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{organic chicken is stuffed with flowery mustard greens and shallots}

Three Things I learned yesterday at the Venice farmer’s Market:

~ I must secure an official Farmer’s Market Purchase Containment System (FMPCS). A wheely cart, canvas bags, and an Easy Access Small Bill and Coin Management System (EASBCMS). Always an emarrassing amateur, this fumbling for my cash and clumsy one handed veggie consolidations has to end.
~ I must stop stalking the honeycomb and cocoa nibs. Sniffing and poking is not appropriate and plain rude. Only purchasing is allowed from this day forth; I can worry about their application later. I must have them.
~ An item is not officially yours until cash has changed hands. The Farmer’s Market Savages (FMS’s) will stop at nothing to secure the perfect radish.

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The other day, we took a long drive through the canyons around Malibu/Topanga up to ear popping altitudes. There are lots of strange little roads that try to hide from traffic up there that are fun to explore. Stopping along the way, we took pictures at dusk when the colors are most vibrant. When I loaded up the pictures, this little number was staring back giving us all a solid case of the creeps. I lightened it a little but that didn’t clear anything up, see what I mean?

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bread is delivered with warm toasted almonds, warm fresh olives and a little shallow dish of sea salt, and butter

Sunday Supper at Lucques is something, if you’re in LA, you have to experience. It’s a set menu and each course is well thought out and lovingly prepared. Not at all stuffy yet still very fine, the flavors are as comforting as they are unexpected. Even if you can’t get in for Sunday Supper, go another night. We asked for a copy of their regular menu and it looks just as wonderful. For example, wild black grouper with long-cooked romano beans, tomato broth, chorizo and a fried egg. How good does that sound! Here’s what they served last week:

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In these parts, the ultimate form of dinner appreciation is to please clean and shatter your plate. Yes, shatter it. Then if you wouldn’t mind, kindly toss your cookies in the parking lot of the Beverly Hilton and call it a night. I don’t know how it’s done in other parts of the world, but that is how we do it here.

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One of Los Angeles’ best kept secrets is the happy little gang that sells flowers outside of a certain 711. And NO, I cannot divulge the location, I already GAVE you a hint. Anyway, they have the freshest, prettiest, most inexpensive flowers in all the land. They come packaged in these humongous bouquets which are so big that from one, I fill every vase in my house and still have plenty of leftover stems for the bathrooms and such.

So, whenever Chris comes home carrying one of these most desirable bundles (which to his maaad flower cred, is all the time), its a big moment here in the Bell house. Me with the ooh!’s and holycow!’s and Max the Hammer and Babaganoosh with their very own pieces that don’t make the cut stashing them all over the house for later use. When all is said and done, our person and our place is totally ensconced in flowers. After we finish doing whatever the hell it is we do, we all collapse in the livingroom totally strung out on nature. Hippies, I sware.

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At Myspace offices shooting the breeze with Chris. Damnit, I need you HERE Chuck Norris! It’s still unclear what type of business he’s conducting there but I do hear that he: a) Counted to infinity – twice. and b) No longer sleeps, he waits.

There are roughly 500,000 people protesting right now in downtown in addition to something filming on my block. All of this has been relentlessly tampering with my daily SOP*.

I work on Saturdays all alone, so when I get restless, I forward the netops phones to my cell and run down to Starbucks on Figueroa. It’s a block down so if anyone calls I just pretend I’m in the datacenter, put them on hold, run back to work and am at my desk computing and at your service licketysplit. Man, today though there is so much going on. After I attended the immigration reform protest, I had to stop and watch some drama unfold on a FOX pilot called Primary.

Which, according to the production crew it’s the riveting story of ‘A pair of hostage negotiators trying to resist their budding attraction to each other while tending to the task at hand.’ Hot! Hot! Hot! Look for me crossing the street some time this season on FOX, I’ll be the one with a bad attitude and a grande sugar-free caramel latte no foam. Please for the love of god, no foam! Peace to the middle east people, I’m exhausted.

*Thats Standard Operation Procedure and I’m using acronyms because I’m at work and thats what us techie types do as much as humanly possible.

