Happy Holidays -- already here! Just one more shopping day -- that is, until Akhil and I are off to the east coast for a long Christmas weekend. We're taking off Friday morning arriving in Providence at 11 p.m. So that means we'll have our own L.A. Christmas here tomorrow night, underneath our holiday poinsettia (no tree this year).

I've been exhibiting the Martha in me this week, having made sugar cutout cookies, apple pie, and Cornish game hens which Akhil has kindly devoured -- and see here his first-ever paint job on Christmas cookies -- he did the two on the top left --not bad:



Looking forward to a spectacular New Year for us all.

This update is way overdue, and somehow the last three weeks encompassed Thanksgiving in Seattle, Leslie's Christmas party, Wayne's wedding, Staffan's U.S. visit, Jon Paul's L.A. visit, holiday card "design and production," east-coast flight booking, a little gift-giving, a lotta job drama, the slightest bit of house-hunting and brink-of the flu.

Phew! I do love the holidays. Well, first -- Thanksgiving in Seattle was great as always -- hard to beat the beautiful pacific northwest when the weather is mild and the mountains are visible. Of course, on the day itself, Akhil and I were nearly asleep during dinner because we'd been up since 4 a.m. to catch our flight (and also because I'd been over at Chateau Marmont Wednesday night to see my long-lost friend Staffan here from Sweden), but it kept me, for one, from eating too much since I was too wrecked to continue lifting my fork.

Here's Staff and me at Chateau Marmont, and him and his friends Michael, Marcus and Bobo:





On Friday we visited the Music Experience museum downtown and then met up with parents-to-be John and Kendra for dinner at Flying Fish in Belltown. First time all four of us have been in town at once! (John's from Tacoma...) Pics forthcoming, I hope.

Saturday, Akhil and I got ambitious and drove up to Vancouver, saw his friend Karon and husband and babies Ian and Forrest for sushi lunch, and tooled around a bit - my first trip to that fair city. Here's Akhil downtown:



Following all this we came back to a very busy week in L.A. that included the first holiday party of the season at Leslie's on Saturday. HOWEVER, Akhil was struck with flu, so I went stag. He made it to Hope and Wayne's wedding in Claremont with me the next day though -- it poured but the theater setting was cozy, and we had a lot of fun. This week JP, my old friend from CT, was here - his first California visit. Here we are at Cafe Vienna on Melrose.



And last night, that would be Thursday, Akhil and I went to see the Groundlings (improv), but his colleague, who was supposed to have been part of the show, had postponed his appearance til next month, unbeknownst to us! Oh well, got us out of the house on a weeknight I guess.

For now all else is same -- and we're stressed out like the rest of the world about holiday chores, plans, and presents.

I'd like to remember the great David Brudnoy, in all ways an exceptional, kind, and inspiring professor, thinker and radio host, whom I had the pleasure to know at BU. He died in Boston Thursday night (see story). He'll always be remembered -- and missed.

We're getting holiday cheer in the form of three feet of *SNOW* here in SoCal this week! Beautiful views in the mountains, and this morning, I hit a traffic jam on the 101 as commuters slowed down to gaze at a rainbow just over the Sepulveda Dam -- it was stunning, really, you have to believe me.

Akhil and I leave for Seattle Thursday morning where we'll spend Thanksgiving weekend -- I've barely had a minute to think about it, but all of a sudden, holidays are here. We got into the pre-Xmas spirit yesterday by watching "Elf," which I'll give oh, maybe a B-, and we also had brunch with his cousin Gita at Blueberry in Santa Monica where the weather was very brisk, windy, and altogether un-L.A.-like, so we froze our flip-flop-wearing toes while waiting for our table. Besides a little real-estate-seeking torture, all else we got done this weekend was seeing "I Heart Huckabees," (which was hilarious -- A!), and some random errand-running on Saturday that I barely remember. I do know that we managed to finally get together for dinner with our friends Mark and Melissa at Cha Cha Cha Saturday night. Face-time with friends is therapeutic - and we don't get enough of it. My list of New Years resolutions will be very long this year.

Secret congratulations to two more Moms-To-Be! It's shocking, still shocking, every time I hear.

