My cousin from LA went surfing in SD this weekend, so she stayed at my sister’s last night. We walked to this KBBQ place nearby, partly because she loves KBBQ, but mostly because she loves to get her steps in (@ Sura Korean BBQ)
Whenever people compliment me on my perfectly pulled soft serve, I tell them it’s because I used to work at Mcdonald’s when I was 16🍦It’s just one of my many skillz 😜
When I went to the Dodgers/Padres game, I mused aloud, ‘There’s a guy named ‘Mookie’ (Betts) on the Dodgers. That’s a weird name.’ My phone must’ve been listening to me, because this popped up on my feed today. Is ‘Mookie’ a common name in baseball? I googled it and both players had different government names, but chose ‘Mookie’ as a nickname.
One time, we had a computer glitch at work, and everyone’s email reverted to their government names. Mine stayed the same because I use my government name (Marion) at work, but our print producer Nick Nickerson’s name changed on his email. I was like, ‘Wait, Nick isn’t his real name? He chose to be called Nick Nickerson???’ We also had a guy named ‘Robert Roberts’ at my first job when I was fifteen. Did he choose to be called that, too? Did he know I’d be blogging about it 27 years later? 😅 (Yes, I was fifteen 27 years ago. Do the horrifying math).
I found this Airbnb in Canada that has Highland cows on the property.
Nori’s been to Scotland, but she didn’t get to see any Highland cows (they’re from the Scottish Highlands) while she was there. I found some places in North America you can see these cute hairy cows, and then I went down the google rabbit hole wondering if they slaughter them here.
I love BBQ (smoked beef ribs are my favorite), and now I feel like I have to ask what kind of cow I’m eating at restaurants like in Portlandia 😅
As a rule, I don’t eat baby animals (lamb, veal or suckling anything)—just adult animals who have lived a full life LOL. And now I have to add Highland cows (at any age) to that list 😆
Get you a work bestie who makes you shrimp ceviche, and a work bestie’s mom who makes you nopales (cactus) salad 🦐🌵 Yes, I was good and ate it with grain-free tortilla chips, and yes, I’m pretty sure I was Mexican in another life.
I put my Etsy shop on hold after the stroke, because making sales and mailing shit out was the last thing on my mind. When Chel saw my Halloween decor and found out I made the door hanger on my Cricut, she was like, ‘You should sell these!’ I fucking should, huh? There’s gotta be other disturbed people out there 😈
My cousin’s birthday is coming up, and she and my sister both did so much for me after my stroke, so I treated us all out to our first football game at SoFi Stadium, VIP style ✨
Did I just meet my future husband? 😜
Garoppolo is the new Rams’ backup QB, so he was suited up, but didn’t get to play at all, and McCaffrey (my cousin’s favorite Niner) wasn’t even there because he’s been out with a calf injury since the season started. Oh, well. We were there for the 50-yard line club seats and complimentary food and beer at The Gallagher Club!
The guy at the tri-tip station saw me holding my plate of nachos, so he cubed up the meat and put it on top of my nachos without me having to say anything. I love this silent understanding between me and the tri-tip guy 😂
They not like us
AJ Mclean of Backstreet Boys was at the game, so they featured him on the jumbotron when they did stadium karaoke to I Want It That Way. Lebron James, Dalton Knecht and Chuck Lidell were also at the game.
The Niners were leading up until the final two seconds when the Rams scored a field goal and won. It was such a good game!
Partly because parking was $100, but mostly because our tickets came with free alcohol, we just uber’d there. It was impossible to get a rideshare after the game, so we took the bus (my first in LA!) out of traffic to the last stop in Playa del Rey, and took a 15-minute uber home from there.
We had reservations to go to Pizzeria Bianco in DTLA for my birthday last year, and I texted my cousin who also lives in Redondo and was like, “I don’t think I can make it. I had a stroke and I’m in the hospital.” 😅
We ate at the one in Phoenix when we were there for the inaugural Innings Fest, and were so stoked to hear that they were expanding to LA. We finally got to go and it was just as good as I remember it being 🍕 Now if only they’d open a Cornish Pasty Co in LA so we could get our PB&J pasty fix!
