RAIN!

One thing about Angelinos, they do freak out about their rain. Yes, it is raining in SoCal today. You would think the world was ending with the way the news is talking about it. The entire newscast has been talking about rain, watching anchors out in rain (my god they might MELT) and asking people on the street what they think about the rain. Heck, they even pulled out the MEGA Doppler 7000 HD for the event.

I guess this beats the low speed chase that took up the entire newscast yesterday. I felt like I was watching OJs bronco again.

Local newscasts crack me up.

Happy Holidays

I thought I would give my 4 readers a post for the holidays :). Really, I have determined that I am far too lazy to blog, so I'll blog when I am feelin' it. and I am feelin' it now.

I finally am feeling more and more settled here in LA. Despite the 60 degree weather it's starting to look a lot like Christmas.

That is our mini live tree. We picked it up on a whim last weekend and I love it. We weren't planning on having a tree, since we were not going to be here for Christmas, but I couldn't resist.

We also got a new HDTV. I love this thing. I haven't left the house for a week because of it


You really can't see it from the pic, but this thing kicks ass. 47 inches of pure glory. DJ won a year of direct TV from a holiday auction at work and we will be having more HD tastiness soon.

I have also been knitting again! I am back in the groove. Here is what I am working on at the moment. Endpaper Mitts. Here is where I am with them as of tonight.


This is my first color work pattern and I am finding it challenging. The fact that I am knitting these on toothpicks isn't helping. After frogging them once I have made some good progress and I am getting the hang of the pattern . I think I will dig them!

God knows I'll need them in the 60 degree weather (although surprisingly I get quite cold here).

Happy Friday!

Can we have birds?

I know I am a freak, but I love birds.

Behold:



They are too cool.

Random Obeservations

Just some thoughts from a Midwestern girl in the big city:

- LA is HUGE. Like big, large, enormous. You think a city is big, and then you start to see it. The amount of space this city takes up is crazy. I realized this when DJ and I took a night drive off the 405 onto Mulhollund and saw the Valley. The San Fernando Vally engulfed the night sky....it was lights as far as the eye could see. This was ONLY THE VALLEY. What the??!!

- I miss my friends. To those of you who know me, I miss you. Even though I may not have seen you often in Minneapolis, I miss having folks to have a beer with.

- Working from home is much less glamorous than it sounds. Going to the grocery store has become an event for me (with makeup and all!).

- The apartment is coming together. Kitchen is painted and I am now cooking in our kitchen. enough to feel at home





It works, but I do miss my old condo at times. Here is my old kitchen




Funny thing is, you do find a way to cook in less space.

Flaked

Ok, so I completely flaked the WeHo SnB Party. I had planned on going, even had cookies baked (but no costume) and bagged it.

DJ texted me late Thursday with an invite to go to the Arclight Theatre. I really didn't get what it was for, but after some further discussion, I realized it was to be a stand in "fan" for the opening of Lions for Lambs.

It was too L.A. for me to pass up.

So we headed out and weathered the hour of traffic to get to Hollywood (from Santa Monica mind you, not a far drive, but the traffic here is nuts) at 4pm. Got to the Arclight, stood around and had no clue what to do.

Finally figured it out and stood in line to get a wristband and get escorted to an area that was blocked off (yes for "fans").

After more waiting we finally saw some real live Hollywood celebrities. Please note, I was only equipped with my iPhone and I am very, very short, so I got no good pics. I stole DJs (since he is about a foot taller and had a zoom Cannon)

Here is Tom and Katie. She had on VERY flat shoes, but she looked lovely.


And here is Mr. Will Smith, for JP.


He seemed to dig the red carpet, was out there for a while

And for my crap-o-tastic photos: We waited around FOREVER for Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. This is the glimpse we got:

In case you were wondering what you were looking at, that is the back of their heads...engulfed in lights.

Hey, I love me some Redford and Streep so it was worth it.

Also, know who this chick is? She looked oddly familiar.............



After some discussion with my neighbor, we realized she was the teacher in "Clueless". I know you were wondering.

After our big red carpet experience, we had a late dinner at Tito's Tacos...................very tasty.

We plan on using the$25 certificate to Arclight soon. Not a bad reimbursement for standing around for a few hours.

Happy Halloween

In honor of Halloween I decided to bake up some Monster cookies. I also wanted to wield something for the WeHo stitch and witch tomorrow evening. I haven't had time to conjure up a costume, so I decided that being armed with treats would be a good thing.



I admit I nibbled on the batter a bit....Here is the final product


Mmmmm.....scary Monster cookies.

They turned out a little darker on the bottom than I would like (I am not used to this apartment's oven yet). I sampled the product and overall not bad.

