Santiago Day 2 - Exploring the city

I came downstairs today from our room and was pleasantly surprised to see Panteras, our guide from yesterday. He was out front gossiping with the male staff. And some say men don´t gossip, bah. After some chatting he offered to take us to our first subway stop. Panteras is a very friendly guy and loves to talk. We ended up with a tour of Santiago courtesy of him. He showed us Nerudu´s house (famous Chilean poet) and basically everywhere we were going to go. This got us off to a great start as now I had my bearings. Dena and Arlene have no sense of direction so wandering a city like this is basically all on me. The stress! But now I was fine.

Our first stop the Mercado Central (central market) that is famous in Chile and some say, a tourist trap. The art nouveau building is designed by the same guy that designed the eiffel tower in Paris. (Gustav Eiffel) This central market is famous for the fishmongers and we had fun looking at all the bizarre fish, wandering around and snapping photos. Someone warned us to keep our backpack in front as it was dangerous but since it was not busy on sunday I did not heed the advice. Besides, there was nothing valuable in it. From there it was on to the National Cathedral (built in 1571) in Plaza de Aramas, then a short walk across the river to La Vega, another truely local market that I had read about on the web.


I knew it would be different as no tourists or white people were anywhere to be seen. The area was definitely local and poor- We made our way to the market which was very colorful, everything sold in bins and certainly not much actually refrigerated on this 90 degree F day. The smell was atrocious, rotting fruit and veggies, so we moved on to the area known as Bella Vista. I liked the local market. I like seeing how local people live and not just how it is portrayed to tourists. Seeing the world, opening our eyes and minds and experiencing life throughout this great big planet, that´s what it is all about.

Now, I have to sing my praises here as I was doing perfectly fine, not complaining about the heat, Dena and Arlene on the other hand looked as if death warmed over. I found this amusing. Imagine, me being full of piss and vinegar and these two, in great shape, having so much trouble with the heat and humidy. hehe. So I guided these two to a park bench while I found an open restaurant. We had a lovely lunch of ceviche and camrones (shrimp) with pisco sours of course, then worked on getting a cab back to the hotel. These two were done in.


I got a cab and the cabbie and I had an enlightening conversation in spanish about the city, volcanoes and the like. Dena and Arzie were quite amused since I speak so little spanish, but i was surprised at how much I could figure out. The afternoon was spent lounging by the pool. Sometimes on vacation you just have to chill. We went to the market this evening and a bottle of chilean wine and the superbowl game are calling my name, so I must run. It´s 9pm and the game is just starting. by the way, look for pictures below.

Andean Mountain Farmers

They made our goat cheese, fresh as fresh can be, the goats are off to the right.....and that´s my man Panteras talking to Dena. He´s wearing the green bandana. By the way, what you see, is there entire household. That´s it.

Maipo Canyon with the snowcapped Andes in back

Santiago Day 1 - The road less travelled

Today was our adventure up into Maipo Canyon (pronounced my poo). We hired a private tour company to take us up there, where Dena got to drive a 4WD vehicle. We were picked up at the hotel at 8pm and didn´t get back until 730. Long day. What a beautiful country it is though. We drove up the canyon from start to its end, about 50 miles of dirt road, some rough near the end. During the trip we stopped at this Andean indian mountain farm house where we purchased some goat cheese, freshly made. We had lunch by a lake where we kayaked, drank Chilean wine and beer, and had the goat cheese. Wonderful. After lunch we continued on our trek, bracketed by 15´000 foot Andes peaks covered in snow even in this South American summer. We drove beside the glacier fed river that had that wonderful bluish white hue that all glacial fed rivers do. The end of the canyon found us at a thermal hot springs pool where we jumped in a relaxed for a bit finishing off with a dip in the cold waterfall and a pisco sour. Life is hard here in Chile.

Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow. Some things to note, there is a 5 hour time difference from Los Angeles to here. It is 2 time zones east of New York. Also, I left all my postcard addresses on the plane in a magazine I forgot in the seat pocket. So very few of you will get postcards, my apologies. One last thing, I need your help on this, our room has a bidee (spelling?). How do you use it? You obviously do not urinate it in then wash, what do you do? Thanks all, until tomorrow. We´re going to go wait in the bar for Arlene to arrive.

Santiago - Day Zero Travel Day

The flight from LAX through Panama City via Copa Airlines (a Continental Partner) was incredibly long and arduous. I hate to sound like an ugly American but pretty much everything was spoken in spanish. Occasionally there will be an english translation following by the pilot or stewardess, however, they spoke for 3 minutes in spanish and we get about 20 seconds. Not sure what we are missing but it is definitely something.

The Grand Hyatt Santiago is marvelous. The hotel is situated close to the Andes and thus is farther away from downtown than I would like. However, it is beautiful and due to it's proximity to the mountains, is where all the rich people live. Figures. Today we start our adventures by taking a 12 hour off road trip up into Maipo Canyon. This tour is offered by Hislandes and we're certainly looking forward to it. We arrived completely exhausted, having been up for around 48 hours. The hotel exceeded my expectations in everyway with a sunken living room and a very gracious staff. Room service is coming with my pisco sour then it is off to bed. I am having trouble finding the aprostphe so there will be no contractions on this blog.....hehe. And apparently no spell checking. Spanish keyboard. Took me 5 minutes to get the @ sign.

Various Thoughts

The countdown begins. We leave tonight (or rather Friday morning) at 1:00 am on Copa Airlines. The flight takes us from LAX to Panama City to Santiago. That's a long, long, long flight. There's a lot going on with packing, re-packing and so on. It's very difficult to pack for Santiago which is 86 degrees and then on to Tierra del Fuego (~ 57 degrees) for 1/2 a day and then onto the ship and preparing for 20 - 32 degrees.


My feelings bounce around with every passing hour, from panic that I've packed all I needed, to excitement to apprehension, it's a wild and wonderful world inside my brain. It's 6:30 pm now and I've been trying to write this blog all day. My procrastination skills are fantastic. What am I procrastinating about? Packing. I hate to pack. I hate the decisions that have to be made on a trip of this length. Well, frankly, I hate the decisions for any length trip. You have to decide how many pairs of socks, what to wear each and every day, what to wear more than once, etc. You have to plan for weather that you are unfamiliar with and frankly, 2 continents I'm unfamiliar with. I hate packing. So, I've done everything in the world except pack today. I've even made peelable labels with people's addresses for mailing postcards, rapidly. Now that's sick. But the suitcase remains empty. Four and a half hours until we head for the airport. Perhaps I should get busy, eh?

Vice, Habit or Pleasure?

I drink caffeine. Yes, I do. I admit it. Isn't admission of a problem 90% of the cure? Is it really a problem I have though? I don't drink 4 cups of coffee a day. I hate coffee, can't even stand the smell of it. I get my caffeine through those new fangled energy drinks at $2.50 a can. I used to get my caffeine from an old fashioned can of coke but those as 12 oz and 280 calories. Then I started drinking diet coke and people said that aspartame (aka NutraSweet) will kill me and that all those chemicals in diet drinks bloat you and make you retain weight. Well, I just can't win can I.

So is drinking caffeine a vice? I think not as the definition of a vice is frailty: moral weakness
a specific form of evildoing; "vice offends the moral standards of the community". Well, my caffeine habit certainly doesn't qualify as evildoing. It's not like I'm President Bush or anything..... Is it a habit then? Well a habit is defined as an established custom; or "a pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetition". Hmm, well it's definitely a habit then. I like my caffeine first thing in the morning. I like a Red Bull to jolt me awake and get the energy flowing through me. I want to wake up running and on fire baby! Well, I now drink Diet Red Bull and I'm sure that's going to kill me too. Everything is going to kill me eventually I guess. I only drink one little 8 oz. can in the morning, can that be bad? To me, it's pure pleasure. Well, let me clarify, it was pure pleasure drinking a can of full high test Red Bull, not the diet crap. I like the flavor of it, the jolt of it, the tingle of little bubbles on my tongue first thing in the morning. The diet doesn't have the same thrill but, it does the trick. So have I compromised my pleasure for a habit?

