The Conejo Valley Guide "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, highlights of local things to do, compilations and other items. Focus is on information relevant to Ventura County and surrounding areas, including Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moorpark, Somis, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Barbara and Moorpark.
The Conejo Valley Guide® "Welcome" blog covers a wide range of topics, local information, local things to do, holiday event compilations, announcements and more.
Chris Rowell of Newbury Park captured the essence of spring nicely in this colorful photo in Thousand Oaks today. Blue skies and the budding of wildflowers marks this time of year!
A great time to be outdoor for upcoming festivals, fairs and expos, and local health and fitness events. Or try some local hikes and trails, visit a botanic garden, go horseback riding and much more.
After rain and thunderstorms the better part of the week, blue skies appeared again this beautiful Saturday, April 14, 2012 in the Conejo Valley and throughout Ventura County. From my vantage point, this was a perfect day. Blue skies dotted with some clouds...and temperatures in the low to mid 60s. Just the way I like it. Cold for some, perfect for me!
For a variety of trail and hiking options in the area, CLICK HERE.
As most of us hopefully know by now, individual tax returns for 2011 must be postmarked by Tuesday, April 17th. Why the 17th and not the 15th this year?
Two reasons. The first and most obvious one is that April 15th falls on a Sunday. When April 15th falls on a weekend or a holiday, Tax Day is pushed to the next business day.
However, this year, Monday, April 16th is Emancipation Day, a holiday that is observed in the District of Columbia. According to federal law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines in the same way that federal holidays do; therefore, all taxpayers will have two extra days to file this year.
Emancipation Day is celebrated in Washington D.C. to commemororate Abraham Lincoln signing the Compensated Emancipation Act for the release of about 3,100 enslaved persons in the D.C. on April 16, 1862. That would make this coming Emancipation Day the 150th Anniversary of that event.
Coincidentally, it was Abraham Lincoln on August 5, 1861 that signed the Revenue Act of 1861, which imposed a federal income tax on individuals for the first time to pay for the Civil War...a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800. Ah yes, the good ole days.
More info on taxes but of course is available at www.irs.gov. California follows federal guidelines for Tax Day.
This new piece entitled "Arcade Pop" by Camarillo artist Chuck Trunks was inspired by his visits to the local arcade to play Pac Man and Space Invaders circa 1975. See Trunks' other work on Conejo Valley Guide here.
While arcades are not as prevalent in this day and age with the advent of Xbox, Playstation, DS, iPads, iPhones, Facebook and the like, there still are some around town:
LazerTag Extreme in Camarillo (CLOSED 3/18/12 - TO BE RELOCATED)
Big Z Family Fun Center in Simi Valley
By Nancy Needham
Singers from areas that include Ventura County, Santa Clarita and Pasadena come together in Oak Park once a week for three hours to rehearse serious choral works.
The Los Robles Master Chorale, a 100-voice community choral ensemble, has performed in Ventura County for over 34 years. Membership has more than doubled since it began on the campus of Moorpark College in 1978.
"Those who come to listen will hear excellence in music. They will always come again," Master Chorale Executive Director Lenard Geres said.
The singers are all talented volunteers. Many are trained professionals. Their artistic director Lesley Leighton is on a mission to preserve Southern California's rich choral music tradition. She's a long-standing Los Angeles Master Chorale member and principal artist who has traveled the world performing.
The Master Chorale performs at local churches four times a year with two performances at Christmas time. The Consort Singers, a 26 member group taken from the Master Chorale, perform twice a year--in the fall and spring. The Master Chorale has yearly auditions in June.
For more information, visit www.losroblesmasterchorale.org.
Herbie the Squirrel smiling for the camera in Thousand Oaks.
It started with a little squirrel named Herbie. Herbie was known to munch on seeds and plants outside the National Park Service Visitor Center in Thousand Oaks. Herbie is pictured to the right. Cute little guy, isn't he.
Conejo Valley resident Rocky N. Bulwinckel took notice 2 years ago. Rocky, third cousin once removed of Carolyn Lawrence, the voice of Sandy Cheeks, well known squirrel character on SpongeBob SquarePants, was impressed at Herbie the Squirrel's amicable behavior and ability to interact with humans.
