leftovers

Wow - is it really the last day of the first month of 2010 already? Sheesh! We actually got up nice and early for a Sunday - I was out of bed right around 10 am. We had some coffee and then went to Runyon Canyon, the three of us. Marc was apparently ready to go with us but had shut his ringer off the night before for a midnight showing of "Happy Birthday to Me" so he didn't hear my text come in. Anyway, we had fun and went up the easy way and then down a much more difficult way, which led to me falling and scraping my hand and right knee (remember I hurt my left knee the night before bowling). Then, Carrie almost fell right as I was getting a text message, and I was in front so I didn't see it and Dylan yelled something really condescending at me about me being too oblivious with my phone. I got really irritated since he is the one who has a Palm Pre and treats it like the third member of our family when my phone can't do anything more complicated than sendin...

Slept in nice and late but got up in time to get some housework done since Carrie arrives today. I made brunch with eggs and the leftover spinach stuffing from the mushrooms last night, and celery with peanut butter. See how good I'm doing on South Beach? Dylan and I went through a lot of our vinyl to weed out more, so I will probably be going through them in groups or one by one for my resolution log but need more time to organize before we take the records to Amoeba. We played quite a few records while we worked too, so it was fun. Dylan went for a bike ride while I worked a little on Brad's video but then I got a sudden urge to work on a cover song. The song is "Hunters of the Night" which was Mr. Mister's first single and wasn't really a big hit; most people don't really know it because it was before Mr. Mister hit it big with "Broken Wings." I only know it from the best of album I had bought after moving to LA but was reminded of it las...

I didn't feel too well again when I woke up, so I missed boot camp. There was nothing special going on at work today. I went to Cafe Muse for a healthy lunch and talked to Jen for a minute. After work, I stopped at Pavilions to get the stuff I needed to make dinner; I hadn't been prepared enough when we went shopping last night. Brandon, Angie, Luther and Bradley were coming over for a little dinner party/movie night. Like me, Brandon and Angie are doing the South Beach diet so I wanted to make a really delicious meal that fit the requirements of phase I, using the recipes from the South Beach book. I got cauliflower, fat-free half n' half, and spray "I can't believe it's not Butter" to make South Beach Surprise Mashed Potatoes (surprise, it's actually cauliflower!); and I also made stuffed mushrooms and a shrimp cocktail with mustard horseradish sauce instead of cocktail sauce. The main dish was Salmon Kebabs, which also had green and red bell pe...

Once again, I didn't feel all that great when I tried to wake up but it wasn't as bad as yesterday so I managed to do it and got to Runyon Canyon by 7am. This time we did go up Big Mama, but I was ready for it and it wasn't all that bad. When I finally got to the apex, I started back down only to see Luther making his way to the top. He hadn't been with us when we all started but had caught up with us. I told him how I wasn't feeling great and had some phlegm in my sinuses, so he gave me a hit off his inhaler and I started feeling better. I'm thinking maybe I need one because I often have difficulty breathing normally especially at night. I had inhalers when I was little too, because we lived on a farm and I was allergic to so many pollens in the air. After boot camp, I went to work and had to get ready for our Advocacy and Business Development Meeting, which was our first BID meeting of the year. The meeting was at 3 at the Musician's Union and it we...

Despite the sort of good night's sleep I had (I've been once again having trouble falling asleep despite being really tired), I felt awful when my alarm went off at 6:15am. My throat felt sore and my entire body ached. Just trying to sit up in bed sent pain all through my body. I ended up hitting snooze and by the time I was with it enough to open my eyes, it was already 7:45 am, so I obviously missed boot camp. I did have to get up and get to work early again though, because I was meeting with the East Hollywood BID. They are going through renewal so they wanted to ask me some questions about when the Media District renewed back in 2004. They have a much smaller BID (and much, much smaller budget) than we do, so I told them I'd be willing to help them out however I can since I have already been through the renewal process. I will be meeting with them in February. Then, I had a BID Consortium meeting downtown at LA Live, in this new restaurant called Rosa Mexicana. O...

