I am outta here

Created a new blog to keep myself entertained. Go here to check it out here. I also have some photo albums up and a welcome page. I hope to keep this one updated. We will see how it works out.

Financial Exercise Day 1- My 5 main values

It's funny, These always were kinda there and I've never written them down. I was surprised how easily these came to me.

Creativity- and Beauty though that Creativity- Cooking and knitting are the ones that come to mind when I think of this.
Happiness
Health
Truth
Friends/Family
Adventure- For me I always think of Adventure as travel, but maybe I could expand that (since I am living in a new city and all), heck it's adventurous to go to a new neighborhood, right?

Let there be Cake!

For Christmas, DJ bought me a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. I love it. I have been mixing lots of concoctions in it. Jenna's Birthday Cake was one of them.

I think it turned out pretty well, if I say so myself.


I was pretty darn proud of this cake. It it the first attempt at a 3 layer cake and I think it turned out well. I used this recipe from the best cooking website ever. I did modify it a bit to make 3 9 inch layers since I messed up and bought the wrong size springform pan.


Yes I believe there will me more cakes for more birthdays. This was too much fun.

Blech

I'm sick.  

I rarely get sick.

I forget how much of a crab ass person I am when I am sick.  I've been less than my best in the past few days (taking it out on poor DJ) and I just want to be better.

I am sure I will be soon.  I feel like I have wiped out a forest with the amount of tissue paper I have been going through in the past few days.  This stuff needs to stop coming out of me at some point, right?

I think I have rounded the corner, so hopefully tomorrow I will feel more to normal.  I have been thinking of resolutions but haven't had the energy to to post them yet.

Wac like a Duck

I've had a great evening here at Chez California. A few weeks ago, I started messing around in my iTunes library, meaning to create a playlist that I would burn for a few friends for the holidays.

Well, we all know the holidays have passed. Obviously that didn't happen.

I picked up again on it tonight. I've got my playlist completed and have been listening to it. 51 songs in total. I don't listen to music enough. I love music, always have and I have somehow forgotten that way that music can make you feel...it can take you away to a different place...kind of a lot like reading a book. Music often strikes strong emotions in me. It stirs up that creative vibe in me and I dig it.

Anyway, I've had a great time working on album cover art and just messing around with it.

For those of you (probably most of you) the title is the name of some tape mixes (gosh remember tapes) that a roommate and I used to make. For those of you who don't know my nickname was Duck for about 10 years of my life, her last name was Wacholz. There the cheesy name Wac like a Duck was born. We used to sit around our apartment, get drunk on boxed wine, thinking we were all classy and throw in song after song and sing. I miss that.


P.S. For any of you 4 readers who might want a copy of said CD, just drop me an e-mail at mplsmel@gmail.com. I'll be happy to make extra and send them out.

I know this is completely unoriginal

but here are my 2008 resolutions. I actually am not a fan of resolutions..so let's phrase it as "things to strive for"

• To try and be more compassionate and less judgemental, with myself and others.
• I know I tried this last year and failed, but I want to try again. I think that if you truly practice gratefullness in what you have, you won't want as much and you will find yourself happier. I also would like to spend less money and hopefully this exercise will help with that. I think I need to work on regularly recognizing the good things I have in my life. I am a lucky, lucky girl and I need to give open thanks for that more often.
• To stick to my budget- yep, I created one. No, I haven't been great at sticking to it. I will make a concious effort at spending less.
• To decide on some large/slash long term goals and life my life to meet those goals- Hopefully this makes sense. I generally am happy with my life. There are a couple of things I really want...1- to travel 2- to be free of consumer debt. Ideally, I would like to take 1 "big" vacation a year. We have been doing that. I have been saving for that. That all is good. I would also like to travel around California and the Western US now that I live here. We can "hopefully" do that cheaply. I need to figure this out, if this will fit into goal #2. Getting rid of consumer debt is difficult, but it can be done. I need to really think about going out for dinners, movies, things like that. I love to cook at home, and that's great. I also have decided to keep my Bar Method classes up since they also contribute to who I want to be (a fit and healthy person). It's all a trade off, a balance. I need to figure out that balance. I am interested in doing this exercise this month and may start blogging about it. I think it will help with my mind set.

I think that's enough. I have some other things I am working on this year..so this will be plenty.

Thoughts on 2007

I have been doing some thinking about the past year, as I always do when it closes. 2007 was good year, but it was also a tough year. Tougher than I am used to having. I was challenged a lot this year and for a girl that has the natural tendency to stay in her "comfort zone" it was tough on me. But I am glad I was challenged, because without challenges one doesn't grow.

