So, I’m eating my breakfast in this beautiful outdoor courtyard, on a clear spring morning in Calistoga. And I start hearing this sound. “Whoosh.” I look around… nothing. I take another bite of Cheerios and poke around some more on facebook. “Whoooooosh”. I’m trying to figure out if it’s a heater or something? “Whoooooosh. Whooosh.” Okay, seriously – what is that noise? And then a GIANT HOT AIR BALLOON rises over the building, not more than 50 yards away.

“Oh,” I thought. “A giant hot air balloon. Of course.”

On Saturday, after Connor’s basketball game, I took the boy to lunch. We went to Panda Express and ate Orange Chicken, and had a great time talking and eating, eating and talking. Afterwards, I got this in my fortune cookie. It’s about all of YOU. How about that?

A sidenote about the Orange Chicken. My son is the pickiest of picky eaters. He likes plain pasta, plain white bread, plain toast, plain plain plain. Although he has always enjoyed a variety of fruits & vegetables, for YEARS he wouldn’t eat cheese, and the kid still doesn’t eat meat unless it’s in “nugget” format. So one day, we’re walking along in the mall, and we walk past the Panda Express. He looks up at me and says, “I like that Panda place. I like the chicken with orange stuff on it.”

“Orange chicken?” I said. “You like the orange chicken?”

“Yeah.”

And it’s true. My son came back from his dad’s house, and suddenly he likes the orange chicken. So I look at him and think: “Who are you, and what have you done with my son?” But… at the end of the day… we can go to Panda Express together, and that’s pretty cool.