Well, regardless of what it is, I'm weaning myself off. You'd think that it'd be easy right? It's only one little 8 oz can a day. How much caffeine is that really? For the record, the amount of caffeine incorporated does not have harmful or toxic effects since one 150 ml cup of tea contains between 60 and 90 mg of caffeine and one 125 ml cup of coffee provides between 95 and 125 mg of caffeine; one 250 ml can of RED BULL provides 80 mg of caffeine (32 mg/100 ml). Since I figure that Red Bull on the National Geographic Endeavor will either be non-existent or really, really expensive, I've elected to quit. How's it going so far. I actually was able to skip a day, Monday. I lived through it. Was the day better or worse. It wasn't as pleasurable to be sure.

National Mentoring Month and Day

Yesterday was National Mentoring Day. As an event the Los Angeles Kings gave the Big Brother and Big Sister organization in the greater Los Angeles area 100's of tickets so that the "Big's" could take their "Littles" to a hockey game. And not just any hockey game, the freeway series of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks vs. the Los Angeles Kings. There are certain things to expect when you get something for free, and that's to expect that you get what you pay for. So I expected to be on the top tier of seats, I just didn't expect to be at the very, very top. You couldn't get any higher in the Staples Center unless you were hanging from the roof. The view of the game from up there was actually pretty good but it was difficult for my little as it was her first hockey game ever. Being so far away you don't really feel part of the action but I did explain some of the basic points of the game, like when a referee will stop a fight and when he'll let them go at it.

Speaking of expectations......I create scenarios in my head. This is why I really started this blog so long ago, to write some of them down. Some are out there and some are just stories and thoughts; but I realized last night that some are expectations. I had some expectations last night. When Big Brother/Sisters called me about the tickets I thought it would be an organized affair with all the Bigs and Littles sitting together in a section where we could all come together and have fun. It turns out we were scattered all over the top sections and there wasn't really any camaraderie. I tried to turn it around to being just about my little and I. It turns out that she prefers that. It seems that she's embarrassed that she is in a position in her life where she has a big sister and not really a mom or dad that's part of her life. Makes sense.

The Kings won 4 - 1, there were a couple fist fights, one really big one. This seemed to thrill my little sister the most. Perhaps she was born a hockey fan?

Facebook

After pressure from relatives, I took the plunge. I joined facebook. Facebook is a social networking website started by some young, pimply faced Harvard school dropout who is filthy rich now. It originally started as a university/college site but has evolved in it's short 4 year existence to 60 million users worldwide. It was started Feb. 4, 2004. It's even reached such notoriety that Iran and Syria block it. Of course, they probably block everything......

The information users provide on Facebook has been used in investigations by colleges, universities, and local police. Facebook's Terms of Use specify that "the website is available for your personal, noncommercial use only", misleading some to believe that college administrators and police may not use the site for conducting investigations. Furthermore, some employers look at Facebook profiles of prospective employees or interns. Information posted on Facebook is potentially accessible to employers with faculty or alumni accounts.[66] Myspace has also been used for checking out future and current employees, etc. So be very careful what you post on the big world wide web.

I've been on it now for a couple weeks and while I found many of my cousins on there I was surprise to find an entire Mitel network of ~ 200 Mitel employees including the COO and several VPs. This just proves the paragraph above. I've found many of the add on applications buggy and some have said many of them are spam generators, keystroke loggers, etc. Any applications I add I'm very careful to ensure they are used by many, many people. I suppose if I load an application that is used by many I'm under the false belief that so many people couldn't be getting screwed. hehe It is nice to share photos and I am able to stream this blog to facebook so that facebook users who are my friends can link to me or easily reach this blog. We shall see if it's of future interest to me.

Yummy Malkin's Jam

When I went home to NW Ontario for my gram's memorial service I wanted to make sure I picked up some of that yummy Malkin's Strawberry Jam that I love so much. I had been out for quite awhile. There is truly nothing like it. When I went into Ronning's in Baudette, MN(just over the border) to pick some up I was surprised that the label had changed and the lady at the counter said they'd been bought by a large conglomerate. It was just too much for me. Does EVERYTHING have to change? Even my damn jam? As a side note, don't bash me for buying the jam in the states, I was in a time crunch and have always in the past bought it on the Canadian side! I'm proud to be Canadian.

So yesterday I popped open my can of jam. Yes, that's the way things should be, jam should come in a can, not a bloody glass jar. They give you a nice plastic sealer for it after you open it. That jam has sat on my gram's kitchen table (where generations of Blight descendants have sat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, blueberries and pastis for over 50 years) since as long as I can remember. I wanted to ensure that the taste was the same. I enjoy my Malkin's jam with peanut butter on a Ritz. Yummmm. As I popped the first cracker in my mouth, my taste buds did a happy dance. Nothing had changed. Whew, the flavor was still there. But what happened to Malkins?

It appears they were bought by some large company in Southern Ontario called E.D. Smith. I guess that Malkin's was a family owned production line in B.C. who had employed generations of local Abbottsford families. E.D. Smith had elected not to reproduce the jam, not enough volume, then they were bought by Treehouse Farms, an even larger company. The story can be read on the links below, it's interesting and frankly is typical of today's economic world. You'll be happy to know that it is being produced by a small little family owned production line in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan, oh, that's right, all of Saskatchewan is the middle of nowhere.


The story http://www.canadasfood.com/history_products/canadas_jam.php
The new production facility http://www.greatexcursions.com/blogs/heartland_canada/2005/07/success-runs-wild-at-southeys-last.html
The first purchase and as you can see, what a company says during an acquisition is completely different than the end reality result: http://www.degroote.mcmaster.ca/News/pdfs/2006-04-29_EDSmith.pdf

California Registered Domestic Partnerships Blaze New Tax Ground

I had a startling call from my CPA yesterday. He informed me that a new law passed by the California legislature says that as of January 1, 2008 Registered Domestic Partners (called RDP for brevity for the duration of blog) will be required to file Married Filing Jointly (or Married filing separately) for tax year 2007 and beyond. Now since the federal government passed the Defense of Marriage act (called DOMA for brevity, or as I like to call it, DUMBASS) RDPs cannot file Married returns to the feds. So what does this mean? Well, it basically means a big, confusing mess. So Dena and I will have to file one state return, Married Filing Jointly. Then we will have to file 2 (one each) Federal returns as single people. Oh by the way, my CPA said he was going to charge me $ 1,350 to due our returns. HELL NO!! I am looking for a new tax preparer, someone gay who has a vested interest in knowing the law.

But, for those of you that are a little tax savvy, how in the world can you determine how to file a state return when it's all based on the federal return? Good question. Our tax preparer would have to prepare a fake federal return as Married Filing Jointly, not file it, but use it to prepare the State return. Confusing, maybe, expensive, YES. So basically, Dena and I would need 4 returns prepared of which we'll use 3. Heterosexual married couples only need 2, one state and one federal. Tax preparers charge by the return normally, so we get charged double. How nice.

Also, it seems to me that since this is the first year this will occur there will be a high margin for error for returns and perhaps a high audit rate. This does not sit well with me. I have a severe fear of the taxman. Perhaps, and most of you will shudder to read me having any optimism at all, but just perhaps there may be some financial benefit. Nah.........the taxman taketh away but never giveth!

For reference:

California RDP
Defense of Marriage Act
California Franchise Tax Board RDP info

Changing of the Guard

As the memorial service for my grandmother ended and people filed out of the church we were greeted with a beautiful, almost irreverent sunset. The sun was causing a pillar of red light to shoot into the orange sky and the purple clouds. Gramma loved her sunsets. She used to teach me, "red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in morning, sailor's take warning." It was as if she was acknowledging all that loved her with something she loved best. The service was important for all her grandchildren and great grandchildren to celebrate her life, remember her and give themselves some closure. Her children had their closure with a personal service by a minister at the hospital. Grandma's legacy lives on......

As the day after my Grandma's service dawns in a snowy, chilly, beautiful day; thoughts of change and the future fill my mind. Almost all of my friends have now lost all of their grandparents. My generation has stopped being the grandchildren and moved on to the distinction of becoming the children. I'm not sure that's a distinction I like. I liked being a grandchild. There was less responsibility somehow. We were the young ones. Now the torch is passing, the great grand children becoming the grand children and the grand children becoming the children. With this torch comes responsibility and unfortunately, age. We have an obligation to keep the family together, look after our parents and protect the memories of the past. Today, it's a heavy weight. Perhaps I'll become stronger as I become used to it.

