JenLeoLIVE!

My PowerBook G4 Battery Has Been Recalled

My poor computer has had a tough year. It ran hot A LOT and while it seemed unnormal, I did everything I could to stop what I was doing when it got too hot. Sometimes I elevated it so the fans could work if I thought that would help (it does better on a table than my lap).Other times I blowed on it. I did everything I could to KEEP the laptop with me. Like an idiot, I never turned it in. Here's a picture of it enjoying  WiFi  at Davidson's Arnhemland Safaris in Mount Borredaile, a restricted Aboriginal Reserve in Northern Australia.

Now I've come to find out—like a modern day cave woman who won't look up from her virtual cookin—that the battery has been recalled.

Oh yeah, I've got the right serial for the computer, and the right serial number of the battery. I have a busted battery that has allowed me to work for oh so many months. There is a Battery Exchange Program which I intend to use if I can find the AC Adapter.

But I also think I'm going to call the nice folks at Melrose Mac to see if they can do it there, or help me out with the rest of the computer's ailments. It's a little bent. I've never minded because so am I. It adds character. But who knows, maybe if I take it in it will at least get cleaned.

The dramas...

CURRENT: PASADENA
NEXT: BAY AREA, CA (Dec 2-7)

Barista Me, Baby!

I'm so excited to be learning how to make coffees. Penny For Your Thoughts/Village Cafe in Pasadena is teaching me how they spin their Illy beans into Lattes, Cappuccinos and more. I couldn't be more excited.  Their Illy distributor already came in to show me how the crema is supposed to be on a single shot, and Millie is showing me how to steam the milk. That is the hard part. But it's not math, so I keep a positive attitude and know that I'll get there in not too short of a time. Besides, perfection is in the practice. This shop doesn't get a whole lot of traffic, so I'm not practicing that much, but I will be giving it my best shot every morning this week.

I told my family about this over Turkey week. There were impressed with my espresso-speak all the while John was correcting my pronunciation from Expresso to ESpresso. "Now you can work in Starbucks!" my dad said. That's the kind of big city pop up mall suburb thinking that I come from. I'm excited to learn a new skill, and I'm happy to help out my friends the week before Xmas, but this won't become a full time job unless it's in my own shop. I've already got one friend who runs that show, Scott Rao, and he's the master. This is his domain. Check out Rao's Coffees. Word on the street is he's opened a new place in Hadley, Mass.

The only non professional job that I'd like to work full time doesn't exist anymore - Kozmo.com.I LOVED being a delivery driver for Kozmo. I would work a full day doing PR for Travelers' Tales, then four nights a week I'd get in my old blue Volvo and explore the streets of San Francisco delivering videos, Ben & Jerry's, books, dvds, and more to the web savvy restless by the Bay. It was the best. Back at the warehouse I'd play cards for money with the Chinese boys. I wish I could recall the game. I think it had something to do with making 13. Anyway, if Kozmo still lived, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

There are just some jobs that give you so much pleasure you can't be bothered with worrying about what other people think. Who cares if you make $11/hour. Heck, if there's a job that you love that only makes $7/hour, do it. Life is too short to not be happy. Do what you love. Be aware of all your needs as a person (in addition to just the financial), strive for balance, and do not undervalue the emotional side of things.  And if anyone knows about a Kozmo comeback, please let me know. That will definitely help us decide where we're going to move to.

CURRENT: PASADENA
NEXT: BAY AREA

State of the Union

CURRENT: PASADENA, CA
NEXT: BAY AREA (Dec 2-7)

THANKSGIVING WEEK: It was a good but stressful visit down home in San Diego. SO good to see the East Coast Leos. My cousin is in med school at Tulane, and John was quick to notice how proud of him we all are. My grandparents have gotten old. It's a tough thing to admit to, watch, and help with. Gone are the days when they're jogging 3 miles every day, and now are the days when we worry where they are and what they're doing. It's nothing that I will be talking about here, but it's a big contribution to why I haven't been present in my blogging life.

