Tonya

I just had the most delicious sandwich. Nothing too unusual. Tuna mixed with veganaise and celery, topped with avocado (the most amazing piece of food on the planet). It was the bread that made the difference. I forget what it's called. I picked it up for Trader Joe's yesterday when I was there to pick up some more hummus to support my addiction. Some sort of really grainy, wholesome goodness bread. Oh so good!

I somehow feel like I should attempt more medium setting songs in Guitar Hero, but I just love not making any mistakes on easy level and therefore feel like some sort of rock goddess.

I went to yoga twice this week. I'm very sore. I also drove to the beach this morning, just to go for a walk.

I rode my bike to work on Tuesday. This felt 10 times safer than the LA Marathon.

I watched the Pussycat Dolls reality show on Tuesday. It was a major TV pukefest as half the girls had some sort of stomach virus. I managed to make it though without freaking out too much. I should first question why I'm watching that show in the first place.

It's supposed to be in the upper 70's this weekend. SAAA-weet!

Kelly Slater came in third place in the first ASP contest. I'm kind of glad. I'm king of hoping someone else (Mick, Taj, Bobby, or Joel) win this year's title. But not horsey head. Please not horsey head!

The nerd herd wants to go see, 300, tomorrow. I currently am scheduled to have my hair cut. Hmmm, 300 or hair cut? Hmmmm.

I did my taxes. I broke even. Whatever.

All for now!

Guy and I woke up this morning around 4am to ride our bikes in the LA Marathon's bike tour. It was, a little...disturbing actually.

I can't put a number on how many people were there but it was a lot...A LOT! We saw every type of cyclist riding every kind of bike, including bmx and beach cruisers.

Fireworks started the ride (much to the annoyance of the USC students nearby, I'm sure) and it took forever to even get on the bike and ride because there were so many people.

This was probably one of the most dangerous rides I've ever been on because, unfortunately there were just too many people who didn't know what they were doing. A little kid stopped suddenly and a guy ran into his back tire and crashed and caused the little kid to crash too. Next came the hill, where novices didn't know how to change gears (or couldn't) so they stopped mid-hill and made a bunch of other people crash or have to stop and walk their bike up the hill. Following that we saw more fire trucks where apparently a guy passed out on his bike (WTF?) and fell and broke his nose and his arm. At least around mile 10 (and after the hill) the herd thinned out. At mile 19 we came to a hault as we saw more fire trucks. The screamed "man down" which created a bike bottleneck. Sadly, we saw why. A man in his 50's or 60's was laying on the ground and the paramedics were giving him CPR. He was less than a 1/2 mile from the finish. It was really sad, and you could tell everyone really slowed down on their way to the finish line because they were thinking about it too.

In any case, maybe I should do a little more research into bike events before we sign up for it. It's crazy to think that it's less dangerous to ride in traffic by myself then with a thousand people who don't really know what they are doing.

Bullet Points

Guy and I have this thing where when we talk at night on the phone and we cover our "bullet points" of things going on. Little bits and pieces of info about what went on that day, what's coming up, etc. So, here are my "bullet points" for today:

-I'm in the process of getting my domain name (tonyadesigns.com) transferred to another host so that I can "mask" url forwarding to my mac account. Why am I doing this? Because tonyadesigns sounds better than web.mac.com/tonyadesigns. Ya think? Of course the process is never just that easy and everything takes patience and time.

-I'm still debating on riding my bike in the LA Marathon this Sunday. It would require us to wake up about 3am on Sunday morning and I can't fathom doing anything that starts before Starbucks even opens. Thankfully the weather is supposed to improve (it has been freezing and windy here in LA) but nothing is that warm when the ride starts at 6am. I also get a little cranky when I start to have too many obligations, especially ones that require me to get out of bed on a weekend that early. The last couple of weekend have been busy with "stuff" that have required me to be somewhere at a certain time. I'm so a Libra. I love to balance that perfect combination of busy and free time but the second one teeters too far I start to get really annoyed and feel incredibly unbalanced. I have a side job lined up for this weekend as well so all this has become slightly overwhelming. The good news is that once that is over, I have some free time again, where I'm sure I'll bitch about being bored.

