Good weekend in San Diego

...which is a no-brainer, since I spent it with some of my favorite people in the world.

Sarah and Ryan are awesome, which is even more amazing because I've seen plenty o'fools slide down the path to lameness after an offspring shows up.

My little nephew Blake is pretty cute.

Here we are, getting "tummy time" to strengthen his wee little neck

And laying on the quilt that Gramme made (with Gramme's designs!)

Tres adorable.

Pictures that I do not have, unfortunately, are of my dearest Alexander and Miriam. Peeps from B-Skool who I miss mucho. It was great to spend time with them and be entertained by their dynamic, which often consists of Miriam challenging Alexander's bullheaded statements and netting out to not much more than a witty comment by Alexander that closes the discussion. Man, I adore them!

And now for the wedding attended by nothing but beautiful people. Put a bunch of Olympians in one place and what you get is a booze-fueled bunch of rowdy (and attractive) behavior. No pics of that.

Here's one of Stacy & Ian as they made their entrance. Both looked incredible. Stacy's arms would make Mrs. Obama jealous.
The setting was so perfect. Nothing went wrong. There were flowers in the pool, even. It's like a unicorn flew over and pooped in it.

And can I please be rich enough to afford not 1, not 2, but 6 huge HD TVs for my patio (because that is what was there)?

I mean, I want to be rich enough to afford but uninterested in buying. Maybe I'll purchase unicorns instead and let them graze on my lawn.

Thankful

for my wonderful friends that i met in business school

and for the cutest two gatos in the world

The latest load of BS

I’ve talked to many Darden students this fall about my experiences at Frito Lay and their own career aspirations.
One stereotype that I’ve heard that I wanted to clear up: “CPG company X creates great brand marketers; not great general managers”.
Where does this come from?
I can speculate: Often, companies that produce products that don’t resonate with consumers (ie are not consumer-facing) are often categorized as great “general management” companies…and for some reason companies with strong brands are thought of as creating strong marketers alone. The folks creating the stereotypes focus only on one of the P’s (Promotion) and categorize brand managers as great advertisers/promoters. No freakin way. I encourage those making blanket statements like this to take a step back.
Brand and Genearl Management are not mutually exclusive in the slightest! A company’s marketers can be both strong Brand and strong at General Managers! I’ve seen it with my own eyes. In many powerful CPGs, the Brand manager is the HUB of the wheel…not a spoke. They are not just a link in the chain; they hold the whole dang thing together. The dive in, seek the value, and bring it to their customers and consumers! That's quite different from sitting in an ivory tower (what's up, Bear Sterns?) crafting models that "create value" out of fancy math (but we need those guys, too...sometimes).
Check out Wikipedia’s definition and tell me how CPG marketers DON’T do general management: “A General Manager has broad, overall responsibility for a business or organization. Whereas a manager may be responsible for one functional area, the General Manager is responsible for all areas. Most commonly, the term general manager refers to any executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement. This is often referred to as Profit & Loss (P&L) responsibility. This means that a general manager usually oversees most or all of the firm's marketing and sales functions as well as the day-to-day operations of the business. Frequently, the general manager is also responsible for leading or coordinating the strategic planning functions of the company.
In many cases, the general manager of a business is given a different formal title or titles. Most corporate managers holding the titles of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or President, for example, are the general managers of their respective businesses. More rarely, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), or Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will act as the general manager of the business. Depending on the company, individuals with the title Managing Director, Regional Vice President, Country Manager, Product Manager, Branch Manager or Segment Manager may also have general management responsibilities.
In consumer products companies, general managers are often given the title Brand Manager or Category Manager. In professional services firms, the general manager may hold titles such as Managing Partner, Senior Partner, or Managing Director.”
This may not be true for every CPG, I give you that. I’ve seen a few pharma companies whose marketers are mainly responsible for the Promotion, and less about the P&L. Part of that may be due to industry-specific regulations on pharmaceuticals and the way that they are marketed.

Kids in America’s business schools: don’t accept the old paradigm of brand and general management being mutually exclusive. Dig into the details. Ask smart questions. You’ll be surprsied what you find!

Confusing...so confusing

Right after Al Gore invented the internet, journalism began its agonizing swan dive into the typography's toilet. Couple that with the morons at Yahoo! News with stories titled "8 ways to think like Warren Buffet", "Bored of chicken for dinner?", and "6 popular tattoo designs".

I want to poke myself in the eye with a pencil. I know there are pencils around because it appears "journalists" don't think before they write. Or even do more than one draft.

