This has been an exciting month! I finally pulled off a visit to my two youngest sons, Robert and Tom, and Robert’s wife, Gwen Abel, in southern California. Robert and Gwen live in a charming apartment in Playa del Rey, with Jacuzzi and pool, and Tom lives in Marina del Rey, surrounded by a plethora of orchids and resurrected plants that only a master horticulturalist like him could revive. At the same time I enjoyed a reading at the huge and unusual bookstore, Dutton’s in Brentwood. A highlight of the week was a dinner prepared and served by John and Bonnie Cacavas in the exotic setting of their elegant home in Beverly Hills. (They are superb chefs as well as musicians) Their son, John, wife, Stina, and small son, Eric, attended, along with the Petersons and Gwen’s mother, Ruth Abel. I’ve known John since our days in music education, when he was a top band arranger, going on to Hollywood to compose for TV (notably the Kojak show) and many movies. He and Bonnie are superb musicians, song writers, and arrangers. ( Click here for a most unusual entre)