November 2009 Archives

To put it shortly, we had Thanksgiving dinner with two teachers, the owner of a dog nanny company, a wine buff, a chemist for an oil refinery, a kids fashion store chain owner, a musician, a movie editor, a gourmet chef, a nuclear physicist and one toddler. Then, wreaking havoc on dinner were three Basenjis (of which Oni caused the most trouble) and one Australian Shepard (who caused no trouble at all).

We drank some very nice wine, ate some of the most delicious turkey, pork and sides and then pie (I drank Hennessy). I then had the opportunity to play a Les Paul guitar (and a nice Fender Strat) that was owned by one of the guitarists for the Steve Miller band in the host's nice movie editing/music studio.

Even though I thought of my grandmother's ravioli with every bite of dinner I still had a really great time and talked to some amazing people (I never thought I'd get the chance to talk with a nuclear physicist!).

And we owe it all so Sam and Raquel. Thank you for including us in your family!

Also, thank you to all my friends and family. I wouldn't be me without you. We miss you.

Today I finally completed the paperwork required by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) and the California Architects Board (CAB) to take the exam. If all goes smoothly I'll be able to begin the Architect Registration Examination (ARE) as soon as my paperwork is processed. Now to just find all the money:

NCARB Record................................................ $570
CAB Eligibility Review Fee.................................$100
Programming, Planning & Practice Exam...........$210
Site Planning & Design Exam............................$210
Building Design & Construction Systems Exam...$210
Schematic Design Exam...................................$210
Structural Systems Exam..................................$210
Building Systems Exam.....................................$210
Construction Documents & Services Exam..........$210
Total.................................................$2,140

Being able to finally call myself an architect.........Priceless

As some of you may know I've been a huge fan of Adam Carolla for a long time (since the MTV Loveline days). I've always wanted to see him perform but the thing is he doesn't perform. He only does TV and radio. Sad, but I guess it makes it easier to listen to more of his material when I can get it for free. Over the years I've learned all about his parents, upbringing, childhood friends and coworkers.

If you've been a recent fan of his podcast you'll know that the guy who ran the boards on his morning show (who was also a good friend), Bald Bryan as the call him, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Shortly before he was diagnosed the whole radio station 93.3 was canceled and Adam, along with the rest of the morning show staff, lost their jobs. Bryan was lucky enough to maintain his insurance at the time of diagnosis but he nor his wife could bring in any income. So, in stepped Adam Carolla and friends to the rescue. In addition to their large donations they held a benefit show that tickets could be purchased for. It was $100 for general admission and $300 for VIP admission.

Having recently lost my job I really wanted to go but couldn't justify spending $200 on tickets and I sadly watched it sell out. That's when a friend of Adam's and a parent at Nicole's school named Dana Gould happened to mention it to Nicole and she said we couldn't afford it. He said he'd see what he could do and the next morning she got an email saying we could pick up our tickets at the door.

I figured we got a pair of nosebleed seats which I was astounded to get in the first place but it turned out we got the whole VIP treatment. Amazing. Now to just scrape together some cash and make a donation on Bald Bryan's website so I don't feel like a complete jerk for going to a show to benefit a guy with brain cancer for free.

We were lucky enough to get a whole bunch of pictures and talk with most of the people involved with the Adam Carolla show. I had a really good conversation with Adam's old friend Ray and he's a much nicer guy than Adam paints him to be. Donny too. And Teresa Strasser showed us pictures of her new baby on her iphone!

What a night. I can't thank Dana Gould enough. Now for the awesome pictures:

Bryan Bishop, Nicole and I

Adam Carolla and I

Donny, Nicole and I (one of Adam's best friends and the editor of his show)

Teresa Strasser and Nicole

Ray Oldhafer and I. I think he decided to show Nicole that he really has 8% body fat.

Dana Gould growling at me.

Nicole eating sushi off of a naked girl.

Ziggy Socky, Ziggy Socky, Hoy! Hoy! Hoy!

Frustration number one: West Hollywood isn't listed as one of the local offices on the CA DMV website. I drove all the way to the Santa Monica office only to get stuck in their parking lot for 30 minutes and then find that you can't park in the surrounding neighborhood. I had to pee so I just left.

Frustration number two: Google maps can find the West Hollywood office but their website can't! I traded the car for the scooter and thank heavens I did because there was a line of 15 cars waiting to get in to the parking lot. When I got inside I found that there's a line to just get a number. I now have my number: B259. The automated number calling system is now saying it's serving B157. It's going to be a long day. Glad I have an iPhone.

I guess I have time to tell you why I'm here in the firstplace... My registration expired in June. In CO you get a letter and a 30 day grace period. I never received a letter and there is no grace period. On top of that I'm getting fined $120 in addition to my $250 registration fee. Sucks. They could at least make it easy for me to pay the $370 but when I called the lady said I would have to do it in person. Sucks more.

Only 99 people left ahead of me...

