The Last (official) Unemployment Friday

The highly acclaimed and much-anticipated tradition of Unemployment Friday reached an important milestone yesterday - it's last official session. As of Monday, someone in this picture will be back to work full time and the numerous activities for people with free time and an appreciation for the outdoors will be over. Cause for celebration, naturally, but let's also acknowledge the fact that planning at least one solid outdoor exercise event each week was a pretty cool thing and the tradition will be missed.

Not wanting to waste a beautiful day and a favorite backdrop, it was back to the famed Ventura Beach Walk - an 8-mile loop that leaves San Buenaventura State Beach and winds down to the front entrance of the Emma Woods campgrounds. It is tough to beat this route between the scenery, the terrain and the safety as it is primarily secluded from traffic...not to mention that we always manage to have interesting debates and conversations!

The photo above shows Jax and I at the turnaround point, just as we hit the 4-mile mark. Note that we are appropriately sporting our 'winter' wardrobe of long sleeved shirts and longer pants - we know how to dress it up for the very diverse So Cal seasons! The 2nd half of the walk was spent anticipating the last two activities of our UF - lunch at In 'N Out and then dessert at Pinkberry. Not a bad finish to a very enjoyable 3 hours outside with the sea, salt and fresh air.

But who is going back to work? You will have to check back in the next day or two to find out the answer to that!

Dinner and a Plane Trip

One of the benefits of not working right now is that I have some free time. Having built up a lot of hotel points and flight credits thanks to the travel I used to do also means that I can fly and stay in a lot of different cities for no cost.

With all of these factors in my favor, it seems pretty reasonable to fly out to Chicago to have dinner with a friend, which is exactly what I did yesterday! My friend Lori lives in upstate New York and travels several times a year for work. We have been working to find a date and city that worked out for us to get together for dinner, and Chicago proved to be the spot.

Although it might seem a bit odd to fly all the way out to Chicago for dinner, it was totally worth it and a rather economical trip. My flight cost $5 (airport fees on my ticket) and round trip transportation from Midway airport to downtown was $4 thanks to the benefits of public transportation on the Orange Line train. Hotel charge $0, or 25,000 of the 80,000 Hilton points that I still have and breakfast is included, so that makes $9 my out-of-pocket costs.

Factor in a very nice dinner, visit and conversation with Lori at the Weber Grill (within walking distance of my hotel, no less) and it is easy to say that I couldn't afford NOT to go!

That's how the math works in my head, anyway.

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Crossroads

This picture was taken during Unemployment Friday last week. Jonathan and I were at a loss for something new to do, so we decided to stick with a favorite - it may even be at classic status now - the Ventura walk.

This is a great trek to do because you get a little bit of everything. State beach, pier, boardwalk, downtown, campgrounds and ocean-front pathway. I noticed a sign that identified the paved portion of the path as the first bike path in California installed by Cal Trans. Our own little bit of local history and claim to fame!

This railroad crossing makes me smile because as you can see, we are all of 50 feet from a drop-off that goes straight to the ocean. Is a full-scale RR crossing really necessary? Two signs? Who is seriously thinking of driving across here? I am sure that there is some logical explanation, such as safety for pedestrians, etc., but for the time being I just see it as a very entertaining and scenic statement of the obvious.

It certainly does make for a nice photo.

Tour de Pumpkin

Happy Halloween. Fellow Unemployment Friday attendee Jonathan and I celebrated with a 26 mile ride on the Ventura River Trail out towards Ojai. It has been some time since Jax did a bike ride outside of any length, so he had a fair amount of trepidation around the journey. A player all the way, Jonathan set out on the ride and admitted when we finished up that he enjoyed the whole biking experience far more than he thought. A favorite part was the return - there is a fair amount of incline all the way out, so once you turn around and head back towards the beach, there is a great downhill slant for about 10 miles.

