This is the photo I put on the background of my new Zune HD.  Am I loving the new Zune HD?  I am not.  I don’t like that I can’t put a background on the main page anymore and I don’t like that the screen is less wide even though it is longer and I don’t like that I’m having a really hard time putting mp4s onto it!!!  Raaaaaaawwwwwwr!!!!!!

Boo.  If only I created everything in the world things would work perfectly.

It is at least better than the Archos 5 Internet Tablet that I bought on the way up to Vancouver.  I bought it in Sacramento and then I returned it a week later in Tacoma.  Nothing worked on it.  Although the screen was bigger.  The fact that nothing worked like it should AND they had zero technical support was too much to bear.  I returned it to the Tacoma location of Best Buy as a punishment to it.  Harsh perhaps, but I want my technology to work as promised!

Vancouver was fun, especially Halloween at Clairessa’s place.  I brought a big cheese/deli meats/crackers platter and several bottles of Malbec, which is my wine of the moment.  I also brought my board games collection – we played ‘Apples to Apples’ and ‘Imaginiff’ -those are some of my favourite games.  Michael won ‘Apples to Apples’ and I don’t recall if we ever finished ‘Imaginiff’, we may have been pretty sauced.  In the photos it shows us with shots of Patron while the game is still laid out, so I’m guessing that things went astray…

I have to confess that I’m SICK of the food I’ve been eating lately.  SO SICK OF IT.  I tried to eat scrambled eggs yesterday and it was all I could do to keep from throwing up.  My body does not want them in it.  And I agree.  Eggs are for throwing at houses and making smiley faces in the frying pan with.

Where does this leave me…………………………………………………………………..?

After an existential breakdown I gathered myself together and re-evaluated.  I do still believe that low-carb, high protein and fats is the way to go, but something is not right because I DETEST eating this food!  Je deteste! Je refuse!

I’m sick of cheese, yogurt, bacon, various other meats, nuts, and chili.  The only low-carb approved food that I still enjoy is steak and milk.  Oh! and whipped cream.  But I have neither the time nor the inclination to char a Chicago-style steak everyday.  Plus, something tells me that would get old really quick too.

This doesn’t make sense.  It doesn’t make sense to hate food that is ideal for you.  It really doesn’t make sense that the more you ate the healthy food the more it would make you want to throw up.  That cannot be natural.

Here’s my guess: both Ryan and I are getting canker sores, ulcers, and heartburn.  Yes, he’s eating the exact same as me.  It’s pretty obvious that our acid levels are off the charts.  Maybe the millet grain in that cereal that I was eating was enough to reduce the pH to levels where my body could still handle eating all that protein from the eggs and almonds at lunch.  I thought milk was fairly alkaline, but it’s not.  Everything I’m eating now is pretty acidic.  I bought some bread at Whole foods that is just made with millet, amaranth, salt, and water.  It’s actually fairly tasty.  Millet is a very old grain that Europeans have been eating for millenia.  I mention this because I’m from European descent and I think it’s safe to assume that if your ancestors were eating it then your body will know better how to process it.  So, if you’re asian or arab etc… then you can probably healthfully eat different foods than I can.  So, Ryan and I researched what grains have been around for eons for Europeans and the answer is millet, barley, and oats.  Rye too, but I don’t like rye.

My plan now is to eat a small amount of millet, barley, or oats everyday along with my regular low-carb foods.  I did that starting today and it was refreshing to actually have some energy at the gym.  My other complaint about the 100% protein & fat diet was that I had noooooo energgggggggggy.  That actually made it super hard to lose weight since I had no energy to work out.

It’s important to point out that there is no yeast in that bread I bought.  It is my belief that yeast is not good for you.  There are many articles I’ve read on the detriment of yeast to your body and honestly it is just. really. gross.

In conclusion:  It was so nice to have buttered bread with my eggs and it did make them not only tolerable, but pleasant.  Also, I finally had the sensation of being satiated, which I just wasn’t getting from eating only meat and dairy.  This simple type of bread also filled me up and did not cause me to crave more carbs or mess with my blood sugar levels.  I stayed full for the rest of the day.  I’ll let you know if this works!

After many long ponderous titles steeped in fromage I thought I would do one that would catch your attention and turn your world upside down.

It’s been awhile since I last wrote, but I got so busy.  I’m all done now with the classwork I needed to do ahead of my Vancouver trip, so that I wouldn’t fall behind.  I did two chapters of PHP and one chapter of CSS, worked on Jessica Lee’s website and discovered the world twice over.  Now I can truly say I have lived!                         … the life of a computer geek.

One week til I leave for Vancouver!!! I’m so excited.   We’re all having a party at Clairessa’s place in downtown Vancouver on Halloween.  That’s going to be super fun.  I’m going to be a bum this year and not make a costume.  There just isn’t the time or money unfortunately… it would cause me too much stress.  Boo… I know.  Next year I’ll make two costumes and do a wardrobe change in the middle of the evening to make up for it.

What I’m really focusing on right now is Jessica Lee’s website, which has to be perfect.   I really want it to be something special that people will enjoy shopping at.  I’m having a little web designer/developer trepidation that it will take me too long to make the website or that the shopping cart will turn out to be a nightmare.  Lots of nagging uncertain thoughts.  That is why this is doubly important for me to finish and do well – then I won’t feel this way ever again!

