So far our vacation in Hawaii has been all that we hoped it would be, fun and relaxing times in paradise with the family. Grandpa and family really love Milo and are really cute around him. He really digs the Big Island of course. I'm going to make this quick so here's a day-by-day breakdown. Pictures can be found on the baby blog.

Wednesday
Flew to Honolulu then Kona. Milo was a terrific traveler as always. Dad took us to our digs, a neighbor's house of his. A fantastic home with a gorgeous views. One of the nicest joints I've ever stayed in (wireless internet even).

Thursday
Breakfast at the Big Island Grill (some ono brahddah!) and then a walk around Kailua Town. We had some great shave ice at the end of our walk. That night we ordered Thai take-out.

Friday
Lunch by the ocean. Dad took us for a drive though some of Kona's more interesting spots. That night we went to a neighbor's house for a little get-together. Milo was, of course, the hit of the party.

Saturday
We picked the two aunties up from the airport (they had been in Honolulu during the week) and went to the ocean. Milo had a great time. That night we had one of the finest dinners I've ever had in a fantastic restaurant overlooking the ocean.

Sunday
Relaxing day spent with the family. Nice dinner on our lanai looking at the sunset.

I hate to think we only have a couple more days here. Leaving will be tough.

In just 24 short hours Carrie, Milo and I will be aboard Hawaiian Airlines flight 1 for the final leg of the Milo World Tour. Our first trip to Vegas seems like such a long time ago. I can't wait to see my dad and sisters again, needless to say we are really looking forward to it. I talked to him last night and he was a little disappointed that the weather had been rainy there lately, but if you've ever been to Hawaii you know that a rainy day in Hawaii is better than a sunshiny day nearly everywhere else.

Dad's rented the house next door to him for us to stay at. I'm not sure what the internet scene will be like so I might be offline for the week that we're there.

The car headache isn't over. The insurance company still hasn't given me a number of the amount they would pay if we kept the car. I told the lady handling my claims that I'd be leaving for Hawaii for a week and I wasn't going to think about the situation until I got back. And to top it all off Carrie's car is having some troubles right now. We thought we had it fixed last week (trouble starting, warning lights coming on) but a $300 repair later and nothing has changed. We're taking it to the shop today, hopefully it will be fixed before we leave.

On a positive not our new bathtub was installed yesterday. Let me tell you, bathtubs ain't cheap but it really looks nice and I'm sure it will be worth it. I'll know later tonight when I can actually use it.

We'll be blogging plenty of pictures from the trip.

Aloha!

In what has to be the coolest movie promotion ever (a lot cooler than mysterious websites that don't even tell you the name of the movie a' la JJ Abrams next film) a handful of 7-11's across the country have been turned in to Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie. As soon as I heard that there was one in Burbank I had to see it so Carrie, Milo, and I went. It is really, really cool. The outside looks exactly it does in the cartoons and various items available in Springfield are inside. Take a look.


The Kwik-E-Mart sign outside.


The security guard told us there is a line of Simpsons fans waiting to get in at all times.


Carrie and Milo wait with Marge outside.


The outside wall had been tagged up by 'El Barto'.


Maggie on top of the Buzz Cola machine.

mmm ... donuts, pink with sprinkles, Homer's favorite.


At the Squishee machine.


Best. Store. Ever.


The spoils of the trip, a six-pack of Buzz Cola, a Squishee, pink donuts with sprinkles, and a Homer cookie.

Tuesday night I was headed to a gig when I noticed my car start to jerk. A few seconds later *BOOM* I see pieces of my car fly up from the front driver's side and my car handling like I'd just had a blowout. So I pull over to the side of the freeway and check out what had happened; the tire was not flat but the tread had come off most of it but was still attached. The tread had whipped around the wheel well while I was driving and as a result the body of the car from my driver's side headlight to where the wheel well used to start was gone (my car has one of those plastic bodies that are designed to shatter for safety reasons). Not only did the car look thoroughly screwed but I was on the side of a freeway. If you're not familiar the freeways in LA have two speeds: 2 mph during gridlock and 80 mph when the traffic is clear because everyone is trying to make up for the time they lost during gridlock. Well everyone was going really fast that night I didn't have any room to change my tire on the side of the freeway. A friend of mine came out and followed me while I drove to the next exit (remember the tire wasn't flat, the tread was just off) and changed my tire. I got the spare on easily enough and made it to my gig only 1/2 hour late.

So I call my insurance company and make a claim and Carrie takes the car to the body shop to get an estimate yesterday while I'm at work. The mechanic tells her that the damages would cost more than the value of the car ($1900 Blue Book) and the insurance company won't pay for it. He says they will either buy the car from us for Blue Book value or help us pay for the repair (the latter probably isn't going to happen). We are still waiting for a call from the insurance company hear what our official options are.

Does that suck or what? I have to buy a new car or drive around a hooptie that drives fine despite being able to see directly in to the engine block.

