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!

Bball

While visiting some friends in Norcal two months back, we went to a pee-wee basketball game.  It was one of the cutest sports games I've ever watched! The game consisted of a group of 3 and 4 year-olds attempting to play basketball, but basically ended up with ten little players on the court hovering around the ball hoping to touch it. To help the kids with the rules of the game, all of the players were given a wrist band with a specific color and then the kids of the opposing sides were supposed to match up colors to find out who they were supposed to guard in the game.None of the kids really dribbled, but they all tried their darndest to shoot at the five-foot high basketball hoop. Besides all the antics on the court, I also enjoyed watching the parents on the side lines.  Some of the Dads would shout things like "Defense!!" or "Man-up!" These instructions would probably have been more beneficial to older kids, because the little kids on the court didn't seem to understand what these cheers even meant. The kids all seemed to have fun, but they seemed to get particularly animated when the parents brought out the end-o-game snacks and juice packs.  Kids after my own heart!

Venice Beach

One place that D and I have enjoyed exploring lately, has been Venice Beach.  I first went there with some of my family during Thanksgiving last year, but D wasn't around because of work. In the last couple months we've been out there a couple times and had a wonderful time soaking up the warm sunny rays.  Great people watching too!  In May, my friend Ckim and some of her friends came to visit us and we took them for a day at the beach. Before this day, Ckim went to Disneyland and picked up a couple of Minnie Ears as a souvenir. She loved them so much in fact, that she decided to wear them for the rest of the weekend. After a day at the beach, her poor little ears got worked and wasn't too happy about me sneaking my camera out to snap a couple pics.

Poor Ckim.  Still a fun day that beach!  I went out to a great cafe in Venice two weeks ago called Gjelina  along Abbott Kinney.  That's a whole other area that I still need to explore and go shopping too!

The Black Keys

D and I have recently started listening to the Black Keys alot. They've been around for the last couple years, but for whatever reason their rough bluesy sound really speaks to us right now.  They're from Ohio and have a unique look about them, especially the drummer, which I love. Here's a video of one of their performances on SNL . Also, I found this song of theirs called "Lengths" and have been playing it over and over again.  The song's romantic use of the slide guitar just melts my heart.  When I listen to it, I can't help but imagine slow dancing to it on a summer night under a star-filled sky.  D and I are going to try to go to more to live shows and really take advantage of all that Lala land's music scene has to offer. In fact, this weekend we're going to small show at a club called Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach.  Will report back on how it goes soon!

Aspen

Two weeks ago I found out that I would be traveling to Aspen for work. Prior to this trip, I had never been to Aspen and was very excited to finally see a luxury mountain resort area in the US. Once I told D, he kept quoting lines from Dumb and Dumber, such as "Samsonite!! I was way off!" or " . . . Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen." Taking with me my favorite parts of Dumb and Dumber and also various scenes from the TV show Entourage, I left bright and early and eventually arrived in Aspen yesterday afternoon. As soon as I got of the little prop plane, I was hit by this wonderful woodsy/campfire smell, that took me back to my days working at a guest ranch in Northern Colorado. Upon arriving in downtown Aspen, it surprises me with how small the town actually is. I find out later that Dumb and Dumber only filmed a few small parts in Aspen and everything else was in either Estes Park or Breckridge. Whoops! The valley here is beautiful with the mountain tops still covered in some snow that hit the area three days ago. Did I mention that is was in the 70s the whole time too?! Absolutely wonderful and flowers are everywhere. The locals are cool too, remind me of a mix of rafter/surfer/snowboarder types. On a side note, I was up in Snowmass Village visiting a friend and got a glimpse of a lonely bear galloping across a field right at dusk. Perhaps him and Yogi were meeting up for happy hour . . . "HEY Boo BOO! Don't for-get the pic-a-nic basket!!" My verdict, Aspen is pretty rad and I will be back . . . oh yes, I will be back.