It was also good to see my high school friends. There are new babies, big fancy houses, great marriages, and solid careers.  And, maybe for the first time in many years, I didn't feel any kind of emptiness around them. With John in my life, and at my side, its a whole new and different and unique feeling feeling of success. I didn't feel as if anyone was concerned about me. And THAT was great.

CHANGES: I'm at an interesting point in my life. There's lots of exciting change on the horizon. I'm trying to be very careful with what I become involved with, and am hungry for a big project. In the next three years I'll become a wife and a mom, so I feel like I'm getting my life ready for that right now even if those two things might still be a little ways off. How can I maximize my career into a foundation for when I have less time? I'm working on it. And though I've never really been active in preparing for or planning for anything beyond the next six months (let alone next week), I know that this phase of life is different. I feel good thinking ahead, and planning now.

WORK: I'm doing some publicity work for Expert Insight as well as Centro Books and their efforts to bring popular Australian travel writer Peter Moore to the U.S. I'm also freelancing for ForbesTraveler.com, TypePad Featured Blog, and little stuff for BLUFF and Woman Poker Player.

Ok, that's enough for now. More juicy pointers later.

Thanksgiving with Phil Gordon and John Juanda

It suited me to walk into the Leo family room after doing the washing up and find Phil Gordon, Allen Cunningham, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, and more of the Full Tilt crew on the telly. Full Tilt was broadcasting live from the new Red Rock Casino in Vegas. It's the second year in a row they've done this. Phil looked extra smart in his blue striped shirt, and the beloved Allen C caught us off guard with how the TV made him look so much older than 27.

The Leos took their spots on sofas and chairs and stared at the screen, some trying to figure out the hands and stats, while others laughed that John and I were talking about the players by first name. I was up in front of the TV calling out for a 9 or a diamond when Phil Gordon hit his 9 on the river to stay in the game. Just as exciting was hearing that JJ opened up a restaurant in the Marina Del Rey area. It's called Java Spice. The best news of the day was that Phil won the tourney and the 600k prize, and I hope that this translates to sales, sales, and more sales for his Little Green, Blue, and black book (only available in the box set?)  books. AND don't forget his uber cool Expert Insight Final Table Poker DVD. Which, of course, seeing him on TV only made me feel like I should be at the desk working. I've just started doing a bit of PR work for EI.

The Tryptophan as well as the jetlag set in for our share of the East Coast Leos, so we went back where we were staying to have some PJ time. It took it all out of us to stay awake for Grey's Anatomy but that was well worth it.

I'm never one to be ungrateful, but I'm appreciating this family time even more these days.

CURRENT: SAN DIEGO, CA
NEXT: PASADENA, CA

What are you thankful for?

A nice email today from Mark, who hosts our homegame.

On this day, I always worry that we focus a 
little too much on the food and the "event" 
of Thanksgiving and maybe not enough on the 
things that we really and truly should be 
thankful for...

Pocket aces.

 :) 

Have a joyous and wonderful holiday my friends. 
See you next week!

Thanks, Mark! It's a hard reality we have to give up our homegame tonight during this holiday season, but I suppose, probably, I'll live. Dammit.

CURRENT: SAN DIEGO, CA

NEXT: PASADENA - but check the travel schedule to the right for updates

Daniel Craig as the New James Bond

I wanted to hate the new James Bond.

Casino Royale opened yesterday and I was supposed to boycot it. There is no blonde in James Bond. I can't begin to tell you how much this irks me. But I'm in San Diego spending time with my grandparents and my grandfather likes the 007. It made sense to take them to a movie that they'd enjoy sleeping through.

Luckily, there were enough chest shots of Daniel Craig to distract me from looking at his flappy ears—and the fact that the real Casino Royale is about Baccarat NOT poker. But the poker was fine, and the intro to the movie had cool card designs that made me want to decorate my someday entertainment room. Not to mention make a return to Lake Como.

Getting to the point, I LOVED it. It was a great movie and the audience clapped at the end. Quality Hollywood entertainment with a twist. We'll have to see what the Wicked Chops boyz think of it. Besides being hot for Eva Green and showing a nice boobie flick of her on their site, they might notice that there were a few inaccuracies in the poker scenes. Like Bond claiming the bad guy had 23:1 odds to hit his two outer on the river.

