One thing that was cool was since it was Sunday, and since Pepperdine is a Christian college, we had a worship service in the cafeteria. During the service you could see helicopters landing at a nearby lake and then taking off again to drop the water on the flames.

Next day I get a call from my parents in San Diego who had to evacuate our home. They spent most of the day at a high school down there and then got the all clear to come back. And my brother is at UCSD, so he's been affected too. It's been a crazy weekend for our family, but luckily everyone is ok.

1 I have a friend who works at Pepperdine, I didn't realize that the fire had made it to the campus. I'll have to call her.

I coach cross country, will monitor holding practice today and tomorrow, have a meet on Thursday. Last Tue and Wed had to cancel just due to dust and gusts up to 50 mph. Now with smoke an issue, we'll have to watch for reports of air quality issues as mentioned before. Like Ned, I see what I see and don't necessarily need statistics to make decisions.

Hope everyone else is doing as well as can be expected. I have relatives in Santa Clarita and in San Diego. Also in Camarillo, not too far from Fillmore. I haven't heard from anyone yet, hope they are okay. This is some scary stuff.

The only time it gets windy in my neck of the woods is if the wind kicks in off of the ocean and blows northward. That happens maybe one or two days a year. It's quite a switch from where I grew up: Granada Hills.

S. Pasadena is beautiful (Pasadena is beautiful period) do you live near old town Bob? or are you relatively far.

Old Pasadena has lots of places to shop and dine. South Pasadena has cute antique stores and an ice cream fountain.

And a deserted movie theater.

"Maybe (the Cubs) is a business, " he said. "But it's not a business I understand. So I think I'll pass it on to someone who understands it as a business or to someone who gets enough psychic income that they don't give a ...."

Thank you so much Jon for your concern for all of us here. My thoughts are with everyone and their families out here in California having to deal with the smoke, ash, and fire.

As for me, I am fine and here in Santa Barbara, we are getting a fair share of ash but it's very mild, and I can even see blue in the sky.

My family is in Oxnard and I understand they are ok. My pop works in Simi Valley so I'm sure conditions are similar to Moorpark.

My concern right now is for family that lives in Palmdale. They must be getting quite the brunt of the ash, plus they must be locked in due to the Santa Clarita fires that block their passage along the 14 and 5.

Is that true, for those who live in the Antelope Valley?

Was everybody's car covered in soot yesterday/today?

now we just have 70 mile an hour winds, thick soot on everything, trees broken, but so far the fires are passing us by...unlike last December when they came right up to our property line...

and now they are forecasting rain over the weekend....

it just looks like a big white cloud XeiFrank! What does your machine think about the BoSox versus the Colorado Rockies?

36. Game #1 odds are posted.

vr, Xei

per Rotoworld

With LaRussa coming back, Rolen can't be too happy. Pierre's money, and Rolen's match somewhat, plus they could use a CF.

Glad everything is ok... How would you get into LA if the Santa Clarita fire creeped into the 14 and 5?

I can remember when I was in Santa Barbara and there was ash everywhere. I was definitely not used to seeing anything like that.

I hope I-5 Isn't affected - I'm supposed to drive down to LA on Sunday AM. (Hey, did I tell you guys I'm taking the train from LA to Texas and Nawlins for a research project I'm doing? That should be interesting.)

Shortstop Chin-lung Hu left after one inning in an Arizona Fall League game today due to right hamstring soreness, according to Baseball America.

Meanwhile, no one asked my opinion, and I'm rooting for the Rockies, but my prediction is RedSox in 6 games.

I would love to see that.

54

What remark?

Thanks for your concerns, and mine goes out to all affected too.

1300 homes in San Diego

...so far

>> The decision by United States Coach Greg Ryan to start Briana Scurry in goal against Brazil in last month's Women's World Cup left him on a high wire with no safety net. <<

http://tinyurl.com/2rfuta

Actually I understand Orange County has some fires of its own. Air quality must not be at its best any place along the OC.

Myth 6: El Niño means disastrous flooding for California. Occasionally, but it is just as likely that California will have significant flooding in a non-El Niño year. Of the 10 costliest flood years in California since 1950, only four happened during a time when there was an El Niño. Two others occurred during seasons with La Niña, and the final four were when the temperature of the tropical Pacific was near normal.

I wish I had seen that. I mean if you are going to complain about that, than the catcher should be allowed to tackle Manny any time he treats a first inning homer like a walk off.

It seems like a the home plate umps in the last few games have been giving quite a wide strike zone...of course, that is assuming we can trust the strike zone guide on tv, which I am skeptical about.

67 Only a few months too late. I wonder what this means for Hope Solo...

vr, Xei

May she please stay.

http://weblogs.variety.com/season_pass/2007/10/wanted-readers-.html

>> Neither side accepts the other's premise. Boras does not seem to believe that the Yankees will remove themselves from negotiations if Rodriguez opts out of his contract and becomes a free agent. The Yankees are highly dubious that Boras can find a more lucrative contract than the one they plan to offer. <<

http://tinyurl.com/2v895q

How about "The Caine Mutiny?"

"Cane" is one of those shows you just know will be bad. I've just never picked up a box and sugar and been curious about the dirty deals behind it. "Corn" maybe, but not sugar.

But your mentioning it reminds me of a famous story from the PR world. Burson-Marsteller tried to class up its name by hiring former JFK press secretary and ABC News correspondent Pierre Salinger as a kind of well-known face for its public affairs practice. The idea was Salinger would bring in clients by virtue of all his contacts and his reputation.

At the time, Bacardi Rum was a well-paying Burson client going back decades, a mainstay of the firm's revenues all over the world.

Salinger is gives a speech about foreign affairs and at the end of it, he's asked by a member of the audience if he thinks the U.S. will ever recognize Castro's Cuba and drop the embargo. Salinger says yes, he thinks that will happen.

Turns out, this is the worst thing you can say to anybody in the Bacardi family. They hate Castro. Officers in the firm worked with the CIA to have him killed. They are major funders of the Cuban exile community, and have a major lobbying presence in Washington to make sure the embargo is only expanded, not lifted.

Salinger's remarks were casual musings, not some strong stand he wanted to be associated with. But before the day was over, Bacardi fired Burson.

Tell me that "Cane" covers that kind of stuff and I might be interested.

My grandmother and grandfather left Rancho Bernardo yesterday for downtown SD. We think the Witch fire just missed them by one exit or so.

Actually, I haven't watched since the pilot.

87 - Enders now lives in Texas, but Bluebleeder is thinking of Eric Stephen.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/10/22/214440/52

We have a copy of "The Year of Magical Thinking," but I haven't read it yet.

Here's the thing: Unless you watched J.D. Drew for the entire 2007 season, you can't possibly comprehend how astounding this was. I write about sports for a living. When I'm watching a game, I have trained myself to look for every possible angle and every conceivable scenario. I am thinking about potential jokes, observations, column angles and everything else. I am prepared for everything. I am a trained professional at watching sports and eventually translating my feelings into words.

So believe me when I tell you this ... from the time Drew walked up to home plate to the time that ball landed in the center-field stands, I never even considered the possibility of a grand slam.

http://tinyurl.com/2pjsta

"The Year of Magical Thinking" is brilliant, actually. Probably her best book in a good long while. I'm probably biased, since I've been through this experience, but she captures it with her usual obsessive precision.

Like William Styron's book on depression, "Darkness Visible," Didion's book will be something people will give other people after their spouse dies. It will help a lot of people to know that, yes, they're going crazy, but they won't be crazy forever.

Now go on to much more important concerns.