Yoga 8 am.  I'm immersed in writing a new profile summary to go with my numerology charts.  The 3-line format forces me to be as clear and succinct as possible to describe the meaning of each position and number.  After 30 years of working with numbers, I'm still delighted to think about how numbers live through our lives, and show us what our potential is, and what we can do to develop and succeed.  I can't wait to start writing each morning.

Hayashi-san is coming from Japan tonight, for dinner with other Japanese friends.

I plan to have fish tacos with mango salsa, cole slaw, and strawberries with whipped cream for dessert.

 Fumiko is picking up everyone and bringing them back.  I asked Gunther and Eliza to come with  Auggie and Anders.   

7 a.m.  I felt very good this morning and couldn't stay in bed.  I have been a little under the weather during the last few days after the trip to Idaho.

Ron (my ex-husband) and his wife Casey (whose father originally grew up in Idaho) moved to Boise from Silicon Valley a little over a year ago.  Their teen-age son, Max, likes the small town quality of life, and is just entering his Junior year in high school.  The high school is a classic white building with Doric columns.  I took a picture.  

Idaho is very beautiful--lots of rivers and streams that you can see as you drive. It's very western--log cabins, historical sites, hunting and fishing stores. Redfish Lake Lodge is very sweet and rustic.  We had 3 cabins, and I stayed in a room above the lodge.

The high points for me were being with the whole family.  We hung out on Sigrid and Jim's verandah in the evening, with the whole family telling stories, drinking wine, listening to the kids run in and out, (they eventually settled down in front of the portable DVD player that Gunther and Eliza brought--watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons. 

Another great memory is the afternoon when we rented two row boats with outboard motors--Gunther was in one with Anders, Trevor, and Chloe.  Sigrid, Jim, Max (16) and I were in the other one.  It was beautiful out on the lake--very misty over the mountains (wildfires had smoked the sky for a couple of days).  On the way back, we stopped the motors to enjoy the gentle sounds of the lake.  Then our motor wouldn't start!  Gunther and the kids sped away to get help.  About 30 minutes later, they came back in a speed boat, all excited at "saving your lives."  It was great that we broke down, much more exciting.

 Jim and Max went mountain biking and almost got lost!  Gunther took Anders for a two-hour walk and they found a magical old stick. Trevor, emerging from the safety of his seat on the bottom of the boat (first time on a boat), took the bow as head pirate.   Auggie went wading with Eliza in the cold shallow lake.  Chloe made mud pies and confronted the waves at the beach (remember how freaked out she was at the horribly crowded beach in Malibu last month?) Sigrid found the Visitor Center and got the kids to go for a bear information hike. Ron and Casey found all the good hikes, and went for a two-hour canoe paddle around the lake.

Luckily I had my camera as everyone else forgot to bring one!  Today I'll put my pictures into booklets to send to Ron and Casey and Sigrid and Jim.  

 Yoga this morning.

Today is the birthday of my ex-husband, Ron.  Tomorrow, Gunther, Eliza, Anders, and Auggie and I are flying to visit him and his wife and son in Boise, Idaho.  Sigrid, Jim, Chloe, and Trevor will fly out on Tuesday, and then we are all going to a vacation place on Redfish Lake for a few days.  I'm really looking forward to it!  

I bought Ron one of my favorite books, The Consolations of Philosopy by Alain de Botton.  I highly recommend it!  I'm going out with Robert in a few minutes to buy some nice cheese and sourdough bread from the Cheese Board--a Berkeley institution.  I haven't been in the store for a long time--I'm supposed to cut down on cheese!

However, last night, I finished my writing about 7, and decided to make chicken parmigiana.   Fumiko pounded the chicken, and then I floured, and breaded it (I mashed up some rice crispy cereal that I wanted to finish.)  Made a tomato sauce, and topped with mozzarella.  It came out great.   Robert and I can have the leftovers tonight.  I packed last night.

While I've been packing and doing chores, I learned some great ideas from TV.  On the CBS Early show they did a segment on the two women who started www.mommycast.com.  Great story of how they decided to be at home with their children, but their podcast now has  corporate sponsors!  Through their word of mouth network, they helped make March of the Penguins a big film!  It's giving me ideas....

Another segment showed Terry Gault, a former TV actress that had a rough time financially and decided to teach others what she was learning about saving money grocery shopping.  She started www.grocerygame.com.  Now she's very successful!! Don't you love it? 

