Apologies to Clement C. Moore:

‘Twas the night before Oscar

And all through the “wood”,

Celebrities were fasting,

Making sure they’d look good.



The statues were polished,
Though wet on this day.

Hoping Johnny or George,

Would hold them Sunday.



David and Hyun Ju,

With Carey in tow.

Braved the Hollywood rain,

And to the Kodak did go.



More rapid than eagles,

The celebrities came.

And they whistled and shouted,

And called them by name.



There’s Angie, there’s Brad,

Ben Affleck and Matt,

And there’s little Juno,
Where’s her new baby at?



We spoke not a word,

But took lots of pics.

Tomorrow’s the Oscars,

And here are my picks:

and my pics:

Yes, my sweatshirt is made up of pi to the 50,000 digit.  Geek!

The Los Angeles snow capped Alps

Oscar’s rain poncho

Nancy O’Dell from Access Hollywood, preparing for tomorrow

Uh huh

Hyun Ju cleverly jumped behind Spidey here for this cracktacular photo opp!

Trying to fill Will Smith’s shoes.  Are you legend?

Best of the rest:

…to jury duty tomorrow that is.  (Remember, I postponed it from New Year’s Eve!)  Even though I’m “on call” this week, I phoned 1-800-SRV-JURY today and found out that I don’t need to be there tomorrow!  Let’s hope I dodge that bullet all week.  If not, I found this great guide to jury duty in LA today:

An unwritten rule about blogging is that if you’re called to jury service, you’re required to write about it.

1. Show up late. The summons tells you to arrive at 7:30am,
and to even allow enough time to get through security. However, they
don’t really start checking names until at least 8:30am. So, sleep in,
and grab McGriddle before schlepping it to the Court House.

2. Bring a book, an iPod, a pad of paper, and if you’re bringing a computer, bring an extra battery.
If you’re not assigned a jury pool, you could be in the holding room
until 5:00pm, where there’s no wireless internet access (WHAT????!!!!!  WTF??) and only a
handful of power outlets.

3. Dress Appropriately. When you receive your summons in the mail, scan your juror i.d. badge and make it into a t-shirt.
Show that you’re proud to serve on a jury! If you want to be a little more subtle and avoid possible
contempt charges by a less humorous judge, you can make a golf shirt instead.

4. Be careful what you buy. If you grab a grande vanilla
peppermint latte from the Starbucks just outside the jury holding
room, be advised that if you’re assigned to a jury pool, you may have
to toss it before even sipping off the foam. That said, you may just
want to bring a thermos so you don’t have to ditch your $3.90 when the
judge is ready to see you.

5. Don’t want to serve? Shut the f up! When the judge asks if there’s a reason you can’t
serve, don’t think your time is more valuable that anyone else’s, even
if you’re a doctor, teacher, student, or have a vacation lined up. The
judge won’t care, and, frankly, its your civic duty. If you only want
poor people with a bad education to serve on a jury, then I look
forward to seeing what the verdict will be the next time you’re falsely
accused of a crime or have to sue someone who may need some suing.
(5000! wrote more about these people last year).

And in case you didn’t figure it out…I watched Dreamgirls again this weekend, for the first time since last year.  I loved it even more the second time.  How can you not love this??:

Bumper Sticker of the day

Sometimes it’s hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it’s so warm and sunny outside.  But today really felt like Christmas, because everyone was so friendly and cheery.  It was such a beautiful day.  So clear in fact that I could actually see the snow on the mountains surrounding my house (and I rarely even see the mountains surrounding my house, let alone the snow). I took advantage of the 76° (25° C) weather and walked all around town to get my errands run and deliver some Christmas presents.  Later, Tyson and I went to see Juno.  We both really liked the movie, but neither one of us could articulate why.  What starts out as a sharp, albeit superficial comedy, becomes a poignant coming of age film with Oscar caliber performances.  And the soundtrack is just delicious!  (Listen here.)  I need to think about why it was such a feel good movie, as the the subject matter wasn’t exactly tidy.  Somehow it worked though.