It has not all been work lately though – Ryan and I went to the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride.  It was the first time for both of us, so we didn’t know what to expect.  Now that I’ve had the experience I think that I would like very much to go on a hayride again, but the haunted part was just ‘meh’.  I really loved sitting in fresh hay in a flatbed trailer with a bunch of happy strangers getting pulled around all over the place.  That’s an experience I would like to explore.  The scary part was not super scary and I didn’t like all the performers screaming so close to me, it was grating.  I get much more scared when I’m at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights and I’m walking around and someone jumps out at me when I least suspect it.   I should be going there in the next few days.

Pacifica Air is still toodling along.  We’re still waiting for our certificate to mature, which means we can submit our stuff to the FAA and do proving runs.  There’s been a few small aviation business deals we’ve done while we’re waiting, but it’s all very tenuous until the money is in your account.  Aviation is not a very dependable or forthright industry.

Lately I’ve had this song stuck in my head – “Just Go” by Lionel Richie – it’s really where I’m at this week, I just want to get away and relax.  The last two weeks have been just one trial and tribulation after another.  I feel like I am going to be surprised with a Survivor-type reality show trophy any minute now.  Soon it will be mine – I’m sure of it!

This weekend was an oasis of fun in the recent desert of living though, we did all sorts of Autumnal activities like go to Target and get little orange candycorn lights, which I put up around all my windows and my balcony, and I got a cute pumpkin candle holder centerpiece for my table, which I lit along with my other candles and played my guitar in the soft orange glow.  I also made soup!!!  Which was yummy, I put all sorts of veggies and just the right spices in it.  And we went for a hike in Trabuco canyon, which was interesting in many ways if not for beauteous reasons.  Much red rooibos tea was drunk and a good time had by all.

Trabuco canyon is very canyony, but I wouldn’t recommend it for hiking.  It took a very loooooooong drive down a very treacherous boulder filled ‘path’, for I would not call it a road, to even get to the trail head. Unless you are in an off-roading vehicle I wouldn’t advise it.  Several cars and us didn’t even make it to the trail head because parts of the path ahead of us were just a swatch of jagged foot high rocks – it would have just shredded the bottoms of our cars.   So, we parked and walked from there which meant we were pooped by the time we reached the trail – bah!  There was also a lot of Poison Oak and even at 5pm it was hot, so though our moods were jolly, I can’t say that it inspired my soul and regale you with tales of natural beauty that would impress you.  Foiled again!

I talked to my Mom Saturday morning, I was very relieved that she was safely back from the cabin and in good spirits.  She went up by herself last Monday, and it still has Dad’s stuff just as he left it, so Clairessa and I were worried she’d get into some weird mood and take her life.  It was a valid worry I think, but anyway she seems to have dealt with some of the issues regarding his death, so maybe she’s gonna be a bit happier from now on…..?  I really hope so.  I’ll go up near Halloween and give her a big hug.  Adelle will love that, she loves Mom and visiting Vancouver.  I’ll drive up so that I can easily take Adelle and the foliage is gorgeous through Oregon and Washington at that time of year.  It’s worth it to go just for the drive.

Looks like we might get government funding for Pacifica.  Keep your fingers crossed.  This would be the hugest relief and allow us to keep full control of the company without being under-capitalized into extinction.  Right now I know a lot of us are under-funded and under-funned, but I’ve got some ideas like the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride!  It will only solve the latter problem though, sorry.  I’m planning on doing that in a few weeks and of course Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights! So. Much. Fun.

I serenaded the sunset below the horizon tonight with descending arpeggios – it was lovely and I’ve been wanting do it for such a long time now – I sat on my balcony and played my guitar as the world went to sleep and the night came alive and I had to get up and turn on the balcony light.

Taking deep breathes of fresh ocean air I watched as the sky changed from red to turquoise to purple and the planes landed and took off from John Wayne airport like brightly twinkling stars in the dusk.  All the while trying to keep up the timing and play the right string and fret.  I’m not really at the stage yet where I’m worrying about which fingers I’m using on certain strings and frets, as long as my timing’s decent and I play the right notes then I’m happy.

I went to a flamenco guitar performance this weekend and there were also flamenco dancers, which was very cool and I had trouble focusing on the guitar playing at times because I just wanted to watch the dancing, because let’s admit it: it’s more fun to watch.  Whenever I could pull myself away from watching the dancers I watched the guitarists’ hands and how their fingers were moving, but I don’t think I was able to take a lot away from the experience.  Maybe when I’m more accomplished I can gather more info from watching someone play, at this point it’s all very similar to me.

The dancers had great swirly dresses all red and satiny and polka-dotty with tiers and tiers of large ruffles around the hem and sometimes to my enormous delight they would use castanets! I dunno, I’ve just had a fascination with them since I was a kid.  The performance gave me the idea of being a flamenco dancer for Halloween.  I’m not positive yet though, but I better figure my costume out soon – Halloween’s coming!!! Next weekend I’m gonna put up little Halloween lights, purple, green, & orange, around the balcony and windows and put up some Autumnal decorations.  I LOVE decorating for the holidays.