A Trip to the DMV for New Plates

Ryan is the constant worrier in this relationship. It's not that I never worry, it's just that I'm picky about the things I choose to worry about. Not Ryan. Nope he can even invent things to worry about. It's one of his many hidden talents.

So Ryan made an appointment for us to visit the DMV. The goals were to get license plates for the Jeep and to get California driver's licenses. For the license plates part your vehicle has to pass a minor inspection, but before even showing up at the DMV your vehicle has to have passes a smog check. We passed the smog check yesterday (that was a whole other bag of nerves for Ryan).

As we sat waiting for the smog check Ryan was so nerved up I had to ask, "What's the worst that could happen?"

His answer was, "It fails."

To which I said, "If it fails we get it fixed, no amount of worrying is going to change the situation from happening and the vehicle is pretty new so I think it's going to be fine and it probably will be and then you'll have done all this worrying for nothing."

"You're probably right," he said.

"I'm always right about you not having to worry," I said.

And the Jeep passed the smog check and Ryan's demeanor had so changed he'd actually become sweet and fun again. However, by the time we woke up this morning his old cranky, worry pants were back on.

The good thing is he made an appointment. This saved us so much time. If you have to go to the DMV make an appointment. It still took us a long while, but I am certain our visit was cut by more than half just by making an appointment.

Everyone was nice, but firm. I'd say they were just a smidge friendlier than their DMV friends in Maine.  Ryan was visibly shaking as he handed the paperwork to one of the tellers. He seemed cool on the outside, but his shakiness made me realize just how nervous he was.

Our new plates. Well, one of them

But as it turned out everything was all right. We paid some money and got our plates. No driver's licenses though - the system was down statewide and there was nothing they could do about it. They didn't know when it would be back up and running - the end of the day, a week, a month, no one was sure. This wasn't a big deal. It'll just be an adventure for another time.

We put the plates on right in the DMV parking lot, probably cause you're supposed to, that and they confiscated our Maine State Registration paper.

Thank God for the tire iron because the penny, and the back end of some tweezers just weren't doing the trick!

California plates at last! See how happy he is? And he was for the rest of the day too.

Ryan was so please with getting our new plates he likened it to have a magic hat or feather because it was the key to blending in he said. "Now we won't look like pesky tourists." (Pesky was my word not his, but I just know that's what he was thinking). For the record no one out on the road has treated us poorly even when we were still rocking our Maine plates. In fact the only folks that have ever treated us like tourists are the guys who hang out on Hollywood Boulevard and want us to take a Hollywood Sightseeing Tour.

So it's official - our vehicle lives in California :)

Beard Papa Cream Puffs

Hollywood is gearing up for Christmas! Ryan and I walked down Hollywood Boulevard and happened upon a few of our favorite stores -Like Sweets. This time we spotted a funny little sign about Henways and I had a good laugh (literally out loud)! You have know idea how much fun my uncles had playing this joke on folks. And we fell for it over and over and over again. And the funny thing is the joke never gets old.

See that little framed sign on the counter? That reads Henway!

So they were setting up some kind of Christmas hooplah in front of where they film Jimmy Kimmel Live. I don't think any of it had to do with Jimmy Kimmel though. Hollywood Boulevard after Highland was closed off. I don't know how long it was like that for, but there was some strong lighting and bleachers decorated like Christmas cheer.

This evening we went to Beard Papa. I wasn't sure what it was, but Ryan spotted it on the directory in the shopping plaza by Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was insistent that we go.

It took some work to find it, but really it was under our nose the whole time. This is in part to our wonderful sense of direction, and mall map reading skills!

I'm not a huge cream puff fan, but I was game.

I'll have to say I was impressed. They were big though!

 


They offered a variety of flavors - Vanilla, Chocolate, Eclair, Dulce de Leche, I think there was a strawberry kind too. I got the Dulce de Leche cause I'm a sucker for caramel. Ryan got the good old fashioned vanilla.

This summed up our evening.

Thanksgiving - West Coast Style

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! And yes I was the person who thought people in Cali didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. Here I was, under the grand disillusionment that only in the land of Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock did folks celebrate the holiday of turkey and yummy sides.

