Visiting "A Whale's Vagina"...

If you haven't seen ANCHORMAN, then this is awkward...but it means we went to San Diego.

Chris and I took a little trip down to San Diego last weekend to milk his Hilton perks before they disappear. We got a great room at the resort there right on Mission Bay, just north of downtown San Diego. Our room had this cute little patio that lead right to the beach and all these cute ducks came up to pay us a visit (read- ask us for food but we didn't feed the little guys). Check out the video- the duck goes right up to our screen door!

Sadly, I had just come down with a cold the day before we left, so I was not that much fun over the weekend. Friday, especially, when I couldn't even taste our dinner or wine. Plus the kleenex was never more than a foot from me the whole night.

On Saturday, we headed out to the Wild Animal Park, which is affiliated to the San Diego Zoo, but is a totally separate area. It's much more akin to the Jurassic Park idea, of leaving animals in much bigger expanses of land and less cage-like situations. Check out this lion, who was gnawing on a huge leg bone the whole time we were there.

They have tons of elephants there as well - a number of whom are children. The smallest baby you can see in this photo is only two months old. He was born at 226 lbs though! WOW!




And then there were these weird hybrid of horses and zebras called the Okapi....and they have REALLY long tongues they use to grab nearby branches and pull them over for food. I took a video, but you can't really tell from it (See below). Here's a little blurb from wikipedia about them and their tongues - "The tongue of an okapi is long enough for the animal to wash its eyelids and clean its ears (inside and out): it is the only mammal that can lick its own ears."
We had a great time at the park, even though we did get a bit sunburned, and then headed back to the hotel.


I was feeling a bit better by the end of the night, so we met up with our friends Chip and Daryn, who live in the area, for yummy fish tacos and dessert! It has been great to see so much of them recently!

Sunday we grabbed brunch on our way back to LA, stopping in La Jolla at a place called Harry's Coffee Shop. It's one of those old institutions that has the really old diner interior and they just move people in and out. All the waiters seemed to know a lot of the customers and it seems like a place you'd go for years and say, "I'll have the usual!" I really want to find a place like that near us!

Anyways- sorry for all the absent blogging. Been a busy week and it takes forever at home to upload photos...way easier at the office.

Good News!!

We found out today that Chris is going to be kept on at Hilton for part of the transition - so he's employed with them until June 1st. Gives us a bit more breathing room and more time to find that fabulous next job that's just waiting for him!

So much news!!

I've been an absent blogger... but here's what we've been up to:

Last Friday:
Our good friends Chip and Daryn were up in the LA area and came by that Friday after work for a double-date-night! We had wine, some great cheese & crackers, Chris' famous guac, and then we were off to see DUPLICITY! Check out my side bar for the review.

Saturday:
Morning - Chip and Daryn spent the night and we had the kitties secured in our bedroom area & hallway so there would be no hissing disturbances in the night. [But I will, say the cats are nearly back to normal by now (wednesday) and we are very pleased to see it! The vet and I decided we think Sundance was able to smell Butch's medicine when she sniffed his face and wasn't into it. She's very "sensitive".]

Anyways, we ate pancakes with our friends in the morning and then they left :( to get their own day going, heading back down to SD. We, meanwhile, hung out for a bit longer at home before getting into the car and driving to our friend Dan's new condo for his housewarming in Santa Ana, CA. It's a beautiful townhouse-type condo, with 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bath. Really nice! We munched and chatted the time away with friends.

Then it was back in the car and heading back to LA for Jeff Dix's 35 Birthday Party. After feeding the kitties and picking up the cake on our way, we met friends out for a night of BBQ at this placed called Zeke's. YUM! The fried chicken and potato salad were some of the best I've ever eaten. The hushpuppies were pretty yummy too as appetizers, but Chris found them a bit too bland.

After dinner, we headed to the sleek, trendy bowling alley called called Lucky Strike in Hollywood. I'd never been but had always wanted to go...it's decked out to be a bit of a bar/club, as well as having bowling lanes. And the lights are dim, there are couches instead of rows of those awful chairs and of course, fancy drinks as well as the Bud Light beers in the shapes of bowling pins.
Here are some photos of the night:


Sunday:
Chris and I got back into the car and drove down to Orange County to his parents' home. There, we had a nice lazy day with Camilla, Ron, the kids, Jim and Mary in order to celebrate Camilla's birthay. She and I got hooked on THE HOLIDAY, which was playing on TV. I had forgotten much I liked the Cameron Diaz/Jude Law side of that movie. I've never been particularly smitten with Jude as an actor...but wow- I remembered how much I adored him in this! Looking tan and fit, as well as being the great guy in the movie, I could hardly contain myself! I promptly bought the DVD at the Sony store yesterday and watched it last night.

