Rave: Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital

Ok, so anyone who knows me in my life in L.A. knows that I adore Drs. Winters & Suehiro at Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital. They aren't just great doctors, but members of the rare breed (no pun intended) of doctors who truly care about their patients and families. Not that I didn't LOVE them before, but they truly earned my livelong loyalty, love & respect for how they cared for Hanna & I. So, I recommend them to ANYONE on the westside that needs a vet. (I'd recommend them to people beyond the Westside, but, lets be honest, in L.A. no one is going to drive that on a regular basis.)

To enjoy your visit to Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital, there are a few things you need to know:

1. Although they take appointments (which I think is new since I've never known them to do that in the past), normally you sign in and wait your turn. This makes some Angelinos unhappy. "Don't you know who I am?!?" has been uttered once or twice when being told they'd have to wait their turn to have their dog/cat seen by the doctor. I mean, think about it...its the Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital, think about that area; the staff don't care who you are. Wait your turn. I just love that.

2. Its a small waiting room. I mean, there are more than enough places to sit but if you dog gets nervous or has any agression issues, you should sign in, tell the receptionists that you'll be outside and hang out there. Having your dog lunge and bark at every dog/person/cat in the waiting room is considered bad form.

3. Dr. Suehiro is the lead surgeon so if you don't recognise him on the days he's doing appointment duty, that's why. He isn't new; he isn't cold; he's a surgeon who rocks the house and cares deeply about your animal.

4. Yes, Dr. Winters really is as friendly as he seems.

5. There is one part-time doctor (he's not even on the website) that I don't love. So, I usually call in advance to see if Winters or Suehiro is working. The girls have the schedule at the front desk so asking who's working at the time you're planning to bring your puppy/kitty in is a question they're more than accustomed to.

If you have any other questions, let me know!

I haven't forgotten my promise

but I've been sick for the last few weeks so I haven't had much to write about other than what you already know. I could talk about how much I love my Ralphs pharmacists...nope already covered that. Hmmm, I went to Paco's. Nope, we talked about that one as well.

Ok, here's something, its a reach but you'll deal...

For some reason, whenever I'm sick, my confort food is matzo ball soup and potato pancakes. Now, I'm not jewish, though most people upon meeting me are conivinced that I am. (NTTAWWT) So, I find it amusing that instead of craving something my mom would make, I need matzo ball soup and potato pancakes.

And you'd think LA would be a great place to find Jewish confort food, but its a wee bit more challenging than you would think.
-Canter's gets shut down by the health department on a regular basis, so I don't fee the need to go there.
-Junior's is on the other side of the dreaded Santa Monica reconstruction project.
-Whole Foods has the worse matzo ball soup I've ever had. (Though their minestrone came in a close 2nd to the worst soup I've ever had; 1st belonging to the afore mentioned matzo ball.)
-And, although I oppose chains of all kinds (except Versailles) , Jerry's is currently the winner of the best matzo ball soup in L.A.

Now, I know there are probably better Jewish deli's out there, but when I'm sick, the last thing I want to do is sit in traffic for an hour getting to a different neighborhood.

So yeah, if you're not feeling well, and you're in Westwood, hit Jerrys. You'll feel better. Really.

The Surreal Live - Part II

So back on New Year's Day, I told you about my Hulk Hogan (+ family) experience at the Peninsula. Now I bring you Angelina Jolie.

Ok, as a rule I don't buy People Magazine. Its not that its a bad magazine; I just save that sort of writing for my time spent in the waiting rooms of the various appointments I seem to attend on a semi-regular basis. Well, my flight on Sunday was delayed and I was therefore forced to buy a few magazine to kill time. I spent my time at the airport reading about Lance Armstrong so I didn't get to the People until yesterday at lunch.

So yeah, I admit it, I was reading about the Pitt/Jolie baby. Its actually pretty cute. So they're talking about Angie's other kids and their reaction; they're talking about the doctors; they quote her Ob/Gyn who flew in from the states to deliver the baby. (You didn't really think she'd have a C-section in another country with doctors she isn't familiar with, did you?)

