Hard At Work

It is important to teach today's youth that there are no free rides in life. This week while Carly is in Hawaii, I have the great fortunate of spending time with Mayzie. She's an ideal sidekick -- up for anything, easy on the eyes, and loves to snuggle. Mayzie even likes to go to the office and chill while I am working. I thought she might make better use of her time by helping out, but thus far, she hasn't picked up a single call.

My babies!!

I have only had minimal success with my compost bin, but I still have faith that black gold is in my near future. While recently grousing about my lack of composting success, Tony suggested I start a worm farm instead. My first question was, "will I have to touch them?"

Tony wisely knew there would be a barrage of questions to follow my squeemish inquiry, so he suggested we attend a "Smart Gardening" workshop at the LA Arboretum. Thus, at 8 am on Saturday morning, Tony collected Alexis and I and off we went to smarten ourselves up.

This handsome fella greeted us at the entrance.



Spring in full bloom!



Here's the instructor dolling out useful information while we sat next to a boy scout troupe.



And here they are! My precious little worms. One nice part about worms is that if they are unhappy, they will try to leave the worm farm. I am pleased to report that after two days, the critters love what I am feeding them!

Jackie Bon Voyage!

The wonderful Jackie has decided to move back to Wisconsin. After eight years of sharing a librarian's desk (two desks that face each other), she is moving on to bigger and better.

I still haven't really come to terms with losing someone whom I enjoy spending 45 hours a week with, so I'm at a loss for words. I still don't want to believe it is true!

Although I am hoping and praying that she will fall in love with and marry an owner of a cheese curd factory and then she will send me my weight in cheese curds whenever I want!!

Love you, Crack-o-linda!!

Double O Chef

In January, I had the delight of living with William and Karina, which meant that an insane amount of hilarity was had and a professional chef cooked breakfast and dinner almost every day. Below is a video of William's pilot -- it gives you a 'taste' of his fun factor and chef skills. Hey network execs, buy this pilot. I want to see more of William's adventures!

Yum, wine.

My love of recycling continues. You've read about recycling CDs here and toilet paper/paper towel rolls here, random things here. Today I learned about corks.

Corks derive from the outer bark of the Cork Oak, commonly found along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where there is ample sunshine, low rainfall and high humidity. The bark is stripped with a long-handled hatchet and then pried away from the tree. This can be done every 8 to 14 years for as long as the tree lives and does not harm the tree at all. After the slabs are washed, holes are punched out to make bottle stoppers.

And there you go. A while back, I began saving corks from my favorite bottles on wine. I thought it would be fun to look through the pile and reminisce about joyous times with vino. That trip down memory lane never happened and before surprisingly not long at all, I had two large jars filled with wine corks.

I wish I had known about ReCORK before I threw mine away. ReCORK collects wine corks from restaurants and individuals and turns them into shoes by SOLE footwear products. Billions of corks fill landfills per year, so using ReCORK is just another beneficial and easy way to make a difference. Certainly better than making a cork sport jacket!

Birthday Merrymaking

The Artiste's wife, the stunning Penny, celebrated her birthday with 26 friends in the private room at Boa this weekend. A heavy flow of drinks, an impeccable meal, lots of dancing to never heard before music, some cake on the face -- the jubilee didn't miss a thing. Here's one of Arnold, the glowing Penny, and Jules.



And one of Tom and I.



There were a ton more pix, but certainly not appropriate for uploading to the web! The evening finished off a friend's house playing Celebrity, my new favorite party game.

Alice in Wonderland

"I wonder if I've change in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!" Alice from Alice in Wonderland

The vibrant colors and childlike whimsy of the El Capitan make it the ideal place for viewing Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. Stephen and I love seeing the blockbusters, like The Chronicles of Narnia, there because of the commemorative popcorn tubs and the props museum.




Before the wondrous whirlwind with Alice, we went to the W Hollywood's new french brasserie, Delphine. Glorious mussels and french fries. And a beautiful room lined with bookshelves filled with french books. Can't wait to go back.

RIP Nipsey Russell Stiefel

Arnold's beloved child, Nipsey, passed away today. Nipsey was like no other.

I remember house sitting and doggie watching him in East Hampton in the summer of 1997. I would go swimming in the pool and he would run along side and bark at me. A few times, I managed to bring him in the pool with me, but he never stayed in very long. A few more summers in the Hamptons at houses with pools and cut to Nipsey, the aquatic dog.

Whenever Arnold went to Rod's house, Nipsey would bound out of the car, sprint to Rod's pool and dive in from the deep end. He'd do a lap to the stairs in the shallow end, then climb out, shake off, and sprint to the deep end again for another lap. He would often do this for 30 minutes until his belly swelled up from drinking half the pool water.

In the colder, non-swimming weather, Nipsey still needed exercise. So four times a week, Arnold would bring him to the Beverly Hills Hotel and the valet guys would run him hard for thirty minutes. Usually it was Nipsey would drag them along!

Nipsey's bold personality and independent spirit will definitely be missed.

