I lost a week to the surreal world of jury duty. Today I'm trying to reconnect with my home, work, laundry basket. The on-call system throws you way out of synch because you really can't plan for a whole week, possibly two, if you get called in on a Thursday or Friday like I did. I do want to do my civic duty, I just wish I knew which day of the week it was going to be in advance. The free MOCA admission is a nice bonus.

My vacation memories are quickly fading but before they do let me share a few of the highlights, esp. some facts about World War II that really shook me out of my ignorance of the event and made it abundantly clear why the generation we're about to lose deserves so much attention and respect.

First, 50 million deaths were attributed to WWII - 50 million! I don't remember this fact being drilled into me in history class but that is the figure on the wall at the Musee de la Paix in Caen. Some put the figure much higher, around 70 million. 25 million were military deaths, the rest civilians, with places like Poland losing something like 18% of its total population. Staggering. And this happened within the lifetime of people who still live among us, even know well.

The U.S. lost over 400,000, most of them military, which is within about 100,000 of the number lost in France. The lead-up to the war is fascinating; a visit to the Normandy coast is haunting yet somehow makes it easier to disbelieve. All the details are organized in endless tiny museums, exhibits, memorials, maps, roadsigns and cases full of artifacts along the Normandy coast, where we visited Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Arromanches, Caen and Pointe du Hoc. We also spent some time at the American Cemetary in Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach. The entire area is surprisingly serene and appears to be exactly the same as it may have been hundreds of years ago: sparsely populated, slighly hilly, and misty green, dotted with stone farmhouses, rolls of hay, with narrow, ancient towns sprinkled here and there and more cows than people, and more American and Canadian visitors than French inhabitants. It was easy to imagine the scene. I was struck by what I now realize is a deep and complicated connection to France, and to Europe in general, and by the understanding that when the cause was clear, people banded together in incredible ways you almost hope you never see again.

We flew into Paris and took a train to Rennes, rented a car and drove to St. Malo, a beautiful, large, medieval walled city on the beach, great for families - there's an aquarium, medieval ramparts, tons of restaurants, shopping and hotels at reasonable prices. We stayed in a beach-view room at the Hotel Beaufort (fantastic), and walked along the beach into the walled city for dinner both nights. Akhil started out eating pain chocolats right there at the airport; he had a gauffre, or big, fat waffle, with Nutella, in St. Malo before dinner. That was Day 1; on Day 2 we headed straight off to Mont St. Michel along the coastal route and spent most of the morning there before lunch in nearby Pontorson. We spent the afternoon in Dinan, which is one of the few cities in northern France that was left unharmed during the war - it's a great walking town with half-timbered buildings and cobblestone streets, plus a tiny harbor where you can arrive by boat if you like from St. Malo. We took our Peugeot.

We stopped for a drink in Dinard, a posh seaside resort town across the water from St. Malo, on the way back to our hotel. I had a cider, popular in the area, which is also known for its Calvados, or apple brandy (INCREDIBLY potent -- we tried it -- that's all I can say).

Day 2's dinner was gluttonous - a three-course menu, of course, at an excellent local restaurant called Delaunay. Akhil had scallops with bacon-laden creamed potatoes and I had a fillet of tuna that had foie gras on top. I am not sure I need to be eating foie gras but I'm game. They started us off with a mussel each, served on a tiny silver spoon with a curled handle, and appetizer salads. Of course, we had wine -- and dessert. Oysters are HUGE in this area, but neither of us like them. If you do, you'll be in hog heaven.

Days 3 and 4 were reserved for war touring, from Caen to the beaches to Bayeux, where we stayed and where we also viewed the 1000-year-old Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of William the Conqueror's invasion of England and his taking the crown. He was born near Bayeux, in Falaise, in 1028. Our hotel, the Hotel Churchill, was steps away from the museum, and Bayeux, also untouched during WWII, was an excellent place to stay. It was also the first city to be liberated after the Allies' invasion.