Ode to Gram

As I walk to the top of the hill
flooded with so many memories
kites, blueberries, and adventure
I feel her here
walking with me

Down at the beach
on the big double swing
We sit side by side talking
and watching the boats go by
The seat is empty now

The leaves rustle
it must be the wind
I know she is there
walking up to the house
it must be time for tea

A song wafts across the bay
It sounds familiar
Is it the Waltz or Shawnee?
It doesn't matter
she's playing her accordian

No one to send postcards to
or get slippers from
but in the sky tonight
over her lake and her legacy
shines a star so bright

An Amazing Woman

Early this morning my gramma passed away. My last surviving grandparent. She was an amazing woman to be sure. She was 90 years old.

Various Notes

I was looking at the top 25 downloaded songs on itunes.com yesterday as I thought it'd be nice to have some recent music on my Ipod. You know, so I don't look too old....I saw this Ellen show the other day and she had some people dancing around to Soldier Boy. Well, I looked and looked on itunes and couldn't find it. It seems that it's really called SoulJa Boy. I feel old now!

I got a very stupid ticket by an LAPD officer back in September or so. I am able to go to traffic school and it's due on the 9th of January. Being proactive, I'm just doing it now. I went to www.trafficschool.com an approved online traffic school by the County of Los Angeles and it was very easy. It did not take 8 hours like it would if I went and sat in a classroom. I've done online traffic school 3 times now over the past years and I love it. I would consider myself an expert at it frankly. I've never taken over 3 hours to complete an online course. You can even, if you're really a procrastinator, have it overnighted to the court (for a fee of course). One key to taking these courses is to copy and paste all the documentation into a word document. You can then use this for searching when they do the chapter review and final exams. Better than memorizing....

Some of you may have noticed that I've slightly updated my blog template. I've added a new option called polling. Please participate by clicking your "right" answer. For example, the current poll is regarding toilet paper usage. This is easily determined, just as you normally would, pull the TP roll but before you wipe, count your squares. Simple. Take a few runs at it to get an average and let us know! And remember, this is not for # 2!

Joshua Tree

For our end of year foray to Palm Springs we decided to leave a day early and explore Joshua Tree a little and do our own version of "photowalking". We had a blast, going to a part of the park called Pine City. We hiked for about 4 hours, climbing rocks, taking pictures and having our picnic lunch. It was a blast. We left the park and stopped for some refreshments at a little liquor store outside the park. As I stepped out of the vehicle an asian fellow walked up to me and said in heavily accented English, "you help" and handed me a cell phone. There was a guy on the other end who was trying to help him get to his hotel in 29 Palms. It's amazing, no matter where I am, people ask me for directions.....

Another Year Older

I awoke this morning another year older and since my birthday is later in the year it serves a double purpose. It's a good time to look back on the entire year as a whole; reflect on my accomplishments and re-focus my energies on things I want to move forward on.

In 2007 I was able to lose weight, heal my injured shoulder without surgery, and get into better all around physical shape, dropping my cholesterol to acceptable levels and getting rid of the fatty liver disease. Amazing what exercise and diet will do for you. At work I was moving forward in a positive mode, making a difference with our customers and helping the management team make decisions. All of the good things in 2007 happened to me prior to Sept. 7th and then it all went to hell. Mitel and Inter-tel merged and life as myself and my co-workers knew it was literally decimated.

I'm going to spend 2008 re-focusing my efforts on creating a new niche at work and not allowing people to control my destiny. I will control my own financial, physical and emotional destiny. So look out world, there will be no more sulking over the things that were, the things that have changed and the losses that have happened. Only forward thinking and moving.

Dena and I had a wonderful road trip over the Labor Day weekend, exploring route 66 from Los Angeles to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was so much fun allowing us to re-connect to each other and re-connect with our adventurous spirits. In 2008 we'll spend the month of February in Antarctica, Chile and Argentina. Let the exploring never end.

I Believe in Santa

I'm old, I know that. I see it every morning in the mirror, but there is a part of me that still believes in Santa Claus. Sometimes I'm Santa and sometimes someone else is. Santa Claus or good 'ole Saint Nick represents a spirit of giving that unfortunately only comes out at this time of year for some people. He also represents mystery and wonder for little kids who still believe and as they mature and start to question how Santa can visit 6 billion households in one night we see their free critical thinking skills develop. Santa can mean alot to people if we can just get past this very consumption based society that we live in.

For example, yesterday I went to the Grove wearing my new $ 5.99 Santa hat that is totally cool and fairly unique. I got comments from probably 30 people, smiles from about 50 more and one woman even came up and jingled my bells. Who could ask for more. It's a good feeling to put a smile on people's faces. Speaking of good feelings, Dena and I stopped by my "little sister's" foster care house yesterday and dropped off a present for her and for the house mother. I was wearing my Santa hat of course. We chatted for awhile and all of a sudden she ran down the stairs and hugged me. Well, I was surprised, pleasantly. It seems that her older sister also just received a Big Sister and she didn't bother to show up for her first meeting. Isn't that shitty. It's shitty that she would do that at all and even more shitty that she would do that on the first meeting when developing trust is vital and even more shitty that she'd do it the weekend before Christmas.

Readers, this holiday season, keep believing! I'm hanging a stocking tonight and you never know, Santa may fill it. Oh, and by the way, my mom still signs the gifts she sends, "from Santa". I love that.

'Tis the Season....

To give. I love to give. I love to make people happy. It's fun and makes me feel good. Speaking of feel good I had my first meeting with my "little sister" yesterday. She's 14 and quite an intelligent, well read, well spoken young lady. We actually had quite a bit of fun going Christmas shopping for her foster mother and then we walked around Venice Beach. She'd never been down there before. We ran on the sand dunes, chatted and watched the wierdos walk by. Just another day in paradise. By the way, paradise, and I do mean Los Angeles, was 70, sunny and just lovely today. I bet all you people freezing your asses off up north and in the NorthEast are jealous. hehe

Dena and I saw 2 movies this weekend, I am Legend and No Country for Old Men. Both were "edge of your seat" types with I am Legend just being an incredibly tense movie. I needed a martini after that flick, my heart was pumping hard in my chest for the entire 2nd half. They spend the first half of the movie lulling you into complacency then turn on the after burners for the 2nd half. Both movies were well written, very well acted and thought provoking. In No Country for Old Men, the movie ended and the theatre was dead silent as the credits rolled. No one got up to leave, no one spoke, everyone just sat there. It was quite something.

I'll be off the air for a few days, we're off to Big Bear to do a Christmas thing with Dena's Jewish family. hehe I love diversity. The stockings will be hung by the hide-a-bed with care; in hopes that some Jewish saint would soon be there.....

By the way, want to spruce up your Christmas stocking? Try this website....

Update

Mentoring:
I have been approved both criminally and personally for mentoring a foster care child. I met her for the first time on Tuesday and Saturday will be our first day together without the "foster care mother". We'll see how it goes, stay tuned.

Depression:
I've been taking Vitamin B complex, Omega 3 fish oil, and some other herbs from Dr. Lippman and seem to be feeling much better even though this would normally be the time of month where I'm severely depressed. I forgot one day and started to feel crappy again, amazing what vitamins and herbs do, eh?

Work:
I HATE WORK. I hate all the up in the air crap, I hate that I was so positive about this company merger and it's turning out to be shit, I hate the disparate benefits between the two "new" divisions, I hate everything about it. I was embracing change, I was being positive, all things I normally am not. I was the merger cheerleader and then the proverbial straw broke this camel's back and now I've seen the light, and it's a train coming!

So that's the update......all wine and roses, eh

Playing Hookie

Dena and I escaped yesterday from the drudgery called work and went off to the Happiest place on earth.....Disneyland. Disneyland was decked out in all it's holiday finery and oh what fun it was. We watched the holiday parade which was awesome. Dena watched me get very queasy on Space Mountain, a ride I haven't been on in years and apparently for very good reason. We also went on Indiana Jones and Star Tours, 2 more rides I haven't been on in probaby 10 years. I got a little queasy on those too. What a wimp, eh. Then, Dena felt very obligated to redeem herself in the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster ride where she scored a dismal 1800 points when we went last year. As you can see, she's improved, but still not enough to beat me!

Depression

Every month about a week before my period I get what I can only describe to you are phenomenally depressed. My depression is so deep that it's interfering with life. I have these deep feelings of hopelessness. My life seems overwhelming during these times and I just want to crawl in bed, throw the covers over my head and remove myself from the world. I don't want to eat, I don't want to go out, I have trouble focusing and thinking and frankly, it's horrible. It's every month. I bet my male readers have either stopped reading or are really happy they are male. I would have to say that while this depression is deep and all encompassing I am aware that it's happening and have no thoughts of suicide. My logical brain is still out there during all this and trying to manage it. That's probably the frustrating part as logically I cannot wrap my mind around why this is happening. I have a good life, a great soul mate, a so-so job, etc so what do I have to be depressed about. Well, that's just it, there is no reason.

