Brilliant and so terrifying.

And once I read Solo's comment number 5, gut-bustingly funny. Maybe the best comment, ever.

A staggering work, indeed.

Four trips. Four hotels.

This time, however, was to the Marquis. And if I had to get stuck in a hotel for three days, this one isn't so bad.

In other news, after close to ten years of writing and sharing and over-sharing online, I'm very seriously thinking of taking a hiatus from my website as my hiatus from the actual process of "blogging" has already been fairly extended.

I'll keep you posted...or maybe, I won't.

Apparently, when the sun comes out, so do the fast and filthy.

In other news, roasted beet salad with butter lettuce, walnuts and feta, a honey dressing, and tofu sauteed in olive oil, fresh garlic and green onions. Not too bad.

Up way too early tomorrow to do way too much on a flight that will be way too long. East coast bound and down.

Pray for fresh snow this coming weekend. Probably too much to ask to repeat the 30 inches of fresh powder that dumped on Mammoth for a Bluebird Sunday, but I'm going to ask anyway. Bring us the freshies. It's back to the Sierra next weekend.

And to be clear, I'm not saying you need to turn into Sarah Jessica Parker or anything. Frankly, most men can pretty much get by with four pairs of shoes. Classic black lace up dress shoes (though I prefer a slip-on because of how much time I spend in airports), a pair of trainers, a good pair of boots, and a pair of casual shoes. A shoe to wear when you aren't at work and not in the gym. Any pair of white or black canvas sneakers should do nicely.

Personally, I like to have two of them. One black. One white. My white pair is thrashed from a year's worth of abuse. Sand does bad things to pretty much everything. So I ordered some new kicks today. Sure, Converse may be timeless, but I just can't get used to the rubber capped toe. I'm more of a Vans guy - probably because my mom refused to let me get a pair of the classic checkered sneakers when I was eleven.

I think I'm over the checkers, but I just ordered a new pair of the Core Classics.

If I'm not barefoot, I'm probably in these.

If you look down right now and see yourself wearing jeans and running shoes, seriously, spend the forty bucks. Even Mr. Rogers had more fashion sense than that.

When you are sick or it's raining or you only have five bucks for lunch or it happens to be a day that ends in "y" there is almost nothing better to eat than a big bowl of Pho. Been twice this week, and I'm pretty sure that if I only had pho, burritos and pizza to eat for the rest of my life, I might just live and die fat and happy. I've not yet been to Viet Nam, but this export is more than enough reason for me to go.

I've got a few places that I like in LA and OC. Do you?

Reposted, just for all you kids with the gooey sweet center.

Since I was back in my homeland for an afternoon, I decided to continue with the retro theme and stopped into my old neighborhood eegee's for lunch. I ordered a veggie grinder and a lemon eegees slush.

I know it had been at LEAST fifteen years since my last eegees order. It might have been closer to twenty. And I think my tastbuds have become perhaps a weeeeee more sophisticated in that time. A mushy white bread sandwich with pickled pepperoncinis and a diabetes inducing slush are definitely more appealing at ten than at forty.

That said, the first sip of that eegees was like time warp to 1984. I could almost feel my mullet growing back on the spot.

I was recently gifted (twice) with bags of fresh Meyer lemons from a hyper producing tree in a friend's backyard. These lemons, a cross between a mandarin and a lemon, are amazingly sweet. Truly stunning flavor. These combined with a bag of limes from Costco and my whole living room ceases to smell like lamb kibble and Marley's drool. If that isn't worth the price of a bag of limes, I don't know what is.

As an added bonus, I am finding new excuses multiple times a day to slice one open.

Some lime in my tomato juice with a dash of tabasco. A squeeze of lemon in my water bottle. Fresh juice for stir fry. A little more for preserving a half eaten avocados. Used rinds for cleaning out the disposal. Fresh lemon juice for making apple crisp. A slice to squeeze in a burrito with Tapatio. Some lemon wedges for iced green tea. And maybe a few limes for making rounds of caipirinhas. At lunch on a shitty Monday.

Not that I would EVER do such a thing.

Got to Vegas and found I had been "upgraded" into a Jr. Suite at the Signature. Had two rooms, two bathrooms, office, king bed, full kitchen, bar, jaccuzzi, balcony, and a cool flat screen that popped up out of the desk.

I felt pretty good about my upgrade. Until I realized it was an upgrade into the same room everyone had. It was a suite hotel.

Still. Bigger than my first (and second) apartment.