Day 5 was a heavy driving day. We headed off to Vernon late morning and got there by late afternoon to visit Claude Monet's garden and home in Giverny. I'd been before, in 1994, but saw it anew this time since I now have a large garden of my own - Akhil was inspired too but we won't be building a pond with water lilies in it in our backyard anytime soon I hope. We did plant some sedum and yarrow though, as soon as we got home and will be giving our heliotrobe another shot. From there it was Paris, and since we had some rental car agency confusion we had to drive it ALL THE WAY in and park it someplace overnight near our hotel on the street. Like last time we stayed at Hotel Monge in the Latin Quarter and had giant beers at a bistro down the street. We spent our one, single, solitary day in Paris walking the bridges, the left bank, the Tuileries, and having one more overly indulgent dinner in the Latin Quarter area - we didn't even mean to, it just happened.

Flying home is the hard part. You've got one long flight followed by another one. But France doesn't disappoint. Next time we're thinking south - the Dordogne, Corsica, or the Pyrenees... my fantasy life!

Happy New Year! As Frosty would say... I had no idea anyone was still reading this, but a reunion of sorts at none other than Heather's wedding over Labor Day Weekend inspired me to come back and put up an 'ol post. Lots of people asking, "Wherefore are your blog updates?"

My last one was in... December? Well, lots has happened, yet nothing has happened. Akhil and I have managed to:

1. Gain some control over our haphazard garden, adding lavendar, sedum, yarrow, new David Austin roses, narcissus bulbs, and a kumquat tree to the mix
2. Get to a place where 6-7 day workweeks are the norm (for him, anyway)
3. Buy a buffet, a coffee table, a new arbor and a wheelbarrow
4. Entertain the neighbors with an authentic Indian meal prepared mostly by my gracious mother-in-law (95%); only slightly by me (5%)
5. Took a class on xhtml coding, and though I got an A realized I'd *much* rather be taking a course on photography (next)
6. Slip in at least a few good vacations, at my obsessive prodding, of course
7. Went through (Akhil) a massive, competitive bread-baking phase, and learned to make baguettes, pizza, and foccacia
8. Met Floyd Landis at a book signing in Pasadena (Akhil)
9. Rediscovered jogging, biking, and the tricep machine at the gym

Besides all this, my brother Todd has up and moved to Denver, Colorado; and the army of babies continues to grow! We've got Will, born to Regina and Bill in the spring; Ethan, born to Debbie and Justin this summer; & Isabelle, born to Carolyn and Rob on Aug. 30.

Meanwhile the blogger.com interface has changed - now it's connected to my Google account and automatically saves my drafts. Awesome. Maybe I'll try and get back here more often.

Now for the fun stuff: vacation summaries. That's what I'm here for, folks.

I celebrated, reluctantly, getting another year older in San Francisco with Akhil, who took me to the Cliff House for lunch and to the Presidio and the MOMA and all around town to help keep me distracted.

In May we spent four days in Sonoma. We hadn't been to the area since our first year of courtship, in 1999. This time we stayed at the Inn at Sonoma and it was fantastic. I tried a mud bath at Calistoga, Akhil bought tomato plants in St. Helena, which they let us fly home with in a paper bag, and we managed to get as far north as Healdsburg, the new wine snob's favorite place to taste and shop. Our tomato plant experiment was incredibly successful - each of the 3 plants is now about 5 or 6 feet tall and I think I've eaten 300 tomatoes this season.

A month later, for our fourth anniversary, we spent a long weekend in Big Sur (can you tell with like Northern CA?) which truly deserves its reputation as one of the most beautiful and other-worldly places on earth. It's almost heartbreaking. We stayed in the yurts at TreeBones, which were cozy and literally on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the water. At night it was silent save the sound of the waves and the sea lions barking. Hiking at Julia Pfeiffer and then the incredible beach of the same name were pretty much all there was to do, gloriously, besides dine, indulgently, at Nepenthe and at the Ventana Inn, where Ed Norton had the table next to us at cocktail hour on the outdoor patio.

Through the summer we both worked a ton, and were good and ready for the Labor Day weekend celebration that was Heather and Jon's wedding in Providence. Following we hopped a plane to Paris and spent 6 days in Normandy, plus a little Bretagne on the side. I'll give that trip it's own post.

