The Parent Project®

This program is available locally in various Ventura County locations.  Many programs are free or charge only a small fee for a Parent Project workbook.

Some currently available local Parent Project classes are below.

• Thousand Oaks Police Department is offering a 10 week session on Wed nights 6pm to 9pm from 1/20/10 to 4/24/10 at 2101 East Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Another session will run from

New Rules for Roth IRAs

Presented by Bradley Bronk, CFP^®

Roth IRAs, despite their attractive features, have yet to match the popularity of traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA).  One reason Roth IRAs constitute such a small percentage of total retirement assets, just 5%, is that many wealthier individuals, who potentially stand to benefit the most from them, have been ineligible either to contribute to one or to convert their existing traditional IRAs to a Roth IRA.  As of year-end 2008, over $3.5 trillion was invested in traditional IRAs compared with a mere $165 billion in Roth IRAs.¹

The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 changed tax laws regarding the conversion of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.  The act specifically allows anyone to convert their traditional IRA to a Roth IRA regardless of their adjusted gross income (AGI), beginning January 1, 2010.  This is a unique opportunity that was not available to everyone in the past.

What is a Roth IRA?

A Roth IRA is a retirement investment vehicle in which all earnings are tax free when distributions are taken. Other benefits include eliminating the need to take minimum distributions after age 70½ and avoiding the early distribution penalty on certain withdrawals.

You cannot miss the 25th Annual Great Race of Agoura Hills! The Great Race is one of the largest running events in Southern California!  This year's event takes place on Saturday, March 27th, at Chumash Park, 5550 Medea Valley Drive, Agoura Hills.

This silver anniversary event will be the largest and best in the history of the Great Race!  As always, there will be a huge variety of run/walks for EVERYONE (from nationally competitive runners to casual fun-runners to walkers), including:

• Cheseboro Half Marathon: This 13.1 mile run is mostly on trails in Cheseboro Canyon, with a final descent down Kanan Road to the finish.  I've run this several times and can say it is challenging, beautiful and fun. This popular race usually sells out at 1,500!!
• Pacific Half Marathon: This additional 13.1 road race was added last year. The race starts at Paramount Ranch in Agoura and ends at Chumash Park (a shuttle brings you back to the start). This race is also capped at 1,500 runners/walkers.
• Old Agoura 10K: This 6.2 mile run is a fairly challenging run through the residential areas of Old Agoura. I have run this several times in the past and it was a lot of fun.  There are some rolling hills on this course, so train accordingly! Limited to 1,500.
• Deena Kastor 5K: This 3.1 miler's namesake is 1991 Agoura High graduate Deena Kastor....2004 Olympic Marathon Bronze Medalist, American Record Holder in the marathon, half marathon, 10 miles, 8K and more (also winner of the London Marathon, Chicago Marathon, etc.). Join 1,499 others to run this flat/downhill course!
• Kids 1 Mile: Up to 500 kids ages 6 to 12 will enjoy this pancake flat fun run in the neighborhood surrounding Chumash Park.
• Family Fun Run/Walk 1 Mile: Same flat course as the Kids 1 Mile. Limited to 1,000.

The Great Race "goodie bag" is always GREAT, but greater than EVER this year! Up to 7.000 people will receive HUGE commemorative medals with ribbons specific to their event. All half marathon, 10K, 5K and Kids 1 Mile participants will get drawstring backpacks for their goodie bags. Special running hats and bib belts will be distributed to up to 5,000 and 4,000 participants, respectively.

The post race event at Chumash Park will have dozens of vendors and will be a major party! In fact, you will be hard pressed to find a better post-race party around here.

Don't wait as you may miss out! Learn more and sign up NOW by visiting www.greatraceofagoura.com.

Find a job! We did EXTENSIVE homework to help you find LOCAL work in and around Ventura County. We look not only in Ventura County, but in adjacent cities like Calabasas/Agoura, Malibu, Woodland Hills, Chatsworth and Carpinteria.

There still ARE lots of jobs out there, but ya have to LOOK HARDER for them and often! Don't rely only on the usual suspects like Monster and Craigslist! Go directly to the source ... corporations, hospitals, municipalities, schools, etc.

Treat the job hunting process like a fishing expedition. Be patient. Keep the fishing lines out there and check these websites often!

