Oishi = Tastes Good

Today I had my first round of sushi since moving to SoCal. My co-worker and I headed over to Oishi Japanese Restaurant, which is by far the highest rated sushi restaurant in Temecula. I enjoyed tuna and salmon rolls along with shrimp tempura rolls. The sushi was really good, but the rolls were a little thin and there was a little communication breakdown with the head sushi chef.

I wanted to cancel my shrimp tempura order for a roll that included jalapeno but instead got the tempura and the jalapeno / tuna roll never showed up. Regardless, it was still a good lunch and the sushi was made from very fresh fish. In Japanese Oishi means delicious, and I'd say it lived up to the billing.

Congrats Tracy!!

To say I was surprised probably isn't the right word. When I came home from work tonight Tracy couldn't hide her excitement. I walked in the door, she jumped up and gave me a hug. I figured it wasn't to announce she was pregnant ... hahaha ... not so sure we are even close to ready for that type of surprise.

After three weeks in SoCal, she landed the gig at BowTie in one of the worst job markets in our lifetime. I wasn't surprised, more impressed. Tracy has all of the skills and the personality that market themselves in this tight job environment, and she proved all her hard work at Ehlert / Affinity over the last six years paid off. I have a very talented girlfriend who I love very much. We'll celebrate her new gig with a glass of Robert Renzoni Sangiovese vino tonight. Believe it or not, she agreed to start her Production Coordinator position at BowTie this Wednesday. She wasn't really out of work, it was more like a needed three-week vacation to get settled here in California.


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The drive to Irvine will definitely suck, but she'll get to see kitties .... meow ... and puppies ... woof ... in the office and maybe even a real live chicken ... eat more chicken. For an animal lover, that really doesn't suck. The paycheck and health insurance will be nice too I guess.

Big Ten Network Out West

I think I'm more excited than Tracy, but having Big Ten Network is a huge plus when we're so far from home. This morning I'm watching the Gophers cling to a 31-30 halftime lead against the Hoosiers after Indiana hit a shot from half court.

We get our cable and Internet through Verizon, and we're pretty happy about the service so far. It seems we get almost every major cable network, including Versus so I can get my hockey fix. What's great about sports here is the hoops game will be over by 11 and I'll still have a full day to get some stuff done around the apartment.

Today the slate includes organizing the garage and finishing up some design work for a second poster I'm working on for KTM. I'll post both once I finish up tomorrow. Deadlines and all, I guess that means not much has changed from the publishing world. The neat thing about this project is I've saved the company $20,000 and two weeks waiting for changes to be made to the poster through our agency. That, my friends, is what we call job security and keeping yourself valuable to a company in the toughest of times. I think I've saved the company well over $150,000 this year using my design skills.

And that is exactly why I'm working on setting up Vebe Visual as a freelance side job. There's a lot of money in design and I actually think I'm pretty good at it. You can be the judge tomorrow, but with no professional training and all self-taught, I'd say I'm pretty good at it based on past experiences with art directors at the magazines. For now, check out my photoshop skills correcting a pretty poor studio shot and making it poster worthy. The toughest part was photoshoping in realistic shadows. Once again, more or less self taught.

Notice the hot spots on the front fender and bodywork were eliminated from the original and it's now on a truly white background like it should be.

Starting To Settle In

Well, after running around the midwest and west lately snowboarding and moving, we are finally starting to settle in here in SoCal. Tracy had two interviews this week. The one she's really hoping to get is Production Coordinator at BowTie Inc. in Irvine. So far it sounds promising, but she doesn't expect to hear any news for a week or so. They've already done a background check so that's encouraging.

I don't know about you, but I'll be pumped if she gets the job. I mean, who doesn't want to read up on all the hot news in Cat Fancy or Dog Fancy? I mean, look how innocent that cat looks. That dumb little fur ball. Feed it some catnip, and I bet it wouldn't look so innocent. If I ever get bored reading up on those precious kitties, there's always Popular Farming with special editions on chickens ... neat!

In all honesty, I really hope she lands the gig. It would be good to get her earning some cash again to pay for my eating habit. Lately we've (OK, Tracy really) have been making some exquisite dinners. Tonight we had spinach stuffed pasta shells, which was delicious ... thanks Betty Crocker cookbook. We are trying to make three or four planned meals a week. On the other nights we'll improvise. I've also been making the 5-minute drive home over lunch to get a break from the office and eat more affordable meals.

The apartment is really taking shape. This weekend we are going to get the garage dialed in and the spare bedroom completely set up. We have guests planning on visiting from Pasadena soon (old friends of Tracy) for some wine tasting. Of course, they won't know what hit them when I trap them in the apartment to play Blokus. Man, I love that game. Tetris-like crack I say.

Sitting on a plane in KC

I'm on my way home from my seventh annual snowboarding trip. We had good weather and plenty of fresh powder to enjoy in the UP. I'm flying Southwest on my return flight and am on a layover in Kansas City. Next we swing down to Phoenix before heading to Ontario airport. It's a fairly long time on a plane with a lot of connections...but the price was right.

Tracy had her interview in Irvine today and she said it went really, really well. We hope she gets an offer. It would say quite a lot about her and her experience if she landed a job only two weeks in to her move to SoCal.

Well, off to Zona. More to follow then when my thumbs aren't cramping anymore from the Blackberry.