I spent a few days in Mammoth last week. It was a nice change of pace, although a constant conflict between needing to work and wanting to play. What I learned driving up past that amazing blanket of white, with three to five feet of snow on every rooftop, the sidewalks covered head high with drifts and hardly an obstacle left on the mountain, was that I really, really should have been in town when all that was coming down. Sure, half the lifts would have been closed, but so what? I could have rode through the trees off stump or down from chair five all damn day happy as a clam.

A really cold clam, but happy nonetheless.

The drive back was typically long, lonely, and gorgeous. I wonder how many miles I have logged through the eastern Sierra in the last fifteen years or so. Between all those climbing trips to Bishop and Lone Pine, the road trips to Yosemite and Tahoe, and now, the dozens of runs to ride/slide/fall down a mountain. I figure I've made some sixty trips or so, average of 300 miles each way, comes out to 36K miles.

I think my last car had fewer miles on it before I turned it in!

Not sure when the next trip will be. I miss my time on the rock. I miss Crossroads Cafe. I miss bloody knuckles that aren't the result of a tug of war with a 97 pound boxer. I miss long, fast single track and caked on dirt.

But I also miss powder. I suppose I'll keep an eye out for storms and hope they conveniently coincide with free Fridays.

Clearly, I need more time to play.

In other, utterly random, unrelated news, whole wheat pasta tonight with a tomato sauce and sauteed eggplant and yellow squash with garlic, onion, red wine, olive oil and topped with a little bit of mozzarella.

Last night, rice noodles with stir fried tofu, radishes and cucumber in tamarind, soy sauce and sesame oil on a bed of green leaf lettuce.

Breakfast of scrambled egg whites, diced asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and feta.

Lunch today, egg burrito with black beans, diced tomatoes, avocado and green chilies.

Snacks of sliced grannysmith apples with dusting of cinnamon and agave nectar.

I've seriously been on a tear. No processed foods. It's like a mission. Can I make a meal in 15 minutes or less based on whatever random shit we have in the kitchen. I'm getting better at it.

In other, other utterly random news, a new season of Top Gear is begun (FINALLY), and I saw my first Veyron on PCH. An event almost as exciting as running into a young Angelina Jolie back in 2000.

Almost. But with virtually the same effect.

Boys will be boys. Vegas tomorrow. Ciao.

I've been in the process of redecorating this year. Only took about two years of noodling on this to finally pull the trigger. The last decade was hard on the previous living room furniture. It no longer looked good. The dogs had used them as napkins a weeeeee bit too often. The microfiber had long ago lost all it's fiber and probably found a few too many microorganisms. And frankly, after ten years, I was sick to death of looking at the same old shit.

So I painted the walls, moved some stuff around, and spent a little bit of dough on some new pieces. Sectional and silk pillows by LiveStyle in Venice Beach, Herman Miller Eames Lounge Chair and Classic steel cocktail table by Room and Board.

I plan to eventually replace the dining room chairs, the bar stools, the media console, and possibly, the bookcases. And the art might be reconfigured with new prints or new patterns. Not like I have a shortage of photography. Not sure on that yet. Maybe a collage of small prints. Maybe a few big pieces hanging around.

Most importantly, as it is DESPERATELY needed, I think I have the landlord on board with adding new laminate flooring and hope to have that installed inside a month or so. Nothing will help the place more than that.

A little water. A little asphalt. Cool, curvy reflection.

Not sure I liked this perspective as much as I liked the outcome.

Another pier sunset, this time shot through the life gaurd stand.

In other news, it's Monday. It's raining. And when the weather is bad, I'd rather be where bad weather is good weather.

Someplace where snow and gravity (and beer) make big smiles. Maybe next time.

And Mammoth Mountain, although not an unbiased source, anticipates 8 - 12 FEET of snow over the next two weeks.

And Joe has already rented his condo. Leaving me, well, out in the warm.

I may have to revisit those numbers for my own place in Mammoth. Of course, the only way to make said place profitable would be to let other people use it, so I'd still be left in SoCal during the storms.

Dammit. No matter how I slice it, these snow sports are expensive.

Regardless, anyone with a room, broadband and interest in a mid week trip, LET ME KNOW.

This made me remember, "Oh! I like whales!"

Despite the annual gray whale migration past OC, and the dozens and dozens of charters the leave right from Dana Point, I still haven't done a local whale watching tour yet. I've seen whales in Antarctica and Hawaii and Canada, but have never gone to visit them right outside my door.

Need to add that to my to-do list for this winter.

That and I need to budget some time and money this year for either diving with whale sharks or cage diving with great whites.

Yeah, I know we are talking about fish and mammals, but I've had these aquatic adventures on my bucket list for approaching a decade now. I think it's about time to scratch some of them off.