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OK, so I can't belt out the line as Whitney Houston did, but the feeling is all there. After a seven-year hiatus since my last visit, and three years of preparation and regular visits to forgotten-ny.com , Queens Crap and most notably the Street View feature on Google Maps , I picked up where I left off November 15-24. The trip itself was delayed three times since it was originally slated for September '07. Before that, additional family matters (good and bad) challenged my ability to make the trip, but too many things were tugging at us on the home front. Little did I know, it was a blessing in disguise. The major motive for this trip, besides that seven years is too long a gap between visits to your hometown, was to introduce/re-introduce Lisa and Nic to the family and for me to reconnect with as many relatives who don't live in the immediate vicinity of Grandma's house. (In past visits, I only took public transit; this time we had a car for the duration.) I had

Mostly because my messages rot in my Facebook-ing friends and relatives' email Inbox. So, between house projects (hey, a new roof, new electrical panel and circuits, and coming soon complete house rewiring), pro-bono Web/board design and administration, and a day job, look forward to even fewer posts in '09...

In a recent message from the wife: "On the way to school, Nic told me he wanted to show Avalyn his undies. After explaining why that isn't such a good idea I had to ask why did he want to show them to her. His response, 'They are cartoons and Avalyn doesn't have a TV.'"

The day I got him, I was buying cat food for Pip, the (then) family cat, in the Burien (WA) days. In one of the pet store bins was a splitting image of the puppy version of the Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary entry illustration -- that I recalled from second grade -- for "Spaniel". I then remembered that I always wanted a Spaniel. He had no papers, but his markings were good enough to argue that he was far from the Heinz 57 variety (a point groomers over the years had galvanized). So I was curious as to the behind-the-scenes story. The shop owner said that little guy had been the pick of the litter to carry on the legacy for the previous owner, who initially chose to keep him along with the mother. But when the previous owner's new landlord allowed only one dog, s/he had to make a concession. The puppy drew the short straw. So with the benefit of a dog with no papers and good markings, and knowing what a pedigreed dog can fetch, I figured I wouldn't pay a cen

[Left, i.e., disregarded, neglected] Seems, as with the incomparable Tony Bennett, my eternal fling with San Francisco remains strong. This time, it was ringing in the New Year with Cake at The Warfield Theater with my bro (the wife declined due to scheduling conflicts), BFAM and his wife. Again, one for the books. Now, many have either seen/heard first- or second-hand my past SF experiences dating back to 1988, each filled with some level of joy and/or wonder. It was looking pretty iffy at this concert experience in that it didn't echo that of Sia concert at Bimbo's in April '06 when Sia herself gave me (and only me) a big hug outside her tour bus after the show, or the Les Claypool concert at The Fillmore where my date scored backstage passes in December '00. First off this time, Cake lead singer John McCrea lives in Oakland, so he probably took the BART, given his dervish tendencies. Secondly, he was nowhere to be seen; just the bassist with whom BFAM and wife