A-May-Za-Zing! Manhattan Beach; 08.21.11

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B wanted to go out for dinner Friday, since we missed going out the night before to see a free outdoor local Piano performance.  So for tonight, I pulled one of my Restaurant.com gift certificates for Rosalind's Ethiopean Restaurant on Fairfax, and got their Combination III dinner with a side of Sambosa and Plantains, a couple of beers and soda for me.  We walked out of there with a tab of $17 before tip.

Afterwards, we drove 5+ blocks to Wilshire Boulevard to LA County Museum of Art, or LACMA; we just missed their free Friday Night Jazz which is from 6-8pm.   We should have gone inside the museum, since it's open until 9pm, and and it's free after 5pm on some nights to LA residents.  I've never been here since they had the Urban Lights installed, so we hung out and took some pictures.   It was really nice, and they did a lot of renovating around the area too.  It's been a while (2006) that I don't even remember how the outdoor looked like before.  Now, they have a nice park, and there's sculptures of fabled animals, and there's a cool bar and restaurant, etc.

   

In retrospect, there's nothing really amazing about the lights.  It's basically 200+ restored lights found around LA, and painted white, and placed in neat rows in front of the museum.  But, as B said; people, like moths, are drawn by the lights.  They were mesmerizing, and romantic.  On a Friday night, with free jazz music, a free entrance to the museum, and a cool lights installation, it's a great place to take a date to.      

We did some housework around the house this weekend - installed the new window hardware from Anna's Linens, mowed the lawnette, rearranged the TV across the couch, and moved the computer/entertainment center to the side of the couch, and we like how the living room looks now.  It's amazing how a little re-organizing does to our house.

Saturday late afternoon, the boys and I hung out at Manhattan Beach, dined at the Pasta Pomodoro where there is an outdoor patio.  It's located on 401 Manhattan Beach Blvd.  To get there, you take the Rosecrans exit, and make a right on Rosecrans, left on Sepulveda, and right on Manhattan Beach Blvd.  We then walked around the Strand.  There is a new bar called The Strand House, where the bar Beaches used to be.  They have happy hour, so we may go there sans dog one of these days. 

B relaxing after a hard week's work

Tico loves the pretty ladies!

Manhattan Beach creamery has a chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream that is sooo delish.  Tonight, I grabbed B's favorite to share instead; the mint chocolate chip.  

Sunday, we drove to Riverside to B's sister's house for a birthday bbq.  It has been crazy hot in LA, and it's usually a lot hotter in Riverside since it's over an hour inland, so we were surprised to hang out in Michelle's house' patio and feel cool breeze.  With some hotdogs and hamburgers, spinach dips and watermelon, etc.  It was a great way to spend the day.    

A-May-Za-Zing is a funny word from the movie "Benchwarmers" with David Spade.  I've never seen this movie, but the word is one of B and I's favorite expressions lately.  It's witty, sarcastic, and funny.  It's a great retort from David Spade's underdog character.

I've been reading a lot of home design and home renovation blogs, and it's inspiring to see how people's visions come to life.  Albeit limited funds, B and I managed to make a nice living space out of our paltry 1300+ house.  It's simple, minimal, and dog-friendly.  A new couch, a larger dining set, a new fridge and better curtains would make this space perfect for us, but it will come eventually.  Right now, the focus is to get the fence started this year.   Because the fence = me hanging out in the patio area with Tico enjoying our own cool breeze.

Then it will be a-may-za-zing for the entire Tico household.

"Much Ado About Nothing",HBDB; 07.17.11

Shakespeare by the Sea is one of my favorite LA summertime events.  I look forward to it every time.  The group provides free plays at public parks all around LA.  I started getting into it about 5 years ago.  So far, I have seen "Othello", "Midsummer Night's Dream", "Twelfth Night", "Julius Caesar", and Friday night, we have seen "King Lear".  They are also doing Much Ado About Nothing", but I've already seen it last year by another group.  We may still check it out, but we'll see.  Friday night they had it at Polliwog Park, a dog-friendly park in the city of Manhattan Beach.  It's a large, 18-acre park with gazebos, a basketball court, a pool, a disc golf course, a botanical garden, an ampitheatre (where the play took place), and a huge pond.  The address is 1601 Manhattan Beach Blvd., just take the Rosecrans exit off of the 405 freeway, and make a left on Aviation, and left on Manhattan Beach Blvd.  SBTS is an outdoor event, so dogs are allowed.  Just be sure that they are trained to sit still and be quiet for other's enjoyment consideration.  Being a young dog, we can't fully depend on Tico to do just that for the entire show, so we leave him home for these things for the time being.