-Playing Free Bird on Guitar Hero is so much freakin' fun! Sometimes when I'm on the elliptical trainer at the gym and a rock or metal song comes up on my Ipod, I actually visualize playing that song on GH. Here I am playing with Amy this past December:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKHhjhBJ0R8

-Guy and I went to see the Tour of California in its final stage in Long Beach this past Sunday. It's much more fun to see it in person because you really get a sense of how fast they are going. McDreamy was there as the main sponsor's spokesperson and I think the female fans were much more excited to see him than any of the cyclists. Later we went to the San Pedro Brewery where there was a fundraiser for Floyd Landis (last year's Tour de France winner), the cyclist who had his title stripped because of a doping scandal. They had a powerpoint presentation from his people on why they think it's a false accusation. I don't know if he is guilty or not, but we talked Floyd a little bit and he's a really nice guy. Here is a picture we took with him:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guywilliamwelch/403135487/in/set-72157594337224674/

-In a couple of weeks I'm going bed shopping!!! My first, first-hand, real grown-up bed! Queen size!!! Whoo whoo! I'm how old? Anyway, I've had trouble sleeping off and on so methinks one part of the problem is my sagging, hand-me-down full size bed needs to go. So, if anyone has a brand name or style that they just LOVE, send me the info so that I pick the right bed.

-Ken is coming to LA for awhile. Yeah! Ken is my 11th grade prom date and he's in town doing a couple plays in Redondo Beach. It will be nice to have a friend who is not work related in town. Hopefully we get a chance to hand out. (Ken, you reading this?)

-The ASP world tour has started in Australia. I would like to say, GO KELLY, but he really doesn't need my help. Besides, he has all his super-star girlfriends to keep him company. Blech!

And those are the only bullet points I can think of at the moment. Yeah for boring!

This past weekend Guy and I went up to San Francisco for a long weekend.

We drove up early Saturday morning to Woody and Tracy’s in San Ramon (East Bay). From there we went wine tasting in Livermore and then later to a BBQ at Nicole and Adam’s.

Sunday we took the BART into the city because Guy and Woody wanted to see the time trials for the Tour of California which was right downtown. Tracy and I didn’t’ stay long so we did what any two girls would do in the city, we went shopping! First was H & M (of course) but my tolerance level was pretty low there. Too many people and crazy long lines, although I did score on a few items. Later we met the boys, Adam & Nicole, and his parents in North Beach for some cozy Italian food. What a fun night. Tracy was doing her best Anna Nicole impression all night so you know the wine was flowing.

The next morning Guy and I drove to Sausalito to watch stage one of the Tour of California leave town. We made it there just in time for it to start. It was another gorgeous day so we had lunch by the water. On the way back home we stopped by Golden Gate area for some spectacular views of the bridge and city.

Here are some pictures of the weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96958448@N00/sets/72157594548597034/

In other news, I’m pretty much finished with my demo and webpage (although some tweaks and a sound mix are still needed). Take a look:
http://web.mac.com/tonyadesigns

Tonight I played the D chord without it going, thud, thud, thud!!! whooo, hooo! I'm so excited. And I actually moved on to double strum. You can kind of mask your mistakes a little easier this way because i could play a little harder. Perhaps there is hope for me yet! There better be, because my nails look terrible from keeping them super short.

The company I work for, Vivendi Games, was featured on a TV show called, The World's Greatest, recently and both Guy and I are in it briefly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WWPoXxJkyU&eurl=

When did working out become necessary as part of an "anti-aging process" versus just wanting to look hot?

Well I’ll do my best to type but my laptop is slippery and my hands are about 20 below zero. It’s been REALLY cold in Los Angeles. Yeah, I’m sure you feel really sorry for me, eh? But truly, I’m sitting in my apt with sweatpants and a heavy fleece with a stocking cap and I’m wearing gloves. (well, not right now obviously)

So I’m watching the Golden Globes right now which is almost over. I’m kind of bummed Leo didn’t win. I thought he was so good in The Departed but I haven’t seen Blood Diamond. I was happy that America won for Ugly Betty. She was really cute on stage. Oh, and Clint, what a classy dude.

Speaking of movies, I saw The Good Sheppard today. Yeah, I don’t get it. I mean I really didn’t get it. I was totally lost, and bored frankly for the very long almost three hour movie. I just thought it was dull, and like I said, I was totally lost. Hmm, maybe I’m stupid?