Pammie ordered Goblin Snot (an iced matcha with white chocolate cream) and I got Phoenix Tears (passionfruit and mango sparkling refresher with lemonade topped with edible gitter). Phoenix Tears have immense healing powers (according to Harry Potter Wiki) ✨
The cafe was cute, but my sister has better Harry Potter decor in her house 😆 They could definitely work on their marketing and branding. Our iced cups, for example, should have stickers with their logo on it. ‘Snot’ and ‘Tears’ were just scribbled on our cups with a sharpie 😅 My graphic designer eyes are very judgy 👀
The news of Dave Grohl came out that he had a baby outside his marriage. It’s unfortunate for his wife and kids, but it doesn’t make me like the Foo Fighters’ music any less. I think The Strokes frontman, Julian Casablancas, is a total asshole (I’ve been to a couple of their shows where he proved it by walking off the stage early), but I still love The Strokes’ music and his side project band, The Voidz.
I’m not completely forgiving, though. I don’t listen to R. Kelly or Diddy’s music anymore 😅
Said I know that it’s somebody’s birthday tonight somewhere
And I know somebody’s gonna celebrate tonight somewhere
My birthdays haven’t been the same since R. Kelly was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2022 😅
me: When did we go to that Foo Fighters show in Phoenix? Last year? Pammie: No, two years ago. We didn’t go to Innings Fest last year. me: Why didn’t we go last year? Pammie: Because you had a stroke! me: Oh, yeah 😅
Frozen pierogies from the ‘Meals for One’ section at Target are my new guilty pleasure. Just kidding (they aren’t in the ‘Meals for One’ section. Just because I could eat all of them by myself in one sitting doesn’t mean it’s a single serving 😅).
My sister lives in the ‘burbs, so I felt relatively safe walking around her neighborhood by myself in San Diego. When I walk around my apartment in LA, though, I bring my pepper spray and box cutter and wear my Dodgers hat 😅
A few years ago, my new neighbor hung a letter and bag of candy on everyone’s door introducing himself and his dog to the building. I remember throwing away the candy and thinking, ‘This is LA, man. We don’t do that here.’ LOL. I still don’t remember his name, but his frenchie’s name was Stella 😆
When I made the door hanger on my Cricut, I asked Pammie if she could help me weed it (the vinyl stickers). She was like, ‘I’m already disturbed. Please come in.’ I was like, ‘I know what it says… I said, ‘WEED’ it. Not read it.’ LMAO. I know I sound like a baby sometimes after having the stroke, but I haven’t developed an Elmer Fudd speech impediment. I can say ‘read’ 🤣
Anyway, I hope my Halloween decor thrills all my gentlemen callers doordash delivery guys 💀🖤
I was woken up today by an earthquake in Malibu. I just went back to sleep, partly because it was 4:22 in the morning, but mostly because the earthquake was only 3.6 (when it comes to earthquakes and boys, I only get up for a 6 or above 😆).
I had to use the stove last night, so I moved my new air fryer toaster oven from on top of the stove to on top of the fridge and pushed the glass canisters of sugar and flour to the edge. ‘They’ll be fine up here as long as there isn’t an earthquake,’ I thought.
This reminds me of the time I moved out of my apartment in La Mesa. Shi and I set my bed frame on its side to see if I could get it out of my bedroom without having to break it down. After finding out it could fit through the door in one piece, we left it propped up against the wall.
This is the conversation that followed:
me: Aren’t you gonna help me put the bed frame back down? Shi: Just leave it. It’ll be easier to move tomorrow. me: What if it falls on me while I’m sleeping? Shi: It’s NOT going to fall on you! me: But what if there’s an earthquake? Shi: There’s not going to be a damn earthquake, crazy!
Can you guess what woke me up the next morning? I survived the earthquake, obvi… no thanks to you, Shirley May!
