What I have been up to-working, fundraising and museums

Job is going well, I come home very tired, but am very happy although it seems like I am living to work instead of working to live.

I have spent my free time doing my part as a local philanthropist. I supported the local Planned Parenthood chapter in their 7th annual bingo for choice event. It was fantastic, funny and I felt better knowing that I helped low income women get pre-cancer screenings as well as additional health related information.

I saw the renoir exhibit before it closed. It was great and nice to see someone who really liked painting his wife.

I also saw some performance art, and found that I am just not cut out for it. I just want to laugh.

I have been reading Savage Detectives and I really can't think of a person I would like to recommend it to.

That is it in a nutshell.

Siting- Q and A

I forgot that I had the pleasure of seeing a new movie by writing by Scott Caan called Mercy. He did a Q and A after the film, so I guess I had a siting surprise.

food and memory

Cannes 2010 is already here I see that Paris is there again butchering her French and I am doing the thing that I failed to completely do last year and that is learn French.

I kind of would like a do over of that trip for the language and a couple more reasons.

I have been thinking about my trip to France a lot lately. So I tried to re-create my favorite meal at this little Moroccan place in a small town outside of Nice. The lure of the tagine has been calling me ever since that day, that and the Moroccan mint tea service.

Chicken with olives and preserved lemons. (pictured)

I looked around a bit and found a place called Tagine (Coincidentally co-partnered by Ryan Gosling) but their menu was down on their website and I had to have chicken with preserved lemons and olive. So I chose a restaurant in West Hollywood. Fabric covered the ceiling and walls, pillows line stools and floors and couches, mirrors, beaded curtains and everything I think would be in a restaurant in Casablanca, even though I have never been. This place in LA was much unlike the place in France, very over-stated.

The food was good, we were the only people their and we got a little too much attention from the owner, who told my roommate that he would sell his camels for her.

It is funny the way food can connect you to a place.

As long as we are talking family...

Here is a site you might enjoy this week. Some of the comments are a bit risque, but there are more funny ones than inappropriate ones.



Awkward family photos.

word to your moms

To the moms we love, to the moms we lost, Happy Mother's Day.

another alien landscape

California is not just the land of celebrities, traffic and loud feverish pitch. It is a land of alien landscapes.









PS this is why you need to make sure your crude oil stays in one place

foxy reading

Last weekend I headed to the LA Times Festival of Books. I had always wanted to go, but never had a willing participant until this year.

We bussed it on down to the UCLA campus to experience the festival in full force. (they said later that there were around 130, 000 people who attended. I think they were all there on Sunday with me) There were tents upon tents of vendors, publishers, food, bookstores. It was very overwhelming and in a good way. I never thought that many people in LA read.

I did get the chance to see Pam Grier talk about her new book called "Foxy: My Life in Three Acts" she seemed nervous.

Next time I go, I am going with a plan.

What are you reading? leave a comment or email me

Sometimes....

Sometimes you have to travel south to go back in time. ( I learned this from Jose Luis Borges)

I tagged along on a trip to San Diego. Traffic was bad because it was also the weekend of Coachella. (a music festival that I would classify as Woodstock for hipsters) Since it was taking forever for a 2 hour trip we decided to make a couple of side trips. Leslie and I talked about tastes that remind us of being a kid, her's is Swiss Orange Chip ice cream from Swensen's Which we recreated at Coffee Bean with an ice-blended orange mocha.

When we entered Buena Park, CA, I turned to her and asked her..

"Have you ever had a Chicago Dog before"
"Like the one at Pink's" She asked.
I laughed and said "No one at Pink's has ever been to Chicago."

And we drove to Portillo's. Yes, the Chicago chain has finally made it to LA.



Leslie said it was the best hot dog she had ever had and talked about it for days. Me, I was lost in the nostalgic moments and happiness that a Chicago Dog brings me.

Happiness is a warm bun

Star siting of the golden glove kind

Last week my cubicle mates took me out to celebrate my promotion. We ventured to Palomino in West Wood. (i.e. the area around the UCLA campus) This is a great restaurant to see deals being made with agents, and people who want to be noticed by agents, managers etc. We have a Palomino in Minneapolis, but it isn't nearly as interesting.

During this excursion we saw Sugar Ray Leonard having lunch. My back was to him most of the time. I think one of the girls got a picture.

emails, please

I sent out an email of some recent work related news and got several bounce backs. If you want to be on the listserve to get little snippets that I am not posting, please email me at eyemheer2@yahoo.com

Writer's block

I completely have writer's block.