Before the movie Guy and I went to The Counter in Los Angles, voted by somebody I’m sure as the best hamburger joint in Los Angeles. I can’t speak for beef burgers but I had the best damn veggie burger on the planet. Not the type of veggie burger you get at a restaurant where they unwrap it from a package and throw it on grill, but a made from scratch veggie burger topped with swiss gruyere cheese, pickles, tomatoes, sprouts, avocado, and a Dijon balsamic dressing. YUM!!! Even their fries were tasty!

Anyway, other than that the weekend was pretty uneventful.

Babel won best picture? Wow, this year is going to be tough at the Oscars. Usually it’s a pretty clean sweep but this year it’s all over the board.

My pics for my fave films of 2006? I think it’s a toss up between Flags of Our Fathers and The Departed (I haven’t seen Letters from Iwo Jima yet).The most entertaining I’d have to say was Borat. I also liked Casino Royal and Little Miss Sunshine. Of course I haven’t seen Babel or The Queen either so it’s hard to come up with a comprehensive list.

I have rather uneventful weekend. I saw the Pursuit of Happyness on Friday which I pretty much knew what to expect but it was heartwarming anyway.

Saturday I got up early and went for a pretty easy hike. I loved the peacefulness of it all and when i got to the top i was all alone for a bit. Then these two guys show up arguing with each other about religion and kind of ruined the moment. But it was nice anyway. I did errands, yadda yadda, saw a guy passed out cold from being drunk on the grocery store floor. Just another day in the big city. ha! Later i went to see Pan's Labyrinth with my friend and if you want to know what i thought you can read my earlier blog.

Sunday got a massage which was GREAT. i strolled around Manhattan Beach pier before heading home to do laundry on New Year's eve. nice!!! ha ha! I tried watching, All the King's Men but i was bored so I put in The Squid and the Whale and that was just strange and depressing. Watched some of the TV coverage of NY at midnight and got a call from Guy right at midnight. i win with the most exciting NYE EVER! :)

New Years Day i went for a really long bike ride, watched Michigan get their asses kicked on TV while I watched episodes of Ugly Betty on the internet. Wow, i totally rule!

I consulted a few of my forum friends about guitar and why I'm having trouble getting a clean sound. They recommended I do finger exercises so i started those last night. It's like weight loss for my finger(s). Anyway, I feel sorry for my cat for having to listen to me.

anyway, back at work and busy. guy comes home today!!!!

Mo Money, Mo Problems, Part 2

You’ll notice that I’ve been quiet this December. I’m pretty sure I have a good reason for that. I messed up.

I told you that I would post my updates from the original post in part to be accountable for my actions. Well, I should be held accountable.

It starts slowly. An extra bottle of wine for a friend’s party here, a botched plan for a Christmas gift there, until it can eventually snowball (no December pun intended) into blowing your budget. Oops!

OK, before you think I’ve gone too far, I should let you know that certain things are totally on track. My credit card is still paid off and I haven’t borrowed from my savings account at all. My problem is, and always has been, the little things that add up. A magazine, a coffee, and a pedicure and new pair of shoes for the company Christmas party. If it makes you feel better though, each purchase came with a high dose of guilt. Of course guilt does not right the wrongs of the December budget, but you have to start somewhere, right?

Also unexpected are the unexpected. During the month of December, as some of you might know who are reading this blog (see me waving to the both of you!), a couple things of mine that I use daily, or planned to use daily, broke. My ipod, the ipod headphones, the brand new digital camera, and the guitar strings. Because I had all of my “*fun money” put to good use, there was virtually nothing left over for those unexpected expenses. And no, you really can’t use your emergency fund to buy new headphones.

The upside to my journey so far has been my extreme level of consumer conciseness, especially during the holiday season, meaning, I’ve actually taken the time to observe my reaction to the heavy sales pitches that are coming my way via catalogs, TV ads, etc. For instance, how many of you just drool when you get a Williams-Sonoma catalog in the mail? The pictures of the perfect dining room set next to the cozy roaring fire with Martha Stewart inspired table settings. Never mind the fact that I live in tiny apartment in a generally warm Southern California climate with absolutely no room for storage. Does it create a certain craving for that image of perfection? Yes. Do I need it? No. Do I still manage, despite my lack of such luxuries, to get a well balanced meal each night? Yup!

