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.