Tara asked me to post her list of ten things she loves in San Diego so far:

1. Filippi’s Cash & Carry Market – for the best 5.99 wine
2. Global Village Marketplace for great customer service and cheeses (coming soon wine and cheese combinations)
3. Mona Lisa Deli for the truest Limoncello you can find outside of Italy (made in Capri no preservatives or artificial flavoring)
– I can personally attest to the quality of this product, it’s almost as good as the Balzano family’s of Meta, Italy.
4. Assenti’s Pasta for fresh pasta (the Chipolte pasta was damn good)
5. Chi Chocolate for amazing and unique chocolate
6. Cafe Italia for a great cup of coffee and excellent service
7. Petrini’s for an amazing Antipasto Salad – Wow!
8. India Ink Papers for unique gifts/cards/ and cool baby stuff
9. Niche Boutique is where you’ll will find unique and wonderful baby clothes and accessories – love it
10. Anthony’s for great seafood (and a good long island ice tea)

All in beautiful Little Italy, San Diego, CA.

There’s this game of blog-tagging that’s been going around for some time now. I was just tagged by my old neighbor in Minnesota. The very lovely and talented JJ Killins who has been such a good friend to my wife and daughter. In fact, her daughter was Ashby’s first friend. This meme (see Unusual #2 below for why I’ve not used that word for two years) has evolved some it seems from the original five things that most people don’t know about me to 6 things that make me unusual and 6 things that make me happy. Here it goes:

Things that make me unusual (Tara helped):

1. I’m blunt. I mean really really blunt. I speak my mind like no one I know. Want to know what I think? You may not even need to ask me. You may have to ask me not to tell though.
2. I don’t like things that are trendy or particularly popular. Whether it’s a band, a restaurant, fashion whatever. If something becomes popular I’ve been known to drop it. If it’s already popular when I’m introduced to it I’ll likely avoid it like the plague. I’m making an exception for blog-tag I suppose, which is surely very trendy right now. This aversion for the popular or trendy has, on some occasions, proven to be counter-productive professionally because there can be wisdom in crowds. Some examples: I stopped blogging when it became really popular and abandoned a thriving and growing community of readers for a couple years. I refused for over a year to use any application with tagging. I avoided anything Web 2.0 (confs, groups, etc) for over almost two years. Anyway, the wisdom of crowds does not often manifest itself in pop culture.
3. I never leave home without my knife and my camera.
4. I enjoy reading, but mostly I consume my books in audio format on my iPod. The only novel (fiction) I’ve read in the last ten years (I think it’s been ten years) I read on my Treo600. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always reading something, but I don’t read fiction often. The reading a novel on my Treo (smart phone) is what Tara suggested was an item that makes me unusual.
5. I like documentaries lots. I watch a few a week. This tends to irritate friends, family, and my wife who are all not as fond as I am of documentaries. Tara likes documentaries, but she doesn’t want to watch one every night. As I write this I’m watching “Jesus Camp“. Craaaa-zy–Duude, Ted Haggert has a cameo appearance, you know him. He was the evangelical preacher who was snorting crank, banging a gay prostitute, and advising George W. Bush every Monday of the week. At home right now I have: “Grizzly Man” (Steve recommended it a long time ago), “Terror Storm” (apparently you can watch it free here), and “Who Killed the Electric Car“.
6. Tara says I dress like an old man. Particularly my socks, shoes and hats. I almost only wear Birkenstock’s and I like hats. I don’t know what’s wrong with my socks…

Things that make me happy:

1. My daughter Ashby makes me happy in ways I never thought possible. All I have to do is look at the girl and regardless of my state of mind I’m filled with happiness.
2. Sex. And my wife in general. Tara is so funny. See Unusual #1.
3. Making the world a better place. Diminishing poverty. Helping under-served people and communities to improve their quality of life. Facilitating education. I love helping people learn. Knowledge is everything man.
4. Camping. I try to make at least one solo camping trip a year. When I had fewer responsibilities I spent a lot of time in the Boundary Waters.
5. Sharing. Sharing knowledge, ideas, emotions. Sharing is good (most of the time). This may account for Unusual #1 and Happy #3.
6. Diversity. In everything, but particularly in culture and ideas. It’s hard not to love California when you love diversity.