Another major thing that irks me is when magazines like O, or Real Simple tell you to “reduce your debt” and “live more simply” on page one, but then show you all the stuff you can buy on page two. And sometimes you can buy your way to simplicity. This is simply (ha ha) not the case! Not to mention some of the things that our dear Oprah considers a bargain. I consider Ross, Mervyns, and Target to be bargains, not a $200 dollar shirt. (I could buy a new ipod for that! Hee hee) And I still, for the life of me, cannot figure out why anyone, ANYONE (that means you, Paris) needs a handbag over $100. To be honest, I don’t need one over $20, but that’s just me. It just carries your sh*t!

Magazines aren’t the only culprit. I’ve been watching the Today Show almost every day, and I’ll be dammed if Stacy London of “What Not to Wear” isn’t on there almost daily telling me that I need a new pair of shoes for practically every outfit I own. It’s not that I don’t like shoes. I love shoes! But how clear is her message that if I don’t own everything that is in style for December 2006, January 2007, February 2007, that I will somehow be ostracized by society as some sort of fashion geek troll. I also have to laugh because I’ve yet to see what she calls “work fashion” roaming the halls of the video game company I work for. You’d be lucky to find even 10% of our work population in anything but casual pants and tops. And really, do I need Jimmy Choo’s for my work as a video editor? I think not.

So, back to my dellima. Like any challenge, when you fall down, you just have to pick yourself back up. Luckily I’m catching myself mid-fall so the standing up part won’t be as difficult. I’ve been once again reading my financial articles at lunch and formulating a plan for the new year.

If you don’t hear from my in January of ’07, assume that things are back on track!

*Example of things that fall into the fun money category.
Clothes, entertainment, eating out, beauty products and services, books, music…basically anything that doesn’t fall into necessary home or auto expenses.

Long overdue blog

I figure I must be putting out some sort of bad "electronic" energy this past week since I have a few things that just seem to be breaking all at once.

First I, ahem, dropped my brand new digital camera (from about two feet and on soft carpet) and now the lens won't retract and the thing is just useless, so I sent that away to be fixed.

My ipod battery is doing something funky and although it shows battery power the thing just shuts down.

I got a used classical acoustic guitar (for free) on freecylce so I went to the guitar shop to get strings put on. They managed to suppress a laugh when they saw it and the kid working at the repair shop said there was a good chance that the strings wouldn't hold on the rapidly declining tuner. He was right as I got it home and opened the case to find two of the strings had popped off.

Hmm, I think I need some kind of Buddhist chant to remedy these things.

Well, at least with the guitar, I decided just to get a new, inexpensive steel string acoustic guitar instead. I'll have to hang my head in shame as I go back to the guitar store as they say, "told you so." Maybe I should go to another one instead.

This weekend was a fairly uneventful one which is always good. Guy and I ate at our favorite vegan place on Saturday in Santa Monica. Do I sound cool by saying we are regulars at the vegan place? Probably not. Neither one of us are vegan or vegetarian. I'm a rare meat eater but I still do on occasion. I've coined myself (stealing from O magazine) a flexitarian.

I'm sorry I've been so lame on posting blogs. I'm sure the three people who are subscribed have been laying in a big puddle of tears over it.

We had our Vivendi Holiday party last Thursday at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. It was kind of a pain to get down there, and to make matters worse the premier for, We are Marshall, was going on across the street. Guy was disappointed to find out the next day that Lance Armstrong was there. Not like we could have crashed the party, but I think he was just excited that Lance was across the street. Here are some pictures from that night. No, I wasn't drunk, just in a good mood…and I'm a little weird.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96958448@N00/sets/72157594426796450/

A couple weeks ago my old high school prom date, Ken (see Ken on my friends list), came into town. I haven't seen him in 18 years since we graduated. His partner, Tim, is the stage manager for the South Bay's Civic Light Opera's production of, Oliver. Did I say all that right? Anyway, it was so great to see him and seeing the musical was so much fun. They had a party afterward's so we met with the cast and I wanted to adopt Oliver he was so cute. Here are the pics of that evening.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96958448@N00/sets/72157594426799199/

