She's Baaaack!

Wow--it sure is easy to get out of the habit of blogging. It's been a busy couple of weeks, so let me catch y'all up on what I've been doing:

Thursday, July 30th, my sister Laurie and brother-in-law Dennis got into town to visit me for a couple of days after finishing the load-in of Wicked in San Diego. Laurie brought me a t-shirt from Heavenly Cupcake. It's got the store logo on the front and says, "I'm so frosted!" on the back. Very cute. Looks great with my white linen shorts.

After we chatted for a bit, we went to grab a bite to eat. I wanted to take them to Violet which is located right down the street from me. We trekked there on foot, but when we arrived the restaurant was closed. As in no longer in business. Their website was up when we headed there, but as of today it's been pulled down.

Plan B was to trek back, get in the car and drive north to Fig. When we figured out where Fig was located, it turned out to be in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel. Laurie and Dennis weren't sure how they felt about a restaurant in a fancy-schmancy hotel so we went to Plan C, Manchego. Although it was after 8 pm by the time we got there, and the tiny little restaurant doesn't have a liquor license which necessitated a run to the liquor store to get a bottle of wine, Manchego turned out to be a great selection.

We tried almost everything on the Tapas menu and just about all of it was excellent. Stand-outs were the grilled zucchini, feta cheese and caramelized pecans and the lamb lollipops chops.

Friday, July 31st, Dennis and Laurie showed up about 1:30 pm and did some laundry. A stagehand friend who was living in Beverly Hills with his wife and kids invited us over for a cook-out so after laundry we spent time running to Whole Foods, a wine store and the Santa Monica Seafood company to get stuff to bring to the cookout. Andy and Amy had two adorable rugrats named Eli and Sydney, a sweet dog named Emma and a very friendly cat named Monkey. I spent most of the evening petting Monkey 'cuz Laurie, Dennis and Andy went off on a four hour long riff on stagehand stuff and between the wingnuts and winches I had no idea what the hell they were talking about.

Saturday, we went down to Venice to House of Ink where I've gotten five out of six of my tattoos done. My regular tattoo artist was no longer there, but Dennis and I forged ahead with our tattoo plans. Number seven for me, number one for Dennis.

Laurie wussed out.

I got a phoenix on my lower left abdomen. I thought that given how much "cushioning" I have in that region, the tattoo would be the least painful of all.

I was so wrong.

It was pretty excruciating, but it looked great when it was done. It's going through the itchy, scabby, scaly phase right now, but will be fully healed soon.

Dennis got a Grateful Dead logo with the words, "Don't Look Back..." underneath on his upper arm. The tattoo is a reference to the Don Henley song "Boys of Summer":

"Out on the road today
I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
A little voice inside my head said,
"Don't look back. You can never look back."

Pretty cool, eh?

That evening we met up with my friends Dave and Kat in Silverlake. They took us to their favorite Italian restaurant, Aroma. When we finally were seated, I spotted my co-worker Pete having dinner with his lovely wife.

Small world!

Dinner was excellent. I had the filet mignon in red wine and herb sauce. So delicious! Before being seated, I had taken the waiter aside and told him to make sure to bring me the bill. Laurie and Dennis had picked up the tab Thursday night and last time Dave and Kat visited me they paid for dinner, so it was my turn. Unfortunately, Dennis also told the waiter to bring HIM the bill, but Dave beat us all and picked up the tab.

I told the waiter I was really pissed at him, but he said, "What can I say? He threatened to kill me if I didn't give him the bill. I have three kids..."

Sunday, we went up to Sherman Oaks to see my friend Danny in a series of one acts. Afterward we drove to Venice and checked out Gjelina, the latest Los Angeles "it" spot. It was good and we had the good fortune of sitting next to a very friendly couple, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I was with Aroma and Manchego.

That brings us up-to-date through August 2nd. I'll post more to catch up later, plus I've got a movie review for an upcoming release, skin care product review, some Republic of Tea stuff and more. So stick around and thanks for hanging in there!