The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.

Gosh what a wonderful world we live in!

Here's a quick recap of my week:

Wednesday- Wild Turkeys: 1, Hassan: 0. No turkey in the pot and no turkeys anywhere where we set up, twice. We saw some but they were, of course, where we couldn't shoot them. And people say turkeys are dumb, ha! Try hunting them on public land. No guide, no idea, no hope. C'est la vie. The hiking was fun and the scenery was awesome and I put a hot one down on a cotton tail but a turkey would have been nice. We tried going to a nice restaurant and got skunked. Monterey is not a good place to eat unless you want pizza (found a really nice family-owned joint named Gianni's) or fried seafood. Our food was so bad that we got our actual meal at Denny's, across the street. What the fuck?!

Thursday:

We got up, we packed, we bailed. The drive was nice but there was quite a bit of traffic and by the time we got to SF we were hungry. I used to live in SF and while I lived there I used to eat at a super amazing tapas place called Esperento. That was ten years ago. The place is still there and we ate there and it was amazing. Just as good as it used to be and we finally had good tapas.

Melah got a mimosa. We had to get Ani so off to Oakland airport we go. Not a problem, no traffic no worries and for the first time ever I didn't get lost in the East Bay! Go Google! We picked Ani up and she was glowing from her first solo flight ever. So funny. With Ani in tow we started off on the impossibly long drive to visit with Melah's cousins in Sebastopol. Traffic traffic traffic oh god the traffic. We pulled into town at around 6pm and lordy, we were tired. The town is cute and bucolic and artsy and safe and fun. There's an amazing sushi joint in Sebastopol called Sushi Tozai where we  gorged ourselves along with Mona and her man and Melah's cousin's wife. Turns out Ani is allergic to shrimp. Who knew? Bedtime!

I had planned to get up early and try to hunt turkey again before we headed out to SF but instead I dreamt that I drowned in the dark while duck hunting. It was cold and dark and my head lamp went out as I touched the bottom of a very deep lake. I was all alone and no one even knew where I was. I woke up at about 3am and was so freaked out that I decided to sleep in and stay safe in bed. Damn turkeys.

Friday:

Awoke at a reasonable time and went out for breakfast in downtown Sebastopol and ate at East West Cafe. Good stuff but no kid's menu so Ani ordered too much food and didn't eat it, of course. I had lamb, hummus, and pita followed by french toast because I am a totally fat douche bag. Damn, the lamb was perfect! OK, enough food! We went wine tasting and ended up finding a bunch of really good wineries and bought some bottles. Beautiful countryside and lots of good architecture and windy roads and good times. We got back home at a relatively reasonable hour and I stuffed the rabbit with onions, prosciutto, and garlic and roasted the whole thing with some butter spread on the outside. Came out great and we brought it over to Melah's aunt and uncle's house across town. They were making homemade pizza and the rabbit didn't really go but everyone seemed to like it. God bless the rabbit. It was awesome hanging out and talking family history with everyone. Sort of felt like I was at my parent's house with all the sibs. Ah, memories!

Saturday:

Up and out, dammit! After a very late start we headed to SF and a good ol' fashioned Mission Burrito. We went to El Balazo in the Mission and I ordered a carne asada burrito the size of a football while Ani and Melah ended up getting nachos. Fools! When in the Mission on a burrito mission you order burritos! They lost but seemed ignorant of their loss. Odd but not my problem. It's funny, when I lived in SF I would eat a Mission Burrito for brunch, skate all day, get drunk, and not eat until the next day. That's what I miss about SF, the time frame of when I was there. Work, skate, drink, work, skate, drink. Good recipe for bliss when you're a twenty-something skate rat but I guess those days are over. Long live Slap!

 We went to the California Academy of the Sciences and I absolutely love that place! This is a photo of their super green, environmentally amazing roof. The windows open and close automatically depending on what the weather is doing. There's no air conditioning and the whole place is cooled and heated by wind and the sun. All the plants are native and low-water consumption and the whole place is surrounded by solar panels. Awesome! There's also a very persuasive global warming presentation and an aquarium exhibit with both coastal Cali environments and a tropical mangrove tank that is remarkable.

Here's Melah posing on the roof.

We also saw the Warhol exhibit across the way at the De Young. Interesting but not that interesting. We found Ani chilling out under some strobe lights watching a Factory movie. Foreshadowing?

We also met up with Melah's cousin Peter who just got out of the dotcom biz and is now doing volunteer work and generally lounging about SF. Good man.

The Korean Bear had the girls so we went out to Alameda and had dinner with him and his two girls and my pals Rachel and Brian showed with their kids. Yeah, five kids and Ani was the oldest at seven. I drank a lot of beer and ate a hot sausage sandwich and tried to steel myself for the mayhem. Five kids and they're all girls? Shoot me. Shoot me now. It was actually fine, I just wouldn't want to hang like that all the time. Sometimes a man's got to get out into the woods or a duck blind or into a bottle of tequila, nahmean?

Sunday:

Up later than we should have gotten up. Oh well, that's why it's a vacation. Into the city to meet Melah's friend Susu and off to breakfast. We wandered around in Hayes Valley for a bit and played on some jungle gym contraption. We also ate at Stacks, which was really good. I was somewhat surprised but hey, that's what makes not going back to a city for ten years so interesting. I managed to sneak away to the Deluxe Skate shop on Main and picked up a Stereo Skateboards video I'd been dying to see and some big, soft, blue wheels to cruise around on. Yay skateboarding!

Home again, home again, lickety-split. Good evening traffic! We took the scenic route along the 101 and had a good time seeing deer and turkey and other things we'd like to eat but couldn't quite get our hands on. To be honest, by the time we pulled in I was dead. I'd driven a billion miles, seen a good chunk of my beloved California, and was tired of the question "How many more minutes til we're there?" and the phrase "I'm just joking." Kids! Ya gotta not kill 'em or tell 'em to shut up!

Jeez! Jokes, people, jokes!

Anyway, we made it and then I woke up and surfed and cleaned the house and prepped a camera and now I'm typing a nice, juicy run on sentence of no great import. Off to work for the next two weeks then, hopefully, back into the woods for a Rio turkey. Wish me luck or I'll fucking kill you. I mean cry like a little baby. I mean...

Peace out, bitches!