Now it’s my turn to tag two people. Definitely PeteE who, because he’s so much cooler than me, has probably already been tagged. And Paul Jones who I barely know, but admire greatly.

We didn’t catch a donkey show, but we were in Tijuana, Mexico and did see a Zedonk (photographic evidence below). That’s right, we drove across the border into Mexico. It was fun. My Spanish sucks. We went to some crappy mall initially, of course, don’t take my word on this because I think all malls are crappy. My mother asked some clerk, who barely spoke English, "where do the locals shop". The woman seemed confused and surprised. I know enough Spanish to know the woman was trying to figure out why my mother was asking: "where do the crazies shop" (locals sounds like locos and locos could mean crazies) and I helped clarify the question. She directed us to Via Revolucion, which definitely is not a shopping center frequented by locals and is definitely commonly trafficked by tourists, but it is a colorful strip to walk and shop. And I suspect one could get raging drunk at discos or one of the many strip clubs that line the road were they inclined.

I was unclear how to get to Via Revolucion from the mall. While on the way I asked some police officers I had pulled up next to at a stop light for directions. All the windows of the squad car were rolled down. There were three officers (two men and one woman) in the front seat and three very hip looking criminals in the back seat that had long hair and one wore funky sun glasses. The three cops were super friendly. They conferred amongst themselves and directed me to the next circle, down the road to the left for four or five blocks a right, a left, and another right onto Via Revolucion. I asked for clarification on one of the street’s names (we were speaking Spanish and I didn’t catch the name) and they insisted I follow them instead. I couldn’t believe it. these three cops where going to lead me to the road while transporting criminals! I love Mexico. Anyway, it gets better. In Tijuana they have these crazy traffic circles. it reminds me of Napoli, Itallia. It’s total chaos. While we were navigating the circle our police friends used their sirens to break up the traffic so we could follow them more easily! Unbelievable. Mexico rules. The color. The noise. The people. It’s wonderful.

On Via Revolucion we bought a couple bottles of great tequila: El Jimador Anejo and Centenario Anejo. Both are 100% agave and, in case you didn’t know, anejo (old) means it’s been aged for three years. Also, we bought some bracelets and a couple rings. It’s Tara’s birthday on Sunday, February 11th. If you’re shopping for jewelery in Tijuana and you’re frequenting the touristy sections of town you’ll want to go to El Dorado on Via Revolucion. They actually even have an, albeit crappy, website. Tell them Aaron sent you. 😉 Romulo and Ricardo are the proprietors. Romulo is the silver smith. He’s been making jewelry for 28 years. These guys were great. They were [seemed to be] sincere. They also had the best quality jewelry that we saw and as it turns out many other vendors carry Romulo’s work in their stalls. Some vendors had low quality silver, what I was later told, by Romulo, fake gold, and plastic beads they were passing off as stone. Not that I’m into gold, but I do like stone beads.

Coming back into the United States only took us an hour. Ricardo from El Dorado gave me the advice to always stay in the far right lane when exiting Mexico. I followed this advice and it saved us probably 45 mintues.The trip was loads of fun and I look forward to returning.

Photo set

Out of the mountains of Colorado, into Utah, a sliver of Arizona, and onto Nevada. Tara and I escaped the snow covered ground for the debauchery of Vegas. We hit the road before sunrise because our room in the Ramada Inn stunk of stale cigarette smoke. I woke up in the morning and coughed out something I hadn’t seen since I quit smoking three years earlier. We would have changed rooms, but Ashby was so tapped out, as were we, we didn’t bother. Also, we figured the next non-smoking room was likely going to be as smokey.

We watched the sun break the over the Rockies as we neared Grand Junction. The scenery was stunning. An hour or so into Utah we came across some of the most amazing mountains you’ll ever see, they looked as if the wind had blown them on their side. We stopped at a viewing area to take some photos. Turns out at this viewing area I was standing atop rocks from the Permian extinction that have been thrust upward and exposed. I was standing on rocks were from about 250 Million years ago when the greatest global extinction known to man occurred. It’s beleived that volcanic eruptions in Siberia 251 million years ago began a series of of events that lead to high hydrogen sulfide levels in the oceans and atmosphere and precipitating the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history. During this extinction 95 percent of all species on Earth became extinct, compared to only 75 percent of all species in the next major extinction, which is theorized to be when a large asteroid caused the dinosaurs to disappear. When you read up on the Permian extinction it’s a little terrifying. It all with a little global warming. It was all downhill after that. Sound familiar?

