Fumiko and I just finished dinner--cod with lemon/caper sauce, sauteed tofu, braised spinach, and sauteed asparagus.  So good!

I have to finish writing the monthly column tonight.  Since we've been back from Albuquerque, I've just been catching up on email and life.  Anders (4) came over yesterday.  He strides into the kitchen holding a new Knight of the Realm sword, and says, "Two new packets of gum, I see."

At three feet tall, I'm surprised he can see anything on my kitchen counter top.

I said, "Yes, those are for your cousins when I go down to Los Angeles on Thursday."

Augie (18 mos) is valiantly speaking, "Mio. Mio," when he sees Fumiko.  "Da (dog)"  "Haaaaaa, (hot) and "phhssssssshhhhhhhh (fish)."   

 I went for a walk with Rainey this morning in between rain showers, and we stopped for a cup of tea and a hot cross bun (Easter is approaching).  She told me about a play she attended written by a local Berkeley resident who used all the regulars at the French Hotel (a small cafe in North Berkeley) as the characters.  Her friend Dale was characterized as very obsessive compulsive, but apparently Dale was flattered.  She's beautiful and went to the play all dressed up.  "I don't really wear latex gloves when I shake hands with people,"she told Rainey.  But, she does, however, use a tissue to open doors.

Rainey should have been a character in the play, but the playwright doesn't really know her.  Rainey is going to go to France in July to the birthday party of one of the women she used to rent a room to.  This woman married well, and lives abroad.  Rainey also recently had lunch with the sister of Salman Rushie, and recounted earlier days of her eccentricities.  They lived
together in the house on Keith street. 

I 

I'm sitting in the Albuquerque airport waiting to fly back to Oakland with Robert and Fumiko.

This was the perfect business trip--fun and productive.  Things could not have gone any better. 

After talking to a few people, we found someone to lead our sweat lodge for the November tour.  We are going to have a full day of art, ceremony, sweat, music, and feasting.

With perfect timing, Fumiko and I met the people from Access to Santa Fe within two blocks and finalized the walking tour.

Flight's called.  Gotta go. 

I'm in Santa Fe New Mexico with Robert and Fumiko.  We got in on Saturday night.  We're scouting for our all-Japanese tour in November.  Yesterday we met my old friend, Jaye Oliver, the graphic designer, and she drove us around.

My favorite place here is the International Folk Art Museum--filled with astonishing crafts from around the world.  I love it!  I feel like making art again.

I bought a pair of wedding dolls--black skin and white clothes.  We all had tea on Canyon Road the art gallery area at a tiny coffee shop, Cafe des Artistes, owned by a Parisian man.  He turned a garage into this shop!  We felt very cozy as the snow began to fall in Santa FE!

I have to go.  We are meeting Jaye to drive out to talk to Raven, a man who leads sweat lodges--one of the sacred Native American ceremonies.  We want to offer a sweat lodge on our tour, and it will be interesting to go out and meet him on the Poaque Pueblo which is 20 minutes north of Santa Fe.  An adventure today.  We had planned to continue to Taos, higher in the mountains, but it may not be a good idea with the ice, snow, and winds up there.  We'll see. 

Yesterday we had another meeting of our EFT group (emotional freedom technique at www.emofree.com). There were 8 of us--all women.  We practiced the work until 7 and then broke for a potluck feast--quiche, turkey chili, bread, cheese, salad, wine and homemade lemon cake.  Lynn Fielder stayed overnight so she could go back into SF to attend the next day's Parkinson's conference. 

We learned a lot in our EFT practice.  I like the new "What if..." statements.  I used it today with a client..."What if I could have a stable income and keep developing my passion for life transition-work?"  The What if statement really helps bridge that gap between feeling stuck in a conflict and not knowing what new steps could get us closer to our goal.

Tonigh I'm cleaning out my office and tidying up old business.  Feels good, but I'm tired.  I still need to find that sweat lodge site to let them know Fumiko, Robert, and I will be in Santa Fe next week to prepare for our fall Japanese tour.

I've been having a lot of international conversations.  I love the man who wrote from Romania to tell me about the new library of spiritual books (about 600) that he and his friends have put together.  He said they had about 10 visitors a day.  I think I would love to visit Romania--a Romanian contractor and his all-Romanian crew remodeled my house and Gunther and Eliza's house last year.  We love Romanians!

I've been talking to Felix Brabander about the synchronicity symposium June 10th in Amsterdam.

A man from China just emailed and said he liked this blog!  How wonderful to have friends in China.

Patricia Caldwell, a life coach I interviewed last year, wrote to say hi from London!

A man named Nima wrote to tell me he is translating my books in Iran.  They don't have copywrite laws there, but he's doing it on his own, I guess, and sent me a beautiful picture of himself and his wife.  They look very poetic.

An old acquaintance from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, just wrote to say she had some synchronicities.

It's a wild, wild world out there, isn't it, Cat Stevens!

Good night for now.  Have to go fold my laundry. 

It's Sunday, and we still have a cold rain coming down outside.  I've been using the time to clean out a kitchen drawer full of rubber bands, garbage bag ties, birthday candles, kitchen magnets, recylcled paper for grocery lists, and keys to forgotten locks.

I'm also printing recipes off the food network channel and putting holes in to file in my red kitchen binder.  I made some extra copies for Gunther and Eliza of turkety-chili, oven-roasted halibut, flounder with red pepper cream and asparagus, and steamed pork wonton dumplings.  I invited them all over for dinner tonight because Eliza's mom, Carmen, is up here from San Diego.

Robert and I made the best dinner last night:  grilled butterflied leg of lamb, small steamed artichokes, eggplan sauteed with a Chinese garlic sauce, and rice with lemon and dill (Rainey gave me that recipe last week after our walk.)

 I guess this is my food blog today!  Maintaining my recipes, watching the food network, and trying out recipes, and having people over to eat them, makes me realize that if I were asked what my hobbies are, I guess I'd have to say cooking!

This is a much happier weekend than last when I drove myself crazy being miserable--focusing on an old story.  After two days, I vividly saw how I can turn a switch in my head and make myself miserable, and then just as easily, get off it by not dwelling on the negative.  Hmmm.