There are no real Halloween stories to share today - for some strange reason I never received the 'Halloween Excitement' gene. Call it a defect. It isn't for a lack of trying on the part of my parents - we carved pumpkins, dressed in costumes (I was a ballerina for 7 consecutive years, I clearly lacked imagination on this topic), attended carnivals and did extensive Trick or Treating. Nothing. I didn't really enjoy it then and I don't now. It seems rather blasphemous to many, including Holly who is the primary reason that we even have any decorations or acknowledgement around the house that it is Halloween. We do have candy...I remembered to purchase some and both David and I sampled a few of them just a few minutes ago. The chocolate/caramel mix was a good choice if I may say so myself.

Holly dressed up and left for school before I had a chance to take her picture. She is at the school filming the homecoming game for a piece that her mass media class is presenting next week, so I don't know if I am going to have a chance to capture her Halloween spirit or not. I will search her out and snap a photo, even if it is of her from the behind the scenes vantage of recording the game...go T.O.!!

It will be a busy weekend with a trip to Denver for myself and a stint on a TV show for the newest celebrity in our family - Shadow! Stay tuned, we are a lively group over here!

Playing it Cool

Scooby has the right idea in the picture above as she splits her time at the beach between chasing the birds on the sand and chasing the birds in the water. Daphne is game for chasing the birds on the sand but doesn't like the water and Shadow doesn't bother chasing anything but certainly enjoys the water!

I am currently in Hemet visiting with my parents, which is a very lovely thing indeed. Being smack dab in the middle of the desert (or so it seems) AND during yet another hot/dry spell leaves me a bit wistful of cooler surroundings like the beach. More on the visit and activities tomorrow.

I owe you a Conejo Crusher update...sorry to say that a win did not occur for our favorite softball team last night, however they did have some bright spots. Most noticeably was Holly's solid batting performance which contributed to two runs on the board! Also impressive were the fielding efforts of the entire team as they worked against the sun for the first 4 innings. Maybe next week it will all come together with a win!

And hopefully some temperatures in the far more seasonable low 70's range!

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Lucky Devil

Today turned out to be a bonus Unemployment Friday for Jonathan and I (you might recall that we did our big Westlake walk on Wednesday because I had a community service project planned for this weekend). I am sorry to report that the event was cancelled due to a limited number of participants, so I suddenly have 3 days without any plans.

Not to be left just sitting around, I called Jax and invited him down for an 'LA Day'...I have recently discovered some pretty exciting transportation options which I will share in greater detail on a future posting, but for now just understand that the drive into LA on a Friday was not a deterrent so we decided that this was the day to make it happen!

The highlight of the entire trip was lunch (isn't that always the case with food and yours truly??) at a place called Lucky Devils. It came on high recommendation from my friend Sue 'The Playah' and for good reason! In her words, 'I dream of the toasted pecan milkshakes'. SERIOUSLY!! I will now dream of them too! The meal was sooooooo good that Jonathan and I really just wanted to order one more beer (they have an amazing selection of micro brews on draught) and stay for the rest of the day. The milkshake was definitely a highlight, but the sweet potato fries rocked, as did my grilled cheese sandwich (three cheeses plus I added avocado), Jonathan's Rosemary Turkey Burger...it was all fantastic. Add into that a cool decor and great service, five stars for our friends at Lucky Devils!

After gorging ourselves on our spectacular meal, we opted to do some walking along Hollywood Blvd to see the sights, the people and of course the stars! Check out some of the quality photos that emerged from the day. I have to give a shout out here to the characters at Hollywood & Highland. This is the mecca for people watching - both the tourists AND the people who make a living off the tourists. We must have stood in the courtyard at Mann's Chinese Theater for a good 20 minutes, just watching the way that people reacted to the characters and the what a racket the celebrity photo business is! Jonathan has a theory that the two Marilyn Monroe's were a mother/daughter team...I don't know if we have ANY theory on the Wonder Woman scenario, other than Jax refused to take a picture even when I offered to pay for him to pose with her. Something about not wanting to encourage her.

