SIDEWAYS

I received two nice Father's Day gifts this year. The first was a Cobra XRS 9678 Ultra-Performance Digital Radar/Laser Detector from Chris and the kids. This was not something that I ever asked for, but something I have found I absolutely love!

My second gift arrived in the form of my 20 year old stepson, Kip. We picked him up from the Little Rock airport on Sunday. He will be in Harrison for a couple months this summer. When he approached me in at the airport, I didn't recognize him. He's put on several extra pounds over the past six months, cut his hair quite short and grown a rather long, scruffy goatee. But as soon as he spoke, I recognized him. It was the strangest feeling to be looking at someone giving you the look of "you know me," yet your mind is saying, "I've never seen this person in my life." But is was so nice to be with him again and see how he is growing into independant adulthood.

I saw the movie Sideways on Sunday night. The movie is billed as a comedy, but proved to be a serious, and tragic look at how two men struggle to cope with addictions , immoral inclinations, and their extraordinary average lives. This movie is certainly not appropriate for children of any age. The movie did have some beautiful clips of Santa Barbara wine country, but save yourself the pain of enduring all the crude comments, obscene sexual references and nudity and visit the vinards in person. No stars.

Chris and I now have less than a month before our trip to Italy and Germany. We fly out of Springfield, MO on July 2oth. We get more excited every day. I brought home a 10 CD set of learning the Italian language about a week ago. We'll see how that goes.

Well, just a quick blog to attempt to get me back online. Have a terrific week.

Gene