Let's see. Oh, saw Amos Lee recently at the El Rey theater in Hollywood. His show was great….but…he announced that he would be signing stuff at the end of the show so Page and I just happened to be the first in line for that. I normally never wait around for that kind of stuff but I was such a big fan I thought I had to. Anyway, he appeared kind of tired and, well, uh not very fan friendly. I asked to get a picture and he seemed really grumpy about it then said OK. I felt like an ass and wish I hadn't asked. You know it's not like I waited around by the bus or something. This was a "planned" signing so I just thought he could have been a little nicer. I guess that's the risk you take when you meet someone you admire. They may not turn out to be exactly as you had expected. Here are the pics of that night, as well as when I saw him months ago at the Hotel Café.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96958448@N00/sets/72057594124653065/

I watched the final day of the Pipe Masters this past Thursday. Exciting!!! I was thrilled both Kelly and Rob were in the finals. But, so was Andy. Ugh! What a heat!!! Kelly had Andy in a combo situation and I was of course happy about that. But, in the last six minutes Andy pulled out all the stops and then he got a 10. ugh! He was such a sore winner too and is just an amazing tool! I wanted to knock that smug look off his face. I have a feeling that will motivate Kelly to come back for another year on tour just so he can try to beat Andy on a man on man heat.

Anyway, guess that's all for now.

Well this was a fairly mellow weekend. I like those!

Friday Guy and I ordered pizza and watched episodes from season 2 of The Office.

Saturday morning we headed out into the nightmare that is LA traffic in search of my Halloween costume. I have an extremely low tolerance for shopping any longer than about 45 minutes. I get hungry, cranky, and impatient with lines, traffic, parking, etc. It didn’t take me long to reach that threshold on Saturday, especially by the time we reached Ross to find a white blouse. In any case I think I have enough for my costume.

Saturday night we went to see Flags of Our Fathers. Really sad, honest, and, well, sad. I think war is just disgusting! The performances were subtle and outstanding. What is it about Clint Eastwood and his hospital scenes that make me cry. Anyway, after that I stopped by Ralph’s for some Tofuti Cuties to help bring me back down. That was a weird experience. There was only one person at the register and the line was really long. Finally there was just one couple in front of me getting their stuff scanned and they were being royal pains, checking each item with the cashier to make sure it was the right price. Ugh! But whatever. There was a very large man behind me and he started ramming his cart into the magazine stand area. At first I thought it was an accident, but in the minutes that followed I realized it wasn’t. Without putting a food barrier thingy down, he starting hurling his food onto the conveyor belt. Bread, cheese, everything. Nobody said a word and certainly I wasn’t because I looked at him and he had murder on his mind. He thought nothing of it to act like a complete jackass in front of people. Anyway, that was the gist of the story. At least it got my mind off of the hospital scene, which has me wanting to cry all the way to Ralph’s.

Sunday was relatively boring. I decided to cancel my expanded basic cable. I was mostly recording shows on network television anyway. The rest of the time I was killing brain cells while cooking dinner watching shows like, E’s Forbes list, House of Carters, etc, etc. Basically, loads of reality crap about B celebrities. I’m tired of celebrities and their dysfunctional lives. I can take that 540 dollars per year and practically finance a vacation. Time much, much better spent.

Oh, and I paid off my visa (in case you were wondering how I was doing). I’m not debt free with the exception of my car. Yippee!

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with money. I love to have it and spend it, but hate making the sacrifices necessary to save (a nasty, four-letter word) it.

Well, this past month has been another (in a series I’m afraid) wake up call. Fortunately, I’m a very self-aware kind of gal. Some probably thinks this is annoying over-analyzing of one’s self, but it can come in handy in times like these. Unfortunately, sometimes my spiritual awakenings happen a couple months too late. Let me explain.

All was peachy this past spring when we got a hefty bonus at work. Oh the plans I made. First I did the responsible thing and put the max amount toward my Roth IRA (Guy was so proud!). I put the rest towards my emergency fund slash vacation fund. Yes, I was going to Europe! It had been six years since I had been there and I was going dammit! With everything else in fairly working order (reasonable rent (for LA), two years left on my car loan (yeah, I know, not good), and no credit card debt) things were bright and cheery.