For more job hunting tips, click here. I would love to hear about your success stories.  Feel free to contact me or add a comment to this blog post.

Corporate, School, Healthcare Career Websites

ADP: www.adp.com/careers.aspx (4 Woodland Hills jobs 2/25/10)

Advanced Motion Controls: www.a-m-c.com/content/contact/careers.html (3 Cam jobs 2/25/10)

AECOM: http://aecom.com/Careers (1 Camarillo job 2/25/10)

Aerovironment: www.avinc.com/careers/jobs/category/simi_valley/ (56 Simi jobs 3/10/10)

AGIA: www.agia.com/employ.asp (4 Carpinteria jobs 2/25/10)

Alcoa: www.alcoa.com/global/en/careers/welcome.asp (2 Newbury Park jobs 2/25/10)

Amgen: https://sjobs.brassring.com/1033/asp/tg/cim_home.asp?partnerid=25236&siteid=5308 (126 Thousand Oaks jobs 2/25/10)

AML Communications: www.amlj.com/contact.html# (1 Camarillo jobs 2/13/10)

ATK Integrated Systems: www.atk.jobs (17 Woodland Hills jobs 3/1/10)

AT&T: http://connect.att.jobs/california-jobs (1 Camarillo job 2/1/10)

Avanquest Software: www.avanquest.com/USA/corporate/careers/job-listings.html (8 Calab jobs 3/1/10)

Aveox: www.aveox.com/Careers.aspx (1 Simi job 3/1/10)

Avery Dennison www.averydennison.com/avy/en_us/Careers/Job-Search (1 WLV jobs 3/1/10)

Bank of America: http://careers.bankofamerica.com/jobsearch.aspx (dozens of local jobs)

Baxter: www.careers.baxter.com/us/index.html (28 T.O/WLV jobs 3/1/10)

BeyondTrust Software: www.beyondtrust.com/company/employment.asp (1 Agoura job 2/6/10)

Blue Shield of California: www.blueshieldca.com/bsc/aboutbsc/careers/index.jhtml (15 Woodland Hills jobs 3/9/10)

BMW Group DesignworksUSA: www.designworksusa.com/dwusa/contact/california/index.html (no listed Newbury Park jobs 2/6/10)

Calavo Growers: www.calavo.com/careers.php (no Santa Paula jobs 3/1/10)

Caldera Medical: www.calderamedical.com/careers.php (4 Agoura jobs 3/1/10)

Cal Lutheran University: www.callutheran.edu/hr/ (21 staff/faculty jobs 3/2/10)

Cal St University Channel Islands: www.csucijobs.com (13 staff/faculty jobs 3/2/10)

Caminosoft: www.caminosoft.com/contact/employment.html (no Simi jobs 3/2/10)

Capstone Turbine: www.capstoneturbine.com/company/careers/ (0 Chatsworth jobs 3/2/10)

Carpinteria Water District: www.cvwd.net/jobs.htm (no jobs 3/2/10)

CKE (Carl's Jr): www.ckr.com/careers/index.html (3 Carpinteria jobs 3/2/10)

Ceres: www.ceres.net/AboutUs/AboutUs-Careers-Jobs.html (no NP jobs 3/2/10)

Chatsworth Products, Inc. www.chatsworth.com/careers (2 WLV jobs 3/2/10)

The Cheesecake Factory: www.cakecareers.com (10 Calabasas jobs 3/2/10)

We have the Germans to thank for the Easter Bunny concept, which came about in the 1500s. Hares and bunnies are signs of fertility and eggs signify rebirth. The Germans brought Easter traditions to America and it wasn't until after the Civil War that Easter became widely celebrated. Now we celebrate by gorging ourselves on candy! Yeah!!!

Mar 12th to Apr 3rd: Easter Bunny at Simi Valley Town Center

Mar 13th to Apr 3rd: Easter Bunny at Pacific View Mall in Ventura

Mar 13th to Apr 3rd: Easter Bunny at The Oaks Mall Thousand Oaks

Sat, March 27th: Conejo Recreation & Park District Spring Eggstravaganza Thousand Oaks

The first-ever TEDxConejo Conference, a one-day locally organized gathering of renowned thinkers and doers produced in association with the Conejo Valley Unified School District, will bring a diverse line-up of speakers to the Scherr Forum at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center on March 27th.  A limited number of tickets are still available.