Of course when I said this out loud I kinda stated it with a question mark. I wasn't totally convinced and then Ryan mentioned Black Friday, and because I know that's a nationwide event I knew Thanksgiving was also. Then I remembered writing a column about the history of Thanksgiving for a newspaper I had worked for. How could I be so silly? However, in my defense I will say a long long time ago Thanksgiving was only celebrated in New England - long before it became a national holiday.

Ryan confessed it's his favorite holiday and I have to agree. It's nice to sit with your family and enjoy a fabulous meal. No fuss!

So I've never cooked a turkey before, or made stuffing, or gravy. First our turkey was still frozen on the inside and I had to fill a ziplock bag with hot water and put it inside the turkey. I waited for the water to cool and then I'd refill the ziplock bag and repeat. By the third time I did this the turkey was ready.

I made the stuffing in the meantime. I sauteed some celery, onions and apples and added some bread cubes and voila, that was ready to go. When the turkey was thaw I stuffed it and slapped it all in the oven.

I even made some Clean Eating maple glazed carrots, and some mashed potatoes.

We forgot to buy gravy so I googled how to make some, and managed to make some pretty good gravy too.

This is technically the first Thanksgiving Ryan and I have celebrated together. Last year I celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving with his fabulous family, but unfortunately Ryan was working. But he did make it at the end of the night.

So this Thanksgiving was really special. We had the whole day together. We started by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade even though it pains me so to look at Matt Lauer's evil mug! After we watched a televised dog show and looked for the miniature schnauzer. Abbey watched too!

Ryan and Abbey watching the dog show. 

Ryan buzzed around the turkey like the father in A Christmas Story, which was totally adorable and very funny. He helped with clean up and while things cooked we put up our Christmas tree.

Already a present for Ryan under the tree :)

Unfortunately Ryan's ornaments did not make the trip with us because we had limited space in our moving pod.  So we picked up new ornaments, and garland and stuff.

There are lots of colorful and sparkly bulbs on the tree. We got some old fashioned looking type bulbs. Four boxes of different kinds and colors of candy canes.

I got a sparkly cupcake ornament from the candy shop and you may notice the little three eyed red monster dangling from the bottom of the tree on the left side. That ornament is dedicated to our beloved monster Abbey.

We talked to our families, which was really nice. It's not quite the same as being surrounded by your family, but it's still nice to hear from our loved ones back home. There isn't a moment that goes by that I don't think of all of you.

When dinner was ready Ryan said he'd never carved a turkey before. I hadn't either, and it's not like we have a stunning cutlery set or anything. He did the very best he could and as it turns out that was just fine.



Dinner was truly good, and in honor of our Mom on the east coast we did say out loud the things we were thankful for and completed it with an Amen

Ryan posed with dinner and we got a picture of his plate. He is truly thankful for Thanksgiving.








And even Abbey had her own little Thanksgiving feast. I topped her kibble with turkey and gravy - she was beside herself, but was a really good girl waiting patiently and turning all her tricks to win her supper.

Abbey at first sat, and then laid down (which you can see to the photo on the top and to the left). Then she did her "leave it" trick (above photo to the right). Such a good girl. She wolfed it down in such a way you'd think we never feed the more thing. She's such a ham!!!

Lastly, I made an apple pie and it was divine. (And Dad, this time the crust didn't fall off all over the oven)! We finished the day eating pie and watching the Spike Lee documentary on Michael Jackson's making of Bad.

mmmmm....Apple pie :)

Finis!

At last the Cinerama Dome

I didn't even know what a Cinerama Dome was, much less that there was one in Los Angeles. Furthermore I hadn't even realized that the Arclight Hollywood theater was home to the Cinerama Dome. Imagine that? And Ryan had been talking about this place for some time.

A Cinerama Dome is a theater designed to show widescreen, 70mm Cinerama films. What's so great about 70mm you ask? Well I asked too - it has a higher resolution than the standard 35mm film. Essentially it has a wider film gauge and from what I understand you can fit a lot more image on 70mm film and most theaters aren't equipped to show movies shot with 70mm film.

70mm illustration

Actual 70mm film. Can you even resist that lion?

So instead they show the same movies but in 35mm, which leads me to believe that you may be missing some of the scenery in the shots cause they must be cut off. Kinda like the difference between standard television in the 1980s and when the letterbox format first came out and everyone hated it! But then once we all knew better we loved it right out loud and I couldn't even imagine watching a movie on an old fashioned standard television screen.

