End of Summer

This summer is wrapping up. I finished up my internship last week and school starts this next week. It's sad to see the summer come to an end but there's lots of good stuff in store. Stay tuned in a couple months from now.

Last Friday we went to the LA County fair to celebrate America. If deep fried avocadoes dipped in chocolate are wrong, I don't want to be right. I'm not sure if I should write about what we did or ate - it's all pretty exciting. I'll hit the highlights of each. We had a sausage that was over a foot long and an inch and a half wide drowning in grilled onions in peppers.

Mom and Steven's still working on the looking at the camera thing.

Tamara got some sort of electronic cleanse through their feet. I challenged what exactly was being cleansed and I got vague and non committal answers. Tamara bought a bunch of massage stuff and she swears she'll give one. Adam bought some landscaping tools so he can start his own business. We got our teeth whitened. Then we capped the day off with the best strawberry shakes we've ever had. I'm not sure how they do it, but the strawberry flavor is flowing and it doesn't taste sugary at all. Absolutely amazing. Needless to say, it was a sweet day.

The end of the day. Who doesn't love the fair?

While we were there my dad called and asked if we wanted to see flogging molly the next day. I had heard a few of their songs and enjoyed them. We were excited but not exactly sure what to expect. Cutting to the chase, they rocked. They brought a ton of energy, played really hard, and were obviously having a good time themselves. It was pretty infections and we ended up having a great time. We totally recommend them.

Speaking of rocking, here's my dad killing it on Guitar Hero:

For various reasons Tamara was heading to Utah/Idaho and my dad and I ended up going as well to see my grandfather ordained a patriarch. It was a special event and all of my dad's sibling made the trip. We also spent time with Angie and Eric while in Idaho Falls. If you called us over that weekend and didn't get a response, it's probably because cell reception was pretty spotty. I've been informed this lack of technology is particular to the eastern side of Idaho while the western side is up to date.
The end of the summer is always sad but there's good news coming to compensate.

The Hollywood Bowl

Because Doug has such great patience he was able to land a sweet internship this summer. I am so proud that he stuck it out and did not settle for a job that he did not want just to receive a paycheck this summer. With the help of our friends (thanks Covey's) he has really enjoyed working this summer. He is going to have to explain what he really does because I have to admit that I kind of tune out when he starts talking shop.

The owner of the company gave us box seats to the Hollywood Bowl last night where we saw Tovey Conducts Bernstein with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was truly amazing, a night to remember. Next time we will know to bring table clothes with center pieces but we enjoyed our yummy sandwiches and sparkling cider. We invited the Lattin's because we really like them and they hooked us up with some cheese and crackers that were delish as well.

We always love to take advantage of where we live. We look forward to seeing and doing as much as we can because who knows when and where we will move to next. And I just enjoy having incredible dates with my hubby. Chalk this up to another great night in LA!!

Saint Forgiving

When I was on my mission, at one point we did a district meeting in English as opposed to Spanish. If you said a word of Spanish, you had to start over. It was much tougher than it sounds after a year of trying to speak Spanish and translating certain missionary words I had never used in English. We also translated the names of towns. San Francisco-Saint Frank, San Isidro-Saint Izzy/Ozzy, Zapote-Sapote (it's a fruit). A couple weeks ago we spent some time in Saint Forgiving, or San Clemente for those of you that hablar.
My mom's family has been going to San Clemente since she was a little girl. I won't reveal her age, but let's say it's been a while. Every year we go to the San Clemente Inn for a week. It's a pretty complex ritual. You wake up, saunter down to the beach, and stay until you want to go home. At the beach you can go in the water, take a nap, or hang out. It's a very taxing day. Usually for lunch you either get pizza or go to Pedro's Tacos. Pedro's Tacos is to fish tacos what MJ is to basketball. Everybody wants to be like Mike, but there's only one. After your rough day at the beach, each family cooks one night and they you hang out at the pool or hang out until the older generation kicks you out so they can play their card game. It's kind of like sitting at the adult's table at Thanksgiving. I still sit at the kid's table. But we have way more fun.
Anyway, that's a typical day at in San Clemente. Every now and then we mix it up by going to the pool before the beach, play shuffleboard before dinner, or hang out in the morning and don't go to the beach until the afternoon. I think you get the idea.
This year we went for the first weekend and then went back Thursday night through Saturday. I'll run through some of the highlights of this year. One night we went night swimming and out of nowhere this dude attacked us. We were standing there minding our own business, and he just jumps at us, casually mentions what he would like to do to us, and swings. My cousin Matt ran off like a little school girl. My other cousin Richard took him down and the rest of us were about to open up a can on him before his friends ran over and stopped us because he was drunk. Like that was an excuse to act like a moron. If you attack a group of seven duded (well, six because Matt ran off) you deserve what you have coming. That was exciting. Matt, after recovering his dignity, also got his mission call to the Brazil Florianopolis. Apparently the surfing and beaches are awesome. Other than that we had some huge waves on the last couple of days due to some storm way off the coast.