Nick is in space. That sounds fairly simple, until you spend a few days really comprehending what it means to put your body inside a man-made vessel, strap it to a couple of rockets, and blast it into the earth's orbit in about 8 minutes flat. Discovery STS-116 blasted off last Saturday night from Cape Canaveral, and we and at least 1000 others watched it go, the first night launch in 4 years. It was a spectacular experience.

The weekend began with a reception at Kennedy Space Center on the 7th, where Nick's reception, which included every member of his family and about 100 friends, but not him, since he was in quarantine, was combined with that of fellow astronaut Sunny Williams, who will stay on the space station for six months. The KSC has a full visitors center, tour of the property, a couple of IMAX movies and such, where we spent most of the day Thursday awaiting launch attempt #1. They postponed for weather, at five minutes ... talk about suspense! We were able to see my aunt Jane and Uncle Howard in Stuart Friday before we spent another day waiting, along with everyone else, for attempt #2 on Saturday. Our watching spot was on the causeway, about 6 miles from the launch pad, but we had a clear view as it fired up and blasted skyward, disappearing about 8 minutes later over the horizon. Nick was conducting his first mission about an hour later, operating the robotic arm to inspect the craft for damage once it reached orbit. Back at the hotel, one of the guys had a laptop over which we were able to tune into radio communications between the shuttle crew and mission control - we could hear Nick talking to them about his task - amazing! Moving too, to be able to witness someone you know actually achieve a lifelong dream -- he's been waiting for this for a long time, and now, he's one of just about 460 people to ever experience spaceflight.

From Cocoa Beach we headed over to Disney World and stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge - beautiful hotel - and had some fun hanging around the parks with our respective silver passes. (The new job is going well for me at DIG by the way -- I'm happy to report). A former fellow MIT student, Dave, and his wife Cheryl, a historian of American Decorative Arts, including -- yes, that's right -- bungalows! -- joined us at Epcot where the food was impressive (we tried the Bistro in "France" one night, the Morocco restaurant the other).

Florida was more fun than I remember it. What a great week! Now we're back home, the tree is up, and we're getting ready for our first holidays here in L.A. Looking good for '07! But how did it sneak up on us so fast?

Major life goal achieved: I have cooked, all by myself, an entire turkey. We had our own Thanksgiving today after having spent this year here in L.A., with friends, which was nice, but no leftovers. We were kindly entertained by some old friends in Venice on Thursday. This was a unique and beachy Turkey day experience, capped off by a beautiful sunset walk down to Venice pier. However, we desired leftovers.

The opportunity to cook never seems to come. We're too far away to get our families out here for holidays. So, we thought it might be nice to try out the roasting pan we got for our wedding 3 years ago over the weekend and cook a 13-pounder just for the 2 of us.

All I have to say is God bless Martha! I used her cheesecloth-basting method and the bird came out all crispy brown and beautiful. It really works! Soak the cheesecloth in wine, butter and herbs and cover the whole bird with it, then baste every half hour throughout the first three hours of roasting.

Other than that, the holiday season came right up and smacked us just as soon as the car door shut Thursday afternoon. I hit Target for wrapping paper and such on Friday -- the selection's great when you don't put it off til two weeks before the holiday. I'm ahead of the game! (Not.) It's hard to know what to get people for gifts in a year where clearly material goods are flowing freely. Everyone I know seems to have already bought themselves everything they've ever wanted. I am not imagining things, am I? That can't be good.

Akhil and I are suffering from Chosun Galbee hangover today, that is, Korean BBQ O.D. It was Angel's birthday and she and Tony took us out there (corner of Western and Olympic) where this impressive and totally packed establishment in the heart of where else, Koreatown, serves you so much food it's hard to believe. No less than 8 included apps and side dishes, from seaweed soup to potato salad to kim chee, spicy cucumbers, fish cake and who knows what else. We each ate our share of shrimp, galbee (which is their signature beef), sweet potato noodles and fried fish, and only one of us managed to eat a Dots cupcake when we got back home. (Not me, thankfully). Well ok, admittedly, we did sample a coconut-topped, pina colada one before we left the house.