Over the summer I heard something interesting. Watching Oprah’s series called, The Debt Diet, I kept hearing the term “spending unconsciously” over and over again. At the time I didn’t equate it to anything I was doing, after all, these people were in MAJOR debt. I patted myself on the back for being pretty awesome and felt sorry for the families. But the term sort of stayed with me the rest of the summer for some reason…and now I know why.

Dum dum dum! First, the cat got sick. REALLY sick. It was a mystery illness that lasted a few days and required every test under the sun. ($$$) I felt guilty for asking the vet how much the X-rays and the re-hydration (what???) shots were going to cost, since this was my baby and I should be willing to do whatever it takes (Guy and I are usually NOT in agreement on this). I was blown away by the rising cost of this 10-pound creature but I had to do it. Turns out he ate some kind of string or dental floss that caused…well, it’s too complicated to explain. Anyway, his total came to $1300. Don’t ask me why I put it on the credit card but I did.

In August my roommate and I had a falling out and I came to the realization that having a roommate was just a big pain in the a**. I didn’t even want to try to find another roommate at this point so on one overly-emotional day I found a place to live. A tiny, one-bedroom in Playa del Rey for $1312 per month. Quite a big jump from my former $950 a month rent. But I just needed to get out so I signed the lease. With that came almost double rent one month, utilities that I had to pay myself, and deposit. Did I mention that I was still going to Europe? Had I not had another person traveling with me who was depending on me being there, I would have considered canceling the trip, but I couldn’t let her down now, could I?

My “unconscious spending” came to an all time high I think at the end of the summer when I just HAD to have this and that to take with me on the trip. My travel mate and I were doing the best we could to book “budget” hotels in Europe but between having to have two weeks accommodations and the crappy Euro, things just kept adding up and adding up.

I even seemed to try and forget that I had money issues waiting for me in Los Angeles by hitting just about every H & M store in each European city we were in. C’mon, I NEEDED that cute skirt!

Back from my trip, reality set in. I spent an entire weekend assessing my situation and it didn’t look good. I had to do something.

First, it was time to redo the budget (ugh ugh ugh). Depression quickly set in that I was going to have to sit home all the time and eat Ramen. But after some analyzing I started to have hope. It wasn’t THAT bad. I would have to make a few adjustments like finding a less expensive place to get my hair cut, and cancel the netflix account (most of the time they were sitting around my coffee table unopened anyway), but I could, and would make it work. And so I remembered the term “unconscious spending.”

That’s exactly what I was doing. For most of my purchases I was just spending money on random things like candles, new eye shadow, a massage, new jeans, a new top…without ever consulting my inner frugal to see if I really needed that. While I’m pretty brilliant (I must say) on packing my lunch almost every day and hardly ever eating out, much of the spending of my free money was very, very wasteful. I wasn’t really being conscience of the things I need to sacrifice in order to get the things I really wanted out of life. Unless you’re Paris Hilton, could benefit from a more conscience way of spending.

So, where do I stand now? Well, like any new habit it’s those first 30 days that are killer. Every day I have to really think about where I stand financially and where I want to go. Besides money for retirement, which thankfully I’ve never faltered on, my goals are to increase my investment portfolio, have an emergency fund, and save for travel. Travel is my big thing. It’s what I’m going to sacrifice monthly pedicures and buying treats for the office for. The funny thing is besides some mental effort, I realize that I’m not really giving up all that much. I’m working at being much more diligent about what I buy at the grocery store each week so nothing goes to waste. When it comes to Halloween, instead of going out to buy something that will be used once and take up space in my closet, I’m thinking about what I can use that I already have in my house. Each day I’ve been reading financial articles on the internet at lunch to keep me motivated and inspired. Anal, I know, but for at least for the first 30 days it’s helping.

So, why am I telling you all of my personal financial woes? Mainly, it’s to be personally accountable. Now you know. There is no hiding it. Secondly, maybe I can inspire someone to take a look at themselves and see what they may be doing wrong, or right. It’s also about owning up to mistakes and to outwardly declare that I’m not perfect and not the financial genius you all thought I was (ha ha).

Who knows? Maybe you can relate?

(stay tuned as I give you updates…and please feel free to yell at me if I told you I bought a new pair of shoes over the weekend.)