Shakespeare by the Sea, or SBTS, take donations.  Their actors get paid through these donations, and their program declared that it cost about $7K for each night that they perform, and they will be performing 41 times this summer all over LA.  Their main place is at Point Fermin in San Pedro, but I've seen them perform in Torrance, South Pasadena, and of course, Manhattan Beach.  They also perform down to Laguna Niguel, Altadena, and Whittier, among the 20+ places they go to.       

Friday, I put together what I can find around the kitchen; 4 Guilliano's bread rolls with ham cold cut, and leftover Genoa salami from Guilliano's, and mayo, mustard and spinach for fillers.  I also made a rotini pasta with leftover italian sausage with leftover sundried-tomato cream sauce.  And with a white merlot I purchased from Sutter's Winery in Temecula, as well as a bunch of apricot slices, we had a nice spread to enjoy the play with.  The park has a public restroom a few yards to the right of the ampitheatre.  Parking is all over, we found one just across the street from the park.

B in the red shirt!

We have a case of the lazy Saturdays.  It's carmaggedon weekend, where the 405, one of LA's busiest freeways are going to be shut down, between the 10 and the 101 freeways.  This is a major LA artery; so it will not be pretty to get stuck from the after effect of getting this freeway shut down.  Some of our friends found this as a great excuse to get out of town and take a mini-vacation, but alas, we don't gots no money.  So the boys and I just did some minor yardwork around the house for the most part on Saturday.  Tico was exhausted hanging out in the backyard helping us clean up.



But it's "Office Space" night at the Outdoor Cinema Food Fest (OCFF).  This time, they held it at Grand Hope Park in Downtown LA, right next to FIDM, the fashion school.  While OCFF is dog-friendly, Grand Hope Park is not.  There are ample street parking, but we managed to get a flat parking for $5 a block north of the park.  Porta-potties are not my favorite restroom things, but you gots to do what you gots to do.  B went all out tonight and brought real wine glasses, forks, plates, brought the chicken pasta with the 20-pound-heavy casserole dish, and we even had greens with anchovies and olive oil for sides.  We found a great spot behind the lawn area, and set up our dishes on the cement divider, propped up our chairs, and we were good to go.  I was counting on at least a reliable dessert truck, but no bueno.  They had Buttermilk Truck, which did have the red velvet pancake bites for $5 that did satisfy my sweet tooth craving.  We did not have time to buy wine and got a Heineken instead, but I just realized that the Ralph's and Panini Cafe are just across the street from this place.  Since you can eat al fresco, food trucks, are dog-friendly.  Where they are currently located at, is another story.      

Heineken on a wine glass - so klassy!

Downtown LA Skyline

Grand Hope Park's Clock Tower

Milton and Lumbergh!

Where's my slinging frisbee?

Since the traffic did not turn out as bad as we thought Saturday, the next day we ran out to Huntington Beach Dog Beach for some fun in the sun once again.  Tico was entertained with his frisbee, and the other dogs wanted to play with him and his 'ball'.  B is still weary about Tico always getting into people's water, blankets, and area; so we always want to keep an eye out on Tico every single time.  

"Ticomom, we need to talk about your TPS reports"

"Dude, not interested in 40 subscriptions to Cat Fancy Magazine"

We also stopped by Five Guys burger, since it's in the way.  We have one at a mall closer to our house, but we hardly go there for shopping, so this is fairly convenient for us.  Five Guys does great marketing, and in due time, it will surpass In-N-Out, if not already done so, in popularity in SoCal.  The place has an outdoor patio to tie your dog to the other side of the fence. 

This was a fairly mellow weekend for me and the boys.  We did not do much of a chore work, and we entertained ourselves with the usual Netflix' offering of 'Ice Road Truckers', 'Gone With The Wind', and even the latest release 'The Fighter' is on.  Everybody and their cousins went to see 'Harry Potter' this weekend, but B refused to pay $12-$15 a pop to sit and watch movies unless they have decent reviews first.  Which is why we rely on the solid filmmaking of old-time feel-good movies of the 90's and earlier.  For $11-$16 a month with Netflix, it's not a bad deal.

And yes, Netflix is raising its rates.  Didn't you get the memo?   

Manhattan Beach and Whittier, 04.30.11

Tico is due for his annual comprehensive exam, and because we need to board him in the next few weeks, we figured we make sure all his shots are updated.  Beforehand, we took him walking up and down the Strand in Manhattan Beach to tire him out.  When he's exhausted, he's more receptive with the vets.  So off we go to MB for some sight seeing and due exercise for all three of us.

Stella!!!