It was terribly difficult to wake up and contemplate taking on Runyon Canyon, but I did it, and I was so glad that I did. Unlike other "first days" of boot camp, we didn't go up to the top of "Big Mama," the notoriously steep highest peak of the entire park. Instead, we did the stairs on the east side, which while not the easiest route is one that I'm so used to that it doesn't bother me too much. I was discouraged by how difficult it was for me, having done boot camp so many times before here I was thinking it would get easier. But Robin does always say, no matter how many times you do Runyon, it never gets easy. After that I had to hurry up and get to work because I had a 9am appointment with a guy who is working with property owners on LaBrea who are interested in starting up a BID. He was a nice guy and he had quite a few questions for me about the Media District and how we had been able to do what we've done, how we got started, and what ou...

The rain had already stopped this weekend, so it was a good time to start Boot Camp, although physically I was clearly not ready. I didn't feel all that great when I got up but I didn't feel horrible. I got to Plummer Park before 7am and Luther was the only one there before me. Tony showed up second, then Jim and finally Robin, Moses and Jasten. We started out OK with some leg raises and then some arm and shoulder stuff, and some bicep exercises using our arm bands, but by that time I started feeling a little queasy. I think I threw up 2 out of the 4 first days of boot camp last year, which one of them didn't really count since there was no break between the 3rd and 4th. I thought I was in better shape now since I had done 4 months of boot camp last year, but apparently my bad habits had gotten the best of me over the holidays, because I had to excuse myself from the group and go puke in a corner of the park. It was embarrassing and irritating, but afterward I felt m...

Sunday was a pretty busy day for me, as far as Sundays go. We woke up at Brandon and Angie's before noon and made our way back across town, stopping at Jack-in-the-Box for breakfast burritos on the way. I had to be at Rick and Melodie's at 1pm for a meeting about the Invisible Material video. I sort of thought I might be the only one to show up, since I had only gotten the final details out to the rest of the band the night before. To my surprise, Ben was already there when I got there, followed soon by Robin and Michelle, and then Brandon; so actually the whole band was there all together for the first time since Robin had gone home to New Zealand before the holidays. Rick and Melodie have put a lot of work and thought into the video so it's going to be really good, but we desperately need to find a location, which is going to be the most difficult part. I also need to somehow get a drum set that I don't mind covering with paint splatters. So there is still a lot ...

I slept in nice and late (I love Saturdays!) but Dylan had gotten up early to go drive Robin around and look for apartments. I didn't want to be lazy so when I got up I decided to do some cleaning projects. First, I attached the junk cabinet under the junk drawer in the kitchen, which I've been retroactively blogging about under my New Years Resolution Log, catching up on the week. After that, I decided I'd go to the Laundromat and finally do the rugs. The rugs are three really heavy Pier 1 rugs that Robin had gotten us awhile back. Actually, she got us one rug, which we put in the little hallway between the bedroom and the bathroom, and somehow two more rugs just like that one showed up at some point, probably when Robin first started staying with us. Her dog, Scooter, unfortunately peed all over pretty much everything in our apartment as he was 17 years old and was in pretty bad shape, and living on the top floor of a four story building made it really difficult to t...

Wow, I can't believe it's still raining! Since Robin stayed with us last night, and somehow has a habit of always using my towel, I thought I'd be smart and take my towel out of the bathroom before I went to bed last night. I folded it ever so gently and placed it on my Yamaha keyboard next to the computer in our bedroom. However, when I got up in the morning to take a shower, my towel was gone! I went in to the living room and found it, damp, hanging on one of the dining room chairs. Turns out Dylan saw the towel and, thinking it was a clean towel, took it and used it. So, I had to get the last clean towel and use that one. Later, when I got home from work, I told Dylan what happened and said, "at least now I have a clean towel." Then he broke the news to me... that Robin used that towel too! I have been on a Kraftwerk kick lately... I know that's neither here nor there but I'd be remiss not to mention it (if I haven't already). I have never g...