A Food Network show was about a woman who started working after her kids were grown.  She took an entry level job in a travel agency, and today has her own successful company called International Kitchens--making over 2 million a year--booking cooking class tours in Europe. It just kept growing.  Very inspirational.  Another woman quit a high-powered corporate life of constant travel, invested in building a Bed and Breakfast, and added on cooking classes.  She still works a lot, but she loves it.  None of these transitions were easy and required lots of hard work.  But these women are doing what they love. 

Gotta go!

It was a lovely weekend.  Lovely weather, and spending time with friends and family.  

On Saturday, Robert and I went to San Francisco.  He wanted to find out where the Barbary Coast trail walk began in downtown SF (there are engraved plaques on the sidewalks, that take you through historic sites.)  Through Chinatown, and up to North Beach.  Great walk. Just over 10,000 steps. (I wear my pedometer everywhere now.)

Hamburgers and french fries at Barney's, and then watched the movie, V for Vendetta--a very interesting story about "fictional" aspects of government, greed, abuse of power, and the necessity for  individuals to stand up for their human rights. Scarily relevant given the past week's terror stories.

Sunday was easy going (and technically productive.) In the morning, Gunther stopped by to take a look at my toilet problem. We let Anders and Auggie watch a program, Extreme Engineering, which we had recorded.  It was about moving some 75-ton "valves" for the oil pipelines in Korea/Russia. Gunther and I discussed our water bills.  He also gave me a copy of what to do for Ander's diabetes therapy.  I was a little unclear what to do baby sitting last Friday.  Now I have the guide!  

Robert helped me set up a new water fountain outside (I broke the old one through impatience when dumping it out to clean it.) 

Later, Nobu, Fumiko's brother arrived from a business trip.  The four of us made grilled chicken, salad, grilled pineapple with strawberries and whipped cream.  

Chloe's birthday is tomorrow.  She will be 4!   

I noticed yesterday was August 8, 2006  --  8  8  8.  Very powerful. 8 stands for money, power, authority, legal matters, contracts, and publishing--all things I had to deal with yesterday!

Gunther and Eliza came back from the Diabetes Youth Foundation camp they went to last week with Anders (who has type 1) and Auggie.  They all had a great time, had fun and learned alot.  (If you or someone you know has diabetes and is interested, the website is www.dyf.org.

 I am re-reading Paul Theroux's Great Railway Bazaar, and loving it.  It makes me want to take a train somewhere--but there's work to be done here!!

I have been having a great time receiving emails in response to my announcement of my free weekly forecasts--which I post every Monday on this site.  It's fun to get feedback.   

I'm very excited about a new project I'm working on, so will sign off for now and back to work... 

A stunningly beautiful day--an early walk with Rainey.  We talked a little bit about the treatment her daughter is undergoing for possible leukemia.  

Right now, Fumiko is in the garden, on the ladder up in the grapefruit tree.  She wants to make grapefruit juice.

Sunday Robert and I went to Chinatown. We looked at all the shops and ate dim sum. I was looking for more Chinese slippers (I've been wearing them for 40 years, and only wear this one type of slipper.)  The prettiest are the black velvet with a sequinned dragon, but those might be an endangered species.  I didn't find any.  The style are changing, so I had to buy the red ones with sequinned flowers--pretty but rather boring in design.  I also bought an elegant little Chinese doll with hip-length braids. 

At night, I'm still immersed in reading the travel tales of Paul Theroux in his book Riding the Iron Rooster Through China.  I love it and don't want it to end.  I'd never be able to hold up visiting in the frigid Siberian and Mongolian wintertime.  

The fog has come back to rescue  us from sweltering.  

I had an early walk with Rainey, and then Fumiko and I worked on the agendas for the October Japanese programs in beginning, intermediate and advanced numerology--plus the special class for professionals who want to add new techniques to their practices. 

At 3:30 pm, I took Anders and Auggie and we played in the backyard--Anders made some secret rocket potions and Auggie watched (and was scared by) the wind blowing through the banana plants.  Where does the wind go when it's not windy? I asked him.  "Bananas," he said.

Tomorrow Gunther and Eliza, Anders and Auggie go off to diabetes camp, south of here (they go to Fresno and on from there.)  I know it will be great for all of them to meet other families with diabetes.  So, I had them all over for fajitas tonight.  Gunther grilled the chicken, and vegetables.  Fumiko gave  Anders and Auggie the little foam planes she brought back from Japan (made in China.)

