Coming at you live from The Golden State...

Good morning.

I'm finally on vacation and I have some time to blog.

Okay, I am in California now. Firts off I met a few interesting people recently. On Thursday I met Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts on the street in DC. I shook his hand, wished him luck in his confirmation and he kindly thanked me.

Also I met a Canadian rock band yesterday at BWI Airport in Baltimore. They looked like a rock band and so I asked them who they were. There name was Shaker. You can visit them at Shaker World. They had just cut a cd in Lancaster, PA. The producer is the guitarist for the band LIVE. Look for their cd later this year.

Onto more important things. VACATION!!!

Yesterday evening I arrived at the San Jose Airport and was picked up by my older cousin Mack. He brought me back to his home in Fremont, CA.

His home in Fremont, where I'll be spending the rest of the week, is nestled just below some decent sized California mountains. I know not all mountains in California look like these, but I would still consider them typical California mountains. This meaning, they're nice to look at, but mostly barren and brown, sorta like the Hollywood Hills I guess.

So, I'm here visiting Mack, his wife Maryam and their son Arvand. These are my Persian cousins. This definitely feels like a cultural exchange; I'm getting more in touch with my roots right now, I guess you could say.

Last night we ate dinner at 9 pm Pacific Time. That has to be one of the latest "normal, non IHOP" dinners I've ever had. We sit down to dinner and it's MIDNIGHT on the E. Coast where I'm from. I'm obviously used to being in bed around midnight, not eating dinner!

Nonetheless, the dinner was yum. My cousin made Joojeh Kabob for dinner last night. That's chicken, in English. It was delightful.

And the company wasn't bad either. My cousin Maryam had several of her female relatives over. Most of them are sisters or aunts or what not. It was great. I chatted it up nicely with all the lovely ladies. We had some very thought provoking discussions, even down to who they liked to date.

I can definitely say that I was challenged by the discussions, and let's just say I came out very happy to be a hairy, handsome Persian guy. :)

The rest of the week promises to be a really good time. Tomorrow, I think we're headed to Napa Valley to tour some wine country! Then the rest of the week, just hanging out. We'll take in an A's game on Saturday.

I'm most excited about the wine tour though. I am a novice wine drinker and really enjoy it.

My favorite wines are all red.

Among them are:

Benton Lane Pinot Noir-(or anything good)
Sagelands Merlot
Cabernet Savignon-(Sterling)

All right, I think that's all for now.

I'm off to a nice relaxing day...