interMission Presentation

All of the slides from my interMission presentation last week can be found at the "Read more" link below.

From Los Angeles Indie Band to Calm Meditation Music

Meet Your Neighbor – August 2023:
From Los Angeles Indie Band to Calm Meditation Music in Orinda
The Orinda News - July 26, 2023
Musician, singer-songwriter, composer and producer, Andrew Heringer has a studio in his home in the Orinda hills where he records his own music, as well as music by other artists.

    What brings a professional music producer, singer and songwriter from the bustling Los Angeles scene to the peace and quiet of the Orinda hills?

    As a founding member of the indie band Milo Green, Andrew Heringer, age 38, has toured North America, appeared on The Tonight Show and had his music featured in popular television shows like NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy.

    Read on to learn why he made the move to Orinda and what he’s up to now.

Tell us a little about your life and your work?

    I’ve always known I wanted to do music. I feel like it was a divine intervention when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I was playing music and it’s almost like I heard something say, “This is your path.”

    After graduating UC Irvine as a theater major, I started driving around playing music anywhere I could – coffee shops, street corners and farmers’ markets.

    I started the band Milo Green with some friends from Los Angeles. We immediately got a record deal with Atlantic Records and the group just took off with a momentum of its own.

    We toured with The Civil Wars band, which had just come off a tour with Taylor Swift. They had the best fans in the world. It was absolutely a dream.

How did you get your music in movies and TV shows?

    Milo Green got very lucky that a company under the Atlantic Records label placed music in a lot of TV shows. After leaving the band, I set up my own relationship with them. They had requests for certain types of songs and they would plug my music into shows.

Why did you start Dawson Records?

    I wanted my own label to produce both my music and also for other artists. Now is a really cool time for distribution. Prior to the last five to 10 years, it was very hard to get your music out into the world. With streaming and the Internet, there are now companies to help you get out there so you can be your own record label. It’s been a big part of my business model to own my recordings. I can put them online and I don’t have to cut in a record company.

What brought you to Orinda?

    My fiancée Carmen and I moved here about a year and a half ago. I grew up in Placerville and I love the way Orinda feels – being in the trees and hills. But I like to drive to Oakland and San Francisco and see friends who are touring and playing music and having access to that culture, too. That’s an incredible thing about Orinda.

    Before the pandemic I couldn’t see myself living anywhere but L.A., but that time really changed me – and what I was working on. I started doing a lot of ambient, sleep and meditation music. All of a sudden there were a lot of people looking for music to calm them in this stressful time of uncertainty, so I started to release music under the moniker of Sound Bath.

    Sound Bath is streaming on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music. The services pay differently. It’s a fraction of a cent per stream, but when you have enough people listening, it starts to work. By the end of the pandemic, I had freedom to live wherever I wanted with the streaming income and working independently producing and creating music on my own and with other artists.

Any advice for musicians starting out in the business?

    I think you just make things and there’s a learning that comes from the repetition. You learn by doing it and doing it and doing it and over time, a path starts to unfold. There’s no way I could have predicted my journey. I started off as a guy singing and playing guitar, and it turned into being in a band and making songs for TV shows and then making ambient music.

    Persistence and determination are key to making a life within something you love doing.

Asteroid City

Saturday night, Sharon and I watched Asteroid City as a rental on AppleTV. Tom, Kevin and Eric had seen the movie in the theaters and liked the film; they rated it four out of five stars.

Asteroid City is a comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson [The Grand Budapest Hotel]. It is from a story he wrote with Roman Coppola.

It features a very large ensemble cast including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, and Jeff Goldblum.

The plot simultaneously depicts the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, staged as a play, and the creation of the play. It is homage to popular memory and mythology of UFOs witnessed in the Southwestern desert in close proximity to atomic test sites after World War II.

When it was over, Sharon said "that she wanted her hour and fourty-five minutes back." The movie is quirky and visually stunning; the sets are meticulously designed to evoke the look and feel of the atomic age. I didn't dislike it, but don't recommend it unless you are a fan of Wes Anderson.

Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift

Sharon planned a date night. I didn't know where we were going or what we were doing...

