I count the tasting menu I did here a couple of years ago the best meal in my life. Ever since then, I had been anxiously waiting for Batali to open a place in L.A. It was wonderful meal (see… (via Scotto B. on Yelp)

When I heard Batali was coming to town nearly two years ago, I could not wait. So, it was so gratifying to finally be able to sit down and just experience what was sure to be an amazing night.

We… (via Scotto B. on Yelp)

Maybe because I already love the W hotels but this one could not have been any more perfect.

Note this review is for the bar only.

I loved how huge the Whiskey Blue lounge was. There was seating… (via Scotto B. on Yelp)

I just can’t bring myself to like Motherlode. I think the drinks suck and the last time we went, they charged $18 for one cape cod and one bottle of water. Unless there was some freakin’ Stoli Elit… (via Scotto B. on Yelp)

+1 Decor- very dark browns and reds
+1 service- everything we asked for was answered with a pleasant “absolutely”
+1 food
+1 easy parking

My friend put me in charge of finding a great place to take… (via Scotto B. on Yelp)

I couldn’t bear another night of take-out from Sha Sha Cafe (which is good but not every week) nor driving to sucktastic Burbank so I mentioned Solar de Cahuenga as a possibility. Isn’t it funny that… (via Scotto B. on Yelp)

Still too hot to do much of anything out and about in the Crisco soup-like atmosphere, so we opted to take in lunch at the Sbarro’s in the Annapolis Mall and then hit a movie. Who knows why we woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday, but it gave us a solid head start.

We finally caught the Simpsons Movie on the big screen… I was surprised – it was a lot better than I was expecting… pretty solid TV episode from back when it was funny. We only saw 3 bits that would make it warrant a PG-13 rating – an instance of nudity, a curse word (or two) and some drinking / drug use. I could see them showing all of it after 10pm on network tv unedited, or without those three instances any time at all.

On the way home, we noticed that ATW has changed the sign again, as the search for “the man” continues. (atw is now a tag just for my ease of searching the story thread and pictures, now.)

Click to view larger

ATW NEWSROOM
‘THE MAN’
BOOT RECOVERED
FINGERS POINTED
Police say ‘NO Statement – NO case’
Meanwhile, Man Sightings run rampant
Psychic to be called.

It was a good thing we caught an early show as the later part of the day was comprised of –

BHK Birthday Part II: Electric boogaloo!

Party at Tina’s place… Mexican food! Both Meat and veggie protein varieties – Tina’s not a big carnivore, either. Matt (her new boy) seems like a nice enough fellow and I hope they have maximum fun / minimum glum together. He’s certainly more social and generally conversational than DR or W. Dessert was yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing, compared favorably to yesterday’s lemon cake with lemon icing. Added bonus, BHK’s mom didn’t absent-mindedly start slurping the frosting off of the removed candles like last night, rather than giving them to the b’day girl to taste.

Aside from Tina and Matt, Adam, Jimmy, Louise, Chris and Larry all made it to celebrate. We fit pretty comfortably at Tina’s townhouse… I wasn’t sure if we’d all be able to manage, but it worked out quite well.

BHK’s Loot received:

from Louise : Necklace and bracelet of multi-colored pearls.
from Tina : A pair of Peridot Earrings / Hello Kitty purse (which looks like ms. kitty is making a gesture I’m sure wasn’t intentional)
from Larry & Chris – Red Coral necklace and Earrings / and some lovely crockery
from Danny – A swell looking green-stoned ring in gold. (and he got Tina some yellow-stoned earrings, too!)
from my Mom and Wilt – Turquoise and silver necklace, Halloween Snow globe, a little cornucopia and a really lovely card.
from me – a lot of knickknacks – Grease & Grease 2, a pair of pink pseudo-crocks, some stripy socks that mismatch/match, a pink headband with little jolly rogers, bath scrubbie, black cat bowl, a green wire basket, some fuzzy slippers and a gift cert to scalped.

I’m the only person that didn’t get her any jewelry… she told me specifically *not* to get her any. Now, I understand why.

May’ve recruited Adam and Jimmy into a parlor game night. Who knows, maybe they’ll lure Kendall and Amanda into it, too, and we’ll have a big night of it sometime!

I don’t know if Matt is into parlor games… I do know he digs the Redskins and is willing to put up with chick flicks. come to think of it, I don’t know for sure if Tina is interested in boardgames or not… I suspect that she, like the in-laws aren’t really into abstract games. Louise is a good candidate, but is harder to reel in to a date or time than the teens. The last time we saw her was her birthday, about 6 weeks ago.