So, I've been to the gyno and I am not in peri-menopause despite what Oprah seems to think. I've done copious research on the Internet and it seems I have classic symptoms of severe PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder). There are multiple forms of treatment for this, but basically it's one of 2 ways, prescription anti-depressants or natural herbs and vitamins. So, I'm going to experiment on myself. I like doing that. I'm going to introduce Omega-3 supplements and vitamin B6 into my daily regimen and we'll see what happens. Now, this will have to be a long experiment as this lovely depression only occurs for 7 days before menses, and goes away as a day or so after bleeding ensues.

Wish me luck, and for my friends at Dr. Lippman's office---what do you think?

An Auspicious Day

Today is a day I have marked in my calendar since 2001. Today is the day I received INS approval for my permanent residency. A day I had been working towards for over 15 years and through attorney's for 6 years. It was a magical day to receive the email that all was approved and I would receive my green card in the mail shortly. It's actually pink, but hey, who cares. The magic green card that serves as a beacon of opportunity and hope for people all over the world. Or at least it used to. I wonder if that beacon is shining a little less brightly across the globe with the climate for immigrants getting icier in the United States.

Well, I don't take December 10th lightly, for sure. I raise my glass of Orange Juice this morning and toast myself for the patience that it took to get here and I toast my old boss and current friend Charlie Gentile who backed me up the entire way, paying for the adventure in bureaucratic red tape through his department. Something I'll never forget. My deepest heartfelt gratitude, thank you.

I know some of you were looking for a different kind of blog entry today but I have to tell you that sometimes life gets in the way. You'll just have to wait and you know who you are.....

Locavore -- 2007 Word of the Year!

Locavore [loh-kih-vohr] noun
n 1. A person who thinks globally and eats locally -- usually within a 100 mile radius n. 2. A gastronomical movement that shuns supermarket shopping in favor of farmer's markets or backyard gardens and argues that fresh and local produce packs more nutritional punch, tastes better and has less of an environmental impact. n. 3. The New Oxford American Dictionary's pick for word of the year.

So there.......

The Calmness is Shattered and the Calm is Gone

The elation of no dog shit on our front lawn lasted about 12 hours before our next door neighbor shattered the elusion of a peaceful holiday season. He asked us to move our new fence in 1 to 2' because it was on his property line. Now let me preface all of this by saying that the fence is just some cheapie green wire fence about 3' high that only cost us $ 100 to fence the entire yard. It is supposed to be temporary. When I went over to discuss this with him, as I had to go as smoke was literally coming from Dena's ears, he informed me that he was pouring a new driveway, wanted it wider and he needed to take back that 1' to 2'.

Well, first of all, he probably has a point, if you draw a line straight down from the backyard fence to the front parkway our front yard juts out approximately 12". I've not measured it however, I've committed to running a string line with him this weekend. Can't wait for that.....she says with deep sarcasm. It's extremely frustrating to be constantly bombarded with issues from him. Neighbors should be seen and not heard as far as I'm concerned. We've spent enough time and energy on this neighbor to last a lifetime. I suppose the old adage rings true: The grass is always greener.......

As an aside, if we really wanted to be snotty (and Dena does) the rule of "adverse possession" states that if we occupied disputed land that turned out to be on someone else's property for > 5 years then by adverse possession it becomes ours. That comes with all sorts of caveats of course, like we would have to pay the property taxes for that square footage, etc. I'm not sure that 12" of our side lawn that our neighbors for the past 12 years have driven over really matters that much. Our sprinkler headss are there and would have to move, of which I'm not to keen on paying for, so that's another battle.

Stay tuned

Calmness Descends Over the Land

As anyone who will listen to Dena and I know, we have an asshole neighbor with from anywhere from 2 to 4 Labradors who he let's run off leash and crap and play all over my lawn. He used to live 2 doors down and occasionally the dogs would leave nice big dumps all over our lawn and often he would throw their Kong's and Frisbees from his lawn over to ours. This of course did nothing to improve my grass nor did it allow me to keep the flowers alive under my palm tree. Usually it just pissed me off immensely. About a year ago he bought the house between us, to our dismay and 2 weeks ago he moved into it, selling the other.

Now, on a daily basis the dogs come outside, walk straight over to my lawn, piss and shit all over it and then go back inside. Normally he picks it up (sometimes right then, sometimes 24 hours later) but this leaves "shit scrapes" all over the lawn. Also, one dog has bad diarrhea so he misses most of that. So for 2 weeks, my lawn has smelled like shit. In early October my sister and her husband Ian were here visiting, Ian, witnessing the Frisbee affair with 3 labs running and tearing up my lawn he offered to go over and talk to the guy. Now Ian is a great guy, diplomatic and a true salesman and in hindsight I should have taken him up on it. But I didn't.

Throwing the shit in the guys lawn hasn't phased him and I'm not really the sort to put it in a paper bag, light it on fire and well, you know the story. That's just silly. And frankly, I just haven't been able to walk up to him and tell him to keep his dogs off my lawn. I guess I feel that nothing will change and that I probably couldn't keep my temper. So this weekend, Dena and I put a 3' high wire fence around the front yard. It's actually not too bad, only cost $ 100 and took about an hour to install. This morning, I'm proud to report that the 4 labs shit on their own lawn. I woke up to this news and I feel calm and happy. Amazing what $100 and a little passive aggressive behaviour will do for you.

Affecting Change

Dena is quite involved philanthropy speaking, she donates to quite a number of charities both religious and non-religious. She's been doing it for a number of years and I applaud her for that. Me on the other hand, don't really believe in giving money to people or charities. If I can help, I'll help but I'm not giving money. If I give them money then I have no idea where it goes and how it's being used and whose pockets it's lining. Cynical yes, but that's me. A cynic, born and bred. I do my own thing regarding charities, I've been involved in the past 7 years with a women's shelter here in Los Angeles, I fix their computers, their phones, bring all kinds of clothes and furniture over there and the like. I've turned many people onto this group but due to the nature of the charity and because they have to protect the battered women, mostly I'll pick up stuff and bring it there myself. They prefer that no one knows where they are or who they are. So that's my thing.

But the other night there was a 20/20 special on regarding Camden, New Jersey, the poverty there and the affect it's had on children. The episode was a follow on to a previous one and it discussed the changes that people have made in these kids lives and it got me to thinking. By the way, if you're interested in that 20/20 episode, there is much on the web about it, start here.

So I contacted this kid mentoring program. It focuses on kids in the Los Angeles foster care system, not the ones in trouble but before they get in trouble. Which is good because I don't think I'm ready to handle some kid who has already been in Juvenile Hall. But I do know that I could benefit a kid needing some confidence building, homework help, fun time and someone cool to talk to. I think I'm cool. So, I've already taken the first 2 steps, I've applied and been pre-screened and have been passed up to the next phase. You have to go through training, a criminal background check, etc. Makes sense, can't have a child molester mentoring kids, that would be bad.

Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes.....

Horror Films

These type of movies have never been my cup of tea. Frankly, they freak me out. They are however, the biggest money makers in Hollywood, netting significantly more cash than other genres. Think about it, you can use B or C actors(resses), special effects are really at a minimum and really, how much does fake blood and a chainsaw cost?

Speaking of freaking out, in my mind's eye I have several images of horror films etched in there. There is one in particular that is so ingrained in my pysche I think about it every week. I'm pretty sure it's from the original Friday the 13th where Jason Voorhees and the gang of soon to be murdered high schoolers are at some camp and he chases them around. The movie was released in 1980 and if I remember correctly, my cousin Robin and I snuck into the film, he convinced me to go, it was rated R of course, and we were both under 18, me just barely. I remember being scared out of my wits and scenes from that movie are with me today, 27 years later......ooooo I hated typing that number. Let me set up the scene for you......

The scene is the bathroom scene. So I walk into the bathroom at 10:00 at night at the UCLA campus after my class, and I walk into the stall and for some reason look up and around. There it is again, that feeling that someone is in the next stall, with a big ice pick and when I sit down to pee they are going to reach over the stall and stick that looped ice pick into my chin and drag me up to the top of the stall screaming, the blood catching in my throat, the breath leaving through the wrong hole........ah the horror of it all. How'd you like to have that scene play in your head everytime you went to a public bathroom at night?