So today I am digesting all of that, but also the incredible mountain of information I absorbed into my brain this week. Starting last Monday, I became an employee of the Mouse, and the week was somewhat of a whirlwind due to this transition, of course. But yesterday, it was house-fixing info that filled my brain to capacity as we had the most incredible landscaper here to consult on the mess that is the "English garden" in our front yard, and a mason from Boston Brick and Stone to tell us how to handle our mish-mosh of an 86-year-old, disfunctional chimney. From there we scrambled over to this amazing, buried treasure of a place out in Highland Park called Mortarless Building Supply, on Fletcher. Places like these are what makes L.A. so continually interesting!

Backing up a bit, I did manage to get some good fun in with Heather here when we saw Joey Lawrence and Edyta do a "Dancing With the Stars" bit at Disneyland followed by numerous rides (like Pirates) and a hearthside cocktail at the Grand Californian (fittingly) before I started the new gig. Then my mom came out to visit all by herself and we treated her to the Getty experience as well as her first taste of Thai at Saladang. Now though, it's back into full overdrive mode, and this weekend we are aiming to get some of the big "Phase 2" home-fixing projects kickstarted.

The garden is my project. I didn't know consulting on such matters was a service that nurseries and landscapers offered, but indeed they do, and I found a great one. There's this little French cafe and bakery on Fremont in South Pasadena, and right next to it, a garden center called Barrister's sells the most beautiful plants and flowers. Well, the proprietor came out and surveyed the scene here yesterday morning and she was a magnificent font of info - I need little more than the hour I spent with her to recommend the place wholeheartedly. We've got a lot of pruning, digging, replanting and weeding to do. It looks like the flippers that sold this house two owners ago had no real long-term cares when they overhauled -- we can't complain much, but when it comes to doing things the right way with just about ANYTHING, flippers kind of suck.

Boston Brick and Stone gave us heartening news on the chimney but the best thing was they pointed us to this little, overstuffed tile place you'd never find on your own out on Fletcher, where the owners have been collecting turn-of-the-century original tile "since they were kids" and have more passion for the stuff than anyone I've seen. Boxes of unused Batchelder, old Malibu and Catalina tile, new reproduction versions of everything and plenty of ideas.

I'm a big fan of California tile now that I live here and was introduced to the whole industry when we discovered the amazing Adamson House in Malibu, where we ended up getting married. Malibu tile is featured in this home-turned-museum, where the Rhoda Rindge Adamson lived when her family owned most of Malibu and ran Malibu Potteries until around 1932. Ernest Batchelder was a Pasadena guy who made tile through his firm from around 1910 to 1932 in his own special style. The stuff is relatively hard to find now, and incredibly expensive if you want anything with a design on it. Friezes can run into the $1000s, sadly. This is the tile style that I'm eyeing though, for a possible redo on the odd textured plaster finish we've got on our fireplace facade. We'd love to get our hands on some of that stuff.

No further evidence needed: we've been extremely busy this fall. Interior paint, shoe molding, lighting fixtures, electrical upgrade, seismic retrofit and an ongoing list of odds and ends has kept us energized and occupied. Now I get it - "pride of ownership" -- you want people to understand the extraordinary amount of work you had to do to whip the tiny house into shape! Well, we are proud -- it's the best (as long as it doesn't rain -- we have yet to test those 81-year-old window seals).

The jack-o-lanterns on the front porch are all the evidence we need to realize we are truly suburbanite old people now. Some of the kids who came to the door last night were at least as old as I am (in my head) and I know they thought Akhil and I were twelve. The teenagers did not even bother to dress up. That's pretty rude, I thought, but I gave them their Willy Wonka Nerds and Sweettarts like the nice old lady that I am.

Heather comes this week to break in the new "guest room" and then, my mom comes out solo next week. Todd already made it out to visit last month -- and we got in a trip to SeaWorld. Does anyone else find it odd that the place is sponsored by Anheuser-Busch? I mean, they have a Budweiser pavilion and a fleet of Clydesdales. Beer and whales. Hmmm... Whatever.