Since I like lists here are some things that come to mind when I think of 2007, the good and bad.

• Vacation- Belize Feb 2007. What a fan-fucking-tastic time. We couldn't have traveled better with the folks we went with and it was a great experience. Ate tons of ceviche (yum). Caught some great fish and went skydiving for the first time!

• Moving to LA-

One of the toughest things I can recall doing in a long time. I was convinced I was ready for it, but being the creature of habit I am, it disrupted me more then I expected it to. Steve left almost 4 months before me, that was tough, we had to find homes for all 3 of our cats, which was horribly rough. I had to leave a home and friends I loved to go to a new unknown place. For as much as I hate the weather, I love that I know Minneapolis and I was comfortable there. I didn't realize how much I was used to the people I knew and my daily surroundings. Not that this is all bad, I was complacent and did want to shake things up a bit. Moving definitely did that. I am finally feeling settled here in LA, but I do miss my friends. It takes a long time to build friendships like the ones I had at home. I don't miss the weather one bit though....it's currently 69 and sunny here. Back in Minneapolis it is a balmy 4 degrees.

• Moe- Moe is my kitty. I love her terribly. She almost died this year. It was really rough on me. She had fatty liver disease, which takes a lot of time to treat. After her diagnosis, we decided to put in a feeding tube. I then had to come home and feed her through a feeding tube 3 times a day. We had our ups and downs with it, there were times I thought I would have to put her down, but she thankfully made a full recovery. This took the majority of my time and a LOT of money, that made the summer very stressful. After this, I moved her to LA. I then later had to part with her and leave her with my mom. Unfortunately the apartment we found doesn't accept pets and after trying to sneak her in, we got caught. She is now happily in Florida with my mom and enjoying outdoor access and life there. I really miss her, but am happy she is well and with my mom.
  

Moe when she was sick with tube:


Healthy Moe

• I am grateful for the changes this year. I have been drinking less, exercising more and have made some other steps to improve myself, which I won't discuss here. Personally, I feel I am headed in a good direction. I also am very happy to be in a cool city and am excited to get out more in it. I am very very happy to be here with DJ.
  

Overall, I am thankful for the year I had and the challenges I faced, ,but I am ready for a more relaxed 2008!

2007 resolutions

I didn't do so well on my New Year's resolutions for 2007. I am ok with that, it was a crazy year and the goals were quite lofty. Here it is:

• Back to the Blog- I sucked....bottom line. I only did this for about 1-2 months. At least I have learned I am not much of a blogger :).
  

• Get back into exercising- I did pretty well with this, with the exception of the summer. I completely had a stressful summer and didn't set any time aside for exercise. Once I got settled in LA I got back to it.
  

• Eat when I am hungry- I still have work to do on this one. I still eat because it looks good, because it's dinner time etc. Still a work in progress
  

• The Restaurant Tour- I marked the ones I visited, a total of 7. I was only in Mpls for 9 months, so not bad
  
• Town Talk Diner- visited March 07
  
• Babalou- visited Feb 07
  
• Falafel King
• It's Greek to me
• Temple
• Chambers Kitchen
• Mill City Cafe
• 112 Eatery- Visited Aug 07
  
• Pizza Nea- Visited June 07
  
• Red Savoy Pizza - Visited Friday Feb 23d
  
• Oceanaire
• WA Frost
• Taqueria La Hacienda #2
• Chen Heng Restaurant
• Masa- Visited June 07
  
• La Belle Vie
• Cosmos
• Vincent
• Mortons
  
• Amore Victoria Restaurant- Visited Jan 07
  
• Saji Ya- visited Sunday January 25th
  
• Nami
• Luci Ancora
• Ruam Mit Thai
• St. Paul Grill
• Mama Maria's in Hudson, WI
• El Nortino

• Get back to saving money- I did well at this and am still doing it. I save money for vacations and incidentals, so unfortunately my savings was spend this year with the move and with a sick cat. I am still putting away 10 percent though. I set up an automatic deposit into a savings account. Mark that one as accomplished.
  

• Pay Down Debt- Ummmm....I didn't do so well at this one. I did get everything consolidated and to a lower interest rate, but with the move, vet bills and buying a mode of transportation, that didn't happen.

• The move- I officially moved as of Sept 21, 2007. The condo is still on the market, but i have a renter, so it's covered.
  

• The de-cluttering- I got rid of a ton of crap. Enough said. It felt good.

• Learning- I didn't do so well with this one. I did take a Thai appetizer class in Jan, but that's it.

I am working on some goals for 2008, I pretty much have them in mind, but will need to write them out.

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.