Philly

I've been looking forward to going to the national APA conference all year long. For a moment there it looked like my spot might be taken by my boss, but thankfully, I'm back on the list. So flight and hotel are booked and registration is now paid. Only a month and a half to go before I'm in Philly...

Collegiate

I've adopted rooting interests in Cal for college sports. I've already got plenty of blue and after years of Angel heartbreak, can stomach the losing. Got off to a proper start on Saturday seeing USC fans go crazy as they blew out the Cal basketball team at the new Galen Center.

Now Playing: Hang Me Up To Dry ~Cold War Kids

Home Remedy

I've woken up with a pretty bad sore throat. My favorite home remedy is hot honey lemon tea, and it isn't some placebo effect either. From Wikipedia:

Honey has long been used for treating sore throats due to its antiseptic properties.

Warm tea (true or herbal) or soup can help temporarily alleviate the pain of a sore throat.

Raw juice of lemon or lime may help destroy bacteria in bacteria-related throat infections.

No mention of mac and cheese though.

February: The Big Nowhere

The last hundred pages finish with a rampage. I can't stop. I knew it would happen and when it does, Ellroy sinks it to a lower hell than I expected. From that point, it is a race to the end to see which bastard wins, if any.

I'm in month two and I'm thinking 50-50 this is the best book I read all year.

Bookish

Last night I started on my new Dallas Willard book. Many thanks to Gary Lam for the thoughtful gift. Lord knows why I don't own all of Willard yet.

New Pin

I just got a small red pin commending the fact that I have over 400 hours of 100% sick leave.

And I have 523 to be exact.

Downtown Progress

The LA Times updates us on how downtown is doing. According to a report from the local BID, things are good: the population is growing, the median income is getting higher ($99,600!), and everyone is excited about LA Live and Grand Avenue.

Curbed LA says it all with this pithy blog title, Surprise: Downtown is Yuppies.

Instead...

I'm not going to get into my long wonderful weekend. Instead, I'll post some powerpoint slides that were presented last week.

And here is an article covering the speech.

Happy New Year

Especially to all you pigs. My flickr has some new sets too.

Spoiled

Four day weekend! I've been averaging 50 hour work weeks (like a normal private sector employee) lately, so I'm quite happy about my four days off. Plus I'm already all booked up!

Morning Routine

My normal morning routine is to have half a cup of heavily creamed coffee, check my work and personal email and follow up with a few LA-centric blogs. I then take a peek at the paper. I check the sports page, read up on real estate trends... and Dilbert! I'm frightened how much I get live it.

Grand Ave.

This big LA project moves along smoothly via unanimous City Council vote. The 3.6 million square feet of development, new park, and other streetscape and open space improvements include two translucent glass residential towers (designed by Gehry, who else?) - all located around the area between the Disney Concert Hall and Cathedral of our lady of the Angels. See the master plan.

I always waver between building roots in the South Bay, Downtown, or the San Gabriel Valley. Lately, I'm liking the center of town. Good momentum on Grand Ave. doesn't hurt either.

Downtown Sunday

It rained Sunday morning, so the clouds were moving fast under a beautiful hue of blue when we took our trip downtown. The Skin and Bones exhibit was alright, but I'll admit that I enjoyed the architecture elements much more than the fashion - and I love fashion! (Perhaps I have a slight distaste for the high concept stuff.) Still, I know multiple friends who loved the show so I'll have to talk to them and see it through their eyes.

We went from Bunker Hill to the Disney Concert Hall garden, across the street to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, up to the top of City Hall and back down the hill to Little Tokyo. Quite a nice tour if I do say so myself. At the cathedral, we caught the last bit of mass; it was the first time I have seen it full of worshipers... people chatting, others not following directions, still others waiting in line to kiss the statue of Jesus. It was very real. The day had hiccups of course - Sushi Gen is closed on Sunday - but conveyor belt sushi saved the day.

Blue Velvet

The work week wrapped up with me patching together a powerpoint presentation for the boss. It was touch and go and I'll be doing more of it today I'm sure. Work also slid into the weekend (rare for me) when I presented before a yacht club on Saturday morning.

Friday night, I went to a new dig near Loyola law school just outside downtown called Blue Velvet. It didn't have blue or velvet and certainly had no connection to Mr. Lynch. We celebrated my producer/writer cousin's birthday with drinks and dinner followed by more drinks. Albeit very tasty, super small portions among the old and rich or the young and hip isn't my thing anymore but I did have an incredible specialty drink called 'Early Van Halen'. And the best thing about the entire place had to be the industrial modern unisex bathroom.

More on the weekend later.

I Knew It!

From the liner notes for The Radio Dept. Pet Grief:

But tell your DJ friend to pitch it up, put on Pet Shop Boys' Being Boring video, muted, and you see how lovely it would have been.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Makarios

I had previous posted about a friend who was having some thyroid trouble. I'm happy to update that she has just had a truly miraculous recovery! Most striking is how she handled the issue -- not only in stride, but as a catalyst for becoming a better, happier person. It is a testament to her strength of character and blessedness from above.

Books and Music

I've gotten into the habit of purchasing a cd along with my book of the month. While Swedish pop like The Legends doesn't seem like it would mix with the 1950's Los Angeles noir of The Big Nowhere, it still works.

Basketball Update

My lunchtime game has resorted to me being glad to get good exercise (also known as I'm getting schooled on the courts).

It isn't that I'm necessarily playing too poorly. The competition is just better. In a way, that's worse because I was never that good to begin with. Haha. But hey, it was good exercise! And who cares? I have more important things to be happy about.

To Do

I'm not sure exactly sure what this is but it sure sounds fun: Sim River (via Downtown News).

The Gallery 727 site doesn't seem to have much info yet but I'll keep checking.

Catching My Eye

Famima is everywhere. Looks like Beard Papa's and Pinkberry are also in expansion mode. I seem to see a new one everywhere I go!

Weekend Recap

Perhaps one of the best weekends in quite a while!

Friday:

Took care of the kids for a churchy group. That night, the best way to calm them down was reading Curious George stories. We kept going to the well and read four total.

Saturday:

LA-APA retreat. I'm on board for another year. It's going to be exciting; LA is hosting the 2008 CA Conference. We'll be in Hollywood.

Griffith Park Observatory was a big hit. While it is a pain to get up there, they do provide amusing promotional videos on a bio-diesel bus. The renovations are top notch and the Planetarium show was quite polished. Saw Saturn through telescopes but spectacular views of city lights awed me the most.

Sunday:

Church. Series on the Sermon on the Mount continues. Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy got a plug which of course pleased me to no end.

Superbowl Party. Thanks to Jason who hosted with chilidogs and nachos. The game was alright. The commercials weren't. Some of my friends were disturbed by Prince, but I dunno. That guy is alright with me.

Dream

I was glad to start my weekend at around 6pm yesterday but ended up dreaming about California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis anyway. In my dream, I had to wrap up the analysis and then search the world for elusive environmental agencies to submit the document to.

With the superbowl and everything, it is going to be even busier than usual. Looking forward to it...

Resolution Update

Book club is reading The Big Nowhere for February.