We started with an early dinner at Ella's. We split STRAWBERRY BRUSCHETTA [EPOISSES BUTTER, SWEET BASIL, LEMON OIL, SABA] and GOLDEN BEET SALAD AND GRAVLAX [BOURBON CURED GRAVLAX, CRISPY SHALLOT, BLACK LIME, HARISSA SPICED YOGURT, DILL DRESSING]. For entrees, Sharon had WOOD FIRED OCTOPUS [BOURBON PICKLED CHORIZO, POTATO FONDANT, ROMESCO, ALMOND RELISH, GARLIC AIOLI], while I had TOMATO FETTUCINE [THYME ROASTED WILD MUSHROOMS, HERB ROASTED TOMATO NAGE, FRESH RICOTTA].

Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in Sacramento. Get your tickets now to discover the music of Taylor Swift at the California State Railroad Museum under the gentle glow of candlelight.

From there, we headed to the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento. We attended a Fever Candlelight concert. A string quartet performed Taylor Swift's greatest hits.

It was an interesting setting; the venue was set between two large locomotives in the roundhouse section of the museum.

The set list included:

• Lavender Haze
• Love Story
• Cardigan
• Blank Space
• Enchanted
• Anti-Hero
• We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
• All Too Well
• Wildest Dreams
• Lover
• I Knew You Were Trouble
• You Belong With Me

We finished the day close to home with a nightcap at Serritellas.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Wednesday night, Sharon and I finished watching Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix. The series is a prequel to the popular Netflix series Bridgerton. We watched Bridgerton Season One in March of 2021 and Bridgerton Season Two in August of 2022.

Queen Charlotte is a historical drama limited series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on May 4, 2023 and consists of 6 episodes. While the series is a prequel, it also includes some scenes that are set after the events of Bridgerton season 2.

The series tells the story of Queen Charlotte's marriage to King George III and her rise to power and prominence in the late 18th century. It explores the origins of some of the characters and relationships that were seen in first two seasons of Bridgerton.

I was surprised to realize that there is some historical basis for the events in the series. The real King George III suffered from bouts of what was then called "madness." He was often unable to carry out his duties as king. His wife, Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was born in Strelitz, Germany, and she was the daughter of Charles Louis, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Charlotte and George had 15 children together, including 13 who survived to adulthood.

I actually enjoyed Queen Charlotte more than season one or two of Bridgerton. I recommend it.

interMission

Wednesday morning, I was a guest at InterMission. The weekly meeting is described as "meaningful conversations about faith, hope, and love with leaders and associates from our Ad/ventist Health community."

With my impending retirement, I reviewed my 45 year career, highlighted lessons learned, provided a glimpse of who I am personally and talked about what Sharon and I are looking forward to in retirement. The slide deck that I used is here.
There is a chance that will end up as the My Life picture for 2023...

interMission

interMission, our weekly Wednesday gathering, welcomes you into meaningful conversations about faith, hope, and love with leaders and associates from our Adventist Health community. This time together is for anyone and everyone who has found themselves in search of a deeper faith and purpose to life. Hosted by the Office of Mission, these stories will encourage you to look at your own story, and your workplace in a whole different way.

Our next interMission guest is Mark Heringer, Technology Executive, IT Services, who joins us Wednesday, July 26.

Join us in the Roseville campus education rooms on the first floor or click here to watch the live stream!
We look forward to seeing you every Wednesday morning from 8 to 8:30 a.m.!

Chester Bridge Abutment

Tom and I explored the Chester Bridge Abutment after dinner on day nine of our trip to England and Scotland.

Chester Bridge Abutment
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
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The GPS coordinates for this location are 55° 01' 30.5" N 2° 08' 10.0" W.


Hadrian's Wall was a 1 17.5km (73 mile)-long Roman barrier built under the Emperor Hadrian in around AD 122. A narrow footbridge originally carried the Wall across the river North Tyne, but this was later replaced with an impressive road bridge. The remains of the stone abutment that joined the bridge to the riverbank survive, along with the foundations of a tower and a section of the Wall.

The Guest and the Host - Infinite Yes

Scott Van Pelt Quote

Towards the end of the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary--Shark--after watching Greg Norman melt down on Sunday on the back nine at the 1996 Masters, Scott Van Pelt says:

Even for the best players in the world, golf is fucking hard.

