Weekend!

Friday: Going away party. Originally, this was a goodbye to a co-worker, sadly one of Matt's favorite guys. He got a job that paid more and was closer to home. Then he got a call from his Superior in the Marine Corp and he has been called up for active duty. So now it is good luck in Iraq going away party. Quite a drag. It's his third tour.

Months ago, when I was enjoying the deliciousness of the patty melt, Matt's friend met us for dinner. He liked the down home Burbank bar so much he's having the party there. I can't even tell you how difficult it will be to not get a patty melt. YUM. I won't get it because I'm sure it would give me a stomach ache. I will for sure get the beer batter onion rings.

Saturday: I hope to make some stuff for the upcoming Brewery ArtWalk. And Matt and I may go to WeHo to purchase an "outfit" for his gig on Sunday.

Sunday: Street Fest LA aka gay leather daddy street festival. Matt is once again going to rock out with well, with something at least one inch across his butt crack and covering his entire front, package? I'm totally cool with the whole Nudist Priest gig, really I am. But dude there is a HUGE difference between midnight in a darkened bar in Hollywood vs. 1:30 in the afternoon OUTSIDE at a BD/SM festival. This event probably should have happened 13 years ago, I would have had something to wear.

No pictures today

My friend Julie called me on my way home to let me know that there were dozens of paparazzi and E! News on the side walk outside Century City Hospital. I said that I'll bet it is Britney back for some tooth work. And not 5 minutes after I said that I turned onto Britney's street and not one single freaking paparazzi parked in the dirt.

I'm conflicted about the rights of the paps. I know that there should be a law against it, but really what law are they breaking? Maybe loitering? They technically are not trespassing, unless they step onto private property. Can they legislate standing on the sidewalk taking pictures? Does that mean that they stop the tour vans from driving by the homes of the stars? Where do you draw the line?

Of course we all know the line starts with us, with me. If I stopped reading TMZ, paging though US Weekly, and all the other rags, then there is no reason to take their picture. Too bad I won't stop. I also won't stop taking pictures of the paparazzi.... unless they do.

Recommitment

I've been lax on exercising these last few weeks. My mind and the couch have done their battles, and damn that couch is good. But tomorrow, I swear I won't even look at the couch between walking in the door and walking to the gym. I swear, do not tempt me.

Music Mistro

I've been thinking about purchasing an ipod. First of all, everyone has one and I like to keep up with the Jones. Ok, not really, but it does seem that everyone has a portable music player. I asked my internet friends what they suggest and of course they all said the ipod. Which make total sense because really I suppose they are fantastic.

I remember when I was in 8th grade and everyone had the Guess jeans with the zipper at the ankle. I really wanted a pair of Guess jeans. The perfect little triangle on the pocket showed everyone that you were indeed wearing Guess jeans. And that meant you were popular. Or not, depending upon the day.

Guess jeans never fit me. So in hindsight I don't think that my mother actually denied me a pair of expensive jeans ($40! Goodness what I wouldn't do to pay $40 for the expensive jeans today! More like $140.), I just think the waist to hip ratio in those jeans were not made for my body type. But I still wanted them, and what they represented.

But anyway I digress. I searched the internet high and low looking at ipods and reading reviews. I kept coming back to the fact I really didn't want to spend what the ipod cost. Around $200 just for the player. And that is the bottom end player, not the fancy 5.5 with video! Maybe I'm just not meant to be popular, not in junior high and not at the gym. Darn.

So I purchase this


It has video, just like the expensive ipod. It also has voice recording, an fm tuner and instant fm recording. The ipod does not. You upload the content via windows media, therefore you can upload anything, not just itunes stuff. For the same price as the one video ipod I got this and portable speakers. The speakers sound great! It was a great purchase!

So far we've uploaded 560 songs. I still have a stack of cds to do, my afternoon project.

I will test out that voice recorder when I work up the nerve to stop and chat with the paparazzi. And speaking of dear Brittney Spears. She made her first outing since rehab. She took at dance class at the studio one freaking block from my house. We could have walked right past her if we had walked the other way home from dinner. Ice cream from 7/11 was more important.

Britney Spears' personal paparazzi

As I head around the first turn towards the Britney's gated estate turn on the camera. I'm always a little giddy with excitement in anticipation of how many stalkers there might be on any given day. Let me tell you fashion week followed by a stint in rehab made for a long month, not one damn car parked anywhere along the beautiful drive. So as promised pictures of the paparazzi.

Dirt patch number 2


A closer picture of dirt patch number two. TMZ.com has a much better version of the same autos. This picture was taken on Thursday around 4:00.


Dirt patch number 3.


Dirt patch number 2 at 6:45 am on Friday. I guess they don't think Brit is awake that early? Next photo essay will be a series of sunrises.


Same dirt patch number 2, now filled with the phothogs.


Dirt patch number 3.