Another scene from a movie that pops into my head at random moments is that scene from Aliens (I think it's the original Aliens wtih Sigourney Weaver) where the alien pops out of someones mouth or stomache. It's the alien baby from the momma's mouth. AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! That movie freaks me out, too!

Miscellaneous Stuff

We drove through Santa Monica today and it's always the Farmer's Market on Sunday. A wildly successful market that recently expanded to include Valet bicycle parking. Read this bloggers report on it

Almost every morning (except when I go to the gym) I'm walking the neighborhood and I usually take the same route. Usually I see this older woman (I'm hoping she's older than me) power walking the same route. Picture this: she's about 5' nothing, with short little legs and I'm hoping about 10 - 15 years older than me. Well, maybe I shouldn't hope that. One morning she was behind me, and in my true competitive spirit I silently vowed not to let her catch up. She did, in no distance at all and smoked me. The next week, I found myself behind her as I turned the corner, I silently vowed I wouldn't let her get any further away, but off she went, smoking me again. It's kind of depressing really. I was walking as fast as humanly possible in my world.....

Human Rights Campaign

This last Saturday night we went out on a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). It was a "women's only" cocktail and Hor'dourves affair hosted at a couple's house. I knew we were in for a treat when I pulled up the address on Google and it was in the Mt. Olympus area in the Hollywood Hills. I've ALWAYS wanted to go up into the area of mansions and see one inside, in person. Normally you can't really see what the house is all about because they are gated, or walled, hedged or whatever. So, I was thrilled. We pull up for the party and were greeted by female (cute I might add) valet parkers. They were very friendly and a nice change from the usual Hispanic valet guys that don't speak to you. They probably can't speak English anyways, but I digress.... If you ever want to hire a bunch of cute, young chicks to valet your party, go to Valet of the Dolls.

We walked in and made our way through this gorgeous house with the biggest kitchen I've ever seen and out into the back yard. The backyard consisted of a beautiful pool with a nice little waterfall and an incredible view of Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles. Spectacular. The whole thing was awesome. What I felt when I was there was that this is where I belong....hobnobbing with Jane Lynch (of Two and a Half Men + and other fame ) and MSNBC pundit Hilary Rosen and the two minister ladies from Amazing Race. Who unfortunately got booted recently, but we didn't know that at the time, and of course, chatting with them, they are forbidden by contract from telling you anything. Must have been hard for them to sit there while everyone congratulated them and wished them good luck, meanwhile they didn't even make it thru the 2nd show.

As I stood at the railing watching as the fog rolled in from the west to blanket downtown Los Angeles, I thought to myself, this is where I'm supposed to be. Hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Why aren't I rich? What did I miss? What opportunity knocked that I didn't hear?

Launching the Dawn

Yes people that's right, I've got a spaceship named after me. HAHAHAHA The Dawn spacecraft is a direct dichotomy of it's namesake -- me. It's slow, actually, ultra slow (thus ultra efficient) and is very feeble, thus making it ultra light. It is scheduled to launch in September and is destined for anything but greatness.....another dichotomy for sure. It's mission is to explore the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres (which circle the sun between Mars and Venus). This spacecraft is propelled by Ion propulsion system that uses xenon gas (light compared to regular fuels). A stream of charged atoms shoots out the ass of the ship propelling the craft but its acceleration with patience. It'll take 4 days to get to 60 mph. You can read about the mission, it's propulsion system, etc here

Hollywood

Where a video game can become a block buster movie and traffic patterns are affected by whether or not it's a Jewish Holiday. Today is strike day. On one hand you have to empathize with the writer's, after all, they are paid based on their showing airing and are paid every time their show airs. Keep in mind however, that let's say you were a writer for Seinfeld, you'd think you'd be rich right? Wrong. Your residuals or paychecks drop in half for every airing down to a minimum of $1. So, for those writer's on the original Seinfeld series, they are getting one dollar for every episode that airs now, but they get nothing for every Season DVD package that is sold. You can empathize with that complaint.

Hollywood payment schedules and policies have not kept pace with technology and the Internet. That's understandable, technology moves very quickly and why would the studios want to give up $$ they don't have to. This is why unions are important. Also, writer's have suffered on their bottom line due to the proliferation of reality TV. Dancing with the Stars doesn't really need a team of writer's does it? It probably just needs one writer (and a crappy one at that) to write basic copy for the judges. But, it's hard to empathize with a group of people that can make a living working from a Starbucks for 5 hours a day.....

As far as what the viewers at home will be seeing, the impact will likely immediately affect some of the nighttime talk shows, like "The Tonight Show" and "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. Those are shows that rely on writers for everyday producing of programming.
The movie studios have stockpiled films in anticipation of a strike. Television networks have a lot of prime time programming ready, and should be okay for a little while -- but it depends on how long the strike lasts.

The strike will have a broad reaching effect if it lasts very long. I wonder how traffic will be today?

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

Who is the scariest of them all? Well, that answer is obvious!

Dental Damn!

This morning was my first experience at the dentist's office in a long time. I hate to say it, but probably about 8 years. This long time absence stemmed from a litany of botched and traumatic dental experiences both in childhood and adulthood which I won't bore you with here. I had also recently spoke with my Mother about her well known fear of dentists and she related her experiences. Apparently, she was worked on once by a drunk dentist. That seems appalling in this day and age, but remember, it was probably 30 or 40 years ago, in rural Canada. Also, my mom had a bad experience with laughing gas, whether she was allergic or just over gassed is unknown, but she ended up beating up the dentist. hehe. I would have like to have seen that.

Anyways, back to me....so this dentist uses nitrous oxide or laughing gas to chill you out as well as the usual Novocaine. I was pretty happy to find that out as anything to lesson my anxiety is a good thing. I cautioned her as to my mom's previous reaction and she set it on low. Nowadays, you can't screw up the mixture as its all regulated for safety reasons ensuring you get sufficient oxygen into your lungs as well as the nitrous. I was breathing in the nitrous and was feeling pretty good, laughing, making jokes, etc until I started to feel dizzy. It came about rather quickly and I told her that we should turn it down. So she turned the mixture down from a low 2.5 to a lower 1.5.

I continued to breathe in the gas, enjoying the lessening of the anxiety and the feeling of "I just don't care how much drilling you do" until all of a sudden I felt a little dizzy again, then really dizzy, then I started drifting away, my mouth felt like it wasn't a part of my face and I got very confused. As I started to black out I think a little panic set in and I pulled off the nitrous mask. I couldn't understand where my mouth was and I was about a breath away from passing out. The passing out feeling dissipated but I was very dizzy, bordering on nauseous. I thought to myself, it would be bad to throw up in a dental dam right? Fortunately, she took all the crap off my face that I don't remember her putting on. I guess I had a bite guard in and I totally don't remember that going on. It took about 15 minutes for me to get back to feeling normal again. We left the gas off for the rest of the procedure. This was a very frightening experience and frankly, I have no idea how I will make it through any more procedures.

Hours later: my jaw hurts like a son of a bitch and now my teeth are starting to ache. Oh joy. I love when the Novocaine wears off........

A Long Weekend of Homework

Wow, I've had a long weekend of learning, studying, quizzing and teaching not to mention the frustration that goes along with it all. This weekend we babysat Dena's niece and nephew, Jack and Ruby. We were instructed that Ruby had Math homework to do and Jack had to study for his History Midterms. They are in Grades 5 and 6 respectively. I had no idea what we'd gotten ourselves into.

Saturday I spent 2 hours teaching Ruby the concepts of dividing or multiplying to get the missing denominator or numerator in a fraction. The concept is called Equivalent Fractions. The concept is that if you have 8/10 = n/5 where n is some number that you have to figure out. In this case, the answer is 4.
8/10 = 4/5 <-- These are equivalent fractions
Seems simple, eh, just wait until you have to explain it to a 10 year old. Thank god we only had to do the even numbered problems. After all that was over Ruby informed me that she had another section of homework, she proceeded to read the first question and said "I know how to do this" and shooed me off. I sighed in relief and left the room. She presented me with the homework later for me to check, it was all wrong. I hated to deliver that news as I knew she'd blow up. She ended up crying in the bedroom. Before she went to sleep I explained to her that sometimes we just have to practice things and try and try until we get things right and then I promised her we'd work on the wrong section tomorrow. This stopped the tears and she went to sleep.