After the movie, we went for sushi at this great local spot in Santa Monica.  Tyson knew the chef and he took good care of us.  We ate $50 worth of food for $20.  On the way home I stopped to take some photos of the Christmas lights at the Mormon temple.  I still didn’t get all my Christmas shopping done.  Oh well…there’s still 2 days!    Here are my pics from today:

Roscoe is growing into such a handsome dog!

Arielle enjoying Emo Elmo on my iTouch

This is from the top of my street, across from the House of Blues and the Mondrian

Homeless Santa in Beverly Hills. I gave him a couple of bucks and asked if I could take his photo

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If you’re a fan of British music, you’re probably familiar with an Irish band called The Pogues.   Perhaps their biggest hit is a “Christmas” song called “Fairytale of New York“  The song is consistently voted the #1 Christmas song in England.  This year however, there was a problem.

It’s two days from the 50th birthday he thought he’d never see and Shane MacGowan is even more bemused and befuddled than ever. How, after a life of such famously bacchanalian excess that he was told 25 years ago that he had six weeks to live, has it come to this? It’s one thing to be best known for a sentimental Christmas ballad, no matter how esoteric, but it’s quite another to have Middle Britain rise as one to prevent Radio 1 censoring ‘Fairytale Of New York’.

If the Pogues’ larger-than-life frontman and chief songwriter has become something of an unlikely national treasure, it is mainly thanks to his bittersweet duet with the late Kirsty MacColl, which returns with Slade-like inevitability each Yuletide. But it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always thus. Nineteen years ago, the BBC banned another of his songs, ‘Birmingham Six’. “They’re still doing time/ for being Irish in the wrong place/ And at the wrong time” sang MacGowan as Patrick Hill and five innocent men served time at Her Majesty’s displeasure. They’re out now but the song is still off the playlist.

The same is not true of MacGowan: he’s back in vogue in a way he hasn’t been since the critical acclaim that greeted the revolutionary, high-octane albums Rum, Sodomy And The Lash and If I Should Fall From Grace With God made the Pogues one of the hottest bands in the world. Just yesterday, his toothless coupon leered from the pages of the tabloids as he stumbled out of actress Davinia Taylor’s Christmas party with fellow good timers Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Sadie Frost.

Make no mistake, his consumption of alcohol and narcotics has been dizzying. MacGowan says he was fed Guinness from the age of four by the collection of aunts and uncles who raised him in Tipperary in an attempt to put him off alcohol in later life. It didn’t work: at eight he drank his first bottle of Powers whiskey, and he soon added drugs, smoking joints at 13 and taking acid at 14. By 17, he was hanging out with rent boys and junkies (he says he was once the former, although that seems unlikely given his trademark jug-eared plug-ugliness), and so strung out that his doctor threatened to have him sectioned unless he submitted to six months in the notorious Bethlem detox clinic, the first of four stints trying to dry out.

At one stage he claimed he was polishing off 50 LSD tablets and three bottles of whiskey a day and, as he came apart at the seams, his antics became increasingly bizarre. In New Zealand he painted himself blue, claiming he’d been ordered to do it by Maori spirits; back in London, the night before the Pogues were due to fly out to tour with Bob Dylan, he took so much LSD that his girlfriend came home to find him covered in blood after eating a Beach Boys album. He told her he was about to host a summit of world leaders to avert the Third World War. He missed the plane and never toured with Dylan.

At one stage in 1999, his friend Sinead O’Connor found him snorting heroin and called the police, leading to another spell in rehab which ended abruptly when he was thrown out for bad behaviour. But not all of MacGowan’s celebrity friends – they include Bono, Nick Cave and Pete Doherty – believe that he is totally out of control. Bono argued that his self-destructive behaviour is “a mask, his way of ignoring people he doesn’t want to deal with. Shane is more together than people imagine”.