What's incredible about the Cinedome here in Hollywood is it's the first one of its kind ever built, and it opened its doors on November 7, 1963 to moviegoers. The first movie shown here was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In fact when Ryan and I made our first visit to the theater a man sitting behind us was telling his friend that he had come to this very theater to see that movie. He also went on to say that Neil Young took him to see 2001: Space Odyssey in San Francisco, then continued boasting about being Dennis Hopper's voice coach or something like that. He was talking so loud I was sure his stories were for the benefit of all us. Egos!

In 1998 the Cinedome in Hollywood was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. I am guessing this means the domed theater is safe from destruction, but at one time there had been talk about doing just that. Thankfully preservationists and movie goers alike made their opinions known loud and clear and so for people like me who never even heard of a Cinerama Dome can now go and appreciate one.

Another neat tid bit of information is the Cineramic Dome films us three projectors to cast the image on the screen. (I know! I still can't even wrap my head around how that might work).

Well, Ryan and I went to see Life of Pi and it was beautiful. Visually it was marvelous. It was shown in 3D, but the 3D was so subtle I forgot it was even in 3D.

But it was magic to look at. The colors were vibrant, vivid, and sometimes breathtaking. And the movie is so much more than a tale about a shipwrecked boy who must survive on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

I urge folks to see it. It is a really deep story, but is told in such a simple way. I think that's part of the magic that makes the movie so profound.

I don't want to say much more about it than that. I don't want to spoil it, or ruin anyone else's interpretations of it.

But there is a huge "aha" at the end, and then if you think about that "aha" for a little while longer you can see how the story becomes a metaphor on more than one level. Very well done.

Apart from the movie, the seats were comfy. The screen was large and curved. It was not a flat screen, instead it curled like a piece of elbow macaroni - kind of bowed. The acoustics were great, and overall I had no complaints. It's kind of like a tamed down IMAX. The screen was 86 feet long.

This is the concept of the screen, but it doesn't seem that annoying in person. It's actually really quite nice

Courtesy of Arclight- this is a picture of the Cinerama Dome inside.

The Magic Pharmacy I Didn't Understand

Ryan and I thought because we live in such an old building and in such an old town it would be fun to play with an Ouija Board only we can't find one. Imagine that! We're in one of the nation's largest cities and cannot find a good old fashioned Parker Brothers Ouija Board. Perhaps we're not looking hard enought and a trip to WalMart is in store.

Matters of the occult mildly interest both of us, and since Ryan got this cool book of case studies on American exorcisms between 1965-1974 we've been talking ghosts, and hauntings and other experiences we've had or heard about.

I had a friend in college and I used to mess with him real bad. We'd get all liquored up and he'd want to play with his Ouija Board. I'd make the Ouija Board say all kinds of spooky stuff and he'd be stricken with fear to the point that his face had gone through several color changes. Then I would out myself as the prankster and he'd feel so let down. But, when you're safe it's so much fun to be scared.

We talked about a well-known husband-and-wife team who worked as, let's say, ghost hunters, for lack of a better term. Ed and Lorraine Warren were there names, and apparently they made an appearance to the university Ryan attended. They had haunted items and stories to share. Lorraine is a self proclaimed clairvoyant, and Ed a demonologist.

Ryan told me about a haunted doll they brought with them. It was encased and anyone's touching it was strictly forbidden. The doll allegedly harbors some pretty bad energy, and as Ryan heard the Warrens say - a group of boys at one of their appearances touched the doll despite being told not too. Either they thought they were being funny, or didn't believe and were making a mockery of the whole thing, but they touched the doll and after the event they died in a car wreck on their way home. Since then they have kept this doll in a case. Guaranteeing everyone's safety. And now it's on display in the Warrens' Occult Museum.

Here's the thing about all that haunted, voodoo, ghostly, ghastly stuff. I don't know how much I believe in it, but I don't know that it's worth messing with. I do believe in energy, and I do believe in good and evil. I think in an ideal situation good overcomes evil, but even though I live in Hollywood I know that's not the ending every thing and situation gets.

I don't believe in the Ouija Board, but I have been told some pretty creepy stories and I've been wrong about a lot of things before. I know I don't have to believe in order for some things to be true.

So all this brings me to tell you all about this pharmacy downtown. Ryan somehow heard about it. He knows about a lot of cool things as it turns out. A write-up online about this pharmacy revealed that it was a little bit aspirin, hair dye, shampoo, and a little bit potions, candles, herbs, and oils. It was all so true.