Everyone waves at me. They still seem to have an air of friendship and certain boredom . Next week I will stop and ask some questions. For sure towards the end of the week after they've watched me take pictures and wave at them off and on for 3 months!



We went to the Point Mugu whale watching festive a couple weekends ago. Here are some dolphins. The whales were merely spouts off in the far, far distance. Not something I could capture with my camera.

Paparazzi + Britney

Stalking Britney is back in full force.

Yesterday I actually saw Britney and Kfed with my own two eyes. I didn't get a picture. Boo.

Today I took pictures of the many, many vehicals awaiting her exit. Maybe about 25 cars! Can you imagine 25 cars waiting outside your driveway to take your picture and follow you everywhere you go?

I took some pics, and some of the dudes even waved to me. Maybe we'll become bff. I'll post pictures when I have a few days worth of stalking.

Weekend!

It is here! On one of the 2 sunny days ahead we will wash the dirty dog. And on both of the sun filled mornings I will not wake to an alarm clock at 5:23AM.

3.14

The day of Pi. I hope to eat pie while watching LOST. My issue with pies are, well I love them. LOVE. But I have a plan. We'll go to KooKooRoo for dinner and then run across the street to Marie Calendar's. There we will get 2 pieces of pie to go. Ensuring that I will not eat pie every single day until it is gone!

Today is also National Potato Chip day. Hooray for thinly sliced potatoes fried in hot oil.

March 14th is also a brand new holiday. Steak and blowjob day. It is one month past Valentine's day, and it seems from the dozens of websites, no chocolate whatsoever is required. It is really all about the meat.

So Happy March 14th.

Bumper Stickers

I saw my new favorite bumper sticker today.

I am for the separation of Church and Hate

My old favorite bumper sticker is

1/20/2009

It took me a little bit to figure out why my sister's birthday was on a bumper sticker. Then I saw the small print (Bush's last day). Of course Inauguration Day. I fondly remember eating Deborah's birthday cake with Grandma Mable and keeping an eye on the hostages being released just in time for Regan's Inauguration.

Vacation

We are going to take a vacation in October to celebrate our 10 and 5 year anniversaries. We had our first date the night before Thanksgiving way back in 1997. We got married in October 2002.

We are considering the Mexican Caribbean, Costa Rica, or somewhere else.

I just want the Matt, the beach, the ocean, a good book and gossip filled magazines, and maybe a cocktail. Perfect.

A whole bunch of pictures

I dyed my hairs a few weeks ago. It was a temporary dye and since my hairs reject dye in just a few weeks anyway, it is pretty much back to normal.




Matt's cousin Tom and 2 of his friends came to visit. We took them on the grand tour of LA and promised to see at least one star. We were successful and saw non other than JOHN BLACK from Days of Our Lives. He was standing right next to me at the deli. Matt nearly had to hold a spot light on him for me to notice. I was engrossed in deciding what to eat. So John Black right there beside me. He ordered a pound of tuna, in his classic breathy voice. Matt repeats "I'll have a pound of tuna" all the time. Sadly John Black was very cocky and totally knew we knew who he was. He'd just lucky I didn't mention that I'm such a dork fan that I attended the 40th anniversary symposium at the Museum of TV and Radio.

We went to our favorite beach, Leo Carrillo. Sadly, we also came across a beached sea lion. Boo.

Britney Spears. So she foiled my plan to document her paparazzi by putting the house on the market, amongst other things. So this is the only picture I have of the cars biding their time awaiting their opportunity to document every public move. The dirt patches are now vacant, just as they were before.

My dad came to visit this past weekend. On Saturday afternoon we took the subway a couple of stops to Hollywood/Highland to check out the Oscar preps. It was pretty awesome and we even got to stand on the red carpet, covered in plastic but still!

This guy is along the red carpet.

The first big Oscar you see as the stars first start to walk down the red carpet.

This is what you would first see if you were getting out of your limo. Or if you go the day before since like me, you are a big nobody when it comes to the Oscars.

After walking along the walk of fame and purchasing a g-string, with my dad, for my husband, we headed to Chinatown.

Happy New Year! Year of the GOLDEN PIG.

I thought these fan ladies were pretty cool.

Dragon's ward off the evil spirits. And the firecrackers wake them up, I think.


I made a display for my makeup brushes per the request of Nigel. Soon they will be available at his beauty supply shop.

As I mentioned above I bought a g-string for Matt. He didn't wear it.

My husband played drums in a Judist Priest Cover band this past weekend. The band is Nudist Priest. The best part of the night was the introduction by my dad, wearing his clerics; watch for that on youtube someday soon. (as soon as I ask his permission) "I'm the priest, here come the nudes" Perfect.

It's Tuesday

It has been a while. No valid excuses. I'll try not to let it happen again.