Congrats to Caroline who welcomed baby James last Monday! I get to see him tomorrow since I am off all this week. And THAT's because...

On top of all this good stuff, I report to duty at a fabulous new job at Disney this month. The choice of company is coincidental, and nothing more - Akhil and I will NOT be carpooling - as we are in different divisions, buildings, towns. But everyone has asked.

Needless to say, Carmel provided a blissful getaway and we had to wear long pants and closed shoes for the first time in months since it was only in the 60s - nice change. We had a great dinner at an Italian place (Nico) with John and Kendra and managed to go the wrong, long way on a bike ride out to 17-mile drive, but I probably needed the kick to push me off my duff.

Now we're back -- actually that was all 3 weeks ago now -- and finding that Pasadena tends to trap us on the weekends which makes me miss the freeway-close Glendale location of our old apt. somewhat (what?!) Akhil's old friend Vasan came up over Labor Day weekend from Irvine -- he is a professorial type down there -- and gave us an excuse to go to one of the best restaurants I've been to in a long time: La Maschera on Fair Oaks in Pasadena. I'd been looking for an excuse to go there, esp. after I heard Paul McCartney likes it too, and yep, it's good, with a hip bar area, great wine list and service, and amazing food. Go. When you go, visit us beforehand -- we're just out the way now and people don't make the drive -- come on, we've got all this Ketel One to drink! Somehow it's fall again ... we've almost got all the doors and windows back on just in time for our neighborhood block party next weekend. Suburbia, suburbia, we are entering Adulthood zone.

Goodbye, popcorn ceilings, goodbye.

As reward for our diligence, we're off to Carmel tomorrow, for the annual Kimbell-Tanouye fest, otherwise known as, the Kimbells' rental of a house in the village neighborhood for the month of August, which we like to crash each year (well, we do stay in a hotel, of course).

Congrats to MariCris who gave birth to 9-pound Avery last week! Now Connor has a sister. Happy birthday to Regina, Craig, Tarek, and soon, John, Heather and Katie too.

We're in! And the hot water works! Stay tuned...

Guilty break... from packing our mountains and mountains of stuff! How did we fit all this into 900 square feet? Beats me, but over 9 years it all seemed to find its place. Now, it's a mishmosh of small, separate piles of dusty, musty, not-quite-junk, and somehow we've got to get it all organized before next Saturday. Akhil alone has nearly 30 file boxes full of papers and files from grad school and beyond. Human beings are not terribly efficient, that's for sure.

A week to go before we vacate California Ave. for good. Bittersweet...

The tremendous subculture that exists around the restoration of older homes has revealed itself to us in more ways than we'd ever wanted to know about -- it starts with Restoration Hardware and goes deep into the painting and stripping biz of Pasadena, not to mention specialty hardware stores from Crown City Hardware nearby on Allen St., to Liz's Hardware on La Brea. It's madness! And you never know or feel terribly confident if you're doing "it," whatever it happens to be, right.

Next steps in the overhaul are in progress but we won't be able move in until at least the middle of August. We hemmed and hawed and picked paint colors, brands and finishes over two weeks and 200 dollars of sample paint and even after all that work it doesn't make much difference -- we still don't know what the right combination really should be. We'll know in a week if our coordination is passable. On a brighter note, Akhil dipped and scrubbed and polished up all the house hardware, and the leaded glass doorknobs and brass window latches are beautifully shiny and looking new after nearly a century of wear and tear and multiple paint-loving owners.

Meanwhile, the heat wave has timed itself perfectly with the buzz surrounding Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" documentary. We've been cranking up the AC more than usual this summer and in a blink it's more than half over already. The annual Brand Blvd. car show celebration was hotter and stickier than ever but hey, they had the Kingsmen, and we got Argentinian food al fresco with Tony and Angel and actually had a kickin' good old Glendale time! We missed Sha Na Na though, if they even showed. Tomorrow we get our first weekend away from it all in months - a jaunt up to Woodside for Gunther's wedding reception. In the midst of all this, we got word that Nick is scheduled to fly on the space shuttle on deck for Dec. 13. The solid Discovery landing this week is a good sign that it'll actually happen this time. We plan to be right there for the launch thanks to his personal invitation.