I had just eaten my breakfast sandwich and was going to go on a walk to get my steps in and get some iced coffee. Pammie was gonna come with me, but she kept forgetting shit (her sunglasses, her keys) and the house is 4 floors, so I just waited downstairs while she kept going up and down for whatever she forgot. I wear a continuous glucose monitor, and it alerted me that my glucose levels were low. They’ve never actually been low when it has alerted me before, it usually happens when I put a new device in (every 10 days), and I just have to test my blood and recalibrate it and it’s fine. This time, though, I was sweating (even though the A/C was on in the house) and I felt off, so I tested my blood and my glucose levels were really low. Good thing I start getting ready for Halloween in July, so I had candy on hand 😆 I ate some and felt way better! I walked to Casa de Otay for iced coffee after and didn’t even break a sweat (I hardly ever sweat, so that also tipped me off that something was wrong earlier).
I have a continuous glucose monitor device that alerts me on my phone if my levels are too low or too high, but there are service dogs who are trained to also alert you. I ignore my phone notifs all the time, but I would never ignore a puppy 😆
Just a friendly reminder to listen to your body! 🙃
There were a lot of call backs to the original film, so I loved it. I feel like if you weren’t a fan of the first movie, you wouldn’t like this weird ass sequel.
For those who asked about the shirt I wore to the theater (literally no one), yes, I designed it on my Cricut, and yes, it glows in the dark 🖤💚
No one commenting on my shirt reminded me of last Halloween when Jess helped me carve a Beetlejuice pumpkin, and Christine thought we were carving Albert Einstein 🤣
Just before my stroke, I was gifted an Our Place Perfect Pot. I forgot how nice it was to cook with quality nonstick pans. My sister has a fancy gourmet kitchen, complete with two KitchenAid ovens, a KitchenAid stove, KitchenAid dishwasher, KitchenAid fridge, KitchenAid wine cellar, and a huge quartz waterfall island (she bought the biggest model home), but, like our mother, she doesn’t cook 😆 Her husband cooks sometimes, but he either uses the gas grill on the rooftop, the pans he got for free from the casino LOL, or what’s left of the Calphalon cookware set we won nearly 15 years ago on Ellen DeGeneres’ 12 Days of Giveaways!
I’m like the jambalaya fairy, because I made extra for Nori & Sachi, Pammie & Dennis, Christine & Francis. Many have eaten my food, few have died. Just kidding. (Not that many people have eaten my food.)
I meal prepped so I don’t fall into old habits (doordashing breakfast and dinner everyday and spending a gazillion dollars on food 😅). I still go out to lunch with Nori during the week, though (a bunch of new restos opened in the south bay while I was gone, and I have to try them all).
It was Nori’s dog Kona’s birthday over the weekend, so I brought her some toys. She loved them all, especially the piñata stuffie 🥰
Nori’s icon status at Nordstrom, so she invited me to join her for a complimentary dinner at Ruscello. We were treated like celebrities LOL!
We were able to find primo parking at South Coast Plaza with my handicap placard, and her mom and sister were like, ‘You’re invited to go out with us anytime!” 😆
Her mom gave me one of her long ass shoe horns when she saw me struggling to put on my shoes 😅 They make slipping on my Vans a breeze 👵🏻
I was gonna buy a new oven a few years ago, because the one in my apartment is tiny and electric. But since I was in the market for an air fryer, I got this Breville Air Fryer Toaster Oven combo. I have zero counter space, though (the kitchen in my studio is smaller than my bathroom at my sister’s house LOL), so I have to set it on top of my oven 😅
The first thing I made in it was a personal pizza.
The power turned off a few times in the 15 minutes it took to cook the pizza, and I had to flip the switch in the circuit breaker a couple times. It probably couldn’t handle the A/C and oven on at the same time, but I was like, ‘Come on… Don’t make me choose between A/C and pizza.’ 😅
Yes, that’s turkey pepperoni and yes, I know I need to calm down on the olives 😜
Jessie sent us this pic of baby boy at his first Padres game. He wears a little helmet to gently shape his head, and Jess found a place that customizes cranial bands, so she got him a Padres wrap 🤎💛
File under: Reasons I’d want a child (there are very few LOL).