Not that those people will necessarily include the other members of the Pogues, who fired their garrulous talisman after he disintegrated on tour in Japan in 1991. After falling out of a train door at a station and knocking out the few blackened teeth which hadn’t been removed in drunken fights, he then performed an unscheduled exit from a van at 50mph on the way back to the hotel. When they got there, the other members of the band sacked him, replacing him with Joe Strummer. All he had to say was “Thank you, you’ve been very patient with me”.

Bombastic yet with a deeply sensitive streak, MacGowan perceives himself as a latter day Brendan Behan; as a romantic Irish iconoclast with a ready wit, a free-thinking republican writer who suffered for his art, his convictions, his unwillingness to be shackled. Perhaps that is why he allowed himself to be typecast as a drunken minstrel in the Johnny Depp film The Libertine, or why he called his caustic memoirs A Drink With Shane MacGowan.

He has a razor sharp mind, even when addled with drink, and is incredibly well-read. MacGowan says he was reading Marx and Trotsky as an 11-year-old, and he references William Burroughs and James Clarence Mangan regularly, even if he doesn’t have a lot of time for Samuel Beckett (“a miserable fat old bastard”), WB Yeats (“an old fairy”) or even Plato (“basically just some Greek c***”).

An avid reader as a child, the moment MacGowan decided to channel his vast energies into music came when he left detox aged 17. “It was like fate,” he says. “The first thing I saw when I came out of the madhouse was the Sex Pistols, a bunch of people who looked like they ought to be in a loony bin.” He became Shane O’Hooligan, living the punk dream and fronting first The Nipple Erectors and then the Millwall Chainsaw.  Read more…

And so I present to you, a true Christmas classic

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I’ve got a feeling
This year’s for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They’ve got cars big as bars
They’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It’s no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can’t make it all alone
I’ve built my dreams around you.

Jennifer and Missy brought Tressa and Taylor up to Hollywood today to see “Enchanted” and visit the “Enchanted Experience” behind the El Capitan to meet the Princesses.  The girls loved the movie and loved getting to meet Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, et al, even more.  It was a picture perfect LA day, warm and bright.  The rain really washed the smog away, and the skies have been crystal clear all weekend.  They’re filming a big concert tonight at the Kodak Theater called “Movies Rock” and the red carpet was being readied for the guests, including, Beyonce, Fergie, Usher, Chris Brown, Mary J Blige, Marc Anthony, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, John Legend, Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood.  The show airs in the US next Friday on CBS.

With the dollar at an all-time low against the pound, now’s the time to visit glam West Hollywood.  We sent fashionista Lara Kilner & two pals to hunt down the best places to stay, see and be seen…SO here we are busy checking in to the Hotel Careyfornia. It’s a boutique hotel and it’s so hip it hurts.

Despite its uber-cool credentials though, we could be in any trendy hotel, in any city, in any country. Until we turn around… and spot a lady of indeterminate age (that’ll be thanks to her head being swathed in more bandages than a mummy) being wheeled past me. She’s clearly had some serious “work” done and is off to rest in one of the hotel’s fashionable rooms.

 

And now it’s clear – I am in Hollywood. West Hollywood to be precise. The best bit of Los Angeles – the bit where the Sunset Strip is, the bit where all the coolest celebs live, and the bit where the bulk of LA’s best places to be seen are (you don’t go to them to eat and drink, silly – that involves calories and people in LA have an aversion to those).

Call me shallow, call me vacuous, call me airhead, if you like. But, my God, I love it here. Being in West Hollywood is one big, non-stop buzz. And despite the fact that most Los Angeleans would rather chew off their own feet than walk anywhere, we found it pretty easy to bumble around the streets of WeHo (that’s its name for days when saying two whole long words proves troublesome) without the aid of a convertible Chevrolet. From shopping on Melrose to supping on Sunset, I came back with quite a few new additions to my eating, drinking, shopping and pampering address books. It’s a tough job but someone had to do it…

WHERE TO BE SEEN

The Hotel Careyfornia.  Tucked away in a quiet residential street a stone’s throw from Sunset Boulevard, the Careyfornia is intimate, stylish and cool-but-not-snooty with a chilled-out bar and restaurant. A favourite of Brits like singers Corinne Bailey Rae and James Blunt. The manager told us he’d spotted Madonna in the lift the previous week, so they’re not messing when it comes to A-listers at the Montrose. The reason they love it is it’s discreet and tucked away from the Hollywood paparazzi. The rooftop pool and bar has great views of Los Angeles.  Rooms this month from $175 or £87.50 per night.