I don't know that the pharmacy had another name other than just pharmacy. And everything was written in Spanish, and my Spanish just wasn't good enough to put everything together.

There was some money soap, and some "Be Successful" oil, there were a few concoctions that kept there were so many candles, and bags of herbs. They had teas, and statues. I didn't even dare take a picture because I did not know what I would have been taking a picture of, but it was some kind of shrine to some kind of spirit, or saint, or demon, I have no clue.

Oils

Soaps

Herbs

Statues

I wanted desperately to ask more questions about the store. Questions about why people come in, and do they really believe in the magic that these potions, and oils, and herbs make claim to. I wanted to know who the shrine was to. I couldn't read the Spanish above the entrance into the shrine. I wanted to know who if anyone this magic worked for. I wanted to know if there was energy in that store. It was interesting enough without knowing the answers to all my questions, but I don't think we'll be visiting again anytime soon.

We stopped at the Grand Central Market for lunch. We had some seriously authentic Mexican. It was quite yummy and very much picture worthy.

Grand Central Market - Half grocer, half food court

Ryan had the beef burrito, it was huge and unconquerable

I had the chicken taco with mild salsa - quite delightfu

The Grove and My First Celeb Sighting!

After yesterday's romp to The Last Bookstore downtown I had a mad hankering to hit a large corporate bookstore like Barnes & Noble. We did just that. Mapping out our location we found the nearest Barnes & Noble located at The Grove in West Hollywood.

First we made our way into this enormous, well-lit parking garage. If you want to know just how big this was let me just say that two lanes of traffic turn right into it as if the facility were a road itself. Needless to say there was no difficulty find a parking spot, and a couple of children we ran to the edge of the parking garage to get a look at The Grove below us. It was just like a quaint little village. It was already dressed like Christmas. I'm sure that factored into its quaintness.

The straight down view of The Grove. You can just barely see the fountain in this picture, but to either side are these sweet little restaurants where in November you can still eat outside and eat.

The devilishly handsome Ryan and the tops of buildings in The Grove  in the background.

Our first stop was to Barnes & Noble, which had three sweet floors of book selection. Otherwise it was pretty much your run of the mill big box bookstore. It was so much fun to look through the books.  Ryan found some books that had these very cool vintage reissue covers. He bought an HG Wells collection, and Dantes' Divine Comedy. I got a blank book for my yearly New Year Resolutions/365 days of gratitude writings, and I got a 2013 Planner. I sure hope the world doesn't come to a screeching halt by year's end - I have 2013 plans man!!!

We walked around and really the place is a lot like a closer Freeport (Freeport, ME that is). The way it differs from Freeport is there is no traffic, but there are a lot of people and a lot of shops. I got to walk into my very first, very real Anthropologie store. Before this I could only do my drooling online, and they're so damn expensive I have to either sell organs or wait for someone to surrender a purchase to ebay - where I can scoop it  up for much less than the original cost. I actually like that there is an Anthropologie store in town. Now I can go try things on to make sure I really really do like them. My dress at graduation this past summer was an Anthro dress my fabulous hubby got me.

It was a beauty. I haven't worn it since, but when the time is right I will haul it back out of the closet and put it on again.

Oh and I wish you all could see the back. It's lace. It's lovely.

All dresses aside though...Anthropologie was a nice little visit, and I don't think there were many other places we actually walked into to check out. But like I said there were a lot of retail stores here.

We did sneak into the farmer's market area. I'm not sure what this area looks like on Sundays when the farmer's market is in full effect, but on this given day it was like a food court with many vendors to select from. The choices were all good I am sure, but Ryan and I went with the BBQ you couldn't help but smell upon first walking through. This was some really, really good BBQ.

Such a good guy. He'll always pose if I ask.

No Joke - Best BBQ ever!

This was my yummy lunch. And if I remember correctly it was beef brisket and macaroni and cheese. It was something worth writing home about ;)

This is what Ryan had. (Sorry, the iPhone doesn't do close ups unless I jumped in Ryan's lap to get a proper picture, but that could have been awkward). Ryan had some kind of shredded beef BBQ with cheese, and he had macaroni and cheese too.