Bulwinckel and his neighbors, the Rowe-Dent family of Thousand Oaks, also noticed the proliferation of friendly squirrels throughout the Conejo Valley. In fact, the squirrel population seems to have overtaken the rabbit population, namesake of the Conejo (Spanish for rabbit) Valley! Bulwinckel and the Rowe-Dents decided to pursue a change in light of this squirrely situation.
Local squirrel in celebration mode. Name unknown. We call him Bubba.
So, after two years petitioning local residents and numerous presentations to the city councils of the Conejo Valley communities of Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills,
Oak Park and Calabasas, it was proclaimed that, effective today, the Conejo Valley is officially renamed the Squirrel Valley!
Here at Conejo Valley Guide we enjoy and cherish bunnies. However, we have already made preparations for the transition to Squirrel Valley Guide.
Please join us by reviewing our new website at www.SquirrelValleyGuide.com!
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE 3/30/12: The estimate jackpot for tonight's drawing has skyrocketed to $640 MILLION or a $462 MILLION cash payout! WOAH!
As pretty much everyone knows at this point, tomorrow's Mega Millions jackpot is the largest jackpot in world history. At $540 million, a single winning ticket will make the holder of that ticket a half billionaire, on paper at least. If they took the estimated cash payment of $390 million and paid the roughly 35% in Federal taxes (California and local taxes are don't apply), they, or I should say, I, will have roughly $253 million in cash to play around with. Heck, that's enough money to run for President these days!
I have quite a terrible track record with my Mega Millions tickets. I've never won even a measly $2 Mega number using my strategy of a combination of Quick Picks, birthdates, "lucky" numbers, my IQ, golf score, 5K time, etc. So tonight, given the unprecedented size of tomorrow night's drawing, I took it upon myself to do a statistical analysis of previous winning draws.
The CALottery website provides historical winning Mega Millions numbers going back to June 24, 2005, representing 706 previous drawings. I took that data and populated an Excel spreadsheet. Remember there are 5 winning numbers in each drawing ranging from 1 to 56, and 1 winning Mega number ranging from 1 to 46. Basically you have a 1 in 176 million chance of winning, no matter what numbers you pick. But I thought, maybe it would be smarter of me to take a look at the winners that won and didn't win most frequently. So I did.
The results of this exercise are as follows:
Number 48 is a winning number standout, having been selected 83 times, or 11.8%, of the last 706 Mega Millons draws. That is 9 times more than the next two lucky numbers, 36 and 53, which were both selected 74 times during that same period. These were closely followed by 12 and 51 (72 wins), 27, 31 and 52 (71 wins) and 14 (70 wins). Noticeably absent from this top nine list are single-digit numbers. Well, 2 had 69 wins and 4, 5 and 9 had 68 wins, so they aren't too far behind. But bottom line here is, perhaps the number 48 should be closely considered.
The least frequently picked winning numbers were 41 (48 wins), 49 (quite coincidentally 49 wins), followed by 47 (50 wins), 37 (51 wins) and 55, 34 and 6 (52 wins). I do find it interesting that 47 and 49, both perennial losers, sandwich 48, the biggest winner.
On the Mega number side, the clear winner, with 25 wins in the last 706 draws, is number 36. Good ole #36 was followed by 9 (6 wins) and 7 and 35 (20 wins). If you truly want to win something, anything, in the Mega Millions, perhaps your best bet is to pick 36 for your Mega number each time, as statistically it hits around every 28 draws. Hitting the Mega with no other winning numbers gets you a whopping $2. Yippee!
The least frequently winning Mega numbers were 28 (a lousy 6 wins in 706 draws), 32 (10 wins) and 46, 14 and 1 (11 wins).
Now just you watch...all the losing numbers above will hit tomorrow. That always happens. But as statisticians say, each draw is independent of the others and thus the odds of choosing the winning numbers technically DO NOT CHANGE from draw to draw. Thus, while you may or may not find interest in this statistical information, I'd advise you rely upon it solely for its amusement value.
Shown below is the winning number information for all numbers sorted by most to least wins over the last 706 Mega Millions draws. Good luck to all and make sure to CONTACT ME if you win THE BIG ONE tomorrow!!
Winning Numbers
Conejo Valley Guide covers events, activities and things to do throughout Ventura County and surrounding areas.
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