The Mondrian (www.mondrianhotel.com).  It’s been cool since day one, is directly next to infamous Hotel Careyfornia; and it’s not showing any signs of ever not being hip. The Sky Bar at this celeb hotel is a hang-by-the-pool sipping cocktails experience. Britney Spears is a regular but don’t let that put you off.

The Hollywood Standard (www.standardhotel.com) Want to feel like you’re in the thick of it? Dine at the Standard. It’s stupidly cool, slap-bang in the middle of Sunset Strip and pretty much the place to be seen (we spotted Paris Hilton’s ex, plus actress Naomi Watts eating omelettes for breakfast). There’s a lounge bar where the great and the gorgeous hang out before retiring to the diner, which serves everything from black cod to steak and eggs to sushi.

WHERE TO SHOP

Beverly Center (8500 Beverly Boulevard, walking distance from the Careyfornia) This huge shopping mall is not actually in West Hollywood, but it’s near enough. There’s the obligatory Macy’s and Bloomingdales, plus Pottery Barn (made famous in Friends) for your homeware, plus the likes of Banana Republic and a new H&M (more reasonable than the UK) for cheap-as-chips clobber.

Pleasure Chest (7733 Santa Monica Blvd, www.thepleasurechest.com, a hop, skip and a jump from the Careyfornia) Angelina Jolie is a regular in this upmarket sex boutique, and Halle Berry insists you should “embrace your body as a single girl” by shopping here.

Urban Outfitters (7650 Melrose Avenue, www.urbanoutfitters.com) LA’s flagship branch of the ultra-trendy fashion store. And the best bit? Shopping there is like a half-price sale – dresses that would cost £60 here cost $60 there (which converts to less than £30).

Fred Segal (8100 Melrose Avenue, free shuttle from the Careyfornia) Essentially a mini-mall of boutiques, Fred Segal is a retail landmark of LA. The distinctive ivy-covered store has been attracting the famous and fabulous since the Seventies. Matt Damon, David Schwimmer and Sandra Bullock were all spotted here on the same day.

Kitson (116 N Robertson Blvd, www.shopkitson.com a 15 minute walk from the Careyfornia) If you only go to one shop in West Hollywood, make it this. Jessica Simpson loves it, so do Paris and Nicole, and it essentially sells everything, so long as it’s new and trendy. It’s got lots of stuff us average folk can afford (as well as lots we can’t).

WHERE TO EAT

Ago (8478 Melrose Ave, www.agorestaurant.com) Co-owned by Robert de Niro, who is known to celebrate his birthday there, and it doesn’t half attract an A-list crowd – Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld and Rob Lowe love the Tuscan-inspired grub. Best news of all… a pizza costs £6!

The Formosa (7156 Santa Monica Blvd, www.formosacafe.com) It’s all about location, location, location. And The Formosa, right next door to the Warner Hollywood Studio, has served the cream of the Tinseltown crop since the Fifties. James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Grace Kelly… shall we go on? It was also used as a location for LA Confidential, and Shannon Doherty landed herself in trouble with the LAPD after smashing a bottle in the car park. A barbecued Kobe beef burger costs £7.

Dan Tana’s (9071 Santa Monica Blvd, www.dantanasrestaurant.com) This Italian eaterie (they like their pasta in West Hollywood) is another Hollywood classic, and where Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton ended their famous feud.

WHERE TO PARTY

Roosevelt Hotel (7000 Hollywood Blvd,, www.hollywoodroosevelt.com a $5 cab ride from the Careyfornia) The Roosevelt bar is uber- glam and you can sit around the pool sipping mojitos till 2am. Just don’t fall in. Food though, is very sparse, and very pricey. Get a burger before you go… and don’t rush the cocktails (at £8 a go).

