Hello, followers.

I just noticed that I have 11 followers. I don't really know what this means. I've never "followed" anyone's blog. I don't have a blog reader set up to notify me when someone has updated their blog. None of my 11 followers look familiar, I did a quick look at a couple and don't know who any of you are. If you're a follower of mine and read this post, humor me and let me know why.  There are a handful of blogs that I like to check from time to time, none of them religiously though. I'm pretty behind on all of my blogs. I used to regularly read Weddingbee and Post Secret, but its been years since I read the posts on a regular basis.

So in addition to the 11 followers, and 3 friends that I know of that read this, and maybe 3 family members, that's a whole 17 semi-regular readers of my blog. Maybe I should monetize my blog and have little advertisement thumbnails lined up on the sidebar. The pay-per-click ones where I would make like $0.15 per click. So if everyone clicked on it every time I write a new post, and I post about once a month, that's like $2.55 a month. Sweet!

Come to my house, Aunty Katy.

I got a voicemail early Sunday morning. It consisted of Sheila saying "Aunty Katy" 9 times with brief pauses in between each "Aunty Katy" (as if she were waiting for me to respond), progressively getting louder until she was screaming my name and then coughing because she scratched her throat from yelling. This was because Saturday at the Grove when we were parting ways she asked why I was not going home with her. So I told her I would come visit her tomorrow. Which is why she called bright and early to remind me.

Sheila came running out of her door to greet me. But she would give no love to Uncle Cy. Maybe if Uncle Cy was holding Ashley when he walked in, then he would have gotten some love.

Aunty Zizi and Sheya playing in the dirt, looking for bugs. When they were done, we went for a walk up to the market.

She's into the lions in front of this building.

Aunty Mahin wasn't walking fast enough, so Sheya tried to assist in moving her along.

Figuero the cat gets a pet and a kiss from Sheila every time.

Poor Shepard Fairey. His original work has been sampled and knocked off so many times. I imagine that it might make him cringe some of the times. Although imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I still can't believe that Prop 8 passed. I can't even bring myself to write about it. I get so mad.

Hermosa is getting old

I love me some Hermosa Beach, don't get me wrong. I went to Club Sushi with Megan, Jenny, and Sheila for a post Halloween girls night out. Drunk douche bags everywhere. One particularly sloppy dumb ass, walked up to our table, took the half-full bottle of beer off our table and drank it...and never got us another one. Ass.

The requisite visit to Poop Deck for a game of foosball. In case you can't tell, and you probably can't, Sheila is 8 months pregnant. Love you, Sheila!
We had to get our aggressions out at the foosball table because our political conversation became a little heated. Megan, if I called you a fascist, I apologize. We may have scared Sheila off.
Then we went to Fishak (I know...why?) and got our groove on.

Megan flipped through my camera at the end of the night and got mad at me/made fun of me for getting caught looking at my watch in the middle of the dance floor. What?! I had a plane to catch in 12 hours and needed to pack. Sheesh!

Yeah, that's me getting my groove on and that's Jenny laughing at me. I like making people laugh.Regardless, as long as my girls are with me, I always have a great time.

Now, that's love.

Cary stopped by Milk on the way home and picked up a chocolate macaroon chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream sandwich for me.
just for me.
tee hee.

Feeling Lucky

You know when something happens that you wish hadn't happened, and you replay the event in your head and notice the many possibilities that could have lead to avoiding it from happening?

I think I was able to narrowly avoid something from happening Saturday night.

I went to an art gallery, where a friend of a friend of my parents had some work on display. My Dad still has jet lag. So his nap went a little too long. So they picked me up a little later than they would have. We got to the gallery a little later than we had planned to. Who knows what would have happened had we showed up when we planned to.

On our drive to the art gallery, we kept having to pull over because police and fire trucks with sirens were whizzing by us. So when we get there, all the streets we need to turn onto are blocked by police cars and yellow tape. Finally we get to the gallery and it turns out that a shooting across the street from the art gallery had just ended. Two people were shot, one of which was killed. We would have had to drive right by the shooting to get to the gallery. Had we arrived a little sooner, who knows where the cross fire would have ended up. So scary that I can't even wrap my head around it.

We decided to have dinner far from the scene of the crime. So we went to Amalfi on La Brea. Always good. We were really hungry. Everyone loved their dinner. Cary liked his pumpkin ravioli with braised short rib so much, that this morning he slaughtered a pumpkin and I'm looking up recipes.

There was a movie prop store near where we parked our car.

I couldn't help myself.

Not Columbus Day

Today was Ashley and Justin Day. I don't celebrate Columbus day because of his cruel treatment of indigenous people upon his discovery of the new world. I think that he was way more heinous than his discovery is celebration worthy, so there. Plus because of Columbus, Ashley's daycare was closed and since both of her parents work, they would have had to spend $150 for a babysitter for the day, which is f-ing ridiculous. Thanks a lot, Columbus. And, I digress...