Breaking News

The lovely Olanna passed along this excellent video from the Onion News Network, the satire news organization. It's a hysterical spoof on a very serious issue. **WARNING do not press play if you are watching in your office or in ear-shot of kiddies -- lots of baaaad words!**


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

New Favorite Songs

The High Road, this beautifully sad song is by the band, Broken Bells. A collaboration between Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and James Mercer (lead singer of The Shins). Mercer's vocals have been described as taking off for other worlds, then rolling back into a gospel-ly chorus in falsetto.



This next song goes in a different direction. While doing some research about MTVU.com, Mtv's new spin-off website for college kids, I spotted an artist that I met last week named Dev. The hardness of the songs reminds me of the Beastie Boys mixed with M.I.A. I'm so pleased to share this new, amazing artist!

Short Animated Films

I was curious about the Oscar's Best Short Animated Film nominees, so I hit up google. Here are the links if you'd like to check them out.

Logorama -- winner
French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Logorama was clever and unique with the usage of brand names and mascots -- reminiscent of Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can art. The Pulp Fiction references made me laugh and my unexplainable crush on the Jolly Green Giant has now increased substantially.


Wallace and Gromit in Loaf and Death was, in my humble opinion, slightly better than Logorama. The thrilling story of a serial killer offing bakers is more fluid and even though Gromit doesn't speak, he is beyond adorable. Wallace and Gromit's creator/director, Nick Park, has already won four Oscars (nominated six times), so it's nice that this year someone else got a bit of glory!

Oscar Pool Winner

Congratulations Austin! He raced past the pack and won the pool with correct answers to 15 of the 18 categories and therefore will receive a gift certificate to Burke Williams. Although there is only a prize for the winner, huge kudos to Shawn in 2nd and to Adeeb and Kim in their tie for 3rd. It was a tight competition!

And thanks to everyone else for participating too. This year's pool was the biggest one to date. (Okay, yes, this is only the 2nd year!)

Shawn's Birthday

Happy Birthday Shawn!

To celebrate, Austin rented a 3-bedroom house in Palm Springs for the weekend and thoughtfully paid extra to have the pool heated to a tropical temperature. YES!!

Here we are at Wang's In the Desert celebrating. Technically Shawn was born at 3:00 am, so we were a little early!



I got frisky with the Wang's soldier. . .or was it the soldier's wang?



The birthday jubilee continued at the stunning, Jonathan Adler designed, Parker for brunch.


Andrew with a glass cowboy hat meant to be a coffee table ornament as seen below in the picture with Shawn and Austin. Andrew is such a fireball!


Birthday boy and his lovaaah!


Delicious Huevos Rancheros.


Studs


Group shot in front of the funky decor.


The Cahns and their bodyguard


I tried to strike a pose like Hamburger Mary until I realized that she had something that I didn't!

Office Fun

One aspect of my job, aside from not being a good bodyguard, is to work on tour advertising -- whether it be full-page spreads in newspapers, gigantic billboards or television commercials. After finalizing the 15- and 30-second tv spots, wouldn't you know it. . .Dubai wanted a 60-second version. So the amazing Jon Shults, emailed this new ad for approval. Notice the venue where Rod is performing -- Jon sure knows how to have fun while working!

Tourists

More pictures from Duma and Alexis's visit. Here we stopped at the Mulholland look-out to view the Hollywood sign.



Hollywood, I love you.



How cool does the Hollywood Bowl look nestled into the hill?

You Go Kazu!

Kazu holds my top spot for sushi spots in LA -- as mentioned here and here. That is why I was so thrilled to see Kazu get some free pr from The New York Post's Page Six today.


The small copy on the photo may be too small to read, so:

George Clooney and girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis leave Kazu Sushi in LA's Studio City after a double-date with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt.

I'm puzzled how the paparazzi ended up outside of Kazu on Ventura Boulevard but absolutely delighted that this may generate more business for the thoroughly talented sushi chef. Congratulations, Kazu-san.

Erewhon

Whole Foods' nickname is Whole Paycheck because no matter how little you think you are buying, the final tally is always surprising. I wonder how often the cashiers see bulging eye balls during a shift?

Whole Foods, however, has nothing on Erewhon Natural Foods Market. I am a sucker for healthy food trends -- in the past, I've rushed out and purchased acai, goji berries, wheatgrass, and coconut water. I can't say that any of those provided the miracles that were advertised, but at least the acai tasted good.

Recently, Arnold's Chinese herbalist, Dr. Drew, recommended switching from peanut butter to almond butter. Sorry Jif and Skippy, but you are loaded with saturated fat and unnecessary sugars. That same day, Arnold dispatched his housekeeper to buy almond butter and remove all jars and thus temptation of peanut butter from the house. Yet after a few weeks, the almond butter jar remained in the fridge unopened. Waste not, want not. I decided to give it at try. Not as smooth and creamy, but also not bad and with added benefits. Thus, I went to the health food store and bee-lined to the almond butter section.

This is what I found:



FORTY-ONE DOLLARS? That wasn't even the most expensive jar! Erewhon, are you for real?

Oscar Pool

Click on the link below to join in my Oscar pool! It's an exciting night and you could be a winner too by choosing who will be going home with trophies! As a reminder, please vote for who WILL win, not who deserves it the most or who you wish would have won!

I skipped the pool last year, but the 2008 winner was Andrew Cahn. Will he reign for two Oscar pools in a row?

SUBMIT YOUR BALLOT HERE