The Dish
The Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission (SBCVB&FC) and the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization (DO) joined forces to develop epicure.sb: a month to savor santa barbara. Making its debut October 2009, epicure.sb is designed to celebrate Santa Barbara’s abundant and diverse epicurean offerings. The new annual promotion builds off of established foodie-friendly community events that take place in October—Harbor & Seafood Festival, California Lemon Festival, California Avocado Festival and Celebration of Harvest—while offering additional programming that showcases regional cuisine, libations and culture. Special midweek menus, educational seminars, mixology demonstrations, farmers’ market tours, cooking classes, micro-brew tastings, book signings, winemaker dinners and much more will fill the month up with tasty opportunities for both LOCALS and VISITORS to sip and savor the uniquely local flavors of Santa Barbara County. This month-long promotional platform is designed to stimulate business and introduce new customers to restaurants, retailers, attractions and events that highlight Santa Barbara’s bountiful harvest. It will entice visitors to plan a trip to Santa Barbara and extend their stay, while providing locals with something new to experience and driving business downtown in off-peak periods.

1. This post at Savvy Wallet regarding the new regulations to be placed on credit card companies. Frustrating that the regs do not go into effect until July 2010, but I’m glad to know they have been passed.

(Here’s a WSJ article on the matter.)

2. The latest newsletter from the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization. (Here’s a pdf.) An article on page 2 totally disturbed me. Santa Barbara drivers, be( a)ware.

New Parking Enforcement Tool
Don’t think you can get away with the 75 minute shuffle! In February the Santa Barbara Police Department (SBPD) began utilizing an electronic chalking system to monitor parking enforcement. The “autoChalk” system uses photographic, laser and GPS orientation to identify parking violators. This system is currently installed on one of ten parking enforcement vehicles used by the SBPD.

The autoChalk system uses color photographs to provide proof of an offense. These photographs are coupled with the system’s unique technology to determine vehicle length, vehicle color and survey quality GPS positioning.

The information determines the length of time a vehicle has been parked at a specific location. AutoChalk prompts the Parking Enforcement Officer that a violator has been identified so the officer can issue a citation. This system can be operated in inclement weather which further enhances the efficiency of parking enforcement.

In 2007 the SBPD requested proposals from vendors utilizing this and similar technology in an on-going effort to reduce serious and repetitive stress injuries associated with traditional tire chalking methods. The autoChalk system permits Parking Enforcement Officers to electronically identify violators from the safety of their vehicle while traveling with the flow of traffic.

The autoChalk system also possesses license plate reading technology to identify habitual parking offenders and stolen vehicles through the California Law Enforcement Terminal System (CLETS). The autoChalk system costs $60,000 and was paid for partially through auto theft grant funds as well as salary savings from unfilled positions in the Parking Enforcement Unit. The SBPD will still continue to use traditional chalking methods as well.

The Santa Barbara Police department is committed to providing a safe environment for its employees while continuing to provide efficient and effective parking enforcement for the community. If anyone has further questions on the autoChalk system feel to contact Sergeant Lorenzo Duarte at 897-2332 or lduarte@sbpd.com.

I now have bronchitis.

I feel like crap.

Sofie’s greatly improved… a bit raspy, but otherwise playful.

We started watching Pirates of Penzance Sunday. She seemed especially smitten by Kevin Kline.

My sister, Elysia, is flying into town this Wednesday. Wants to nail down some details for her wedding here in May.

She’s repeatedly tried calling Bella Dolce to arrange for a cake, but no answer. Anyone know what that’s about?

Okay. Time for me to make some tea. Just wanted to pass forward this awesomeness that George shared.

I’ll be back soon to write. I have lots to say. :)

Enjoy!

How fabulous is this Matryoshka Cafe Curtain print?! But wait… there’s more fabulousness with this item:

The ready-made cafe curtain is one of those brilliant exports from Japan. These have a white, screen printed scalloped border along each edge, and pre-cut holes for curtain rods. Simply trim the excess fabric along the scallops, hem the sides to the appropriate width (or just finish with some bias tape!), and you have ready to hang curtains! The screen print ink will keep the fabric from fraying along the scallops and curtain rod loops, minimizing the prep work - ingenious!

Ingenious, indeed!

Available at SuperBuzzy, home of “Japanese fabrics, notions, fun craft supplies, and other cute stuff.” Thanks to Junior Society for bringing this into my world. SuperBuzzy’s website was recently redesigned by Meomi, of whom I am a long time fan and tshirt-wearer.

AND… SuperBuzzy is apparently located just down the way from me in Ventura!

Are you interested in seeing everything in person? We don’t have a retail location, but we love walk-in warehouse visitors! Please email or give us a call to set up a time in advance so that we don’t miss you!

Definitely a visit will be occurring in my near future.

