I just read in a study by Pew Internet and American Life Project that the US has about 12 million adult bloggers, a three-fold increase in two years.  Nearly half are women.  On the web, 37% of blogs are in Japanese and 31% are in English!

I just spoke on the phone to Sigrid to find out how the move to Los Angeles is going with Jim's mother, Jeana, who is in her eighties.  They just moved her out from Detroit on Monday,  into the house they bought for her with the swimming pool!  So far, she's adjusting pretty well.   New environment, new climate, new house, two darling grandchildren, new everything!

I was down visiting Sig and Trevor and Chloe last weekend.  On Saturday we drove out to a beach in Malibu at Paradise Cove.  If this is Paradise give me you-know-what.  The trouble is we arrived late.  The lucky part was we got valet parked.  The rest of it was an expensive lunch in a cramped part of the bar to feed the kids and ourselves--since the wait for a proper table was over 1 hour.  Afterwards, we discovered that there was no space whatsoever left on the beach.  Our friends met us out there, and Jolene found a small patch of sand.  As we inched our way toward it, a wave came in and swept out a small child (the parents ran after him and he was okay)  But Chloe had already made up her mind she was not going near the water, and was emitting a low growl, gritting her teeth, and digging in her heels.  She had the right idea!

We gave up and drove to another beach, with the unfortunate name Pt. Dume.  This time we were turned away because of the crowds.  We drove home and spent a blissful afternoon in the pool at the new house--the temperature was over 100 F the while time I was in LA and 108 F on this day.

I am just leaving now to take the BART train to Berkeley and see a matinee of Al Gore's movie on global warming--An Inconvenient Truth.  I want to see it while it's still in the theaters to support awareness of the issue.