Congratulations to....... ME. Starting tomorrow, I have a new 7-4 schedule. And I'll be crash coursing in all things technological for my new editing gig with an online business and tech news publisher out in Encino - another new neighborhood for me. I drove there today mid-morning and it only took 20 minutes. That alone is life-changing! After five years of bumper-to-bumper, multiple freeway, 1-2 hour commutes, this could be the sign of a new era. I have to bid a fond farewell to my loyal friends over the last six months -- Oprah, Regis, and Dr. Phil.

Meanwhile Akhil and I have been nursing a grudge against the real estate market and looking beyond the box to see what other options may be out there for us. The journey continues.

May this help you all to understand:

41 offers, seven of which were more than $100,000 over asking, for a 2-bedroom 1923 house, and the agent expects bids over $700k. They're taking counters for those seven contenders, with no contingencies. None. Ha hahhhhahh ha ha. HA HAHHHHHHHH Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaah ha. Go ahead laugh. Or you'll cry. I'm just a little bit numb.

History's in the making: we submitted our first-ever offer on a house today. As did at least seven other bidders...

At least we're in the game! Keep your fingers crossed.

Well, I didn't make it out for that biking jaunt mentioned earlier this week but this morning Akhil kicked my butt with a long, 2 and a half hour ride from our place to Griffith Park, where I survived Garbage Hill. And Akhil gloated about his new "PR" (that's obsessive, competitive, crazy man-speak for 'personal record.')

Home-buying makes you fickle. I swear, I have fallen in and out of passionate love about ten times so far and each time it feels like the last house on earth. I don't know how people do this. We're getting serious now, even have an agent. After our bike ride today we had brunch at Cafe Verde, again, in Pasadena. I almost don't want anyone else to know how great this tiny little place on Green Street is, but it's just such a find. This time I had the eggs florentine, and Akhil reverted to the vanilla french toast. The place seats maybe 20 people so it can get a little crunched in there, but that' s the only drawback, other than the fact that it's closed on Sundays. I also got a letter from my long-lost wonderful friend Ulrika, who lives in Barcelona. I met her in France during our year studying there and haven't heard from her in a couple of years - long enough for her to become a mom! Her letter came with photos of her stunning little blond one-year-old, Alba. I am freaked out and delighted at the same time. We're real people all of a sudden.

I'm trying to muster some energy for a bicycling jaunt after our 'big night out' on Tuesday -- dinner on Vermont Ave. at Il Capriccio was a lot of fun and the food was great, as was our waiter, who could pull tablecloths off without disturbing the salt shakers. Very impressive. We met up with Akhil's friend Elliott, creator of the infamous "The Roomba," and his girlfriend Zoe, a British screenwriting hopeful who was quirkily charming. We talked about the 'silliness' of Los Angeles, the fact that no one walks here - for real - and the similarities between Nebraska and rural England - both exotic to Akhil and me, who grew up on opposite coasts. Did anybody know there's this place called Lake Piru 70 miles north of Los Angeles where you can take wake-boarding lessons? Who knew! Leave it to the newcomers to figure that out.

A whole new world was opened up to us yesterday as we expanded our home-hunting horizons to -- yes, the Valley! All afternoon Akhil couldn't help himself from speaking in that 80s Valley accent so I am not sure we should live there, however, it turns out there really are nice-looking, non-delapidated, four-bedroom homes there that we could even, like, afford, maybe. Hard to take those boulevards though. They are such ecological, aesthetic and sociological disasters. It's so weird how the L.A. area is set up with these gigantic boulevards hiding what they call residential "pockets" between them. And when you get inside these pockets, they could be New England, or someplace in the midwest, like Michigan. It's the most bizarre phenomenon. Food for thought if nothing else.

This was after discovering the mysterious city of Alhambra on Friday night (which is only say 5 miles from our apartment), where we ate Vietnamese food (and were the only two non-Vietnamese people in the Golden Deli - now that's good stuff), and then made our first-ever trip to Fosselman's for white chocolate chip ice cream. I thought the place was quaint and the ice cream was ok - but still not as good as others I can remember, like J.P. Licks. Side note - the system of checks and balances appears to be working -- I was denied unemployment! Victory for the State of California's EDD! (Bastards.)

Holy heat wave! This is excruciating - and since it's the first time I've ever spent one of these hanging mostly at home in our very slightly A/C'd apartment here in the San Gabriel Valley, I realize how bad it really is when it's in the 100s over here. All other years I've been out on the west side, working in a nice, cold office space. They say on Tuesday we scored the highest power usage numbers in the city's history and Wednesday was a close second. Probably because of all the other unemployed folks who are home, cranking the A/C, the fans, the stereo and the computer system all at the same time. Praying for rain...

