"There is not sufficient love and goodness in the world to permit us to give some of it away to imaginary beings."

Bonus points if you guess the author (hint: he was born 163 years ago, today).

If you don't believe in ghosts, you're not likely to see one.

So long everyone.

I've had an amazing experience here, but it's time to roll on.

Everybody take care.

Edited to add:

I'm just a point where it's undeniably creepy for a 40 year old man to be ogling 20 year old girls. I'll still be around to check in on the groups and forums, and I'll stay in touch with all of the friends I've made here--even though I've met none of you in person, I've come to really care for all of you.

Highlights of my weekend in San Jose:

1. Margaritas at El Jardin Tequila Bar on Santana Row.
2. Meeting Sebastien Bourdais (driver for the Newman-Haas team, and season points leader).
3. Guided tour of the paddock.
4. Driving my friend's Porsche Boxster S on Skyline BLVD into the Santa Cruz mountains--full moon rising in the east, purple sky, fog rolling in from the west--totally surreal.
5. Great race on Sunday, and our seats were at turn 1 (the hairpin).
6. Getting home 6 hours late due to United fucking me by leaving San Jose late, leaving without me from L.A., and a whole luggage drama that has yet to be explained to me. It all ended well, tho. Shit happens.

All in all, a great weekend.

I'm going to San Jose this weekend to visit my best friend and to watch the San Jose Grand Prix.

I got a jury duty notice in the mail last week. This will be the third time I've been called; however, I've never actually been installed on a jury. The first time, I wasn't required to go in. The next time, the judge was giving us instructions before the selection, and the parties agreed to settle out of court. Hopefully they won't need me this time either.

Not much else to report. Really hot and unusually humid here. Heat I can take. I hate the humidity, though.

So we got a call from a fellow who needs his back yard revamped with a new design. He's getting older, and maintenance is getting tough for him. We went to his home and looked over the property--really nice place, huge home and yard. He told us his name, and it rang a bell, but I couldn't immediately place it. Well, we made some sketches of some ideas we had, which he seemed to like, and we quoted him a design fee of $2,500 (which is low, but we have no overhead as we work from our homes). He completely balked and said there was no fucking way he would pay that much. Then he tried to keep our sketches--he wanted our ideas for free!

Sumner Fucking Redstone.

Google it if you want, but he's the head of Viacom, and the one who dissolved the partnership between Paramount and Tom Cruise.

He's worth $8 BILLION, and he tried to talk us out of a measly $2,500 fee. He makes that much in interest on his investments about every five minutes, but that's a month's rent for me.

We passed on the gig.

Kind of a boring 4th of July. It's so dry out here (and 120 degrees today) that fireworks are not allowed except at the civic center, where parking is a nightmare so we bailed on that. Just played in the pool and charred some animal flesh (with apologies to my vegetarian and vegan friends).

Last weekend we went to San Diego. My girls have always wanted to learn to surf, so we took a whole crew (I think there were 35 of us all together) out to the YMCA Camp Surf. It was such a riot. I'll post pix when I get them off of my camera.

Have a great weekend everyone.

In a classic case of Posting While Intoxicated, I inadvertently called Daniel Robert Epstein "David" (which is my name--well, the David part, anyway). Sorry, folks.

My girls are out of school, so I'm putting together a chore chart and a summer reading chart to keep them occupied while I try to work (I work from home). I love being able to stay home with my kids, and my wife loves her job, so it's worked out really well.

We love living in the Palm Springs area (108 degrees today!!!). Even though it's been two years since my son passed away, I think about him and miss him every day. But, we've been involved in some local charities, donated time and money in his name, and that's helped.

Have a great week, everyone!

Rest in Peace, Daniel Robert Epstein.

This sucks. A lot.

My daughters' dog is a boy, but he's gay. Therefore, I bought him a pink dress:

"Where there's simplicity, there is style."

Thanks to the lovely and talented Electric for redesigning my company's website (it's not done yet, but I'm excited about the direction).

We'll be doing an official website launch with all the related hoopla within a month or so.

Sorry for not getting back with everyone and replying to blogs, etc. Work has been incredibly busy, not to mention my youngest daughter broke her arm last week--poor little thing is devastated about not being able to swim for six weeks--she's such a little fish.