Our stomachs still full and feeling rather drowsy from the hot sun (and probably also the beers wearing off), we jumped back onto our fabulous public transportation and made the trek back to Thousand Oaks/Oxnard. Although we did not really keep to any real physical activity, this is going on the list as one of my favorite Unemployment Fridays thus far!

Fine Luxury Livin'

Unemployment Friday arrived a few days early this week because I have a community service project this week from Thursday through Sunday and we certainly can't be cheated out of the famed UF! Deciding to brave the 90 degree heat, Jax and I opted to do a new route - one lap around Westlake plus the aptly named frog walk (there are TONS of those little hoppy creatures in the spring time) for good measure. All in all, about a 7 to 7 1/2 mile jaunt.

It is enjoyable to cruise Westlake to find out how the other half lives. It is some fine luxury living, let me tell you! Lots of nice cars, boats and beautiful houses. The neighborhoods are pretty quiet (probably out working to make the payments!) and the traffic minimal - all perfect elements for an enjoyable walk.

Thanks to some well-placed trees, judicious walking on the shaded side of the street and a light breeze, the temperature was comfortable and the walk (as usual) very enjoyable. Westlake could stand to install a few sidewalks on some of their busier streets, but with that one compliant aside, it is a great place to get out and enjoy the fresh air.

We capped the afternoon off with a visit to the Westlake Pinkberry (you know that you are humming that song now) and I ventured into new territory - a crunchy topping rather than just fruit. Typically, I get a small with mango and pineapple and congratulate myself for my fine food choices. Today, I was feeling adventurous (and hungry) so I went for a medium 3-topping combo. The dilemma...what to do for the 3rd topping? I opted for Cap'n Crunch and was not disappointed. That could get a girl into some trouble if I made a habit of it!!

A very good day if I may say so myself, a touch of the luxury living even if from the sidelines while walking by!

A Bridge with a View

Packinglogue, day 4...we finished! To be clear, we cleared out every drawer, cupboard, closet, cabinet and nook in the apartment. Four trips down to the dumpster later the trash was out. It looks like we have about two carloads to take to Goodwill tomorrow and THEN the movers can do their stuff.

In celebration of finishing the apartment, we left for JFK to pick up the rental car (the Audi ships off tomorrow too!), which is quite a jaunt from Hackensack, let me tell you...3-hours round trip to be exact! That is a lot of time on the road, tolls and views of the city from different bridges!

There is still a lot to do but at the same time we are enjoying the brief lull in the action until everything starts up again at 8am tomorrow...it should be exciting!

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Thinking Outside the Box

Today was the first day that we got REALLY serious about the move preparations and we made tracks against the list! We knew that once we got rolling, we would build on the momentum, but tackling that first drawer proved a bit daunting.

Fast forward about 3 hours and we were on fire! Actually, we were starting to sag a bit and that spare room closet was stressing me out! Eric made us some iced coffees and we jumped back into the project, appropriately caffeinated. We are now down to 3 more areas tomorrow (including the notorious walk-in closet) and then all of the wine on Monday...I think that we are on-track!

The highlight of the day was dinner at Julia & John's place on the Upper West Side (I make the reference because I finally understand geographically what that means in terms of the layout of the city!). Dinner was GREAT and the company even better...including Eric's 5-year prediction for both Julia and I (curious? You will have to stay tuned to know what we are doing and verify that Eric was right!)

Tomorrow is the day that we get everything wrapped up and finalized before the movers arrive on Monday. Let's hope that we continue to work INside the box and finish up on time!

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Reason #45

It seems that the unemployed life is keeping me too busy to blog, which I am sure comes as a real disappointment to the loyal followers of NFA (Newton Family Adventures, of course!). It isn't as if there isn't plenty of material, because there is, and it isn't as if I don't enjoy it, because I do! It really just seems to be a case of juggling my famous list with making time to hop on the computer...I've been enjoying some quality family time these past evenings!

