Pinyon Ojai held a soft opening intended for friends, family and local chefs in the area Nov. 19, but like most news in Ojai, word traveled fast as locals flooded the restaurant with what the crew has warmly dubbed the Ojai hug of death. Ever since, they’ve been serving wood-fired pizzas featuring local farm-to-table ingredients.  Named after a native North American Pine tree, Pinyon is the passion project of three new Ojai residents that combines thoughtful choices with seasonal ingredients.

Sunday family lunches at my grandparents’ house were a regular occurrence growing up. They normally coincided with bi sun, which was a ceremony my Taoist grandmother practiced to pay respects to our ancestors. I remember the smell of incense burning, the sun shine through the kitchen windows, and the smell of soup and chicken simmer on the stove. A platter of chopped boiled chicken always (and still does) made an appearance on the table and I would have to fight my brother or cousins for a drumstick.

When I took US history in (a private, all boys) high school in '76, my teacher referred to Ulysses S. Grant as "Useless S. Grant". He was what we call today a "functioning alcoholic". Somebody told Lincoln that Grant (a thoroughly competent killer) drank on the battlefield, to which Honest [sic] Abe replied "Find out what he drinks and send a barrel to all my other generals." As President, he enjoyed riding a buggy down Pennsylvania Avenue behind four galloping Clydesdales after getting totally 'faced.

Pretium has built a portfolio of 90,000+ single-family rental properties across the country, with over half of the portfolio located in Florida, Texas, and Georgia. While many SFR funds operate only within the Sunbelt, Pretium’s holdings extend to the Midwest. Earlier today, Pretium announced that it had raised a new $1 billion fund dedicated to acquiring build-to-rent (BTR) opportunities. In a statement, CEO Don Mullen also said that the company has now invested a total of more than $2.

Hey Story Crafters, To follow up on 3 Tips for Creating a Memorable Main Character, I’ll do a character breakdown for a main character using the tips discussed in that post. I’ll use Shrek (I’ll be referring to the movie Shrek, since I haven’t read the book) for this character profile. Let’s take a quick look at Shrek’s name. At first glance, it seems like a made-up, interesting name to give a main character who happens to be an ogre: one syllable, harsh and odd-sounding, and unique.