In other news we booked our winter trip. I am SO excited. We are heading to Roatan, Honduras with our friends Cari and Chung who we headed to Belize with last year. Booked the flight today. We are going Feb 2-9, 2008. We are staying here at one of these houses.

I can't wait!

Up in Flames

First things first. Moe is safely in Florida with Mom and D. She's become quite the accustomed frequent flyer.

I traveled back and arrived at Burbank around 12:30 yesterday afternoon. I was greeted by a plume of smoke. I was unaware that half of SoCal was starting to catch fire.

Despite the burning, it was a lovely day a home. DJ and I decided to head out for a bike ride. We pedaled down to the ocean. We headed towards Marina del Rey, had a couple of beers and a snack at the Venice Whaler and headed further down towards Venice beach. We saw the smoke from Malibu over the ocean and decided to pedal home, grab our cameras and drive back for the sunset.

It was short but it was pretty




After we headed to the Beanery for dinner. Overall a great day.

Bad News

Moe was busted. She digs sitting in the front window. I headed out for lunch today with the lovely Brigitta and forgot to shut the curtains. Someone saw her in the window and called the landlord. Complete bummer. I am pretty sad about it.

So I guess I am off to Florida next weekend to pay an unexpected trip to Mom, who said she would take Moe as a backup plan. I hope she is still ok with that.

Someday, when we can afford a place that takes pets, we will get her back (along with Duff).

Here is a cute pic of Moe as she provided a place to lay my knitting project

Ouch

Update on my workout. I hurt. A lot.

It's amazing. I went to my Bar Method class on Monday. I could hardly walk on Tuesday. Tuesday evening I had a case of cabin fever and headed out for a walk. I decided to walk to the Ocean and back. That's quite a walk, around 6 miles...It did feel good to get out of the apartment though.

I went again yesterday and am definitely feeling it. I can a least walk today, but it's painful.

I think I am really going to like this new workout. I'll go again tomorrow and try to keep it up 3-4 times a week.

New Workout

Ok, I gotta admit I have kinda let my move and craziness this summer get in the way of working out. I always thought "once I get settled in LA I will find a place and start working out again"

Well, it's time. I'm feeling out of shape and I need something to get my butt into gear.

I went to my first Bar Method Class today and liked it a lot. I got the "muscle twitch" more than once while I was doing the class and after I am feeling it. It seems like a good workout. I was told by some other women in the class to do my second workout tomorrow since Wed I will *really* feel it.

I found out about this workout on some infomercial that I was watching late night and thought that it sounded interesting. I kind of forgot about it and started looking for workouts in LA and found out they had a studio here. Lucky me. I immediately decided to try it. So off to the West LA studio I went this morning.

I'll let you know how things go as I progress. I did buy a 1 month into membership, so I gotta go!

The new Hood- a brief overview

Some folks (my mom) have been wanting to see the apartment. I'll post pics of that soon. In the meantime I'll tell you a little about the neighborhood and the building

DJ and I are located here. It is in an area of LA called Mar Vista. We are right off 2 pretty large intersections, Venice and Centinela.

You can hear the traffic from our apartment, but it does die off in the evening. The time I have been here I have become more accustomed to the sounds of the traffic and the kids in the neighborhood (we live next to a school and our building has a lot of families).

Here are some pics of the building

Entrance from Centinela


The corridor to our place. Our apartment is right on the left hand side:


It's not the best place in the world, but it's cheap and it feels like home. It seems like a nifty building, with families. I talked to the woman who lives next door and she has been there for20 years. The place can't be all that bad. DJ, Moe and I are settling in nicely.

The neighborhood had quite a few places to frequent.

Here is Venice Grind, the outside. You can barely make out the coffee sign. It's the huge arrow pointing to the sidewalk.


My apologies for the bad pic.

DJ and I wandered out for dinner last night and headed towards a Taqueria right around the corner. I have been pretty excited for a little Mexican joint like this and it met my expectations. I had the Tacos Doracdo with Refried Beans and Rice. DJ had the Carnititas Burrito, which he liked, but didn't love.

I didn't realize how much of a Gringo I really was until I went into a real Taqueria. I didn't know what any of the meats are that they had on the menu, so I went the safe route and ordered the tacos.

Here are the meats they offerred. I looked them all up to see what they were.

Carne Asada- Steak, that I get.....I can do it and probably will at some point
Al Pastor- I had no clue what this was. I did some googling on it and realized it was pork. It actually sounds tasty
Lengua- This is Tongue.....Ummmm....no thanks...
Buche- Pig Tummy. I dont' think I can do that one also.
Cabeza- Cow Brains. Absotuely not. The thought of it makes me ill.
Chorizo- Sausage. I love Chroizo
Pollo- Chicken. Good for a white bread girl like myself in a place like this.
Chicharron- I am still not entirely sure what this is, but I think it is a fried pork rind of some sort. For now I think I'll pass

I'll say that I am glad I went for the Tacos. I am not that adventurous when it comes to meat.

Another nifty little place around us is the Mitsuwa Marketplace. It's a Japanese Grocery Store, with a nifty food court in the middle that apparently serves up some tasty sushi, noodles and other treats


I headed there last week to get some sushi and other goodies:


mmmmmmm......sushi.

It was a cool little place with lots of fresh sashimi and other meats. I plan on shopping there more often as we get settled and I start cooking more.

We have also explored further west on Venice and there is a few porn shops, my yarn store, a great looking Thai restaurant and some other interesting places.

Not a bad place to live.

Me Likey

I've been working from our tiny apartment. Once I am more settled here I will then head into the LA office a couple of days a week. This will allow for me to get out of sweats, put make up on and feel human.

Anyway, I've been listening to Public Radio here all day while I work in my living room. DJ had told me about the show Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW before. I had never heard it until yesterday morning.

It's a great show. They do podcasts and streaming, so if you want to check it out go here.

It's good music to work to.

Lost in LA

Yesterday was the first time I drove in LA. Yesterday was also the first time I got lost in LA.

I drove DJ to work yesterday since I needed the car to take Moe to her new vet. No problem there. I got him to work and got myself home just fine.

In the afternoon I headed out to take Moe to her new vet. Vet is located here

Home for us is here.

Honestly not that difficult. I took Venice to Sepulveda and I was golden. Got to the vet on time. Got Moe checked out and blood taken. 225 dollars later (yes for a consult and blood work, but that is another topic) I headed out. I was parking facing north on Sepulveda and needed to go south, so I thought I would just go around the block. Pretty easy right? Theoretically, yes, but somehow I managed to mess it up. I was turning and turning and somehow I ended up on Wilshire. Not sure how that happened. Anyway once again the maps feature on iPhone came in damn handy. I stopped, put in my cross streets and iPhone came to the rescue! It pointed me right to Bundy, which is where I needed to be and I was on my merry way home.

By the way, driving in a convertible with the top down in 80 degree California weather rocks. Lost or not.

First week in LA

I have "officially" been a Californian for one week now. I am slowly but surely starting to feel at home. The week has been busy, with working, getting settled and basically figuring things out here.

I got here last Saturday, DJ picked me up at the airport and we went out for some FANTASTIC sushi at Tsujino Hana. The sushi was damn tasty.


After that we headed to Target in Culver City to load up on the random crap you need to buy when you move. Honestly, I can't recall what we purchased. After the Target excursion, we headed home and immediately crashed. I wasn't yet used to Pacific Time yet and it was after my bedtime at home.

Sunday was the great excursion to Ikea. We honestly were there for about 2-3 hours. Too much Ikea for this girl in one day. We did load up on the following:

A new dining room table and chairs for our tiny living room:

A new bookshelf to hold all the random books and stuff DJ and I have;

I put this together on my day off (Monday). It honestly took me about 4 hours. Not a big fan of Ikea furniture assembly. But hey, it's cheap and we needed it.

We also got various odds and ends for Kitchen Storage and bathroom storage. We need it in the small living space.




Too much time and money later we headed home.

Headed out grocery shopping Sunday night to Ralphs in Santa Monica. One of the things I know I am going to miss from MN is Lunds and Byerlys. I know I am a total grocery store snob. I have been spoiled.

The first week of working from home went well. I had Monday off, Tuesday and Wed I had to work from Coffee shops in our neighborhood since we weren't due to get our cable and high speed Internet installed until Wed afternoon. The coffee shops in our neighborhood are pretty cool and they featured free Internet, so it worked fine.

This is Venice Grind, right off Venice and Centinela, which is where we live. A short walking distance to a nifty little coffee shop.

Wed evening DJ and I headed out for a drive into Santa Monica. We were going to head up the PCH for a bit, but traffic was BAD, so we turned off and headed off to have a pint at the Cock and Bull Pub. Great beer and cool authentic atmosphere.

Thursday eve the lovely Jenna took me to WeHo Stitch and Bitch at the Farmer's Market. The group was fun and I really look forward to meeting some new folks there. DJ and I had dinner at Loteria. It got great reviews from what I could see, but DJ and I found it overpriced and not all that fantastic.

On a somewhat related topic, I needed something to knit, so I HAD to go yarn shopping before SnB. I headed to A Mano Yarn, which is right around the corner from where we live. Cool, funky little shop and the people there were nice. I bought some Lana Grossa Babykid and am going to make this.


