go shorty ... it's your berfday!

My roommate Diana celebrated her 25th berfday (her words, not mine) last Saturday. We hosted a low-key dinner at our place and we played "Would You Rather" and a rousing game of Cranium's "Pop (Culture)." Throughout the course of the evening, we learned several interesting things:

John cannot hum the words to "Hungry Like a Wolf" (pictured: Team One ... aka the Losers)

I can sculpt Madonna (complete with cone boobs) out of purple clay (pictured: Team Two ... aka the winners)

Joanna and Jesse are quite the dancers!

Diana does not like to have her birthday called out by the house band at Grog

... but Joanna and I don't mind!

All in all ... it was a fun night :) Happy Berfday Diana!!!

ain't nothin' finer ... than a forty-niner

RIP Bill Walsh
1931 - 2007

i *heart* savannah!

I just returned from a five-night trip to Savannah, Georgia and yes, I LOVED it!!! The trip was a combination of pleasure and work. I flew in a day before my NCMPR Board meeting and played tourist for a day-and-a-half. For those of you who have been to New Orleans, the simplest way to describe Savannah is to say that the entire town looks like the French Quarter. The historical preservation in the town is amazing. Here is an example of a typical street and a"typical" house:




The city is also extremely proud of its history, and celebrates it with numerous monuments and statues, such as the below statue of James Oglethorpe and a fountain commemorating the Civil War.

Savannah is laid out in a system of squares, and most of the statues are placed in the center of the squares, such as this one. Note the Spanish Moss, it was beautiful and gets its names from the Native Americans, who when they first saw it, thought it looked like the beards of the Spanish conquistadors.

Like any good tourist town, Savannah celebrates its claim to fame, Midnight in the Garden of Good And Evil. There are numerous gift shops and tours devoted to the book. I refrained from most of them, but did manage to snap a shot of the Mercer House, the house where the book's main character Jim Williams shot his young lover.

I also had a chance to drive the short distance to the coast and checked out the Tybee Island Lighthouse:

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't admit that part of the reason I was excited to visit Savannah was because it is the home of Paula Deen (and her two sons)! Savannah TRULY celebrates her fame ... it is unusual to walk into a shop and not see her smiling face looking at you from a cookbook or two. On my last night there, I had a chance to eat at her restaurant, The Lady & Sons and all kidding aside, it was EXCELLENT southern food. So here I am, post-meal ... smiling, with a belly full of soul food, happy to be in Savannah.

temescal canyon

Today I forced my roommate Diana to drive up to Pacific Palisades with me ... so we could hike Temescal Canyon. Now, this is a hike I have done a handful of times before, however, by the time we got moving and made our way through the PCH traffic it was nearly 1:30pm before we got started. Couple this with the fact that it was pushing 90 degrees today and well ... yeah ... not good hiking weather.

With a few stops along the way, we made the 2.6 mile loop down the canyon, to the Temescal Waterfall (more of a trickle this time of year), up to Skull Rock, and back down Temescal Ridge. At the top, we were rewarded with gorgeous, albeit smoggy, views of Malibu to Venice and the Westside to downtown LA. We stopped again to pose for the obligatory pictures:

All in all, it was a great hike and one I highly recommend. It is a steep climb and there are long stretches without shade, but the view is SO worth it. Just bring lots of water, sunscreen, and maybe start out before the peak sun hours!!

best dishes y'all!

Back in May, I bid on a basket of food items at a USC alumni auction. Also included in the basket was a pair of tickets to the Orange County Food & Wine Show. Well, the show was today so my friend/former roommate Amanda and I headed down to Anaheim. We tasted SO many amazing food products ... my two favorites were turkey meatballs with cranberry sauce and smoked turkey sausage.

The highlight of the day was ... a live cooking demonstration with Jamie and Bobby Deen (Paula Deen's sons ... Food TV hosts). They were very entertaining and made some good appetizers. After the demonstration, Amanda and I waited in line to have them sign copies of their new cookbook.

Having lived in LA for 11 years now, I have met/seen more than a few celebrities, and normally I don't get starstruck, but something about these two made me totally nervous! After I had my picture taken with them, they actually talked to me for awhile and I told them I will be in Savannah this coming week and am going to eat at their restaurant ... and while they seemed pleased, didn't offer me any sort-of VIP treatment :)

Anyway ... here I am, grinning like a 13-year old schoolgirl!

here goes nothing ...

After reading numerous other blogs, I decided to start one myself ... mainly in preparation for my upcoming trip to Thailand. While I don't know how exciting this will be or if anyone besides myself will read it, I will attempt to post something quasi-interesting this weekend!