But there is another wrinkle to the story. There is a chance that the tire that caused all of the damage is under warranty. I know I got it recently, you should see the tread it is hardly worn at all. So today I'll take it to Pep Boys (they keep warranties in their system) to see if not only I can get a free tire but if they'll pay for the damages as well. I figure if I tell them the insurance company might come after them they might be willing to take care of it.

So stay tuned.

And to top it all off I lost one of our digital cameras on Tuesday. What a day.

But professionally things have been going well lately. I've played a couple of gigs this week with some terrific players and yesterday I taught at Musician's Institute in Hollywood. I subbed for the upright teacher there and it will probably lead to more work. The pay sucks but its great for the resume and I enjoy teaching a lot more than I thought I did.

I wonder, in the history of the internet has anybody ever gone in to a political debate with an open mind? Has anyone ever actually listened to opposing sentiments and been enlightened? "You know, that's a great point you have, you've caused me to reconsider my views" is a phrase that has probably never been typed in an internet forum or chat room. I'm probably as guilty of it as the next guy.

Which brings me back to the original reason of my initial post, SiCKO. Truth is, I wasn't sold on socialized health care before seeing it. When I was touring with Buble I got to know a bunch of Canadians who were on the crew. One of them had had a bad experienced with the Canadian health care system and his ill mother. I, like we are want to do, took this one testimonial and applied it to the entire country. But after seeing the stories in SiCKO I changed my thinking about the situation and after a little research my opinion was reformed.

I'm aware of Michael Moore's antics. In my opinion he often hurts his arguments by the stunts he pulls in his films; confronting Dick Clark in Bowling for Columbine seemed like a non sequiter, confronting congressmen in Fahrenheit 911 didn't do much to drive the point home. But SiCKO is different, much less editorializing by Moore and much more personal horror stories of the U.S.'s health care system from both victims of it and those who enforced the insurance companies horrid policies. So please don't judge the movie if you haven't seen it.

Once again, my blog so I get the final word. Its in two parts. First, sorry if anyone got offended throughout the debate. I'm sure nobody was out to hurt anyone else. This is a very personal issue as it affects everybody. On a personal level I was genuinely interested in suggestions about my wife and I's insurance situation since it seems to be quite different from everyone else's. The closest I got to a direction response was that I should get another job and shouldn't expect good benefits from being a musician. This is not the country I want to live in, where good health means working a job I hate and spending more time away from my son and where a school teacher doesn't have benefits most here would deem acceptable. We've both worked very hard both in school and in our careers. The system being bad is no fault of ours, it needs to be changed.

Second, ditch-diggers, dishwashers, janitors, landscapers, lawn-mowers, waiters, stock boys, drive-through cashiers, and cheap labor of all varieties are necessary to our communities. You might think they are too lazy or stupid but the fact is that everyone who makes better money and gets better benefits than them owe the lower class a debt of gratitude. The owner of Home Depot wouldn't be where he is without the labor working his stores day in and day out. Labor is the basis of our economy. They are not being taken care of in our current health care situation and solution is not to blame them and ask them to work more, it needs to be changed.

Thanks for everyone's comments, it was a stimulating debate. In particular thanks to those who posted but never really got any feedback, you all had good things to say and I agreed with most of it.

I saw Michael Moore's latest documentary SiCKO today. It's a powerful, powerful film. I had no illusions about the U.S. health system is before seeing the movie but even so I left the theater disgusted and full of rage about how our country treats its sick and elderly (particularly the poor sick and elderly).

I'm not going to spoil the movie for you but if you've seen the trailer or heard anything about it you know it revolves around the U.S.'s desperate need for free health care. This is the only country in Western Civilization that charges its citizens enormous sums of money when they are ill. It makes no sense at all.

Here are some stories brought up in the movie (again, no huge spoilers here but if you don't one bit of the film revealed to you its best to skip the rest of the post):

-In this country insurance companies give employees bonuses for denying claims to patients. The recommended denial rate is 10%. In England doctors are given bonuses if they lower their patients heart rate and help them quite smoking.

-A baby girl in Los Angeles was denied care at a hospital after her mother had discovered the child's fever. They were told they had to go to a different hospital that their insurance company covered. The child died before getting to the other hospital.

-Volunteers from 911 are being denied health care for their various respiratory problems caused my inhaling the fumes at Ground Zero. They aren't employed by the city so therefore they get no care even though they are heroes in many people's eyes. The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who are portrayed to us as 'evil-doers' are given round-the-clock health care including preventative care.

How is this defensible? On any level how can you say that denying a baby health care is okay? You like Bush and like the war, fine. You think guns are cool, okay. But health care affects everybody, it is too personal of a problem to make excuses for.

This is an important movie. Please see it. Things need to change.

... I didn't leave the condo once today. I literally did not step outside the door once. And I still did more work than I do on most days ... kids will do that to you.