I doordashed breakfast from Urth Caffe this morning—an iced Spanish latte and a Sunrise Pizza. The poached egg that came on top of the breakfast pizza was way overcooked again (the yolk was cooked all the way through!). I went to Urth with Nori for lunch before, and I ordered the same thing. I was like, ‘Get this shot, Nori’ before I cut into my poached egg expecting a runny yolk, but the egg was cooked solid LOL.
I love a good breakfast pizza, and my favorite one is from Big Sur Bakery (I just saw it burned down a few months ago!). I still ate the pizza without the solid ass egg 😜
Another time, I was at brunch with Jessie and we both ordered chilaquiles, but I ordered my eggs ‘over easy’ while she ordered hers ‘over medium’. I was like, ‘WTF is over medium?’ She was like, ‘Where they flip the egg, but the yolk is still runny.’ I was like, ‘Isn’t that over easy?’ She was all, ‘Don’t they not flip it when it’s over easy?’ I was like, ‘Nah, that’s sunny side up.’ She was like, ‘Let’s see how they come out.’ We got our order and our eggs were cooked the same 😂 Apparently, they don’t know the difference between over easy and over medium at La Sabrosita, either!
Here are some helpful charts:
Update: Jessie studied abroad in Spain and is married to a Mexican guy, but she’s the whitest Asian we know 😆
While I was away, they opened a Salt & Straw in Manhattan Beach and a Magnolia Bakery ghost kitchen in Torrance, all within doordashable distance to my apartment. This does not bode well for my blood glucose levels. Or my waistline 😅
And if you have a minute, why don’t we go Talk about it somewhere only we know? This could be the end of everything So why don’t we go somewhere only we know?
Keane – Everybody’s Changing
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game I try to stay awake and remember my name But everybody’s changing and I don’t feel the same
Keane – A Bad Dream
And when will I meet my end? In a better time you could be my friend I wake up, it’s a bad dream No one on my side I was fighting But I just feel too tired to be fighting Guess I’m not the fighting kind Wouldn’t mind it If you were by my side But you’re long gone Yeah, you’re long gone now
Keane – We Might as Well Be Strangers
I don’t know your thoughts these days We’re strangers in an empty space I don’t understand your heart It’s easier to be apart We might as well be strangers in another town We might as well be living in another town We might as well We might as well We might as well be strangers
Keane at The Greek and street dogs. It doesn’t get more LA than this!
Thank you Nori and Sachi for making my first day back so amazing 🥰
I bought this portable A/C unit during the Great Heat Wave of 2022, and it’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made (to be fair, I’ve made a lot of bad decisions).
Me: Look, that guy’s wearing a cape! Pammie: That’s not a cape, it’s a robe. Me: Well, that other guy’s wearing an actual robe *points at guy wearing a bath robe* LOL
As Rob Riggle commentated before they started, ‘My heart’s on Kobayashi, but my money’s on Chestnut!’ 🤣 I knew Joey was gonna win, but I felt bad for Kobayashi and the crying Japanese fans in the audience 😅
The last time I had sangria slushies was at Las Hadas downtown after a Padres game, and Christine was also with me and reminded me of some very bad decisions I made that night 😅 We also ran into Pammie’s brother-in-law that same night and he told her his now infamous line, ‘Tell your sister she was sloppy.’ Although some knee-dropping chismé came out during brunch, none of it had to do with me this time 😆 Ask me again in 10 years 😅
This brunch was way overdue. We were supposed to get together when I came back from Spain, but I caught Covid. Then we rescheduled, but Pammie caught Covid in Vegas. We’re all healthy now, but work has been stressing us all out while Shi’s over here starting a book club at her work 🤣
I suggested Flama Llama because I saw it on instagram. I love llamas, so liking these fuckers fucked up my algorithm 😆
Everything was so amazing and flavorful. I’ve had Peruvian food before, but this was exceptional. Just ask Shi (she ordered 4 entrees LOL).