The Viper Room (www.viperroom.com, 8852 West Sunset Blvd, 5 minutes walking distance from the Careyfornia) Part-owned by Johnny Depp and where River Phoenix died outside in 1993, The Viper Room is still a prime spot for rock bands to showcase their wares. You’re unlikely to spot Mr Depp, but entrance is just a fiver.

Whisky A-Go-Go (8901 West Sunset Blvd, www.whiskyagogo.com,) Oooh, you can feel the history in the air. Open since 1964, The Doors were the house band, and everyone from Janis Joplin to Led Zeppelin to Motley Crue have played here. And The Whisky still gets biggies – The Police were here a few months ago. Tickets from £7.

House of Blues (8430 W Sunset Blvd, www.hob.com/la directly next door to the Careyfornia.  Ask for speccials at the front desk.) Owned by Blues Brothers star Dan Aykroyd, and the venue for Britney’s comeback gig, House of Blues is a venue of legend. Great for drinking and band-watching, but don’t miss the Sunday gospel brunch to sort out that hangover with a bowl of classic creole jambalaya. Entrance £10.

WHERE TO STAR-SPOT (Besides the balcony of your suite at the Careyfornia)

3rd Street Dance (8558 West 3rd Street www.3rdstreetdance.com) Where Hollywood’s finest go to learn everything from the tango to hip-hop. Dancing with the Stars (the US equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing) contestants practised here – Heather Mills was a regular.

Elixir (8612 Melrose Avenue,) An obscenely cool tea house, full of cure-all potions for those grim celebrity hangovers (for those who haven’t checked in to rehab anyway). Lindsay Lohan loves spending time there (she needs it, too, with all that partying) and often drops by with her mate Rumer Willis, Demi and Bruce’s eldest daughter.

VIRGIN Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com) fly to Los Angeles from £380 return.

I’ve decided I want an iPod for Christmas.  Not just any iPod, the iPod Human…and this model specifically:

LOL, if you don’t know what you want for Christmas yet, try this:  http://alliwant.imagini.net.

I gave it a try and it was somewhat accurate.  I think I’ll stick to my amazon.com wishlist though.  Ho Ho Ho. 

“The people are happy.  They have everything here,” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Monday night after his second Qualcomm tour.

Finally, a little cuteness to end the day.  Meet Heart-Kun:  Just another ordinary miracle…

In times of natural disaster, the best often
surfaces in all of us. Donations, warm blankets, sandwiches. Whatever is needed,
we’re at the ready.  Unless it involves Malibu.  In response to a posting about the tragedy of lost structures and
evacuations, a guy who calls himself Fast Fred had three words of advice.  “DEAL
WITH IT!” [sic] rich Hollywood celebrity snobs.  That wasn’t quite as caustic as author Mike Davis’ three-word 1996
valentine to the  Malibu of mudslides and firestorms:  “Let Malibu burn.”  But
Fast Fred’s posting on The Times’ website ignited a raging exchange about class
and race and the insanity of building in high-danger wilderness areas. “Why are
there enough fire assets to park a fire truck in every multi-million dollar,
10,000 sq ft home in Malibu, but not enough fire fighters to save several
neighborhoods in Canyon Country?” asked Mike in Northridge.  “When isn’t Malibu
on Fire?” asked CaliforniaBeachGuy. “The City of Malibu and the County of Los
Angeles have done absolutely nothing to deal with the brush all over the Malibu
hills this year.”  Read more…

 

Click the widget for the latest on the fires in Southern California. 

The firefighters are doing an amazing job
48 hour shifts. 
True heroes.

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Speaking of heroes….
Best line on “Heroes” (which is finally starting to get good this season) tonight:

Micah:  “Don’t even get me started on my Mom”

On the Lighter Side
“There was a big fire in Malibu. It did a
lot of damage. As a matter of fact they say it wrecked more homes than
Angelina Jolie.” — David Letterman  (Too soon?) 