Joanne inquired about my diet. I am still pretty much a vegetarian. I had fish once a couple of weeks ago and I also have had a warm spinach salad with tiny bits of prosciutto, twice. I LOVE this salad, but the belly ache that follows makes it not so worth it. I assume the belly ache stems from the grease from the meat. It is just such a small amount, maybe 2 slices, but I guess that is all it takes.

I'd like to say I'm working out as often as I'd like. But I'm not. I go to yoga at least once a week, and usually another workout on the weekends. But not much else. I'll get back on track, I will I swear.

Now it is time for pictures.

RIP baby kitty

You were the best cat. I'll miss you always.

Chase-er-meow-meow

My little kitty is sick. I noticed that she was coughing every so often over the weekend. Then by Monday I knew I had to take her to the vet.

We went to the vet on Tuesday and they said she either has a cold or asthma. She also has a lump but I'm not thinking about that until later, the doctor agreed.

So they sent her home with some antibiotics. By Thursday evening there wasn't any improvement and she had stopped eating and drinking. So I took her back to the vet.

The vet suggests x-rays to determine if she does have asthma. We had previously discussed the fact that sometimes asthma will not show up on the film so there was that to consider. The x-rays came back with classic cat asthma lung. The vet gave me a comparison to look at of a healthy lung.

Now little meowers is on pred. She got a shot last night and then a dose this morning. Luckily, I had some left over from the ear infection so I didn't have to buy more. The vet said that she should be better by this morning and if not, give her another dose of the pred. She wasn't better when I got home and continued to wheeze and cough, so I gave another dose. The vet called to check on her and suggested I give her double dose tomorrow morning and if she doesn't improve bring her back for a different course of action.

Poor little kitty. She is 100% unhappy and it makes me super sad.

Stalking Britney Spear's Stalkers

Each day I drive home along the old highway road directly in front of the gated estate in which Britney Spears has recently purchased a new home.

Everyday there a bunch of large SUVs parked in the dirt across from the estate. This is out of the ordinary. There are dozens of pull offs to see the views of the city all along this old school highway, you can see the ocean from one side and the valley on the other, it is super curvy and fun to drive. I like to time myself back and forth, but I digress.

I began asking random people who also drive that way home who the hell are these people? Are they a running group and plan to go running in the hills? Are they day workers? No, they are PAPARAZZI. How exciting and sickening.

Today there were 11 vehicles parked in the dirt all in a row. Most of them have just one person with dark sunglasses looking bored. There is definitely a sense of camaraderie with the phothogs, almost like a tailgate party.

My plan is to start bringing my camera so that I too can pull off and start to take some pictures. I will take pictures of them waiting and hoping for Brit Brit to show off her c-section scar via her eloquent exit from a low centered sports car. I will post them here for your viewing pleasure.

Ed Begley Jr.

Matt and I usually go to the Tuluca Lake Farmer's market on Sunday mornings. We go because they plastered our neighborhood with signs indicating they have parking.

The Studio City farmer's market is also on Sunday. They are not able to boast about ample parking, mostly because they are bigger and therefore more parking spaces taken by more people. And it is Studio City.

Ed Begley Jr has a booth at the Studio City market. I purchased some all natural lavender soap. He was very grateful for my purchase. He informed me that the plastic bag in which he placed my soap was made of recycled produce. I informed him that I would once again recycle the bag and fill it with dog poop. He thanked me and we wished each other a nice afternoon.

I'm going to make Rhubarb Crisp. Somehow I will find a way to work in some blood orange juice as they are freaking amazing and I think they'd work well with rhubarb.

30 days

Matt and I have made a big lifestyle change. We have gone vegetarian for at least one month. Today is one full week eating no meat (eggs and dairy are ok). I don't miss it. I've explored food items I've never considered and I'm really enjoying the journey.

We also joined the Y and did a 15 minutes on the elliptical machine and then swam laps. Hooray for being on the road to fitnes.

Tonight I am making this:

2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 cup tamari
1/3 cup toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tbsp sake or dry white wine
4 portobello mushroom caps
1 tbsp peanut oil

Combine the garlic, ginger, and tahini. Stir in tamari, sesame oil, brown sugar, and sake. Blend well.

Place mushroom caps in a shallow dish. Add the marinade, turning to coat the mushrooms, and let sit for 30 minutes, turning once.

Heat peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms (reserve the marinade) and sear, turning once until well browned and slightly softened, about 5 minutes.

Serve mushrooms with marinade drizzled on top.

I might grill them rather than saute. I will serve them with either wasabi mashed potatoes or brown rice and a salad. Edamame or an appetizer.

More to follow

B$

The Fantasy Blog Stock Market

What?

Future Blogs

In the coming days I will blog about the following:

The Mosaic
The old vacuum vs the new vacuum
Matt's big rock show
and the progress on 90210 The Movie - now that I'm over the holiday craft fair season and the mosaic is not only finished but in its new home we should have time to film, after the rock show.