After lunch we had some homemade ice cream, which was also really good. And while we sat and ate our ice cream we just watched people walking by. I'm an avid people watcher. I love it. Well, while we were sitting there talking I noticed two men with microphones and someone who looked a lot like Mario Lopez. I told Ryan. I wasn't sure if it was really him or not, but I was fairly certain.

For those of you don't know who Mario Lopez is he was on the show Saved By The Bell. He played AJ Slater. So I wasn't really sure if I could count that as my first celebrity sighting? Not because it was only Mario Lopez, but because I wasn't sure if it was really him.

So Ryan and I walked around some more. We noticed there was a movie theater in The Grove and some tabloid journalism show was taping stuff in the middle of everything and people were standing around to watch. I took Ryan's picture with the Christmas tree, and Santa Claus and his eight tiny reindeer.

Ryan at The Grove amongst all the Christmas festivities

         The Cheesecake Factory                                                             The Movie Theater

Then we were accosted by a salesmen with a great accent and a penchant for making folks' nails shiny with a four-sided nail buffer. He told me to choose the nail I liked the least. I guess I never thought of such a thing before so I quickly picked one and he buffed away and it looked like a sheet of glass. Quite impressive, but what I could not impress upon him is how I don't give a "bleep" about my nails and do not paint them and do not mess with them and let them grow when they mind their business, but just the second one gets out of line and breaks then they all get cut short. Here's the thing about nail polish - I can't stand chipped polish. One needs to keep up with these things, and I just don't have the time or interest to keep on top of keeping my nails perfect.

Now even after that whole spiel he was still trying to sell us this buffer with a collection of lotions and oils and stuff. Finally he just let us go with his sales card. $60 for a nail buffer and hand lotion and cuticle oil I will never use is way out of my price range. We fled to the Gap, stood in the entrance for about 10 seconds and decided it was time to go home.

On our way out we saw ole Mario Lopez again. Talking on his cell phone. He looked right our way and this time I was certain it was him. I'm impressed at how young he looks considering he has to be pretty old - well 40 at least. Let me google it... OK he's 39.

Mario under the BE in BELL

I thought I'd get a surge of adrenaline from seeing a celebrity at least, but it was nothing like that. It was just like oh, there goes Mario Lopez...I think?

Mario Lopez nowadays

Later Ryan confirmed that he is a host of the show Extra, and that would have been the tabloid journalism show that was filming in The Grove that day.

The Last Bookstore - That's Really Its Name & It's Book Lover's Paradise

Today was a nice lazy Sunday and we've spent the past few days discussing bookstores and noting that we would like to visit one or too. We thought about a place called Book Soup, but I've had visions of something more along the lines of Barnes & Noble, or something like what used to be Borders. Then Ryan mention The Last Bookstore. Sold!

Store window - Quite classy

We took the Metro downtown. We're pretty all right at doing that so far, and we stopped at the Pershing Square station. From there it was only a few blocks down.

Prior to our arrival I had no clue what this bookstore would be like, only that Ryan was certain that it was going to be great. What I suspect attracted Ryan to this particular bookstore was their huge selection of vinyl. This is where he headed to first, and I was in fiction looking for the likes of Toni Morrison, Alice Hoffman, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and other things.

The selection is huge, and it's mostly all used books. I didn't notice the new books until we were on our way out. It is safe to say that a majority of the books sold here our used.

We didn't get to visit the second floor because we were bound to the first floor by the books we were carrying around with the plan of purchasing. Unfortunately there were no first floor books allowed on the second floor. I'm sure this must have been some security/loss prevention tactic, and I understand. We didn't go upstairs. But I did see what I thought was yarn, and I suspect it was hand dyed as well.

A few noteworthy things about The Last Bookstore - the selection is really good for a used bookstore; the store is spacious and well-organized; there are plenty of helpful people available to answer questions; the prices are so unbelievably reasonable (hands down this place is a great deal); and last but not least there is some really great original artwork involving books in here - as in books as sculpture, it's quite neat.

God I love this place. Books are art in more way than one.

This is the store counter/registers. Pretty unique huh?

I purchased

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Local Girls by Alice Hoffman

Lucky by Alice Sebold

&

Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants by Jill Soloway

Ryan Purchased

Hostage to the Devil by Malachi Martin

My First Movie Edited by Stephen Lowenstein

&

Five Christmas Novels by Charles Dickens