We had breakfast at Hugo’s this morning and then I dropped Ly and Jeff off in San Pedro so they could board their gay cruise. 

I think this picture is hilarious. Note the Indian on the left and giant disco ball.  God love the queens.

I’ll be interested to hear how they liked it.  I’ve never been on a cruise, and personally have no desire to ever take one.  I’d much rather see places instead of a vast ocean.  I know there are ports of call and all, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.  Never say never though.  Here are a few photos.  Have a good week everyone!

These first three are unremarkable, except for the fact that I took them out of my sun roof while driving 70 mph (FAST shutter speed!).  It was a pretty day in downtown LA.

Where are Isaac & Doc??

Song of the day

We had a great time this weekend.  It was the first time that Daniel and I got to spend any quality time together in a long time.  His wife and 3 other kids were in Illinois visiting relatives, so Tori, his 14 year old came along for the ride (from Phoenix) with their two dogs Niña and Abby.  Tori’s current crush is Peter Wentz from Fallout Boy, so we basically did the Peter Wentz tour of LA.  Peter’s favorite cupcakes, his home in the Hollywood Hills, his (future) star on the Walk of Fame, his billboards, etc.  We also went to Venice Beach to take in another gorgeous LA sunset.  We drove past the “Kwik E Mart” but the line to get in was over 2 hours long!  Saw Transformers last night.  I hated it…Tori loved it.  (Probably because of Shia LeBeouf, who actually did a good job).  I just put all the photos in a slide show on yesterday’s entry and am posting some of my favorites here.  I hope everyone had a good weekend.

Boy at Grauman’s Chinese Theater

Daniel’s in the nerd gang

A relatively clear day in Los Angeles

An LA institution, Thai Elvis at The Palms

Beverly Hills

Caligula?

The guy in the middle is named Musashi.  He’s a famous Japanese fighter who was getting stopped everywhere by Japanese tourists.  Thanks to Kim85 for the ID!

Harry Winston diamonds are two girls best friend

A not so comforting sign when taking the dogs to the off leash dog park!

Abby the devil dog, LOL

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here for the past week. (Let’s face it, it’s pretty much gorgeous most of the time.  Not too hot, cool at night and no humidity.  What more could we ask for??)

Answer: RAIN!!  (No, I’m not talking about the Korean Pop Superstar…though he is coming to Los Angeles on Saturday, which I know Kimsoon is excited about…as are many many others!)

The rain I’m referring to is the stuff that falls from the sky, or rather, in the case of Los Angeles, doesn’t fall.  Los Angeles has not had any measurable rainfall since last July.  To wit:

Driest Year on Record Appears Likely.
Weathernotes for Wednesday, May 30, 2007.

There’s a little drizzle around the Los Angeles area this morning, but it would take much more than a light mist to make up the nearly one foot deficit in Los Angeles rainfall. Los Angeles’ rainfall total remains at 3.21 inches for a water year that began on July 1, 2006 and will end June 30, 2007. Normal rainfall would be 15.14 inches.

If Los Angeles (USC) receives less than 1.21 inches of rain between now and June 30th, this water year (July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007) will become the driest since recordkeeping began in 1877. According to the NWS, the average rainfall in Los Angeles in the month of June is 0.06 inches, so a new record dry water year appears likely. This would break the record of 4.42 inches set in the water year of 2001-2002.

After an email exchange with Allen tonight I realized how much I miss thunderstorms in the midwest.  There’s nothing like falling asleep to a hard pouring rain and thunder and lightning.  It’s magical really, and something we don’t get to experience in Los Angeles.  Like the fireflies I wrote of earlier this month, thunderstorms were a part of childhood lore.  Every year about this time they would start in full force.  The combination of the hot humid air in the lower atmosphere and cool air in the upper atmosphere, formed a “perfect storm” so to speak.  Maybe I’ll have to get one of those machines at Sharper Image that mimic thunderstorm noises.  Anybody have one?

