One of the most beautiful pieces of land I’ve seen is soon to be a public trust. The Baca Ranch, nestled snug in the Valles caldera in the heart of the Jemez mountains, is one of the most pristine areas still in private hands. At $101 million, I think it’s a steal.

It’s been one of those weeks
You know… one of those life-changing weeks that comes around every few years. This entry is going to be especially journally and introspective. This weblog is really a time capsule for me. It’s written for an audience of one, but it gives me great satisfaction to know so many people come back to see what I’m putting in it. As always, come along for the ride if you wish. If not, that’s OK too. Have a Kestrel’s Nest Recipe Idea instead: Fry an egg until just set through, using as little oil as you can get away with. Season the egg with your favorite dried herbs. On an oven-proof plate, place a slice of bread, preferably a tasty whole grain bread. Put the cooked egg on the bread. Cover the egg with thinly sliced smoked gouda cheese. Cover the cheese with slices of ripe tomato and season with salt and pepper. If you can’t get a tomato right off the vine, do what you can. It’ll still be delightful. Cover the tomato with sliced cheddar. Place the entire stack under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and just beginning to brown. Eat right away. If you wish, you can skip the gouda and tomato and still have a first-rate breakfast. Sometimes things happen that seem insignificant, and they pass by without notice only to begin a chain reaction that changes everything. There’s no way to tell for certain if a specific event is the beginning of something huge, and that’s part of the joy of experiencing life. Not knowing. I have a strong hunch, though, that breakfast last Saturday was one of those sparks. I was introduced to someone, and I saw everything change. Like one of those fun moments in Run Lola Run where the camera suddenly focuses on a passer-by and we see a fast motion slide show of the future, I saw life unfold. I don’t know if my other breakfast companions, two longtime friends, saw any of this in me, but I felt a change from the pre-breakfast Eric to post-breakfast Eric, and my internal calendar changed itself accordingly. Day Zero and counting. It was exhilarating – terror and joy and wonder and excitement. It’s a wonder that I could talk or eat, but both seemed to happen without impairment. The four of us shared each other’s company for nearly two hours, but that was far too short. Still, there was nothing to be done: I had to go to the theater for set call (to be followed by a cast and crew party there). We parted ways, but not before I invited all three of them to the party. My newly met someone did even better by coming to help with the set call. She painted. I beamed. The work was followed by the wildly fun croquet wiffleball cookout I wrote about last week. A good time was had by all, but I’d wager that no one enjoyed it more than I. But I had some unfinished business to take care of. This spring, a mighty close friendship flared into romance. It wasn’t sudden; it wasn’t earthshaking. But it was very nice. The future looked rosy. But, despite effort and emotion, it wasn’t to be. After a strong beginning, things sputtered. We each knew the prognosis, and we each knew that the other knew, but for whatever reason, nothing was said. Maybe it was the fear of losing the friendship that started the whole thing, or maybe it was something else. I was there, but I can’t tell you why things happened the way they did. But, with the sudden appearance of Day Zero, the time had come. At the same time I was elated with other events, the prospect of this conversation terrified me. I didn’t eat for two days prior (sure, the Chinese buffet was filling and all, but that wasn’t what kept me from eating). I was a nervous wreck. When the moment came, I could barely talk. But when I did, everything turned out OK. All the “I know”’s came out, followed by all the “I know you know”’s. I destroyed a romance, but kept (and probably saved) a friendship. All of this would have happened anyway, and probably should have happened before, but The Breakfast set the spark. The rest of the week (outside of work and rehearsal) was taken up by events set in motion on Day Zero. Phone calls into the wee hours. In-person conversations into the wee hours. Dancing into the wee hours. It’d been a while since I’d seen so many wee hours, but I didn’t mind. And so here I am, a full week later. Already, my life has changed. I’m incredibly happy for the present and excited for the future. I don’t know where the chain of events sparked by The Breakfast will lead me, but I’m ready. After all, that’s part of the joy of experiencing life. Not knowing. And suddenly I have a whole new life to experience.

Those Brits take their pub names seriously! It’s perfectly OK to go down to The Goat and Compassess to bend your elbow with a draught of Watney’s, but when the pub wants to rename itself to the Dog and Doughtnut, well, that’s just a name too far. Striking a blow to corporate chains and foux atmosphere: it’s a good thing.

Monday for lunch I ate at a new Chinese buffet in town with Kim. It was mighty tasty, and had about a billion items including Peking Duck. I’d never seen that on a buffet before. A good gorging was had by all, and contrary to popular wisdom, I didn’t get hungry again right after (now there’s a stereotype I haven’t heard in a long time… I guess chinese food’s gotten more filling since the 70’s). In fact, I still haven’t gotten hungry. It feels like hunger might arrive by evening, so there’ll be dinner tonight.

Adent fans of Man or Astro-man? know that they did music for Space Ghost Coast-to-coast and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Astro Science Reverb 3000 has made available several virtual 7 inch singles with MP3s you can listen to yourself. Collect them all!

Shame on me for letting another weblog (no – two weblogs) beat me to posting about the Athens/Atlanta band Grand Moff Tarkin. Athens is rather famous for its theme bands (Man or Astro Man? and Servotron Robot Allegiance are two examples. And I suppose you can add The Dictatortots to the list now, too.) and for a while last year, Grand Moff Tarkin was at the top of the heap. Fronted by local legend Jim Stacy as Darth Vader, the band put on as good a show as I’ve seen here. The photos on the Tarkin site say it all.

My ISP’s FTP servers were down for over a day. Once again, I had a less-than-satisfying customer service experience with them. But, for the present, it’s all working again.

Blurring the line between reality and entertainment
One of my cast members recently returned from New York (where he saw a preview performance of the upcoming Man Who Came to Dinner revival with Nathan Lane). He brought back the flyer pictured here, thinking it was cute because yes, there are lots of roaches in New York, and roaches also have a small role in The Man Who Came to Dinner. I finally got around to going to the website mentioned on the flyer, www.bugmap.org. It shows a photo of the bug, mentions how nasty it is, and displays a map of the US showing areas already infested. There is a blank where you can enter your zip code to see when the critter is projected to spread to your neck of the woods. I did so (the map already showed it in southern Georgia), and was let to a trailer for am icky-bug disaster movie premiering next week on the USA cable channel. Nowhere on the flyer is there any indication that this was promotional material. Fooled me. I still won’t watch the movie, though.

Goodbye little darlin’, we’re parting
Parting don’t always mean goodbye
Although we have to part
You’re always in my heart
Goodbye, little darlin’, goodbye
          -Gene Autry

You WILL experience the Ninja Burger difference! Guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less, or we commit Seppuku. Wonderful, wonderful stuff here. You can print out a job application if you feel up to it.