Todd passed the 31 mark on Monday and I warned him that this is the killer birthday -- not 30 as everyone tells you all your life. And then, at 32, your memory starts failing you. I have experienced some terribly noticeable changes in my brain function this year and have been attributing it to age -- but could it be too much computer time, or Nutrasweet, or lack of sleep, perhaps? God, I hope so. If anyone knows, please clue me in.

Akhil and I tried our best to entertain Laurel this week, visiting from Boston. We picked her up from her conference hotel, the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, on Sunday. Following a brief tour of the swanky grounds, we brunched in Laguna Beach, tooled around in Balboa, and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at Disneyland where we turned into giant five-year-olds. Laurel and I rode Dumbo, and the 3 of us rode Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones following all with giant chocolate-dipped waffle cones from the ice cream place. Now on at least my tenth or twelfth visit or so, I'm starting to like that free park entry perk.



Now this is what I have to say about "The Incredibles": great movie, but see it for the Pixar "Bounding" short they play as an intro. It's priceless.

For tomorrow: Happy Diwali to those in the know!

Four more years of lunacy. Unless you're single...

From ABC News online:
...In a bid to help out their like-minded neighbours, a Canadian Web site is asking Canadians to marry someone from south of the border. "Open your heart, and your home. Marry an American," jests the site www.marryanamerican.ca.

"Legions of Canadians have already pledged to sacrifice their singlehood to save our southern neighbours from four more years of cowboy conservatism."

Hundreds of Canadians already have signed up, ready to do their part for the cause.

"We envision a movement where everyone wins," it said. "Freedom of expression and a politically convenient marriage with love and igloos for all."

Today's mandate, of course, is don't forget to VOTE tomorrow! (Preferably for John Kerry, but this is America.) Arnold Schwarzeneggar is on our answering machine tonight, urging us to vote his way on a few California props. Now that's new. Moments ago, Akhil and I saw Manny Ramirez, World Series MVP, and neglected to get his autograph. We also saw Mark Steines, but who cares. See you at the polls!

Happy Halloween and End-of-Daylight-Savings-Day. So far, no trick-or-treaters here at my Glendale apartment. I guess that means I get all the glow-in-the-dark "Shrek" Twix bars to myself! Yesterday, my colleague Mark Essig and I formed a last-minute team to participate in an annual "Amazing Race"/L.A. event my friends Mike and Maria put on. I'd say third place is a darn good finish!

We started at 10 a.m. from a pre-race breakfast at Mike and Maria's house, among 10 other teams, travelling to 16 different clue locations from Glendale to Beverly Hills to China Town all the way to San Pedro.

One nun-baked pumpkin bread, two Grey Goose vodka shots, three obscure soda pop bottles, six sunken Holmby Hills golf balls, 10 semi-legal parking spots, 50 mariachi musicians and a swim in The Standard roof pool later, Mark and I (a.k.a. "Team Anonymous") finished up at 5:37 p.m. at Philippe's the Original in downtown L.A. -- just one minute behind Team #2 and ten minutes behind "Orange Crush." Not bad for first timers. Akhil stayed near a computer and phone and provided technical guidance/directions via Web searches -- he met up with us at Philippe's for the post-race party which included an appearance by actual "Amazing Race" winners Chip and Kim.

Does this all sound crazy and juvenile? If you'd raced, you'd understand. We had such a blast! For a full race report click here.


Clues...

Team Anonymous

Akhil at Philippe's

Mark, wife Melissa, Chip and Kim

We have our life back. Ahhh... No more television commitments, no more weeping. Maria Shriver apparently broke her foot in her Red Sox jubilation. Halloween's coming up, so we'd best get our plans together. Holidays, birthdays, and election day too. Suddenly life's abuzz again. We booked our Thanksgiving tickets this week --we're Seattle-bound.

Let the new paradigms begin.

Rain, baseball, work, all the same stuff still is consuming the average day this week. We may get 3 inches of precipitation this eve, in fact. This past science-themed weekend consisted of two perfect fall afternoons in which Akhil and I did some very exciting stuff - not the least of which was buying new Honda floormats for the Civic. This followed by Red Sox victory(ies!!!) and seeing a rather ill-designed movie called "What the X&@! Do We Know" starring (sort of?) Marlee Matlin that was all about quantum physics, perception vs. reality, and being your own "God." It had way too much cutesy animation in it, a few flighty "experts" and, well, put one of our companions to sleep. They also needed a more heavy-handed editor, but we got the point, at least.