Sunday we spent another 90 minutes on the concept of Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and Simplest Form. I have to admit, I had to look up GCF on the internet in order to understand how and why they are teaching it. Simplest Form is easy, I cannot remember what they called it in my day but it's basically just reducing a fraction to its lowest.

Example: 4/8 reduces to 1/4.
1/4 is it's simplest form.

Greatest Common Factor is doing a factor tree and finding the common factor between the numerator and the denominator and figuring out which is the greatest. You then use the GCF to divide and get the simplest form of the fraction. Example, 30/50 -- it's greatest common factor is 10. You divide the numerator and the denominator by 10 and you get 3/5. 3/5 is equivalent to 30/50 but it is in its simplest form as 3/5. These are examples are simple and I'm putting in that way so that the 30 somethings, 40 somethings, etc will understand what I'm talking about. It's been a loooonnnnnnggggg time since we learned this stuff.

We managed to struggle through all of this and during this process I learned how important the foundation of math is. This would have been so much easier for Ruby had she known her multiplication tables. Even 2 x anything was a challenge. When I asked her repeatedly what the common factors of 14 are, it was a 5 minute process to figure it out, even when she was asked over multiple days. If she had the basic foundation of the multiplication tables down then it would be a simple process to determine that the common factors of 14 are 2 and 7. Simple, 2 x 7 = 14.

Well, I have to go now as I have to quiz Jack on Chapters 1 through 3 in his history book for his midterm. First, I have to learn it myself because you can't really ask questions about something you know nothing about. What is culture change? Shit, I don't know, I mean I know, but I don't. Explain the local and global effects of deforestation. I have to make sure I don't miss anything or tell him the wrong thing as I would be doing him a disservice and teaching him wrong. The pressure!

Happy Belated Birthday Jackie!

Sorry for the lateness of this......but sometimes our busy lives just get in the way.

Fire and Hair

Driving into Los Angeles from up north Sunday afternoon was a little surreal. Coming down the 101 I could see the plumes of smoke and slowly broad daylight turned to night. It was almost as if the day glowed yellow. An odd color to be sure. With the acrid smell of smoke in the air and the hauntingly clear freeways I emerged from the Camarillo pass down into Woodland Hills and clear, blue sky. The fires here were north of where I was and West (in Malibu) so the sky overhead was clear.

Sunday night and Monday morning it was incredibly dry with a relative humidity of about 5 %. Now that's dry. Today it's hovering around 15 % in the city and 10 - 12% out by the fires. I'm thirsty all the time. There's a layer of ash on the car as well but certainly not to the extent of co-workers and friends that live in and near the burn areas. Check out this blog for promised pictures tomorrow.

Hair:

I accompanied Dena to Rudy's for a haircut. Dena has been going to this garage style buzz and trim place for awhile now as its $ 21 for a "style", and I use that term loosely. Originally I had just wanted to accompany her and hang out but since we had to wait an hour and I needed a trim anyway I decided to get one. The stylist that Dena uses was booked but she suggested Natasha. Natasha, a tall, skinny, pink haired, harsh looking woman comes out from the back and she looks pissed. Apparently she was eating dinner and not in the mood to cut my hair. As I settled into the chair my mind screamed, "Get up!!! Get up and leave now!!" I ignored my intuition as I do most of the time and stayed put. A woman's intuition is a foolish thing to ignore and a vital piece of our existance. Why I continue to ignore mine I'll never know, but my logical side talks me out of listening to it more times than not.

I'm very used to having someone cut my hair with some sort of style in mind. I knew it was going to be bad when she said she was going to take about half an inch off. Then after I had very little hair left she said she was going to texture it. Then it was like she was taking another half an inch off. So I have no style and very little hair. Nice.......I'm never, ever going back to Rudy's. There is a reason why a real hair stylist charges $ 75! I've now taken to calling myself "cue ball".

Toilet Paper Usage

Dena and I have argued since we moved in together about the quantity of toilet paper I use. This weekend with my Lake Naciemento scrapbooking home girls (a bunch of straight wild women who turn into wild women when the are away from their husbands) we discussed this topic and how several of their mates complain about it as well. So we all decided to do a test. We all "pulled" our regular allotment of TP and compared who uses how much. The results are.....


Of 7 women 3 are "green" where they only use 5 squares, one using 7 squares. The other 4 are between 8 and 11 squares with the average being 9.


Some basic history of Toilet Paper



The first known use of toilet paper per se (as opposed to leaves, etc) is 6th century AD in China.

I love this quote below:

The 16th century French satirical writer François Rabelais in his series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel, discussing the various ways of cleansing oneself at the toilet, wrote that: "He who uses paper on his filthy bum, will always find his ballocks lined with scum", proposing that the soft feathers on the back of a live goose provide an optimum cleansing medium.

Stress

What does stress do to you? I've got so many things going on currently in my life that my stress level is astronomical. I'm not sure how I'm even handling it frankly, I think it helps that in the last 45 days I've taken 2 weeks vacation. I'm pretty sure that's whats saving me from a heart attack or a comatose mental breakdown.

The stress is caused by this company merger, new boss, doing multiple jobs, changing everything to do with my job (i.e. health plan, dental, 401k, etc) all the unknowns of this merger. Almost everyday I have stomach issues, often I'm angry and irritable, and I'm definitely not sleeping well and I'm definitely drinking more alcohol. I go to bed exhausted and wake up exhausted. And the aniety dreams! Wow. What am I going to do about it? Who knows? I find that going to the gym helps quite a bit however, I'm working so hard and long that there is often no time for the gym. It seems like an endless cycle that I'm becoming concerned about. For now, I'll just hang in there and hope. We have to have hope right?

Symptoms & Warning Signs of Job Stress
While the causes can be something other than job stress, here are the most common symptoms and early warning signs of job stress and burnout:
Apathy
Negativism/cynicism
Low morale
Boredom
Anxiety
Frustration
Fatigue
Depression
Alienation
Anger/irritability
Physical problems (headaches, stomach problems)
Absenteeism

hmmm, I have 99% of those things......perhaps I should try the last one -- absenteeism......

My UCLA computer class

I'm taking this Linux computer geeky class at UCLA this fall semester. I felt that with the company merger happening and all the rule and expense changes, I should capitalize on the lax old rules before they change. So I took the class. I'm a firm believer that opportunity rarely knocks and when it does it knocks very softly.

The Unix/Linux class is Intermediate and it's taught by a JPL rocket scientist who I'm pretty sure is on about 10 cups of high test Starbucks by the time he comes to teach. He talks very fast, gives us very complicated Linux commands and I am finding it incredibly stimulating. The other night I went to class exhausted and came out wired, excited and wide awake. Nothing like a little brain candy to wake up all the synapses, eh. I'm hoping this class will help me prepare for my Linux certification but who knows if I'll have any time to study to prepare as we are so busy that I'm already working 12 hours a day. Thank god I had some vacations planned or I'd be hosed and burnt out already. The stress of the merger alone is really affecting me. There is so much going on, we're splitting off, getting new benefits, changing benefits, changing bosses, it's just way too much change to happen all at once.

It's Crazy Out Here

These are just random thoughts.
You know what's cool -- losing 20 pounds lets you fit into the small 737 seats a whole lot better. Flying is actually sort of comfortable, well, as comfortable as flying nowadays can be.

Also, my sister was at LAX flying home with her family last Sunday and she told me about this TSA agent making a mother take a baby's bib off. I thought, hmmm, must have been some snotty TSA agent. Well, last Tuesday I went thru Burbank airport, I was wearing a t-shirt with a nice collared shirt over it, open, aka not buttoned. They searched me after I went thru security because I had lose fitting clothing. What a bunch of bullshit.

I'm exhausted, want to know what I did this week? Monday, worked like a dog, about 14 hours. Tuesday, took a 7:00a Southwest flight out of Burbank airport for PHX, worked 14 hours a day while I was there and flew home tonight in time for my Linux computer class at UCLA. Where I'm sitting now, until 10:00pm. Great. Think I'm tired yet? Well, how about Friday's agenda? Early morning flight from Burbank to PHX, work all day, fly home on 6:30p flight, and then....pass out.