Let's chat about Friday and the photo you see above. That is a view of Ventura from Oxnard at the beach. Jax and I dubbed it 'reason #45' for anyone considering or needing an excuse to live in Southern Cal. The day was about as perfect as anyone could ask with great weather and sights. It made for an extremely enjoyable Unemployment Friday, which has become a rather popular event.

Started originally as a catch-up time with my friend Jonathan (who is also in between gigs as he has moved back from NYC to be in So Cal for the many reasons as listed above), UF has evolved into a day dedicated to some sort of outdoor physical activity (we walked 5 miles along the beach this week), lunch (yours truly packed a tasty meal that included paninis and cinnamon-strusel muffins), and lots of conversation (including of course the long term future plans).

Popularity is growing for UF with people who plan on being unemployed in the future asking to join now and some just taking time off on Fridays to join in the festivities...we know how to have a good time!

Watch for future UF postings as well as a couple of exciting events in the works...I am going to NYC for a week to help my friend Eric pack up and move across country (Yep! Back to California, although he is going the way of the Bay Area, not quite So Cal but it is in the time zone, which makes me happy!). I have also signed up to do a chaperonning gig today for Holly and the youth group at Magic Mountain - that is certainly a candidate for some good blog fodder!

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Life in seats 11E and 11D

SWA has a great frequent flyer program called Rapid Rewards that makes getting free flights super easy. Given the fact that I have been on between 500 and 600 flights in the last 5 years, I have been graced with the good fortune of being able to fly almost anywhere for next-to-nothing; a great price point for any Unemployment Friday!

The slight downside to this perk is the short routes that Southwest flies...it's a downside when one wishes to travel all the way across the country...it can be done, but on 3 different flights. Soooooo welcome to the view of the day as shown above. Lots of seat time and watching passengers board and de-board as we hopped our way to Tucson, Chicago and then at last - Dulles airport.

We had one little bout of excitement when a passenger got on the plane in Chicago sat in the row behind us and let go a full force sneeze...without covering his mouth. EEEEEEEwwwwww, we were officially skeeved out and I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say we dug out BOTH the Airborne and EmergenCee from my suitcase as soon as we got to baggage claim.

The adventures continue for us as we are now in the city (I left my Blackberry in the cab - thanks to some fast acting and thinking on Jonathan's part and an honest cabbie, we got it back!!), but we are taking everything in stride and are enjoying the time in our Nation's capitol. We are officially registered for Sunday's event and are now sporting our stylish red 'athletes only' wrist bands.

Mr. Paulucci's arrival is the anticipated thrill of the moment as we will then saunter out for a late dinner at Rosa's Mexicana. Off to slumber and then we are out for a big day of sightseeing and photo taking to share with all. Good times indeed!

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DC...here we come!

If you can see the clock on the wall behind Jonathan you might note that it is 4:30 (as in am). Our shuttle pick-up was right on time at 3:35 and the wake up call was at 3. Surprisingly, both JZ and I are in decent shape and are now cooling our heels at gate 14 while we wait for our flight (it's not until 7 so we have some time.) The SuperShuttle people are pretty conservative when it comes to LA traffic in the wee hours of the morning!

Speaking of the SuperShuttle, it was really quite the adventure as we sped and bounced our way to LAX in less than an hour - including a stop to pick up another passenger! Having the driver text while driving about 90 mph made for an especially exciting ride! The good news is that we made it in one piece, checked the bags and have cruised the terminal in search of some grub.

Breakfast was a pricey $18 each for water and a breakfast sandwich...a little over budget for unemployment Friday activities, but people have got to eat and the thought of us flying all day tired AND hungry is a scary for anyone within 100 yards of us.

This is just the beginning of the documentation...stay tuned for the blow by blow coverage!

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