I’ve been going to Pismo Beach to ride dune buggies and ATVs ever since I was 7 years old.  My father and uncles built our first dune buggy using the metal pipes from our old swing set and bucket seats from old cars on the lot.  We would drive up the coast in our camper and stay right on the sand.  In the mornings, we would drive our dune buggies down the beach to find Pismo Clams.  They’re the ones that are 4-inches wide, and they made delicious clam chowder on our stovetop in the camper. 

After my daughters were born, we started the tradition of going to Pismo every September.  By inviting a group of 10-12 people for each adventure, our fun-filled Pismo tradition continues even today.  We rent ATVs from BJ’s ATV Rentals and ride in the Pismo sand dunes right on the beach.  Where else can you ride an ATV along the ocean and then race in huge sand dunes?  We always have a few crazy people who get 5-6 feet of air (Sam Artioli), roll down the dunes (Rob D’Arcy), and flip their ATV (Vicky Tian) but we always make it out alive.  Looking forward to our next Pismo adventure in 2 weeks!

About 3 years ago, we drove up to Pescadero to dig out 50 raspberry cane from a fellow’s garden.  He had posted an ad on Craigslist that he was clearing his raspberry patch and was selling each cane for $5. 

Rob and I planted each of the 50 cane in our raspberry patch after building above ground planters and fencing around the entire patch to keep out the deer and critters.  We anxiously awaited harvest time in our raspberry patch each season only to gather a handful of berries.  Even with fertilizers, pruning, weeding, covering the patch, our berries were so small we couldn’t serve them with any of our desserts.

Then this year, we got our first bumper crop of raspberries.  There were so many raspberries on each cane that they were leaning over from the weight!  Wow!  Each raspberry that we picked was plump and beautiful. I must have eaten a quart on the first day!  I think the cane just needed a few years to establish themselves in their new homes.  With this new season from September to December, I’m looking forward to eating my favorite fruit!

If you’re set on transferring from a California community college to one of the 6 UC campuses (Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz) that offer Transfer Agreement Guarantees (TAG), your deadline is Sept 30^th – not November 30^th like regular transfer applications.  The benefit of participating in TAG is that your application will receive an early review and you’ll be notified earlier, similar to Early Action applications at private colleges. 

As a TAG applicant, you can only apply to one UC campus.  I recommend that you still apply to other UC campuses to keep your options open should you not get into your top choice.  Regular applications are accepted from November 1-30. 

Meet with your community college advisor to complete that application using the UC Transfer Admission Planner.  TAG applications are accepted from September 1-30, and you’ll be notified if your TAG has been approved in November.  You’ll still need to complete the regular UC application during the regular application period of November 1-30.  

Here are the TAG guidelines: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/tag-matrix.pdf

It’s been exactly a week since we got our 2 puppies, although it feels like a month!

I usually do extensive research about everything before taking bold steps like adopting TWO PUPPIES, but as you all know, it was a surprise gift from our kids.  After reading volumes of pet training guides that flat-out state that you shouldn’t adopt sibling puppies or any 2 puppies at the same time because it causes all kinds of social and psychological problems for them, we are now really torn about what to do. 

Professional dog trainers all warn against adopting more than one puppy at a time.  Apparently, the puppies bond to one another and not to humans. As they get older, they don’t play well with other dogs because they consider them threats.  The siblings dogs often fight themselves and establish what I call their own “pecking order.” 

For those pet owners who brave raising 2 sibling pups, the experts recommend separating them during feeding, training, playing, and sleeping for the first 12-14 months so they can each develop a relationship with us humans.  It also gives each pup a year to develop their own personalities without being bullied by the alpha dog.  But, this now requires twice as much time! 

Now that Rob’s retired, he does have more time.  But I’m working a bazillion hours a week running my businesses and doing another gazillion projects.  We’re both still wondering what would be best for the pups, and for us.  It would break Jaclyn’s heart if we gave one of the pups to a new owner so we have some difficult decisions to make.  If it were a year and a half later (after her residency and fellowship), Nicole would probably be ready to adopt a pup.  Radar, Jaclyn’s 16-year old dog, doesn’t like the puppies and she’s sensitive to his needs so she can’t take one of them either. 

I’m open to suggestions!  Does anyone have any tips for us?

I’m a night nibbler.  In the middle of the night, I like to get a sip of water and a little bite to eat. 

