San Francisco, Aug. 3:
I've been remiss the last few days in posting to the blog.

Jeanne and I arrived at SFO last Sunday and spent a couple of days up in the wine country -- Healdsburg, Sonoma County, to be exact. It was, of course, all business.

Some of you may not know that one of my part-time gigs is as a food and wine writer. I've been reviewing restaurants and writing about wine for more than 15 years now, so, I assure you, it was all research as we made the rounds of about a dozen wineries, mostly pinor noir producers in the Dry Creek and Alexander valleys. Our favorites this trip were Arista, J and Papapietro-Perry. We also had great meals at Dry Creek Kitchen and Bistro Ralph in Healdsburg and at Mirepoix in Windsor.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove back to San Francisco so I could attend to some SPJ business.

Today was an all-day meeting of the Council of National Journalism Organizations. The meeting was held at the San Francisco Marriot in conjunction with the convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the primary organizaton for journalism educators. Terry Harper and I represented SPJ.

CNJO is an interesting group. It now comprises some 55 journalism organizations including SPJ, the National Press Photorgraphers Association, ASNE, IRE, NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA, NLGJA, the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Organization of News Ombudsmen and a lot more. The idea behind it is primarly to share information so that we all can benefit from the knowledge each of us has acquired, from the price of dues to what percentage of budget should go to salaries and what are the best cities for conventions.

The group meets twice a year, and most of the organizations send their president or executive director.

I'll be here the rest of the week attending the AEJMC meetings.