Toast comes out of hiding now and then.

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Cheddar is helping.

• Work.
• Had a birthday.
• Went to Ciudad to celebrate.
• Read some books.
• Work.
• Listened to some music.
• Visited an art gallery.
• And a museum.
• More work.

You?

A rainbow of sweeteners from brunch at Bottega Louie.

Three day weekend.

Not that I’m doing anything particularly exciting, but it’s always nice to look forward to an extra day off.  I’m planning to try some new baking (if it cools off), go see a movie or two, and kick around downtown.

DnA tribute to Julius Shulman.

This was a couple of months ago, after the architectural photographer died at the age of 98, but I just listened to the podcast this morning. I’ve been thinking about inspiration and motivation for the past few days, and doing what you are passionate about.  I find the story of a man who immersed himself in his art and craft until almost 100 years of age inspiring.

My parking garage.

The parking garage for our apartment building is also the parking for Grand Central Market.  It’s a really good garage: it is regularly cleaned, constantly patrolled by security, and 11 floors high.  The thing that makes me happy about it is the fruit paintings to indicate each floor.   We usually park on peach (10) and the door to the apartment building is on banana (3).  It makes me smile to twist my way down past pineapple, kiwi, apple, and coconut on my way to the street and on to work.

Röyksopp ‘Happy Up Here’

I danced around to this song as I got ready for work this morning, making the inevitable a little more fun.

I found a recipe from Food Network from Alton Brown.  The ice cream turned out fantastic, very creamy and avocadoy, and a lovely color of pale green.  I highly recommend it after a meal of spicy Mexican food.   The week before I made the ice cream, Rick Bayless made an avocado ice cream as part of the penultimate episode of Top Chef Masters.  He used liquid nitrogen.  I didn’t have any of that on hand, so I used an ordinary ice cream maker.

• Renegade Craft Fair (Bought some cards and a pretty pair of earrings.)
  
• Obon Festival at the Senshuji Soto Mission (we wanted to go to the festival at the Nishi Hongwanji Temple, but they didn’t get started until later in the afternoon.  We happened by the other festival around the block while looking for somewhere to eat.  I love LA.)
• Bastille Day Festival in Exposition Park (Other than the food, not very French.  The waiter races were sadly disappointing)
• Cold ramen at Mr. Ramen in Little Tokyo
• New Harry Potter movie (it’s quite good)
• Bought some delicious peaches and other fruit at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market

Once I found the ingredients, it was easy to make and the finished product was a big hit with the boys.  They pointed out the parts that they wanted; they especially liked the colored blocks that cleared the white part like jiggly green and red icebergs.

Spring clean the apartment.
Continue BrownieFest2009
Spend time with the Finnish branch of the family, currently visiting LA.
Organize files from work and at home.
Go to the LACMA & a couple other galleries.
Buy frames for more of my tinyshowcase and other prints.
Go for a long walk through LA.
Read a bunch of books and write reviews.
Other interesting and delightful things I could write about here.

What I ended up doing:

Laying on the couch with a box of tissue and cough drops, watching The Rockford Files.

I did go and see my brother and family before succumbing to a cold.  It is the first time I’ve met my youngest nephew, and I haven’t seen the twins since they were two.  It was lovely to catch up.

P.S.  I love the Rockford Files so much.  Jim Rockford rolls around in that gold Firebird with a mini-printing press so he can make his own business cards on the fly.