Since my hockey games the last couple of weeks have been at 11:15 pm (too late for me to go out to eat afterwards), I've been craving pancakes. So yesterday evening, two of my team mates and I went to the local IHOP where I ordered the new strawberry/banana pancakes and proceeded to eat enough that, when mixed with a couple of diet cokes in my belly, made me feel like I would never need to eat again. I thought my pancakes were big, but Dean's chocolate chip pancakes were bigger than his head and he couldn't even get through them.

The city around me is on fire. Malibu, Canyon Country, just about everywhere outside the city proper is ablaze. As the sun went down last night, I could see the red smoky horizon that hung over Malibu. This happens every summer, when it's dry and warm and windy, but it seems much worse this year. You can click HERE to see a current map of the fires in and around Los Angeles County along with data such as structures destroyed and firemen on site.

The song of the day is "Highway To Hell" by AC/DC off their 1979 album of the same name. It sure feels like hell here (more than it usually does) with the flames on every horizon. When I saw Billy Joel in concert a few years ago, he brought one of his roadies on stage and let him sing this song. It was pretty impressive, not just the roadie's singing, but seeing an aging Joel running across the stage playing the guitar for this song.