Welll I'm off for my European vacation in about six hours. I fly to Paris and connect to Venice. Then it's off to Florence, The Cinque Terre, Nice, Barcelona, Granada, Seville, and Madrid. I get back on October 2nd. Traveling with me is my friend Johnna from Honolulu (via Los Angeles where I know her from). This is her first time to Europe. Both of us are really excited and a bit nervous. I've been to Europe before but it has been awhile. The weather forecast calls for rain pretty much everywhere we go. Oh well, what can you do? Wine and cheese taste just as good indoors as outdoors.

So, wish me a good voyage and hopefully I will have a lot of stories to tell when I get back. BTW, I'm armed with 4 gigs of memory for my camera. Look out, Youtube!

Ciao!

I often get on “food kicks” and my latest is hummus. I just LOVE hummus. But more than the hummus is my love/hate relationship with the product that dips into the hummus, the pita chip, specifically, Walleeds Pita Chips (lemon and herb).
http://www.shopnatural.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=21810&utm_source=NexTag&utm_term=21810&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ProductLists

The Waleeds Pita Chip is the most addictive substance known to mankind, second only to crack. I love the taste, but hate the fact that I can’t stop eating them, and apparently other people have the same problem:
http://dailyconsumption.typepad.com/billyknowsbest/2006/02/waleeds_pita_ch.html

Kids, if I could give you ONE warning that you MUST follow, please do NOT start eating the pita chip. You will be hooked and you won’t be able to stop. I’ve already been to pita chip rehab and I’ve relapsed several times.

So I pretty much spent the holiday weekend working, getting my cable and Tivo set up (ahhhhhhh), and running errands for my trip to Europe in 10 days! I’m probably the most anal type A person when it comes to planning trips like this. Fresh out of overpackers anonymous, it’s very difficult to try to narrow down a couple outfits that will fit into a backpack that will go with everything and dry quickly when you have to wash it in the sink. And then to ask a girl to only bring two pair of shoes for two weeks!?!?!? Are you crazy!!! Oh well, I guess the whole point of trips like this is to step out of your comfort zone and to learn how to go with the flow. I can return to my normal, anal, type A self when I get back. Ha ha!

In preparation for the amount of walking I’ll be doing, I’ve been taking really long walks and hitting the hills around my Playa del Rey neighborhood. Yesterday I was going up a really steep hill and passed a couple people. Yes! For a little over a month some co-workers and I make the daily climb of about 12 stories on the stairs at work. Funny how it never seems to get easier.

All for now. Tomorrow is our monthly grrrls dinner at my place and I’ve misplaced my recipe for tofu lasagna. Not good.

...come on over to myspace. Yeah, you heard me correctly. I've converted. http://www.myspace.com/agentmoody

Well this has been the end of a couple really long weeks. Tomorrow is the last day of E3 so it should be another quiet day around work while most of the company is there. I went with some members of my department on Wednesday for about an hour and a half. It seemed a little quieter this year as I guess they were stricter about who could attend. Anyway, we basically checked out our booth, walked around, and left. It’s always nice (and a little nerve wracking) to see your trailers up on a huge screen, but I think the FEAR stuff turned out nice.

I also wrapped up my stuff on Eragon, which is a relief. It turned out to be about 30 minutes long total. Wow!

Because it’s been quiet at work I’ve gotten to watch some of the ASP action at Teahupoo. Quite few upsets, unfortunately none of those were Andy Irons, but at least Kelly is still in it. Andy has long, blondish hair now…yuck! Taj is out. Sad.

Watched a couple movies recently. Just Friends, which I thought was actually pretty funny, and Brokeback Mountain, which I was really disappointed in. It dragged and I never got an emotional connection, maybe because it dragged. In any case, I was let down.

I bought my tickets to Europe this week! Wow…expensive much? No wonder it’s been six years since I’ve been back. I’m going with my friend Johnna on Sept 15th to Oct 2nd to Italy, France, and Spain. I’m excited and…well just excited.

I’m back as volunteer coordinator with Surfrider (South Bay chapter). I started my campaign to get to volunteer at the Waterman’s Ball in August. I still don’t know if I’m officially “in” but I’m going to keep trying till then. Ha ha!

I guess that’s about all for now. I don’t have too much going on this weekend, but next weekend some of the girls from work and I are going to the Paso Robles Wine Festival. Look out, Paso!

