A Year In Mill Valley

We were invited to celebrate Bennett’s 50th up at Frey Vineyards. We loaded some camping equipment in the car, and drove up past Ukiah to join up with a couple of dozen other families.

There were many highlights to the weekend — the friends, the food, the wine, the music, the pizzas, the amazing hospitality — but Julie’s operatic ode to the spanking machine was right up there (see video below)…I’m just sorry I only got the last 45 seconds or so.

What an amazing weekend! Thank you Bennett and Emily for including us.

xxoo
— Frank, Rachel, Nathaniel and Sebastian

p.s. We’ve been looking for a piece of property closer to home…something with some acreage, water, a place to plant, a place to share with friends. If you’re reading this and have any interest or want to know more, do let us know!

More photos on Picasa…click on the image below (shot with an iPhone, so don’t expect much :-)

Bennett and Emily's 50th

Returned home from the Cape yesterday via Virgin America (which runs out of the International Terminal at the San Francisco Airport). As we walked past the metal detectors I noticed they were still hand patting down people being sent through the ProVision scanners. It wasn’t until we were out that I saw how bad things were. I’m guessing there were upwards of 2500 people standing in line waiting to get into the Terminal. I’d love to know how long this has been going on.
 
Doing a quick search on Google for “san francisco international airport provision scanners” I find this page http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/imaging_technology.shtm where they state “Many passengers prefer advanced imaging technology. In Fact, over 98 percent of passengers who encounter this technology in TSA pilots of technology prefer it over other screening options.” If that isn’t a made up statistic I’ll eat my shorts. Why do I say this? Because on that web page are three other things that aren’t true:
 
1) “These technologies are optional for all passengers”
==> Nowhere at SFO does it say this.
 
2) “Passengers who do not wish to utilize this screening will use the walk-through metal detector and undergo a pat-down procedure to ensure they receive an equal level of screening”
==> Nowhere at SFO does it say this.
 
3) “Multiple signs informing passengers about the technology, including sample images, are displayed in plain sight at the security checkpoints, in front of the advanced imaging units”
==> Nowhere at SFO are those images shown (and they’re very graphic).