happy turkey day!

Well, whaddaya know? It turns out doing some advance prep last night seems to have paid off. The preserved lemon-saffron-herb butter bird's in the oven, the flavors of the spiced cranberry-orange sauce have had a chance to mingle overnight, the andouillie sausage -cornbread stuffing is ready to bake, the turkey stock is ready to turn into gravy, the champagne is chilling - and all that leaves me with a little time to chill myself before I need to start the veg. Just enough time to wish all of you and yours a very, happy Thanksgiving.

Wherever you are, and whatever you may be doing today, I hope you're enjoying the holiday to the fullest.

Above, one of my favorite images this time of year - A vintage pic of the Macy's Turkey Day Parade. Far cry from the children's television spectacle that it is today.

Cheers!

it's the great pumpkin(s)!

Sure, I may be too old to go trick or treat, but you're never too old to carve a pumpkin - or two! Last year, with crazy work weeks and everything else, I didn't have time for any pumpkin carving, so this year I vowed, come hell, high water, or a devil boss, I was going to carve some punkins, dammit!

Beer and I made a last minute trip yesterday to one of my favorite pumpkin patches - The Lopez Family, that used to be on Wilshire and is now adjacent to The Grove - to pick up a couple of orange beauties. After a near altercation with a very odd woman who kept sending her six or seven year old daughter over to snatch the good pumpkins we were literally bent over to pick up - I wish I was exaggerating here! - we finally got our hands on a couple of fresh off the truck, glorious gourds.

Today, armed with some Martha Stewart worthy tools and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown I went to town to get those babies carved up in time for our lone two trick-or-treaters before heading out to Yelpoween.

You may ask, is all that effort worth it for a couple of hours and two neighbor kids? Absolutely!

paintball usa

How does an Angelino spend a sweltering hot summer day? Hiding out and cranking the a/c? Donning a barely there pair of sample sale Juicy short-shorts? Headed towards the coast with the masses in search of relief? Or gathering up their pals to drive an hour inland to Simi Valley where it's at least a dozen degrees steamier to gear up in layers of heavy combat gear, trekking up and down hills to hunt each other down with stinging, stinky paintballs?

Well, if you're a glutton for punishment and happen to have a friend with an August birthday who's always wanted to try paintball, that's exactly what you do.

Once you find this place - it's, quite literally, off the beaten path on a dirt road - be ready to throw on some old kicks or boots, slip into a pair of military issue oversized overalls, toss a bandanna and smelly helmet on your head, rip the fingers off some old gloves, (unlike most outings in LA, this is one that doesn't call for any exposed skin), and get a quick lesson in how to use and reload a paintball air rifle. After that, they take you out for a little shooting test, (you don't want to find out on the field your rifle is jammed), then, you're on your own.

Once you get your bearings wearing the crazy get up and get past the smell (part of the base used in the paintballs is fish oil), you're ready for action. If you've never played before, you're probably thinking, that looks like it hurts. Well, the truth is, it does. I took my first hit in the upper thigh, and after screaming out "shiiiiit!! that huuuurt!" the adrenaline took over and the killer instinct was unleashed. Yes, you're going to get hit - most likely multiple times, and yes, it's going to sting a lot like getting whipped with a wet towel - but as soon as you get into it, you're having so much fun, you won't really care, or even notice. Just imagine having free reign to chase down and shoot the ones you love! And then there's the end of the day when you get home and strip down. You'll have earned bragging rights for weeks to come! (It took about three for the photo worthy welts and multi-colored bruises on my upper arm and thighs to disappear).

This is a great place for newbs to the sport - they have packages for about $50 that include all of your gear, rental equipment, plenty of paintballs, instruction, lots of time on multiple playing fields with varying degrees of difficulty, and a spinning, stinking, splattering mess that is the paint grenade.

Between the adrenaline pumping, running up and down dirt hills, slithering across the ground on your belly, and sweatin' like a pig, an afternoon here will kill a good thousand calories. You can bring a picnic to enjoy at one of their picnic tables, grab a hot dog and soda at the roach coach on site, even order some local bbq to be delivered. Or, you could easily pile them all back on at one of the many area chain restaurants like Chilis and Applebees on your way home ;)

This is a great outing with a group. Grab your pals, leave your inhibitions in the car, and be prepared to get down and dirty for some clean, old fashioned commando style fun.