Poor Danny has students in his classes now – he’s back to running the Sci-fi club, and is incorporating Pirates into the after school program. I should send him a bucket of heroclix or mage knight commons/doubles as a donation. He really liked the Superhero stamps and Lord of the Rings Risk game we shot off to him a little while back.

1 year ago – back from an all too brief visit, nose buttering, bunny suicides, events of the day, liberty city psp homebrew hack, jojo the cannibal kid, maple cookies, folks, met Adam / Future In-laws

2 years ago – power out phone post, hurricane katrina aftermath pictures (and Newt), Bro out, Techs unavailable

3 years ago – BK heads north, random visit to a 2001 entry, behavior variances, quiet-please

4 years ago – sleep schedule, zombie game (poor thing aborted), monkey helpers, first lost child.

5 years ago – Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

6 years ago – that piercing woman , lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

7 years ago – Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

A brief summary: BHK’s Birthday!

I managed to butter her nose by sneaking caches of a dollop in the nightstand (on a plate), and then by instilling enough paranoia in her to make looking for it in there ridiculous. A year ago today, I proposed to her – more a gift to myself, or us both. I’m happy that she said yes.

We visited the bayfest from about 11:30 to 1:30… got home before we both spontaneously combusted. We quite enjoyed the fest, and it’s sort of a shame that it’ll be the last one. (Or at least, there are no plans for more in the immediate future, anyhow.)

Items consumed:

• Funnel Cake.
• Kettle Corn
• Egg Rolls
• Orangeade
• Water, lots of Water.

Items of note – toothless man gumming a hot dog and beer

BHK bought me a classic 60’s style Spider-man lunch box for 50¢ – good find.

Very cute but brief parade of:

• a fire truck
• a local celebrity I don’t know
• 7 men in fuzzy admiral’s hats
• several little girls with pom-poms
• several kids in gi uniforms, swinging shiny golden nun-chucks
• a stilt-walker in a Frankenstein costume about 10 feet tall.

On the way home we stopped in at a storefront spa that recently surfaced – it might be a place for BHK to visit to redeem her birthday “beauty coupon” I put a hand made thing in there for whatever she wants to do at Scalped, but it’s totally transferable.

After we recovered from the heat (drank a lot of cold drinks once inside, we realized that there were no soft pretzels at the fair, but we did have some in the freezer, so we continued the fair-food experience in the comfort of our air conditioned living room by consuming pretzels and remaining kettle corn while watching Ace of Cakes… we didn’t have any energy to do much more than that, despite the highly event-filled weekend here. Due to the heat, we skipped the local B.I.G. book sale at the tobacco warehouse, the opening of the Ren-fest (not a problem, it runs for 9 weekends!), and totally forgot about the Greek fest until late in the evening. It was simply too effin’ hot.

Once the sun turned the heat back a notch, we headed over to the in-laws for Chinese Food, a little present-opening and viewing of one of BHK’s presents… Grease and Grease 2… the heat turned into storms, so we had to shut off the tube and a/c for a bit at their house, but aside from that, it was a pleasant evening… Louise made it over, too!

We headed back right before the end of Grease two – BHK and I were both tuckered out, and were fairly sleeping through the video.

Tomorrow, we have a birthday party at Tina’s place!

You are the Hanged Man

Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.

With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of loss from a situation, rather than gain.

The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. You make yourself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. You see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

1 year ago – robo-post while I’m on vaykay with BHK, dragonfly-kitty pic

2 years ago – google talk, web-surfing, Katrina, Robertson apologizes, v05-blueberry, medieval career, book meme, palm doodle, weather, power-out phone post

3 years ago – bag lady update, Twilight Zone: Planet of the Apes

4 years ago – got bro a Ganesh, (but I skipped the digeridoo), law and order coloring book, first day at new gig as good server king of the south, gabbed with mi Hala re: jhumkas and moonstones, and happy thoughts of working with her, Shal’weez.

5 years ago – heroclix improvised weapons, deadly toys, poemtag

6 years ago – pirate joke, selectivity, amor, warning label poll

7 years ago – aliens operate on my body, rhymes, colors, stevie

119 years ago – A plant grows in Mexteca, Mexico, which the natives call the “herb of prophecy.” A dose of it produces sleep similar in all respects to the hypnotic state. The subject answers with closed eyes all questions that are put to him, and is completely insensible. The pathologic state brings with it a kind of prophetic gift and doublesight. Furthermore he loses his will and is completely under the control of another. On returning to himself he remembers nothing of what he has done. –Excelsior Cottager, August 25, 1888
(via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)