Thursday November 6th

I had an excellent drive yesterday. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. It is 13 hours door to door, and I use a great deal of personal guile to trick myself about how long it actually takes. I leave really early, when it is dark and by the time I am ready for a little bit of breakfast I have hours and hours of driving under my belt. I left at 5am and stopped at 9am for some food and a stretch of my legs. So, at that time I had already put 300 of the 850 miles behind me. I think that is a pretty smart plan.

So, I got into Oakland about 60 minutes before Gail’s flight landed and I am really pleased with the addition of the “Cell Phone Waiting Lots.” I just parked my car closed my eyes and waiting for Gail to give me a call telling me she had her bags and I got to tell her that I would be there in 3 minutes. Very Civilized Indeed!

I love this drive and I do miss CA. There will always be a part of me that would wish that I could afford to live here. My bones would mutiny, but there is something about CA that I do miss & always will miss. But I would never trade my Bad-Ass house, my pool and my outdoor tub. The weather of AZ has done great things for me and I do not see that changing anytime soon…but who knows…when the shiny things get my attention, off I can go! So, there is always a chance for anything to happen.

I was invited to do a guest demo for Gail Crosman Moore’s class tomorrow afternoon and I am excited for the chance to spend some more quality time with Miss Gail.

We got very lucky this year, our favorite concierge here are the Marriott, Sandy, got us a great room on the tippy-top floor with THIS VIEW! AWESOME!!!!

The City in the Distance is San Francisco!












Notice the really bright star up top!














How the world changes, one year ago, right after this show, I was getting ready for 8 days in China, working at a resort for a gathering of really rich Chinese gentleman that liked good wine and wanted to taste a $3500.00 bottle of Screaming Eagle Wine. The trip was exhausting and stupid and it was at this moment in time, one year ago, that everything changed. There occurred a fundamental shift in my world that was so subtle that it took me several months to actually see what was actually being perpetrated.

Hindsight is AMAZING! and it is 20/20! It appears that I actually do have really good vision and that in some way and in some ways there were actions that I took, at the time, not knowing why, and now that I look at those actions, I am very SMART indeed.

I am so glad that this year is almost over and I am glad that I have made as much progress as I have. I am hopeful for 2009, I have lots of travel on my plate but it should be a good year.

Wish us all luck with the show these few days.
Many people could use a good show!