And thank you, too.

Thanks to Alex, I know exactly how to avoid ugly traffic on my drive from Sacramento airport to Santa Rosa tomorrow afternoon. Thanks, Alex. Have a margarita on me, with a mango chaser. And I will enjoy myself, thanks, and leave my guilt where it belongs, on the curb.

And thanks, Mimi, for helping my friend get the word to Congress that financial support for lung cancer research is vitally important. Mimi is an alienym (how's that for a word?) for my sister. She did that work not only for my friend, but in memory of my Dad, who died of lung cancer.

I have to thank Nicole, too, for sending me her recipe for Tom Yum Soup. Tom Yum Soup is one of my favorite things in the world (as of today...I am fickle, though). Here is Nicole's recipe. Some among you will find some things odd about the recipe, like the spelling and a few words that are totally unfamiliar. Nicole is from Australia, via Amsterdam and Croatia and places in between. She brings to you things from the world. Her husband does the same.

Tom Yum Soup

• 1 litre water
  
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
  
• 3 tablespoons Tom Yum paste
  
• 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, lightly pounded, cut into 4cm segments
  
• 1/4 cup sliced galangal (John says: I think this is ginger root...right, Nicole?)
  
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, chopped in half
  
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
  
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms (champignongs, straw or shiitake)
  
• 1 tablespoon Prik Pao roasted chillie in oil (you see this thick, oily, deep red hot sauce in lots of Thai restaurants)
  
• 20 prawns, medium size
  
• fresh coriander, roughly torn
  
• 1 fresh red chillie, sliced
  
• 2 spring onions, sliced
  
• juice of 1-2 limes
  
• Boil the water.
  
• Add stock cubes and stir to dissolve.
  
• Add Tom Yum paste and stir to dissolve.
  
• Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce.
  
• Add mushrooms and cook for a minute.
  
• Add prik pao and stir to dissolve.
  
• Add prawns and cook for a minute or two until just done.
  
• Turn off heat and stir through fresh chillie, spring onion and lime juice.
  
• Sprinkle with coriander.
  
• Serve immediately.
  Note: Use as little or as much of the paste, mushrooms, chillie and
  lime juice as suits you. This can all be adjusted to taste. Regarding
  the mushrooms, I like the flavour of the shiitake, even though straw
  mushrooms would be more traditional and a lot of people use the
  easily obtainable fresh champignon. If using dried shiitake, put
  about 4-5 mushrooms into a bowl, pour over boiling water and weigh it
  down with another bowl until the mushrooms have softened, takes about
  15 minutes. Then you can slice them and use in the soup. I usually
  like to add the soaking liquid to the soup as well, as it adds
  flavour. Instead of prawns you can use sliced chicken breast fillet
  or pieces of a firm white fish.

I'm waiting with bated breath for Teresa to tell me what she thinks about some of my writing. Teresa is a new and rare visitor who is an incredibly good writer and someone whose criticism would be very valuable to me. Most of the few of you have not read much, if anything, of mine that I consider truly worth putting on a page. I've actually asked her to give me candid feedback on some of my "favorite" pieces. So what if I'm sacrificing myself to a sharp sword? I want to know.

And thank you, too.

Thanks to Alex, I know exactly how to avoid ugly traffic on my drive from Sacramento airport to Santa Rosa tomorrow afternoon. Thanks, Alex. Have a margarita on me, with a mango chaser. And I will enjoy myself, thanks, and leave my guilt where it belongs, on the curb.

And thanks, Mimi, for helping my friend get the word to Congress that financial support for lung cancer research is vitally important. Mimi is an alienym (how's that for a word?) for my sister. She did that work not only for my friend, but in memory of my Dad, who died of lung cancer.

I have to thank Nicole, too, for sending me her recipe for Tom Yum Soup. Tom Yum Soup is one of my favorite things in the world (as of today...I am fickle, though). Here is Nicole's recipe. Some among you will find some things odd about the recipe, like the spelling and a few words that are totally unfamiliar. Nicole is from Australia, via Amsterdam and Croatia and places in between. She brings to you things from the world. Her husband does the same.

