"The Departed" is one of those great movies that you can watch over and over again; and won't get bored. Stellar cast (Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin - - the list goes on); great storyline, and amazing director (Scorsese). This line is a great line given by the realtor when he was introducing an upper-class Boston apartment to Matt Damon's character. It's a great selling point. After all, the famous rule in real estate business is "location, location, location".
A handful of my friends have purchased real estate within a year of two of each other; to locales such as Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Downtown Long Beach, and Lake Balboa. So it came as a shock to them when I told them where I bought mine. Unfortunately, it's all I was afforded. Long story short, my purchasing budget was slashed tremendously. Hence where we are at right now. In a way, it's a blessing, because if I have had a mortgage payment that's about $1K more than what I have right now, I would be stressing out. But still; would I have purchased a home that I can't (really) afford, if given a chance? In a heartbeat. But in life, you deal. So we'll make do for the next few years, and then re-evaluate relocating probably in 2014; when my car is paid off, and hopefully; we'd have a little B running around by then.
Barrington Dog Park (http://www.yelp.com/biz/barrington-dog-park-los-angeles) is in Brentwood, California; a neighborhood that is home to the rich and famous (O.J. Simpson, anyone?). The address is 333 Barrington Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90049. The address is actually the recreation park across the street, on the west side of Barrington; where the tennis courts are. The actual dog park on the other hand, is a block up across the street. Parking is free and aplenty, unless there is a baseball game; as is the case today. But I got there early (9:30-ish) so I scored on a few empty spots. It got packed by late morning by the regulars, whose owners are a great assortment of really good-looking models, actors, and celebrities. I mean, as someone else have reviewed; Stephen Spielberg was spotted here. To get there, you take the Sunset exit off of the 405 freeway, head west, and make a left/south on Barrington. It's just a few blocks south of Sunset; in the middle of the apartment-laced street section of Barrington.
It's a friendly park, the owners literally come up to you and chat you up as soon as you get in. It's a relatively good size park (1 1/2 acres), with a section for large dogs, and the small dog section is in the back of the park. Do pay attention to the baseball game on the next fence, as balls fly out of there once in a while. The online reviews talked about unattended poop; but I only saw one instance out of the large dog park. And because the dogs are fairly friendly; even Tico lounged around for a bit with the fellow canines. I got to know a GSD named Smokey, I met a black GSD in the photo above, a fatty black lab named Charlie (his owner's an attentive attractive lady in her 40's-50's); Charlie kept trying to mount Tico. I also met Harriett, a young GSD mix who has a behavioral collar that her owner has a remote on to keep her from trouble.
The dog owners are definitely responsible here. There's the owner of Bella, a 14mo doberman; her owner puts her on a time-out every 10 minutes whenever she makes trouble. And a tip to small dog owners; carry your dog first on your way to the small-dogs park (which is inside the large-dogs park); or else; you'll have half a dozen large dogs who will chase your little ones.
But for the friendly, responsible lot of owners, there is still going to be one irresponsible owner, whose dog is a pit-lab mix who's the park bully. Non-attentive dog owners are my biggest pet peeves. No bones about it. The pit-lab mix would slam his paws on the water dishes especially if it's full of water for no apparent reason - - I've never seen this behavior before; and he'd hump at Tico too; and his owner - - an extremely attractive actress/model type, would not give a rat's ass; just kept socializing with the other dog owners the entire hour that I was there. I wanted to tell her "your dog needs attention/water"; but I didn't want to start something when I know she's a regular, and I'm just a grateful visitor who got to use their local dog park for free. And from the online reviews, this place gets a lot of fights than usual; so I don't want to be in one of those reviews, for good or bad.
The dog park is clean, but no grass, and there's a few wood chips scattered around. The over half a dozen benches are clean, and there's a dozen water dishes scattered about on the water fountain. They have pooper scoopers, and the fences are high. There's also a second set of gates before the parking lot, so your dog is extremely secure here. It's less than a mile from the 405 freeway, so it's easily accessible. It would be a good place to come back to if we are doing errands in the area.
I researched as much as I can whenever I check out dog parks, for the most part, I like dog parks in generally expensive neighborhoods because 1)they are impeccably maintained; 2)the dog owners in general are environmentally conscious and takes very good care of their dog, and 3)it is safe for both myself, a 135-pounder in a 5'1 frame, and Tico, who, at two years old, is still and acts like a puppy. But there's an exception to the rule. I intended to check out a different dog park today; but after reading someone's review about fleas from regular dogs, I changed my mind. Tico is an indoor dog; and his having fleas would be a disaster. I don't even know how we'll handle it if he actually gets infested with fleas. So we try to avoid those places like a plague. If you want to keep me away from your dog park, just say the word "fleas"; and I'm out of there.
For the most part today; Tico is on his own, chasing bubbles. I haven't used the bubbles on him for at least six months because Bryan does not like them. But I keep telling him it's non-toxic, etc. but he's really concerned. Since it was just me and Tico today, I took the opportunity to play bubbles with Tico again. Tico loves the bubbles. I started on it during his first six months, and since then, he loves catching them. He jumped up as high as 6 feet whenever he chases them. And at the end of the day, he's dog-tired.
I have a picture of him by the door of the house where he was lying with his head down; but when I approached, he looked up so I can take a shot of his good side. He takes after me.
Since we are in the area anyway, I decided to check out Montana Avenue (http://www.montanaave.com/search_retailers.php); an area in Santa Monica with about a dozen blocks of boutique stores and great restaurants all around. They have sidewalk sales ($20 unique dresses, anyone?), designer stores (Jonathan Adler designs, ABS, and apparently even Rachell Ashwell's Shabby Chic). I wouldn't mind checking these places out if I didn't have Tico with me, but it's too hot out so he's a little cranky and tired to be tied up and waiting for me outside of the stores. One of my favorite bars, The (original) Father's Office has great sweet potato fries. Marmalade and Rosti are great restaurant/cafe's that I liked too. There's also a cute little dog shop called "To Wag For" that we browsed in. They also do dog grooming so I might check that out in a few months. Williams-Sonoma would be a great place to check out as well.
The Shops at Montana Avenue is between about 7th street and 17th Streets up and down Montana. The best way to get there, IMO, is to take the Lincoln Boulevard exit off of the 10 West Freeway, make a right, and drive north on Lincoln Boulevard, which is also known as the 7th Street. Two years ago, in the height of recession, I heard that this place was practically empty. I'm glad to see that it's finally picking up again. So the shop and restaurant owners are pretty nice and grateful to the customers that shop there. So if you're in the area, do check them out. Meter parking is 75 cents an hour; and you can find street parking north of Montana if you are patient enough to do a few blocks of walking. And it's a dog-friendly area; I've seen about a handful of dog dishes in the storefronts. There's a little dog in Jonathan Adler's that saw Tico outside when we were window shopping/ogling, and he wanted to come out and play. The dog owner/sales associate scooped him up before he got out.
I would definitely come back to this place within a few weeks because of it's local, independent theater called Aero Theater, which also plays old double-features for $11. They have great upcoming movies such as Plattoon, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Reservoir Dogs and Casablanca. Maybe I'll make a cheap movie night out of it with hubby, and down a craft beer and a burger with sweet potato fries at the Father's Office. There's nothing like scoring on a great value on an otherwise Ritzy neighborhood. And in our household, frugal is the name of the game, and this is how we roll.
http://www.fathersoffice.com/.
http://www.americancinematheque.com/Aero/aeromastercalendar.htm