BBQ season's in full swing - first at Lance's two weeks ago, one last week at Leslie's in Manhattan Beach, and a gourmet version at Caroline's tomorrow night. If we were to start paying back on all the BBQ invites we've had these last few years, we'd be BBQ'ing until December. Better get started, since we now have a backyard -- at least a little one. HowEVER, that would mean we'd have to actually go ahead and purchase a grill.

That entails yet another techno research project though, and now they've got entire Web portals and multimedia presentations and slews of consumer reviews on these things which results in an unsurmountable information overload -- but, no grill.

Maybe we'll just get a hibachi.

Happy Third Anniversary to Us! Three years ago in Malibu at the beautiful Adamson House, we became a family, officially, and here we are, getting ready to move out of our Glendale apt. into a real house, with lots of lessons, tribulations, travels and experiences behind us -- but we know the best is yet to come!

We have been hitting the car shows lately as Akhil feeds his latest obsession: the Shelby Cobra. I plan to post a photo of him with Hank Williams (no, not that Hank Williams) and his original 289, as soon as I can find some editing software on this new hard drive...

Car shows in SoCal -- a phenomenon like no other to be sure. We went to Van Nuys last week (to see the Cobra) where they held a Mustang competition in Balboa Park -- it all calls to mind Tom Wolfe's 'Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby' -- and now I get what he was talking about. These people get real excited when someone offers to pop open the hood. Hank opened up his hood for us, and started that baby up for the onlookers too. There's something about how an engine sounds that can get you respect but I haven't quite figured out the "language" yet.

While we were up there we discovered they've got cricket fields -- in Van Nuys! At least three cricket games were in progress, with the all-white uniforms and everything. Never ceases to amaze.

We certainly DO live in L.A. now, now that we've made the big purchase: a teeny tiny house! That's pretty much what's consumed our lives these last two months, but since we closed escrow two weeks ago, the hiring of fix-it contractors is intermittent, and I seem to have more time to think of things other than houses for a change, ironic but true.

The house -- well, it's not a mansion but the fact is, it's ours, and that's a real milestone, for each of us individually, and as a family unit too. Strangely it does put us instantly into a whole new club -- the club of SoCal homebuyers-who-bought-during-the-so-called-bubble club. What a distinction! Well, we're learning so much, by the firehose method, with this 80-year-old "project." Some helpful things we've learned include:

1. "Your" agent works for the seller, at all times, keep that in mind.
2. Houses older than 50 years involve a ton of repair and restoration, no matter how good they look.
3. HIRE YOUR OWN INSPECTORS, and heed his/her advice when the advice is to bring additional inspectors in.
4. Closing escrow may be achieved just about entirely by mail, with like, no human interaction.
5. After escrow closes, you will never hear from "your" agent ever again, even if you still have a gazillion questions.
6. Old plaster cracks and sags and flakes -- a lot.
7. Insurance companies do not like knob-and-tube wiring, at all.
8. Painting over wallpaper, not to mention plastering over wallpaper, in multiple layers even, is a BAD IDEA.
9. Chimney repair is wicked expensive.
10. Revel in the printing of your new address labels.

That's just a few tidbits - we have a million of 'em.

So, since I was last here, I've been to visit Regina in Bill in Cary, N.C.; Akhil and I went to his cousin Ami's wedding in Chicago and managed to sneak in an overnight visit with Carolyn and Rob, as well as special guest Khanh; Gunter and Margaret announced they are a married couple (we think, well soon, if not yet); Todd got promoted; Heather and John shacked up; John and Kendra had us over for Dylan's first birthday; Akhil celebrated his 38th; we watched the Mariners beat the Dodgers; finally tried (and loved) Le Petit Beaujolais in Eagle Rock; and got some baby-on-the-way news from Regina and Bill just last week! We also managed to eat at the Toasted Bun at least 4 times in the last month, and went to about five car shows as Akhil feeds his latest obsession.