Tom Yum Soup

• 1 litre water
  
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
  
• 3 tablespoons Tom Yum paste
  
• 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, lightly pounded, cut into 4cm segments
  
• 1/4 cup sliced galangal (John says: I think this is ginger root...right, Nicole?)
  
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, chopped in half
  
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
  
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms (champignongs, straw or shiitake)
  
• 1 tablespoon Prik Pao roasted chillie in oil (you see this thick, oily, deep red hot sauce in lots of Thai restaurants)
  
• 20 prawns, medium size
  
• fresh coriander, roughly torn
  
• 1 fresh red chillie, sliced
  
• 2 spring onions, sliced
  
• juice of 1-2 limes
  
• Boil the water.
  
• Add stock cubes and stir to dissolve.
  
• Add Tom Yum paste and stir to dissolve.
  
• Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce.
  
• Add mushrooms and cook for a minute.
  
• Add prik pao and stir to dissolve.
  
• Add prawns and cook for a minute or two until just done.
  
• Turn off heat and stir through fresh chillie, spring onion and lime juice.
  
• Sprinkle with coriander.
  
• Serve immediately.
  Note: Use as little or as much of the paste, mushrooms, chillie and lime juice as suits you. This can all be adjusted to taste. Regarding the mushrooms, I like the flavour of the shiitake, even though straw mushrooms would be more traditional and a lot of people use the easily obtainable fresh champignon. If using dried shiitake, put about 4-5 mushrooms into a bowl, pour over boiling water and weigh it down with another bowl until the mushrooms have softened, takes about 15 minutes. Then you can slice them and use in the soup. I usually like to add the soaking liquid to the soup as well, as it adds flavour. Instead of prawns you can use sliced chicken breast fillet or pieces of a firm white fish.

I'm waiting with bated breath for Teresa to tell me what she thinks about some of my writing. Teresa is a new and rare visitor who is an incredibly good writer and someone whose criticism would be very valuable to me. Most of the few of you have not read much, if anything, of mine that I consider truly worth putting on a page. I've actually asked her to give me candid feedback on some of my "favorite" pieces. So what if I'm sacrificing myself to a sharp sword? I want to know.

Help Fight Cancer

A blogger friend I've never met face-to-face but who I consider one of my closest friends in some fundamental ways, has asked me to help spread the word about the Lung Cancer Alliance. My friend's husband is dealing with cancer (and he's never been a smoker) and she is understandably focused on his illness and how it can be addressed. More than that, she is working hard to get support from others who can use their voices to help ensure support for efforts to find treatments and cures.

The Lung Cancer Alliance - a group that does a lot of advocacy in raising awareness of lung cancer issues, is asking for help in getting people motivated to write to their senators in support Bill S.3187, the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act, which was introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Hagel. The legislation would authorize at least $75 million for lung cancer research under a comprehensive program aimed at reducing lung cancer mortality. Unfortunately, it seems that not enough people are aware of this bill, or are apathetic about contacting their senators to urge them to support the bill. Why? We don't know. Maybe they don't think lung cancer is a big issue because they think that lung cancer is a "smoker's disease" and doesn't deserve any funding (WRONG!!! see statistics down below - plenty of non- and never-smokers get it too!). Anyhow, at last count, only about 400 people had visited the webpage below to send an email to their senators. In an attempt to get more support for this bill, some of us are sending out personal messages to our friends asking them to go to this page and take a moment to fill out and send the form that should appear at this URL (the form is quick and easy to fill and send)
http://capwiz.com/lungcanceralliance/issues/alert/?alertid=11623916

My friend usually doesn't like to bother people about signing such petitions, etc. but would appreciate it very much if you folks would add your support, and if you know of anyone else who might be willing to sign it, to forward this message or the text of it along to others. Hopefully, with enough support, this legislation will pass and lung cancer research will start to get the funding that it deserves. What is needed is a Manhattan Project to find a way to reduce or stop the incredible number of lives being taken by this cancer. Below, I've included some facts about lung cancer -- some statistics that most people don't seem to be aware of but that ought to spur just about anyone to take action.

