A Quick Post Before Hitting the Sack

Twas the Night before leaving....and I'm really pooped!!!! But, had to pop on real quick and thank Nick for getting me out, distracted, and full of some amazing food. Nick started with the asparagus/citrus salad....and I decided to go FRENCH - with the yummers Onion Soup. We had Ono and Halibut - one of each....grilled with amazing sauces and those kick-ass Hayes Street Grill French Fries

Here we are after dinner - just before I hit BART and headed back home to Pleasanton...

Is It TIME TO LEAVE, YET????

In 24 hours, we'll be boarding Air France flight 083 to Paris. To say I'm feeling anxious and excited - big understatement....I'm mean, my gosh...I'm at my dad's house taking pictures of a clock with our departure time (tomorrow).....yeah.....I'm ready to GO.

Bags are packed and I'm ready to go......Thanks to my dear friend Nick, I'm going to be distracted this evening. He's suggested we meet at Hayes Street Grill for a early and quick bite to eat, tonight. He's house sitting for some San Francisco friends. I'm grateful for his wonderful friendship....and especially appreciative that he suggested we meet tonight....it's a special way of leaving town and a chance to see a great (Palm Springs-based) friend in both of our's former City by the Bay. And, in case I forgot to mention it: a great distraction.

Going to grab a quick nap before catching BART into SF for dinner.....so that's all for now. More tomorrow - can't believe it's actually HERE!!!!!

The Trip Begins.....

On my way to my departing flight for San Francisco, I looked back, as I passed under the welcome to PS sign, at the airport; and my heart started jumpin'.....I've been waiting for this day for months...literally. Even though we don't actually leave for Paris, until Tuesday....this is the first leg of the trip, for me. I guess I'll just have to be patient - the inbound flight is seriously delayed. Normally, I'm on the 7am flight - which originates from Palm Springs --- so I guess I should have used my common sense and tracked the flight coming from Portland, through San Francisco, which is the plane that's going to be carrying me to SFO.....whenever it gets here. After some internet sleuthing (never knew Palm Springs Airport had free WiFi...I dont' usually have the time nor the inclination to whip out my laptop when i take my usual 7AM AlaskaAir flight) I discovered the delay is runway maintenance at SFO.

Okay - enough with the boring story.....I'm just killing time while I wait to see when the inbound flight from SFO finally takes off. The idea of eating airport food is not appealing - but it looks like I'm going to be stuck here until at least 1pm (it's 11AM right now). I'll just take some deep breaths and face the fact - this is nothing compared to some of the hassles we might experience during the France trip. Bigger planes, longer flights, shuttle services, the TGV.

Anyway - just found out our plane has left SFO and is going to be just an hour late....Still guess I'll grab some food and chill. Hope to have much more interesting things to inspire me for future blogs.....

Huge mounds of thanks and love to Mike and Eric - lovin' my Keens.....

WHAT TO PACK? WHAT TO PACK? WHAT TO PACK!!!!!

Well, it's 5 days....and counting. Here in Palm Springs I'm shuttling houseplants to my friend, David Madison's, this morning, to be cared for while I'm away. The 10-day weather forecasts for Paris and Bordeaux are showing mild temperatures; even light rain. I don't have to check what meteorologists are saying about what will be happening with the mercury in Palm Springs, while I'm away....triple digits are here!!!!!

On Saturday morning - I'll be getting on board an Alaska Air flight to SFO for my dad's house - where I'll be staying for a couple of nights before joining up with the Leppla family and our flight to Paris.

Well, "my bags are packed...and I'm ready to go...." as the song goes. As Jacqueline, David, Morgan, Margaux, and Madeline are making their decisions about what to pack, I thought I'd post a picture....just a cyber-reminder: PACK SOMETHING NICE TO WEAR....JUST IN CASE!!! You know, we don't want to go to a nice restaurant and not have appropriate clothes to wear. I'm not sure what the occasion was for this picture - but I'm sure it was taken just before we all headed out for some special celebration.

Anyway - details about the trip will unfold over the next days and during the trip, when I'll be posting along with lots of help from Morgan, Margaux, Madeline - and probably even Jacqueline and David....Pics, stories and more....for now AU REVOIR!!!!

BIRTHDAY PARTY SLIDE SHOW....

Not sure if this will work, but here's a try. This is a collection of pictures set to music by my friend Jeff Valdez. I'm not that tech savvy, so not sure if the translation of file types works. Enjoy!!?? It was a great day. Thanks to all my wonderful friends who were there to share with me

What a day.....a special THANK YOU to John and Jeff!!!!

This past Saturday about 30 friends “stopped over” to help me celebrate my Half-Century mark, in life!!! I’ve always loved helping others celebrate special occasions…usually lending a hand in my favorite place: the kitchen!!! I decided to throw a party to mark this "hard to believe I made it" birthday. I had a great time.

I could not have pulled this off without the incredible help of my friends, Jeff Valdez and his partner John Patterson (pictured above), from Los Angeles.
Their talents are many and varied:
Culinary, design and just how to achieve “the good life”!!! They put all of these to great use this past weekend. My place looked awesome, the food was delicious, and most of all, my friends were there to help me soak it all in.
Some great gifts, many happy birthday wishes (thanks to all my friends on facebook), and the party went on.....until I crashed on Monday. Time to get some personal thank yous out to folks and prepare to celebrate the life of my wonderful Uncle Tom Haley, who passed away this past December. Family and friends will be gathering this Saturday in Concord, CA to celebrate a rich and varied life….

For now, here are some pictures of my Birthday Celebration – thank you for your camera work, as well, Jeff Valdez!!!!

Back To Blogging….

Now that I’ve had a long break from my initial blog posts, I’ve had the chance to reflect on how I should proceed. My goal is the same: to post about things happening in my life during this special half-century year of my life. Lots of things have kept me from the keyboards, but mostly it’s been feeling daunted by the task of committing lots of time to the lengthy scribes I figured I needed to have.
The beauty of time, is that it gives us perspective. I’ve come to realize that it’s not about SIZE, but about capturing and sharing the many moments that are important to me. So, here we go…..

In the coming weeks I have many important things happening. This weekend is a memorial service for my Uncle Tom, in Concord, CA. He passed away in December, and we are gathering, near his home, to celebrate his life.

Back to Palm Springs for a couple of weeks before returning to NorCal when I will be flying from SFO to Paris with my friends, the Lepplas as David Leppla and I are milking our 50th birthdays on another continent. Then, it's back to NorCal for a week at my dad's house, in Pleasanton. My band teacher from high school (yup - over 30 years ago!!!) is retiring from an amazing career, spent mostly at my alma mater: Foothill High School. Mr. Moorefield was in important person to me and the thousands of students he influenced.

Then, it's a quick flight to Southern California to finally get home....but not before making a quick stop to pick out a new member of my family - an English Cocker Spaniel. More on that later.

Finally, I'll be settling back into the routines back at home, in Palm Springs....just in time for the blazing hot temperatures that are part of life in this amazing part of the world.