Christmas miracle

I think as a reward for my trip home last year, the 22+ hour drive from Denver, I found a once in a lifetime, christmas miracle if you will, roundtrip ticket for $180 on travelocity. Amazing, the thought of paying $500 to come home for christmas was hard to swallow, but I would have done it to see everybody. And now the moment you have all been waiting for.

X-MAS PICTURE POST!!

I hope you didn't die from cuteness, because there is another day of it coming next.

white elephant

I was honored to co-host the 4th annual white elephant party this year with a friend at my apartment. I had about 35 people, swapping gifts, laughing, drinking, eating "crack balls" Which all of my friends call the meatball recipe my mom gave me and I have been making for a lot of my big gatherings at the place.

Recipe for crack balls

1 bag of meatballs
2 jars of chili sauce
1 can of cranberry sauce
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of sambal olek (optional)

In the end I was gifted Casino Royale staring Daniel Craig. Not bad, it could have been worse. How worse I don't want to say because this is a family blog. If you notice in the top right corner. I made white elephant garland, by cutting out white elephant heads out of paper. Very Martha Stewart I know.

What does it mean?

I left Los Angeles as it was flooding. I crossed over the 10 and it was a lake, full of cars apprehensive to go further. It was pouring and then suddenly over the distance blue sky right above the airport and I looked back toward the city and saw a double rainbow. A big fat brilliant rainbow and its shadow.

I have seen a double rainbow before so I didn't get as excited about it as that guy on youtube, but it is still a pretty awesome experience.

I wish I could have taken pictures but I would have just gotten my reflection in the super shuttle window.

Happiest of New Years!!

I hope you all have a safe and happy night tonight and may 2011 be your best year yet!

I will be unpacking and working on posts today, with pictures of course. All this in between shopping for tonight's communal dinner with friends for New Year's eve.

Happy birthday coey!!

and the 5th season is...

RAIN!!!!

It has been gray and rainy for over a week, and will continue to rain a half a week more. I wouldn't mind but today is the first lunar eclipse on winter solstice since 1630 a.d. California is one of the best places to see it if it weren't for these pesky clouds and raindrops hitting you square in the eyeball.

Oh well there is the next half a millennia.

it only happens once every 4 years

I have been complaining since I got here that the one thing I don't like about Los Angeles is that I miss the seasons. It turns out that there are in fact seasons. Not your typical seasons that follow months or a calendar, as I write it is December 12th and it is 84 degrees, but something that is a bit more subtle.

Season one: Yucca Blooms
Season two: Spring
Season three: Jacaranda drop their flowers
Season four: about 40-50 degrees

But I have gathered that something else happens every four years and that is Fall.




The color in LA has been amazing and worth the four year wait.

Saving face

Whilst I was at my conference lounging in my hotel room my facebook account got phished. What the heck does that mean? Well someone was able to get into my account, impersonate me and send people a link to an IQ test. Kind of embarrassing, especially because that person insinuated that I was stupid and could only get a 106.

So I decided that maybe it was best to delete my account. I find that I don't really miss it. Before I left, I saved this picture of me from 1992 that was added by a friend in Arts High days.

in summary

So this is what I have been up to besides writing on this here blog....

I planned and executed an international conference on art history and hosted people from Rome, Turin, Mantua, Padua, Marburg, Zurich, Frankfurt, New York, Washington, DC and greater California and learned a lot more about stucco than I had ever imagined possible. (That sounds kind of sarcastic, but in all actuality very, very interesting.)

I threw a going away party for yet another of our interns going off to greener pastures or plains, because the rain in Spain falls mainly on it. (Wish I were going)

Celebrated a friends year + long search for a job by eating dollar tacos. (Who knew deep fried mash potatoes could be so good.

Saw art and tried Polish food.

On a related note, I started back to the gym.

(in preparation for mom's "surprises" and "of deaths" that are coming my way in two weeks.)

fear of the foot

I never know quite what to say to actors that I like, actors that make me laugh and that are extremely talented. I don't know if they would like to hear how much of a fan I am or if I should just leave them to enjoy their day. Plus there was that one time I embarrassed myself by being such a huge dork when I saw the Roots outside of first avenue in Minneapolis.

Last week I went to see a photography exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and I ran or kept running into John Michael Higgins .

You may know him from the Christopher Guest movies, Best in Show and a Mighty Wind. He was part of a "symphony of guys" in the Break Up. He is hilarious and has made me laugh really more than I can count.

And the later is what I would have said, if I knew what to do in those situations.

another first

This Thanksgiving I hosted a second annual orphan thanksgiving at my apartment with a few close friends. It was my first attempt at cooking a turkey. I must admit that I was a bit nervous, but after a couple badly burnt fingers, I think it went pretty well. I think I know why the ove-glove was invented.

The gravy... now that was another story. I think the meticulous attention to detail to make sure the turkey was not overcooked and juicy made me not care so much about how the gravy turned out. Maybe I was a little bit cocky and threw in just a little too much cornstarch and my roommate threw in a little too much wine.





It made me realize that I really miss cooking. Not that I don't cook. I cook, but I miss the line cook days of making things from scratch. I miss making chickens, fish, cream sauces, I miss marinating things, whipping squash and potatoes.

Something happened I guess and I forgot how much I love it. So now is as good of a time as any to start again.

A special thank you to Alton Brown, who taught me how to truss a Turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. Travel safely. No drinking and driving.

conquering a fear one bite at a time

Today I did something I never thought I would do. I ate something I am deathly afraid of.....

The little inscription above the sausage is not a name I used for my order. I in fact ate RATTLESNAKE.

mixed with a little rabbit.