I haven't seen anyone out and about
The springs fashion trends are so varied(my roommate and I seriously watched this fashion segment that said this spring trends are short, long, bright colored, neon, but not neon, military, floral) Everyone in LA is wearing all of these
I haven't been exploring
I haven't been reading
I think all of the things I found strange about LA have now become completely normal.

I am wondering if anyone wants to submit something? Maybe you are not ready to commit to an entire blog, maybe you want to share some news? have you seen any celebs? Tell me all about it, this is a family blog after all.

I am taking submissions just until I can get this promotion under my belt

When we last left I am here....

...she had just got home from dying easter eggs, fat from eating BBQ-ed meat and anxiously awaiting a promotion.

Well, she is waiting no longer because this week she has been promoted.

Very much a yay moment for me.

I have to wait for my boss to get back from Italy to tell me exactly what it will entail, but I am very excited.

All of this I cannot tell you about on the blog, but know that I am happy.

happy easter

two birds

I'm in jail.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy April Fool's Day.

constellations

Stars seen:
nada
zip
zero
no one

BTW

400 entries on this blog.

I hope you are enjoying.

Book it

I wish there was Book it for adults because I would so be on my way to a free pizza at this moment. I have been reading so much.

Here is what I have finished in the last couple months:
People of the Book
Down and out in Paris and London-George Orwell
The Tao of Wu- by the Rza
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (The best book I have read in two years)

Now I am reading:
Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Are you reading anything good?

Whale watching 2nd attempt

Last weekend we, not the same group one was too disenchanted, schleped our way back to Newport Beach to see the whales.

(On a side note, I heard that if Newport flooded all the women in town would be safe because of all of the surgically implanted flotation devices.)

This time we got on the boat and did in fact see a whale. Not just any whale, but the Fin Back Whale, the second largest whale on earth. It can weigh up to 80 tons and can be equally as long. They also can swim as fast as 23 miles, so our boat had a hard time keeping up. We stalked it for a good 45 minutes before having to turn back and go home.

It was so nice to sit on a boat in the middle of the ocean for two an a half hours and relax, laugh, and just be tourists. Strangely one of the girls in our group who schleped both time is originally from West St. Paul.

Small ocean I guess.

sometimes you feel like vegging out

My favorite gluten free and vegetarian dish is this:

Take all of your favorite veggies like:
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Red and yellow peppers
zucchini
Onions (do not trim root end off)

But any farmers market finds will work

Toss them in olive oil, pepper and garlic powder. Pre-heat your oven to 375 and cook for at least a half an hour, but until you get to your desired veggie tenderness.

While you are waiting for that take that polenta that is already cooked in that tube, cut off thick pancake-like rounds and fry them up. (if you are motivated you can make polenta from scratch, but I am not that motivated)

When finished put a bit of spaghetti sauce on each disk, a bunch of veggies, sprinkle shaved Parmesan to your liking and eat happily.

(I bring home my polenta and fry it up in a pan, because I am a woman...)

Whale watching 1st attempt

I swear I would never be one of those adults who said "expletive teenagers", but I will call part one of this trip "expletive teenagers"

"Expletive Teenagers" by Kristen

It was a beautiful but windy February day..

For my friend's birthday she organized (in an organized way that only grandpa can appreciate) a whale watching trip on a boat from Newport Beach, which is kind of a schlep from Los Angeles. So four of us jumped in car and schleped to "The O.C" and were very excited to do some whale stalking as I like to call it. We bought some whale stalking tickets on a boat serendipitously called "The Amigo" or "Friend" in Spanish from three teenagers in an office located next to the "Fun Zone" We got our tickets and headed across the sidewalk to our boat "The Amigo"

We sat staring at the Amigo and 2:20 came, and we thought shouldn't we be getting on soon? And at 2:30 I decided that maybe I would try to get on the boat myself (an exercise in being more proactive) but was told that "Oh, they will come and get you when they are ready to board" and then 2:40 came and our Amigo had no signs of departure.

So we when back into the office where the teenage boy who sold us the tickets was trying to get his flirt on with the older (19 maybe) office manager and asked him what the deal was.

"uh, the boat doesn't leave from this dock, it leaves on the other side of the blue gray building." (note: all of the buildings on the pier are blue gray)

and we said "but our boat is the Amigo and you told us to wait outside"




"Oh, we ran out of tickets for the other boat"

So we ran (which I only use in case of emergency) and stopped after every blue gray building, and of course it was the last one.

and it left without us.

so we got half off tickets for the next time.

"Expletive teenagers"

Nature spotted:
This ham of a Seagull who was posing for photos. No whales.

to be continued....