Here's Matt (in the front) acting tough. Too bad we know better. The real men are in the back.

Tamara with Jane making her cameo in the hundreds of pictures she takes.

The little kids table.
If Pedro's Taco is closed, there's always an Eric sandwich!
Here's Grandi. This whole event is thanks to her.

Baking Withdrawls

I have been trying to lose some weight so I have stopped my love of baking for about two months now but I just could not take it anymore. Doug planned an evening of Halo with the guys so I planned an evening of baking. I could not decide between something sweet and tangy or something chocolate so I went with both. Thanks to Martha Stewart, I made chocolate cookies with marshmallows in the middle covered with chocolate frosting, always a favorite in my world. Doug's favorite dessert is anything with lemon and raspberry so I dreamed up this recipe that I must say turned out to be the bomb!! I made lemon pudding by scratch whipped it with heavy cream then layered with ginger snaps and raspberries and let it set. I could not get a great picture, but it is amazing. We have a lot of extra so if you are reading this and want some, come on over!! After tonight I am going to have to work out double but so worth it.

Huey Lewis and the News

Thanks again to the wonderful Halls, we got the hook up for great seats at a concert. This time it was Huey Lewis and the News, where it is not hip to be square. Once again when the lights came up we realized that we were the youngest people there, but it was a great night. The concert was at the OC Fair so of course we ate lots of fattening foods and oh yes it does exists......Chocolate Covered Bacon. I never thought that I would see the day!!!

Shocking

Last night was the exciting end of the Bachelorette. Tamara has been waiting for this for months. I think this show is pretty lame. Reality TV? Where they end up in a fantasy suite? Wait, what? I was making fun of the show relentlessly so I did a bit of research to get data to support my stance since that's what I do. I was shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that of the 13

seasons of the Bachelor not one has gotten married. On the last season the dude picked one girl, then dropped her for the second one. Apparently they're still together. But she was the second choice. That's real love. Of the five seasons of the Bachelorette one has gotten married and the one that just ended which Tamara says has a real chance of lasting. So in 18 seasons why have one success with one more possible. That's a terrible track record. Tamara has a

better record of setting people up one on one. Imagine if she got twenty five chances with each person.

I'm not going to go into the reality complaints about being spending a week in spain, then hawaii, and then who knows where else. Fantasy suites, rose ceremonies-it all sounds very reality based. But I think there's one lesson to learn from these shows. The batting average for the bachelorette, 1-3 out of five depending on the accounting, is clearly way better than the bachelor, 0-13 no discussion. It's possible that the bachelorette is on the same PEDs Manny and Papi were on in 2003 and those numbers are inflated, but those results won't be leaked for some time. Anyway, what we see is that women chasing men never goes anywhere. Who though that sending 25 women to fight over a dude and throw themselves at his feet would result in him being committed to any of them? The only effort he put in was in sorting through the psychos. The bachelorette has enjoyed some success because it forces the dudes to work for the girl, which is how it's supposed to be. When one finally gets her, he'll value her more because he's put so much into it as opposed to the bachelor who thinks women are easy (which judging by the 13 seasons-there are lots of them out there). Though the show has virtually no redeeming qualities, there is something to be learned from this.