Once in a while this happens: you go through some period of disillusionment and discontent, when nothing can get you out of your bad mood, only to emerge all of a sudden, almost out of the blue one day feeling like you've just graduated from something. This weekend I had that feeling, on Saturday afternoon, even though it was 105 degrees out and we started the day talking about real estate. We'd had a great dinner with friends Friday night and maybe it had something to do with the conversation there, or, maybe it was the realization that I have the freedom, even now, to turn down a job I don't really want. I don't know, but the weekend was great. I still don't know what the hell we're doing with our lives, but I'm not unhappy about it!

On Saturday, our impromptu brunch with Tony & Angel included excellent french vanilla french toast and french press coffee at Cafe Verde in Pasadena. Afterwards, in keeping with Saturday's French-ish theme, we saw 'Before Sunset.' (Loved the ending.) Sunday was a day of work and housekeeping and grilled salmon that I made with sesame seeds and dijon mustard. Monday we spent the day strolling around in Santa Barbara.

As the venue for our engagement as well as our mini-honeymoon, Santa Barbara's still among my favorite places, but has anyone else noticed lately that it's starting to feel a little like Venice? Lots of "unpleasant" fragrances, transients, unkempt streets and sidewalks and almost absolutely no parking. That's new. Are they trying to get rid of us all of a sudden? They put up these 75-minute parking signs all over and we must've seen one parking enforcement vehicle per 10 tourists - plus at least 3 cars and 1 motorcycle getting pulled over on State Street and at least one car getting towed away. Also noticed some rapidly deteriorating restaurant service. For the first time we left Pacific Crepes because of the foul mood of the waitress. I'm sure we'll try again -- and soon. Can't give up on the creperie that easily - no!

Very interesting to watch Akhil buy shoes. He is getting very adept at it, having done it three times in the last two weeks -- and Cole-Haan, at that. (They have those Nike soles now.) His taste in shoes is more expensive than mine. No verdict on jobs yet - it's very hard to look at these opportunities with only cold, hard facts in mind - no passion, no emotion, no pride. But that's what I'm trying to do. If I want a house, I want a house, alas. Goodbye, journalism, goodbye.

Driving out of the parking lot at the Camarillo outlets yesterday we saw this crazy airplane making loop-de-loops and death-defying dives all over the place and Akhil realized it must've been the weekend of the annual Camarillo Air Show. What luck! Well, I was not totally into it at first, I must admit, but we headed over to the airport to see what was up. It was in the plan anyway to go have lunch at the cafe there -- it's right on the airstrip. Akhil always gets his favorite thing in the universe -- one of their famous tri-tip sandwiches -- which his flight instructor Bob had introduced him to back in his flying lessons days. They had all the WWII planes and helicopters and gliders and stuff I'll never remember the name of but the coolest thing was the actual flying - - the last act was this incredible 21-year-old kid who did the most heart-stopping 30-minute aerobatic show you could imagine. He's apparently one of the youngest aerobatic pilots in the U.S. It was really something - regardless of whether you think you're into aviation or not.

Big stuff this week: Heather is considering an opportunity to relocate to L.A.! A little different here than Boston, though. She doesn't get how people get home after happy hour, and wants to be sure you can walk from your apt. to the grocery store. Don't we all... A lso, my dad called today just to say hi. And you know he never does that.

So I'm tracking down comedians this week. Calling them. Leaving them messages. Generally bothering them and their army of "people." It's very odd, odd indeed, because sometimes they call you back. I always feel weird doing this kind of stuff from my dinky little apartment. And definitely weird when I am still wearing pajamas. Glad technology hasn't gotten over that camera-landline-phone hump quite yet.

This past weekend I helped my friend Tom babysit his kids, 1 and almost 4. We took them to Sand Dune Park in Manhattan. I swear, that is the best place to take kids, ever! Leaping down the dune is a blast for all - even us thirty-somethings. I know it sounds nuts, but try it for yourself. Then Sunday Akhil and I went right back out there - to sit on the beach and read. We walked around the sidewalk sales and had a casual dinner al fresco, and once again, I remember saying at least once that day, "I don't ever want to move!"

Los Angeles keeps doing that to me. The everyday stuff kind of sucks, but weekends by the beach and being able to live your leisure life outside -- hard to complain about that. I have another interview today - downtown L.A. - wow, I could even take the Gold Line.

We caught San Francisco on a relatively quiet weekend. I'd read that California was having a slow summer in terms of tourism and they're not kidding. Of course, that means it's a perfect time to travel around out here. Our drive up was a breeze - we met Gunther at his place in Mountain View early in the afternoon and had lunch in Los Altos. Then we took a full tour of the Stanford campus, met some of his students, reassured him that he had a pretty cushy work situation, and ended the day with a great dinner in Woodside before heading up to the city to sleep.

