Who would you invite?

If you could invite any five people to a dinner party thrown by you, who would they be? They can be living or dead, famous or not. Here's my choices:

1. Harrison Ford
2. Mark Twain
3. Leonardo da Vinci
4. Edward Gorey
5. Jesus Christ

You notice I didn't invite any women. No offense to any female gastronomes, but men just seem to be more appreciative of food and drink. I don't see any of these men being on Atkins.

I tried to choose an interesting mix of artistic people from the present to ancient history. I may need an interpretor for Signore da Vinci (Italian) and Jesus (Aramaic), but since this is my fantasy, they will all speak English. I think the conversations will be fascinating and they will all be thrilled to be invited. Da Vinci will be interested to see if his Last Supper painting portrayed Jesus correctly, Mark Twain and Edward Gorey would have the same sense of humor and...well...Mr. Ford will sit next to me.

What to serve! I don't want to mess anything up, so I'll keep it simple with a nice pork roast, rosemary potatoes, blanched green beans, a colorful salad with homemade balsamic dressing, homemade bread and, of course, a nice merlot (Jesus can bring his own water and turn it into a great cabernet if He's so inclined).

The invitation would read:

You are cordially invited to an intimate and extraordinarily unusual dinner party on June 21, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. Come exactly as you are (or were) and prepare for a night you will never forget.

BluesFest Rocks!

On my computer at work I listen to the coolest Internet station called BluesFest Radio. If you love the blues, jazz, '60s and '70s rock, big band and a whole slew of other types of music, tune in. You can request music and it actually gets played, your name will be read over the Net, you can live chat and even do station ID's. They rock!!

Talking to a Mirror?

For some reason, I can't talk to someone's reflection in a mirror. You know when you are talking to the person next to you in the ladies' room while washing hands? Or to the person cutting your hair? I have a really hard time talking to the person's reflection. I have to turn and actually look at them. Weird or considerate? Maybe I just don't like to see myself talk.

How to survive: Part 2.

Record every expense. I learned this from the phenomenal book Your Money or Your Life. Record in a small notebook everything you spend. Do it for about 6 months. You will be shocked at where your money goes. Once you get a good idea about where it's going, then you can decide how much of that should be going to you. Yes! One of those categories should be "Me". Pay yourself as you would pay a credit card or mortgage company. In fact, do it first.

How to survive: Part 1

Living in the unpredictable times we have now, I have come up with several ways to survive and perhaps thrive. One of them is to always have multiple streams of income coming in. In college I always had 3 or 4 different jobs with different paychecks coming in at a time. Now, with a full-time job, I still do. I am an E-Bayer: selling things I don't want, cheap finds from thrift stores, dumpster dive swag, etc. I also do freelance design and writing.

Never let your income dwindle down to one paycheck. Always have multiple streams of income coming in. And you help you survive even more...always save at least one of those paychecks.

Welcome

Just trying out this new blog thing. I had a hard time coming up with a title. I am a fairly interesting person who is well-read and well-traveled, but coming up with an all-encompassing title and "look" for...well...me, was difficult. I decided to name my blog after the Moody Blues' song "Wildest Dreams". A great song and it reminds me of my childhood in the 80s. I'll probably change my mind several times over the next couple of weeks. Welcome and enjoy!