After Utah on highway 15 we passed through a small piece of Arizona, about 20 to 30 miles. This was some of the most spectacular scenery of the entire trip. White River Canyon in Colorado was amazing, but this too was brilliant. The section is the Virgin River Gorge. I found this page that describes the highway segment by segment in great detail, very cool. After the gorge you roll out into the desert of Nevada. We were in Las Vegas before 5 PM.

After initially booking a place at the MGM Grand I realized there was no way I could easily slip the cats past the door men. None of the hotels on the strip take cats so we ended up at a La Quinta about a half mile off the strip. After getting the car unloaded for the night we headed for the nearest buffet. Unfortunately it happened to be Excalibur, which sucked. While Tara was with Ashby I played the 3 dollars I promised our renter in a slot machine. He lost. Then I dropped 20 bucks into another machine on my way to catch up with Tara and Ashby. About three minutes later I walked away with $47.75. I broke Las Vegas!! WoooOOOOooo!

• Photo set

With Nebraska behind us we lunched in Sterling, Colorado and spent the night in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Sterling is a town of 1,500, which according to the waitress has "boomed" in the last several years since the state penitentiary opened. It’s in the high desert plains about an hour or more out of Denver. We ate at the closest restaurant to the highway, which happened to be a Country Kitchen. The service was good as the waitresses, like so many people, were enamored with Ashby. The food was what you would expect from a Country Kitchen, which is to say: poopy.

Tara and I sped through Denver and headed into the mountains. This was why I chose this route rather than heading south and cutting across on 40. The route is spectacularly picturesque. We got into Glenwood Springs a little after 6 PM MST and stayed at the Ramada Inn, which was probably pretty nice twenty years ago. We dined at Tequilas, which makes a mean margarita and had some pretty good mexican food. Tara and I have finally learned that kids meals are easily the size of a reasonable adult portion.

I really wanted to stick around for another day in Glenwood Springs and check out the hot springs, but duty called and I needed to be in San Diego by Wednesday so I could make the Content Week conference on Thursday. It’s small and probably a waste of my time, but it’s local and we should be there representing.

• Photo set

On the road to California the food is bad, the cold is worse, and Ashby is cool as ever. Tara, Ashby, and I got on the road late this morning. The temperature, with wind chill, was well below zero. Re-packing the car was a chore in the bitter cold. I don’t know how I could have ever fit everything were it not for the Yakima Skybox. That thing rules! Here’s a shot of our vehicle that was taken later in the day in Iowa.

Notice the "Baby on Board" sign and UNC ram that was supplied by Roy. Tara got the "Baby on Board" sign to deter people from road raging around her. I’m not sure the sign effective is with road ragers. However, It’s been my experience that there are a couple signs you can place on your vehicle that will deter police from ticketing you, no not the UNC ram, but:: 1). "I love Jesus" 2). "Baby on Board". Don’t ask me why, but both have worked for me.

We got on the road at 10:34 AM CST. We made it to Iowa about an hour and a half later. Tara and I stopped for lunch about an hour out of Des Moines at a fancy roadside diner and gas station. It was so bloody cold I had to pry the car’s gas tank flap open with my knife. Although we didn’t eat the buffet, I did shoot a photo of it. Fabulous. The highlight of our meal was when Tara asked the waitress (photo below) if she enjoyed the salads the diner served. Something tells me this server mostly enjoyed the buffet.

Kansas may be flatter than a pancake, but Nebraska, I suspect, is at least as flat as one.

I’m currently writing this from a hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. I’ve driven by Lincoln several times before, but I’ve never actually been in the town, until now. It’s clean. And what little I’ve seen of the city it seems strangely new. Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska and has a population of 250,000, the main industry is insurance. Odd, insurance. We’ll hit the road very early in the morning and will make Denver, Colorado tomorrow.

