The little guy with the bandage on his head ...

The little guy with the bandage on his head is my oldest nephew, Andrew. The occasion was our wedding, and Andrew was the ring bearer.

The night before the wedding we had a rehearsal dinner at a rather nice restaurant with all our out-of-town guests in attendance. It was quite a party. Andrew was hanging out by the bar with his little brother, Keith, and 2nd cousin, Julian, although they all swore they weren't drinking.

A little playing around got a little out of hand, and a bar stool came toppling down onto little Andrew. Lots of blood, sirens, paramedics, and a trip to the emergency room followed.

The next morning, as we were getting set for the wedding ceremony to begin, we all sat down with Andrew and said, "It's okay. You had a rough night last night. If you don't want to carry the rings Uncle Steve will take them for you."

"No, this is important for you, Uncle Ken and Aunt Leslie. I want to do it."

It's now 17 years later. He still has a scar on his forehead. And he's getting married this Saturday.

We live in California, his wedding is in Connecticut. Because of work obligations we cannot make a real vacation of going east for the wedding. Instead, we will leave Friday morning, travel all day, and arrive at the airport in Connecticut about 1/2-an-hour before his rehearsal dinner, but we will make it. The wedding is Saturday, then we'll fly home Sunday and be back at work Monday morning.

It's a crazy trip to make: crossing country for a single day's activities. Too much travel time, too expensive, not enough time to visit with people back east. Ridiculous!

But Andrew got a life-long scar for our wedding. This is the least we could do in return, after all, it is important for him.

(This story is cross-posted to Cowbird)

What's your terror risk assessment?

No, I'm not asking for your assessment of the risk of terror, I'm asking what the official assessment of the risk that you are a terrorist.

Don't know your risk assessment, or ATS (Automated Targeting System), score? The government does. Well, at least, they do if you travel into or out of the U.S. Your assessment computed based on such factors as where you are from, how you paid for your tickets, your motor vehicle records, your history of one-way travel, your seating preference, and what kind of meal you ordered.

So, if you paid cash for your one-way ticket, asked for a seat up front and a Kosher meal, you might just find yourself stopped at the gate, pulled out for extra questioning, and possibly barred from traveling completely (the new system covers air, land, and sea transportation).

This is different than the previous lists we've heard of, filled with miss-spelled names of "known" terrorists. These watch lists have kept infants with suspicious names from boarding flights in the past. But to barred from flying now, they don't need to already know your name. You just need to match the correct profile.

And don't bother asking Homeland Security for a copy of your assessment. You're not allowed to see it. It's a state secret and a matter of national security. Your score is available, however, to any government agency or private contractor who's thinking of hiring you needs to persuaded not to. But they don't have to tell you that the ATS assessment is why you lost the job. That would be a breach of national security.

"Never before in American history has our government gotten into the business of creating mass 'risk assessment' ratings of its own citizens," said Barry Steinhardt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, in the under-statement of the year.

Oh, and we may be just learning about the ATS assessments now, but they're nothing new. The system was developed in the 1990's, and all airlines and cruise companies have been required to "send the government electronic data in advance on all passengers and crew bound into or out of the country" since 2002.

We just got back from a three-day mini-vacation in Napa. We love to go up there, but it's been too long since we've had the time to do it.

This came about because of a contest I won back in December. I'm on the mailing list of a local PR firm called "Marketing Maniacs" and in their December newsletter it said, "click onto our website and enter to win a weekend for two in Napa." I clicked, a couple of weeks later they called to tell me I won. Not too bad, eh?

The prize package included two nights at the Yountville Inn (value, over $200/night) and a hot air balloon ride for two (value, over $350). So, not only did we have a nice weekend in Napa, we did it in high style.

Wineries visited: Turnbull, Folie a Deux (one of our favorites for Zins), Dutch Henry, Wermouth (we actually don't like Wermouth's wine, but we had to go visit with Ralph Wermouth, who's the coolest, funniest, bad wine makers around), Rombauer, Prager (another favorite, for Ports), Sutter Home, and Hakusan Sake.

Restaurants: Mustard's Grill (California cuisine), Bouchon (French), Gordon's Market (lunch cafe), and (on the way home, in Vallejo) Earl's Texas BBQ.

Highlight: The balloon ride was incredible. Leslie was nervous at first, and almost chickened out of going at a couple of points, but once we were up in the air she quickly loosened up and we both loved it. The weather was perfect, and the visibility was great. We could see all the way up the Napa Valley, up past Calistoga, into Sonoma, and southward to the tip of the San Francisco bay. The flight was smooth and easy. Definitely a great experience.

Other Big Activity: Hanging out in the pool and hot tub at the hotel.

We're tired now, so I'm just going to turn on the closing of the Olympics. Just wanted to get all this down before I forgot.