My favorite Strand house because of this landscaping



B's favorite because of the outdoor kitchen


I had a great time taking pictures of the houses' fence and yard decorations, because B and I are looking for ideas on what to do with our front yard and fence, now that our plumbing projects are done.  MB homes definitely love patio furniture to enjoy the beach view, and they love succulents, probably because most of these houses are summer homes, and it requires low maintenance.  We did come across a house across from the restroom that had quirky sculptures like the turtle, giraffe, and a hippo bench.  The owner also have a large 3 1/2 year old GSD named Stella that wanted to play with Tico. 

I used to hang out here a lot a few years ago, and was taken aback that bars and restaurants like Beaches is no longer here.  Shellback and the pizza place is still here, and of course, we love Shade.  Rock N Fish, The Kettle, Hennesy's, are great places to spend Sundays, but you will need to check to see if you can hang out in the patio with Tico on here.  I believe we did hang out at Palomino's and a casual place next to Mangiamo's and Rock N Fish, but the name skips me now.  It's like a high-class diner with sports bar and TV's all over. 

And off we go to Banfield in Petsmart in Whittier, and today they had a dog adoption day.  For $30 to $100, you can provide a home to a microchipped dog with his/her shots updated.  There was a beautiful pitbull mix with two eye colors that was nabbed right away.  There were a few GSD mixes as well, and after a few minutes, they were gone.  The rest are those yippie dogs and the older ones, which was sad to see.  We would love to adopt another dog for Tico, but we need a bigger space.  So someday we will.  For now, we all need to make do. 

We love this Whittier area called Whittwood, which is walking distance to the Whittwood Mall, the church and catholic school, and the public library.  There's also a park nearby.  We love the mall because it has Target, Kohl's, Ralph's, Panera Bakery, and Petsmart all on here.

Up the street is Uptown Whittier, which is a booming part of Whittier, which had great restaurants, bars and theaters which feeds on to the Rio Hondo college students.  The houses up the hill are beautiful arrays of craftsmans with amazing hillside views of the city.

Angie? Is a 175 St Bernard that we saw a lot in the neighborhood

This dog has two different eye colors

Whittier, CA is an old town with family values still intact.  Unlike the coastal cities, it's unpretentious, and downright family-friendly.  Hacienda Heights and Diamond Bar, are other two cities in the vicinities that I would recommend living in.  And to the east, is Brea.  My only fear about being in the suburbs away from the beach is the possibility, or lack thereof, of a chance for us to be going to the beach on cool summer weekends.  The traffic on the 5 and the 105 can be pretty harsh, and getting stuck there on the weekends is not my idea of a weekend fun.

It was an exhaustive day for Tico, as we dropped him off at around 2pm, and never checked him out until past 7pm.  By the time we got home, he's down for the count after a hearty dinner and a new toy for being a good boy.

Year in Review: October - December 2010

WEDDING/HONEYMOON/WHISKERS AND TAILS; NOVEMBER 2010

B and I finally married in November of this year.  It was a perfect day, with great 180-degree views of the blue ocean as our altar/backdrop.  We then headed down the hill at the hotel for a reception with about 70 of our close friends and family.  With all of the planning (I started in June, but really got active in July-August), I hardly have had time to discover new great dog parks or beaches for us to hang out in.  Most of the time, we did the usual Redondo Beach Dog Park and San Pedro Dog Park jaunts.

Here's a few photos of our honeymoon trip to Fort Lauderdale, where we took a cruise to Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Maarten, and the cruiseline's private island in the Bahamas.

During the wedding and honeymoon, we boarded Tico again to Whiskers and Tails.  He was there for about 10 days.  He was already used to the staff around this time, and they told me he always loved to play with the staff, which would have been unusual with the PetSmart staff.  I'm not dogging (pardon the pun) PetSmart, but their pet hotel and grooming are not the best.  Their vets are okay, especially the staff at the Whittier office, where we kept our records because HB's PetSmart are not that great.  And the Torrance PetSmart, which is closer to us in the LA area, are snotty to our dog.  But going back to the Pet Hospital.  I liked that, for $25+\month, we get to have all of his shots current, most of his medicines paid for, some of his surgeries and stuff paid for, and thanks to them, we have a very healthy, happy dog.  And I go to PetSmart for our doggie groceries.  I don't like PetCo at all.  Sometimes, I'd go to Albertson's and Food 4 Less because of the convenience, but PetSmart is my number one choice for everything dog - related food, and toys-wise.  Tico loves Beneful, and Alpo Prime Cuts.  He eats almost any snacks, but the rawhides are always the winner.  When we used to shop at Costco, we'd have groceries shopping for a month, and Tico's groceries are about 1/3 of that.  For a large dog, be prepared to spend a lot on dog food.  Tico eats about 3 cups of dry food, and a can of wet food a day.  He'd eat more if he could, but we try to keep him on a sensible diet.  We never have him eat non-dog food items because he easily reacts on it, and gets the runs immediately.  My black leather car seats have experienced enough abuse from one of those "episodes" for us to know better not to feed him junk food.

