A San Francisco drive-by, in a good way

Being back in San Francisco for the first time after 6 months in Seattle is delightfully entertaining. I'm on a tour of old haunts today, with Maya fully ensconsed in the welcome embrace of aunts and grandparents while Sarah's pleasantly tied up at a conference with collegues. Lower Haight, Cole Valley, Ocean Beach, past the Golden Gate on the way to North Beach, and more to go. One day of running a rental car raw through this amazing city's streets will scarcely be enough. But as I listen to an elderly Italian man sing with his regular Saturday back-up band of accordians and mandolins in Caffe Trieste, I'll take this without complaint. The weather is positively stunning. The blues and greens of the city are blinding. So I'm refueled and ready to hit the road again.

Hope your own background music today also features loads of accordian. Rock on.

"Where's that Gannon guy - sure could use one of them questions..."

Dubya just finished the strangest news conference I've seen in many moons. Part of it had to be that the vast field of tough problems and unbelievable missteps that naturally lead to a bazillion snarky White House Press Corps questions. But he's flubbin' and stumblin' more than ever. Including a repeated assertion about Iran's alleged link to weapons found in Iraq being bad even if the Iranian government didn't know about it. And an outright refusal to respond to my earlier planted question about Rove/Fleischer/Armitage's leaking of Valerie Plame's name. I look forward to how the chattering class battles over this moment in the life of the Administration. I think it's a low point. Let me know if you disagree.

For those looking up Maya's progress, it's been a solidish week of flu featuring a few days of hearty barfing. She dealt damn well considering everything, we did approximately 37 loads of laundry, the house got a bit manky, but we've dosed it all in kerosene so it's all just a sensory memory now. More importantly, Maya's back to about 97%. Good thing, too. Tomorrow nite we're heading back to San Francisco for a few days. Should be lovely to revisit some short-lived-but-loved haunts and see some cherished folk. Please check back for pics.

Hope your own follow-ups are unavoidable today. Rock on.