Sounds like fun eh

Old Town San Diego -- Mariachi Girl

DisneyLand Day 2

19,800 steps on my pedometer later (for one day) and Disneyland is done. Wow. That's a lot of steps. Disneyland has a theme this year, "a million dreams". Well, Grace's dreams certainly came true on this trip with a 100% success rate in seeing princesses and a pretty much 90% success rate in meeting them. The only princess she didn't personally meet at least once was Tinkerbell but I don't think Tink really attends any events per se. She's like a night princess I think. However, during the parade, Tinkerbell was high up on her float waving to everyone with her wand and Grace was waving her little Tinkerbell stuffed doll up at her, Tinkerbell saw Grace, smiled, waved and put her hands over her mouth in a true "pleased" princess posed. Grace was thrilled. We're all dog tired but had a great time with even the adults getting on some rides. The haunted mansion was decked out for "Nightmare before Christmas" and it was awesome! I've never seen it in that state. Bye for now

Heart to Heart Chats.....

Grace has a heart to heart chat with various Disney Princesses. The highlight of her day, I can assure you! I'm pretty sure they were solving the world's problems. Good thing, they need solving.

Thoughts and Ramblings.....

I had to go to my neighborhood Von's grocery store last night to pick up a few veggies for dinner and got a nice surprise at the cash register. Now, let me just preface this by saying that our Von's sucks. It's small, has a terrible selection of fresh food and poor quality when it is there and frankly, it caters to a market segment that I'm not a part of. Ok, let's get real here. Some of you aren't going to like what I say, but, hey, it's true. Grocery stores, and other retailers use market research (like your Ralph's/Vons/Albertsons "savings" card) to gather buying habits and other data on their clientel and focus the stores' content on that information. Our Vons caters to black people, pure and simple. It's the only grocery store I go to that has grits, collared greens during Thanksgiving, gumbo, etc etc. Am I racially profiling and pissing you off? Well tough shit, it's the truth.

Wait a second, where was I going with this? Oh, right --- so at the cash register there was a stack of Melissa Etheridge's new release "Awakenings" with a big sign over the POS machine for donating to breast cancer. I thought, hmmm, this is novel, a lesbian, white woman's CD in a predominately black supermarket with top billing. How life continues to amaze me........by the way, I donated.

Next random thought, 6:00 am. I usually get up at 6 and go to the gym or for a walk. What happened? It's still dark when I go out there! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that the earth rotates and moves in it's orbit around the sun and fall is coming so the days are shorter, but still. It sucks. It feels like I should be in bed. Getting motivated is quite difficult when you get up and it's dark. When is daylight savings time anyways? Well this year, it's the first Sunday in November instead of somewhere in October. I think it's 2 weeks later.

Well, there are more random thoughts, but I'll get to those later.......

Simpler Times.....

As I sit in the deep, dank ne'er regions of the Grand Del Mar computer room designing and programming their entire network, I think of how much fun this is. I know that sounds silly. I have no cell phone service, the toilets have no paper products, there are construction workers everywhere and a big smile on my face. Here, I can fix something, program something and receive relatively instant gratification that I've done a good job.

My job now is Customer Relations Manager. What does that mean really? The official explanation is that I provide a liaison between the customer and sales and the customer and our technical services people. You may even call me a customer advocate. I'm required to be technical in nature, salesy in nature but most of all, have excellent customer facing skills. I think I fit that bill. The job in theory is supposed to strengthen the customer relationship between the "company" and the customer. This should head off situations where all of a sudden the customer buys $ 1,000,000 worth of widgets from your competitor and tells you to hit the road because x, y and z sucks about your company, but you had no idea the customer was having that experience. I think it's a vital position and my company focuses it on higher $ value customers, as it should be.

So for these next 2 days, I have no customer interaction, I have only to talk to inanimate objects via my computer and make them do my bidding. A nice change for sure. I'm sure Monday I'll be happy to be doing my real job :-)

Addendum: well as I left the site at 9:00pm I'm wondering if I miss it all that much, my back aches from sitting hunched over a cardboard box as a table from my seat, another cardboard box.

Best Pix from Roadtrip

Road Trip Day 8 - Friday - The Road Less Travelled

Dena and I believe in taking roads less travelled, off the beaten track and away from the everyday traveller. You cannot see the country from the Interstate. We left Santa Fe for the drive home at 6am MST, and began our long and scenic day. We stopped in Gallup, NM for breakfast at a Earl's Family Restaurant on Route 66. Believe it or not, I had been there before. The place is frequented by mostly Navajo Indians and is surrounded by Navajo artists hocking their wares. After a dirt cheap, filling breakfast we hit the road again making great time for Flagstaff, AZ. We jumped off Interstate 40 at Flagstaff and opted for the southerly State Route 89A towards the incredible Red Rock area near Sedona.

We stopped in Sedona for a quick pee and couldn't really recognize the town. We had been to Sedona ~ 14 years ago and we were doubting ourselves that it was the same place. The highway was surrounded by what basically was a .25 mile long mini-mall on both sides. Crazy touristy for sure, the shops 2 stories high and blocking the fantastic vistas and views that made Sedona famous in the first place. I walked into a shop and asked when this whole complex of shops appeared. The shopkeeper told me it was about 10 years ago and where we were standing used to be highway, just highway. That's what we remembered, highway and not this whole commercialized, touristy shopping area. We were appalled and glad we had come 14 years ago when it was more real. I suppose that's why we're going to Antarctica, the road (or ocean) less travelled.

From Sedona we continued south thru the back country of Arizona to a small little town of Jerome, pop. 400 souls. This is an old 1880's copper mining ghost town turned eclectic artists community now. We had a fantastic lunch at the Flat Iron Cafe. A small cafe with only 3 tables right at the point of a hairpin turn, run by 2 gay guys, transplants from Seattle. The town is very hilly and the little streets wind up the hill in sharp switchbacks. Stairs serve as pedestrian walkways and you can get quite a workout walking around. We bummed around, looked in galleries and shops and Dena reminisced about her visit here when she was a teenager. This really was the reason we stopped as Dena and her family had been here before. She admitted that they didn't stay long as someone was in a bad mood. I wonder who that was?

From there we continued our South Westerly drive over Mingus Mountain, then into Prescott Valley, then up into another mountain range, then down into another valley, and on and on that went for hours, up and down, up and down. I was getting a little tired of all this hanging on for dear life while we went careening around hairpin corners and hung off the side of cliffs but Dena had fun. She drove all day as she loves this type of mountain driving. I would have pulled over long ago for a glass of wine as I get too tired and stressed driving these kinds of roads.

After our over hill and dale trek we hit Highway 71 that marches through some of the most desolate land I've ever seen. Beautiful saguaro cacti all over though, but desolate. Finally we hit Interstate 10 and headed for Palm Springs, CA. We overnighted at our friends Al and Michael's having a nice swim and a couple glasses of wine. What a day.....

Road Trip - Day 7 - Thursday

Today we spent a morning of leisure bumming around shops and waiting for our massages.....
After that tough morning we were off to the Ten Thousand Waves for an afternoon of hot pools, sauna's and a massage. We were there for about 4 hours. We felt rejuventated after all that, I had thought we'd feel really tired. Good thing, as it was time for the Zozobra festival.

We met at the B&B we started at, the Turquoise Bear, as they had invited us to park there and walk to the Zozobra festival with them. What a great bunch of people they are. We started our trek to the festival park about 1.5 miles away with about 15 people. They showed us where to buy tickets, waited for us, and guided us up near the front of the 20,000 people waiting to see Old Man Gloom get burned. What an experience this was. You see, Zozobra or Old Man Gloom is an 87 year old festival in Santa Fe. To the people of Santa Fe, Old Man Gloom represents the hardships and difficulties of the past year. They burn him in effigy to clear away the gloom and bring in a new, better year. The burning is a kind of ritual, or symbolic act. To tell you the truth my readers, I had tears in my eyes as the crowd chanted "BURN HIM" and everyone cast their anxieties, hardships and problems up into the huge figure. You see, I wanted these anxieties about work to be gone and the symbolic new year to be a good one.

We had a great time and we sorry to see our new friends leave.

Road Trip - Day 6 - Wednesday

Today we decided to drive up to Taos for the day. With sadness we checked out of the Turquoise Bear Inn. We had a wonderful time there, met many people and bonded with our innkeeper Steven. He was sad to see us leave and perhaps we'll see him Thursday night at the infamous Zozobra festival. We may be going with all the staff from the Turquoise Bear.