Tuesday: Chris update
Most of you know by now that Hilton's closing its west coast headquarters shortly and last night, Chris and some of his co-workers went out to celebrate the exit of Adam - one of their favorite VPs at the company. Here's the sign Chris made for his part of the photo slideshow thing they are putting together. Cute, right?



Tuesday: Tami's excitement
I got to meet Paul Rudd yesterday! He's so nice, sweet and super cute in person! Very nice celebrity experience.

Obama's un-PC comment - oh, the horror!

Okay, here's the thing....I'm watching President Obama on Jay Leno last night, and the minute he made the off-hand comment about the Special Olympics I just knew it would become a big deal. An in my opinion, it shouldn't be. He was making an off-hand joke about how he's not good at bowling and it's a reference I've heard many many people use in their lifetime - at some point, probably myself included. But it's so sad that this is what people are focusing on after watching him instead of talking about what he did or didn 't say about the economy. Let's instead focus on the fact that he avoided Jay's question about Congress getting to decide who to tax higher than others with their own discretion (this is in regards to the AIG bonuses).

Nooo, instead let's all get sucked back into the typical way we've been doing things, which is to focus on a tiny comment instead of trying to appreciate the big picture. Do we really have nothing else going on right now in this country that we need to make an issue of this? Let's speak up and make a big deal every time someone anywhere is totally offended by an off-hand remark. Let's have the media talk about it for days instead of the President just issuing a brief apology and then moving on. Which, btw, he did before the show even aired! He called the Head of the Special Olympics and apologized. The guy accepted and said he was great about it. Should be over!!Oy! It so frustrates me! Weren't we more offended as a nation by having a moron in the White House for 8 years that killed Americans under false pretenses? Come on people!

Cat Fight 2009: Update

So yesterday we decided to separate them just until I got home from work around 5pm. (early day I know!!) After that, it's been trying to get things back to normal. Sudance is still pretty pissed off and hissing like a banshee (do banshees hiss?) whenever he's too close or frankly, whenever she seems to feel like. (She will sometimes just walk up to him and hiss. We were so excited the first time we saw her approaching him, b/c she just came really close, took a sniff and then hissed...and charged.) It's really the charging that we're most worried about...but we've decided to let things play themselves out. Whenever she attacks him, we spray her with some water to discourage it...but we let the hissing go. It's just so annoying! Sundace will release this vicious hiss and the come up to me and whimper b/c she wants to be pet. Big sigh.

But anyway, things seemed to go okay during the night and so far this morning we have some closer contact. They seem to be able to be in the same space now, which is progress. As you can see in this photo, three or four feet seems to be the safe distance for now. We're doing as much as we can to cross their scents and get them to smell the same, but I guess it just takes time. Hopefully they won't kill each other while we're out at work today.

The Trouble with Kitties...

So sorry that I have not been blogging much as of late...for one- there hasn't been a ton going on other than work and finally Chris and I had a weekend where we did a lot of nothing. It was so nice considering how much craziness was happening in February. Second, Chris has had the camera tied up at work and my cell phone really doesn't take very good photos of stuff.

Anyways, so the issue with the cats...Butch has been drooling a lot in the last few days, which is an unusual thing for cats. My vet said this means that either a) Butch is so content that he's practically frothing at the mouth and can't be bothered to swallow....b) Butch is really stressed out, which at this time of year can be brought on by other cats in heat either approaching our apartment or meowing in the back alley (which isn't happening)....or c) something's up with his teeth/mouth and it's hurts to swallow. So being the very conscientious mommy that I am, I took him to the vet early this morning. Turns out he has a mild infection thing happening at the back of his mouth. So I leave with some stuff for him and head home...where I assume Sundance is waiting with baited breath for her best friend Butch to come home.

Well, Sundance is waiting...but the minute she gets a whiff of Butch, who apparently smells like the vet now, she starts hissing like a possessed cat! Seriously!! It was insane and poor Butch is like, "What's up Sundance? Why you so mad?" And he keeps trying to approach her; even under the bed, which is the universal "safe zone" for the cats. And then when I try to get to get Sundance, she freaks out and is hissing at me, b/c I, too, must smell like the vet. So I separate them and close the door in the hallway, take a shower and re-approach Sundance. She's at least not hissing at me, though she looks none-too-pleased with me. I call a friend, who I remember told me she had the same problem with the cats, and she says to bathe them both and use the same towel to dry them, so they'll smell the same.