That's quite a lot for two months, which means an exciting summer must be in store as well.

Stay tuned.

It's fairly unbelieveable that it is April 10, already, for I'm still trying to remember that we're in 2006, not 2004. As proof, I totally blew my poor father's 60th birthday two weeks ago by assuming it was his 59th, and that is an irresponsible, inexcusable mistake. How can he be 60? I think this feeling of shock must be similar to how parents feel when they see their kid start driving, or graduate from high school - like, wasn't he just a pup yesterday? The passage of time really does get faster, warp speed-faster, seriously.

Life is full of ups and downs, so maybe this means the downs pass more quickly - in that case, fine by me. Heather visited post-business trip last week and we were able to indulge in a spirits-lifting weekend jaunt to Santa Barbara with Kendra, who left Dylan at home with John for an overnight with the "girls" -- nothing too crazy, just dinner and margaritas, a beachy hotel and day of shopping and fruit stands along the 126 out through Santa Rosa. Yet another part of SoCal I'd never seen - so far the farms remain out there - with plenty of roadside fruits and veggies! It was great to see that since the 101 through Camarillo is getting scary looking - condo complexes galore.

As Akhil and I try to get our game back on, including tennis, may we recommend a restaurant that's given us comfort in the last month in the form of giant, fattening, delicious Italian food: Greco's on Union Street in Pasadena - try it, it's crazy good, and expect leftovers. We ate ours from our first trip for 3 consecutive nights.

One more thing: Happy Birthday Carolyn Read!

We haven't evaporated from the face of the L.A. earth, no, that's not it. It's just that we're deliberating -- something -- and it's not been fun, nor blog-friendly. Hello out there -- how's the world been? Since the hiatus began we both got hit by crazy drivers who inflicted minor but annoying harm to our Hondas; Heather became an aunt, again, to Joaquin; Todd went to Puerto Rico on business; Dad got a cellphone, Mom got a DVD player; and I got a haircut! That's about it, really -- oh, except wait one minute, that's not true. After 8 years of driving by it every single day on the way out to the freeways, this morning, we finally, yes finally, made our way up the block to eat breakfast at the illustrious local diner known as The Toasted Bun.

We went for breakfast with the Schneider family, and really liked the place, esp. the extra-kind wait staff. Why oh why did we wait so long? Gotta go back soon, because every lunch entree and soup and salad comes with -- what else, a toasted bun. This afternoon we're Valencia-bound to see the new digs that are the Tanouyes' new home. More to come, as normalcy returns to the Pea-dhani homestead.

Well, yup, another year older, that's me. But the Santa Barbara weekend, Cafe Bizous dinner, Porto's carrot cake and chocolate bundt at the office helped ease the pain somewhat as I eased into what is definitely "mid-30s" territory this week. Where does the time, the life, the youth go? I tell ya! This is the first year I've said "Wow I'm getting old" and my parents have not disagreed with me. They're more like, "Yeah, you're getting up there, whoa."

Well, none of us escapes it. That's the comfort. Things I've learned this week: Montecito, where Oprah lives on her days off, is paradisical. And it has some nice bike lanes. Too much cake doesn't sit well in your mid-30s, but it tastes pretty good going down. Having an excuse not to be home to watch George Bush speak to the nation is almost worth getting another year older. Almost. And you can never have too many flowers in your living room.

Happy 2006! Not that it's off to a very happy start with the mining tragedy in W. Virginia and Ariel Sharon's stroke and such, but hopes are high among most folks I know for a more peaceful, inspiring and energizing year for all.

For Akhil and me, the holidays were a wonderful whirlwind. We packed a ton into this trip, with two days in CT with my family for Christmas; including a walk on the beach at Watch Hill where they were in the midst of tearing down the old 125-year-old Ocean House; a day with Carolyn, Rob, Inge, Gary, and Tarek in New Hampshire; some QT with Laurel in Cambridge (including a superb and overly indulgent dinner at Maurizio's in the North End); and New Years Eve with Heather, Jon, Katie and Andrew in Boston, first at the Oak Bar at Copley, then at LaLaRoque in Beacon Hill, then at the Sevens on Charles Street. Akhil and I slipped in a two-day jaunt to Waitsfield, Vermont, as well, where we stayed at a B&B, skiied at Sugarbush and found that ski equipment looks different than it did five years ago - has it been that long? Geez - they don't even have points anymore. En route we managed to see the Morrell family in Manchester and had we only driven over the border to Maine we'd have hit all six New England states this trip.