I can recommend the Cartwright Hotel on Sutter near Union Square. It's a clean, cozy place with free breakfast, access to parking, and a great rate of 99 bucks a night. We spent the day on Sunday walking around mostly - up Columbus Ave. to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 to see the sea lions, then a little shoe shopping in Union Square, followed by a hot dog/pretzel lunch and quick jaunt over to the Haight where Akhil had a nutella & banana crepe. Here he is in the City Lights bookstore on Columbus Ave.:



Then we headed to Bernal Heights to see his family - his brother has a great house there near his lab at UCSF's sparkling new campus - another beautiful place. The academic world has been showing some nice aesthetics lately. It's got funky furniture, light wood, scientific-looking artwork and lots of chrome. He took us along with his wife Suzanne and his/Akhil's parents to Andalu for tapas -- which was okay but we're food-spoiled now that we live in L.A. We were exhausted by the end of the day - and I would NOT recommend staying at Le Petit Auberge for a quick sleeping spot - we got a small (they called it "cozy") room where we got to hear the garbagemen do their work at 4 a.m. and none of the little niceties like turn-down service, chocolates on the pillow, 4 p.m. wine... we checked in too late, unfortunately. Monday we had breakfast in the Mission with Hiten and Suzanne before heading back down to 'Hell-A' - where we had our best meal of the weekend, actually, at Billy's Diner here in Glendale. I do love San Francisco - it's so opposite of L.A. though it's unbelievable that the two are related. Well, we're still young, sort of...

After three days of 110-degree heat, today is a bit more bearable, so, in a good mood I took the Civic in for its 45,000 mile service. It's overdue, and we're driving up to San Francisco this weekend so it was a good time for an oil change anyway. Saturday we'll visit our friend Gunther and his lab at Stanford, and then we'll meet up with Akhil's parents at his brother's house in the city on Sunday. Plan to be back in town Monday evening with reviews of our two different hotels and whatever food we eat while we're up there. Oh, to be employed and housed in San Francisco. I thought it was the perfect city and I still do -- at least in this country. Sydney has taken over my No. 1 ranking.

Someone tried to jimmy their way into our garage. So glad we got that renter's insurance! Rough neighborhood I guess. Akhil and I are sitting here sweating in our 95-degree apartment, contemplating the blandness of our lives. Well, bland at the moment since we're still waffling over real estate and I still seek work on a daily basis. Before I get into our latest plans and escapades, I'd like to congratulate "you-know-who" on the baby news! As far as I know it's still a secret in some cases... but I for one am very excited about it.

These last two weeks I got back into the volunteering groove and finally met with Liz Thoman, who runs the Center for Media Literacy in Santa Monica. It's so amazing in a way to have a chance to work with her, as she founded the journal Media&Values that we referred to every now and then in our theory classes in graduate school. A remarkable person. I'll be writing a few things for her in coming weeks.

Akhil has been decorating his new office, and I've been nitpicking the decor of our apartment just to get a few more months/years of life out of this place - yes, we thought we'd have moved by now but things are not cooperating. So, I dug up a few gift certificates from the wedding and reorganized. I can't believe what Pottery Barn charges for furniture. Yet, I feel repelled by most of Ikea's. I think there's room for a new player in between.

Let's see... "Big Fish" was good, "Bourne Supremacy" was so-so, "Collateral" was decent (and L.A.-realistic!) and I am about to finish "A Suitable Boy," finally, which is getting good in pages 1200-1375. Tonight we're going out for booze - a rare activity for us these days, but once in a while it's all you can do.

It has been quite a while since I've been in here on the blog. But I really don't think anyone's reading it anymore anyway, (are you?). Basking in the afterglow of my week-long stay on Martha's Vineyard I am energized and catching up on all those back-burner-type things I've been neglecting for the past month. Heather invited me to crash her vacation so I found a frequent-flyer flight last-minute and jetted off to Boston, got to meet Kendra's new dog Bogart, see Todd's finely decorated apartment, and spend a week in a beautiful house in Vineyard Haven. Here is the house, below, and at least part of the crew (Heather, me, Katie, Shelley, Dave). It was exquisite. We cooked most nights, with generally six to eight of us in the house on any given evening, and always had our own at-home "happy hour." Therapy is bicycling to Chappaquidick, spotting seals at Gayhead beach, consuming wine and steamed mussels on a patio overlooking a marina, and going to sleep hearing nothing but a foghorn and softly rustling trees.

Akhil and I celebrated our official anniversary last night with paper gifts (the tradition) and a magnificent dinner date at the Bel Air Hotel. I had the bouillabaise, he had the duck, and we shared an entire bottle of wine and the croissant bread pudding for dessert. A lovely evening.