From the Lung Cancer Alliance's "Facts"
** Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States among every ethnic group. 1 in every 3 cancer deaths is from lung cancer. An average of 439 people die from Lung cancer in the U.S. every day. (my note: That's about equivalent to all of the passengers on a large commercial airline jet dying in a crash each and every day.)


** Lung cancer will kill more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney, and melanoma cancers... combined.

** Lung cancer kills nearly twice as many women as breast cancer.

** Lung cancer kills over three times as many men as prostate cancer.

** One in five women and one in twelve men diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked.

** Over 60% of new lung cancer cases are never smokers or former smokers, many of whom quit decades ago.

** Only 16% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at its earliest and most curable stage.


** The majority of lung cancer patients are being diagnosed so late that they will die within a year.


** National Cancer Institute (NCI) : Over the past 35 years, NCI’s budget has grown from $380 million a year to $4.8 billion a year in fiscal year 2007 (FY07) – an increase of 1265% - and NCI has complete control over how to spend the money. Even though lung cancer causes one in every three cancer deaths, lung cancer research received less than 5% of NCI’s budget in FY07.

** Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Congress also earmarks funding within CDC for specific cancers. The CDC budget for FY07 includes $201 million for breast and cervical cancer initiatives, $13.9 million for prostate cancer and $14.4 million for colon cancer. CDC budget for FY07 included $0 for lung cancer initiatives. Yes.. you read that right.... $0.00 for Lung cancer, even though one in three who die from cancer will die from lung cancer.

No Rest for the Wicked?

I just finished making the reservations. Thursday morning, my wife and I will fly a circuitous route to Sacramento, California, where we will rent a dull car and drive about two hours to Santa Rosa. We'll arrive in Sacramento about 1:30 pm; with luggage, unfamiliarity with highways, and other such intrusions, I imagine we'll be in Santa Rosa by 3:30 or 4:00.

There, we'll visit the house where my mother-in-law lived before she died. We'll go through boxes, look for photos, and shred papers that have no meaning but could be used by criminals to do harm or steal identities that are no more.

We've set aside Friday through Sunday to go through "stuff" and then arrange for shipping any significant amounts of paperwork back home. We'll drive back to Sacramento on Sunday evening and will fly back to Dallas on Monday.

This will be my wife's first trip back since her mother died. There's a battle going on between three siblings and it bothers me. My wife is not inclined to be one who wants her "due," but there is some fighting going on between other siblings and, in the finaly analysis, there is some bad blood there. It makes me sad to see people argue and fight over who "gets" what. It doesn't belong to them. They don't "deserve" it. It's just what's left and there's upset that one sibling took advantage of the mother and got all the value, while the others were left out.

Repeat: it wasn't the children's property to start with...the mother could have, and perhaps should have, used it all up during her lifetime, leaving nothing for the vultures to fight over.

I'm being unkind, and I shouldn't. I didn't grow up in that family. I don't know the history that's never been told. But I think back to when my parents died and there was none of this "I deserve what's mine." We just mourned their passing and disposed of what little was left of their lives, then went on about our own.

Despite the somber reason for going to Santa Rosa, I hope we have a chance to have some fun. A little trip back to the Russian River Pub would be nice...I loved their hot wings and beer and relaxed attitudes when I was there last. My wife started to mention it tonight and I knew before she spoke about it what she was thinking. We've come to know ourselves so incredibly well in some ways. We don't just complete one another's thoughts, we complete one another's wishes.

We haven't told staff we're going, other than a cryptic message that we might be out of the office on personal business on Thursday and Friday.

We'll be gone and I'll feel guilty for enjoying a trip that shouldn't be enjoyed.

Prison Bars

With a just a little more technical know-how, cajones of steel, and the right connections, I could have become the Bill Gates of the illicit drug trade. Let me explain why I believe this could have been.

During a meeting recently, I was having a conversation with a woman who is very entrepreneurial. I often like people who are entrepreneurial, though I frequently come to loathe them shortly thereafter for their deep Republican views and their psychopathic love of material things. But that's beside the point.

This woman and I were chatting about Internet wonders who had made a killing by introducing bad ideas, selling them quickly as raw brilliance, and then taking the money and getting out before reality set in. I offered my own concept of something that might have the potential of making me a very wealthy and very wanted man. The way this particular idea came about, incidentally, was that she mentioned something about an news story about someone who had been caught making and selling crystal meth, after he had made an enormous pot of money. He was doing it the old fashioned way. I had an idea.

