after heating, after eating
(lean cuisine trays)

for those who fly

This blog article tells you how and when to catch low airfares for that person, place, or thing you need to get to (or get away from).

http://wcco.com/terriblog/local_blogentry_143232007.html

(thanks mom for sending me this link!)

May Gray

Currently it is May Gray and perpetually overcast and it has thrown a little seasonal-affective-disorder my way. I sleep more and my energy is flat instead of fat but even without sunshine I am still on honeymoon with San Diego. Steph and I sort of crashed a friend of a friend's birthday party tonight at LEI Lounge and the piece of cake I got out of it was so worth it...yeah, cake soaked in condensed milk w/vanilla and coconut and I also got to take a generously sized piece home! As I walked home via the alley some big dogs barked at me under a shadowy porch. I considered the sad scenario of having to throw cake at them in order to save myself but I wondered, could i bring myself to do it? Fortunately they were not loose and here i am, at home w/cake!

Queensland Bottle Tree

from the Balboa Park Cactus Garden

The Cartoon Block

Since I collected this block in Anaheim less than a mile from Disneyland I'm calling it the cartoon block.

Padres v. Reds

I attended my first ever Padres game last night and sat 13 rows behind home plate! - thanks to my boss and Mayer Reprographics of San Diego for the tickets! Petco Park is a great stadium to see a game in with great seats everywhere but not-so-great dogs (see SoCal Hot Dog Report below).

Top 3 Hot Dogs in Southern California
1. Getty Center: served hot with a panoramic LA view.
2. Costco: inexpensive and sauerkraut available upon request!
3. Ikea: straightforward no messing around.

Worst Hot Dogs in Southern California
1. Petco Stadium: underwhelming, undersized and served lukewarm.

*gabriela is single

Saw this flower in the Getty Garden, thought about it all day, drew it immediately after work, got permanent marker on the wall and ruined another piece of clothing.
(Arch Size E, Permanent Marker)

Los Angeles, Getty Center, LACMA

Checking out the Getty Museum (photos)

Art weekend in LA is not for the casual museum goer. You have to get up at 6:30am on a Saturday to beat L.A. traffic, drive 2.5 hours without a rest stop, walk for 4 hours, avoid falling off balconies, share your hot dog and soda, eat at Mel's on Sunset Blvd and then do it again the next day. Both the Getty and LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) were fantastic and bigger and better than I imagined. The Getty's most interesting exhibit was "Oudry's Painted Menagerie"large scale oil paintings of exotic animals done in the 1730's by Jean Baptiste Oudry. And at LACMA I was totally blown away by the light compositions of Dan Flavin. I'd seen them as individual works in other museums before but as a full composition they're an immersive visual experience. When you go from one piece to another your vision literally changes and your color perception begins to do cartwheels. At one point as we went from one room to another I thought the lobby was pink. Then I looked away for a few moments, looked back, and the lobby was white.

trouble in paradise

Here's a big MUCHOS GRACIAS to my friend Pippi who told me about 20 times that I should go hiking at Torrey Pines State Reserve. I finally went and it was BeeeeeeEEEEEEEuuuUUUUutiful!!!!! I hiked for two hours along the cliffs, watched the waves below, smelled flowers and laughed at lizards running into the brush. The beach below looked so inviting that I returned the next morning for a 6:45am run. The ocean breeze was calming and the stones on the sand were very zen-like and placed zen-like thoughts in my head which I will expound upon later. Anyway, it was a perfect run. However, I can barely walk today. I wish somebody would have warned me that running in paradise messes up 97% of the muscles in one's rear area. I had an important meeting today and it took a gargantuan effort not to waddle in like a duck. Running on the beach in the style of Baywatch will have to be something I work up to.

We Have a Theory

the idea builds and separates the chest bone,

unfailingly more emphatic, it means

you stop and stare this time.