I was lucky enough to get to spend the day with my godaughter, Ashley, and visit with my oldest friend, Christine, and her first born, Justin. Yay. So I went to Megan's bright and early. Ashley and I hung out and watched Sesame Street, and colored Obama logos with crayon, and then I played with her hair to see which hairstyle suited her best. What do you think? Hair down, one pigtail, or two pigtails. Is she squishy or what? Then I went to Christine's place for a play date. Don't we look mommy-like? This was my first play date EVER and the first time I had driven a car with a baby in it EVER. Even with these firsts, I felt no need to treat any indigenous folks with cruelty. See that, Columbus? How come I gets no holiday? Look at how Justin's cheeks have filled out. I love it! He was such a good boy, not a monster like his shirt says. Maybe because Christine is such a relaxed first time mom. She's the only first time mom that's bored, and not sleep deprived. That makes me hopeful. I hope I have the same problem.
We walked to the Wildflower cafe. Ashley proceeded to soak herself in the fountain. It turns out that I have a hard time telling her what not to do, so I let her play. Good thing I brought an extra dry shirt for her. I have a feeling that when I become a parent, I'll be one of those that can't say no. When they're as cute as Ashely, who wants to say no? I just want to be the favorite Aunty.The food was really yummy. Teeny got the Chicken Club Wrap with mixed greens. They put turkey bacon in it.I got the Wildflower Club which was a double decker monster. Ashley was not happy that I was keeping her from the fountain. Justin and Ashley fell asleep on the walk home. It was so fun to hang out with my friends and their babies during the day. That's the longest I've ever spent with a baby and been the sole person in charge. Except for exposing her to nuts for the first time (little bite of Nutella) and giving her an allergic reaction that made her mouth and cheek all red, I did alright. I wonder if Megan will let me babysit again....What if I promise to not feed her anything?I stopped by Deutsch on the way home because I'd never seen Cary's office before and it wasn't that far from Redondo. He was busy and it was fairly obvious I wasn't going to get any schmoopiness from him. So I went home. Today was a good day.

Ikea with Ashley, and my 10,000th picture

Megan and I went to Ikea to get Ashley a big-girl bed on Saturday. She is so freaking cute man. She loooved the kids section, needless to say. This is the only non-blurry picture I have of her. Then my camera ran out of memory.

Speaking of which, in the 2 years I've had my digital camera, I've taken over 10,000 pictures. I know this because today I took my 10,000th picture! And here it is:

Its one of those bugs that looks like a leaf. I took like 10 pictures of it to get a decent one, so this is actually the 10,008th picture I've taken with my camera. I really need to get back to work.

Weekend in Bay Area

We drove up north for a wedding on Saturday. As with most weekend road trips up north, we stopped for lunch at In-and-Out burger. Doesn't Cary look like he's dancing and singing to "If you wanna be starting something" by Michael Jackson? Actually, he's just asking where's the ketchup.

For those of you who know me, its a little known fact that I have a *moderate* fear of heights. When Cary booked our hotel on the 19th floor of the Westin St. Francis and asked me ten time if I would be OK with the height, I said yes. I knew it would be hard, but I'm so tired of my (many stupid) phobias. He also mentioned that the elevators were glass, to which I replied that's fine (ha!).

It really wasn't fine the first time we rode the elevator. I had to press myself against the door, as far from the glass part of the elevator. Just the blurred reflection of San Francisco skyline on the elevator doors freaked me out enough that my palms and feet were sweaty by the time we got to the 19th floor, and that was without ever looking out of the glass elevator, my back was to it. This video was taken after I had gone up and down a few times and was a lot more relaxed.

I ask Cary, "Are you ready to get on the elevator?" To which he replies, "Are you ready to not grip the walls?"

Yeah, I grip walls. What of it?

Riding the Metro

My worldwide traveling is mostly done for now. I'm back at home and catching up on things that I've let pile up. My next project is to start taking public transportation to work and blog about it so that anyone else who is curious about public transportation can see what its like. Between Cary and I, we pay around $400 a month in gas. That's just not acceptable.

So in the spirit of being environmentally and fiscally conscientious, I want to start taking the bus and subway/light rail to work. There is a Gold Line stop right by my office, which means if I can find a reasonable route from my apartment to downtown L.A.'s Union Station (where the Gold Line starts), it'll be a breeze.

So I started by going on line and trying to figure out how to do this. You'd think it was simple, what with the Internet being what it is, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority having its own website and all. Think again.

I always see the Red Line bus on Wilshire going east and west, and found out that it goes to Union Station from near where I live. When I went to find out the schedule of pick ups at the Fairfax intersection, it told me that the Fairfax/Wilshire stop was located on Fairfax/Olympic. It even shows up on the map that it is on Fairfax/Wilshire, but calls it Fairfax/Olympic. It calls the stop the LA County Museum stop, but the museum is on Wilshire, so why oh why does it say Olympic?? Look:

Image from "trip planner" on the Metro website.

