Monday, January 28, 2008

08 Things

In honor of the upcoming Chinese New Year (mainly because I am late on the "New Year Resolution" stuff): Chinese New Year Goals

... I am not big on resolutions, but after some thinking I have 8 things I do want to do in '08... more like goals - no particular order.


1. Hike up Mt. Wilson - I see her everyday, she says "CLIMB ME ALREADY!"

2. Do more yoga - in line with my less stress goals

3. Finish the cookbook - Hopefully sooner than later.

4. Develop a creative business - so many ideas, too many ideas, just need courage!

5. Put together another Sycamore Merger Show - No, really, I want to.

6. Try to not buy anything "new" for a few months (not including food & hygiene products, of course)

7. Focus on being healthy - on many levels

8. Use the ARTS bus - why not?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

You know you've spent too much time together when...

... you begin to look like each other...

In my office there is a wall, on that wall are photos, and there is a theme to those photos. It just might be Graphic Designer humor... But I felt inclined to do it again (you have to look closely):


Car-less and Fine

Strange to think that it's freeing... it has been.

Last Friday we were on our way to New Dehli with J y H and the car died, just died, no warning, not even a cough, just dead. We push the car to safety, I call AAA, Jake decides to run all the way back up Hill Street to our house to get his truck. Those tow truck guys are fast, they end up getting there before Jake makes it to get the truck, so we just meet him at our house - poor guy ran almost 2 miles up hill, literally.

It's almost been a week, and we are going strong. We rode our bikes to church, to Mike's house, to the store. Though I am disappointed that we haven't taken the ARTS bus yet. For now, we are getting along just fine. In fact, last weekend was a great weekend, very relaxing. I finished the book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" in a few days - I really enjoyed that book, more so than "The Kite Runner."

We have several friends from our church that live in Pasadena without a car, impressive I think. Although, I do appreciate having a car so that we can visit our families and friends east of us - for that fact, I am looking forward to being restored our mobility, hopefully by Sunday.

For now, I am enjoying this weather; I love the cold, the rain, and the snow that I can see out my office window.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Loans that Change Lives



A friend recently told me about Kiva. She received a gift certificate for Kiva from a friend. The gift certificate allows you to go through the website, choose a business to support in a developing country. And over 6-12 months you will receive newsletters and updates about this business, and when that time is over you will receive your loan money back. Either you can take it back, or invest it in another business. Genius!



It's more than gift certificates, anyone can go on and "loan" money to a business.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Another one. Yes.

If you couldn't keep up with this blog, watch out, I got another one!
This new one is devoted to my design (and other creative ventures) http://www.creativecollaborative.blogspot.com/

So, check it out of you'd like.


PS. Anybody use Google Reader? It's great! I don't have to check all my friend's blogs, it lets me know when they post new ones. There is my google endorsement for today.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Obession with ... Food.


Mecca is what Lori Jo and I call it... the new Wholefoods on Arroyo is our favorite place. We went several times while they were staying with us. There are samples galore, there is a juice bar (real juice), an olive bar, an artisan cheese section, and you can sample any cheese, they have a wine & tapas bar and wine tasting, oh... and so much and more.

Lori Jo loves to cook, and so do I, so when we get together, we eat GOOD. Homemade sushi with sushi-grade ahi tuna, talapia ceviche with a beet salad, mahi mahi fish tacos with a carrot salad. My goodness, I love to eat. And I love to cook. Why do I have a fascination with food? (Well, good food.)

My fascination has left me with a desire to go to either culinary school or to study nutrition.... I am leaning towards holistic nutrition. Which is far off from my current day time job as a designer. But what I have done to reconcile both is start my own cookbook. I worked on a cookbook last month with a client I met on Craistlist and I really enjoyed it. So I thought I would try it out myself. I am not looking to market it, just to have fun.