Caleb's perspective on Santa

Christa and Caleb were in San Francisco yesterday, in the Union Square area. Seeing the big Christmas tree in Neiman Marcus, the puppies in the window at Macy's, etc. Caleb also got to sit on Santa's lap and tell Santa what he wanted to Christmas.

Christa asked Santa to get me a job for Christmas. upon hearing this, Caleb said, "That's too big for your sled!"

Not a movie to easily forget

Christa and I had our first date night last night since I lost my job. The entire evening only cost us $10, thanks to a Starbucks card and movie passes. The only cost was the babysitter.

We went to see the new Coen brother's movie "No Country FOr Old Men". Not a move which will easily slip from the consciousness. It's set up as a Western, but takes place in 1980 amid dusty towns and hotels in Texas. A hunter discovers 2 million dollars in a drug buy gone bad but there is one guy who knows who he is...and he's only of the best/worst bad guys in years. He kills because he likes it and carries a cattle gun with an air compressor on it. He kills about 15 people during the course of the movie. Javier Barden plays him. The one he is chasing is played by Josh Brolin. The world-weary sheriff chasing both of them is played by TOmmy Lee Jones.

There's virtually no music in the movie at all, which only adds to the gloom and mystery surrounding it. The tension is constant with the audiencealways wondering what will come next. Dark, dark stuff. Don't miss it

Caleb gets one right

We were watching Jeopardy tonight. Caleb likes to play along and he has developed 2 standard answers for all questions. These are "What is Africa?" and "What is Regan?" (his sister's name). FOr every question, he shouted out one of these 2 answers.

But tonight the category was "I was his Veep" They will give a vice-president, and the response is the president he served under. Sure enough, the first question in the category was "George Bush". Caleb quickly shouted out "Who is Regan."

Grilled lemon shrimp

I want to share a recipe for the best grilled shrimp I have ever had. It's a lemon-olive oil marinade that also works well as a salad dressing. I used extra marinade as a dressing for some sliced tomatoes

1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup sliced scallions
1/4 cup parsley
5 garlic cloved, minced finely
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sesame oil

Mix these ingredients together and brush on shrimp as they are grilled. I'm convinced that the secret to this recipe is the sesame oil, so don't forget it

How my father's service ended up being one of the most fun evenings in a long time

I'm grateful for the love and support of friends during my father's illness and passing. 2 epsecially close friends came to the service. Matt lives in San Jose but Mike drove up from Orange County. He said he just needed to be here.

After the service, some of us went back to my mom's place for some food and drink. Both Matt and Mike came and we were up drinking Martinis and Port Wine until almost midnight, laughing and having a great time. Thank God for great friends like these and for the fun we had

My father

My father died last Thursday, Nov 1. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 2 months ago or so and was given a terminal diagnosis of 1-2 months. He just about made it to the 3rd month. He did not really suffer and went quietly early in the morning with my mother there. The effects of the cancer had only begna to show themselves a couple of weeks before, with general weakness and swelling in the legs. He became bedridden 2 days before he passed.

We had a memorial service for him on Monday at a funeral home in San Mateo. They had a large room and a smaller room. We booked the smaller room (seats 65) because we did not know how many people would show up and the large room was booked. The funeral home called the morning of the service to let us know that the larger room was now available because that service had been cancelled. How do you cancel a memorial service? Did someone get better???

We are glad we took the larger room (seats 200) because we just about sold it out. People came out of the woodwork. There was a woman there whose son had been in Boy Scouts with me 25 years ago-she acted like we were best friends.

It was a fitting tribute to my father. Numerous people got up to speak and TJ, our worhsip pastor, came to provide music.