How we got ourselves to Lexington, Concord, AND to Walden Pond in addition to seeing "King Kong," making crepes with caramelized apples, brunching at the Paramount and cleverly retrieving Akhil's lost cellphone from a homeless man named "Ed" in Porter Square somehow I have no idea. All I know is that we got back here Monday at noon and dashed out to do some gift returning, rather than napping, which is what I WISH I'd done that day. Well, we got to see The Grove's tree one last time, buy some more Farmer's Market pork chops and catch the Mayor himself (Villaraigosa) shopping at Banana Republic. Am I the only one who thinks he resembles Tony Shalhoub? New Years resolutions are in the works, but staying cheerful is on the list. 2005 was exhausting -- here's to a much more joyful and uplifting year!

How do I have time to blog -- with Christmas cards, gift shopping, travel to pack for, people to dine with, dustbunnies to vacuum and prose to write for pay? Super-efficiency, that's right! Or maybe some last-minute procrastination. I have just a few things left to do before we take off next Saturday, and only at Christmas would I be looking forward to cold, snowy weather and a crowded airplane trip with transfers. Kendra and John are here this weekend to shop for homes up in Valencia. We had dinner with them last night and it's surreal and wonderful that they'll be living here again in just 3 weeks. Time has passed so quickly since Kendra left for Boston four years ago -- now they'll be back with Bogart (dog) and Dylan (baby) - as SoCal continues to attract despite the housing/traffic situtation. What is it about this place?

Maybe it's Manhattan Beach, where Leslie had her first-ever MB holiday gathering last Sunday. The fireworks went off at 7 p.m. and all the MB locals had prepared by doing up their beach mansions and cottages in lights. The effect was ethereal and beautiful and I thought to myself, it does not get better than this. Akhil and I agreed that if we hit the windfall one day wherever we are, we'll come back and live there and be smug. That said, we have it pretty good. Happy holidays!

December is turning out to be a rather bustling and festive month after all, with cool "winter" temperatures here in L.A. and snow to look forward to in the east when we take off on Christmas Eve for a ten-day break out there -- marking our third visit to New England this fall. Impressive! If the shopping crowd is any indication, the economy is doing pretty darn well - this year it seems the hoards are out in full force, myself included, but as of this afternoon I think I'll be pretty much done with gift buying -- and two weeks early too. Also impressive! What did we do before the Internet?

We're doing pretty well keeping up with friends too: Julie was here from Houston for a wedding last weekend so I got a long overdue visit with her and Joel at the decked-out Ritz Carlton in Pasadena. Afterwards Akhil and I took Joy and Paul up on an invitation to the annual Castle Green open house tour. She and the other tenants in that building, which is a striking, enormous former hotel built in 1899, are serious about their decor. The place has become somewhat of a house of style, with prices to match, these days. Joy always provides an amazing spread of Japanese food and wine and desserts, that this year included these cream puffs from a place called Beard & Papas in Hollywood. Run, don't walk: you must try these things. They are 100 times dreamier than Krispy Kremes.

That kicked off a week that included our big office move to spacious digs-with-a-view in Encino, dinner at the Huntley Hotel with Tony and Angel last night in Santa Monica, and tonight, holiday fireworks chez Leslie (who's serving chili and beer) in Manhattan Beach. The restaurant at the Huntley is on the top floor (it's called "Toppers") so we got a view of last night's Marina del Rey fireworks during dinner last night, too, which was an unexpected bonus. No time for a tree in our place this year, but we do have stockings, lights and the requisite poinsettia, of course. What I need to do next is get the New Years Resolutions list going. It will be a tome. 2006 will be the year of taking control of our destiny.