 It's a slow summer, and very rich.  Robert and I watched a magnificent documentary last night--a series on How Art Changed the World.  Last night was on how humans process the idea of death through art--for example, now we keep photographs of our deceased loved ones--and before now the ancient world had a go at it.  They started with the earliest found artifacts from 9000 years ago--7 skulls were found in Jericho.  These skulls had clay molded clay over them, and eyes had been inserted.  Riveting, beautiful, simple, and iconic.  The show also discussed the walls of skulls from the Aztec temples--"photographs" of ritual slaughter--people were, apparently from the evidence, lined up for two miles, going to be sacrificed.  What was that about? asked the archaelogists, with not much answer.  I love this series.  The last week was on using art for political power.  Fascinating.

We have also been watching Alan de Botton's narration on his book The Consolations of Philosphy.  Fabulous show.  I had read the book last year.  De Botton is one of my all time most favorite writers, as I've said.  Rainey and I went to see him speak in Berkeley.

With the class I took last week from Angeles Arrien on The Second Half of Life:  Opening the 8 Gates to Wisdom (from her book), I feel so blessed to be able to see and hear all this wisdom.  I'm also studying Hans TenDam's book, Deep Healing (about reincarnation therapy.)  I am underlining just about every other sentence.--he makes so much sense! It could not be better.

Then for "light" reading before bed, Paul Theroux's book (1988) Riding the Iron Rooster Through China.  Great insights, and things I need to know.

In fact, it's time to go to bed and read for awhile.

I'm just leaving to pick up a friend.  We're carpooling over to Sausalito, where we have been attending author, Angeles Arrien's seminar, The Second Half of Life--Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom, based on her book of the same name.  She is my all-time favorite teacher, and I never fail to be inspired by her.  I'll say more later.

Last Thursday I went to the matinee of An Inconvenient Truth, the movie on global warming made by Al Gore.  It's fantastic, and I'm hoping everyone will see it.  I was afraid I'd been too depressed afterwards, but it actually made me feel better.  Why?  I'll say more later because I have to go pick up Terry Mandel now, but this week all our Bay area temperature (normally very cool and pleasant this time of year)have hit all-time record highs.  At the seminar yesterday it was 108 F in the area.  Incredible.

 It's all fitting together.  There's some reason I went to the movie and this seminar in the same week the heat got turned up.

I just read in a study by Pew Internet and American Life Project that the US has about 12 million adult bloggers, a three-fold increase in two years.  Nearly half are women.  On the web, 37% of blogs are in Japanese and 31% are in English!

I just spoke on the phone to Sigrid to find out how the move to Los Angeles is going with Jim's mother, Jeana, who is in her eighties.  They just moved her out from Detroit on Monday,  into the house they bought for her with the swimming pool!  So far, she's adjusting pretty well.   New environment, new climate, new house, two darling grandchildren, new everything!

I was down visiting Sig and Trevor and Chloe last weekend.  On Saturday we drove out to a beach in Malibu at Paradise Cove.  If this is Paradise give me you-know-what.  The trouble is we arrived late.  The lucky part was we got valet parked.  The rest of it was an expensive lunch in a cramped part of the bar to feed the kids and ourselves--since the wait for a proper table was over 1 hour.  Afterwards, we discovered that there was no space whatsoever left on the beach.  Our friends met us out there, and Jolene found a small patch of sand.  As we inched our way toward it, a wave came in and swept out a small child (the parents ran after him and he was okay)  But Chloe had already made up her mind she was not going near the water, and was emitting a low growl, gritting her teeth, and digging in her heels.  She had the right idea!

We gave up and drove to another beach, with the unfortunate name Pt. Dume.  This time we were turned away because of the crowds.  We drove home and spent a blissful afternoon in the pool at the new house--the temperature was over 100 F the while time I was in LA and 108 F on this day.

I am just leaving now to take the BART train to Berkeley and see a matinee of Al Gore's movie on global warming--An Inconvenient Truth.  I want to see it while it's still in the theaters to support awareness of the issue.

I had a little family dinner for Augie, who turned 2 yesterday.  He came to the door with Eliza, Gunther, and Anders, and I said, "Happy birthday, Augie."

"Cake," he said, his eyebrows going up.

Fumiko made and decorated a beautiful cake with strawberries and blueberries, and a yellow rose from the garden.   We had fish tacos, fresh homemade salsa, beans, and wine.

Today, I'm flying down to Studio City, to visit with Sigrid, Trevor, and Chloe.  Jim is back East packing up his mother, for the move out West.   It's going to be very hot down there.

Yes, my misfortunes are over, unless you count the hair dryer burning out yesterday, and an incredibly complicated life chart order to Greece.  It's quiet, and lovely here at the house.