The Volvo Sign Looks Fuzzy

It snowed last night. There is approximately 2″ on the ground and I am just dying to see if anyone comes to work. Snow here is like rain in LA. People just don’t know what to do. I find that cute.

Anyhow, my morning view is tucked under a fuzzy blanket of fog and mist – so sad – yet so mysterious.

This coffee is awful. We got it from whole foods and it’s like the free stuff you get from the airplane. The flavor disappears when it hits water. I am drinking brown water. I wonder if I add a few extra scoops if that will help things. I’ll experiment with that tomorrow.

In other news, since part of my team is in the UK and the client is on the East and my creative director has gone somewhere near the equator, I like to check my e-mail when I wake up. So. Turned on the Mac to see 28 unread messages. I felt anxiety. But I kid you not, every single one of them was a happy e-mail. Good news, positive conversation. It was remarkable. Has never happened to me before.

I have been working 12 hour days – so I am a bit tired. But I feel good. This week and next week are critical weeks. The following two weeks are more for the event producers to worry about – so I won’t be as taxed. This project is so cool – I’m a senior integrated producer on it, so I get to put my fingers in all the pies: creative, ux/ia, technology, development, strategy. And everyone I am working with is super on the ball – so I am learning every single day. Me like.

Did you know we have a nap room in the office? Isn’t that stupendous? I may have to visit it today. We’ve been getting 7/8 hours, but I think it’s my brain that needs a rest more than my body.

There’s something wrong with my 8 key. I have to hit it really hard 8 8   8  8. Yeah – see those spaces? Those are ghost 8s. Not good.

Well, I’m going to get caught up on my Facebook and e-mail Spam now.

Papa Haydn – My Heaven

Jaime and I ventured to 23rd avenue to explore the shops and what not. We were in a home and garden shop and I asked the store owner if he could recommend a good place for lunch. This is what he said:

“Papa Haydn is the best in the area by far. It’s a little bit expensive, but very worth it. Oh and they have the most incredible desserts, so I would order something to share and then get your own dessert.”

The end.

Holy Mary, Mother of Goonies

Jaime and I woke up this morning like two kids on Christmas morning… or on the first day of Hanukkah. Today sweet Kindi and darling Chad picked us up for an adventure to Cannon Beach. Today was the first sunny day in about a week (though Friday had partial sun) and the temperature was a balmy 50 degrees so we were aching to get out into the wild. We geared up in our long underwear, winter gloves and fleece jackets and prepared ourselves for a heck of an adventure.

The west bound ride along the 26 was majestic with dancing clouds, lush grass (especially at the Intel Headquarters) and happy pines all over. As we got further along, we even encountered snow (which I thought looked too beautiful to be real).

After another 20 minutes or so, we merged onto my old friend, the 101, turned left at Ecola Park and found a spot on the welcoming streets of small town, Cannon Beach. After a quick tinkle break and a short trip to the candy store to refuel (cinnamon taffy, chocolate fudge and 2 pepsis) we took a side street, ventured down 16 steps and rushed onto the sands of the surreal coastline. Hurriedly snapping photos of every angle and every subject (I had two cameras) we hardly had enough oxygen to gasp as the 235′ handsome Haystack Rocks crept out of the heavenly sunlight.

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[enter Jaime]

The beach was long enough to feel like you might get close to it. And as you walk closer to it from one end of the beach to the other, the sunlight makes it change. What was a backlit mass, turned into a sunlit living thing.

After endless photos, we walked back up through the neighborhoods with the most envious views and into the main town. Found ourself at Ecola Seafoods, a little cafe/fish shop. Bought ourselves some of the freshest seafood for lunch and packed up a variety for a fish fry later at home: steamers, cod, oysters, and dungeonous crab.

Back at Kindo and Chad’s, Kindi and I spent our time in the kitchen preparing our mad feast. Beer-battered oysters (gluten-free!), foil packet cod with lemon, tomatoes, zucchini and dill, steamers in a wine cream sauce, sautéed kale and chard, and fresh crab with butter sauce. YUM YUM YUM. It was a belly success, topped off with some delicious beers (of course) and Wii bowling. We’ll never forget it. Ever.

[enter Kate]

Oh yeah! I forgot about the Wii Bowling. I kick ASS at Wii bowling. If I played in real life like I do on the Wii, I’d be a star!

Sugar cubes in a salt shaker

Okay, so I am really excited about this – so please don’t roll your eyes.

We need sugar for our coffee, so that was at the top of our grocery list; (just below Coffee, Haribo gummies and Lactaid).We decided not to get a full box/bag of sugar because there was no way we could go through all of it before we left. We also decided against sugar packets because that’s bad for the environment. So we got the cubes. The cubes worked out pretty well for us until today – when I needed to make cinnamon sugar for some english muffins.

I had a shaker full of cinnamon, a box of sugar cubes and an empty salt shaker. This is what I did

I used a tablespoon to grind the cube down to crystal form. I mixed the cinnamon in (just a dash or two). I used the spoon to pour the mixture into the salt shaker and Voila! I had cinnamon sugar for today’s breakfast and perhaps tomorrow.

Pretty smart and resourceful, eh?