Moving Adventures with Lee

Sharon and I helped Morgan, Lee and Daniel move into an apartment in Placerville.

Shark

With Sharon out for the evening visiting Michele, I watched the ESPN 30 for 30 Shark on ESPN+. While I religiously watched volume one and volume two of the 30 for 30s when they first came out, I have fallen out of the habit over the last ten plus years. I need to finish up volume three and post an episode guide for volume four.

The documentary is a profile of golfer Greg Norman. Greg Norman is one of the most iconic figures in the history of golf. He was known for his aggressive playing style, his blonde hair, and his nickname, "The Shark." Norman won two Open Championships and finished runner-up in the Masters Tournament six times. However, he is often remembered for what he didn't achieve: winning a green jacket at Augusta National.

The ESPN 30 for 30 episode "Shark" tells the story of Norman's career, with a particular focus on his relationship with the Masters Tournament. The last quarter of the documentary focuses on his collapse at the 1996 Masters. I didn't realize that Norman finished second to Jack Nichlaus in the 1986 Masters.

I enjoyed it. I recommended it. As Sharon and I play more golf over the next couple of years, there is a Scott Van Pelt quote that resonated with me that I am going to post separately.

Barbie

Sharon and Morgan went to see Barbie at the Country Club Cinema.

Barbie is a fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig [Lady Bird, Little Women] from a screenplay she wrote with Noah Baumbach. The film stars Margot Robbie [I, Tonya, Bombshell, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood] as Barbie and Ryan Gosling [La La Land, The Big Short] as Ken. A large ensemble cast includes America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Helen Mirren, and Will Ferrell.

Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, it is the first live-action Barbie film after numerous computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. Barbie and Ken go on a journey of self-discovery after their expulsion from Barbieland.

Morgan and Sharon both said that the movie was good. Morgan described the plot; it sounds complex. Sharon and I had a short discussion about whether or not it will garner any Oscar nominations. She thinks that it is possible...

heringer colloquialisms

At our IT Townhall on Tuesday, my boss spotlighted that I am retiring in August and announced a retirement celebration for August 1. I am notorious for using a number of colloquialisms; they showed this slide. I often hear people using unique phrases that I know came from me... Hopefully, I will be remembered for more than my colorful phrases.

St. Mary's Church - Beaumont, England

This is one of two churches that I explored on the last day hiking Hadrian's wall into Bowness-on-Solway.

St. Mary's Church
Beaumont, England
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
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The GPS coordinates for this location are 54°55' 27.3" N 3°01' 06.0" W.


The only Church which stands on the line of Hadrian's Wall. Originally constructed in the late 13th century using stone from Hadrian’s wall, it is built on the top of a Norman motte and bailey and on the site of a Roman milecastle.

My Life 2017

Sharon and I skiied with the Larkins at Northstar to celebrate my 60th birthday.


All of the My Life Photos can be found here.

At the Larkins

Sharon and I spent the last half of the day at the Larkins. In October, the Larkins, Gainsleys, Leclaires and Heringers are traveling to Egypt and Jordan on a Viking tour and cruise. The Gainsleys and Heringers are doing a pre-tour in Isreal. We got everyone together ostensibly for trip planning. It also give the group a chance to get to know the Leclaires. Sharon and I met the Leclaires at the Gainsley Christmas Party.

With the temperature at 109, the group spent the afternoon lounging in the pool.

The Larkins served a nice dinner of filet mignon, red potatoes and brussel sprouts. Sharon made a nectarine and burrata salad.

Love & Death

Saturday night, Sharon and I watched the last episode of Love & Death. The six degrees of separation theory suggests we are all connected to one another in this world through (at the most) six people. We are connected to Elizabeth Olson by two degrees of separation. Drew's senior year in college he lived with Robbie Arnett. Robbie and Drew then spent six years together in Milo Greene traveling the world. Robbie is married to Elizabeth Olson!

Love & Death is an crime drama streaming miniseries directed by Lesli Linka Glatter and Clark Johnson. It was written by David E. Kelley. The series premiered on April 27, 2023, on HBO Max. It stars Elizabeth Olsen as Candy Montgomery, with Jesse Plemons, Lily Rabe, Patrick Fugit, Krysten Ritter, Tom Pelphrey, Elizabeth Marvel, and Keir Gilchrist.