The lack of dignity in the profession is awe-inspiring as of late. I believe that the barrier to entry is having DSL.

This article, though, really took the cake. I may be exhausted from my self-imposed looooong workdays, but I couldn't make heads or tails of this story to save my life. It seems like everybody is married to everybody and that a "messy home" is a clear indicator of child neglect and a childhood disappearance case is re-opening after 20 years and...OMIGOD WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP (and maybe not have as many kiddlins?)!!!!

Beige suits you, babe.

---

Speaking of messy houses: mine is definitely there. But I promise the only abuse our child Brutus suffers is too much love & affection.

House Healthcare bill to cost $1.2 Trillion

...and that's just the tab for the printer paper alone.

Holy crap, guys. Where are the hippies when we need them to police our policymakers for wasting so much paper?
Couldn't it be on a Kindle? You might even get Gates' endorsement because he and Bezos have GOT to be golfing buddies (or ideation-scribble-on-your-dry-erase-board-in-the-basement buddies).
In other news, had a great time at Cat & Kitten Cross. Great band (The Spectacles) who in true fashion of ironic hipsters; started their name with "the". Love it.
Got my boots a bit muddy but Mom's wedding dress remained intact. El Gato didn't race as well as he wanted but did do some theatrics for those of us at the Money Pit who waved dollar bills at riders struggling over the barriers. We mainly taunted the men; women scrambling for dollars was a bit too...well...you know.

Cat & Kitten cross...aw yeah

October 22, 2009; Conshohocken, PA, USA: Hard economic times have given rise to some creative sponsorships lately. But none have changed the paradigm more than the HPCX Cyclocross in New Jersey. HPCX, round 6 of the MAC Powered by SRAM Series, didn’t choose a sponsor; a sponsor chose them

…for their wedding reception.

The Cat and Kitten Cyclocross presented by HPCX on November 1 will not only follow Beacon Cross as the second half of MAC’s annual UCI New Jersey Weekend, it will also be the wedding reception for Jonny “Cat” Sundt and Mandy “Kitten” Lozano. Sundt, a member of the Kelly Benefit Strategies Pro Cycling Team, and Lozano, a recently retired pro road and cyclocross racer, originally met at the HPCX race several years ago. And though they married earlier this year and settled in Texas where Mandy works in Marketing for Frito Lay, they wanted to return to New Jersey and HPCX for their reception. “Cyclocross has given us so much, including each other,” said Sundt. “We just wanted to share with the greater family of cyclocross. I’ve done just about every kind of bike racing, and cylcocross has a sense of community that’s unparalleled in any other discipline. So we’re going to have a party with about 400 of our best ‘cross buddies.”

“Cyclocross’ culture of inclusion is key,” adds Mandy. “Few do it better than the HPCX crew. Financially supporting the race lets us give back to the sport and helps to ensure the longevity of the mindset.”

More information on the Cat and Kitten Cyclocross presented by HPCX on November 1, and the previous day’s Beacon Cyclocross, can be found on BikeReg.com.

Farmshares and baby burritos

I just finished creating a marvelous pear & potato soup from our farmshare. It is deceptively creamy despite being (accidentally) vegan! My girl Yamileth will love that!

And, to top it off, tonight my husband revealed something he'd been hiding for years: he can cook! He pulled together a delicious roma tomato reduction-of-sorts over crispy polenta rounds with asiago. Who knew?

I gladly did the dishes.

Perhaps only slightly more important than the discovery of my husband's cooking skills was THE BIRTH OF MY BABY NEPHEW, BLAKE! He is tres cute. (Photo below, masquerating as a baby burrito)

After a speedy labor (4.5 hours or so), Sarah and Ryan welcomed their 7lb 11oz boy (+ a lot of dark hair) into the world at 3:37 a.m. on October 16. They were rather secretive about the name (understandable). Blake Hawk is a perfect reflection of who they are, what they value, and how much of an awesome quarterback he'll be.

Blake is a name they both like a lot. Sarah even remembered an old crush of mine from junior high (I had hormones in my brain but none working on my body) named Blake. He WAS rather cute when we were 12. I'm sure my Blake will be even more adorable. I've been trying to friend Blake T. on Facebook but he's not into it. Perhaps a message to the likes of this will bring him around?

Hawk stems from various things. An image of the West. The freedom of flight. A threatened and sometimes fragile species. A creature Sarah sees often in her line of work. And the name of our favorite cowhorse when we were growing up: Hawkeye. It made us all so happy to hear homage to that lovely horse!

As luck would have it, the entire Lozano clan + Gato were in San Diego when he came into the world. I think that he was just waiting for us all to show up in order to make an entrance. I'll ask him that when he's 10.

Perhaps one of the most mystical things about his birth was a story his Grandfather, Eric Larson, told us at dinner on Friday. He was sitting in his office in Phoenix, and a "thunk" interrupted his thoughts. A huge hawk had flown into the window and was trying to come to its senses while it perched on a tower outside. Hawks rarely make it to the city center like that, and Eric was incredibly surprised to see it. After a while it flew away.

And the next day our little guy was born.

Harbinger? Oui.

You know you live in the hood when...

You walk out your front door, go one block, and someone asks you if you're lost.
True story.
Happened on Saturday night.

I heart this place.

No secrecy...really

I've just been buried in workywork stuff. The adjustment from Darden life to commute + job + housework + useless cat is one that I've not handled too well. I'll get there...it just takes time.

Some cool stuff:

1. Went out to dinner in July with a few friends from Darden. Of the two occupied tables in the restaurant, would you believe that Al Carey (Frito's CEO!) was at the other one? Insanity.

2. Jonny got rid of the monkey on his back. Last he saw it, the creature was pissed off and stalking the parking lot at the Hotter 'n Hell races, looking for some sucker to take him in. Word has it he looks like Mojo Jojo of PowerPuff Girls fame.

Jonny won the Hotter 'n Hell criterium "with nobody else in the picture". I love winning races like that.

3. It's been raining for 3 days. It rained for 90+ days my senior year of college. This is nothing. But I did feel a bit lazy as a result.

4. Life at Frito is pretty good. My projects are exciting and full of challenges that teach me more and more every day. Love every second of it.

5. Been listening to biz books on my commute. Pretty good way to pass the time. I really liked Built to Last by Jim Collins. Most write him off, since some of the companies in his Good to Great book have bit the big one. However, the wisdom in Built to Last is sage, especially the last chapter. He is very self-deprecating and humble about things. I was quite inspired by his final words in the last chapter. It alone is worth the read. Plus, I got to hear his ebullient voice on my stereo!

6. After 3 months without hot water, El Gato installed a new tank on Labor Day weekend. I was getting tired of my frontier-days dishwashing, complete with heating water on the stove. All I needed was a bonnet and a bustle.

More soon. Doubt I have a lot of readers, but just in case I'll write more regularly about life in the Big D. Should be exciting: Lang, Hunky Hungarian, and Bohle will visit this week! Yay!

I heart Richard Sachs!

Next to my dearest husband, Richie is my fave 'cross star! He has the best line on the sport, building bikes, living life, and surrounding himself with wonderful people. My time living in my car during 2006 and knocking around with his cyclocross crew was something I remember often and fondly. Okay, the living in the car part was a bit tough, but hey...I was livin the dream.

I got my weekly email from e-Richie today.

Every time I hear from that guy I am reminded again how much I love the sport of cyclocross. To race again? Probably not. But to celebrate? Absolutely!

I remember how time and again, eyeballs bleeding and tongue hanging out, every muscle screaming for mercy...I went back to the well. Again and again. Asking my body for one more pedal stroke. One more barrier cleared without bashing my shin. One more spandexed butt to chase down and pass in my quest for whatever private (or public) podium I pursued. I remember how I rode out of my gourd during the 2006 National Championships and surprised everybody. I learned some lessons about myself that day and still tap into them from time to time. It was an out-of-body experience, watching myself ride up there with America's best. I will never forget it.

(And that wasn't even my most memorable race, if THAT gives you any idea of how deep a passion for 'cross one can have.)

But enough me-ness (hello...pro cycling-bred habit!). Let's celebrate the one who makes the most lovely of bikes. Bikes people wait for 4 years to own, gladly giving him their money in advance just to have a chance to ride such a magical chrome pony.

Keep on keepin on, e-Richie. I will see you at HPCX!

Meow.

Hide it all. Creative storage

I was browsing the Crate & Barrel website today. Someone gave me a gift certificate…
This caption intrigued me: “Hide it all. Creative storage”.
I have a question:
What is “all” and if I need to hide it, why do I have it in the first place?
I have spent the past 5 years trying to jettison the idea of “possessions” from my life. I find that it is a prison many of us create. Instead of us possessing things, things possess us. This informs many choices: where we live, who we interact with, what we trust, what we do not, how we consume, etc.
Think about it.
You have a lot of stuff. You paid a lot of money for it. It makes you feel a certain way when it is around. You are distrustful of certain people who might steal it. You choose to live in a place where those people do not (or are not allowed to) go. You spend money on systems that protect your stuff: alarms, insurance, storage. You work long hours to afford more stuff. You abstain from buying a bit of stuff so you can invest money that earns more interest, thereby increasing your ability to buy stuff. Your kids want stuff. You work even longer hours to give them stuff. Your wife likes stuff. You work and she does not so that she can stay home and manage your stuff and the stuff belonging to the kids you have who keep demanding more stuff. She is stressed out every day from cleaning/organizing/arranging/using stuff. She shops for more because it makes her feel better. She throws stuff away because more stuff shows up in her stuff store that encourages her to buy more stuff to replace the stuff that is “clearly worn out” or “out of fashion”.
Really?
Am I stuff-less? No. But am I imprisoned by my stuff? Not really. Steal anything I own and I’ve been trying to do the following:
-get in touch with how the theft makes me feel
-dissect what those feelings are really about.
Security?
Self-esteem?
Love?
Emptiness?
Sentimentality?
Money “lost’?
Money “spent”?
Money “well-spent”?
Money “wasted”?
-do the feelings have to do with the thing I lost, or what that thing represented?
-is there any way to feel better without “replacing” it?
-is it even about the thing at all?
-if I get another/more/different stuff, do I build a prison or do I set myself free?
So yeah. I will not go to Crate & Barrel and buy something that hides my stuff. Because why would we want our lives to be made of things we keep hidden and tucked away? What if everything we had we were proud of and not afraid to share?
The very idea of containers and containment saddens me. Wouldn’t it be great if we all cultivated the good stuff thereby reducing the need to go around containing it all the time?
That would rock.

The homely shall inherit the Earth. As long as it's organic.

After a fabulous lunch at the All Good Cafe, Jonny and I concluded that not-so-lovely people really got a leg up when the hipster craze arrived. Suddenly it's cool to have a weak chin, doughy waist, and stringy hair. Throw in some ironic t-shirts (or threadbare plaid button-downs) and tight jeans and suddenly every confused girl wants to take you home.*

This boon for unattractive-cum-hipsters has saturated much of urban and kinda educated America. Veganism is on the rise and pretension at an all-time-high.

Is this what the youth of today have become? Alas, the pretty people are out in the cold.

Save yourselves.

*doubly-effective if you play a musical instrument.

Fond memories

Of my trip out West.
Here are some shots to enjoy :

Lozano women. Always cooking.Sarah, adorably pregnant. My handsome cowboy of a husband. When you don't have a heeler, but you've got two son-in-laws... It's okay, mama. Really. We're just giving him an earring!

I found Jimmy Hoffa

Yesterday began the battle of the mold.

It started when I discovered a giant blister (we're talking bathtub size, big enough to fit Mr. Hoffa) in the ceiling after Thursday night's rainstorm. And some pretty squishy carpet courtesy of the volume of H2O it'd absorbed. I hated the carpet from the get-go. Guess I can get rid of it.

Ultra-convenient, since it was my first week of work and all...

A stressful workday, the Social Security Administration, trips to two different DMVs (had to get my TX license), mucho driving around after getting bad directions, an errand to borrow a ShopVac, and many phone calls later...I made headway with the problem.

Which included:

-ripping up the carpet and carpet pads

-ruining all my towels

-impaling my feet on tackstrips

-moving heavy furniture

-getting nasty carpet chemicals all over my body

-smelling like mold

-needing every window and door open to ventilate

Awesome.

Brutus sympathizes by napping.

Just like my insurance company. It is, as usual, completely incompetent and unresponsive.

So here we are. Brutus is exhausted from all the spectating.

/end rant.

I will be more chipper tomorrow.

Convenience and lower probability of rage

The United States Post Office continues to inspire the inefficient with its processes. I am continually amazed at how much of a pain in the arse it is to mail stuff the isn't a 1-ounce letter in a regular envelope. While I realize that we as laypeople only see the tip of their business iceberg, it is nevertheless frustrating. The reason that I know about that whole "iceberg" concept is because I took an Innovation class and one session featured a consultant who had worked with the lumbering institution. Apparently there is a lot of corporate business that is conducted away from our ignorant eyes.

I can't imagine how much fun that quagmire must be.

But I hath digressed.

Today in my mail I was gifted a postcard all the way from Sweden. Sent by my sweet friend K-Jak in typically innovative and offhandedly cool Swedish fashion. All that was missing was an coupon for Ikea.

At any rate, this postcard featured...me! (and her, dancing on the beach in the Bahamas)

She had uploaded a photo, written me a message, and mailed it to me...all for a few Krona. Impressive!

