicking myself for it now. I’m joining the local branch of the Alliance Française, and I’ve started reading and listening to French for at least a few minutes (pretty much) every day.

Whew. There. I made it all the way back to the moment in Toulouse. And for some unknown reason, you’re still reading this. Wow. So with that done, I’ll jump back to the present, wherein I just received a “blast from the past” e-mail from an old friend I’d lost touch with, who Googled me, then found this blog. Not the first time that’s happened, actually. Hi, John! Great to hear from you!! I’ve been drafting this post for a little while – a reply to your e-mail goes out next.

Looking a little ways into the future, we’re driving down to Los Angeles tomorrow night. Szecket and Jennifer (if you don’t know these people, just know that we know these people) are MOVING – to Boston, no less. Which means this will be pretty much our last chance to go hang out with them in L.A. before they go – they’re throwing themselves a going-away party of sorts. And a HUGE bonus will be a side trip to the California Science Center for the BODY WORLDS exhibit . I’ve been desperately wanting to see this exhibit for YEARS, and this weekend I’ll finally get my chance. It looks likely to be counted among the most amazing things I’ve ever seen… We’re coming back Sunday night, and I’ll try to have a review of the exhibit posted next week, along with photos (if I’m allowed to take them – there may be a no-camera policy) in the Gallery.

There’s a lot more I could write, but I’m now eager to just click that “Post & Publish” button, and get myself back on the blogwagon. And with that, this West Coast Blogger is officially BACK!