After several e-mails back and forth over the course of the week, I finally got what seemed to be the official invitation for SG to play at Winnipeg Pride. We were all super excited, as most of us have never been to Canada, and it's our first international gig since Reykjavik Pride in 2005. I'm especially happy for the new members since this is a big deal right away for us this year. Hopefully more great opportunities will be coming to us soon. The rains continue, I've been smart and been bringing my umbrella to work everyday. Dylan called to say his mom wanted to come spend the night again. I had planned to have a relaxing evening at home watching my Thursday night shows, but we decided to call Marc and see if we could go over there to watch instead. It ended up being really fun, we had some wine and Dylan went and got a turkey sandwich from Big Mamma's & Big Pappa's that we split and a side salad. Marc's friend Dan came over and although he had never...

Today was the big day of Shitting Glitter's first show of 2010 at Club Squeeze! It was another rainy day, which of course I love but also most likely meant that not many people would be coming out to the show. In LA when it rains, people consider it "nasty weather" and then they don't go out. Which is funny because in other places, rainy days are the days when people do go out to bars. So many things are backwards here. Anyway, I got home and had a few hours to kill getting ready. I flat ironed my hair and went through multiple wardrobe changes while listening to music. Several people texted me that they weren't going to be able to make it (for all kinds of reasons, no one actually said 'because of the rain'. A few of my friends couldn't make it because they were going to a gay rollerskating night (even though that ended almost a half an hour before our show time). I didn't care though, I was just excited for our first show with our new drum...

It was raining even harder today. I love the sound of the rain outside my office. It's so rare that the days here in LA are anything but warm and sunny that I relish whatever other weather we get. I actually know people here who hate the rain and get all upset about it, or cold days, which is so funny to me. When I got home from work, I noticed the repair man had been in and fixed the fan in the bathroom! It has never worked since we moved in, I just assumed it was old and out of commission. But recently, I had looked up in the sunlight and noticed all the paint was peeling off. It looked really bad, and I thought maybe there was a leak, so I notified our building managers and they said it was because the fan didn't work so the steam from the shower was condensing on the wall. Usually we don't shut the door all the way when we're showing but since Robin had been staying with us so much last year, the door would be shut a lot and it just really damaged the paint o...

It has been raining a lot today. There was a short break at one point so I went and got lunch. Sad to say that I have not been doing a diet at all. We got some good news over the weekend about a couple out of country gigs for SG coming up, so I have been excited about those although they aren't set in stone yet. More info as it develops. Nothing really exciting happened at home, just watched TV mainly. I ordered pizza from Big Mamma's and Big Pappa's which I thought would be the one just down the street where those tall, hot guys work but for some reason it came from a different location, on Sunset Blvd. I talked to Hoagie for awhile on the phone tonight. He had some interesting ideas about how artists should market themselves and their music. Hopefully Brandon and I can go hang out with him sometime soon, it's been awhile since I've been out there. In fact I don't think I've been there since the CD has been finished. Hello 2010, goodbye junk! NEW YEAR...

Got up in the morning and decided to make brunch for Dylan and I. I make spam and fried egg sandwiches, but I dipped the bread in egg and fried the bread like french toast, then fried the spam and the egg with sliced onion and melted cheese on top, and served it with cuban style black beans. It was all delicious! We wasted most of the day just sitting and catching up on lots of TV on DVR, including Saturday night live, Parks & Rec, 30 Rock and Community. Around 5:30 we got around and went to Tiger's house. On the way we stopped and I got a bottle of wine, a thing of shrimp cocktail, a banana cream pie and some flavored tortilla chips. My total was $20 even, how often does that happen? We were the first one's to arrive at Tiger's shindig. Then Brandon, Angie and Rebecca showed up, followed by Bella, Steven, Nick and Pray. Bella had made a delicious beet salad so we all sat around and visited while we ate and drank. Then we played "Apples to Apples." In ...