The miniseries is based on a true story. It focuses on Montgomery living a stereotypical housewife lifestyle in the late 1970s. After an affair with her neighbor, the relationship leads to a murder.

Sharon and I both enjoyed the series. Although it jumps the shark a little in episode five, we were both very impressed with Elizabeth Olson's performance. I am interested in going back and watching her in something else [WandaVision?].

Other than Ironman and Ironman 2, I haven't seen any of the Marvel movies. [Note to self], a potential retirement project is to work my way through the Marvel movies in chronological order.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Spoiler Alert

Late Friday afternoon, Sharon and I went to the Country Club Cinema to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The movie is a sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well as the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones film series.

The film stars Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen reprising their roles as Indiana Jones, Sallah, and Marion Ravenwood, respectively. New cast members include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas and Mads Mikkelsen. I thought that Waller-Bridge [Fleabag, No Time to Die] did a nice job in the role of Jones' goddaughter.

Set in 1969, the film follows Indiana Jones and his estranged goddaughter, Helena Shaw, who are trying to locate a time-travel device before Jürgen Voller (Mikkelsen), a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist that plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II. The time-travel device is based on the Antikythera mechanism found among wreckage of a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. It is believed that it is the oldest known example of an analogue computer and was used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I recommend it. Nevertheless, I am not enthusiastic about books and movies that use time travel as a plot vehicle. As Sharon's brother Tom said, at least they didn't have Jones stay in the past or resurrect his dead son.

We saw the fourth movie fifteen years ago. [Note to self], watching this film does motivate me to want to go back and watch the first four films again.

My Life 2019

Lee, our first grandchild, was born in October of 2019.

Sharon and I visited them in New Hampshire in early November.


All of the My Life Photos can be found here.

Hadrian's Wall Passport

dog walking adventures with Lee

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Season Five

Friday night, Sharon and I finished watching season five of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The fifth season was released on April 14, 2023. This is the final season. We finished watching the first season on September 6, 2019, the second season on September 22, 2019, the third season on March 6, 2020 and the fourth season May 24, 2022.

The show stars Rachel Brosnahan (Rachel in House of Cards) as Miriam "Midge" Maisel. Maisel is a New York housewife in the late 1950s who discovers she has a knack for stand-up comedy and pursues a career in it. Marin Hinkle (Judith on Two and a Half Men) and Tony Shalhoub (Wings and Monk) feature in supporting roles as her parents.

Sharon and I both really enjoyed the final season. I highly recommend it. They did a couple of interesting things in season five. They flashed forward and backward repeatedly. They did one whole episode set in the distant future from the timeline that was a roast; it provided an opportunity to tell a number of stories. It was a satisfying conclusion to the series.

Live Learn Love Well: Lessons from a Life of Progress Not Perfection

My book for July was Live Learn Love Well: Lessons from a Life of Progress Not Perfection by Emma Lovewell. Lovewell is one of a set of Peloton instructors whose rides I take regularly. She has been heavily promoting the book on her instagram feed.

The book is a memoir that traces her journey to becoming a Peloton instructor. She shares the moments where mental fortitude shaped her outlook on the world and how the idea of “progress, not perfection” became a guiding principle.

Part of my movitation for reading the book is that I am planning to write a book when I retire. I was interested in how Emma attacked writing a memior. Unfortunately, from the that perspective, the book is more about her philosophies than her life. Emma uses events to explain her philosophy and offer advice. It is not the kind of memior that I am interested in writing.

I found a couple of small tidbits from her philosophies that I am going to try and carry into retirement. It is not a bad book, but I don't recommend it unless you are Peloton user and a follower of Emma Lovewell.

Lincoln Hills Orchard Course with Holly and Van

Sharon and I played the Lincoln Hills Orchard Course with Holly and Van. We played this course twice before with them [December 2020, November 2021]; they are club members. We had an early morning 8:20 am tee time.

I ended up with a liberally scored 106. This is a fairly easy course with short par fours and fives. The short holes give you a chance to recover from a poor shot.