It should be a nice, easy mindless project to get me rolling with knitting again.

I swear, I have made a new resolution. I buy yarn for a project, knit that project and them move on. The yarn I had overwhelmed me before. Behold the yarn I got rid of:

Granted, it's not much of a stash, and a lot of people have a LOT more than this, but the whole idea when I moved was to get rid of stuff. Once I did it it felt really good, so no yarn until the yarn I have is knitted.

I digress.....anyway

The remainder of the week entailed us waiting for my stuff to arrive. It finally did on Thursday and we rented a truck on Friday. Saturday and Sunday I unpacked and got a bit settled (which involved another *expensive* trip to Target, but that's how it goes).

I think I'll dig my new home. I'll post more as life happens here in sunny LA.

Pure Enjoyment

I finally headed out to Pizza Nea on Monday to meet up with friend. The pizza was very tasty, but I had an very nice surprise when I entered the restaurant.

As I walked in I noticed they had a sign for Fat Tire Ale. Could it be? My fav beer, which I have never been able to buy in MN was here?

Indeed it was. I enjoyed the 22 oz "bomber" bottle with my pizza. Pure Heaven.....it doesn't get much better than that.

I also learned that they are serving Fat Tire at our happy hour spot. JJ's. Needless to say an outing was needed to drain a few of them.


I probably downed my fair share of Fat Tire this week. Hey I had to welcome it to our fair city.

365- Thursday April 19th

Headed to Hoboken, NJ to visit a very good friend. They had a really cool train station.



T and B got a new puppy, Riley. He is the cutest thing. Here is us heading on a walk to grab some groceries. When he gets sick of walking he just plops down and looks at you. Here he is contemplating crossing the street.

365- Saturday April 14

We had some leftover carrots, so I thought I would make some healthy (ummmm yeah) carrot cake out of it. This was my first endeavor into cakes for a while.


I guess I should have let the pan cool before I attempted to extract the cake. Oops.

Later that night my friend A and I had a little girls night out. We headed to the new Restaurant Miami in Uptown. The place was a sea of neon and blasting 80s music. The vibe was fun. Here is A in the "VIP" section we were seated in.


Love the cheesy background.

365 Friday April 13th

DJ and I headed out to the Bulldog Bar and Restaurant in Northeast. Had a damn tasty burger.


DJ was annoyed with me because I was trying to get a pic in dim light and had to take about 20 of them in order to get one that wasn't blurry.

Goodtimes.

365 Thrusday April 12th

Woke up this morning, looked out the window and saw that rabbits had attacked our yard overnight. Their little paw prints were everywhere.


Later that evening, made a turkey tetrazzini. It ended up being pretty tasty.


Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog.

365 Wednesday April 11th

Snow. On April 11th. Fun times


That is my little daffodil. Poor daffodil was confused with the 80 degree weather. Like the rest of us she popped her face to the sun, ready to greet the spring.

Sorry little daffodil, mother nature decided to dump a bunch of snow on you. I agree...it sucks.

In better news, DJ and I attended the Twins game this evening:



Great game! They beat the Yankees 5-1.

Something a little fun

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365 Sunday April 8th

DJ and I had his Dad and non-girlfriend over for a deep fried turkey in honor of the holiday. I made some tasty deviled eggs (thanks Tina!).


DJ did a great job with the massacre of the turkey


Hope you all had a great Easter.

365 Friday April 6th

We had bookclub on Friday night. We read Jule and Julia by Julie Powell. The idea was to prepare a French dish in honor of the book.

I made a chocolate terrine.


It was rich, but quite tasty.

Later that evening we headed to the Kitty Kat Club for some acoustic music by Brian Larson.


It was a good set. I snagged a free CD out of the deal also.

365 Tuesday April 3rd

DJ and I attended the Timberwolves game:


They played Cleveland and basically sucked. They were trailing by 20 points by the end of the 3rd period.

Overall a pretty boring game.

365 Monday April 2nd, aka, oops I have slipped off the wagon

First thing. I completely slipped off the 365 wagon and neglected to take pictures over the past couple of weeks.

Why? I really don't know. I think I have been in a kind of funk lately. I haven't been in the mood to do anything.

You know that feeling like you have been just going through your days, just performing the motions? That's how I have felt. This isn't unusual and hits at the end of the winter season. It's when I know I've had it. I am completely over the snow and cold.

We had some taunting of spring over the past few weeks, but this week it's cold and cloudy again. ARGH.

Only a few short weeks until spring. I can hold out until then. This is my last winter here after all.

In the meantime, I am resolved again to work on 365. Here is my sorry pic for being so negligent.