One night a few weeks ago (before puppies) as I made my way up to the kitchen, I noticed all of my Rice Krispie sculpture supplies strewn across the kitchen floor.  I stepped over the bags of marshmallows and crushed the Rice Krispies with each step.  At first, I thought that Radar (Jaclyn’s dog) had a sudden craving for something sweet, but then I noticed our recycling container was knocked over.  Radar would never be able to knock that down. 

Then I realized that a critter must have come through our doggie door and helped himself to our kitchen.  EWWWW!  I quickly locked the doggie door, but then worried that maybe that critter was still ravaging his way through other parts of the house, and I locked him inside!  We now keep the doggie door locked except when Radar is here. 

Lesson learned: critters have no manners so protect yourself!

You know the old saying, “Practice makes perfect”? You know the one – your mother probably said this as you sat down at the piano or as your father tossed you a basketball.  Well, there’s actually science to back it up.  The more time you spend on learning or doing something, the better you become.  Yup, you already know this.  But did you know that this same principle holds true for negative things?  That means that if you spend a lot of time regurgitating thoughts about retaliating against someone or stagnating on a depressing thought, you actually become better at it and your brain puts more into building those neural connections than doing more positive things.

This reminds me of the old adage: Misery loves company.  When people feel unhappy, they want to wallow in it with friends who are experiencing the same pain.  It’s a natural tendency.  But what researchers are finding today is that in order to pull yourself out of these miserable conditions, you need to make room in your brain to develop happier or positive thoughts.  So you need to shut off the negative influences so you can practice more productive behaviors.  This is not just a psychological step but a neurological path to happiness and productivity.

You know how you feel when you wake up after a good night’s sleep?  If you’re like me, you feel energized.  The problems you were stressed about the night before now seem easy to solve. It’s like your dreams cleared the clutter in your mind that built up over the whole day and gave you a fresh start in the morning.  So when you’re trying to break old habits or make new healthy ones, you need more room in your brain to establish these new neurological pathways.  Get a good night’s sleep, choose positive things to do and to think about, and shut out negative thoughts and people so you can create a healthy mind.

Rob and I got our first Golden Retriever 35 years ago – BC (before children).  Nugget was the best dog and he quickly became part of our family.  Over the next 3 decades, we had 2 more Golden Retrievers (MacGyver and Indy), and then, of course, we got Radar – Jaclyn’s pride and joy! I have to admit that when Radar went to PA with Jaclyn and Indy passed away, it was kind of nice to have the whole house to ourselves again.  We could take off without having to reserve a kennel or rush home to feed the dogs.  Ahhhh. Well, that was before this past weekend.

For our 34^th anniversary last weekend, Jaclyn and Alex brought us delicious Indian food (my favorite!) for lunch.  As we sat down to eat lunch around our dining room table, Jaclyn walked in with a giant wicker basket with red and blue bows.  Waiting to politely dig into the lamb and other tasty treats, Jaclyn insisted that we open the gift right then before lunch.  I wondered why they brought picnic in addition to Indian food.  Then Rob said, “I think something is alive in there!”  At first I thought they brought an iguana or something small that could fit inside.  But, NOOOOOOOOO.

Jaclyn popped open the basket, and out jumped 2 adorable Black Labs. Yup!  She brought two 6.5-week-old PUPPIES as gifts for us.  WHO DOES THAT?  Rob, who has been yearning to have 2 Black Labs for years, grabbed the puppies and instantly fell in love with them.  He rolled on the floor like a 10-year-old boy.  Their fluffy faces and tiny body were so sweet and soft that even I couldn’t resist – even though I was in complete SHOCK.  Me, the person who orchestrates every detail in her life, suddenly had 2 puppies.  My 3-day weekend was filled with people installing carpet in my office, people laying a brick pathway to the orchard, and people helping me cut tree branches.  This weekend was the last before the new school year started and I had so much to do.

In a daze, I went to Pet Pals and Pet Smart to buy 5 pet gates, dog bedding, food, pee pads, chews, and everything we needed for TWO PUPPIES.  Yikes. I’m still in shock as I clean up pee on my hardwood floors. Yup, the floors that I used to shine so I could almost see my reflection in it.  But, no more shiny floors, no more spontaneous getaways, and no more peace. 