I don't know if it's safe to assume that my film wasn't selected for the bike film festival. The head of the fest said last week that he would know by the end of the week. It's not looking good. I'm kind of bummed but i'll get over it.

I tried a new class at a new gym last night. It was called total body conditioning. It was a little more step than i like but it was challenging enough to keep me interested. It's a little more crowded than my old gym. I'm kind of sore today so that's a good sign i guess.

It's rainy today.

One Year

It's been one year since my brother was diagnosed with colon cancer. It's hard to believe that actually...a year flies by so quickly. Life can be so amazing and complicated and difficult and great. There are so many opportunities to take advantage of and I think that's the one thing I can honestly say about myself that I think is good....that I don't wait for opportunities to come to me. I go for it! The opportunities to do so many unique and cool things are just there waiting to be taken advantage of. I never want to regret NOT doing anything. So here is to living life to the fullest!

Speaking of doing things, I finally reached my 500 minimum for the LiveStrong Ride Challenge in June, but I'm still trying to raise as much as I can, so if anyone wants to donate to my cause, please go to my LAF homepage.

http://www.livestrongchallenge.org/06CA/tonyastumphauzer

Cheers!

Well I have about a half-hour before going to bed so I better make this as quick as possible.

I’ve been getting a lot accomplished so far this week. I just finished gathering all my tax stuff to mail to my accountant. I talked to my landlord who decided not to raise our rent after all (long story), but yeah!!! Finished writing the proposal for our company to match our LAF donations. Hopefully that goes through OK. Bla bla bla.

Anyway, Mammoth weekend!

We left LA about 6:30, which was about an hour and a half later than planned. I went with my co-workers Chris, Jason, and Greg, and Jason’s friend Peggy…and Chris’s golden retriever Toby. We actually made really good time considering we live in LA but we still got there around midnight. It was very, very cold!! We were all pretty tired so we called it a night.

We got out the door fairly quickly the next morning. Everyone except for me skied and they were all very good, so the first few runs they had to kind of sit and wait for me while I finished cruising on my snowboard. After one nasty run through the cat track I decided to go my own way. Just me and my ipod. It actually worked out great because I could kind of take my time and do what I want.

After lunch the weather got nastier and colder and it started to snow. I called it a day around 2:30 but was supposed to meet my friends till 4 pm, so I had a long time to sit in the lodge.

At the lodge, in stumbles this big blonde girl. At first I thought she was just kind of showing off, but after awhile I could tell that she was wasted when she first came in. She was super loud and obnoxious and just making a complete ass out of herself and she just got more drunk. Greg came in to the lodge and sat next to me by the fire pit while this girl stumbled onto people and kept falling on the floor. Later when the rest of the gang arrived the girl finally left but by that time she had the entire bar’s attention. They watched through the window as she attempted to put her skies back on. She would make it about five feet and fall and the entire lodge would erupt with laughter. At one point this guy tried to help her up and when he did she grabbed him hard and kissed him. More laughter from the lodge. Seriously, this was a major train-wreck. About a half-hour of this and her friends (if you call them that) finally got her out of there.

We stayed for about another hour after that, then headed back to the condo. On the road as we were leaving we saw the blonde girl off to the side of the road stumbling with her ski polls. She was by herself and it looked like her friends ditched her on the side of the road. As we passed you could tell she was pissed off and was slamming her ski polls into the snow bank. I’m sure she felt great the next day. Sad…it was really sad.

Anyway, we cooked a nice spaghetti dinner and watched a little TV and went to bed.

Greg and I hung out for a bit on the slopes the next day but the conditions really hadn’t improved so I decided to head back to be closer to the lodge in case I wanted to come in from the cold. At one point I took the long gondola ride back to the village and had a nice lunch. I did some more runs after lunch and the called it a day.

We left Mammoth around 3 pm. I sat up front for the last leg of the journey, which meant I got to be the ipod dj. I have to say I’m a little shocked that no one in the car had ever heard of the band Cheap Trick, or heard of Meatloaf. Am I old or are they completely out of touch. Just thought that was strange.

Anyway, tomorrow we are having lunch at Rock n Fish in Manhattan Beach. Yeah! Love that place.

I think that’s all for now. Screw the grammar, it’s nearly 10 pm and I need to get to bed