starting with the me in the mirror

i'm starting the body for life challenge tomorrow!

omg. i already took my fat "before" pics and i'm so excited to see if i can actually stick to this long enough to see visible results.

wish me luck, and LUCK.

~~

in other news..

went to breadbar last night to sample "ludo bites." my friend jen is good friends with ludo's wife so I met her there and a few of her friends. sadly, aaron couldn't join us, but i brought him a little treat home and he died a thousand duck fat deaths over it.


anyway, i can't even do it justice in words, it was so much yum. ludo was on top chef masters a few nights ago (crazy french guy) and after watching i was super excited to check it out. and, well, anyway, yum.


ludo bites menu


so.. we tried the following:

heirloom tomato salad red onions feta mousse oregano
king red salmon cubes watermelon mint orange confit seasme oil
shrimp sweet and sour emulsion rosemary*
pork belly pea wasabi passion fruits soy sauce
creamy polenta cantal cheese and oxtail beef
fried chicken in duck fat herns de provence*
marinated grilled hanger steak kobe style yuzu radish white asparagus
cod spiced butter fresh porcini fresh almonds tonnato style
chocolate mousse ganache chantilly*



*the shrimp, fried chicken and chocolate mousse were amazing. everything was great, but those were AMAZING. breadbar doesn't have a liqour license so it was bring your own wine and we indulged in some trader's joes sauv blancs just to balance out the decadence of the french french french food. so so good.

anyway, i think he's there until august so if you have the chance, check it out!!

~~

this weekend is shaping up to be another awesome downtown weekend, complete with rooftop jacuzzi and pool parties and bar hopping adventures. woot.

~~

in reflection of all of the michael jackson madness, i am experiencing extreme nostalgia for a person who USED to bring me so much happiness. i vividly remember purchasing the thriller album and bringing it with me to show & tell and being so obsessed with MJ. i loved making up dances to billie jean and beat it, just like everyone.

over the years i still had mad love, but as his skin colored changed and his actions became more and more bizzarre, i lost respect and came to see him as a shallow, frail shell of himself. and, frankly, for many years, he horrified and disgusted me. but there was always a shroud of mystery, and there was always hope that someday he would get better. i never really wanted to believe he did what they said he did. but he made it nearly impossible not to.

i had the opportunity to visit neverland ranch when he opened it to the public to raise money years ago, and i was stunned by the numerous statues of naked children, and was equally amused and horrified by the alluring nature of all of the whimsical attractions that existed to titillate the desires of young children. ice cream stands, candy dispensers, rides, animals, train that toured the ground. but then there was sad, haunting music coming from the speakers that echoed through the vast empty estate. it was surreal. and it made my heart hurt. for him, for anyone who had been traumtized by his behaviors. the night ended with a weird onstage birthday cake fight between michael jackson, mike tyson and aaron and nick carter. i'll never forget the fans that were CRYING a thousand tears when he threw cake into the crowd and THEY CAUGHT IT. it was like jesus himself had just tossed them wine he had just created from water. truly a sight to behold.



and now as i look back, i feel so sorry for him. the michael jackson that I loved died so long ago. but it's true, the memories i have of how his music affected me growing up will never change. i hope he's resting, finally, in peace.

spicy spicy sweet sweet

before we get started here, let's just put it out there that i ate some REALLY FREAKING HOT SPICY GREEN CURRY just a bit ago and for some moments while i was shoveling it into my piehole, my nose was super, super runny and my throat sort of almost totally closed up a bit due to the XTREME nature of the spicy spice and it was ONLY THEN, that i took pause and thought about the chances that someone could DIE from curry asphyxiation.



what do you think, possible? not possible?



and after i paused, i continued shoveling. because that's just how i do. that's what happens when you subsist on PURE ADRENALINE that you acquired to due the successful nature of your early morning client meeting (wherein your stomach was purring, nay, GROWLING) and then when you get back into the office, you realize that you will be jumping on a conference call RIGHT WHEN rainbow gourmet* shows up in the lobby, and since you didn't plan ahead, you will hear the hunger growls getting louder and then you will be using up all your remaining brain power to formulate intelligent-sounding strings of words that include such words as "preclude" and "amortize" and "metrics" and so on and so forth and you will chuckle to yourself because you will think, hey! is that ME talking? i almost sound SMART. and then the call will end and you will stare at the computer screen. blankly.



but then you will pull it together and order some food and then it will arrive and then you will shovel it and then you will die.





in other news, i am having an internal debate with myself about what i should do tonight: explore the artwalk or watch the lakers game. so far, i think it's going to end up being a hybrid. but i think the night MAY end up at loftseven which is a rooftop with some art and most importantly, a hosted bar and that party rocks well past the regular artwalk hours until midnight o'clock. everything else shuts down at 9ish, which is probably when the lakers game will end. see? it's a dilemma, kinda. because i could just go meet some friends and brave some of the streets by my lonesome, or i could wait for aaron. because that man is a LAKERS WHORE.



anyway.



i have tomorrow off and we are thinking about going to california adventure and using the flip side of our twofer tickets. see, we went to disneyland one day, and we can go to calif adventure another, but it expires next weekend!! zoinks! so we might just zip on over, take a twirl on the TOWER OF TERROR and then zip on back, lickety split.



oh ! before i forget. coolest thing- the wine bar on the corner has implemented a "test kitchen tuesday" wherein they sell potential menu items for $2 to brave testers. this week it was crab cakes and it was the best $2 i ever spent. plus, then, the bartender served us up a bunch of free samples of wines she was going to dump. it was pretty much: SWEET.



this weekend we have the following items on the docket:



- 60-minute massages

- rooftop / poolside yoga

- rooftop / poolside bbq

- exploration of little tokyo

- sushi?

- run

- swim

- california adventure

- hangover: the movie

- hangover: the ruby

- sleep

- sweet sleep







cheers!~







* rainbow gourmet is like, the dude who shows up in our lobby every day with an assortment of breakfast and lunch meals and snacks for sale. rainbow gourmet makes a chinese chicken salad with a dressing that has STRAIGHT UP CRACK in it because i am like a FIEND, a FIEND I SAY and i die when i can't have it because i'm addicted to crack.



which reminds me! i used to have a friend name janine (in junior high, mindya) and we called her JANINE, JANINE THE DICK FIEND. haha. nice friends we were.