Happy Saturday

You know how sometimes a project just kind of languishes around on your "to do" list for a really long time and then one day, you just wake up and decide it's finally time??

I just organized four years worth of photos on my computer.

Blink

During a recent visit to Boston, Natalie and I tried to get one good picture. Apparently, however, she's a blinker. How did I never know this before? We were pretty much 0-for-20.

Also, Hi from Vegas! We were there a few weeks ago for a wedding.

Ferdinand Ma-julie-an

I was a little explorer today! Now that I've finally gotten (most of) my stuff unpacked in my new place (or at least to the point where I can find what I need in the remaining boxes), I took a little time today to explore my new "neighborhood." Technically, where I live is pretty central to everything I do, but not really close to anything. I live in a little 3-street neighborhood tucked in between Dodger Stadium and Elysian Park. So today I just headed out on my bike and did a little 11-mile loop down the hill through Chinatown, then heading northwest on Sunset Boulevard through Echo Park and Silver Lake... then getting really lost on the way home because I forgot my map. I knew what direction to keep heading, but I ended up biking up all these big hills only to discover that the streets didn't connect and I had to bike down the other side and up another one. All in all, it was a nice day for a bike ride... I put my new panniers on the side so I didn't have to carry anything... and when I got home there was a nice big bowl of ice cream waiting for me in the freezer to reward me for all those hills. Yum.

Stipendgate 2007 -- the irony continues

No, they haven't decided to give me the money after all. I've pretty much given up on ever seeing any of it, and while I still think it's a horrible thing, my rage is subsiding, which is at least helping me move on with life. However, I did find out a tidbit of info from one of my advisers at Fuller, who sits on the board that was administering the stipends. She said that the loss of the stipends actually may be a product of the fact that the DMH got a huge amount of money from the state this year, but all that money came along with a whole new set of restrictions surrounding how/where they spend their money, and it seems that perhaps this program was not on the list of acceptable options.

So, in an ironic nutshell, it seems that the DMH isn't giving out the stipends because they have so much more money this year.