LaLaLiving

When Squirrels Attack October 10, 2007

I was in the kitchen today making a PB&J sandwich to take to class (one can only eat so much of the campus food court offerings…).  Halfway through I had to run to the living room for something, and heard a big crashing sound come from the kitchen.  I ran back into the kitchen to discover a squirrel hanging from the window screen and looking for a way in around the edge.  It’s not like there’s a ledge or windowsill or anything, just a screen and an old fashioned window that cranks outward vertically.

Apparently melting peanut butter on toast draws a crowd.

I stared at him until he jumped back up to the gutter, and I closed the window a bit so it was only open about an inch.  But within three minutes he was back with another crash, hanging from the window’s outer joint and frame.  I closed the window even more (trying not to pinch his little feet) and he finally gave up.  Crazy Westwood squirrels.

Play-Doh October 9, 2007

Today’s Very Short List e-mail had an item about Sony’s new stop-motion Bravia ad titled Play-Doh. directed by Frank Budgen. Amazing. According to the site, it took forty animators over three weeks and 2.5 tons of plasticine to create.

And not only is the ad cool, but the site keeps you entertained while you wait for the ad to load with little trivia items like bubble gum was originally made pink because that’s the only food coloring the inventor had. Nifty. Watch it here.

Dog Eats Dog

My brother and his lovely wife Mel were in LA this weekend to visit some friends, so they stopped by for breakfast on their way home yesterday. They brought their dog Titus, who, as previously mentioned, is awesome (and who now is officially Robo Titus…that little yellow tag on his collar means he’s had a locater chip implanted between his shoulder blades. Sweet!)

I tried to get Titus to eat the annoying yappy dogs that live next door to me and never shut up, but he was more interested in leftovers from Clementine, where we dined al fresco (particularly in the pastrami sandwich Mark ordered). I can’t say that I blame him. That pastrami looked spectacular. Not that my granola/yogurt/banana breakfast bowl was bad, but it’s hard to compete with pastrami, gooey melted cheese, and sauerkraut.

Farmers Market Risotto October 8, 2007

I made the best risotto last night.

I had wandered into Westwood Village to escape the mounds of work piling up at home, and caught the tail end of the Farmers Market. Having just bought some Arborio rice the other day, I was craving risotto and so went a little nuts on the produce.

On the phone, Leslie graciously reminded me of the ingredient proportions since my recipe binder recently was lost in shipping (sniff, sniff). I went with diced garlic and onion softened in olive oil and (secondly) 3/4 cup of dry white wine, followed by 1 cup of rice with 3 cups of chicken stock slowly added in. About half-way through, I cooked a slew of veggies (zucchini, asparagus, and baby grape tomatoes) in olive oil and meyer-lemon-flavored grape seed oil in a side skillet before adding them to the rice. Then I added squash blossoms for the remaining 5 or 10 minutes in the pan.

Topped it all off with parmesan cheese. Mmmmmmm………

Bladerunner 25 Years Young October 6, 2007

I tagged along with the gays last night to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut at the Landmark Westside Pavilion. What a frickin’ cool movie. I haven’t seen it in years, so it was awesome to see it again on the big screen, especially in uber-restored digital projection. I had forgotten just how beautiful it was (with the minor exception of Harrison Ford’s shirts…keep the trench coat on!), and total running time was under two hours! Go Ridley!

School Days October 5, 2007

I was invited down to Safiya’s school today for their “hand-in-hand for reading” event, an annual day celebrating the joys of reading with family and friends (being Auntie Letty, I suppose I qualify as the former). Fatima (aka Safiya’s mom) picked up a lovely picnic lunch for us, and the three of us sat outside on a beach mat while taking turns reading out loud from Eloise in Moscow, a lovely book that I’d never had the pleasure of reading before. Actually, I’ve never read any of the Eloise books before, and am now quite smitten.

After lunch I got a tour of Safiya’s classroom, which is filled with a fantastic array of rescued animals: two iguanas, three bearded lizards, a boa constrictor, a hamster, a groundhog, and a tortoise. Each cage or terrarium had a witty description stating the animal’s name and a bit about the species.

Here is Peter rudely stepping on either Paula or Mary:

In Print October 1, 2007

The Daily Bruin (UCLA’s newspaper) ran an article today on How Do I Say This? and our new deal with mtvU. Check it out here.

We had the funniest, long photo shoot on Saturday with a Bruin photographer where we took over one of the television studios on campus and posed with equipment we never use (including a rotary-phone from the 1970s in mustard yellow, and an abandoned cup of several-week-old coffee that we found for me to hold to look “producerly”…me, who never drinks coffee). They of course went with the goofiest shot of us.

At least we don’t sound like total idiots in the quotes.