Advice Column

:: Ellen, Billie and I went to L.A. Live last weekend. It's located across from the Staples Center and features a bunch of restaurants and the Nokia Theater. My advice... no real need to go. It's pretty, but nothing much to do and parking costs $20. If you do go, park a couple blocks down for $5 instead.

:: Coworker Lacey and I decided the best way to get to know people at work is to either 1) own a pet or 2) smoke. These things seem to bond people together. If you have a pet who smokes, even better.

:: Try Ruby Tuesdays, a restaurant chain that is starting to expand in socal. I went with David A. to one in West Covina (Westco as he calls it) and the food was really good! Our waitress provided entertainment with her life story -- she's a persian/italian 39 year old vegan mother of a 22 year old son who is sometimes mistaken as her boyfriend.

:: Watch the 3rd season of 30 Rock on nbc.com. It's fantastic.

Happy Holidays!

My family's Christmas card for this year. My nephew kept making fun of my sweater vest... whatever!

Leona Lewis "Run"

This was one of my favorite Snow Patrol songs, but Leona does a fantastic cover...

I know it says it's unavailable, but it still is... weird. Here's a link...

http://www.youtube.com/user/leonalewis?ob=4

Movie Madness

In the last couple weeks, I saw a handful of movies... Quick comments:

I didn't love "Australia" as much as I had hoped, but I still enjoyed it. It's a bit long, but it was shot beautifully, had a fantastic score and sometimes hit the romantic highs I was looking for. Hugh Jackman looked drool-worthy shirtless, and I always enjoy Nicole Kidman. It's no "Moulin Rouge!" though =)






Milk" was a really well-done movie, and there are a lot of parallels to what's going on in California today. Sean Penn will definitely get nominated for this. It's kind of scary to think that it wasn't that long ago that gays used to get beaten up by the police in Castro...

"Role Models" was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. About half-way through I decided I was going to buy it on DVD -- and I don't buy that many movies. Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott are hilarious. It's also funny without being overwhelmingly raunchy.

I liked "Twilight" enough, but it's not a great movie... it's a fun little distraction though. I think Kristen Stewart is a terrible actress, and I'd like to see her replaced with Alexis Bleidel from "Gilmore Girls." On the other hand, Robert Pattison was intense and sexy as Edward.


Next up: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- I hear it's supposed to be really good... and romantic.

Thanksgiving Break

Even though I worked a little during my week off, I still found some time to relax and have fun. I even found time to bake for the first time in about 17 years. With a little help from my mom (I didn't know there was such a thing as baking powder), the pumpkin squares turned out pretty well (thanks, Neil!). I took them to Greg's Thanksgiving dinner. It was a nice night. Most of the guys got caught up in some Chinese movie about lesbians while Nate, Ian and I chatted out on the balcony. Earlier in the day, I spent lunch with the family. Too much food!

I also did a little Christmas shopping and ended up with a few things for myself. Yay. Laser tag was also fun even though two teams of pre-teens totally kicked our adult asses (Billie managed to contribute a negative score to our beleagured blue team -- which meant she was firing at her own teammates!)

My Sister's Dog

My sister recently got a dog named Mochi... here are some pics... 'cause apparently people like dogs.