Random Trivia - If you watch the making of the movie "The Kingdom" on HBO, you'll recognize this paintball field. This is where they brought the cast to train before filming.


26413 Kalb Ct
Newhall, CA 91321
(661) 255-5332

oh, the shame of it

as much as it pains me to admit this, i'm sad to see the oc go.

yeah, that's right. i tivo the oc. it's my guilty pleasure. aside from poking fun at the absurdities of teen angst and charmed life behind the orange curtain, its self-effacing wry sarcasm has some brilliant moments and you get some pretty darn good music to boot.

c'est la vie. good thing hbo's new season is starting to pick up.

speaking of things that pain me ... i put in a weenie 3-miler this week after a nearly nine month (and twenty pound) hiatus from running, and fuck me, i'm sore. i ran a marathon less than a year ago and now i'm struggling with a few miles? never mind my running shorts fit more like hot pants, even my shoes were tight. are you kidding me? my feet have gotten fat too?!

shame, shame, shame.

living green (is a pain in the ass)

literally.

has anyone else tried the seventh generation toilet paper? in my ongoing effort to go green, i gave the roll a, um, test run, and was left thinking i could have cut out the middle man and wiped my bits with the recycled newspaper it's made from and it would have been a more pleasant experience than using recycled tp. seriously, the dispenser driven single sheet sand paper we had in elementary school was better than this!

i'm all about living green and i'm happy to stick with my environmentally friendly cleaners and products, even when it means sore arms from having to scrub a little bit harder, but when it comes to bog roll, just call me a consumerist pig.

oink. oink.

l'scorpion

If you know me, you know I'm a tequila drinker, and L'Scorpion is just my kinda tekillya bar.

It's got the look of a dark, seedy, cave of a watering hole, but it's actually clean (the way I like my dining establishments). They have an impressive selection and a number of specialty drinks that were pretty damn good, even to the fussy likes of me.

Knowing I hadn't had a chance to check this place out, The Beer gave me a surprise party here for my birthday a couple of months ago. We were in the back room - the one Manny mentioned in his review - but thankfully had a much better experience.

Thursday nights (which my b-day just happened to be) they do a nice tequila tasting and pairing menu for $45/person. It was a great experience, with surprisingly good food, some amazing tequila and well thought out pairings.

As for the service, we must have gotten lucky because the (scantily clad) waitress we had was very attentive, despite working the front bar area along with a full house in the back. She even stopped by a few times with some special shots for the birthday girl, including some strong fruity concoction the bartender came up with called jungla (pronounced yoongla, think, the tequila version of jungle juice) which was the beginning of the end for me, but damn good at the time.

Sidebar: I rarely get wasted, (even drinking loads of tequila, which seemed to impress the bartender who continued to pour), and this ended up being the first night Beer saw me completely "tossed off my box" as he would say. It was all fine and well until we got into the car, at which point, I realized I had to work in the morning and it was gonna be a loooong night - a long night spent passed out on the cold tile of the bathroom floor until about 4am when I could sit up again. Anyhoo ...

I think even the greatest place is gonna have an off night, so I'd say this one is worth giving a shot -no pun intended- and checking out yourself. Let me know what you thought.

Tip: They have a good happy hour here from 6-8 every night if you live or work in the area.

musings and expectations

i've always had mixed feelings about the new years resolution process. it just strikes me as another way to set ourselves up for failure. just as i believe that valentines day is a ruse (if you have to wait with bated breath for your lover to lavish you with attention on one corporate deemed day of the year, it's high time for some serious reassessment), so is saving up all of your motivation for one day of the year. when a relationship is thriving, you should never want for flowers, champagne, kind words and tokens of affection. those are things that should be incorporated to keep things alive on a regular basis. by the same token, if you're striving to live a balanced life, how can you pull it off in one day? if there's ever really hope for change, it has to be spread out in manageable bits all the year round.