I started off a little rocky, but settled down nicely. My biggest problem was that I was hitting my tee shots hard left. I wasn't doing this last weekend?!?

On the 157 yard par three seventh hole, all four of us hit our tee shots on to the green. Van birdied the hole.

After golf, the four of us had a late lunch at Los Gallos Taqueria in Lincoln. Sharon and I both had combination plates.

Cavendish House, Carlisle

Walking back to our hotel in Carlisle after dinner during the Hadrian's Wall hike, Tom noticed this plaque on the wall.

This loosely fits into my long term project to read books about all of the presidents.

Cavendish House
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
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This plaque is located at 83 Warwick Road, Carlisle, United Kingdom. The GPS coordinates for this location are 54° 53' 37.6" N 2° 55' 41.9" W.


Built 1831
by the Rev.
Thomas Woodrow
Grandfather of
Woodrow Wilson
28th President of
United States of America
1913-1921

Carlisle and District Civic Trust 2000

Kings 2023 California Classic Summer League Roster

Larkin and I went to the second night of the California Classic.

California Classic

Larkin and I went to the California Classic. Over the course of two days, Golden 1 Center is hosting six teams [Kings, Warriors, Lakers, Heat, Spurs and Hornets] featuring rookies selected in the 2023 NBA Draft, sophomores and athletes competing to make the NBA and G League regular season rosters. Sharon and I went to some of the games in 2018.

With so many unknown players, I made a point of focusing on watching picks in this year's NBA draft. Although he initially indicated that he was going to attend, Victor Wembanyama dropped out.

In the first game, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Charlotte Hornets by the score of 98 to 83. I focused on watching Brandon Miller; he was the second overall pick. I was shocked at how badly he played. Miller looked lost and out of place. Playing 28 minutes of a 40 minute game, he had 6 points on 2 for 4 from the field, 1 for 2 from three and 1 for 1 from free throw line. Miller added 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 turnovers, 1 steal and 8 fouls. In the summer league games, a player get 10 fouls!?!

Brandin Podziemski (Santa Clara) was the 19th pick in the 2023 draft for the Warriors. He had 17 points in 26 minutes. Podziemski was 7 for 14 from the field, 2 for 6 from three and 1 for 4 free throw line.

The San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Lakers by a score of 109 to 99 in the second game of the night. I focused on Jalen Hood-Schifino (Indiana); he was drafted 17th overall by the Lakers. Hood-Schifino had a solid night. In 31 minutes, he hadd 20 points on 8 for 17 from the field, 0 for 4 from three and 4 for 7 from the free throw line.

The Spurs leading scorer was Malaki Branham. In 26 minutes, he had 32 points on 12 for 24 from the field, 3 for 6 from three and 5 for 5 from the free throw line. Branham was drafted by the Spurs with the 20th pick in the 2022 NBA draft. He apppeared in 66 games for the Spurs last year and started 32 games.

The final game of the night was the Sacramento Kings versus the Miami Heat. The Kings won by the score of 95 to 83. The Kings roster is here. Keegan Murray, Kessler Edwards and Jalen Slawson (Furman) played. Slawson was the 54th pick in the 2023 NBA draft; the Kings traded their first round pick. Having played in the NBA playoffs last year against Golden State, I felt like Murray and Edwards were head and shoulders better than any of the Heat players.

Keegan Murray was the high scorer for the Kings. In 31 minutes, he was 11 for 20 from the field, 6 for 11 from three and 13 for 15 from the free throw line.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. (UCLA) was drafted 18th in the 2023 NBA Draft by the Heat. He didn't impress me. In 16 minutes, Jaquez was 1 for 6 from the field, 1 for 2 from three and 1 for 2 from the free throw line.

Nikola Jovic was the high scorer for the Heat. He was drafted by Miami with the 27th pick of the 2022 NBA Draft. In 26 minutes, he was 6 for 13 from the field, 3 for 5 from three and 7 for 8 from the free throw line.

It was nice to have a chance to catch up with Larkin.

