Chaos & Anarchy Rule

at the mall.

OMG, I haven't seen that many people at the mall in years. Seriously. Wall to wall people. People shopping and spending money and carrying bags; kids running amuck; couples arm in arm.

Isn't that supposed to happen before Christmas? I'm just sayin'.

So yeah, if you're aching to go shopping (*coughcoughmelissastevecoughcough*) there are defiantely deals to be had.

Merry Christmas to all

I didn't go to Disneyland for Christmas but I did wear this fine hat today.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

A Word On Family

As most of you know, I come from a family so small we all fit into a minivan. I know this, because we all fit into a minivan to go to the rehearsal dinner for my cousin's wedding last year. So, even with my cousin and his now wife we'd still fit into that minivan. Yeah, we're that small. But, we're also incredibly cool, very sweet and entirely lacking in drama. Unfortunately, I only see them about once a year... that whole east coast/west coast thing and my lack of copious amounts of vacation time.

That brings me to my adopted family. What we lack in blood, we make up with history. Mom'n'I were adopted about 29 years ago into a family so big that there are separate cars for the dogs. And no, I'm not kidding. They're exactly 2 miles away. So, we see them about once a week during the low season and about three times a week during high season.*

Why do I tell you this? Ok, I'm getting to that. One of my adopted family members is Michael Callan. Like us, he doesn't share the family name but has been a part of the family for many, many years. He's one of the kindest men I've known, and one heck of a performer. He is best known for originating the part of Riff in the Broadway production of West Side Story. The 50th anniversary was last week and he, as well as the rest of the original cast, were flown to New York to participate in two special, sold-out performances bringing the current and originating casts together.

The clip below was sent to me. I thought it was just incredible. And, therefore, I share it with you. In case you're wondering, Michael is the first one to sing. He enters stage center and begins the performance.

Enjoy.

*High season runs from Thanksgiving to Mother's Day.

Guilt and then some

So I took this amazing class at the Urban Craft Center on Sunday. It was their yarn dying/painting class with John Pitblado. The class was fabulous. John was fabulous. The students were fabulous. My newly dyed and painted yarn is fabulous. But I haven't had time to upload my pictures or really review my notes to give you a good description about the class and how, well, fabulous it all was.

And I feel poorly for that.

So yeah.

My bad.

If you get the chance to take a class with John, please take that class; it'll change your life.

Seriously.

But lets talk about Craft. I had the good fortune to eat at Craft in Century City today. We were part of a 45 person private party so I'm not sure if my experience is typical but I really liked it. We had this super cute room at the back that sat all of us quite comfortably. Despite all the chatting, it wasn't too noisy. The staff inside the room was friendly. The food was good. And, best of all, someone else was paying. So, if you get a chance to eat there for free, I say go for it.

Next up: Il Moro

So I asked Santa for a New Car..

and there are new cars in my driveway, they just aren't for me. They belong to our nice contractors. It seems to be an unofficial rule that if you're a contractor, you have to drive a big white pickup truck. They're all super nice trucks and the boys really know how to drive them. I mean, the way they all fit in there, is impressive.

So yeah, For the next three months we are without a driveway. You'd never know how much you'd miss a driveway until you lost your driveway. And, might I say, I have a mighty nice driveway...three car garage with room for at least 4 cars at the base of the driveway, not counting the ones that could park on the slope leading down.

Ah, no more.

Mom'n'I are on the street, well, at least our cars are on the street. All of our guests' cars are on the street. Your car is on the street. You get the idea.

Now, as you know, I went and did the official permit thing so I don't have the wrath of the parking doGs on me. However, I didn't count the wrath of my neighbor. And, when I say wrath, I mean mild chiding from an 80+ year old man. Apparently he doesn't like people parking on the street in front of his house. Ever.

Hmm, I don't have a driveway and I can't park in the spot closest to my house because someone wants to always leave it empty.

Yeah, not so much.

We discussed the situation and he accepted my offer of always parking in the spot across from his house when it is available. But, if that spot is not available, he would find it mildly acceptable for me to park in the spot in front of his house.

You see why I'm afraid of condo life people? These are the sorts of issues I have living in a house. I can only imagine the weird things people come up with when you're sharing walls and roofs and such what not.

Anyone looking for a 40 year old virgin?

He was at the Tiffany's at the Century City mall, in case you were looking for him. And yes, he looks *exactly* like he does on TV.

What a beautiful morning....

IMG_1607.JPG
Originally uploaded by radomile

Ah, the sight of the morning sun over your very own porta-potty on your front lawn.

Isn't she pretty? I think I'll name her Betty.

Betty moved in on Monday. After months and months of permits and fun obtaining the proper permissions to fix a patio that's broken and put it back exactly as it now, only not broken, we have begun. And we began with Betty.

I'm so excited about adding Betty as a temporary member of our household. I've been staring at her cousins on front lawns on my street for about 2 years now. We had one cousin next door staring at us for about 18 months. That cousin was replaced with a sibling who came to visit the house up the street just for the summer. And now that those kids are gone, we have Betty.

Like any house guest, I'm sure I'll be sick of her before she leaves. But, for now, I'll enjoy her company.

Crumbs

Ah, the beginning of a new blogging era. I'm so excited I could almost explode. I'm sorry for my absence last week. I didn't blow up the internet but I did blow up any desire to blog after forcing myself for 30 days. But today, today is a new day people. We have cupcakes and porta-potties and captive animals and Christmas, oh my!

We'll start with the cupcakes.

So I'm watching Access Hollywood last week (shut up) and they're talking about Crumbs in Beverly Hills. Well, its a good thing I drove by it later that week and saw it with my own two eyes, because according to their website, there is no Beverly Hills location. But, that was a petty annoyance from this morning...moving on...

After visiting Chroma and Arturo, I walked the two blocks to Crumbs to sample their wares. Let me tell you, its overwhelming in there. This is the anti-Sprinkles. Its bright, its crowded with merchandise, its colorful...I felt so at home. The nice girl behind the counter was well, nice and helpful.

I picked the obvious chocolate ding-dong looking cupcake that everyone photographs as well as the Carmel Apple. Ok, the chocolate was good but the Carmel Apple made me not want to share. And I don't love carmel, but I love this cupcake.

So, next time you find yourself in Beverly Hills desperately in need of a cupcake, I would suggest Crumbs. While you're there, please pick up a Carmel Apple and surprise me with whatever else looks good. You know where to find me.

I understand the Boy Scouts a little more now.

Dude, I so earned that badge. Its mine. That's right. I did that. You have to look at it. Even if I did a mediocre job of blogging everyday, I still did it.

Ok, now that I'm done basking in my own glory, a brief wrap-up on the NaBloPoMo thang.

I agree its a great writing exercise. But, here's the thing, like any exercise, you shouldn't have to subject the outside world to your pain. Writing everyday is good. Having me share what I write everyday is bad. And that's really what I learned from this. For me, blogging for the sake of blogging is a really bad plan. Blogging when I have something amusing or useful to say is a really good plan.

For example, dim sum at CBS Seafood in downtown L.A. is a really good idea. And the kids on Chowhound were right. The larger your group, the faster you're seated. See, that's useful information. If you're looking for good, solid dim sum in downtown L.A. and you have a boatload of people to please, you just learned where to find it.