The last time we'd been to the Bel Air Hotel was for my dot-com company Christmas party in 2000, when tech stocks were flying and our options actually seemed promising. We all got treated to a five-course meal, open bar, and of course, complimentary Cuban cigars. Are you kidding? Of course I smoked one!

Then -- you know what happened. The bust happened, and my old employer bit the dust. I quit before the holidays that year. Fittingly (and I'm not making this up), the 2001 Christmas party was held at "The Shack" (on Wilshire in S.M.), and our office space was rented to Oliver Stone.

Can't quite believe an entire year's gone by since the wedding - we'd thought we'd have made so many more changes than we have by now. Only difference really is that I am less, shall we say, "busy." I had lunch yesterday with my former boss from TV Week, who's now a VP and Publisher. I appreciated his friendly invitation. I know we both still feel pretty bad about the necessity of my layoff. Nothing changes, of course, but at least we got a chance to clear the air. I woke up today feeling like I'm at "Sum Zero."

Since Friday a lot has happened. For one thing, we determined that we're sick of living in Glendale and that as our real estate "project" progresses, we are less and less interested in looking here for prospective homes. Second, we joined the Bush-hating throngs last night and saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" - my former neighbor's latest blockbuster documentary - first documentary in history to become the weekend's top-grossing film. It wasn't quite as, well, relentless, than the hype made it out to be, but still typical Michael Moore of course. Amusing, tear-jerking, somewhat over-the-top but he drives his point home and helps you continue to build your Bush-wacking arsenal -- at least a little bit -- with plenty of bad Bush footage and images that remind you of the reality of the Iraq war and force you to look at the situation from an outsider's perspective. It sort of felt like the audience was way too in on all the jokes though. "Preaching to the choir" blah blah blah. I wonder if any Republicans were in attendance. (I'm an Independent, offically, like Mike!)

A year ago today, Sunday, in Malibu, Akhil and I got married. Our official anniversary is Tuesday the 29th but we had a semi-celebration today of our up-and-down-but-magical first year of wedded bliss. We had brunch in Santa Monica at Babalu followed by a couple of hours sitting and reading on the beach in Malibu. We found a spot just in front of the bird sanctuary by the Adamson House - which is where we tied the knot. Here we are in Malibu... disheveled but content:



After our miniature celebration we stopped at the Supergo to look at bicycle parts. And we had a stellar star-sighting -- Jakob Dylan, son of Bob, and family - buying a pricey green fat-tired bike for one of his three sons. There was no mistaking the blue-eyed stare (could he have recognized that he'd been recognized?) but the dead giveaway, really, was the diamond tennis bracelet his wife was wearing with her Seven jeans, low-top Converse, and "FBI" cap. You know they're celebrities when...

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at 600-thousand-dollar-plus homes in Pasadena, Cheviot Hills, Toluca Lake and Burbank, yes Burbank. Nothing exists for less than six. Not even there. At least you can count on appreciation... (right?)

Last night, we looked over the documents that you have to sign to get pre-approved for a mortgage. Akhil and I think we're reasonably intelligent people, but I have to say, it's near-impossible to keep your eyes focused on the pages long enough to figure out what the words really mean. How do so many, (MANY!) people do this? I have yet to start working but we know now that this is "home" for a while, so we may as well settle into adulthood and start the home-shopping process. I've got an interview this afternoon, as a matter of fact, so I better run.

Too much caffeine these last two days. Akhil and I are reading about real estate - hoping to make this our next project, now that we're on our way to becoming certified Angelenos. Tried to go to Porto's today, but it was too crowded, as is all of Glendale. You can make a day of it at the new Whole Foods on Glendale Ave., though. It's like a foodie amusement park. They've got sushi chefs -- and serve breakfast.

I had to laugh when my neighbor handed me some classifieds from the newspaper yesterday -- she had starred and circled jobs she thought might be appropriate for me. How did she know? Do I have a big "U" on my forehead? I feel like Hester Prynne!

I picked up a little more freelance work thankfully and have high hopes that I'll find something this month. I can feel it coming to me - employment is on its way. Meanwhile I am reading "Stupid White Men" and anxiously awaiting the release of "Fahrenheit 9/11." I met Michael Moore when we lived in the same building in New York back in 1995. He was at the elevator getting Chinese food delivery and I began gushing about his "TV Nation" show. Thought for sure it was my big break and that he would hire me. He didn't. But it makes me feel a special connection to him - I'm so proud.

By the way, I DID go to the gym yesterday. Had one of those bad mornings but was feeling much better by the time the sun emerged at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Maybe it was the cloud cover.