After all, the important thing is that Casino Royale cleared the censors in China. Now all sorts of Chinese Bond lovers will be able to get their thrill on.

Hurry up and go see it so we can start talking about his penis.

Until then, more Daniel Craig:
Daniel Craig on David Letterman
Casino Royale Blog
Info about the CraignotBond movement
What the Rotton Tomatoes critics think of Casino Royale

CURRENT: San Diego, CA
NEXT: Pasadena, CA

The Red Wine Diet: Lose Weight Drinking!

We're not the only ones on Weight Watchers. My brother's girlfriend is too and she's lost more than 13 pounds. Fantastic! I didn't know how the heck to count up my points at a Vietnamese restaurant yesterday, but I loved that my brother thought he was Anthony Bourdain taking the Leos out to a new eatery. Imagine that. Getting us all cultured. My grandparents don't do much other than dim sum, steak houses, seafood, and Cocos, but they ate their vermicelli noodles just fine. Next time we'll bring so soy sauce packets to keep them extra happy.

While we were at lunch comparing WW stories, Jason tried to tell me that white wine had zero points. WRONG. 2 points, dude. Same as red wine.

BUT, red wine is worth more than just two points. We all knew that red wine was good for us, but now there's a new report out saying that red wine can help us lose weight. Excellent news, time to go to Trader Joes. I'll have the Shiraz, thanks.

Quality of Life Quest: North Carolina

Californians that are loathe to think of us leaving our home state will find amusement in the irony of this news release. Yesterday, the same day that we booked our tickets to check out Wilmington, NC, Beaufort, SC, and Charleston, SC - North Carolina was hit with deadly storms. "At least six dead as storms pound NC". Obviously we are sorry to the families that lost loved ones. And we will still be checking out the Wilmington/Carolina Beach area Dec 11-16. Tornado, or no tornado.

Status of the $1000 Bet

Yesterday was the deadline for the $1000 bet. But neither of us lost the 20lbs. All good betting folk would say that I owe John $1000 because he lost more weight than I did. We talked about it, and he says, the bet is still live. Even though I said it was the person who lost the most by the 15th, he has over ruled me and says, it's still the first person to get to 20lbs.

The bad news is, the $1000 bet does not factor into our motivation at all.
The good news is, we got serious about losing the weight three weeks ago.

John started Weight Watchers the week before I got home, and I had my first meeting two Thursdays ago. We're doing out points trackers and that is helping a lot. We brag about how we made our points for the day, or whisper how many we blew - almost as much as we talk about what's going on in the world of all things Borat.

We're about to step out to a meeting and a weigh in right now. But I just weighed in at the house (they tell us never to do that) and I came in at 179.  That's the lowest I've been on our scale in many months. I think I started the bet at 185, but I'm near certain that jumped to 187 within a few days after and have been considering 187 (if not 188) as my start. So, I'm down eight pounds. John is down 9 pounds. Since we've just done this math, he says I'm in trouble and he's going to buckle down because if its one thing John Caldwell hates doing, it's losing.

So, for those of you who bet on us bettors, do what you need to do. Losing the weight is the most important thing to us so we're going to keep the bet live. I'd like to lose 40-45 pounds, but Weight Watchers has my first goal at 18lbs. In terms of the $1000 between me and John, the first fatty to 20lbs wins!

CURRENT: PASADENA
NEXT JEN: SAN DIEGO (Nov 18-25)

Goodbye Drudge Report, Hello Newsmap

Everyday John checks in with the Drudge Report.
From now on, I'll be checking in every day with the newsmap. Newsmap. Newsmap. Newsmap.
Absolutely the funnest way to get your news with your clothes on.
Even better? You can keep them off!

Here are some things I've learned since I started checking newsmap.

• Cruise too heavy for wedding suit
• Dark chocolate lowers blood clot risk
• Microsoft stock hits high not seen since 2004
• Air guitar t-shirt lets you create real music
• Bishops may OK new guidelines on gay Catholics
• Gerald Ford becomes longest lived president
• Maui beaches reopen after shark attack

Thank you Spot On!