Through the Looking Glass... of my camera

I continue to tumble down the rabbit hole of the blogosphere.

I seem to have arrived back in Wonderland unscathed and late for a very important date (seeing as the following events occurred back in July). I guess I've been celebrating too many very merry un-birthdays.

And now, for something completely different.

Have you ever been around a seemingly friendly dog that wags his tail when you pay him notice but, as soon as you reach down to pet him your arm becomes a threat to the dog and he thus proceeds to devour your hand along with your good intentions? ("Dahs youh dahg baht?")

The employees of the store-not-to-be-named (pictured above) are the dog in this scenario.

Some of the decor in this store was awesome. They had huge mod vogue-esque paintings, gigantic 1960's James Bond posters, and even some art installations. I was excited to give them some publicity here on my blog (even if I only have 2 consistent readers) so I asked the suave looking gent at the front entrance if I could take some shots of the shop, he replied: "Sure, no prob."

I guess I got a little trigger happy because, while taking some stumpy shots of my reflection in the store's large mirror a woman of comparable size came over and informed me that I absolutely could not take photos in their store and needed to leave right away. (I felt kinda like this.)

This was ironically, the last photo I took in the store. I contend that they don't do as the photo says.

After "the confrontation" I dropped by Thai Dishes for a lunchy snack.

The coconut soup was a little too sweet for my taste.

Crispity wontons,

Spicy Beef,

And creamy curry.

Thanks to my OM-10 I got a decent number of black and white film shots of the day.

After a few hours of window shopping and returning some items to the Santa Monica goodwill (mentioned in my last post) I sought some din din, and resolved to dine at Wolfgang Puck Express.

I had the Chinois Chicken Salad with crispy wontons, cashews, ginger and sesame.

It was delicious.

The bro had the Meatloaf sandwich with melted provolone, bacon, tomato chutney, horseradish cream and crispy onions.

It was unbelievable.

To top it off we split the Fennel Sausage Pizza with mozzarella, pesto and sweet peppers.

And I managed to be groped by a plastic train conductor.

I got over it.

If you've never been to the Sweet Rose Creamery in Santa Monica you seriously need to scoot your butte on over there because, they're amazing.

They Have fresh ice cream made daily and it reminds me of this awesome ice cream shop that I used to  frequent in Seattle.

I got the salted caramel flavor, a perfect blend of smooth, sweet, and savory.

To end the day right I drove up to Malibu and took a stroll by the water.

I finished the day by cranking out the rest of my roll of film and setting it aside to process later, which reminds me I still have yet to do that.

Until we meet again... assuming the Queen of Hearts doesn't behead me before then.

Dr. Strange-Rob Or: How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Car Bomb

Well, I'm back. I had a fever, and the only prescription was more blogging, so here I am.

I've come to find, in the past year, that most of the things that I used to brag about as a kid have come back to bite me in the butt.

"I've never been stung by a bee, I've never had a cavity, and I've never gone into anaphylaxis."

BUT, as of this year, thanks to Albus, the bee that gimped across the grass to fly up my pant leg, the abundant gummy worms that I can't turn down at work, and my lack of ability to familiarize myself with the nutrition facts of some of the tenants of the ETOH community I can no longer brag about my feats of avoidance.

This story in particular is about the latter of the aforementioned feats.

As partially evidenced by the picture above some individuals would appear to have impeccable taste in shoes, and a desire to get away with wearing ridiculous things in public. This is true.

I would also like to thank Goodwill Santa Monica for providing excellent garb that can be returned no questions asked within 30 days of initial purchase.

I did keep the shoes, however.

If you could measure the maximum allowable human dosage of fun it would be directly proportional to the number of hours spent (consecutively) with the shoed individual pictured above, divided by the number of activities involved, and then multiplied by the number of water bottles consumed that morning prior to the commencing of the hangout.

Although the blue tank top pictured above was part of the day's "ridiculous apparel" and acknowledged as such... one cannot help but be reminded of Jim Gaffigan's ever insightful tweets, por ejemplo:

"I need a shirt, but I also want to showcase how long my armpit hair is." -Every guy who has bought a tank top.

And as much as I would like to say that our adventure began with plastic guns and cathode ray tubes, alas and alack, it did not.

By this time of day we had already visited 2 yard sales, 1 unpaid parking meter, 1 goodwill store, 1 mexican restaurant, and 5 different public restrooms, thanks to my ingenious consumption of innumerable water bottles between the hours of 3am and 11am that very morning.

We also consumed 2 margaritas,2 baby tacos, 2 toiny steins of Nautical juice and went halvesies on a piece of white chocolate (eww). Of course, all of these events were integral parts to the days entirety.

And yet, somehow the results of this ridiculously fun day were unprecedented.

I think 8th grade was when DDR really consumed my life. Anywhere I could play I would play and while I don't believe that I ever reached my full potential, my attempt to rekindle this old flame really turned into a sad display of flailing arms and crippled feet. I'm sure my accidental selection of "expert level" had something to do with that.

The leather lace-ups scored at goodwill were quite the spectacle and I was quite jealous that my fuzzy pink boots weren't nearly as versatile.

Oh, and those shorts, those plaid shorts... gah.

If you look closely you can see a shark fin next to the dark figure in the center of the image.

Look really hard.

Ok, I lied. As if this day need an extra dose of shock and horror.