So if I were Miss Manners, I’d say NOPE to giving 2 puppies as a surprise gift.  But in Jaclyn’s defense, she knew I would take years to finally agree to get a puppy, and probably another decade before I’d agree to two.  Our property is ideal for big dogs and they’ll love living here.  She planned out the surprise with such attention to detail (Hmm. Wonder where she gets that from?) that it made the surprise that much sweeter.  And now I get up early to play with them; I love how everything is so new and exciting to them.  They make me smile and laugh, and they are so adorable.  So under certain circumstances, I guess it’s okay to surprise someone with 2 puppies… Thanks Jaclyn, Alex, and Nicole!

It can help with college scholarships and admissions.  Here’s how:

Everyone thinks the PSAT is just a preliminary “SAT” that colleges don’t see, and subsequently, they neither prep for it nor take it seriously.  BIG MISTAKE!  The PSAT is actually also the NMSQT, National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is the only way you can qualify to be a National Merit Scholar. Out of the 1.5 million students who take the PSAT each year, 34,000 students are commended and 16,000 become semifinalists.  Of these 16,000 semifinalists, 15,000 go on to become Merit Scholars.  These scholars win $2,500 scholarships or corporate/college scholarship awards.  And this is just for taking the PSAT!  Easy peasy.

Being recognized as a recipient of the Merit Scholarship Award is highly regarded by college admissions committees.  When my daughter Nicole won this award, she received a full-scholarship offering from colleges that she didn’t even apply to!  Colleges get ahold of these Merit Scholars and actively pursue them as they recruit students each year.  

My recommendation: Take PSAT practice tests so you become familiar with the test process.  Work on improving your scores by completing each section within the given time allotment.  Review math concepts that you may have forgotten over the summer.  READ, READ, READ.  The best way to improve the tricky reading comprehension and grammar sections is to simply read every day.

You can start taking the PSAT in 9th grade.  Your “real” PSAT score is calculated in 11th grade, so by starting early, you get 2 chances to prepare.  Just think — this is probably one of the easiest scholarships to apply for — No essays! No interviews!.  And if you score in the top 4%, colleges will be knocking on your door!

After a long day at the office, there’s nothing more irritating to find out when you return home than your kids not getting their chores done. Right? They get home at 3:00 pm but can’t manage to make their beds or do their chores.  The super annoying part is that they have no problem playing video games or hanging out on InstaSnapFace for hours.  So rather than punish after-the-fact or grumble with anger, get them to do their chores before they spend hours online.  How?

Change the WIFI password before you leave for work.  When the kids get home from school, ask them to send you a photo of the completed job with an object that you name placed right in the photo.  Select something like the Giants cap that they put on the empty dishwasher rack or the clean room.  That way they can’t send you the same photo every day.  Then, you can text them the new password so they can go online.

This system could also work for homework as long as they don’t need to go on the internet to retrieve homework assignments or to do research.  You know your children’s work load so you can determine how far you want to go with this system.  But, if your child is doing social media before starting homework, I guarantee you that their homework and studying is not going to be anywhere near as good as it could be had they started with homework when they got home from school. 

So now the kids won’t have one over you when it comes to the internet.  Stay ahead of them and get them to take care of chores and homework BEFORE going online!

Whoa! Amazon may not be the lowest-price online retailer anymore?  After years of buying everything online because it was easy to use, shipping was free (with Amazon Prime), and it was always the least expensive option, I’ve found Amazon is – sadly – using unsavory sales tactics.  For instance, they are promoting the “Subscribe and Save” that has become known as the ‘Bait and Switch” program by disgruntled customers.

By trying the capture the automatic resale customer, Amazon entices people by offering a 5-15% savings by automatically reordering an item.  Sounds good, right?  In the old Amazon world, yes that would be great because they were already the least expensive option and delivered quickly.  So to find that you get all the above and a possible 15% discount on something you need to order anyway would be a no-brainer.  But, Amazon doesn’t give you the 5-15% discount on your great price that you originally got on your purchase – instead, they don’t guarantee the same great price, as a matter of fact, they actually have increased the prices of the items!

WHY?

Amazon, like other retailers are banking on the fact that most consumers become lazy once they think they have the best price for their products.  I’m guilty of that, too.  They don’t check the prices to compare once they have their low-price solution, which gives retailers the ability to increase the price with automatic refills without consumers knowing.  What’s worse is that Amazon promises further savings when in reality they’re actually increasing the prices.

So, you really need to continue to check prices whether you buy once or set up an automatic resale.  You’re your best advocate!