UPDATE: Anderson Cooper was also shocked

Little David's Sports Birthday

Many of you have heard me talk about little David. He is our neighbors kid and he just love this little bundle energy. Today was his 3rd birthday so we had to celebrate with a sports theme. David already knows all about his sports and is dang good. Cassie (David's mom) asked me to help with cupcakes and I knew just what I wanted to do....sports cupcakes and of course my favorite chocolate footballs (I also made those for our Super Bowl party). So Cassie made the cupcakes and we decorated them like basketballs and baseballs. I think that they turned out adorable don't you?

Jury Duty

I'm currently sitting around waiting to find out if two of our fellow Angelinos want to plea out and make a deal or go to trial and face jurors who want nothing more than to be done as soon as possible. It's riveting sitting around imagining the justice system at work just a few rooms away. I think jury duty could be great, but I've never been utilized. I have, however, spent several days sitting in poorly ventilated bland rooms listening to private conversations and seeing diseases passed around one uncovered sneeze at a time. I thought about taking the Liz Lemon approach but I couldn't do it with a straight face. Maybe I need to take my civic duties more seriously, like Pauly Shore.

So at my last job we probably spent more time arguing about font, grammar, spelling, and formatting instead of actual content of our presentations. While it was painful at times, I learned a really valuable lesson. When given a sheet, card, etc. I can spot mistakes within twelve seconds. I was reminded of that today. There was a farmer's market outside jury duty and I bought some streusel from Daphne. While eating I looked at the sticker listing the ingredients and the first thing I noticed was that 'dairy' was spelled 'diary'. It really ruins things. One guy gave me a business card and his address was mispelled-first thing I noticed. A friend sent me a pitchbook to look over and ten seconds in I see his email address in a footnote is wrong. In the business world it's called detail oriented but it usually turns into being critical. It's easy to be critical. Most of the time there is plenty of criticism and no ideas for improvement, which is the hard
part. But people love being critical without having to be responsible for the criticisms-hence the love affair with anonymous postings. I'm trying to retrain myself to only use it in work situations, but it's proving difficult. So, to make up for it I'm giving Daphne a shoutout and letting you know the original streusel is really good.

Big Weekends

Last weekend Tamara's brother Rob and his wife Hailey came and visited us. Apparently it was the first time Rob has visited Tamara EVER so it was a big deal and we had to come through. I came up with a tour of Holllywood to start out. Fortunately, I found the most amazing breakfast place, The Griddle Cafe. For anybody living in LA, it would be a mistake to not go here. They don't list prices, but everything is around $10. The portions are ginormous and it was super good. We also only waited about fifteen min. I really can't overstate how good it was.

We then went on our Hollywood tour. We saw Michael Jackson's star with all the accompanying weeping, wailing, and the selling of counterfeit memorabilia. Anything to make a buck. We also visited the Harley store.

We then took off to the beach. Venice is always a trip. It's not unlike Coney Island-great people watching, unique food, and lots of public entertainment. While Venice doesn't have amusement park or carnies, we do have muscle beach, ropes to climb, and the actual beach is way better. And by way better I mean I don't feel dirty when I get out like at Coney. They also both have freak shows. We rented bikes, went to the pier and then stopped at the Venice Harley store.

Before we took off to dinner, we visited the Santa Monica Harley store. I hope you're seeing a theme here. We then had dinner up in the hills before heading to Diddy Riese. Overall it was a great weekend.

For the fourth, we first headed down to Manhattan for some surfing with Tamara's co-worker, Sabrina. Manhattan is pretty sweet. Houses right up on the beach. Not too crowded. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Next we headed up to the Halls. As some of you may know, there hasn't been TV in the Hall home since '92. Jason just graduated so they (and by they, I mean Mom) had DirectTV installed. It's taking some getting used to. I showed Dr. Hall the hot dog eating contest which he had heard of, but never seen. Like it did for me, it really changed his life. Dr. Hall hooked us up with massages which we really appreciated. I jumped in the pool while Tamara laid out. Grandi and Al came over while we bbqed. The food was great and even though it's not that far away it feels like being on a vacation.

If you are interested in viewing pictures from the whole weekend, click here.

Showing Off Our Skills

I thought that I would add some video to show off what we were doing in Lake Havasu!!
Doug and I jumped together and I was still able to get up on the wake board.