Duke and I saw Neil Young’s concert movie "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" tonight. It really moved me. There was an enormous truth and honesty. It is just briefly mentioned in the beginning of the movie that Young found out that he had a brain aneurysm not long before the filming of the concert. It was filmed in the Reiman Theater in Nashville. Duke and I saw John Gill there on our honeymoon which probably helped me feel like I was there. Young’s wife was one of the backup singers. The obvious love between them was palpable. You could just see the communication that they shared with just a glance. The music was powerful. "Prairie Wind" reminded me of being a little girl in North Dakota. The song about writing a letter to my friends, the song "Harvest Moon", in fact every song entranced me. Music and great lyrics have a way of touching me emotionally that always surprises me. I came away feeling blessed and thankful for today and all I have. I kept reminding myself not to " be anxious about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself."
Dinner and a Play
Some friends and I went to San Francisco for dinner and a play a couple of weeks ago. The play we saw was written and performed by Leslie Beam who used to work at Intuit. The play was miss-matches.com sex, Lies and Instant Messaging. She did a wonderful job. The show was entertaining, thought provoking and fun. You couldn’t help but laugh at Leslie’s on-line dating and relationship experiences. I really admire people who have a dream and go for it. That is what Leslie did.
For dinner we went to Canteen. My friend Pat always makes our dinner reservations when we go out and she always picks wonderful places. Canteen was no exception. I highly recommend it. It is a tiny little gourmet restaurant with excellent food. It only seats 20 so reservations are hard to get but Canteen is well worth planning ahead for. I noticed when I read the Examiner review (linked to above) that they are open for breakfast. I’ll add that to my list of fun things I want to do. I just called Canteen. Their recording says that they do not take reservations for breakfast or lunch.
PortfolioMinder launched.
PortfolioMinder was released on Friday!! It is very exciting. We called it our soft launch because we only support one financial institution, Schwab. It is exciting to be creating a whole new software product but I find that like a new baby it is consuming me. I wake up in the morning thinking about PortfolioMinder and I spend way to much time working. It is pushing a lot of other stuff out of my life. Like Blogging. I haven’t posted here in almost three weeks.
I’m really trying to maintain a work life balance but it is hard. I am really enjoying helping to create the PortfolioMinder end to end experience. We have a blog (which I haven’t posted to yet) We have a forum. We have formed a network of financial advisors and other people interested in financial planning who are supporting the product. All of us are learning a lot every day and there is so much yet to learn and do. Building a support team who live all over the U.S. an exciting challenge but I’ve got a group of really great people to support the product.
We’ll be doing our marketing launch in the next month or so and will be supporting more financial institutions. Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse will be the next ones we support. That will be our marketing launch.
It is great to finally be selling PortfolioMinder. It should be an interesting next few months.
Las Vegas
Duke and I just got back from a nice 3 day mini vacation to Las Vegas. We left Sunday morning and just got back. We played some Black Jack and won enough to pay our air fare. Winning is sure a lot more fun than losing. We hadn’t been to Las Vegas in about 8 years and there are a lot of new casinos. The Venetian and the new Wynn Las Vegas were my favorites. We stayed at The Mandalay Bay which was very nice. We got a pretty good deal. I would definitely stay there again. We saw the show Mamma Mia which I would recommend if you want some light entertainment. It was enjoyable. I’m back to work tomorrow and the countdown to the launch of PortfolioMinder. It is getting close so all the support processes and systems are in final testing.
Garlic and Saphires
Duke is much better at sleeping in than I am. I love to read in bed next to him on Sunday mornings. The sun shines in through our blinds and all is right with the world. What makes Sunday morning perfect is just the right book. I’ve said before that books have a big impact on my mood. So a Sunday morning reading in bed book needs to be a book I can connect with. It needs to be a book with the right attitude. The book I just finished was perfect.
Garlic and Sapphires is subtitled "The secret life of a critic in disguise". It is written by Ruth Reichel and tells about her experiences as the restaurant critic for the New York Times. Reichel is a wonderful story teller. Her ability to capture the essence of an experience makes it very easy to like her and identify with her. Reading this book just made me feel good.
It is fascinating how the disguises she uses change how she acts and how the alternative personalities start to seep into her personal life. I love how Reichel begins to realize how her life is being impacted and how she decides what to do about it.
I love how Reichel refuses to take herself seriously. She totally gets that it is her job that makes restaurants treat her like royalty. That is why her disguises are so great. The difference between how she is treated when she is the New York Times food critic and when she is one of her characters is not really surprising. It is just nice to see it acknowledged.
After being treated very poorly at what is supposed to be one of New York’s finest restaurants Molly (Ruth in disguise) says to her dinner companion, an acting coach, "You, of all people, should understand the importance of theater. The food may be good, but the service has been so bad that the evening is destroyed…… I did not come here simply to eat, I came here for glamour. I am willing to pay for the privilege of feeling rich and important for a few small hours. Is that too much to ask?" She is so right!
Garlic and Sapphires is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it.
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