Cooking Casualty

I wanted to break in our new kitchen before I start work next Monday, so I invited Ashley and her two roommates over for dinner last night. I decided to make salad, ribs and apple pie - since we don't have a grill yet I made the ribs by first boiling them (to cook them) and then putting them in the oven (to crisp them up) which means that (between the ribs and the pie) I also got to try out the oven for the first time and I am happy to report that it worked out very nicely for me. In fact, I was pretty impressed with how well all the cooking went, the hardest part was finding bowls big enough to make the filling for the pie and to put the salad in (note to self: we need a couple big bowls). The best part about cooking with all of our new stuff was realizing what a difference it makes when you have sharp knives... I never really had any standard to compare the knives I've cooked with before against but I do now and it is going to be hard to settle for anything less. Unfortunately, I got careless while cutting up tomatoes for the salad and almost ended up with a trip to the emergency room. I got distracted and somehow managed to cut the webbing between my pinky and ring finger - don't ask me how I did it, all I know is that one second I'm cutting tomatoes, and the next I look down and I can see muscle... shit. I was more pissed at the prospect of missing dinner (which smelled amazing) than how much it was going to suck to brave the traffic and sit in an ER for 8 hours. Lucky for me I had 5 nurses in the apartment (including an ER nurse) so we made the executive decision that if the bleeding stopped by the time we were done eating I didn't need stitches. So I wrapped it in a paper towel, applied pressure and enjoyed my ribs one-handed. The bleeding did eventually stop and the cut had even partially closed by the time I was done with my pie and ice cream. It still hurt when I woke up this morning, but at least it was closed - it doesn't even look that gruesome in the pictures so you will just have to believe me when I tell you that it was gaping and gushing last night ;)
from above:

from the back of my hand:

from the palm of my hand:

JB Hair

I say it is the 24th but I meant the 21st... don't judge.

New Jack City

I led you astray in my last post, I said we were rock climbing in New Jack City when I should have said we were rock climbing at New Jack City which is actually in Barstow. Well, we were not exactly in Barstow but that is the closest town to the middle-of-nowhere that we spent the weekend in ;)  We (Naro and I, whom I met volunteering at 'Reading to Kids') left Los Angeles Friday afternoon around 4pm knowing we would hit a bit of traffic but hoping to avoid the worst of it - we were not successful.  Let me preface this explanation by saying that the first thing you think of when you hear someone say 'Los Angeles' should not be movie stars or the beach or the Hollywood sign - Los Angeles has all of these things of course but they are not everywhere, you do not see/deal with them everyday, they do not really affect you in any way.  Instead, the first thing that should come to your mind when you are doing word association with 'Los Angeles' is 'traffic'.  I will admit I was warned about this, but nothing can really prepare you for the bumper to bumper until you are sitting in the middle of it... I wouldn't put our congestion on par with New York City but we are close enough for it to be a pretty much all-inclusive issue every day in every part of this gigantic city.  That being said, you can avoid the worst of it by being smart: take back roads, don't travel during rush hour, STAY AWAY FROM THE HIGHWAYS.  Now lets go back to my first topic, we left town via a highway at the start of rush hour.  Idiots.  Add to this the fact that it was the start of a three-day-weekend and that there is only one way to get to Barstow and that happens to be the same way you get to Las Vegas (look at the map I posted, A: my apartment, B: Barstow, C: Las Vegas), and you end up with a trip that usually takes two and a half hours taking about five. After a few bathroom breaks and a gas stop and we rolled into Barstow around 10pm Friday night.  Instead of rushing out to our camping spot (New Jack City) to set up a tent in the dark, we decided to stop at the bar in Barstow (it is a tiny town, they only have one bar) to wind down and do a little dancing. By the time we finally got out to New Jack City we were exhausted and decided that sleeping under the stars sounded like a better idea than fighting with a tent so out came the sleeping pads, sleeping bags and the extra layers and we called it a night. It was pitch black so I had no idea what to expect as far as our surroundings were concerned, the next morning I un-cinched my mummy sleeping bag to find myself in the middle of the high desert in a huge, natural rock amphitheater... it was very cool. Here is a picture to help to help you get a better idea of what I am talking about. Picture the whole area from above as a letter "C" made of rock with us driving into the middle of the "C" through the opening and camping out in there. I took this picture after climbing to the top of the rocks opposite the opening in the "C" so you are looking down at the camp and out through the opening of the "C" with rocks on either side. There is a website called MeetUp that connects people with similar interests in similar geographic areas. The group we met up with at New Jack City was actually composed of three smaller groups combined for a coordinated weekend climbing trip.