Anyone lucky enough to be in Southern California today knows it was not a day you'd want to waste indoors. "Perfect" hardly begins to describe the weather here. Today's crystal clear skies called for an outdoor excursion. We hopped on our scooter and headed West to the Beverly Hills Farmers Market.

We hadn't exactly planned ahead. Our arrival to the market had us digging in our very shallow (as of late) pockets for cash. Six ones. No ATM in sight. A challenge. It was hard to resist the delicious aromas of the prepared foods but with only six dollars we'd have to maintain restraint if we were to bring any loot home. We combed the stands for the most reasonable prices and were quite proud of our bounty...

2 pounds yellow onion
1 bunch of asparagus
1 pound green beans
4 small heads lettuce

Check this out: So, we were sitting on our patio enjoying some wine and the humming birds were buzzing by as they often do and I just decided to reach out and grab one. Yeah, that's right, I'm so fast I can catch a humming bird in flight with my bare hands. How you like me now? Mr. Miyagi's got nothin' on me. Here's the proof:

And then I trained him to sit on my finger:

I'm unbelievably awesome.

I'm such a bad blogger... I meant to post about this when we did it (back in August) but just never did.

Photo from www.littledoms.com

Nicole and I walked by Little Dom's after seeing one of her friends perform at Tangiers sometime back in 2008. On that short pass Nicole saw Sarah Silverman, Bijou Phillips and Michelle WIlliams. I guess I must have been busy studying the sidewalk or something (for which she scolded me afterwards) because I didn't see them.

So, last August we had a hankerin' for some Italian cuisine and decided to take a trek out to Los Feliz and see what little Dom's was all about. While waiting for our table at the hostess stand inside I was staring at this guy seated at a table outside and I was trying to figure out where I know him from. I'm sure I was making him uncomfortable especially after I realized it was Giovanni Ribisi. I can be such a turd. We were eventually seated outside, luckily around the corner and out of sight of Mr. Ribisi, as I didn't want to accidentally catch eyes with him again and have him think I'm some weird stalker. While we were seated and studying the slightly overpriced menu Rachel Bilson came walking by with a guy who looked like a hipster pulled from a dumpster and her awesome and very well behaved dog. They were promptly seated two tables over from us where they began to discuss relationships. Then, just about the time our appetizer arrived (which took almost 30 minutes!), Brian Baumgartner and his family were seated immediately to our right.

As a WOP named Dominic I have to give Little Dom's three stars for the food (to impress an Italian you have to cook exactly like his mother) and five stars for the atmosphere. If you're on a short trip to LA and want to increase your chances of seeing a celebrity eat at Little Dom's.

See a map here and all the reviews you'd ever want to read here

I think it's fun seeing celebrities and usually try and make a post about it when I do see one. Today I saw Steve Sanders at the gym. Alright, you may know him as Ian Ziering but I can't recall seeing him in anything but that role on 90210. He still looks the same. How is that possible? Good genes I guess. Lucky!

People often ask me what's the best piece of advice I can give on LA (ok, so no one asks me but when someone finally does I heard a great piece of information that has helped me immensely which I can pass on).

I have a friend who was personal assistant to Estelle Getty and during an interview he told me she was asked what's the best piece of advice she could give on Hollywood. She answered very simply, "Take Fountain". For some reason people in this city are much more like lemmings than anywhere else I've been. They see everyone else using the well known streets like Santa Monica or Sunset so they use them and don't seem to mind averaging 5 mph or less during rush hour.

As you can see on the map (highlighted in green) Fountain goes through most of Hollywood and West Hollywood and no one uses it. Most prefer to use the streets highlighted in red.

So, the next time you're crusing though Hollywood and Sunset gets a little jammed just go on down to Fountain. Just make sure you watch out as often when cars are parked on Fountain it gets slimmed down to one and a half lanes in each direction.

If you live in or near LA you have to attend the West Hollywood Halloween mayhem at least once. I can't begin to describe the level of insanity that goes on. I was made aware this year that neer-do-wells do hang out off of the main streets waiting to roll drunk people so be careful when you do attend.

This year I made some Dia De Los Muertos masks for us (because I have that kind of time). You can see a few pictures of the process at a link below if you're interested. We started out at one of Nicole's coworker's parties just a block up from Santa Monica Blvd where unfortunately the amount of vodka and whiskey we consumed prevented us from taking any decent pictures of the costumes on the blvd. There were lots of swine flus, Watchmen and the typical dead things you see every year but the only costume I was really impressed with was a giant inflated foil balloon in the shape of a UFO and the guy inside of (wearing) it was telling us his name is Falcon and that "Daddy said we did it for the show".

And now for the good pictures we do have:

I think he asked Scott out. It's good to know Scott has options if he ever needs them.

I don't remember their names but they were foreign and really funny.

Some well done Dia de los Muertos face paint.

Is the girl on the right having a pee?

Click below to see how I made the Dia de los Muertos masks.