Everything is packed. The house is cleaned and ready for our renter. I made the mistake of touching up some paint, which resulted in me having to paint a couple very large walls, one of which was 15 feet high. That sucked. I also had to repaint part of the kitchen because a handyman I hired to help get some things done around the house to get it ready for us to leave the state had used the wrong paint, cream not white. That sucked too. Home Depot is like a black hole. Why is it that if I have to make one trip to Home Depot I end up making at least three? I hate that! I can never seem to get what I need in a single trip. I suppose it’s best that the house have fresh coats paint now. It will surely save us money later. It still sucked.

In preparation for the trip I’ve got my podcasts stacked up on my iPod and some new audio books to tide me over during the 30 hour, 2000 mile drive. I have the route planned. If you like, you can review it. If I had more time I would take a route through Wyoming our mover was telling me about that’s mostly 2 lane highways and not much longer. However, I have to be in San Diego Wednesday for a conference on Thursday and with Ashby an all…we’re going to get the drive done quickly. We’ll be sleeping in or near Omaha, Nebraska tomorrow night. I’ve taken this route before. Tara hasn’t. Hell I think I’ve taken darn near every reasonable route one can take from MN to CA. I considered going south to Oklahama City and cutting across to avoid any potentially bad weather. I took this route last time though to California and stopped off to visit Paul Yellowhorse (an old buddy I’ve known since I was about eight) and I’ve trafficked that souther route from east to west most often recently; so, this time I figured I would take the route through Colorado, which I haven’t done for many years nor has Tara ever seen.

I can’t wait to get on the road. It definitely feels like I’m going home. I’ve also been freezing my ass off today. It’s bitterly cold here in Minnesota. Bitterly cold. I mean really freaking cold. Also, my gloves were packed. I think I lost two fingers today.

I just finished reading Cobra II. Well, I say reading, but I use this loosely. I actually listened to the audio book over the last few days as I packed and cleaned the house. Wow, what a book! I suspected Rumsfeld was an incompent and stubborn Secretary, turns out I was right. Great book. Must read.

Yes, I feel like I’ve mentioned I’m leaving MN here a dozen times. It’s probably getting tiresome me always talking about this. But this post is necessary because I’ve got to supply a post regarding my going home (un)celebration that we had at the Loring Pasta Bar last Friday. I noticed my depature was mentioned here. I wish I had had a chance to meet or get to know this Garrick guy. I remember seeing him once and thinking: "he looks cool, where did he get that name?" I mean come on, he sounds like a medieval baron or something: Garrick Van Buren. I know he’s into podcasting. That’s cool. Anyway, like I talk about in response to PeteE’s comments I feel like I’m leaving the cities with things not quite finished. I’m not going to mull over that again though. Instead I’ll just share photos of the event and a review of the restaurant.

• Photo set

Learn about microformats, which is what I used to write the above review.

Have you watched the CNN podcast In Case You Missed It? You need to check this out if you haven’t. It’s obscenely B-A-D. I guess this is CNN’s attempt to be cool and hip. They’ve got video with a crappy techno-beat layered over it and minimal commentary. Then each transition has one of those brilliant swish noises. Maybe this works with the under 25 demographic. I watched one episode, was awed by how bad it was, and watched parts of a couple other episodes just to see if maybe it was some sick joke. Turns out they actually produce that crap.

On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Democracy Now!, which offers audio and video podcasts. This is without a doubt the best news source I’ve found. I recommend it highly. Another personal favorite is On the Media, which is a weekly program.

Stop Big Media – Tell the FCC to Stop Big Media
The FCC wants to lift media ownership rules and open the floodgates to wholesale consolidation of local newspaper, radio and television outlets. The FCC needs to hear from you before they hand over local media to concentrated giants like News Corp., General Electric and Clear Channel. Big Media’s drive to control local outlets stifles the competition and diversity that are the lifeblood of a democratic media system.

The FCC under the present administration, more so than ever before, has been facilitating the consolidation of media under the umbrella of only a handful of large corporations. This kind of monopoly is detrimental to our democracy. Local media outlets are quickly fading away. Aside from this stifling democracy, do you really want to hear the same friggin’ Daniel Powter song about his bad day over and over, even as you travel 2500 miles across county?!

Speaking out about this will take you two minutes. Click the link above, complete the form, VOILA! You’ll have been heard by the FCC. Do this immediately, Comments are due January 16