Weekend.

Hellllooo everybody. We just had an EARTHQUAKE!! Ok, it wasn't really all that exciting...Preston was laying (lying? I never get this correct) on the floor (he just does. I don't know the why) and I was sitting next to him on the floor and the windows rattled. That's it. Now, we were both on the floor...and felt nothing from the ground. To be honest, I wasn't even sure it WAS an earthquake until it was confirmed by friends on the great source of knowledge ;) known as Facebook. Such a funny earthquake. Apparently, it was a 3.5 in Baldwin Hills...the SECOND earthquake in this area today. 

I don't even know where Baldwin Hills is...please hold for googling. 

Ohhh it's a fancy name for Crenshaw! I blame Dr. Dre for my biased opinions of anything mentioned in his songs or conversations. Wikipedia says it's an 'affluent' neighborhood with notable residents such as Michael J. Fox. Wellll. 

Baldwin Hills is also home to an oil field...which, brings to mind fracking. Two small earthquakes in nearly as many hours? Hrmm. Fracking? 

But this is Sunday! And this is a weekend post. Before Sunday, there was Friday and then Saturday.

I got out of work a bit early on Friday (woot woot) and celebrated by binge shopping for cheese at Whole Foods. I just needed a snack. I blame Paris. I picked up some of my most favorite and absurdly expensive "Spicy Gouda Dip", but when I got home...it was all wrong. It was just wrong. It wasn't Gouda. It was like, oily. ugh.  I can't even talk about it. We will pretend it didn't happen and continue to buy it at every chance, since it is THE best thing in the World. 

I'm reading another good book-'The Husband's Secret',so I HAD to go read for a bit in the tiny remaining patch of sun at the corner of our neighbor's apartment. It feels sooooo good to be gobbling up books again!! I've always been an avid reader, but sometimes I get in these reading ruts. I've been suffering through the damn 'Dark Tower' series for six months. It was like a chore to read, so these other books are like candy! Despite my struggle with the Dark Tower...I will admit it's in my head. Damn that Stephen King. It's a very love/hate feeling. 

Then I cleaned and listened to Fleetwood Mac-lamenting not to be at their concert happening THAT night in LA. blast. 

I made a GIANT serving of roasted veggies with tempeh for dinner and Preston and I watched the documentary "Lost Angels" about Skidrow in downtown LA. Pretty interesting. Looks like a rough place, but I have to admit that I see a lot of homeless and crazy things just in day to day life here. Then we watched a documentary about the sinking of the Titanic and I got seriously reminiscent about the movie, which I've seen more times than I think is healthy to admit. I'm quite sure I've spent more than AN ENTIRE DAY OF MY LIFE watching that movie.  I now totally want to sit down for 4 hours and watch it again. It's SO good! :P 

Saturday morning was cool and crisp...aka freezing here. Seriously. Preston and I ran around shutting all our windows. After my 30 mins of yoga, I sat outside in the sun reading more of my book. What is this husband's secret?!

                        

More cleaning---this time trying to go through some bags of clothes. It's insane I lived so long on our trip with so little...b/c now I want ALL my clothes and I have a very many. I really need to thin it out. 2/3 of my clothes are in our storage unit in Long Beach. I picked up a couple bags last weekend when we were down there. It's seriously crazy. I have a lot of clothes and I love them all. I'm not even a very fashionable person, but I do like options. :D

ANYWAY...per usual, anytime I go near anything that could have even one dust mite on it...I get sick and sneezy, so I had to go sit outside in the sun and read some more. It really is the only cure. ;)

Then I made these cookies and they are mostly butter and sugar and oh my gosh...they are good. Like, GOOD. Like, you will eat them all and then feel kind of bad about yourself. I used pecans instead of walnuts. I'm trying to use up all this oatmeal I have left over since Preston dropped his fad of eating giant bowls of it every morning. 

