I came to Casablanca for the waters.

My horoscope: "You waste no time, because you can't afford to. You have a million things to do and everyone wants more of your attention."

Our governor the buffoon. Leslie Stahl asks if it's realistic to send water to both farms and cities. "Anything is realistic," says Arnold.

Delighted that two of my dearest friends have films in preproduction. What a great cast for 'No One Gets Off In This Town'! http://ping.fm/ndAXM

I sorta wonder when I should stop playing Christmas music. Not yet. But, you know, maybe on Monday. Or so.

Christmas at the Thompson's. Thanks Nancy and Dennis!

I'm feeling grateful for many people in my life. They are old and new, close and far, and I'm lucky to call 'em friends and family.

It's almost time to ignore the laptop. But wait! Pandora is providing the holiday soundtrack. So I'll have to be back soon to refresh...

I think it's time to start a new Christmas Eve Day tradition. I'm going downtown to support truly local business - and get my nails done!

Date of birth

I used to get confused about the date of Christmas. I was born on the 24th, and I thought Christmas was on the 24th, too. Sure, yeah, it sounds like I had a Messiah complex. But no, really, I was just confused. I had it figured out by the time I was seven or eight.

There’s a great deal of convincing scholarship that shows that the date of Christmas was chosen to compete with Mithraic and other non-Christian feasts. Of course, there’s a great deal of convincing scholarship that shows that the Bible is a hodge-podge of stories by various authors, cobbled together over the centuries, with very little material to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was more than a good guy who preached non-violence and was eventually executed by crucifixion.

I envy the believers, sometimes. You know, the guys and gals who believe the entire Christian dogma. Their faith is endearing. That said, I wish they’d live more of Jesus’s philosophies, especially the parts about universal compassion, fairness, and non-violence. I don’t see much compassion or fairness in the hatred of gays, or much support for non-violence when it comes to gun-totin’, death-penalty-lovin’ Bible-thumpers. In fact, one of the few right-headed encyclical policies of the Catholic Church, my church of origin, is its consistent opposition to the death penalty.

Well, as my old friend Bill Henderson used to say, “Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut.”

I'm tired and muddle-headed. Which is not really an update, so much as a weather report.

I just entered my first-ever WheresGeorge.com bill. And I got my first-ever Blue Algae Baby! Thanks for Jeffy - and safe travels, Kim!

Good Sunday: the Raiders beat the Broncos. I have Dexter, Season 3, on Bluray. And hey - happy second-longest night of the year!

Going downtown to check out the Frankie Poulis fundraiser at Finnegan's. After a bite of spaghetti. http://ping.fm/FIiOf

Pandora plays great songs, and then I hear the "next" song in my head - from the album, or from an old mixtape I made. But no!

Here to say it's difficult to imagine a better workout mix than Kiss, AC/DC, and Van Halen. Throw in some Def Leppard and Motley Crue, sure.

Six days till solstice. It's gonna be fun to see the days get longer! So say I, but "non mettere paglia al fuoco" say the Italians.

My neighbor hates it when people park cars in front of his house. He puts two orange cones in front of his house. At all times. Jackass.

I liked the Obamas with Oprah. We should have them every week.

From Thursday night through noon Saturday, I was offline, working in the real world. It was kinda weird. It made me tired. I'm still tired.

Lately, I wonder how much of me and my work should live in "the cloud," and how much should stay grounded. I have one foot in the cloud.

A day where my calendar is chock-a-block. Makes me realize unstructured days are precious. (Although I love 'chock-a-block' as a word.)

I can't wrap my head around the notion that 'As The World Turns' is cancelled. And there are 10 months before the last episode...? Criminy.

Sometimes I understand how difficult it is to be Dexter. Other times, I am asleep.

This morning, as I was applying my Clinique facial moisturizer with SPF, I realized the SPF is not so relevant today. 18 days to solstice!

I'm off to see the historic Novato city council meeting. Stand by for news at 11!

One of the problems with being able to do it all is that when others know you can do it all they will ask you to do it.