Milo had more shots yesterday and as a result was running a bit of a fever today. Hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. Taking care of the fussy boy on top of putting together Carrie's end table that arrived today on top of finishing up our movie (see the baby blog) on top of fixing lunch and dinner made for a pretty busy day. I also watched The Devil Wears Prada (surprisingly good, either that or I just think Anne Hathaway is hot and that is clouding my judgment). Now that I think about it I make a pretty good housewife.

I finally saw Knocked Up Sunday night. (Ever since Milo was born we have to see movies in shifts, Carrie's turn is tomorrow when she'll see the new Harry Potter movie). I actually wanted to see Transformers but the lines were huge and I figured it could wait. Knocked Up was so good, I really really liked it. Judd Appatow is my hero.

Has anyone ever watched the show "Intervention" on A&E? Man, that show is such a trainwreck, you have to watch it.

I've been neglectful of my blog lately. Since our return from Indy I guess I've settled into a routine of sorts and interesting things to blog about to grab me like they do when I'm traveling. But I do have some catching up to do so in the spirit of The Grey Album and other mashups I'm going to throw everything at you in one post.

The 4th
The Fourth was good for us. As we've documented on the baby blog we went over to some friends house for a cookout. I made baked beans from a recipe of Paula Dean's. If you know Paula then you won't be surprised to hear the recipe starts out with frying a half-pound of bacon and afterwards sauteeing onions in the rest of the bacon fat. The beans turned out quite nicely as you can imagine. After dinner me and the other husbands there played Tiger Woods Golf for the Nintendo Wii. MAN was that fun. Makes me want to get one instead of a 360 ...

Watch Out For That Tree!
If you didn't know I have an office/rehearsal space about ten minutes away from our pad. Its on an industrial block with some warehouses and office buildings and such. Today I was pulling out of the parking lot when I noticed a truck with a flat-bed trailer trying to maneuver into some sort of driveway. It was sideways in the street so I had to wait for it to pull in as it was blocking traffic. While I was waiting I noticed a bunch of water pouring out of the bottom of the truck, I thought "whatever it is that trailer is carrying, its leaking bad." The truck's reverse lights come on, it backs up a couple of feet, and WHOOOOSH water shoots up about 40 ft. in the air. The dumbass had driven over a fire hydrant. Water was going everywhere and I was on my ass laughing. I left but soon realized that I'd left my wallet at the office and had to head back. Upon returning to office I noticed that the street was almost flooded (street drainage in LA is for shit because, well, it never rains) and everyone was standing on the sidewalk watching the spectacle. To cap it all off as I finally left a commercial came on the radio saying "Save water this summer Los Angeles! If you shut off the water while shampooing your hair you can conserve up to 50 gallons of water per year!" Oh the irony ...

Bluetooth
You know those little Bluetooth mobile devices people wear in their ears? And they look like total douchebags when they use them because it appears they are talking to themselves? Well, a few weeks ago I got a new cel phone and with it came a package of extras including a Bluetooth headset ... and ... I gotta admit I love it. It is so nice in the car, just touch the headset, tell it who you want to call, and you're off. I promised myself to never wear it outside of my car so as not to look like a total tool. If you have the means you should check it out.

Daycare
Carrie and I have been searching for a daycare place to take Milo once school starts for her and I hit the road again. We've found two great places and are going to have a tough time deciding between the two. Daycare A is in a nice, large house with a dozen or so kids and three daycare workers who run classes and will pick your kid up from preschool or kindergarten once they get old enough. Daycare B is run by a very nice grandmother who only has a few kids but its a very cozy and warm environment; its also cheaper and closer than A and will let us pay by the day (which is good for us since when I'm home I'm home all day long) whereas A locks you in to a contract. Its going to be a tough decision.

McThing
My hero/buddy Christian McBride called me the other night. He's doing a concert at the Bowl next week with Queen Latifah, he asked me if I knew a piano player who could do a couple of rehearsals with him and 'the Queen' before full-band rehearsals start next week. I recommended one of my boys and needless to say my friend called me today thanking me profusely. I tell you, nothing earns you more cool points than being friends with the greatest bass player on the planet. I also got the new Jeff 'Tain' Watts CD in the mail today that Christian plays on. Tain is Branford Marsalis 's drummer and is one of the baddest drummers out there. The disc sounds great after a first listen.

Back in the L.A. Groove
Slowly but surely I'm starting to work around town more and am reacquainting myself with the scene. I have some gigs in town coming up that I'm looking forward to and am playing more actual jazz which is always a good thing. The summer calendar is filling up nicely which is to say not a whole lot of work but enough to keep the chops going.

Well there you have it, I should be more consistent in my blogging from now on. I need to revamp this page a bit. And maybe I'll come up with another format for the Top Five Blog to generate more interest.

Tomorrow is 7-7-7 y'all, hope you're feeling lucky.