RUNYON CANYON (DOG) PARK; NOVEMBER 2010
After the wedding and honeymoon madness, on Thanksgiving morning, we managed to check out Runyon Canyon, which allows dogs to be off-leash.  Tico had a great time.  It took us a long time to find the place, because Yahoo gave us the wrong directions.  The best way to get there, IMO, is to get off on the 101 via Mulholland Drive; and take it up until you see the dog park just up the hill.  But the address, they say is 2000 N Fuller Ave., LA CA 90189.  Amazing views of the greater LA. 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/runyon-canyon-park-los-angeles

Later in the afternoon, B and I went to Rolling Hills Estates, where his grandparent's houses were, and I got to point out where I was earlier this morning (it's in close proximity to the Hollywood sign, so I pretty much knew where the park was, from the pool area of his grandparent's house).  This photo is taken at his grandparents' house during my wedding shower the month before.  Which brings me to some of the pros and cons of living on Main Street.  We are within 20 minutes to just about everywhere, because we are near the 91, 405 and the 105 freeways, but the neighborhood is much less to be desired for.  Across the street from us is the industrial buildings.  Our neighbors are great, friendly and helpful, but we are nowhere walking distance to anything.

THE STRAND/MANHATTAN BEACH, CA; NOVEMBER 2010

The next day, I took Tico to have a nice walk on the strand on Manhattan Beach.  To get there, just take the 405 freeway, exit Rosecrans, make a left on Sepulveda, and right on Manhattan Beach Boulevard and take that all the way to the end.  There are lots of paid street parking, but they, like Huntington Beach, are trying to get away from coins, so don't forget to bring your bills, or debit/credit cards.  We got to see a handful of dolphins on the water playing.  Tico was really well-behaved today, and I was worried since B was not with us. He's a strong dog, and he almost cleared me under the bushes one time when he was chasing after a neighbor's cat.  With all of the dogs, people and cars, I am always concerned what will tick him to go after someone.  The leader leash helps, but I can still feel him leading me most of the time. 

CHRISTMAS 2010:

With a handful of Home Depot Gift Certificates from the wedding, we drove to the local Home Depot that afternoon to get our christmas tree.  We got this 8-footer baby for $40 bucks.  Tico sniffed around for a while, and then just went back to his couch to rest.  We don't have much of an ornaments per say, since I always liked to buy ornaments that meant something to us (this year, I bought a house ornament in honor of buying our house.  I am still looking for a wedding ornament that I'd like).  What we do for decoration instead, is just hang the christmas cards that we receive during the month.   Speaking of ornaments, we also received this year a Hawaiian angel with her aloha dress from Wennie and Jason.  Wennie is a girlfriend of mine who came to the wedding with her husband.  When she got home, she mailed this ornament, along with a couple of Na Leo Pilimehana CD's, as well as Iz Kamakawiwoole's CD; whose songs were featured in our wedding via the ukulele player at the ceremony atop the beach cliff, and during the reception at the hotel.  Another new ornament we got this year is a princess house angel we got from his mom (she sells princess house for a living, and is the top seller in Riverside, where she lives). 



This photo was taken at Redondo Beach Dog Park one weekend.  For $5, we got to have Tico take a photo with I believe, is the photographer's son, and the photographer's granddaughter is the cashier.  It was a cute operation, all they had were some digital SLR camera, and a portable photo printer.  The proceeds went to the park as donations. 

Sunday of the Christmas weekend, we took Tico to Huntington Dog Beach again.  He loved going there.  I took him to Redondo Beach Dog Park the day before, but this place is vast, and Tico can roam around freely and I can toss the ball farther without worrying about running into other people or dog in the way.  And the dog park itself is about 1-2 acres big, it just get crowded, especially on the weekends. 

In HB, it was a high tide because of the storm, but the place is still beautiful.  Tico loved running around with balls, twigs, or whatever he can put in his mouth.  I used to blow bubbles and he used to chase him a lot here, but I keep forgetting to bring them with me each time I think about going back to HB.  B don't care much for the bubbles, but I told him it's non-toxic. 

Tico used to be scared of the water, but now, he is not even fazed by it.  He loves going after his ball in between the waves.  After an hour of that, we drove to Seacliff mall and ate at the local Pick Up Stix in their patio area.  We came home, and Tico was down for the count for the entire day and night.