Grateful Vegas Jacket

I recently attended my first Grateful Deadish-style event when a friend took me to a concert by Ratdog, Dead singer Bob Weir's other band. It was a hugely entertaining evening of jam music. Because I don't own any tie-dye, I figured the Vegas Jacket was the most psychedelic thing I could wear. Thanks to the generally sedated nature of the crowd, the Jacket was clearly not the overwhelming presense it normally can be, and for that we can all be grateful. If only I could have worn it to Woodstock. The photo shows me, the Jacket, a libation and tennis buddy Sarah, who was at the concert with her husband Jeff. These two veteran deadheads were following Ratdog across its Northwest tour, also hitting seattle, missoula and boise before heading east towards Omaha. Happy trails, my friends.

Tennis king

Another spectacular tennis season came to an end for me in Sun River, OR., in August, when my mixed doubles team played well in the Pacific Northwest championships, but failed to advance to nationals.

Here's a picture of me in ``action'' in Sun River.

Cappy is Fancy

Took Cappy to the dog groomer this week for a bath and haircut. She came back looking very fancy, with ribbons in her ears.

Phoenix

went down to phoenix for a writing conference in mid-September. This is good news in that the company continues to invest in my development. It's bad news if you consider that after 27 years I still need lessons in how to write.

Saw my daughter down there, and she is loving her new job.

I absolutely loved Phoenix. Temps around 105, cigar lounges where you could buy and smoke a stogie on premises, a Margaritaville restaurant, outdoor pools everywhere. Here's a pix of me outside a favorite restaurant in Phoenix. I like it mostly because of its name, Le Grande Orange, which reminded me of former Montreal Expo Rusty Staub, the original grande orange. I explained this to Miranda, who wondered what a Montreal Expo was.

Summer News

Miranda has started her new job as a management trainee for Houston's steakhouses. I'll be visiting her this weekend. Miranda has left was her dog Cappy to watch while she embarks on her adult life. Cappy is my little friend.

I was back in action covering Washington State football on Saturday. Another loss, but they looked decent. My Montana State Bobcats were routed by Michigan State, but the flatlanders still have much higher unemployment, na na nana na.

If you are reading this, you might be suffering from Internet addiction.

I went out on my boat four times this summer. Sigh.

The photo shows tom and i outside saint george, utah in the red rock desert

Journey Across the West, the full story

I'm sure it gets boring listening to my vacation stories, but, seriously, that's all I did this year. Started with the drive from Waterville, Maine to Spokane. When I last wrote, we had started our epic journey from spokane to Vegas, California and back to Spokane.

The trip was great. Tom, Eli, my niece Corina and I drove down to Saint George, Utah, where we stayed with my brother Jim, his family, and my Mom for three nights.

Then I took the boys to Vegas, where we hit Margaritaville, the big pools at Luxor, a magician show and the buffet, with shorter stops in between. Luxor was $50 a night!

Then we drove from Vegas to South Lake Tahoe to visit Kon, staying two nights. Then it was back to Spokane via a stop in Bend, ore.

A week later we were on the road again, back to Bend for a USTA mixed doubles tennis tournament. My team did well down there, and I went 3-3, proving that .500 tennis is my trademark. Ann came down also and played with her team, then hitched a ride home as the boys and i went on to Portland for Tom to play in junior tennis sectionals. We spent a day at Cannon Beach also.

Finally, after taking most of August off, we returned to the workaday life in Spokane. i am presently allowed to spend no money as we pay off our vacations.

Miranda has gotten a job as a management trainee with the restaurant chain that owns Houston's and other fancy places. I'm going to see her in a week.

Here are some vaca pix.

Journey across the West, Part I

The first two days of our epic journey across the west passed safely. I worked until Friday afternoon, then piled tom, eli and corinna into the car and we drove to Butte, Mont., to spend the night with my mother in law. we had a tasty dinner at Dairy Queen in Missoula. since it was corinna's 13th birthday, we topped it all off with blizzards. but i chose a Dilly Bar, which you can eat while keeping one hand on the wheel. this led to the boys constantly referring to dad keeping a firm grip on his dilly bar while driving.

saturday we covered the 400 miles from butte to salt lake city, stopping at chili's in idaho falls for a horrible and expensive lunch (I'm thinking barf).
we pulled into the radisson in downtown salt lake, whose opulance stunned the children.
we had dinner at a Greek restaurant that night with my old work friend Linda. I learned bad news about Rory, God be with him
Our meal was excellent. I ordered stuffed green peppers. eli had pastitso. we drank non resinated wine, and then repaired to the hotel for an after-dinner drink. I thought i would have to join the hotel bar club, but it turned out that law has been overturned.
tomorrow, we hit the lagoon theme park and then on to Saint George!