The only rock-climbing specific gear I brought was a pair of climbing shoes that I picked up on sale at REI before we left L.A. Naro had an extra harness that he let me use and then, once we got out on the rocks, the more experienced climbers who had their own gear (like ropes and carabiners) would set up a route and then let other people try it out. If you were a newbie (like me) the more experienced climbers were willing to talk you through everything from how to tie into the harness, to how to belay other climbers. There were about 30 people who showed up with our group, we all camped out Saturday night and had a bonfire and potluck dinner and then climbed again on Sunday. I met a ton of cool people from L.A., San Diego and Las Vegas and I learned about another group, the Outdoors Club that plans all kinds of outdoor trips around Southern California. All in all (once we got past the traffic ordeal) I would have to say that it was a pretty great weekend .This is me belaying... I posted a bunch more pictures on shutterfly.

Winter Days in NY

Here is some footage of some typical days at our house in these very cold Winter Days. We are missing Paige, but her mark is now all over this place and the "signs" of Paige will be here for years to come....from Jessie to the path to ice skating bruises. We still think about you all the time Paige. And I'm loving our Imovie program!

Coming Along

Kayla's dad arrived Tuesday night from North Dakota in a UHaul (which he packed in -30 degree weather) full of the rest of Kayla's belongings and furniture that her grandmother gave us for the apartment. This (combined with the fact that my last two boxes arrived in the mail yesterday) makes me feel like we have now officially moved to L.A. Thanks to Kayla's grandmother, we are now proud owners of a stylish floral print couch and two lovely, emerald green, velveteen chairs. While relaxing on our newly acquired furniture, we can enjoy a movie on Kayla's television (no TV shows yet since we don't have cable and haven't managed to acquire a set of rabbit ears) or we can take the scholarly route and choose to read a book that can be stored on our new bookcase (thanks Mr. Reynolds). We also no longer need to eat meals sitting on the floor or standing in the kitchen, instead we will be enjoying them at our dining room table! Hopefully, as of this coming Monday, we will also have the option of eating on our porch - I will be meeting with a lady who is moving and wants to offload an outdoor table and four chairs for $50 (I love craigslist). Our kitchen is also coming along nicely, we now have a mixer, toaster oven, microwave and a George Foreman Grill. I called the gas company and had the gas turned on so our stove and oven now work, however we are going to have to invest in an oven thermometer so that we know what temperature we are cooking things at, since apparently the the company that made our stove (25 years ago) didn't think that 'current oven temperature' was an important feature. I did not manage to find myself a desk this week but I commandeered two extraneous end tables and a cooler (from the UHaul stash) so I am no longer sitting on the floor. You can also see from this picture that I put up two maps of L.A. on my wall (now it really feels like a command center) with the hope that someday I will be able to make it around town without the Garmin. I got the maps from AAA while I was exchanging my Florida plates for California plates and I also stopped by the DMV this week to get my California drivers license. I don't actually have the physical license yet (they mail it to you) but I have a temporary version on a sheet of paper which was all I needed to get my local library card! I also made my first official foray onto the UCLA campus Monday, for my immunization review and physical, and to sign my new hire paperwork - it has been a busy week! I'm leaving this afternoon for a weekend of camping and rock-climbing in New Jack City with a couple people I met at the 'Reading to Kids' thing last weekend so hopefully I will have some good pictures to put up next week :)

Golden Glory

Laura is studying abroad this semester in Sweden and she is making a valiant effort to keep us all informed of her travels through her very own blog! This is why we are friends. Here is a picture of her on her new bike:

She named her steed 'Golden Glory' and it has inspired me to start keeping an eye out for a bike in L.A., I didn't realized how much I missed my beach cruiser!

