Happy Valentine's Day!
It's been a while since I posted...over a year. How time flies...The Grammy's were ridiculous and amazing, again. Thanks to Mikey & Rebecca, I was able to go this year, and am *hoping* I'll get to go for the next three February's... until I hit the ripe old age of 35, after which point I'll no longer be a viable Grammy's girl candidate. Let's start with...
**PRE-GRAMMY'S**
The weekend activities leading up to the Gram's were the bomb. We got in late Friday night and stopped by
Bandera, Eric's celebrity-attracting restaurant (
http://www.hillstone.com/#/restaurants/bandera/). We crashed at his palace, which is just around the corner. It's not only massive, comfortable, and awesome, but also filled with atypical culinary delights. With ingredients like Xantham Gum & Umami Paste, I think Eric's kitchen is as diametrically opposed to
Epic Meal Time as you can get (
http://www.epicmealtime.com). ("Sauce Bauce!""fifteen teen burgers!"... Jilly, you hit the jackpot with this find!).
Our first morning there, I cruised to Starbucks... but found myself popping into
Tanner's Coffee instead (
http://www.yelp.com/biz/tanners-coffee-co-los-angeles), a cute, colorful cafe. I also passed a handful of Santa Monica Blvd. thrift shops and zipped into Council Thrift, which I couldn't resist. It supports the
National Council of Jewish Women (
http://www.ncjwla.org/). I almost bought a $10 Frank Sinatra colorized photograph for Mikey, but thought better of it. He looked slightly creepy. I also almost bought a John Derian plate, but when the brightly dressed woman working there pointed to the fern's Latin Name and said "look! the designer's name is on it" in attempts to get me to purchase, I decided better of it. Instead I bought a $3 Time Magazine from the 50's. Though missing 20 pages, it features various articles on the founding of Israel, including a great big Golda Meir picture. Love. I snapped up a few random pictures from that walk, shown here (artsy fartsy / Mexican food / LA-ness / oh my)!
Also that morning, Jilly arrived + Barbara & Phil drove up for the weekend. We met up with them for a delish lunch at Houston's near the 3rd Street Promenade (mmm...sushi, salad, french fries...). They've been attending the Jewish Film Festival in San Diego, and they raved about
Deaf Jam (
http://www.deafjam.org/index.html) -- dying to see this. After lunch, they headed to the movie "Safe House," which is one I can say with 100% certainty I will not be watching. While they movied, Mikey, Jilly & I met up for coffee with SCU buddy John Sharkey! It was a terrific Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf reunion. He's doing awesomely well, working at Warner Brothers, and we look forward to meeting his wife (who is no doubt amazing) one of these days. We shared stories, including talks about our fave shows & have added "Castle" to our must-watch TV list.
That evening we spent some quality couch time at Eric's with sports and Hawaii photos to entertain ourselves. We then dined at the delicious
Hop Li (
http://www.hoplirestaurant.com/). Not to be confused with Hop Louie, an LA establishment that Mikey pointed out was featured in
I Love You Man (
http://www.iloveyouman.com/). The food was to die for, and the service was...like nothing we'd ever experienced. We completed the evening with a trip to Baskin-Robbins, and chillin by the electric fireplace at Eric's. After Mike's parents left, we attempted to watch the Hangover II, but there was little success in that endeavor...nap time prevailed. Eric then got home from work & kicked it with M&J while I scuttled around prepping my stuff for the Gram's. Finally we turned off the fire, and off to bed we went.
Sunday AM Barbara came over and brought with her some chocolate chip challah, OMG HOLLA!!!! We hung out for a bit while I showed her even more Hawaii photos, and then off to Cheesecake Factory (CF) we went and met up with Phil with his groovy sea foam green polo top. With the mahoosive menu selection (now including a Skinnylicious menu), we all found stuff that tickled our fancy. There was some drama with fire trucks arriving (we think someone fainted), we couldn't help but notice the caveman-looking fellow sitting outside, the Asian Chicken Salad I got came with salad but no chicken, and we played Barbara & Jill's game "5 items on an island". One of my favorite parts of the meal was when special rainbows were cast on Jilly's face (sun reflecting off CF mirrors & Phil's glasses, acting like prisms). Anuienuie fun! After our meal, I presto-change-o'd into my yellow Grammy's attire, and then we were off like a prom dress to the Gram's.
It was sad to say goodbye to the Altfest crew (and of course Sami was missed, Ms. Emery-nian!), but we have more fun March & April adventures ahead.