By the way, if you’ve never heard what the rain in a good strong thunderstorm sounds like, the next time you take a shower, turn the water on full pressure, hold your hands flat and tight to your ears, and put your head under the shower stream.  Experiment with the sound by increasing and decreasing the pressure on your ears.  It’s fun! (I’m easily amused!)

So anyway, tonight I walked the dogs to Beverly Hills.  It was a gorgeous evening. 

We met a very nice lady named Paula at the park.  Her dog’s was named Leonardo, and the three dogs played together for quite some time.  When I told Paula that I was just dog-sitting for Ruby & Garbo, she realized she had met Garbo 4 years ago when he was just a puppy and Seth & Jessica had just brought him home.  We got to talking, and it turned out she was from South Africa but had lived in Australia for quite a while as well.  We swapped stories about Cape Town and Sydney, and with my thoughts of thunder and lightning storms tonight, I dug out this photograph I took in Cape Town, South Africa about 8 years ago.  I took it with my Canon Elan IIE 35 mm camera.  To get the shot, I was perched precariously on a median between two fast moving highways, with my tripod balanced ever so carefully.  I almost fell once, but I got the shot, as any true photographer would!

So, here’s today’s song of the day, dedicated to Allen…where it’s hot, humid and stormy.  It’s a totally cheesy 80′s country/pop riff, but it’s appropriate to this post.  LOL.

You’d expect something that involved Paris, driving and a bitchy girl to end up with a jail sentence…not the case:

And last but certainly not least…

Happy Birthday Daniel-san

Who would have ever thought that a chance meeting at Dulles Airport and all those adventures in Portland each time I visited, would result in such a lifelong friendship.  (I looked at the photos and our first trip to Multnomah Falls was 7 years ago last week!)  In my never ending quest to find embarrassing pictures of our group of friends on their birthdays, it wasn’t as easy with you Daniel, but here goes: 

NYE – My house 2003

Hard to believe you don’t drink!

Lord of the Rings Premier, Munich Germany, 2001

Happy Birthday & Dicken Schmatz my dear friend! –Carey

I’ve had a long day.  Ended up going to a midnight movie last night with Walter and about 9 kids that were under his charge.  After the movie we went to Canter’s Deli.  I got home at about 4:30 AM and as soon as I opened my door, I was overwhelmed by the smell of gas.  Turns out, my stove wasn’t turned off all of the way after I made spaghetti for dinner.  It had been on for over 8 hours!  Thank God, nothing happened.  I felt dizzy almost immediately and opened all  the windows and the patio doors, and turned the air conditioning and all the fans on.  Then I grabbed my laptop and sat on the patio as the sun was coming up.  I researched how harmful it is to breathe natural gas, and found out as long as you get oxygen quickly you should be OK.  I had a headache though, but stayed outside until about 7:30 AM when the smell was finally gone. 

I then went to bed, and slept until 9 AM as I was supposed to meet Donna & Mica for breakfast at 10:00.  I had a splitting headache, and didn’t think I would be able to go hiking with them as planned.  In the end though, I gave in, and we drove to Pacific Palisades to hike at Temescal Gateway Park which is one of the Top 10 hiking trails in Los Angeles.  Now, I’m not really a hiker, and I’m certainly not a good hiker with only an hour and 1/2 of sleep!  The trail was long, and pretty steep, but I made it, and felt good about it afterwards. (Not sure how good I’ll feel tomorrow!)

Highlights:	Great views of the ocean, small seasonal waterfall, densely wooded canyon
Near:	Pacific Palisades, CA
Scenery:
Distance:	4 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:	1000 ft
Hike Time:	2.5 hours
Difficulty:	Moderate
Trail Condition:	Well maintained trail
HikeType:	Loop

I thought it was bad that people carved graffiti into the cactus, but took this picture for Mica, even though it was spelled differently than her name.

Look at the bags under my eyes.  That’s what 1 1/2 hours of sleep and a gas leak does to you!

These are my new favorite indulgence from Trader Joes.  If I’m ever on death row, about to be electrocuted, I think I might want these as part of my last meal.  They are yummy!

Song of the day