2023 Frame Family Fourth of July

Sharon's brother Tom hosted a Frame Family 4th of July. The group totaled fifteen, including: Tom, Eric and Ashley, Kevin, Leah, Lydia and Amelia, Erin and Cormac, Will and Eileen, Mary, Jim, Sharon and I. Teri and Steve are in Italy. Kevin, Leah, Lydia and Amelia are leaving Friday to join them on for three weeks in Sicily.

I was surprised how much time everyone spent in the pool. All of the kids spent a long time in the pool shooting baskets and throwing water balloons. Sharon joined them.

Sharon and I brought hamburgers and buns for dinner. Tom barbecued.

We finished the night with a selection of fireworks on Tom's driveway. I would rate the fireworks as slightly better than previous years.

When we got home, we saw the last part of the second night of the Rancho Cordova fireworks display. It included a drone display in the middle of the fireworks.

Neighborhood Cocktail Party

When we were at the Duisdale House in Sleat on the Isle of Skye, the bartender served a gin and tonic with a local gin, Mediterranean fever tree tonic and a slice of grapefruit. Sharon liked the gin so much that she ended up buying a bottle (Harris Gin) when we were doing our walk about in Inverness. I also found an importer in Los Angeles where I can order the gin.

While Sharon was at the neighborhood pool last week, she invited a group over for gin and tonics. We served the Gin Harris with the same tonic and a slice of grapefruit. The group included Mike and Jill, Tom and Judy and Jim and Debi. We shared a few pictures from our trip to England and Scotland. It was nice evening.

We finished the night watching the Rancho Cordova fireworks from the master bedroom balcony. They had a drone show at the beginning of the fireworks display; I don't remember them doing that before.

2023 San Francisco - Day #3

Sleeping a little later than Saturday morning, I eventually walked to Starbucks for some coffee. We had a buffet breakfast at the White Swan, the Petite Auberge's sister hotel. Packing up the room, we got the car and headed out of the city.

We stopped in Orinda to visit with Drew and Carmen. Sharon brought them a Quaich cup (Scotland’s cup of friendship) from Edinburgh. I am looking forward to spending some time with them at Lake Alm@nor.

We rolled towards home about 10:30 am. With wreck in Vacaville and a stop for a sandwich, it took us almost two hours [24 to 680 to 80 to Auburn].

Back into the heat. It was 107°.

2023 San Francisco - Day #2 - Presidio Golf Course

Sharon and I were both awake and moving very early. I walked to Starbucks for some coffee. We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. Coming off some dental surgery on Wednesday, I started the day feeling very out of sorts.

The plan for the day was to play golf at the Presidio. We got the car from the valet and picked up Jack at his apartment. With Sharon worried about when and where we were going to get lunch, we ended up going to the course and grabbing a couple of caesar chicken wraps at the grill.

We had a 12:20 pm tee time. In an interesting twist, the course has four spots on the driving range reserved for the next tee group; the first tee is next to the driving range. We hit a few balls before we teed off.

Our fourth was a PG&E engineer working on the innovation team named Dan. He ended up fitting in very well with the three of us.


I ended up shooting a liberally scored 112. I had a horrible time reading the greens. I ended up three putting eight of the greens. I played a little better on the back nine. Although it is physically impossible, it seemed like all of the holes were uphill. Sharon ended up in the sand on 10 of the 18 holes!?!

Although I felt out of sorts at the beginning, I ended up really enjoying the day. Jack has a great attitude about his game at this point. I really enjoyed playing with him and Sharon.

We dropped Jack at his apartment and the car at the hotel. Getting cleaned up, the three of us took an Uber to dinner at Mourad, a Michelin Star Moroccan Restaurant. Sharon and Tom had eaten there in January. Sharon really wanted to take Jack and I there.

Sitting at the bar having a cocktail before dinner, we had a snack of OLIVES [rosemary . citrus]. The three of us split BASTEEYA [duck . cherry . almond . verjus] as a starter. For entrees, we ordered and split CHICKEN [moroccan tagine brine . gaeta olive . cippolini] and LAMB [trio of cuts . beetroot . english pea . green za'taar]. We also shared a side of HEIRLOOM BEANS [shakshuka . feta . sumac]. The food was solid, but not spectacular. We had several better meals on the United Kingdom trip. Sharon said that the food and service was better when they went there in January.