if you haven't already, why not start a new valentines and new years resolution? make them days to check in on yourself. are you doing all you can to be the person you want to be? are you giving (and getting) everything you need to (and from) your relationships? why not? what little steps can you make on a daily basis to effect real change? what can you do NOW that you know you can incorporate into your lifestyle to be the best you, you know you can be?

think about it. keep it simple. make it happen. enough said.

l

as posted dec 2003:

Another year has rolled along and it's been my intention to post my list of New Year resolutions. As if having them out in the ether would somehow help them to manifest. Now that I've had days upon days to ruminate on said resolutions, I realize that I have none. Not a single one. What could that mean? That I've become so enlightened that there is in fact no need to start the new year with a clean slate? That I failed so miserably last year that I have no business starting on a new list? That I've become so complacent that I can't be bothered to think of ways my life could use improvement? Perhaps that I've reached a point where I've come to embrace that which I cannot change, and understanding that which can be changed, is a part of a constant evolution. Not just something to be thought of for the sake of making a list. I think I'll go with the latter. And with that, a list of that which I'd like to see continue to evolve and manifest.

One nod to New Year's Eve - it's high time to stock up on your bubbly! If you're running low, shop early and take advantage of holiday sales to restock your shelves for the New Year.

Cheers, everyone!

1. To live in integrity.
Sounds simple. In reality, not so simple. Contrary to what one may think, this has little to do with telling others the truth and much more to do with not lying to yourself. This, I assure you, is about as challenging as it gets. However, it does still have a great deal to do with being truthful, because let's face it, telling lies for the sake of telling people what they want to hear gets old in a hurry.

2. To be well.
Basically, to take care of myself. The reality is that I've reached a certain age where if you don't, the only person who suffers, is you. Even though I see the same girl I always have in the mirror every morning, now she has a few wrinkles and enough gray hair to warrant some very strategic highlights along with the $150 haircut. That means more yoga. Even the classes twice a week before work I hate to get up for but am always so thankful to have on the days I do. It means not being too lazy to take care of my skin, even when I'm so exhausted I think sleeping in my mascara will give me a leg up on the next morning. And it means knowing when to turn down the third cocktail party of the week because I need the sleep more than I need another martini.

3. To be content.
Another one that sounds simple and obvious. Not so much. I've learned that even when I have everything, it isn't enough. I always thought it was about what I didn't have and striving to fill in the blanks - a better husband, a better career, a nicer car, a better body, another pair of manolos. And quite simply, it's not. It comes from within, not from anyone or anything else, regardless of how much money you have to spend - which is so much easier said than done. It's actually a counter productive process where the more you acquire the more miserable you seem to be. If you're not continually working from the inside out, what's the point? It's about being mindful. Being grateful.

16974

that would be my la marathon runner number. the one that will be plastered to me front and back, rain or shine, as i ask myself for 26.2 miles what on earth i was thinking when i started training for a marathon. rather auspicious if i say so myself. i don't think i could have devised a better runner number if i'd tried! five months of training down and just six short weeks to the big day..

to put a little of the insanity in perspective .. a few recent stats:

according the the latest approximation of the U.S. population (298,026,631) and the total number of finishers of marathons last year (382,000), if you finished a marathon you are in top one tenth of ONE PERCENT of the population who has done so.

then, figure in:
* multiple marathon finishes by single runners
* non US citizens who do not count for the total population who ran a marathon and you are even more elite!


sure somebody is faster than you and it may have taken you 5 hours (or 6 or 7) to finish, but hey, even if all the people who ran a marathon last year ran it at the same time, and you came in DEAD LAST you would still have done more that 297,644,631 lazy asses last year.

now, back to deciding which marathon to train for next while you think about where you put the remote :)

in all seriousness friends, six months ago, i'd never run a mile in my life. if i can successfully train for a marathon, ANYONE can!

enter the minx

i haven't the slightest what i'm doing here just yet. i can't be bothered to maintain the blog i've already got going, yet here i am dabbling with another. i'll have to sleep on that one and get back to you.