"What about this," I said. "Meth, as I understand it, is very easy to make with readily available products, right? People seem to get caught when the meth labs blow up or catch fire. What if you were to minimize the risk of spontaneous combustion on your premises and, even better, have the product made directly by the end user? What if you changed the entire business model for drug distribution? What if you really turned it on its ear?!"

By this time, my mind was in overdrive, dreaming up all sorts of ways to take manufacturing technology into the 24th century. "Imagine this. You carefully and safely prepackage the individual chemical ingredients that today's meth labs mix. But instead of mixing them and risk explosions and fire, you create a device that will allow the end-user to do that."

I went on to describe, as best I could, the way ink-jet printers work> They mix the black ink and the magenta and yellow and blue, using precise instructions delivered to the printer by the computer, using printer-driver instructions unique to that printer. "What if our little device mixed the meth components with similar precision and, instead of jetting the ink onto a page, the device jets the mixed chemicals into a little packet desiged to capture and seal them?"

"We could call it the Meth-Jet," I said. "We could distribute it only to prequalified buyers and we'd only sell over the Internet."

"We could establish assembly plants for the Meth-Jet devices all over the country. We'd exhibit it at trade shows for more "mainstream" products. There's no question there would be other uses than for meth production," I enthused. "We could quickly leave the modest risk of imprisonment behind us as we mainstreamed the product and began collecting royalties, which would of course be sent to our offshore accounts"

As I finally returned to my surroundings from the flight of fancy in which I had been engaged, I saw that my acquaintance was looking at me with wide eyes and a sense of stark terror about her. She laughed nervously and cleared her throat, saying "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Let me know how it goes. I have to catch a plane." With that, she turned and walked away, wheeling her carry-on bag behind her.

Oh, well. I didn't really want to take the risk, anyway. But I did think it was a clever idea. And when I learn that someone has taken it and run with it, I'll be annoyed with myself. But I'll be on the outside of the prison bars.

Single Malt Advice

I'm standing way off to the side of the precipice. If I got closer I know I could just lunge off, just to see what it feels like. And I know that's a stupid move. So, instead, I'm drinking a piss-poor maragarita (out of a bottle, no less),improved only slightly with a kick in the butt...a shot or two of not-bad reposado tequila that wishes it were the real thing.

The inevitable is temporarily delayed, which means in simple terms that I've taken the loss on my own corporate account. Someone has to go, but I keep hoping another month might bring on some new business to turn it all around. Fucking dreamer!

That's what everyone wants me to do, of course. Hope hard enough and the world will succumb to my desires. I wish it were that simple.

No, I need to be the bad ass bastard, the guy who fires a 10-year employee. It really needs to be done, but I think I absolutely have to have some powerful tequila to make it acceptable. Maybe it will wait until the end of the month.

At least my sister is OK. I can knock one bad swing of the knife out of the way.

I did get a phone call today from a guy who is just starting an association and wants some advice. Inevitably, that's the sort of thing that takes my time, gives the volunteer valuable advice, and then turns quickly and kicks me hard in the face. But I keep coming back for more.

If there aren't people out there who will give me a house in Nova Scotia, how about a hug and a high-top snifter of single malt scotch?

I'm sniffling again, hoping for a swig of sympathy. Pathetic, isn't it?

Old Friends

Life's a lot better than it was. I spoke to my sister tonight and she's feeling much better than she was. No serious blockage, no significant stents, no bypass. But the docs told her she probably had a heart attack, which is not good. But she got moved out of cardiac ICU tonight to a "regular" room, so things are looking up.

I didn't get down to see her, for many reasons (not the least of which was the fact I couldn't be sure they'd let me see her), but may visit soon. But, of course, I have a client commitment this weekend. Again.

My concerns about my house and my car and my clothes suddenly lost the urgency they had...and they didn't have much urgency before.

Ellie, I'm really glad they assuuuuuumed we were old friends. Maybe we are. Maybe that's exactly what we are.