More shout outs!

Hey there, it's November and I have been shout-out-less for about two months now. With that in mind today I have two -- or technically 3 today.

In my pre-Davis life I worked at Souper Jenny, a cute soup cafe in a pretty ritzy area of Atlanta. One of my gifts to my super generous boss was to help her write a cookbook. I got photographer Joel Silverman on board and he recruited Tami Hardeman to do the food styling. Food styling's an ART folks. Hence the first shout out. Tami is a foodie extraordinaire. I like to consider myself a foodie, but have since stopped because NOW I know what a true foodie is. Check out her blog and her facebook group, and prepare to salivate. Not only that, but don't she take a purty picture?

While the cookbook is at a complete halt -- I have since stopped sending messages to Souper Jenny asking for recipes and text -- the website (number 2 project I spearheaded) launched today. I passed off this project about a month ago, but got tired of seeing the placeholder image on the test website. I stepped back in 2 days ago without letting Jenny or Marcie know and gave my final bits of feedback. Check it out. As you can see, the site looks great and is easy to use. This is due to the skills, expertise and creative eyes of my second hoorays -- Chris Aquino and Angela Mitchell. There is so much they each do that completely goes over my head. And that's fine with me, because I would trust them each with my life. These pictures are not the best, but are from when Chris taught me to make sushi. See talent, folks! Angela also got commended at her job this week which came with a title change and a nice raise.

Yay them!

A ride to the coast or SHOUT OUT #3

With departmental orientation starting tomorrow I decided to replace my day of laundry, grocery shopping & syllabus planning and take the 90 minute drive to Marin County today.

The terrain goes from flat, flat, FLAT to mountainous and for lack of a better word -- interesting. 80W to 37W to 101S -- a drive I highly recommend and much shorter in feel than it's 75 miles.

For most of the trip out there I was on the phone with Melanie, the teacher of record of DRA 10, the class I teach this fall quarter. I have been freaking out about my lack of teaching experience and after our conversation I feel that I'm much further along than I thought. I mean I have a theme and everything. I also have TONS of support, I just have to ask.

I was on the phone with my father as I drove into Sonoma County and got excited about the thought of being surrounded by some great vineyards. Unfortunately you cannot see any of them from the freeway, so with constant changing of the radio, eventually landing on Garrison Keillor, I stumbled into Marin.

My destination was Mill Valley and the Marin Theatre Company -- the new artistic home for Jasson Minadakis. I wanted to see the first show of the new season, Love Song by John Kolvenbach. It was a truly lovely bittersweet comedy. I was amazed that I have not been to a theatre or seen a show since The Servant of Two Masters in the beginning of July.

I emailed Andrea and Jasson on Friday, but due to Yom Kippur I did not finalize plans with them until this morning. After a brief phone call with Andrea at 9:38, we realized if I wanted to meet her and Alexis Weiss at noon, I had to be on the road in 20 MINUTES!!

I took a quick shower and jumped in the car with my bottle of water, DRA 10 file folder, cosmetic bag and hands-free cell phone attachment.

I made great time and had a yummy brunch at TOAST with Andrea and Alexis. It was so refreshing to see familiar, friendly faces. We each moved our lives across the country and are starting new adventures. We each certainly had good rental housing stories to share. It was during this conversation that I learned a bit of news that warrants a shout out.

My third official shout out goes to Andrea and Jasson Minadakis for quitting smoking and becoming yoga enthusiasts (read: obsessed!) They had both tried to quit for a while, but as you may know the crazy West Coast hippies are not a fan of cigarettes. I am not sure what the "last straw" was, but it certainly could have been when someone in Mill Valley SPIT at Jasson as he walked down the street puffing away. Close your mouth, hush that gasp and remember that one, class.

So, let's raise a glass of very well-priced California wine to my favorite non-smokers.

Namaste!

Give me an E!

Today's shout out goes to my Big Brother. No, reality program or Orwell reference here -- just a holla to Mr. Eric Mirlis. Or as many call him "The Mirl." For some reason, it sounds odd coming out of my mouth. At times I call him E, but I rarely use his first name at all.

I mean as sole siblings, it's not hard to recognize each other on the phone.

So, my brother's famous. While I am the artsy fartsy one, my bro is all about SPORTS. I mean, this guy knows just about EVERYTHING there is to know about the subject and the cool thing is that he writes about it so stinkin' well. Talk about passion.

Most recently, he compiled a book called Being There. After finishing the last Harry Potter and a few plays for the class I teach in the fall, I FINALLY picked up the book and have been reading a few entries before bed each night. While I am not a sports fan, it's amazing the amount of detail that people remember about sporting events. It's an exciting read.

There are so many different events mentioned -- from the mid-50s through the present. My favorite is to read different accounts of the SAME event. I love to see how the various broadcasters, writers, and celebrities recount the events in very personal ways.

I mean, I am biased here, but I totally recommend it to all sports fans. And better yet, it makes a great gift.

For more information and to get additional writings on -- you guessed it -- sports, visit his website.