In the late afternoon, our friends Jake and Elizabeth came over to check out this live music place near our house. After hanging at our place a bit, we headed down to the bar. Preston was there with a friend for dinner on a blues night a few weeks ago and wanted to check it out again.

We had typical bar food, which was actually really good AND prepared by our bartender on a hot plate type set up at the end of the bar. Pork sliders, two flat bread pizzas, and a turkey burger. Wow. She seriously only had a microwave, a toaster, and a small griddle thing. We HAD to tip her well. 

Soundcheck 1 2 

And then, the band came on. Oh my goodness. haha. I'm laughing just to remember. They were SO bad. I mean, SO bad. After an hour long (and sort of embarrassing) sound check...the band began playing and we all just looked at each other. I think I even mouthed the word 'no' to Preston. Lol! The band was 3 old guys...that would NEVER have been rock stars (like-really really nerdy) and an out of place young drummer. The lead singer was REALLY into it. I think he's lived for this all week. And even though he had on jeans and a button down...he was embracing his inner David Bowie. At least, I think that's who he was trying to sound like. The lyrics just repeated over and over in this strange deep voice while he flailed around making air love to his uncomfortable looking band mates. It was awesome. We only stayed for two songs. It felt wrong to leave after just the first. Preston said the only thing that could have redeemed them after the opening song was if they had played the instrumental from Charlie Brown. hahah! What?!

That is a great song.

We headed back to our place and I went to bed not long after because a) I don't really drink and b) I'm super old. 

Sunday morning...more yoga. More reading. Preston sat in the sun with me when he got home from surfing. I finished the book! It was great. I recommend.

                        

Jake and Elizabeth stopped by to get their car. We chatted with them for a bit in the sunshine. 

Gianna came over for a hike, but we decided for a bike ride instead. I've been in search of this bakery I've heard of called Gjusta. Evidently, it's all the rage down in Venice. Gianna and I grabbed our bikes, which ironically used to belong to she and Gavin, and we headed down to the beach path.

                       

It was treacherous riding today as there were tons of people around. Basically we spent the whole time manuvering around pedestrians lolly gagging in the bike lane. Angry face. We took to the alleys for more space and less walkers (I can't think this word without imagining Rick Grime's gruff voice). Everyone in the alleys was super friendly and smiley. Our people! We made it to Marina Del Rey and turned back and inland to find...GJUSTA.

                     

Talk about an unassuming place. It's so cool that there isn't even a sign out front. I guess it's all just word of mouth? 'We are so incredibly tasty and awesome...we don't even advertise on our OWN building.' ??  I was even MORE intrigued.

                      

                      

We locked up the bikes and strolled in to hang open-mouthed over the display cases. YUM! They had freshly baked bread, dips, sandwiches, pastries, cakes, cookies, salads, coffees and more. Mmmm. The excellent and friendly staff were SO helpful. Gianna got a cucumber ginger (? I think) juice (that was laughably small) and some carrot cake to take home to Gavin. I got TWO baguettes, a totally impulse decision--I was just so excited to see REAL baguettes after so long that I couldn't help myself, and some black olive tapenade. 

                       

Baguettes in my bag

                                

     

Go-ddesses of the Venice Alleyways ;)

From Gjusta, we biked it on home....me feeling ridiculous for buying TWO giant baguettes. Preston was there pregaming Game of Thrones with MORE Game of Thrones and we jumped into the baguettes and tapenade...whereupon it became readily obvious that I had made the absolute correct decision in buying TWO giant baguettes. Oh my gosh...they were good, with like a hint of honey. And the tapenade? Divine!! We ate it ALL and an entire baguette. haha!! 

                                

Gianna, who is like a foodical genius went home and immediately recreated the tapenade. Incredible. She's always dissecting food into its many parts so that she can figure out how to make it. She's so incredibly smart and it's so interesting to witness. She's already posted it on her blog! 

The aftermath

I made this orzo soup for dinner (quite tasty) and we dug into the second baguette. #noshame. Game of Thrones, earthquake, bed. The usual.

Happy Monday!! :)