Beau

 Or as D likes to call him "Beau-nus," "Mr. Beau Jangles," or "Beau-sers."  Our neighbor has a delightful Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mixed dog that we watched over for a week earlier this month. Subsequently, D and I have fallen absolutely in love with him.  Besides being an incredibly sweet, bright, and silly dog, Beau just happens to be the perfect kind of dog for D and me. I'll explain more in a minute, but check out a couple pics I snapped of him while he was staying with us. 

Loungin' Beau

Camera-shy Beau

 Isn't he adorable?!  He's an avid outdoorsman and enjoys chasing after anything remotely shaped like a ball.  However, brand new tennis balls seem to be his favorite. There were a couple nights that we actually had to, excuse the term, hide his balls, because he just couldn't relax with them around. Once they were out of sight he wasn't as focused on playing, but rather more focused on the leisurely activities.

Anyway, so Beau is the perfect dog for us as D grew up with a wonderful Australian Shepherd name Buzzy and I grew up with a lovely Border Collie named Belle. D and I were both very close with our dogs growing up and so it seemed only fitting that the perfect dog for us would be a mix of the breeds!  Here's a picture of Belle and Buzzy and you can see how Beau is a bit of a mix of the two.

Beautiful Belle

Bodacious Buzzy (aka Buzz-ers)

Never noticed how all the names begin with "B" before!  Must mean something . . . can't come up with anything good right now though.  All in all, Beau is a wonderful foster dog.  He and I went on a lovely hike this morning through the hills of Rancho Palos Verdes.  Beau charged up the hill through the sagebrush and bounded after countless numbers of wild rabbits. He never caught any of them and honestly I don't think he would know what to do with them if he did.  I think he just enjoys the chase.

San Pedro Fun

A couple weeks back, J (D's Dad) came to visit us for a couple days. Our first stop on our tour with J, was a few spots in San Pedro. Most people aren't familiar with San Pedro, as it sits on the southeast side of the Rancho Palos Verdes Peninsula. San Pedro is home to the Port of LA and used to be a major fishing/cannery industry. What better time to explore local neighborhoods than when visitors are in town?! I found a couple kitchy little spots that looked like fun. First stop was the Point Fermin Lighthouse

Isn't the old Victorian house gorgeous!  The museum was unfortunately closed when we got there, but the grounds had some beautiful gardens and a park that looked out into the ocean.

 

Next, we went to downtown San Pedro to walk through the Los Angeles Maritime Museum J's served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and also happens to be a huge fan of the naval books series Master and Commander (or actually the movie Master and Commander with Russell Crowe). The museum was small, but fun with a lot of model ships and historic artifacts.  D also pointed out that the museum smelled funny. Then again what museum doesn't smell funny?!

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Loved this picture and quote at the museum of  Jack London. Way to rep the Bay Jack!!!

J telling us one of his navy stories.  We didn't have time that day, but next time I want to take a tour of the S.S. Lane Victory ship.  They even take the World War II boat out for sailing trips to Catalina.  Might have to add that on to the bucket list too.

 

Lastly, we finished the day off with sushi, from one of D and my favorite local spots.

Betrayal at the Orange County Fair

Ok, perhaps the title is a bit harsh. But I had a hard time finding a good synonym that portrayed the same feeling as “betrayal.” Anyway, D and I got tickets to watch the Neon Trees at the Orange County Fair. The Neon Trees toured with the Killers last year and also have several hits on the local radio stations, so I figured the concert would be safe bet. Plus the tickets were cheap and they gave us free admission into the fair. Score! Not only do we get to enjoy some live music, we also get to go to the fair! 

D and I arrived at the fair, and had fun walking around taking in all the sights. As we made our way to the concert amphitheater, we stumbled upon a Pink’s Hot Dog food stand. At first glance, I thought it was an imposter, but upon closer examination we found it be a true sister to the original Pink’s. Excited that the line didn’t include hundreds of people, D and I jumped at the chance to finally try one of these prized dogs. After waiting only 15 minutes for our order, we sat down to enjoy our meal. 

I took my first bite, and it was just ok. As I continued to devour my sauerkraut, onions, and chili covered hot dog, my feelings didn’t change. Just ok . . . Sigh. At least D and I can put that “LA must” to bed. We proceeded to the concert and quickly took our seats. I noticed that the crowd had a large number of young girls and families with kids, and decided it was because of the fair. We enjoyed the opening band, Eastern Conference, and patiently waited for Neon Trees to start their leg of the show. As the sun set, I couldn’t get over how young/different the crowd was compared to other shows I had been to in the past. D noted the same thing and began skimming the band’s page on his smart phone. Just as the lights went down, signaling the concert to begin, D said to me “I think we’re at a Christian rock concert.” “What do you mean?”, I ask. “Well, the band started in Provo, Utah . . . and I think all of the band members are LDS.” I opened my mouth to counter his argument, when behind me, an avid fan shouted out “I BELIEVE! Praise HIM!!!” Slowly, it all settled in. I looked around the crowd and realized that D and I were sitting in the middle of a bonafide Christian rock concert. I have nothing against Christians or Christian rock music. However, I felt like an imposter at the show, as D and I weren’t quite as involved in the music as most of the audience. I couldn’t help but wonder if we were the only people in the crowd who had been confused about the Neon Trees. All in all, good show, just wish we had had a heads up beforehand.