Week 2

I am closing in on two weeks here in L.A. and it has yet to disappoint! This past weekend I met up with one of dad's friends, Mark May. Mark was in New York a couple months ago and came up to dad and Julie's for dinner one night. During the course of dinner it came out that I was about to make the move to L.A. (where Mark lives) and he said that if I like kids (yes) and I like reading (yes) I should look into this group he was involved in called 'Reading to Kids' (clever name). Reading to Kids is a grassroots organization dedicated to inspiring children with a love of reading. To this end, Reading to Kids gathers children and volunteers at seven Los Angeles elementary schools on the second Saturday of every month for reading clubs. So this past Saturday I showed up at Los Angeles Elementary (again, clever name) and got paired with another volunteer and we took turns reading 'Trouble According to Humphrey' aloud to our kids! Afterwards, the volunteers from all the different schools met at a local restaurant for lunch. I met up with Mark at the restaurant (he was volunteering at a different school than me that morning) and he introduced me to a couple other volunteers, including a fellow Gator who told me about the local Gator sports bar! On my way back to the apartment I decided to take advantage of being so close to actual downtown L.A. (this place is huge) and drive around a bit. While driving I stumbled upon the annual Los Angeles Chinese Golden Dragon Parade celebrating the start of the Chinese New Year, it was too nice of a day not to stop - plus I needed to fill my parade quota after missing Gasparilla this year - so I got myself a beer, found a spot in the sun and watched as the Grand Marshall, Mickey Mouse, rode by (it is the year of the Rat), followed closely by dragons, fireworks, high-school bands, giant anime mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the "Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Queen and Court' - I got a picture of this for you Laura ;) It was about 85 degrees and I kept seeing people walk by in those traditional chinese straw hats (you know what I am talking about, they come to a point at the top of your head) and I decided that I needed one, not only to get me in the mood of the parade, but to protect me from the sun, functional yet fashionable...











On Sunday, I took care of furniture need # 1: bed, check. Kayla helped me lash it to the top of the Pathfinder but we did a pretty pitiful job, good thing we only had to move it a couple blocks:
Our apartment is still pretty empty, Kayla's dad is currently in transit with a U-Haul full of furniture for us from her grandmother's house and he should be arriving sometime Tuesday night. My top priority this week is a desk since my room currently looks like the mobile command center for the delta task force:

Orange and Blue

It turns out that the Gator Nation is everywhere... check out this orange and blue sunset from our balcony last night :)
On another note... I spent all this time learning about different kinds of internet service providers (we've decided, for now, that whatever TV shows we want to see we can watch online) only to arrive in the apartment and find that one of our not-so-tech-savvy neighbors has an unprotected wireless network! I actually think that it might be a nearby coffee shop or some other type of small business because the name of the wireless network is "GetOff" which would lead me to believe that they are aware of the fact that other people can access it - whatever, I'm already a pirate when it comes to downloading music and movies... why not add internet service to the list?

The 1606

Julie and Jeff at Citywalk

Jeff and I went to Naples for a Hospital Board conference. We spent about 4 days working hard...at the conference. Well Jeff worked hard, I worked at the pool and at the spa. Then we went to Orlando for a different type of fun. We went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and to Epcot and to Citywalk. However...we forgot to take pictures the whole time! Then,  Paige called and we knew we had to  make up for the week during our last night there So, we took lots of photos at Citywalk. Our clothes sort of give it away that all the photos were done in one day - but at least we're keeping our promise to Paige to keep posting on the blog!

HPN to LAX

I MADE IT!!! I arrived Wednesday and met Ashley at the airport - she was flying back from a trip to Atlanta. One of her roommates picked us up and within the hour we had been back to their apartment, changed and were out at a club... this is going to be very different from Stormville :)  Yesterday I met my new landlady to sign my lease - I forgot to take my camera inside (I was nervous, I've never done this before!) but here are a couple pictures from the street.
Ours is that top front one with the big balcony, it faces west so we are going to get some nice sunsets!
My roommate, Kayla, has been in L.A. since the 21st but she flew up to San Francisco for the weekend so I won't get to meet her until she gets back on Sunday. My car and all of my possessions are still in transit so I am staying with Ashley and her roommates until Kayla gets back and/or my car arrives. Here is a map so you can get an idea of our location: 'A' corresponds to UCLA Medical Center (where I will be working and where Britney Spears currently calls home) 'B' corresponds to UCLA Santa Monica (where Kayla will be working) 'C' is Ashley's apartment and 'D' is my new apartment! There will be more pictures up as soon as we start moving in and as soon as we figure out our internet...