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It’s ingrained, there like a frozen moment. In my mind until, perhaps, a sad point when I really can’t remember. Even now, my heart starts to trot when I think of it, watching as the spotlight focused on the set in a warehouse at Christopher Ranch. First daughter, first solo, first freak-out feeling for Dad. Shannon nailed it, belting out a fine rendition of the classic Irving Berlin number, “I was blue, just as blue as I could be … Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me … Then good luck came a-knocking  at my door … Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore … Blue skies, Smiling at me, Nothing but blue skies, Do I see … And we cheered as my eyes moistened and I thanked the wonderful John Bisceglie, choreographer and director of so many youth productions in Gilroy, for giving my daughter that opportunity to shine. There were many plays and many songs after that night when Miss Jenny recalls, “She sang Blue Skies and blew us away.” Then, the STAR program at Gavilan gave her – and her younger sisters – a stage for years and a creative home that challenged them and helped them grow. That’s why I’m drawn to “The Voice” TV singing show. There are so many great stories and so many incredibly talented “regular folks” – passionate singers giving it their all to get a break. When they “blind” audition for the judges, who have their chairs turned backwards, the families are watching off-stage and I feel what they’re going through as they dare hope and fervently wish for “Nothing but blue skies.”

It is apparently mandatory during every conversation about ocean cruises that each person declare whether or not they are a “cruise person.” At least it appears that way based on my experience. Though I suspected I was not a cruise person, I wasn’t sure since I had never been on one. I just knew that if I wanted to see Alaska’s Inside Passage, it would be on a cruise—and I definitely wanted to see the Inside Passage.

Modern take on age-old craft keeps quilters' needles flying

Lionel Messi. Wayne Rooney. Thierry Henry.

Do you find yourself squirming in your chair? Leaning on an

As I sit down to write this column, the Gavilan College summer