And the winner is.....

Congrats Barry! Way to do us proud! Not to mention I was super happy to see that my home state of Colorado has gone from red to blue! Sorry Colorado Springs! Woohoo!

What Would Jerry Do??

Happy Birthday Frog!!!!!!

Approximately 35 years ago in the midst of the night somewhere in Chicago the frog came into this world. Happy Birthday Frog. Hope you have a wonderful birthday and an even better evening filled with copious amounts of Champagne.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

This weekend finds us with the arrival of our pal Steve from Halifax, who is passing through town for a conference, and decided to stop by over the weekend to enjoy the rain with us.  As it is Sunday, we decided to chef up a quiche with some potatoes on the side, complete with Bloody Marys and Caesars.  (Sorry VanEmsts, I have decided to step up the accommodations around here, as one of our Michelin stars was in jeopardy.  I promise I will make it up to you next time!)  I still struggle fully comprehending why anyone would destroy a Bloody Mary with clam juice, but I think it is a Canadian thing.  I have learned not to question many Canadian things, such as Tim Horton's, donairs, and late nights at The Palace.  

I want to suck your blood....

I had the pleasure of joining some customers in their annual fund raiser, the Translyvania Golf Classic. It was night golfing, complete with glow-in-the-dark balls, glow sticks, glow necklaces, and using your spidey senses to guess where you were hitting the ball. It was a blast! Costumes were also encouraged, although I was quite concerned when I showed up to check-in, and everyone decided to dress up as golfers. Here is a self portrait of what I came up with last minute. I like to call it "looking for Studio 54."

I think the bad exposure and Playtex machine in the background only add to the whole look.

In San Diego....

....where I am starting to feel the effects of multiple planes and too many hotels! Nothing says home like a grilled cheese and tomato soup, and this one was one of the best. Still doesn't quite hold a candle to the one that P. can chef up at home, though!

Fontina grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes and fresh basil with a side of roasted tomato bisque. To die for!

A peek out the window this morning.

In Seattle....

.....where I have found myself at one of my favorite spots, The Sorrento Hotel. I haven't stayed here in years, and it really is as great as I remember. This year marks their 100th year in business, and apparently President Taft was their first guest. Who knew? I have attached a few pics of the hotel, since I didn't have any extra time to get much further than the lobby and to a few meetings across the street.

View of the entrance.

A glimpse of the mini bar.

Between the Tanqueray, Pelligrino, and Amstel Light, it looked like a mini version of the fridge at home.

Turndown service.

Happy Birthday Eeps!

You look mah-velous!

A kodak moment from the 1st Annual Sausalito Pub Crawl in honor of EP's b-day.

More pics and details to follow....

Nothing like a good coaster ride

Here's a video captured during our visit to Sweden in August. On the video besides myself and The Frog is Brother Joe, in the blue shirt. Liseberg is Scandinavia's largest amusement park and the rollercoaster we are on is called the Lisebergbanan. When it first opened, in the 80's, it was the longest and fastest in Europe. Unfortunately we were not able to capture the entire video as the camera shut down after the first drop due to the heavy g-loads. Good times, good times.

My ship has finally come in

So after spending some time sailing in the Med this August (more to come on that later) I was finally fed up with not having a boat available to me at any given time. The pull of the ocean was too great so I gave in and bought myself a little boat, The Maltese Falcon. As you all know I always go big and this was no exception. Although slightly used she looks almost brand new and was built by the famous Italian shipbuilders Perini Navi in 2006 for venture capitalist billionaire Tom Perkins (who happens to live across from us in Belvedere). As times have been tough in the financial industry Tom was forced to put her on the market and there I was ready to snap her up for a mere $190 million. Quite a bargain at the time. Last week she finally arrived here in SF for me to take delivery and as you can see she created quite a lot of attention.

As soon as she had entered Richardson Bay I had the tender come pick me up and I took her for a quick spin around the Bay. She really is quite fast.....I was able to get her to do about 18 knots going downwind with a 15 knot offshore breeze.


Finally at her new home, anchored south of our house.

As it was a little difficult to keep any eye on her from my office I asked the crew to move her 300 meters north so that I would have a clear view of her from all rooms of the house.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Although I amortized the payments over 20 years that still works out to about $900,000 per month, however, what I really hadn't anticipated was the cost of the 14 crew members ($5 million per year). In addition, it costs me $800,000 every time we have to fill her up (go figure, I thought the fuel costs would be low because she has sails....apparently it has something to do with the generators needed to power all the electronics and winches for the sails). So she is now back on the market at a heavily discounted price....ready to sell fast. I'm asking a mere $155 Million USD or 115 Million Euros, whatever you may prefer. For more details you can visit: Yacht World

Still burning....

As of the crack of dawn this morning, Angel Island is still on fire.  Here are a few more pics......

Why camping should be banned

At 9pm local time this evening a fire broke out on Angel Island (which is located across from Sausalito on the southern point of Richardson Bay). Angel Island, which is a state park, has a number of camping areas all over the island and it was at one of these that the fire broke out. At approximately 10pm there were 40 fire fighters from Marin on site. Interviews with Park Rangers on Angel Island revealed that there were about a dozen campers on the island tonight. At this time no injuries were reported but we can always hope that those camping hippies that started the fire were slightly scorched. Stay posted for my petition to ban camping all across California.