Pottermania

Alright, so I admit it.  I'm a total Harry Potter addict. Today, the last and final movie was released out in theaters and tonight I'm dragging D to watch it with me in 3D at a local IMAX theater. We picked up our tickets up yesterday from the theater and there was at least 100 people waiting in line for the midnight showing.  We saw people dressed up in Hogwarts letterman jackets, robes and scarves from their favorite houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff), and various other wizarding costumes. There were even several people having "duels" with fake wands.  I may be super excited about Harry Potter, but I don't think I could ever have a fake magical duel while wearing full robe regalia in the middle of a shopping mall.  Perhaps, I'm not as hard core as I think. Anyway, here are a few links that I would like to share in celebration of the final Harry Potter film:

Cake wrecks - a whole slew of cakes with the Harry Potter theme

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2011/07/harry-situation.html

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park in Orlando, FL (still working on how to convince D to go there with me . . . who wouldn't want to drink butter beer in the Three Broomsticks or take flight with a Hippogriff?!)

http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/

Discover what shape your patronus takes (mine turned out to be a swan, but I'm not sure I agree with it)

http://apps.warnerbros.com/hp7b/patronus/us/index.php

Lastly, I leave you with one of my favorite clips on youtube, called the Harry Potter Puppet Pals.  They're a series of spoofs on the books/films and I find them quite amusing.  If you don't agree, that's ok. Because like I said, my adoration of Harry Potter is slightly kooky.

Hermosa Beach

At the end of June, D celebrated the completion of the first year of his residency program!  Hooray!!!  Perhaps, now that the first year, and reportedly the worst year, is over his hours will be "less crazy." A few friends from his residency class, along with a few non-medical folk like myself, went out to the Union Cattle Company's Ocean Bar in Hermosa Beach to celebrate. Someone from the group suggested a round of tequila (also referred as "to-kill-ya") and I was stealth enough to snap this candid shot of the group.

Where was my tequila shot, you ask? It was my turn to be the DD, so alas not shot for me. Besides, its way more fun to be behind the camera during these kinds of dangerous situations.

The following night, our dear friend K came to visit for the night. She was en route to Japan for business and thought she'd take advantage of the layover in LAX. Surprisingly, D and I decided to return to Hermosa Beach for another night on the town.  We originally were supposed to go to a show at Sainte Rock, but we all puttered out beforehand and decided to head home for some shut eye.  Once we decided to head home, simultaneously our 19-year-old-selves shook their heads in shame from our lameness. Oh well.  And I forgot to mention that K and I were supposed to run eight miles the next morning. Running eight miles in the morning is so much easier when you're not hurting from the night before. So take that 19-year-old-selves!

The following evening, we returned to Hermosa Beach for some delightfully delicious sushi and a little stroll on the beach/boardwalk.

Silly girls. On second-thought, perhaps our 19-year-old-selves wouldn't be completely ashamed of our current lameness and instead appreciate our never-ending silliness?  We shall never know.

A wee bit late on the Memorial Day Madness

I'm majorly behind on blogging here.  Good news is that D and I have been doing a lot of fun thangs around town and even had a few visitors!  Back around Memorial Day we had two lovely ladies come and spend the weekend with us. D's Mama and her sister P flew into LAX from their respective homes and we tore up the town!  Well, sort of.  First stop of the weekend was Pink's Hot Dogs. But alas, the line was around 100 people long and as a result we decided to look for culinary fare elsewhere.  I would like to note that D and I have tried at lease five different time to go to Pink's and each time turns out to be an epic fail.  I'm starting to lose hope that he and I will ever be able to grit our teeth and commit to the 2+ hour wait for a hot dog. Oh well.  Somehow, I think we'll be be able to survive. The photos below show our dinner at the Bungalow Club, followed by a comedy show at The Groundlings (an improv theater where Will Ferrel, Lisa Kudrow, Cheri Oteri, Chris Cattan, and many others got their start . . . the Second City of the West Coast, if you will).  We finished the weekend off with a festival in Hermosa Beach and of course some cocktails on the porch.  These ladies were a blast and we welcome their return any time!