San Fernando Valley Choppers

I made a visit to my regular hair salon (been going for over 8 years now!) and decided it was time to chop my hair.

This was a few weekends ago - when we had the 100 plus weather heat wave - so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that I probably left about 5 inch chunks of hair on the ground after the cutting was over.

Then i proceeded to color it a reddish mocha color and voila - new chopped 'Do. :)

Now the reality of any haircut is that it ALWAYS looks the best on the day you get it done.

Here's me on the same day i cut it:


My hair has some natural (and unpredictable) waves in it - so sometimes it seems to work in my favor, sometimes not at all. With some curling iron help, here's how it turned out:


Then here's another day... where it's just kinda there. But at least it's not frizzy and dry... (how it would look if i didn't do anything to it after washing)


After having my hair on the long and shaggy side for the last 2 plus years - it was actually quite refreshing to have this shorter cut. Save on Shampoo, that's for sure! And Barklee won't have super long strands of hair stuck to his toys... hahahha

Bye Bye little Pumpkin...

What a cute little pumpkin you say... How did you find a pumpkin this time of the year?

Well... this pumpkin was bought last September... and has been sitting in my office all this time. Amazingly - it's still pretty solid and could probably hang out a few months longer... but... nah.

Catching the Mass Transportation Bug...

I like to think of it as an extension of my brief NYC experience...

I've been making a bigger effort to take the Bus to and from work. Before it was my backup if my car was in the shop - but there really isn't a good reason for me *not* to take the bus to work as often as I can.


My excuses used to be:

- The Commuter Express only travels during rush hours, making the last morning bus leave at 8am and the last return bus picking up at 6:40pm. Usually that's too early to make because I walk barklee and like hitting Snooze on my alarm - and I used to have frequent late evening meetings that ended past 7pm.
- It'd be a pain to lug my laptop, gym bag, lunch bag and other miscellaneous gear to work.

But lately the benefits have been shouting louder:

- With gas prices, i calculated that taking the bus was actually cheaper than driving my own car (plus I avoid wear and tear on my car)
- The bus stop is literally across the street and a block over from my house
- The bus drops me off about a block away from my office building
- I wouldn't need to worry about traffic anymore - and the length of time to get to work and back is only about 5 minutes longer than if i drove myself.
- I get extra exercise to walk to or from a bus stop
- I can check the news, email and facebook from my phone during the ride
- I'm actually forced to get to work early - therefore never late!
- I'm actually forced to leave work on time to catch the last bus of the day and not have the "finish just one more email" syndrome



So... we'll see how often i can keep this up. There's still the fear that once i get to work, i'll realize i had a dire need to have my car with me (Do i have a dentist appointment at lunch? Did i leave my key card in the car?) but if i go on the bus enough, I'm guessing that will pass.

This is definitely not the same as crowding into a packed Subway on 49th Street in New York, but there is definitely something neat about becoming a "regular" and having Bus Drivers recognize you or overhearing stories about a random passenger's bizarre day at work.

Well I better get ready for bed. Got a bus to catch tomorrow morning! :)

Someday I'll Visit New York...

After years of saying "Someday, I'll visit New York" - I can finally say I have.

We took a few extra days off around Memorial day and made the plunge to visit the Big Apple. Perhaps it was because our last trip was to Italy, that I really felt like i was taking another international flight - except we could still read the signs and not have to exchange our currency.

As you know, i'm usually one to go 'budget' as much as possible, but with New York, I realized that we could really 'get what we pay for' if we went too thrifty with our lodgings and activities... So the hotel was a good 40% of our trip budget, but in the end I think it was worth it to have a totally comfortable place to stay and be local to so many things.

We did a whirlwind visit of Museums, mainly due to the fact that i purchased a Citypass for both of us (6 attractions for one low price!) - but it was only worth it if you actually went to all 6 attractions. It worked out though because it gave us a solid gameplan of things to do - and we made every hour count towards something.

Overall, i couldn't have experienced a better first NY trip... we got to do and see everything to our own schedule and liking - we had marvelous weather - and we made it back safe and sound. (Other than our colds)

To see a full recap, i blogged it here:


Hello New York!