Speaking of shock and horror.

After a couple quick turns on the West Coaster we dashed to the car for a costume change and proceeded to scurry under the dock to snap a 15 minute photo shoot.

Interesting things live under the pier and they do interesting things, people mostly. (The grammatical structure of this sentence, or lack thereof was written to:

a.) confuse you

b.) make you wince

c.) remind you to order your ninja throwing stars

d.) all of the above

I'll expect a five page essay backing up your answer in my inbox first thing tomorrow morning.)

Oh dear.

This picture was taken and displayed to:

a.) confuse you

b.) make you wince

c.) remind you to order your ninja throwing stars

d.) all of the above

Although, I'm sure the photo shoot was a "feast for hobo eyes"... our stomach growls were louder than the drunken bellows resonating from the deep dark recesses under the dock... obviously a sign that we should head to dinner.

Top Chef Finalist.

The service at Stefan's L.A. Farm was quite "propa" and our waiter was sure to ask if we had any allergies and my reply "Just coffee." was answered with a "Seriously?" followed with a "That shouldn't be a problem." (If only he had said, "Yet.") The food was delightful, and the wine pairings, exquisite. Here is a brief overview of our meal.

Crispity buttery bread.

Tuna tartar with microgreens.

Black truffle ravioli.

Seared scallop with a corn puree.

Lamb.

Blackberry and chocolate mousse for dessert with a leaf of gold to aid the digestion.

Of course the night came to a smashing end when I insisted that we have an Irish car bomb.

How would I know that some brands of Irish Cream have coffee in them? How would I know that should I go into an anaphylactic state I would become disoriented and lock myself in a bathroom and tango with the toilet or drive the porcelain bus? How would I know that I would lose all of that delicious food I had consumed minutes before? How would I know that I had brilliant resources that knew not to call the ambulance because those EMTs would have more than broke the bank? How would I know that I have amazing friends that are willing to carry my lifeless body around and a bro willing to hose it off?

I didn't. But, now I do.

Cheers.

They said they needed a keyboardist, and I said, "I'm your man-tis."

Before I dive into the insane food adventures of the day I'd like to give a shout out to my buddy, Zorak. He made a guest appearance at breakfast.

He returned to his blackberry bush.

Holly and her Pops made some excellent crepes. We filled them with fresh blackberries and whipped cream.

I took a picture of Holly's because it looked cooler then my sans-chocolate crepe.

After a morning of laughing at nothing and frantically cleaning I drove to this restaurant to meet my friend Erika for lunch. I thought the hanging pieces of wood in the entryway were pretty fun, until one of the them fell on a girl walking in.

I kid, I kid.

As a starter, Erika and I ordered the seasoned edamame and we were MORE than pleasantly surprised.

I would go as far as to say that I enjoyed this more than anything else we ordered.

Erika thought the edamame was scary good too! Unfortunately, the only pic I got of her was when we were both geeking out about it.

We also helped ourselves to a couple cajun fries. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

(Sadly, that is the extent of my french comprehension.)

I enjoyed the Asian Chicken Noodles, although, the noodles themselves were a little thick and American for my Asian palette.

Erika went for the sandwich. I couldn't really tell you what was in it but she said it was good and I trust her judgement.

After lunch we had a stroll through the mall and ended up at this store (a.k.a. Erika's jorb)

After an extensive dose of the mall and cruisin' on the 23 N, I hit up Trader Joe's to buy some affordably delectable groceries. I planned to prepare a nice dinny din for the Schultz familia before they left for CO dark and early the next morning.

Dinner started with a toasted walnut and cilantro pesto ravioli with pink lady apples and spinach & feta chicken sausage. Initially you heat some olive oil over medium and throw in some diced walnuts, once the walnuts become aromatic toss in your matchstick apple slices. Just as the apple begins to soften throw in your sliced sausage and cilantro pesto. (For the pesto just blend a fistful of cilantro leaves and 2 tablespoons of pine nuts with a little olive oil and feta cheese)

You should boil the ravioli simultaneously and add them to the pan of toasted goodness and mix just before serving.

Total time including prep: 20 minutes. That's the beauty of it.

To accompany the main dish I made a pesto, butternut squash soup topped with scallions.

To prepare, just throw some diced onion into some canola oil (I choose canola for soups because it has a higher heating point than olive oil and is less likely to burn). I also throw in a few mustard seeds and paprika before adding my oil and onion just to let the heat release more of those rich flavors. Probably about 2 teaspoons of each spice. Once your onions are soft add some of your cilantro pesto (to taste) and stir for about 20 seconds. I tend to add some sort of bean to this soup to give it a little more substance, garbanzo are always a nice choice. After stirring the pesto into the onion add some puree butternut squash and stock and let it come to a simmer and you're ready to serve.

Let's not forget the fiber, placed conveniently at the end of the meal to "aid the digestion".

This was a light salad of spinach and wasabi arugula tossed with ripe nectarines, tomato and basil feta (also used in the cilantro pesto), white onion, walnuts, and toasted sesame dressing, surprisingly brought to you by this good lookin' actor.

We ended the night with some ginger thins in french vanilla ice cream, some polaroid pictures and this movie.

Oh, how I love this movie and Peter Sellers' brilliance.

Life would only get more exciting and adventurous the next day. Anaphylaxis included. No purchase necessary. See label for details. Or just read my next post.