On the drive up our first stop was Santuario de Chimayo, one of the most famous churches in all of New Mexico. The story goes that over 200 years ago a man named Bernado Albeyta was leading a Holy week celebration when he saw a mysterious light coming from the ground. He began to dig at the source of the light and soon uncovered a crucifix. The crucifix was taken to the church of Santa Cruz, but miraculously continued to return, on its own, to its original location. The santuario was constructed around the cross so that it could remain where it belonged. It is said that people make a pilgrimage from all over to rub the dirt from that hole over their ailments and that it cures them. I rubbed dirt on my shoulder. It seemed to feel better, I forgot to rub it on my back as that was quite sore as well.

Then we drove up to Taos, shopped a little and visited the bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge. That's spectacular, its about a 600' hole in the middle of endless prairies. The gorge cuts across the entire valley floor, which is quite extensive. All I could think of was the wagon trains coming across for the first time and riding on this nice flat ground then they run into the gorge and the only word out of their mouth would be "Fuck!". Because there really is no way around it.

From there it was the Taos Pueblo. That truly was the highlight of the day. We got a guided tour and met several artists, one being Tom Ready to Hunt. We purchased a few pieces of jewellery from him and enjoyed our stay. No running water, electricity or modern conveniences allowed within the pueblo walls. If you are Taos Indian you always have a home here anytime you want, a mud wall adobe home. About 20-30 families living there fulltime with the population rising significantly during holidays.

Dinner was at a wonderful place called Gabriel's near our new digs, the Triangle Inn. We are about 10 miles outside of town, it's quiet. Gabriel's had the best food we've had since we've been here. For $ 40 we had margaritas, fresh made at your table guacamole (Fantastic!), sopapillas (best I've ever had) and more food than we could eat. Dena had these chile rellenos that were pure perfection.

Road Trip - Day 5 - Tuesday

Tuesday started off up early for the short 30 minute drive to the Tent Rocks NM. We spent a truly spectacular day hiking in the Tent Rocks National Monument. I've not been to a slot canyon, unless of course if you count Petra, which in my opinion is the slot canyon to end all -- perhaps the 8th wonder of the world. But I digress. How about we just say this was my first American slot canyon. The scenery was breathtaking and around every corner was another adventure.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, is located 40 miles southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico (near Cochiti), is a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed site that was established as a U.S. National Monument by President Bill Clinton in January 2001 shortly before leaving office. Thanks Bill.

After a snack we had to have a power nap after all that scenery and hiking. We then strolled to the plaza and shopped a little. But our heart wasn't in it. Dinner was at a restaurant called The Compound/ where we had a fantastic margarita called a Prickly Pear Margarita. We had a great dinner and spent the evening listening to the thunder and rain while watching A Fish Called Wanda. Great background soundtrack to a classic movie.

In regards to the Direct Services re-organization I heard yesterday that my job is safe and still the same but different.

Road Trip - Day 4 - Labor Day

Today was a low key day although a good one. We've met many people at the B&B's we've stayed at; one being a couple from Boston. They were going to some large as life art exhibit in southern New Mexico called the Lightning field. Apparently its a 24 hour experience. It looks boring to me and frankly, I'm not sure I'd want to be standing in monsoon season in a huge field of 200 lightning rods.......but that's just me.

The day was full of gallery hopping and the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. We had a great time, had a little nap in the afternoon and then went to see Death at a Funeral. Not as funny a movie as the trailers led you to believe, but entertaining.

My nerves jangle with anticipation of the announcement tomorrow of our company's division merger. I find out what my new position is, assuming there is one, and what changes in the organization will take place. Perhaps the anxiety dreams will stop after tonight.......

Road Trip - Day 3 Sunday

We left Albuquerque (thank god as its hard to spell in a blog) after a wonderful breakfast among the humming birds at the Bottger Mansion. We had an easy drive up to Santa Fe, NM and of course, opted for the road less travelled. We took SR 14 which is called the Turquoise Trail . We stopped at a small little remnant of a mining town called Golden, then on to the big attraction, Madrid. They say that if you turned New Mexico upside down and shook it all the loose screws, nuts and dolts would fall out and land in Madrid (apparently pronounced "mah-drid").

Madrid is a great artist's community with wonderful shops and galleries. Apparently the area around Cerrillos is only able to be mined by 5 different people/claims. Cerrillos turquoise is quite a bit different from other turquoise found throughout the SouthWest. These miners can no longer use heavy equipment but must mine by hand, pick axe, shovel type equipment only. I don't really care for turquoise normally but actually found a gorgeous pendant that I had to have. Then as we walked around I found the artist in another shop. She mines it herself with one of the 5 claims which she inherited from her father Whalen. He taught her the mining techniques, jewellry making and the art of inlay. We enjoyed talking with her.

Our easy 60 mile side trip landed us in Santa Fe in time to check into our new digs, the Inn of the Turquoise Bear. A gorgeous B&B made in the old adobe tradition with 6" thick walls and ultra quiet rooms. We had a lovely wine and cheese reception, met people from all over the US and then went out to Los Mayos for a traditional New Mexician dinner complete with sangria. YUMMM!

Road Trip - Day 2 - Saturday

We awoke in Kingman, AZ to another beautiful day and hopped in the car. We started out immediately with a detour opting for the longer famous Route 66 section between Kingman and Flagstaff. We weren't disappointed as the scenery was spectacular and the drive easy. We stopped for breakfast in Seligman at a German restaurant, rumored to be fantastic. There we sat among all bikers and hunters eating our wonderful pancakes. Needless to say we were the only people not wearing black or camouflage.

We cruised through Flagstaff and decided to stop at the famous Meteor Crater . You can read all about it via the link however, it was huge, only 6 miles off I40 and well worth the stop. They trained the Apollo astronauts there as it was so moonlike. You drive up to it and you can see the impact (literally hehe) it had on the landscape. Miles upon miles upon miles of flat high desert and then the ground rises up to this. Amazing.

Next we cruised through Winslow, AZ and played the Eagles song, "Take it easy" in honor of that one horse town. We again veered off the main interstate, opting for the road less travelled and headed up SR 191 for the Hubbell Trading Post. This is the last still operating trading post in the United States and lies on Navajo land. The Navajo exhibit their rugs, jewellery and still trade for foodstuffs here. Dena purchased a beautiful ring whose turquoise reminded me of 2 flowers coming out of a vase. I decided her Indian name was going to be "two flowers".

From there we blew thru the Navajo reservation coming into Gallup and patted ourselves on the back as our timing was going to be perfect. We were going to arrive in Albuquerque around 7:30 - 8:00p in time to check in and then go to a late dinner. Apparently old town ABQ rolls up at 9:00. This was not to be as we hit a tremendous thunder and lightning storm, construction and bad traffic. We rolled into Albuquerque at 9:00p hardly able to see the street signs and struggled to find our B&B the Bottger Mansion. We found it and the rain was just raging. The inn was closed and I ran up to the door found our letter with how to get in, meanwhile shivering in the rain, soaked to the bone and cringing from the thunder and lightning bolts. We made it in the house both soaked and pissed off. All the restaurants were closed and we ended up going to bed with a protein bar. A bad end to an awesome day.

Road Trip Blog -- Day 1

What an adventure we've had thus far. We left Los Angeles Friday afternoon at around 1:30 and our timing was perfect. Even though it was a long weekend we seemed to skim right along. Starting over the Cajon pass on our way into the high desert on I15 we started to see some awesome lightning strikes, while awed by their beauty we thought nothing of it until we ran into probably one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever driven through. We were driving uphill and there was probably 1" to 3" of water on the road instantly. Dena kept watch to the sides of the road as we were passing the "Wash Road Exit", an omen to be sure while I kept my eyes glued to what I could see of the road. We weathered that and several other rain squalls and passed thru Barstow in record time.

We stopped in the little shithole of a town near the Arizona border called Needles at 6:30p and it was a balmy 113 degrees. Can you imagine what the damn temperature was in the heat of the afternoon? We gassed up and were on our way. We found out later from friends that Needles is the highest priced gas in the nation. Thank you very much. As we drove across the Colorado River into Arizona we started to see lightning strikes that made the ones over Cajon pass pale in comparison. That constant lightning show went on for an hour making us cry out over in over in awe and surprise. We drove into Kingman, AZ and visited some old work friends of mine. They showed us a good time, made Margaritas with a killer mix that involves 1/2 bottle of beer and shared there star filled backyard with us.

For Saturday September 1st, who knows what adventures we'll have. Perhaps we'll touch on the famous Route 66.