Why has it taken 5 days to post this? Idk, long week I guess.

On the agenda:

• April 5 was my birthday

• April 6 doesn’t matter (but we went to the zoo)

• April 7 was my wife’s birthday

• April 8 doesn’t matter

• April 9 doesn’t matter

• April 10 doesn’t matter

While some of those days don’t matter all that much, I’ll still tell you a bit about what happened.

To warm you up, here’s a chat gpt image of our dog judge as a judge.

April 5

I’m 26 years old, and to celebrate, I ran 26 miles on Saturday morning.

I’m kidding.

Grace and I took a leisurely drive through the canyon and into Malibu to grab a little coffee, and I buried a blueberry muffin in my tummy BC IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY.

Grace and I have been off coffee and on tea recently, so as simple as it sounds, this was a treat.

From the coffee shop, we did a perfect stroll around Point Dume, and while we didn’t catch a glimpse of the whales we were watching for, we saw more than our fair share of seals to cover it (you may have to zoom in).

Wife takes me to the Malibu Country Mart, we grab a quick bite (new little sandwich shop in there — fire).

Went to a nearby hotel pool with our good friend Wilder. Quick bite, quick sip, quick sun, quick vibe — a great afternoon.

Straight into some final 4 ball. My wife is an Auburn Tiger, so that loss was brutal.

Didn’t watch the last game - wound down with a bowl of spicy garlic noodles with shaved steak and a good movie.

GREAT BIRTHDAY.

April 6

We dropped our sweet judge off at a doggy daycare in town. We were told he wasn’t doing great making friends, and we get it. He’s a little guy, and he literally loves his momma with all of his heart.

Any time away from his parents is time he thinks he’s in doggy prison.

We then take a quick drive down to San Diego - stopped at some coffee place.

Which is making me realize we didn’t do a great job of being “off coffee” last weekend.

This was a big fun day, and we had some incredible gelato in La Jolla (pronounced La HOYA).

April 7

Only the most important day of the year.

Wifey turned 25.

I made her a makeshift breakfast sandwich, one of her fav foods - unfortunately, the sausage I thought we had in the freezer was beef, so we basically had breakfast burgers (still tasty).

I had work all day, she had school which was no fun, but we finished off the day at Nonna Italian Kitchen, where we had some DELECTABLE pasta.

They brought out a cute little dessert at the end.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Grace. Forever grateful for her. She changed my life in the best way possible.

April 8

Okay I really don’t remember April 8th. I did go to work I guess, but that’s ab it.

April 9

Oh yes, my wife made this bowl for dinner that’s apparently viral on tik tok - ground beef, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese (with honey and crushed red pepper) and some avocado. YUM.

I’m not huge on the mixing of cold things and hot things which was the ONLY issue. Like the hot ground beef + sweet potatoes paired with the cold cottage cheese and cold avocado. I’m just not sure.

April 10

Grace and I woke just before 6, and with anxious hearts, we drove into Malibu and up Coastline Drive to see our old apartment for the first time.

It was (as we’d seen in pictures) in ruins. Just before we got married, we got this old army dresser at a flea market, and we could just make it out amidst the rubble. That’s about it though. Everything else was just debris from the two apartments that were above ours that had burned and crumbled down to our level (we were on floor 1).

Pretty devastating, but the city of Malibu had gotten a good bit of rain over the past couple months, so while home after home after home was just gone or destroyed, the landscape has shifted from ash back to greener hillsides. Like the land is healing, but the community is not, and won’t for a long time.

Big day on the work front - Streamline Books signed our 4th client of the week, one of which is on a multi-book deal. And this is no small ticket offer. The business is on the move.

Also, I got some shots up on the hoop out back. Not sure if it was the humidity, the wind, IDK - nothing was stopping that ball from going in the net??? I couldn’t believe it.

Shot 18/20 from the line, was making about 2 out of every 3 shots from behind the arc (on air of course). Look I’m just saying the hand was hot.

April 11: A bonus!

My older brother, Andrew, is coming to LA, so I’m going to pick him up and the airport this afternoon.

Bout time one of my brothers comes to see me (I’m talking to you Matt!).

I have a pretty exciting weekend planned for the two of us. He’ll be here for less than 48 hours total, and it’ll be relatively relaxed, but you know we’ll get up to some fun.

He is a subscriber, so I WON’T go into the details (HA!).

OKAY ONE MORE THING

I have still been toying with the idea of shifting this newsletter to Writer’s Block - I’ve asked chat gpt to basically build me a fun little neighborhood with all the different fun things going on around the writer’s block.

(get it, it’s like a city block but it’s for writers… and writers sometimes get writer’s block which is where they don’t know what to write (how frustrating!), but then writer’s block (me) comes along and shows writers of all kinds become better writers. I’ll keep my funny up, but will use real writers across different mediums to help other people.

Why can’t C.S. Lewis’s writing help a travel blogger write better travel blogs? Why can’t a fiction novelist help a copywriter? They can, and I think I can make it happen.

And eventually, I’d like to build a large enough following of writers to advertise products and tools I care about. To offer services directly through the writer’s block entity. I’d like to travel and speak about digital writing and the ways we connect with others via the written word.

Here’s my little writer’s block city (it’s like roku city but far less ominous):

It’d be easy to say, hey luke that looks silly, what’s the point?

I want to invite writers into a creative space, and this little universe I’ve created FEELS like a space where creativity abounds - I want it to be colorful, full of fresh air, activity.

It’s this mix of inspiration from the bustle of a big city paired with the ease of a small town.

ALAS

Sorry that was maybe the longest Joe in a while. long joe.

I dropped this a couple days later than expected.

So ya, Andrew and I went to the LA Kings game - big win for my team, my city! Had good burgers, went to church, and saw Blake Griffin at the Brentwood farmer’s market.

If you follow along on my linkedin, you’ll know I saw Scottie Pippen at the Calabasas farmer’s market just a couple weeks back.

IF YOU WANT A CELEBRITY BALL PLAYER SIGHTING IN LA, GET TO THE FARMER’S MARKETS.

Please respond to my email I love it when y’all do that even though I did such a bad job of responding like two weeks ago please oh please it won’t happen again.

Cheers,

Luke