Wait a second.

That's my doctor. That's the gynocologist that I raved about a few months ago. That's my favorite gynocologist ever. So, from my masterful powers of deduction, Camp Jolie/Pitt have been traveling around with not just an entourage in the traditional sense, but bringing their doctors around with them as well.

When you have a medical team following you around....now that's an entourage.

Honey I Shrunk the Twins

So, as promised, here's my review of the Metrodome.

And, as a public service, in my various MN posts, I'll give small lessons. 'cause everyone in MN, thinks all of this is obvious. And, for those of us not from MN, its not obvious.

Lesson #1: Everyone in Minneapolis calls the city area of Minneapolis, the Metro area. So, if you hear someone talk about the Metro area, now you know what that is.

So ends the lesson.

Onto the Metrodome...
Lets start with the good:

Transportation: Taking the light rail from downtown to and from the game was great. Its quick, clean and cheap. If you're staying in downtown, I highly recommend this option.

Food: Yum! Good dogs, good pretzels. Nachos were nachos, so that's always good.

Ambiance: Our seats were in right field next to a giant inflatable milk jug. How do you go wrong with that?

Game: We missed the home run while we were getting food but otherwise it was a good game.

Lets end with the bad:

Food: Who decided to only open half of the food stands on our level? There were over 40,000 people there that day, with a bobblehead giveaway no less, and yet some genius decided that they weren't going to open up all the food places. Yeah, that's a good idea - make the lines unnecessarily long.

Ambiance: Because of the enclosed nature of the dome, the game was REALLY loud, like you-can't-hear-what-the-guy-next-to-you-is-saying loud.

Game: Wow, the dome is ugly. It made the game and the stadium seem too little. Seeing games at Chavez Ravine makes baseball larger than life. That's how baseball should be. The dome makes games seem like a boy's version of playing with barbies. Very upsetting.

I'm told BOB is a good dome, which I guess makes the Metrodome a bad dome.

bad dome.
BAD dome.

Restaurant Review - Breeze

Ok, so I've raved about the food court at the Century City Mall. But, what I didn't tell you is that really, the food court is better than the sit down restaurants. And that's really sad considering the amount of money that floats around this area of the city. But, I can tell you one sit down restaurant in Century City I've found that acutally has decent food.

http://centuryplaza.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/restaurants/index.jsp

Breeze is located in the Century Plaza Hotel & Spa. Most of the time I really dislike hotel restaurants, and I can honestly say I didn't expect to much from this one. But I've been there twice and both times the food has been quite tastey. Of course, because you're in a hotel in the middle of Century City, you're definately overpaying for your tastey Chicken Cobb Salad. But, at least you're having a nice lunch.

If you're coming to Century City and you're in need of something nicer than a food court, Breeze is a good bet.

Rave: Fashion Co-op

I love Fashion Co-op. I've loved it since the first time I went to it in Santa Monica at Bergamont Station. I loved it when it was at Smashbox Studios when it was so jammed that you'd have to walk sideways to get through the hoards of people. I loved it at Water Garden when the elevator broke and we had to wait an hour to get in. And now I REALLY love it since they put it at Santa Monica Civic Center and there's tons of room for everyone to walk around and really see everything the vendors are offering.

And if you think any of that last paragraph was sarcastic, it wasn't. I genuinely have nothing but love for this sample sale.

Fashion Co-op (www.fashioncoop.com) brings mainly local designers together for one big sample sale. One of my all time favorites (and yes I do regret not buying more) vendors came in from NYC, so although the theme is local designers, people do come in from all over. You will find everything from clothes, to jewelry, to gifts to energy drinks, to make-up. I don't recommend this sale to boys (although there is some boy stuff there) only because most men I know don't enjoy shopping. Though, I will say, if you wanted to find some interesting and inexpensive jewelry for the significant other, this is a good place. Beats that crap you buy at the mall any day of the week, but I digress.

The sale is fun because you never know what you're going to find and I've never taken anyone to one of these who wishes they hadn't gone, or that it was a waste of their time or $3 admission. Its just fun to look around at everything and find something that is odd and fun in your own style, whether you're a conservative girl from WI or a chic who finds bags manufactured by a company called plastic fuc%er fabulous.