Fortunately on Sunday we redeemed ourselves with a breakfast among the hippest crowd on the east side at Fatty's in, that's right, Eagle Rock, and finally, a trip to the Skirball Center to see the Einstein exhibit. It was packed. Absolutely packed. With a very overly determined mob of senior citizens who were a little too proud of their man Albert, who, one woman realized from the exhibit boards, was somewhat of a "ladies maaaaannnn."

I recommend it - but go early or you're at your own risk. It's a great, well-done, compact show and we'd never been to the Skirball, either, which is an impressive complex.

Otherwise, hmmm... see my Tonight Show feature at:
http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=26102

...and don't forget to check out tomorrow night's lunar eclipse.

It's on again. Baseball. Once in a very blue moon I get hooked on a series, and this is one of those times. I am not going to start watching the game until at least the fifth inning.

Rain still falls in Los Angeles as we speak. It's amazing because driving along the 101 in this weather it looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest. Lots of misty hills and trees - it's actually rather nice-looking, until you exit on Sepulveda Blvd.

RAIN. That's is the big news -- and I mean big -- this weekend. It rained all morning. Such a novelty. We're sitting here at home using it as an excuse not to go outside (even though by now I think it has stopped for the most part). You just don't get enough of those weather excuses out here, so if the skies even smack of precipitation you can stay home and read. That's the rule. I heard it from my friend's sister a couple years ago, who worked for a VERY well-known television producer at the time -- the day we saw her, this man had skipped work that day because of a 30 percent chance of rain... Ah, for the love of showbiz.

Okay people, if you tend to like to stay out of harm's way, don't be a Red Sox fan. Enuff said. Thank goodness for the Patriots. Akhil and I went to Book Soup yesterday just because we wanted to see what it's like to hang out on Sunset Strip on a Saturday. Afterwards we stumbled upon an art festival in Beverly Hills and had a coffee on Rodeo. Saw Mike Tyson. And a substantial number of tourists wearing inappropriate clothing. If not here, where, I suppose.

Come on, Red Sox. What the heck?! It's that time of year -- my poor friend-and-family fans are getting emotional again.

At work today I volunteered to become the expert on open-source programming. Now that's devotion. If anyone's got any story ideas, send them my way.

Wow, did I really volunteer to go see "Hero" last night? Well, it was no "Crouching Tiger" but we got through it ok. Today was Columbus Day and so traffic gave us all a little bit of a break. Spent an enlightening lunch hour with my new colleagues who revealed interesting details about their lives that won't be mentioned here. That's the trouble with blogs -- you become your worst censor-nightmare. Definitely necessary. Let's take a moment of silence for Christopher Reeve. A sad loss especially for the world's biggest "Smallville" fan (Akhil).

The youngster who created this blogging tool and sold it all to Google less than two years ago is leaving Google, he said on his blog (seen here: http://www.evhead.com/), to create something new. Such level of accomplishment makes the both of us feel like we're not living up to our potential. Remember those dot-com days? Everyone and his brother was doing stuff like that. Funny, I am once again working for a dot-com - this time, without the stock options. The ones that stuck around have become a little bit lackluster but knowing they might actually be here to stay allays certain job-security fears. Remnants of the old days include free caffeinated beverages and bagels on Fridays, but so far, no signs of home communications reimbursement, expense accounts, post-work cocktails and seafood dinners, or even business cards.

This weekend has, as usual, revolved around food and thoughts of our very hazy, non-directional future. It's been ages since I've been in touch with friends -- fall hits and people get busy. Halloooo out there.

Getting up at 5:30 to be a desk jockey is hard. I wonder if getting up at 5:30 to, say, perform cardiac surgery would be easier because at least the adrenaline rush you'd get would be a little bit energizing. Nevertheless, one week down, one day 'til sleep. I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone. Akhil was in Detroit for 4 days -- he flew back home last night -- so I had a few days of singlehood while adjusting to the new job and it really felt like I'd up and moved to a new city. The Valley is mysterious to me and seems disconnected from the rest of L.A. -- not to mention I no longer work with Hollywood types and that's pretty weird too after more than 3 years in the thick of things. Bizarre. I have to say, L.A.'s still sunny but just not as fun when you're distanced from the biz! Well, s'money. Just noticed my plants are dying. Got to go.

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.