His post brought to mind a pet peeve of mine…another irksome phenomenon from the world of bumper sticker philosophy - this kind of crap:

Every kid deserves to be honored at [Wasteland] Middle School.

The idiot p.c.-overboard parents are essentially retaliating over those who display “I have an honors student” bumper sitckers and whining, My kid’s a loser who plays video games too much and barely manages a C average but he still deserves to be honored.

And another thing…

WTF is the deal with those “In loving memory” decals these days? You know, those ones that cover practically the entire back windshield, sometimes with a white chalkesque outline of the loved one’s profile or perhaps part of a collage which may include an Our Lady of Guadalupe decal and a sticker of Calvin (sans Hobbes) taking a piss?

*****

OMG!!! Was just googling to find an image/link to help illustrate aforementioned decals. This site has ‘em for, like, your dog (with choice of various breeds), your cat, your horse (oh, wait… that’s a Great Dane)… There are even two different versions of Hello Kitty decals. (UPDATE 7 Jan 09: There’s a Great Dane decal and a horse one. Just thought you’d like to know.)

BTW… Huh? What’s up with the elk and deer?!

And those stick figure family decals, too, which often include the family’s stick figure dog or cat. And the females are all depicted Stepford-like in skirts, not trousers. Those annoy me, too.

Anyway…

I informed Tim last week that he does not have to get a R.I.P. decal for the car should I move on to that happy hour in the sky. His response: “Oh, thank you Sweetie!” And in his voice, I definitely heard more genuine gratitude than sarcasm. For sure.

Playing for Change’s music video project featuring musicians from around the world performing Stand By Me is simply stunning and magical.

Happy new year, my friends.

Holiday shopping fun at Borders!

The links take you over to Brusheezy, which should be among your creative bookmarks, if it isn’t already. If you’re on Facebook, you can also add Brusheezy’s application, which provides you with a box to place among the others on your Boxes page. Designs are regularly updated in your box, which serves as a welcomed and regular reminder for me to check out Brusheezy for the latest and greatest free brushes.

Who spiked the rum with the eggnog?

1) This Grow an Xmas Tree e-card is cool. Type in your text (up to 240 characters; backspace is functional), then choose a background template and text color at the bottom of the page. When you are finished, you can email it to your recipient, or preview it first. Clicking around on the image allows you to zoom and twirl and swirl it about.

2) MushyGushy is one of those sites that allows you to upload a photo of the head of your choosing and create an animated card. Many of them are pretty cheesy, but if you dig around a bit, you’ll unearth a few gems, such as this lovely above. Nothin’ says love and good cheer like latkes!

3) Pinng = awesome. It’s a whole flight of steps up from evites.com. In addition to sending invites, you can also create cards. From the actual Pinng design web page, you can import and add photos from your computer &/or your Flickr account (right from the Pinng design interface!), YouTube clips, add a gift registry, and even create a “gift fund” collection tool using Paypal! You can then email your card, upload the card to your web page, add it to Facebook, and/or post it to Twitter.

4) If you are not already familiar with someecards, you are to finish reading this post and immediately make your way over there. (The card above is particularly amusing to me… My third holiday lunch this week *is tomorrow was Wednesday, when we will indeed be going and we went out for Chinese food.)

5) Similar to someecards is wrongcards.com. Check them out, too.

*UPDATE… Well, cr@p! I actually started writing this post a couple of days ago, saving it as a draft… Got distracted yesterday by the flying monkeys…

I was just coming around here to finally finish it up when I stumbled upon this similar post over at geeksugar.

Bah.

Lots of overlap with my picks here. Geeksugar’s suggestions are worth checking out though, as there are a few with which I’m not familiar, but look promising.

From: Voted Stocking Stuffer of the Year
Subject: Amazing Flying Monkey- For under $10.

How could I resist?! I clicked through, and the page took a while to load. This hesitation immediately led me to start doubting the validity of this item.

I then started having blog déjà vu…

doodly-do doodly-do doodly-do

doodly-do doodly-do doodly-do

I am now convinced it is a sign, and I am destined to have one.

In the meantime, a coworker appeared in my office to ask a legitimate question. Just as she was leaving, my computer suddenly started screeching at me. The page had finally loaded and there it was: The Amazing Flying Monkey in all its glory.

The video on the site provides good schlocky fun… little boys hurling flying, screeching monkeys over tall Christmas trees…

Rather than provide you with the link that came with the spammy email (especially since the source page was entitled Новый плеер! which I’m pretty sure translates to Spams R Us - neep! ), I went to YouTube and searched for “flying monkey” to try to find the video there. No luck. However, a link to InOnline.com’s page - the link in my spam email - appeared on the YouTube search results page. Also appearing among the results was this bit of inspiration:

I SOOOO want to do this. Who’s in?