We slept in nice and late, and then got up and got around. We were meeting Brandon, Angie and Loren in Burbank at the AMC so we could see "Avatar" in IMAX 3-D! I was really excited. Everyone who has seen it has said how much they loved it, so I figured it would be fun if nothing else. I really liked it. Yes, I would say that I did like the effects and 3D more than the story itself, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with the plot or story, I actually really enjoyed it. But the way everything glowed and lit up, and the way the 3D was so realistic and trippy, it was just a great experience. We were already talking about seeing it again. Dylan, who was a little skeptical at first (he wasn't even sure if he was going to go with us), even loved it. After the movie we went home and got ready to go to our friends Mike and Brett's going away party. They are moving to New York next week. The party was at one of their friend's loft apartments in West H...

It was a difficult day of work because I was so tired. I had to go back up to Susan's to do QuickBooks and issue checks, then back down to Hollywood. Right after work, I had to get over to Silverlake for Shitting Glitter rehearsal at Satellite Studios. Red couldn't make it, so it was just Amy, AJ, Laura and I. We rehearsed the set for next Wednesday night's gig and jammed a little too. Our new song, "Full Release" sounded really good, as does the cover of "6 Underground." After rehearsal, I was really beat, but wanted to go out and see some friends. Dylan and I got ready and walked over to Viktor's; Marc was already there. Viktor had just gotten Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, so we played that although I did not do very well, having never played it on Wii before. Jason came and met us, then we all went over to Fubar together. I had tried to talk Amy into entering the Tabatha look-a-like contest (it was a party for Tabatha from the show Salon T...

I had a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce today that turned out to be pretty interesting. We talked about filming in Los Angeles and some issues related to the decrease in productions recently. I thought that maybe this is something I should try to get more involved in and aware of so that our stakeholders can be kept in the loop. After work, I went up to Susan's house to pick her up and head downtown to Staples Center. We got invited to an LA Kings hockey game and I had never been to a hockey game before so I was really excited. We were in a 'luxury suite' which is about halfway up, there are three rows of them, and we were in the middle. It was about the size of a hotel room and it had a little sitting area with a counter that had food and snacks on it, and some refrigerated cabinets stocked with soda and beer. The game was really exciting. They use lots of loud noises, music, lights and effects to get you into it, as I'm sure they do at all games at Staples. ...

After the wild night last night, it was very difficult to get up and go to work. I did though, and went to the bank to move funds to our checking account so I could mail out checks. While at the post office, I also mailed out Shitting Glitter CD's to three different places. When I got home, Dylan had brought salads from Trader Joe's for him, me and Robin. But they weren't hungry yet, so I went to Staples to try and return the speakers I had bought a couple weeks ago (exactly 14 days ago, per their return policy). Unfortunately, they didn't have the same speakers in stock and since I had used Staples rewards bucks to buy them, they wouldn't give me store credit or cash. I was left with really no option, which pissed me off, but the manager said I could come back tomorrow at 5 and if they had gotten any more in on the truck he would exchange them even though it was past the return date. Ugh! Normally I love Staples but not tonight. Back home, we watched "M...

Today was kind of cool. I got up and showered and put on a suit and tie, which is not that usual for me. I usually despise having to wear a shirt, tie and jacket because normally the weather here is so hot and dreadful that I know I'm going to sweat all over it and look like a soppy dog by the end of the day. Today was nice; cool and cloudy, so I didn't mind the extra layers. I went downtown around 10:30 am and made my way to the new LAPD headquarters, a lovely new structure on the corner of 1st and Main. It is huge and brand new, which is weird when you think about how broke the state and city are now. It must have been finished right before the economy and city budget collapsed. At the meeting, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (who I met previously a few months before at a Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Business Leaders meeting) was there to introduce his new Deputy Mayor for Business Development and something else that I can't remember right now. They both spoke very e...