I decide to torture Butch first, which proves to be a mistake b/c now I smell like him again and Sundance is having none of it. I couldn't even get close enough to pick her up and put her in the tub. So alas, I had to separate them for the day while I was gone and put two sets of litter, food and water out for them. Oy vey, I say!! The vet says to put a little dab of vanilla extract on them both (under the nose and just above their butts under the tail) to get them to just smell that on each other. SO Chris got the lovely job of coming home from work, bathing Sundance and putting extract on them both. His reward? A hissing cat!! It's almost laughable if it weren't so annoying and on some level upsetting. I hope they get over it quickly b/c their best friends and it makes me sad to see them mad at each other. Can't we all get along?!!

Best Pancake mix EVER!!

Claire Recker, Mara's mother-in-law, is the best. Seriously- such a sweet woman!! When I saw her recently in Boston, we were in a grocery store and I mentioned that I love pancakes for breakfast. She pulled this mix from Stonewall Kitchen off the shelf and told me it was the best.... a few weeks later, I get a package in the mail with some of her favorites of this brand. (including some corn bread mix, which is definitely next on the list!)

Chris and I made the pancakes yesterday morning and even the smell from the batter was AMAZING!! It smelled a bit like vanilla, though I didn't see that in the ingredients. A few minutes later on the griddle, YUM!...they were so delicious. So if you people are pancake lovers, check out this mix!!

Thank you Claire!!

Who watches the WATCHMEN?

Hey guys- since you can't comment on my "review" section to the side...I'd love to hear from people that saw the movie.... comment here instead!!

Need another way to waste time at work?

Check out this link http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

Here's the one I made:

Stuff White People Like

This site is awesome (and it's a book too but the site is free :)
check it out.... http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
(click on the full list for the quick titles if you just want to browse...)

Some of my favorites to sample....
Coffee
Hating their parents (which I don't, btw)
Awareness
Arts Degrees
Here's a good quote:
These degrees enable white people to spend four yeas of their lives reading books, writing papers and feeling great about themselves. It is a known fact that Arts students firmly believe that they are doing you/society a favor by not getting a job and reading Proust. They use this to protest for reduced tuition, more money for the arts, and special reduced student rates on things like bus passes.
Irony
Threatening to move to Canada
The Idea of Soccer
Outdoor Performance Clothes
Girls with Bangs
Black Music that Black People don't Listen to Anymore

Go Team Go!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/movies/01films.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=film business&st=cse

Weekend Update

I've been pretty bad about posting this past week, mainly because it was just busy but also because I got either a 24 hour bug or food poisoning on Thursday and was a mess. Ugh! I was in a lot of pain and was so tired on Friday because of it. But we managed to pull it together for a nice weekend...

Friday night, we went to see a newly re-mastered print of THE GODFATHER, which was showing at the artsy theater on Montava Avenue in Santa Monica. We heard about the showing from some new peeps that we met and have hung out with - Cole and Lindsay. The story goes...Cole is a writer that I met and am now working with on something, and when I mentioned that I worked at Imagine, he said my girlfriend Lindsay's good friend Anna works there. "Anna Culp?", I say. She's a great friend of mine! So we all go out last Wednesday night for dinner and drinks (including Chris) and it turns out that Lindsay's best friend and sorority sister is one of Chris' bosses at Hilton! No joke! What even makes it a smaller world is that this woman doesn't live in LA! She works out of Chicago for Hilton. How crazy!

Anyway, on Wedneday night they mention this showing of THE GODFATHER, which is one of chris and my favorite movies of all time, and we have never seen on the big screen. When we get there, it's totally sold out and packed - the movie has staying power, to say the least. What was even better about it, was that a bunch of parents had brought their kids to experience the cinematic masterpiece. Awesome! (though one of them sitting behind us said "eww" when Appollonia's boobs are shown onscreen...ha ha. it was hilarious)

Saturday was a beautiful day in Los Angeles - 80 degree weather and not a cloud in the sky. Chris and I decided to get out of the house and go for a drive....so we drove up the PCH along the coast, cut through Malibu on Decker Canyon Road, switched to Mulholland Highway and spent about 2 hours + driving the twisty, winding hills...it was so beautiful! For anyone not in California, sometime you are here, we should do this drive. For awhile you can see the ocean behind you as you climb the hills, and then you're suddenly hidden inside some of California's most unexpected beauty. Seriously! It's so green and hidden away...amazing.

Sat night we went to dinner and a movie with Sage and Jeff. Though we saw CORALINE and it was not very exciting, we had a great time catching up and hanging out with as usual.

Sunday was an okay day, as I had a bit of a meltdown when I got really frustrated with some stuff we were doing around the house. I took a walk to blow off steam and then Chris and I had a good night just hanging out, working and watching THE AMAZING RACE.