guzziguy

and take the Giants and Raiders with you.

If you can't be good, try to be shocking.

Dinny definitely has special needs.

One of the things I miss when I lived in MA is going for ice cream. I used to mostly go to Kimball's Farm in Westford and Bate's Farm in Carlisle. It looks like Kimball's may have bought Bate's some place along the way.

Me too. It's on my list of movies that I find really entertaining that got poor to mediocre reviews. Other movies on this list are Dogma and Ground Hog Day.

B.B. King at the Canyon Club, Agoura Hills, CA. Rachel Cantu opened for B.B. She played guitar and had one other guitarist as accompaniment. She played mostly a slow, country style. I think that she has a nice voice and talent, but I just couldn't get into her music. That's surprising as I tend to really like this style of music. Later, the B.B. King Band opened without B. and played two pieces. They are a group of older blues and jazz musicians and definitely have their act together. Then B. walked out. He barely made the seat that was set up for him. He proceeded to joke, talk and perform for almost two hours. B.B. King still has his charisma, voice and guitar talent. It was an extremely enjoyable concert. If you have a change to see B. live, I highly recommend it. He and his band put on a great show. But don't wait, he's 83 and the diabetes is definitely affecting his ability to walk. One never knows how many concerts he has left in him. So make the effort to see him while you still can.

Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and Middle Cyclone After hearing so much about Ms. Case, I decided to give her a listen. I really like her music. Of course, I like the cowboy dead/cowboy noir genre. B.B. King - One Last Favor This is B's latest recording. Stacy picked it up for me at the B.B. King concert we attended.

BAC Lightning You were too impatient for an answer.

If you bring it, they will drink.

This is after you buy the plane ticket to LA, right?

In the Santa Barbara area, either lunch outside on State Street (the main drag) or head into Isla Vista next to UCSB. Either will get you plenty of eye candy. Being in a nice climate, both have many restaurants with year-round outside seating.

The pictures don't do the view justice. We are up (440') on an area behind Santa Barbara proper called "the Riviera" because it looks very much like the cliffs behind the beaches on the French Riviera. We have a 170 degree unobstructed view of the city, the harbor, the beaches and the Channel Islands. It's amazing, especially at night. We are the blurry fog on the left. Santa Barbara is a beach town and we get fog. June and early July is the worst time and the weather then is referred to as "June Gloom". Usually it burns off fairly early but somedays the marine layer is so thick that it doesn't burn off at all. See, we do have weather.

There's a 20' hedge between the houses. No problem.

To get an idea of Santa Barbara prices, the house next to ours if for sale. It's really a 2BR with a den.

Santa Barbara COLI for 2008 was 142.1 according to this source. So maybe SB will look like a bargain to you. If so, you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer small city in which to live. Of course, if you insist on having winter, you'd have to settle for being able to drive to it. Maybe you could work with Frank Cooter to develop a new line of amplifiers?

You are also constrained to a small area and habitats. As a motorcyclist, that would bother me. I get to see everything from coast to desert to riparian to alpine, etc. on a day ride. As much as I love visiting the tropics, living there full time is not an option for me. I lived on Guam when I was 13-14 , so I have experience at this.

Up the coast is definitely nicer. I've never seen a nicer place to live that Santa Barbara. It's a backwater, which is a plus to me. But more importantly, it's a really nice backwater with lots of culture, a University of California campus and a nice city college, and the weather and geography is really nice. If you want more culture or excitement, we are only 1.5 - 2 hours away from LA. We are north and west of LA, so we very rarely see smog. It's been over a year and maybe longer. I'm a wine and motorcycle guy. There are great vineyards and great motorcycle roads no more than 30 minutes from my house. There's lots of upside here. There are two downsides. The first is that it is growing (like every place else) and the quality of life is definitely slowing declining. It's still real nice though. The large downside is the cost of living here. Housing prices are just below San Francisco levels. Gas, food, etc. prices are among the highest in the state. That's going to happen everywhere. I've lived in and out of California all my life. I'll probably live out of it again someday, but maybe not. Once you get away from the coast in California, prices start going down until they are down right cheap. Of course, a lot of those places are cheap for a reason. Property taxes are relatively low (per $1000) here because of Prop 13 many years ago. Of course, if your house is assessed many $1000's, you still pay a lot of property tax. The people that have stayed in their houses for years pay very little property tax.

These are my impressions too. There are ways to get a version of this amp. None of them are inexpensive.

I'll be bringing 2 growlers of Telegraph Brewery beer and probably 6 bottles of wine. Don't worry about bringing drink. Beverage Warehouse is only 3.5 miles away. I'll be happy to give you a ride if you'd like. Smoking cigars will be fun. However, this is California. It could be challenging to find a place to smoke. AFAIK it's always been called the GM70. Also AFAIK, Frank's is the only example. I'm sure one is available if you make Frank an offer he can't refuse.

FIFY

Great news. Glad you got it. Enjoy the scotch.

I expected to be from $1K - $2K more. It's still awfully expensive. Let's see how well it sells.

Hurray! See you there.

I prefer the classic version.