Two places to avoid...

1) The Standard Rooftop: bad, expensive drinks. Rude bartenders. Mucho attitude and annoying straight people. The view is better from Will Rogers State Park.

2) Hotcakes Bakes: Just trying to support my neighborhood establishments. I went back and the owner was rude to me... how dare I interrupt her baking?

Beer update (finally)

After making about five trips to the brew supply store, I finally I had all the equipment needed to bottle the beer. It made a mess and poor Greg was a good sport. The whole apartment smelled like beer. I gave some away as Christmas presents and have drank quite a few myself. Also, brought some up to Monterey for New Years to enjoy in the cold and rainy weather. There are only 12 left in the closet as they were a hit with everyone that tried it. Next up: a pale ale.

My beer brewing adventure

My friend Mark lent me his brew kit so I decided to give it a try. I went to this really nice brew shop close to our house. I also drove around all of Culver City, Marina del Rey, and Venice Beach looking for a place to fill my propane tank. I finally found a place behind Sony Pictures Studios (to think that Alex Trebek was just on the other side of that wall!). When I was at the grocery store buying ice and water, the cashier asked me what I was doing with all of this stuff. I told him and he made me promise that I would bring him one of my homemade beers. So I made the promise.

Anyway, I brought the six pounds of wheat extract (looks like really thick maple syrup and tastes pretty sweet) to a boil using five gallons of spring water...a LOT of beer. After it was done foaming (called the "hot break") I added the hops (tiny little pellets that smell like herbs and spices). I brought my beer "wort" (another word for this strange concoction) to a rolling boil for about an hour out on the deck. It gurgled and boiled and there was all kinds of strange crap floating around in it. It smelled so good... like sweet cereal... mmmm. I was out there watching it to make sure it did not boil over when our neighbor Kaitlin, was curious about what I was doing... ha ha ha! She was pretty happy to hear I was making beer even though she was hungover from the previous night. Then I cooled it in the kitchen sink by putting ice and cold water around it. It had to be cooled quickly from 200 degrees to 80 degrees and I then strained it into a sanitized bucket. I threw in the yeast when it was at 75 degrees. Next, I put a cover on the bucket along with an airlock that lets the CO2 out slowly (the by-product of the yeast eating all the sugary delight and making the precious alcohol). I put the bucket in the closet of the guest room to ferment for three weeks.

Amazingly, I did not have any huge disasters and it was not as much work as I thought it might be. In three weeks, I will bottle all of the beer and they will have to sit for another two weeks to get conditioned and carbonated. Just in time for new years.

Soon, many of our most famous residents may be gone!

They aren't native. They make a mess and provide no comfort (by means of shade). They do little to remove carbon dioxide from the air and are expensive to maintain. Wow... sounds alarmingly like many of the people who live in this lovely city. Alas: an article here about the slow death of the Southern California palm tree.

Two [almost dead] white dogs and one dead turkey

As you can see, I have been posting quite a bit here lately. It's mostly because I have had the week off and have nothing better to do. Or I actually have a life again and therefore have something to write about.

So let me first confess something. Well, I confess this sin for both Greg and I: we almost killed two cute white dogs. Our good friends Nate and Ryan asked us to housesit for them while they were up in Paso Roblos last weekend. I mean, maybe we tried to kill them because we were jealous that our friends were tasting wine without us, but I can asure you that was not the motive. Greg and I are just a little bit spacey. Somewhere along the line Ryan must have told us when they were getting back. But for some reason, we believed that they would be back on Sunday (when in fact they would be home on Monday afternoon). So we packed up all our stuff and left on Sunday morning. The dogs were home for over 24 hours by themselves. Amazingly, they did not starve to death and they didn't even have accidents in the house (hardly would they be called accidents at this point). Anyway, the dogs are alive and well. I couldn't afford to replace those pure-bred Westies anyway...

So on to Thanksgiving. We went to Sam and Pete's house after spending the morning with Adam. By the way, Adam made our apartment smell wonderful as he baked his little heart out in our kitchen: pumpkin pie and cream puff dessert. It was soooo good! Plus, he made this incredible shrimp dip thing. Of course, Sam and Pete's apartment looked gorgeous. Especially the table (see left).

I volunteered this year to bring the turkey. Yeah, you thought I was vegetarian but I ordered a free-range turkey from the natural foods store down the street. What the hell, I had almost killed two cute white dogs and didn't feel bad about that, so was I really supposed to care about an ugly ass turkey? But seriously, this turkey had a fine life pecking in the open fields before it was killed at the beginning of this week. Pete said there were a few feathers this hand plucked bird (yikes, now that is fresh!). I did try a bit, but I still don't care for meat all that much. I am thankful that the evil corporation of Tyson got none of our money this year.

After dinner we were all stuffed and Adam almost gave birth to his Thanksgiving Dinner Baby (see right). A walk around the block prevented his water from breaking. As you can see from the photo evidence, he was really pregnant looking and super grumpy like a real maternal maniac. Later in the evening, Frank stopped over and we listened to music and played games. Making it's second annual appearance, Greg's snoring filled the room at about 11pm. Below, you see a picture of Greg dealing out the leftovers for everyone to take home. By the way, if anyone wants any of Sam's fluffy buttery mashed potatoes we have about 10 pounds of them in our fridge.

The Hotel D&G

I begin this blog with Greg relaxing in his mint julep mask... oh wait... where is the mask? The title is not what you might be thinking. We did not stay a few nights at a boutique hotel in Beverly Hills that only caters to people who wear overpriced Italian shoes, tight pants, and gallons of cologne. I am talking about how my apartment became the hustling and bustling "Hotel Dan & Greg" of lovely Mar Vista (it sure beats the Jolly Roger Motel down the street). In case you are wondering our past guests included:
Monday - David arrives
Tuesday - Chris arrives
Wednesday - Chris departs, Adam arrives
Thursday - at 4am, David departs; Adam departs
...next Wednesday - parents arrive

All of this comes with a free shuttle service to wherever you please. Trips to downtown are frequent and depart daily. May include side tour of skid-row and tent city* and wrong turns down dark streets/alleys. *Not responsible for any loss of personal belongings.

Okay, for real. I had a great time showing off my lovely city. It was 80 on Monday and I took David to the beach.

On Monday night, we hosted the fabulous "second bi-annual make-your-own-pizza" party.

This picture to the left shows our first guest to arrive: Fran(k). He made a delicious summer squash pizza. In addition to this precious chef, we had a lot of friends here including Ryan and Nate, Chris, Kent, Jeanette and Joel, Tyler, Kaila, Tim, Melissa, Ryan A., and Brian. Greg beat everyone at Mario Kart on Nintendo:
This is an example of one of the pizzas (they did not last long!)... look at these hungry bitches.

Better than Sprinkles?

I just had a cupcake from this new place by our apartment called Hotcakes Bakes. You may or may not know but along with the overpriced frozen yogurt fad (Pinkberry) is the Los Angeles overpriced cupcake fad. Luckily these cupcakes are not as overpriced as the world famous Sprinkles in Beverly Hills. The frosting is not as thick (but still tasty) and the red velvet cake inside is moist and delicious! The lady that runs the shop is french and I will definitely be back to taste the amazing looking baguettes...