Charlie's Diary: Grandson Kahlil

Grandson Kahlil and his Mom Caroline are in Washington DC this week. The plan is to go downtown and visit the Air and Space Museum on the Mall, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Charlie"s Diary: Son Andrew and grandson Kahlil

Andrew walking down the street with Kahlil, who just turned 15 months old.

My kids are visiting Washington DC where they grew up, seeing family and friends, July 2nd-10th.

Kahlil asleep outside the White House.

Shut Up Sanford: Stewart Begs The S.C. Gov To Zip It (VIDEO)

by Alex Leo, The Huffington Post
July 3, 2009
As Jon Stewart pointed out last night, Mark Sanford is the luckiest man in the world: After confessing to an affair that could kill his political ambitions, several celebrities died (including the King of Pop) and his indiscretions were pushed off the front page...Until he gave a lengthy interview to the Associated Press in which he confessed to making out with a bunch of women and gave away juicy details of his Argentinian love.

Click here to read about and watch the clip by scrolling down the page.

Charlie's Diary: Grandson Kahlil visits the White House

from my daughter Caroline who is visiting her hometown of Washington DC (along with 15-month-old Kahlil). Son Andrew is also visiting with GF Tiffini.

Wonderful pic. I'm adding it to my Blog. Second day....we are spending the night in Denver. Just home from an extremely good Ethiopian dinner.

New Day for Shanghai Nights

Gay Pride Week in Shanghai included the essential “hot body” contest.
June 28, 2009
Heads Up
By ARIC CHEN, The New York Times (Travel Section)
“BRING in the boys!” an announcer howled on a recent Saturday afternoon at Cotton’s, a bar in Shanghai.

The occasion was a daylong celebration with drag shows, Chinese opera performances, mock same-sex weddings — and, yes, a “hot body” contest — to help conclude Shanghai’s first Gay Pride Week. And as seven beefcakes, including two from New York and one from Indonesia, strutted onto an outdoor stage, a crowd of hundreds erupted in whoops and hollers before awarding the hottest body title to a strapping, six-foot-tall Shanghainese who went by the name Grant. He was wearing a pink “Beware Pickpockets and Loose Women” T-shirt, until he wasn’t.

Read more.

Thanks again to my friend Paul P in Toronto for sending this story to me.

Genius in the Bottle [Governor Sanford of South Carolina]

June 28, 2009
By MAUREEN DOWD, The New York Times
WASHINGTON
As in all great affairs, Mark Sanford fell in love simultaneously with a woman and himself — with the dashing new version of himself he saw in her molten eyes.

In a weepy, gothic unraveling, the South Carolina governor gave a press conference illustrating how smitten he was, not only with his Argentine amante, but with his own tenderness, his own pathos and his own feminine side.

Read more Dowd!

And again, big thanks to my friend Paul P in Toronto, for alerting me to this scathingly apt and funny piece.

Moveous Update: We inked a lease for a 2BR apartment

See all the boats! Looking from the entrance to our apartment complex.

Just back from Ft Lauderdale trip late yesterday. On Thursday we leased a 2BR, 14th-floor apartment 1/2 mile from the beach at Sunrise Harbor (the place we had first seen on Tuesday afternoon). The apartment is 1,286 sq feet (including the balconies). Huge Galleria Mall is across the street, bus service, Starbucks etc so what else do I need?

Movers arrive here Weds July 1st to collect stuff. Two days later Takashi and our friend Joseph will drive the car to Florida. I now suspect I'll simply fly next Wednesday.

Name of the place is "Sunrise Harbor."

Our kitchen!

Across the street and to the southwest is the massive Galleria Mall

view of Intracoastal Canal

Takashi and our realtor at poolside.