Wurstkuche is a ale house/sausage maker who mixes some pretty exotic cocktails of meat and stuffs them all into a nice little casing like duck and bacon, alligator and pork and classics like bratwurst.

I have to say that the rabbit and rattlesnake was pretty darn good. It was mild and tasty, not what I was expecting at all. I was a bit afraid of this combo and had originally thought about chicken/turkey with cilantro and green chilis but changed my mind while I waited in line because how often do you get the chance to eat snake. Pretty much never.

So when I am hiking up one of the many trails in the LA area and I see a rattlesnake I might just look at it a little differently.

And may just salivate a little.

funny interesting cool

I added a new function to the blog. It is a tally on the bottom of each post where you can check whether something is funny, interesting or cool or gross. (Maybe some foreshadowing) I haven't had a lot of people comment and I thought this might be something quick.

I am going to see how it goes for a while.

parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

I am always so surprised how such a short drive can make you feel like you are hundreds of miles away from Los Angeles. Forty-five minutes can pretty much drop you in the middle of nowhere. A completely different place with fantastic views.

The intention for this trip was to view the over-wintering Monarch population. I won't bore you with all the sciency stuff, but basically the butterflies west of the Rockies hang out on the California cost in the winter months. Any butterflies east of the Rockies go to Mexico. In October and November you can see concentrations of Monarchs in Sycamore trees, so vibrant that the trees look firey orange. What better place to see them than in Sycamore Canyon.



In total we saw one Monarch. The guide told us to follow that Monarch until we found its friends, but it dipped into a no mans land of snarled branches, underbrush and trees. So we didn't follow.

But we did see bees in a heartshaped hive



The greatest thing about the hike, 4 miles in total, was the free aromatherapy session. There was wild sage, rosemary, wild fennel and something at random that smelled like dill pickles. It was very relaxing and much needed before the start of my work week. That and it made me hungry for pickles.

The sunset video was taken shortly after our hike, across highway 1 on the beach.

And now I give you....

30 seconds of sunset

(you may want to turn the volume down a bit)

Whistle and wait

Before I forget this guy was standing behind me in line at the grocery store.

This year, something different

When I moved here I was so excited for Halloween. I could finally wear what I wanted without having to hide my costume under a parka and trudge through the snow in bare legs. I guess though that I could have gotten by without buying a costume at all. I could have just said:

"Under all of these layers I am the Statue of Liberty"

I was so excited to move here and be whatever I wanted. Year 1 I was a flapper, Year 2 Cleopatra, Y3 The Bride of Frankenstein, Y4 Cleopatra again. I was all of these things without having to wear even a sweater.

This year since I got the dress-up out of my system for Oktoberfest, I decided to do something different and not dress up at all. I did the other thing I have wanted to do since I got here and went to Dia de Los Muertos at Hollywood Forever (You may remember this name from the cemetery movie screenings from summers past)

I like the idea of Dia de los Muertos. The day where you can celebrate with loved ones who have passed, share their favorite foods and celebrate their life.

(Here is an example of what the offerings look like, candy, nuts, hot chocolate, the ever important tamales &Folgers.)

What I like about this holiday is seeing all of the creativity that goes into the Ofrendas. There was a great one that looked like a dollhouse with all the separate rooms with wedding scenes with paper cut out and miniatures. Another with a large scene tv running their loved ones favorite Telenovelas(soapoperas) Ofrendas with live participants dressed up as Aztec Gods and Goddesses

Or dressed up as beautiful skulls as seen below

Marigolds and Monarchs everywhere.

I know at first glance this all seems very morbid, but some how it isn't. It is nice to have a day and reflect upon the people who have shaped and effected out lives. To not be sad, but to give thanks.

I will definitely be back next year and maybe dress up.

one last thing

The last thing I felt I had to get out of my system was a trolley ride at the Grove. It really isn't that log of a ride, just to one end of the Grove to the Farmer's market, unless you get on with a kid who just got a

brand
new
recorder.

Trendsetter

I have always been a trendsetter. I get comments all the time about bands I liked first, things I wore before they were popular. Tall boots with skirts, that was me...Arrggh matey

I was talking to another friend last week who is gluten free and she said:

"Do you know what the new diet fad is now?"

I replied "no"

She said "Being gluten free."

See I am always ahead of the game.

Before I explain the following I want to say that I am not a professional nutritionist, dietitian, weight loss coach etc. But I do have some hints, warnings, etc.

One, if you think that you can lose weight and not exercise you are completely delusional.

Two, people have gotten smarter and have made gluten free products very similar to their gluteny counter parts, they are tastier and spongier; like French Meadow and their sinfully wrong cream cheese frosted gluten free vanilla cupcakes. Those definitely have calories and just because they are gluten free does not mean that they are calorie free. Don't think that you can get away with eating them and think, Oh they are gluten free so therefore on your diet.

Whole Foods has this amazingly rich flourless chocolate cake, this will also not be on your diet.

A lot of these products are made out of rice and rice has a lot of sugar, just ask a diabetic.

All I am saying is be careful and mindful. If you decide that going gluten free is something you want to do, just be smart about it.

Did you know that one cup of raspberries has more fiber than a cup of oatmeal? As a gluten free person you can't eat oatmeal. So eat raspberries.

global scorching

It was a really strange summer. Instead of May Gray and June Gloom, we had an additional Steely July and argentine August.

Now in November 3 out of 5 days have been in the 90's. Usually at this time I have made myself a couple new scarves and am wearing my mid-weight coat. Today I wore a skirt and tank top.

Off to run in the neighbor's sprinkler.....