I'm easy...I dig it all!

Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke heads

Written March 8th & saved to drafts for no good reason. Brought to you now since I can't finish my current brilliant blog post because I seemed to have run out of brilliance:

Oddest thing just happened. I was just called out by one of my co-workers for drinking too much Diet Coke. And, I'm not saying that I don't. But, I see people eating junk food, bragging about not exercising, smoking, drinking coffee, energy drinks, blah, blah, blah...I wonder if they get called out. And then I got annoyed about being called out. And then I was annoyed about being annoyed which started me thinking, which is never good. So here's my thought.

I think there are categories of calling out. And I think your role in the situation of the call out will determine the usefulness of said call out. An obvious example is a doctor calling out his patient on high cholesterol for example. (Mine is 132 btw, I rule!) But, lets try to focus on more day-to-day examples.

1. The friend call out: I was called out last week. I was entangled in what I now refer to as "the sweater incident" and needed a new top to finish the work day. So, what do I do...I go to Bloomingdales. Just automatic. Didn't even think twice. Just walked over. So I was called out since there is an ENTIRE MALL to hit. I didn't have to go through the 2nd floor of one department store for 30 minutes to figure out that there was nothing I liked or could afford. Duh. So, that's a good call out since she: a) knows me; b) imparted good information; and 3) made me think about my choices.

2. The family call out: This happens WAY too often to cite a good example. But that's the point, it happens way too often to be useful. So, we'll leave it at that.

3. The acquaintance call out: What happened above is a good example. But unlike the friend example although the acquaintance is trying to do something good thing he/she : a) doesn't know me; b) didn't give me any good information; and 3) made me defensive about my choices.

4. The stranger call out: Karma punished me for this one. One of my pet peeves is the lack of manners in our society. And, in an effort to combat that, I hold doors and elevators, wave people into my lane (when they're not being immensely stupid), give the elderly the seat on my bus, etc... Well, I was getting into an elevator and 4 guys saw me and a woman who's 8 MONTHS PREGNANT and did nothing to hold the elevator. So I said something smart. And then karma punished me for not saying something useful and took one of my favorite hats away. So I learned my lesson which I will now share with you (and I think it sums up this whole rant well):

If you're going to be a smart ass, you have to be a useful smart ass...that's the polite thing to do.

Restaurant Review - Paco's Tacos

Paco's Tacos - 4141 S Centinela Ave, Los Angeles, 90066 - (310) 391-9616

Well, I've been there twice in the past five days, and been in love with this place for years so it definitely deserves to be in the reviews.

I'll start with a few questions:

• Does Taco Bell offend you?
• Can you go to a restaurant and wait for a table because they don't take reservations?
• If the food is good, do you forget what exactly a calorie is?
• Do you mind if parking is a challenge?
• Are homemade tortillas an important part of the path leading to nirvana?

If you answered yes to ALL of these questions, Paco's is for you. The food is fantastic; the service is good; the prices are completely reasonable; and the wait is MORE than worth it. I don't think I've ever ordered the same thing twice and I know I've never thought to myself: "Gee, I wish I had ordered that thing I got last time." Nope, everything here is fabulous. And, if you're really ready to toss caloric caution to the wind, have a margarita on top of your fat feast...they're yummy too! But yeah, I won't lie to you; there isn't a "healthy" item on this menu. And you know what, that's a good thing. If you're going to cheat, this is the place to do it. Don't cheapen the experience by trying to watch what you eat...unless you're watching it go into your mouth.

One word of advice...don't go at a "meal time" on the weekends. That is of course unless you enjoy sitting on long banquettes waiting over an hour to get a table. This place gets crazy crowded. Hell, I go at off times and I still have to wait to get a table. Its that good. Its crowded at 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday. I mean, I waited 5 minutes at 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday, but still, there weren't tables just to walk up to.

So, like any good Boy Scout, plan ahead, and enjoy some of the best Mexican food you're going to find anywhere.