Tuesday, December 7

1:20 am
Perth

Finally made it to hotel, got settled in, did meet & greet, dinner, usual welcome/arrival crap.  Another long day of travel, but it was pretty bearable.  Everybody was in a good mood, had some fun on the plane, just hung out and relaxed.  We always seem to have fun when  we're in this part of the world.

LOTS of fun.  Lost Week kind of fun.  The kind of fun everyone denies ever happened.  Especially after somebody writes a book about it.  Ha ha.

I'm past that kind of hedonism now, just occasionally visit the hazy memories with a wink and a grin.

Looking forward to a few weeks here, in this beautiful country.  I love Perth.  Can't wait to hang out on the beach tomorrow.  Well, later today I guess.  Crazy time-zone-change.  Anyway, gonna try some surfing again with Dean and some of the crew.  Richie said he may give it a shot too, but I bet he just chills on a lounge chair, leering at the Aussie chicks. That's his M.O.  Always has been, ha ha.

Come to think of it, ain't there a nude beach near Perth?  Hmm.  Gonna have to research that.

Still smiling from my phone date with Cate this morning.  She lived up to her promise, a bottle of wine, a fire in the fireplace, and her undivided attention.  The photo she sent me of her on the rug in front of the fireplace... well, let's just say I could feel the heat from here.  Not that it was full-on nudity or anything, but it was subtle and sexy and tantalizing... beautiful.

That pic was pretty racy for her; she is super-cautious about what she puts out over the airwaves.  She'd never email me something like that; she says text is a little safer but still interceptable.  Not that Cate is a prude or sees anything wrong with a husband and wife exchanging "personal" photos, but that cop brain of hers is always going.

She's a fed; she has to be careful nobody can undermine her credibility or reputation.  When she has to testify in big cases the last thing she needs is some sleazy defense lawyer pulling up images of her spread out bareass-naked on the living room rug and implying she's a trashy whore rather than an upstanding officer of the law.  She's more worried about the impact something like that would have on ME, if the tabloid rags got ahold of photos of the Rock Star wife.  Of course they'd be splashed all over everywhere and completely exploited.  I wouldn't give two shits about my "image" if that happened but I'd be fucking furious that they exposed my family to that kind of grief.

So, guess I'll never get beaver shots of my wife via email, ha ha.  And Skype Sex is out of the question.  Dammit.

But good old fashioned phone sex still works just fine.  Better than fine this morning.  Twice.

As great as the "date" was, Cate telling me about her day was even better.  That was after she finished laughing at my Mick Jagger impression from Sunday night's show.  She said I looked like a wounded chicken, and I don't have the lips to pull it off.  Not that she minds my lips -- they just aren't "Jagger-esque."  My wife is a goof.

She told me yesterday morning she had a lazy day planned; coffee with a friend, shopping, football.  Well, she never did the shopping, and turns out coffee with "a friend" was actually brunch with Dorothea.  She wouldn't tell me the details and still won't tell me what happened between them, but Cate assured me everything is fine now.  I believe her, but I heard that little waver in her voice that tells me there's still some pain there.  Whatever Dorothea said to Cate is obviously still bothering her a little, but I know my wife will put it in a box and get on with life until I coax her into telling me everything.  And I will, eventually.

Anyway, Cate said she'd like to talk to Stephanie, and Dorothea agreed.  Since Steph is still grounded and not allowed to leave the house except for school or when D takes her somewhere, Cate went back to D's.  They had a nice chat, and Steph apologized profusely (there were tears) to Cate for dragging her into this mess.  Cate said she apologized to Steph for scaring her, but she's secretly glad she did it.  She has no doubt Steph will never do anything that stupid again.  Good.

Of course Romey was like velcro with Cate the second she stepped through the door, and Jakey was his usual goofy self, showing off for her.  When Cate got ready to leave the boys pitched a complete fit.  Romey kept begging Cate to let him come to our house to play.  Cate said she didn't want to step on D's toes so she didn't quite know what to do.  Yep, those are my chucklehead kids -- poor Cate just patches up the mess the Girl caused by dragging her into the middle, then my Boys tell her they want to spend their time with her instead of their Mama.  Wonderful.

Jess came to the rescue.  He asked D if he could take the Terror Twins over to our house with Cate to watch the Giants game and play Wii.  D and Cate both breathed a sigh of relief, I'm sure.  That's my Man.  Jess has a gift of knowing exactly what to say or do to make a girl smile, his Mother and Stepmama included.  That's gonna serve him well.  He needs to rub some of that talent off on me, ha ha.

So the boys packed themselves up and off they went to spend the afternoon with Cate.  She said they had a blast watching the Giants kick some Redskins ass, and playing MarioCart and bowling and that crazy racing cows game.  And of course they played Rock Band and laughed about how bad I am at it.  I was right.  The boys went back home to D's before dinner and Cate just puttered around the house for a bit, getting ready for her week and for our phone date.

Wish I had been there.  I miss all those little moments, the mundane domestic stuff when we just live real life.  Can't wait to get back home to it and to everybody I love.