October 28, 2003
More debate on what cover image to use. Vigorous discussion in this morning’s staff meeting about the pros and cons of putting another actor on the cover, right after putting Billy Bob on the cover of December issue.. Virtually everyone except Abby had an opinion. Verdict still out. Good debate.

Finished the rough draft of the Davy Crockett Vs. Santa Anna’s Army yesterday. Gus and I dumped it in and started moving things around. Decided to do another painting for it, a dramatic rendering of Crockett’s final moments. The position of his hands will be key.

Kathy’s got a cold so we didn’t go to Spanish last night. I watched the first half of the Chargers-Dolphins game, which was moved to Sun Devil Stadium because of the fires in southern Cal. Several people asked me if I was going to go (it was free) and I remarked that I would have jumped at the chance twenty years ago. Just the thought of the drive (we live about 30 miles from Tempe) and the hassle of parking, the waiting in line, the fighting for seats, staying up past nine, stuff like that was the deal breaker.

Well, that got me to thinking, what would it take for me to go to the game and I decided to make a list of the deal makers. What is the minimum it would have taken for me to go to the game? Here’s my list:

• If I could have a limo pick me up at my house.
• If the limo was stocked with Coronas and takeout from El Conquistador.
• If the limo driver was Salma Hyak (Hey, I’m willing to compromise on some of these, but I’ve learned you’ve got to ask)
• If the limo could pull right up to the stadium gates and three ushers (no preference) would take us to our reserved 50-yard-line seats.
• If our seats were converted to barca-loungers with Halo (a video game) installed in the armrests.
• If a helicopter could air-evac us out whenever the game got boring, or went past nine o’clock.

So I stayed home and watched it on tv and went to bed at nine. Had a great time.

"Many a man thinks he has an open mind, when it's merely vacant."
—Old Vaquero Saying