Mondays, Mondays. Oh how they suck. Work was OK but nothing too exciting happened. Someone from the Mayor's office called and asked me to attend some meeting tomorrow; I said I'd be there and put it on my calendar. Dylan called to say he was picking his mom up after work. She has decided not to drive anymore, which is for the best, so I'm not sure how long she's planning to stay with us this time. I hope she finds her own place soon. When I got home, Dylan and Robbie were already there so I said hi, and showed Dylan that I had written a letter to the building managers since we have a few issues in our apartment at the moment, including a sink disposal that doesn't turn on, a leak on the bathroom ceiling skylight, living room blinds that don't close properly, and a tub that doesn't drain. After I had taken the letter to the managers and showed Dylan, then I went to work in the kitchen. I did dishes, which was hard since the disposal isn't working, ...

After my juice fast, I really was craving some bad foods, and I decided today I would just go with it. I woke up around 11am and really wanted pancakes. We didn't have any pancake mix so I looked up a recipe online and discovered they are so easy to make from scratch, I kind of felt stupid for using a mix before. I almost always keep flour, baking powder and everything else you need on hand anyway. So I mixed up the batter, got out the griddle, and make pancakes, turkey bacon and eggs over hard while brewing some coffee. Dylan got up just in time and he was very happy! We used our coconut pineapple syrup that we brought back from Maui for the first time. After brunch, I got ready and went over to Rick and Melodie's to talk more about the Invisible Material video for "Grown Man Cry" which they are producing and directing. They have been putting a lot of thought and planning into it, so the band (including me) really needs to get in gear! We're hoping to sho...

It was a beautiful Saturday! I woke up around 11am and went to the supermarket for groceries. I had a coupon for Fresh & Easy so I went there; seeing the people coming and going to LA Fitness made me wish I had brought my gym bag. I will have to start going back this coming week. At home, I made my first meal in 5 days: Scrambled eggs with celery, onion, green peppers, tomatoes, cheese, and spinach; turkey bacon, and coffee. Dylan was very happy that I am back to eating since it means I am back to cooking now. After that, I finished the Shitting Glitter promo video and burned a bunch of DVDs. We packed the car with my equipment and headed to pick Marc and Robert up to go down to Fullerton for Shitting Glitter rehearsal. I was going to drop Dylan off at the subway so he could go to North Hollywood and see 'Sherlock Holmes' at the TV Academy but it ended up that everyone he was going to meet there had flaked, so he just ended up coming with us. We rehearsed in AJ's ...

TGIF! I made it through the week. The strangest thing happened. I was dreaming that we were back in Maui, but we were getting ready to leave. Our friends, the Nondorfs, where there just like they were in reality when we were there for Yuletide (my parents often travel together with them). In the dream, I said we were leaving and Shelly said she wasn't leaving until June, to which I said something about how jealous I was! Meanwhile, my phone was signaling that I had a new text, and in my half awaken state I remember Dylan asking me if he should check my text; I said it was probably from the bank as I get automatic text updates now anytime a large deposit or withdrawal goes through. When I finally got up and checked my phone, it was a text from Shelly saying "I want to go back to Maui!" The work day was OK, I had a few projects to do and did a lot of filing and organizing. My desk looks pretty nice now. On my lunch break, I walked all the way up to Robek's on Su...

It was inevitable, but today is the first day that I'm blogging my daily entry on the next day. It wasn't that anything super exciting was going on last night that prevented me from writing, I just got super tired, and Dylan was using the computer for his traffic school. Anyway, I'm sure it won't be the last time. Yesterday I had quite a bit of work to do, but I did manage to walk to Jamba Juice at the West Hollywood Gateway on my lunchbreak, and this time instead of getting the 'no dairy, no sugar' kind, I went ahead and got a sugar free smoothie, so it did have dairy in it. I guess that's sort of a juice, right?! It was Mango Mantra and it was really good. It got me through the rest of the day. At home, I still had some of the fresh tomato/celery/carrot/spinach juice I had made the night before, but I mixed it with some Trader Joe's Garden Patch to make it taste better. It was difficult, but I drank the whole glass while we were watching "Ho...

