Back in the Saddle

It's been a few days since my last entry, but I'm back. Judging by all of the fan mail, email, and irate voice mail messages, I was apparently missed quite a bit. Allow me to issue my most sincere apology and a whole truckload of excuses. Okay, I'll spare you the excuses. It's been a busy few days since I last had some free time and a free thought. Well, that's not totally true. I did have some free time, but for much of that, I had no internet access, so we'll chalk it up to being busy. Let me catch you up.

On Thursday, I worked from home, getting caught up with a customer whose whole world was coming crashing down as he was having extreme difficulties making something work while his supervisors breathed down his neck. While I was on this extended phone call/chat/troubleshooting session, I got a call from my daughter reminding me that she wanted me to fry some chicken and bring it to her potluck/presentation/parent's night for the science-for-girls program that she's been a part of this year. I thought I had plenty of time to get this done, but as the day wore on and I was still dealing with this client, I started to have doubts. With 2 hours remaining, I had decided to buy some chicken from Popeye's or the Colonel. However, the amount of money that they wanted for that amount of fowl was downright foul, so I hopped in the car and high-tailed it on over to the store to buy some of my own chicken. I got home and proceeded to fry enough chicken for 20 people in a little under 90 minutes. I had 2 frying pans going at one point and its a miracle that I wasn't covered in flour by the time I had to dash out the door to deliver this bird.

Friday it was jazz, strip steak, and dessert. A wonderful evening indeed. Oops! I almost forgot about the shrimp cocktail. When you get off to a good start like that, you've gotta bring it home with something solid on the back-end. Dessert was so good that it didn't even make it back to the table, indulging right there at the counter.

Saturday, should've been somewhat relaxing and should've contained some idle time but I was put in charge of music by my frantic cousin whose to-do list had become too much to handle. My travel drought was about to end as I would board Southwest flight 1204 to Los Angeles to attend my cousin's 40th birthday party. She said she wanted something cool, but funky. Smooth and sophisticated, but something that might make people want to dance. "I got this...don't worry." She was worried though. Real worried. I came through in grand style. Amoeba records is always a good spot for such a requirement. I grabbed a couple mix-tape selections by DJ Haylow and the latest from Madlib ("Who!?? What the...? I told you Jay-Z!" exclaimed my cousin) and headed for the airport. When I landed at LAX, she was not there to pick me up, but on the other side of town picking up a cake and still in search of the elusive magic purse that she had been trying to corral for the last 4 days (and 4 hours on this day). So I sat and waited...and waited. Finally, she sent a friend of hers to pick me up. Langston and I were making our way out of Soviet Asia so the time flew by. The party was a nice little affair at a swanky Indian restaurant called Tanzore and even though we arrived nearly 3 hours late (yes, I was with the guest of honor)a good time was had by all. By the way, my music was a hit.

Sunday was lounging in La La Land. First it was breakfast at the Coffee Co. and then a stroll through Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade. One of my other cousin's was hell-bent on doing a cupcake tour or Los Angeles, so we accompanied her on this leg of it. Yummy Donuts on Wilshire was the spot of the moment. Talk about decadence. There were 6 of us and she ordered 8 huge cupcakes. These weren't your average cupcakes, like you might expect to get from a plastic wrapper in the junk food aisle. Although, they purposely made one to look like a Hostess cupcake, not only complete with the white swirls on the top but also injected with whipped cream in the middle. The 7up cupcake had a gummy lemon and lime on top. My favorite was the Red Velvet. She cut the cupcakes into 1/4s and we all dug in. It was a little too soon after that huge breakfast to do much more than taste, and the exorbitant amount of frosting on these cupcakes made it easy for me to adhere to that plan. Next time, I'll come hungry and bring some milk. We walked this off with a stroll to Pacific Park on the Boardwalk, and then lounged the rest of the afternoon away at the luxurious Loews Hotel, sipping Malbecs by the pool deck, that overlooked Santa Monica Beach.

More wine tasting ensued later in the evening, but why don't I use that as a nice segue for tomorrow's entry? Yeah, I thought you'd agree.