You can see on the map, the green "S" is where I want to leave from, but it tells me I have to go south to Olympic and Fairfax. That's a good 10 minute walk. This little project is already tacking on an extra 15 minutes to my commute each way. So another 10 minute walk to and from the Olympic stop is an extra 40 minutes total round trip.

I know there is a main stop with the double long buses at Fairfax and Wilshire, I've seen it with my own eyes. But the simple fact that it said something else on the website, was enough of a deterrent to hop in my car this morning and drive to work.

After all this contemplate, I was even more aggravated when I hit a detour on the 110 because there is a massive sink hole on the northbound side in South Pasadena - exactly where I needed to drive through.

This must have been a sign that I should have taken public transportation to work.

So, tomorrow morning, I will try again. I will pack my laptop, a small snack, a concealed weapon, my Nintendo DS, a small journal to write down any juicy observations, my make up so I can put my face on, my camera, and I will find the proper bus to get me to the Gold Line. This should be interesting...

Random thing I noticed

I thought it was interesting/funny/coincidental maybe, that there were so many people wearing strappy gladiator type shoes.

So that last one isn't really gladiator-ish. But I was too embarrassed to keep taking pictures of more people's feet. These 3 pictures were taken in close proximity of each other within a couple of minutes, near the Perseus sculpture. I really didn't have to go far. Maybe I'm out of it as far as fashion goes, but it stood out how many girls were wearing strappy flats.

I guess when in Rome, or Florence, wear shoes as the Florentines do?

LYATT: Fifth Day in Paris-Mawble Columns

May 3, 2007

(Happy Birthday, Mom)

So does anyone remember that sketch on Saturday Night Love with Fred Armisen and Scarlett Johanson about Mawble Calumns (marble columns) from April 2007?


It aired the weekend before we left for Europe and we were very moved by the piece. Here is Mike's Marbleopolis' influence on us:

You've got to go out and get yo'self a mawble calumn! Like this one...

...or this one......or that one......a little too much?
By the end of our trip to the Louvre, I was posing like this in front of everything. Even if it wasn't a mawble calumn.

Parking Ticket Trap?

Cary and I walked to Kokomo's on Beverly for some lunch and saw this parking sign on the street on the way home:

If I got a ticket on this street whenever it says I'm not supposed to park here, I'd be pissed.

I got the chicken curry salad (above) and Cary got the buffalo chicken sandwich (below). Kokomo's used to be at the Farmer's Market, but they moved to the corner of Martel and Beverly. It was good stuff, I'd go back.

Um, yeah.

This has nothin' to do with no one, but I couldn't help myself.
Hello fatty...
I found this on Miss Shortcake's post on Weddingbee, and she found it here.

Spring Cleaning

Inspired by the Unclutterer website, and being unmotivated to do actual work that I should have been doing, I decided to clean my desk at home. Here is a before picture: Actually this is what it looked like after 1 hour of cleaning. It was much worse to begin with. Since I have this problem with focusing and finishing what I start, I decided to clean the area right next to my desk to distract myself from cleaning my desk, but also to keep me on track. I like to play mind games with myself. Here is a before picture of the area next to my desk: It's amazing the crap you find while cleaning out your desk. Besides organizing all of my receipts from before 2008, and throwing away stuff that I thought I needed but really don't, I organized all my arts and crafts stuff, wrapping paper and gift bags, wedding gifts that didn't have a home, tax documents from 2002 till 2006, and many layers of dust got dusted. I also found:

Pictures from New Years 2000.

The booklet for the cassette tape on how to learn Italian (purchased circa 1995). I bought this so that when I drove from P.V. to UC Riverside, I could (very optimistically) learn Italian in no time. I hope I come across the cassette tape soon too.

A gift certificate to Amadeus Spa from 2 years ago (I hope its not expired).

This short home movie from one of my trips while I was working at JPL about our CRYSTAL-FACE project. It was made in 2002 by a colleague and made me miss the people I knew from my last job.

So, without further ado, here are the after pictures of my side of our home office: Not bad right? It still needs a little work, and lots of purging of stuff I don't need. I have emotional attachments to things like the hotel key card from our trip to NYC 4 years ago and invitations to bridal showers from 5 years ago and the charger to my first cellphone. I was having trouble throwing away wedding magazines, but I managed to give most of them away and when I came across another stack today, I was proud of myself for tossing them. I can't throw away the cards people sent from my wedding, and that's a large stack. Maybe I'll whittle them down one day.

I've that decided for everything that I buy this year (except food and drinks), I will throw away or donate 2 things (clothes, shoes, knick-knacks, whatever I don't use).

The good thing about blogging is that it doesn't create new clutter or mess, and you don't have to buy new stuff to do it. Now its Cary's turn to do his side of our home office: