The L.A. Dime

The Dime is proud to announce that Tina will join its staff as a contributing author.  Keep an eye out for her first post, coming very soon.

“Tastes good. Bad for you.” The Cheese Fry is a clever blog written by friend of the Dime, Mark D, which focuses primarily on the media, and occasionally drifts into sports (see his rant against Peyton Manning). This week, The Cheesy Fry has posted the “Best and Worst Films of 2006.” It’s as comprehensive and well-written a review as any you’d find in a reputable newspaper or magazine. And it’s mostly dead-on.

Also on Cheese Fry right now, the true story of who the UPS White Board Man truly is. Check it out. The Cheese Fry can always be accessed through the Blog Roll on the right side of the Dime.

According to the Coin Star machine at our friendly neighborhood Albertsons, the Change Jar contained:

• 429 Quarters
• 526 Dimes
• 277 Nickels
• 2,748 pennies
• For a grand total of…$201.18

Out of 16 total players, the winner of the L.A. Dime’s “Make a Dime” contest is….Laurie Perdue, a work friend of Tina’s. Her guess was $167 making her $34.18 under.

In second place was Mandee Riddell, who was $41.36 over, and in third was Rick Riddell, who was $63.22 under. Laurie will receive her fabulous prize in the very near future.

Thanks to all who played, and please remember, it’s not too late to donate to my Dash For Dimes Marathon run for the March of Dimes. Each dollar I raise will be triple-matched, so even 50 cents per mile ($13) becomes $39 instantly!

The Racin’ Eights finished our final long run of the training cycle yesterday — 22 miles! Now we taper down to race day on March 4th. If you’re in town, I hope to see you along the course!

Alright, so here’s a little reward for the Dime’s faithful readers. Guess how much money is in the change jar below (click on the image to enlarge), and you will win a prize if your entry is the closest to the total dollar amount. The jar is about 13 inches tall, 20 inches around, and is filled to the brim.

Email your entry to smoofv@yahoo.com, and we will annnounce the winner in two weeks. Good luck, and don’t forget to check out my Dash For Dimes page to help me raise money for the March of Dimes as I run the LA Marathon.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Here that? It’s dial tone. The dime has officially been re-dropped. After a long layoff, we’re back in action.

As the About Page details, I started this blog to keep family and friends in touch with our lives in California, and specifically, a pregnancy we eventually lost after five joyful months. A lot has happened in the meantime — things I surely would have written about: travels, visits, new experiences, job news, Hollywood industry stuff, movies, books, writing, teaching, the debacle that is the BCS, the plague that is Fantasy Football, and the scourge that is Floyd Landis and the Tour de France.

For those of you who informed me that you checked-in on The Dime often when it was up and running (and I’m surprised to hear how many there were), I’m sorry for abandoning you. I’ll do my best from now on to keep you updated on our little life in the Valley. First order of business is to check out The Dash for Dimes. I’m running a marathon in March and you can read all the details over there, and help me to make a difference in the fight to prevent and cure birth defects.

20 mile training run to come this Saturday. Wish me luck. More on that later if I survive it, and welcome back.

Dear readers, there will be a brief pause in posting as my real-job workload has increased and my lovely mother will be visiting for a short while starting tomorrow. We have another baby-Dr. visit coming soon, and I might be able to sneak in a few little things here or there, but I’ll definately send those who have posted comments on the site an email when there’s some new content.

The Dime thanks you for your patience and your continued support.