Greetings! From CALIFORNIA! And simultaneously, goodbye! To CALIFORNIA! Since I am leaving today with Erin back to PDX. But we’ve had our share of good times here: I beat my dad at cribbage once and he beat me once, so we again leave as equals in that department; Erin got on horse back and rode about despite my father’s attempts to kill her with poor instruction; I was well behaved at Erin’s super-rich friend’s birthday party, even going so far as to stay sober so I could drive us away (eventually, and after getting lost several times) from the lands above Santa Barbara, the heady highlands of cedar hot tubs and heated party yurts populated by houlka-smoking euro- and pan-asian-partiers. Sadly there was not time this trip to light big piles of brush on fire or to shoot small varmint from a moving golf-cart, two of the principal past-times offered by life in Santa Ynez, but I suppose it’s always good to save something for later.

Goodbye, fair California! Until the next time!