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I know virtually *nothing* about what makes a real cowboy tick. I grew up on the east coast and now I live in Los Angeles. The only times I’ve been elsewhere in the states are gas stations and Dennys’ while driving from one coast to another. A few years ago some friends and I noticed an emerging phenomenon in northeastern cities that we called “The Black City Cowboy”, but that was the last I saw or heard of any modernday cowboys untill recently. I know, I know, the Brokeback thing has been blogged to death, and I wouldn’t even mention it, if not for the strapping gents I spent Friday with.

It turns out cowboys do exist, a fine group indeed, and now I’ve seen it first hand. From what I understand, they hunt wild boar with machete-looking knives and blood thirsty dogs that wear kevlar vests and thick wide leather collars (to protect their jugulars, no kidding I saw pictures – lots of them). These cowboy’s hats have the inside rims autographed by tougher, more badass, hardcore-Texas cowboys than themselves and they say things like “up yonder” even when refering to a server row in a datacenter in downtown LA.

When looking for something to do in Hollywood, these cowboys base their activities upon the proximity of Hooters and strip clubs to their target destinations and are not afraid to say so (props?). They chew tobacco, which for the record, is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen (no props!). Their heterosexuality is worn like a badge; it’s part of how they identify themselves in the world. Their smooth ways with the ladies, the bare-handed hunting capabilities, and fancy cowboy boots, belts, and hats. I’m not judgin’, I’m just sayin’.

It should be noted that because of the items outlined above, they do not like Brokeback Mountain jokes. Which is, as expected, totally irresistable to this most opportunist population here in southern California. And understandably so, ain’t often we get them types in these parts – talk about a minority. So please, if you see one in the wild, just don’t go there. It’s completely uncomfortable to everyone within earshot. Specifically, don’t say something like “You are so awesome, I might have to get all Brokeback on you!”. Okay? Just don’t.

Ps. Proir to Friday, I thought it was just people in love with jesus who said things like “God made adam and eve, not adam and steve”, not Cowboys – my ears are still bleeding and I apogize if your eyes are now too. At least nobody went ahead and suggested the Gay Rodeo while they’re in town. I think I would have died of awkwardness right there on the spot, plus I don’t think theres a Hooters nearby anyway.

Pss. I think the reason chewing tobacco is so gross is that when one picks up a cup, our innocent brains think the obvious, a sip will be taken. But instead the cup is spit into, adding to the what you now realize is an already present black slimy refuse in the bottom of the cup. Then you can’t help but think, how sickenning if a sip were to be taken. Oh the horror. The life altering horror.

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{tags santa monica}


{tags happy birthday, i love you.}

I’m about to admit some things publicly that might make you a bit uncomfortable. First of all, every morning I listen to Ryan Seacrest’s radio show which I find highly entertaining. He seriously cracks me up. Secondly, I clip coupons. It’s part of my Sunday morning ritual. I run out for the paper, drink my coffee, and see what I can get virtually free. Yes, virtually free. Because, you see, my local grocery store has double coupons every day of the week. That means anytime I so happen to have a $1.00 off coupon for say, eggs, I get $2.00 off and pay unreasonably low prices for a dozen organic eggs! This is huge people. Sometimes, I save so much money it’s just plain crazy. I get so excited, I call Chris immediatly upon checkout and the phone call goes something like this:

Me: Guess how much my verified total savings was?
Chris: Ok, I’ll play. $35.82?
Me: Higher!
Chris: $42.17?
Me: Wrong, Higher!!!
Chris: Goddamnit woman, just tell me.

The extra cream inside the coupon cupcake (mmm cupcakes) is that once you use a coupon for a single brand, you get another coupon for a competitor’s brand with your reciept. Which means, lest I spell it out for you brainiacs, that once a coupon is used for a particular item like laundry detergent, you will never pay full price for laundry detergent again. I repeat, you’ll never pay full price AGAIN!

If I say coupon one more time the word will melt away into meaningless nonsense, but I must go on. This morning Seacrest of all people was yammering on about how his grocery store was doing away with double coupons and how devastated he was because on Sundays he too goes through the paper with a penny pinching vengence. Thats not all either, there are other more embarrassing commonalities between Ryan Seacrest and me but thats beside the point right now. Or maybe thats exactly the point, who would have thought he and I to be such kindred spirits?

Please enjoy the very real Verified Total Savings Graph for a detailed analysis. Powerpoint presentation available for download upon request.

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