I walked to Jamba Juice on Larchmont on my lunchbreak. I still had a little lingering headache from the juice fasting, but it was nowhere near as bad as yesterday. At Jamba Juice I made sure to get one of the ones that said "100% Fruit, no sugar added" - it was a pomegranate something or other. It was really good and actually relieved my headache. The walk did me good, too. After work, I was cleaning to get ready since Brandon and Angie were coming over to give Dylan a very belated birthday gift. There wasn't too much cleaning to do, and I also put the remaining holiday decorations back in storage and washed the couch blankets and my beloved blue blanket that Dylan's mom gave me that I just can't sleep without. For dinner, I took 3 tomatoes, a few carrots and a bunch of celery and spinach and I put it in the juicer. I made 2 servings so that I'd have something from breakfast, although it will be difficult to want to drink it in the morning. It was OK fo...

Today was the first full day of my New Year's Juice Fast, and although it started OK (I had apple juice for breakfast and had enough work to keep me busy and not thinking about food until after noon), it quickly went downhill. I went to Robek's for lunch to get a shot of wheatgrass and a Green-V (carrot, celery and spinach) which was nice and refreshing. Then I had to drive to Valley Glen to work at Susan's for awhile, and by the time I got back I was starting to get a headache. That always happens when I start a juice fast or diet. So after awhile I went and got a Naked Protein Zone Mango. However it didn't really help my headache. By the time I got home, all I could do was lay in bed. I really think I must have some small idea of what people feel like when they are going through withdrawals of cigarettes or even harder drugs. I'm not saying this was on the same level, but it was to the point where I couldn't do much more than lay down all evening. I to...

Today was the first day back to work this year but it was pretty boring. I had to type some pages and organize some financial matters, and of course clean my office a little, which I had meant to do before vacation but never found the time. After work, I came home and started taking down the holiday decorations. When Dylan got home, he helped me, and we ended up getting everything put away. It looks so empty now without the tree, but I like to get it put away before too much of the new year has come to pass. I spent a little time reading about Jesus tonight while I was listening to the instrumentals of my songs. I'm always a little curious about the historical Jesus, like what facts have actually been shown to be historically accurate. Unfortunately, of course, there isn't really that much which has survived to be passed down in the form of verifiable truth. I do think Jesus probably existed, but I'm curious as to how he has come to have such a large following. I try...

Today is the last day of vacation, tomorrow it's back to work. Sad face :( We slept in until after noon (yikes!) and then got up and watched TV and laid around for awhile, packing up our things and getting Brad and Alf's apartment cleaned back up for them. We finally left around 3 and went back home to change clothes. We went to the Century City mall which was extremely busy! It was very difficult to find a parking spot, and we were already running a little late for the 4:50 showing of "Up in the Air" that we wanted to see. I was really hungry too. As it turned out, that showing was already nearly sold out and we would have had to sit in one of the front three rows, so we got tickets for the 6:55 show. That gave us plenty of time to eat (we had Hawaiian chicken at Rotisserie Works) and then browse at the Container Store and Borders. The movie was excellent! I didn't know too much about it before going in, which is the way I like it. I did know it had been ...

Slept in this morning, despite some texts and phone calls that temporarily woke me up. Around noon, I finally got up and checked my phone, returning several messages. I called Marc to let him know I'd be cooking brunch soon, and to bring some champagne. I chopped six potatoes of various colors (gold, red and purple) into hash browns, fried them with some onions, and beat some eggs with milk, frying them with some green bell peppers and spring onions. Lastly, I sauteed some soy chorizo. Real chorizo is made of pituitary glands and lord knows what else, but soyrizo is delicious - it has the same flavor and texture but none of the guilt or wondering what you just ate. It was a fine meal and I got many compliments from Dylan and Marc. Then Dylan and I went to Santa Monica and rode the ferris wheel at the pier, just before sunset. It was so romantic and fun! Then we watched the sunset on the west end of the pier, amongst the tourists and fishermen. We came back to WeHo where we w...