So I immediately skeedaddled to the site, realized I couldn't safely navigate my VISA card through a Swedish-language site; and resorted to Googling an English-speaking company offering the suchsame loveliness.

I found it. Hazelmail!

For a few Hazelbucks I sent post to a few friends. Of course each had a picture they'd find relevant.

Like, say, this:

So, check it out. You can pay with a Visa and buy each card for $1.50, or purchase 12 Hazelbucks for $12, and use each Buck for one postcard. If my MBA math serves me right, that's a 33% discount.

Yay!

PS: Apologies to those who already knew about this stuff 10 years ago. I guess I was just holding onto the life-sucking experience of standing in line at the Barracks Shopping Center location praying for a bullet to the brain.

Sage words

"To win once is hard. But to win again is even harder because now you have to live up to expectations. And you're on everyone's target list. I think this is what commentators mean when they talk about 'courage'."
-Sam Chun of Radix Group; sponsor of Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team
I started my new jobbyjob yesterday. Very exciting stuff going on at Frito Lay. I am overjoyed to get the mental workout of balancing strategy with tactics. Marketing is one of the most exciting professions because of this. Flying 30,000 feet off the ground while having one ear glued to it.

Wow. I missed being at work. I really did.
Here are some more pics from our amazing vacation. Kristen and Jason's wedding in McCall was magical and I can't imagine a more lovely lakeside setting. Complete with a rainbow!

Though I'm excited about my new life in Dallas, I really really really miss my Darden friends.

Really.

A lot.

2000 words (and change)

+ a video.

need i say more?

okay. i'll say more. such as: "i promise to re-enter blogland next week. the week i start my new jobbyjob!"

I'm back

And Greece was AWESOME!!!! I had so much fun with some of my best friends in the world. I am truly blessed by the relationships Darden gave me. I have nothing but great memories of the past two years.

And when I came home, my compost pile had gifted me zucchini! Hopefully my future tenants will appreciate nature's volunteer bounty and NOT plow it under in favor of some nasty fescue groundcover.

Oh. Big girl on a little bike...

While I'm gone...

...I trust the American people to legalize gay marriage in all states! At the rate of gay marriage activity, it would make sense that most would have it ironed out by the time I return (June 16).

New Hampshire's legalization now leaves us with just 44 states to persuade by the time I come back.

Get goin, peeps.

In other news, I am going here:

With 16 or so of my closest girlfriends (plus Chinesom and Viken)

...Which will be amazing, thank you.

Peace!

A poor argument

Here is a perfect example of how the liberals argue on irrelevant points and as a result fail to persuade. In fact, they build higher walls that keep the rest of humanity out.
As a flaming liberal granolagirl myself, I am ashamed by the faulty logic at play here.

News flash, lady: your vision of Utopia might not be the right one for most of humanity. Quit forcing it and listen to what other people have to say, instead of drawing tenuous connections and using the word "should" so damn often. No matter what you say from your lofty perch, the majority of people WILL NOT stop eating at McDonald's! So please quit asking them.
Sheesh.
/end rant

Back in the saddle

but not really riding my bike.

After an ill-fated attempt at a trip to India, I am gearing up for a mini-vacation in Greece with 15+ of my closest girlfriends (plus Chinesom and Vikken). It's going to be wonderful and I can't wait to watch the sun set over Santorini.

I am also furiously planning a road trip with my buddy James. We are headed for a wedding of our dear friends Kristen and Jason in McCall, ID.

Being a Northwestern girl, I enticed James to fly into Medford and join me on a cross-Oregon drive to enjoy the seld0m-seen sights of my homestate, as well as take a trip down memory lane. My first ever bike adventure took place in Eastern Oregon, and I'm excited to once again see the roads around Enterprise, Halfway (now known as half.com), Joseph, John Day, Prineville (home of the legendary Les Schwab Tires), and Hell's Canyon.

We will be treated to vistas like these:

Aaaaaah.

Time has forgotten these places. In 2007, Wallowa County was holding strong with a population of 7,130. My heart beams with pride at the thought of these incredibly beautiful locales where life is truly lived...and nobody has a Blackberry.

So, dear reader(s?); never fear. I will blog again come July. I start workywork on the 13th, so it'll be interesting to see what news I find fit to print. While I hold out hope that the rest of the world is interested in the ins-and-outs of snack activation strategies, I know that some will pine for pics like this. Us hanging out on lakeshores with friends. Generally being (temporarily) unemployed and royally in-debt. Yeehaw!

Thanks, AndyMoon, for the pic. You non-Facebooker, you.