The conference is built on the model and under license from the TED Conference, an annual gathering of some of the worldʼs most fascinating and influential people. This local edition, brings together some of the leading minds in the area to share ideas, insight and discussion. The program features talks, ranging in length from 3 to 18 minutes, and conversation breaks where audience members and speakers have the opportunity to talk and exchange ideas. In addition to the internationally recognized presenters, the organizers have identified several outstanding area students who will speak or perform.

The daylong program is organized around the theme, “Whatʼs The Big Idea,” and is divided into three sessions: “Thinking,” “Doing,” and “Seeing.” Topics to be covered include the neuroscience of beliefs, innovations and discoveries in medicine and healthcare, the principles of meaningful enterprise, new ideas in education, effective communication, microfinance, human perception and music.

Thomas Goetz is the executive editor of Wired Magazine and author of the new book, The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in The New Era of Personalized Medicine. His writing on science and medicine has appeared in the Best American Science Writing and Technology anthologies. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, his work has also appeared in The New York Times op-ed page and in The New York Times Magazine. He holds masterʼs degrees in American literature and public health.

Dr. Scott Patterson is the executive director of Medical Sciences at Amgen Inc. He is well known in the field of protein chemistry and is one of the pioneers in the field of proteomics. At Amgen, he leads the Molecular Sciences department with primary responsibility for application of biomarkers across all research studies. He received his Ph.D. and B.Sc from the University of Queensland, where he held positions of increasing responsibility culminating in that of senior research officer. Patterson is also a former faculty member of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.

Mark Robert Waldman is Associate Fellow at the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania and Adjunct Faculty at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is a therapist, co-author of ten books, including Born to Believe and How God Changes Your Brain (both written with Dr. Andrew Newberg, M.D.), and the founding editor of Transpersonal Review. He lectures throughout the country on neuroscience, religion and spirituality and conducts research with numerous religious and secular groups. His work has been featured in dozens of newspapers, magazines and on syndicated radio programs.

A Press Conference will be held to announce the complete speaker line-up and beposted at the TEDxConejo website, www.tedxconejo.com.

About the Conference

Big ideas will fill the Scherr Forum at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on March 27th, when TEDxConejo brings together some of the most interesting and interested people in our community for a day of talks, entertainment and conversation.

So try to get to bed early the night of March 13th or you might feel grumpy on Monday! Especially when you realize it feels a lot darker that morning. But the good thing is it'll be a lot lighter out at dinnertime!

** Contrary to what many of us think, it is called Daylight Saving Time, not Savings Time. Make sure to correct anyone who says it wrong if you really want to get on their nerves. But the reality of it is that we're not saving any daylight, we're just shifting it around.

MY VENTING SESSION ON DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME :>

"Race Day" by Camarillo artist Chuck Trunks.

Start training for upcoming 5K, 10K, half marathon and other Ventura County endurance events! We've made it easy for you to find a local rae by tracking local events!. So go on, get moving, lace up those shoes and start training! CLICK HERE for local running/cycling groups and clubs!!

CONEJO JOE'S MARATHON TRAINING BLOG

March 13th: 2nd Annual Bandit 30K/14K Trail Runs and Kids Fun Run in Simi Valley

March 13th: 2nd Annual Baby Joey SIDS Run for Life 5K in Camarillo

March 27th: 25th Anniversary Great Race of Agoura Races: Cheseboro Half Marathon, Pacific Half Marathon, Old Agoura 10K, Deena Kastor 5K and Kids/Family 5 Mile Run/Walks

March 28th: Sycamore Canyon 8K, 18K, 30K, 50K Trail Runs in Malibu

April 3rd: Comet Run 5K Run/Walk at Mission Oaks Park in Camarillo

CLICK HERE for other recipes from Jill published here on Conejo Valley Guide!

Happy March everyone!  Since the Irish always seem to steer me towards thinking of potatoes, here is a great take on potato salad – Potato Cobb Salad!  Fill up your platter with rows of beautiful salad fixings and toppings and let your guests pick and choose what they like.  Serve with a side of Cilantro Buttermilk dressing for a real crowd pleaser – maybe even Oscar Party worthy!  Enjoy! -Jill

Potato Cobb Salad

 3 lbs Yukon gold potatoes

¾ tsp salt