Entries from September 2009 ↓

In less than 5 days I’ll be in Los Angeles for this year’s Adobe MAX.

The conference is Monday the 5^th through Wednesday the 7^th, but I’m flying in on Saturday in order to get some time as a tourist. I’ve been thinking about things I want to see in the day I’ll have on my own (with a rental car) and wanted to note them here for my reference.

• Kristi and I saw 500 Days of Summer on her birthday earlier this month. I instantly fell in love with it, and I had also just discovered that I was going to be attending Adobe MAX. There is a walking tour on Google Maps that I plan to use as a resource. It’s great because I’ll be staying at the Sheraton near the Fine Arts Building—why, yes, I’d love to start my tour there.
• I absolutely have to see the Hollywood sign.
• Similarly, I hope to drive up Mulholland Highway to Mount Lee for a fantastic view of LA. Hopefully the weather cooperates.
• It would be fun to see the Sunken City at Point Fermin. Also of note: Point Fermin is where Walter “spread” Donny’s ashes in The Big Lebowski.
• I definitely need to go see Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. What kind of tourist would I be if I missed those?
• I need to scope out some restaurants to visit during Los Angeles’ Restaurant Week. I’m looking primarily in the downtown area for a good dinner on Sunday and Wednesday night, though I might be willing to go somewhere a bit further on Saturday night. Any recommendations?
• My travel buddy, Erin, mentioned finding Wahoo’s Fish Taco, so maybe we’ll lunch at one of those on Sunday. This may also be a good opportunity to visit Manhattan Beach.

Please let me know if I’ve missed anything that I must see!

Last weekend Jason and I went down to Hastings to visit an apple orchard. When we arrived at Afton Apple we were told that we were one weekend too early to pick Honeycrisps. It was not-so-secret that I wasn’t terribly excited to visit an apple orchard, so took this as a sign that we should continue south the visit Alexis Bailly Vineyards.

It was a quiet, cute little farm. Volunteers were picking grapes for harvest. Some bachelorettes were eating soft cheeses on the patio. I scraped together $5 to taste 10 of their wines.

I tasted in this order: Seyval Blanc, Country White (my top pick for white), Rose Noir, Country Red, Frontenac, Voyageur (my top pick for red), Hastings Reserve, Chocolate Reserve Port, Ratafia, and Isis Ice Wine (yum yum yum yum yum yum!).

Before we left, we even got to try the Ratafia mixed with the Country White then mixed with Seyval Blanc. The Ratafia was good, but it was just so sweet—mixing it with one of the whites helped lessen the intensity.

The Chocolate Reserve Port tasted just like a tootsie roll.

I could’ve chugged all of my tastes within 5 minutes, but I decided it was best to keep it classy. It’s somewhat difficult to make each taste of wine last 10 minutes, though I did my best.

Dude, it’s Alexis Bailly.

As we left, Jason and I couldn’t remember the name of the Ratafia, so now it’ll always be known as the Rastafarian. This is funny, but probably not for the best.

Grapes grapes grapes. They tasted just okay (I only ate one, I swear).

After our visit to the winery, Jason and I toured Hastings.

He made up fantastic lies about Hastings that I probably would’ve believed.

And we stumbled upon the Saturday Night Cruise-In.

I don’t know anything about cars, but I do know that the old ones always look good in photographs.

Especially up close.

It’s interesting to see what some people are obsessed with. (Scooby Doo? Really?)

This car had actual holes in the door. Real or fake? And if they’re fake, why why why?

“La Dolce Vita”

It certainly is.

Downtown Hastings also has some excellent facades.

Before we got back in the car to head home, we sat on a bench along the Mississippi and ate cheese curds and mini donuts. Excellent dinner, really.

We also went to Wisconsin for a minute. Why not? We got to see a very lovely sunset during our return to Minnesota.

The kitchen before:

And after (not put back together yet, oops):

I love the yellow, but now the next big project (maybe next Spring) will be painting all of the cabinetry white. And should I re-tile the backsplash? Decisions, decisions.

The living room before:

And after:

Thanks to Matt of Tapes ‘N Tapes for the very comfortable sofa. (Proof that even rock stars use craigslist!) Additional thanks to Jason for finding it and getting it to my apartment! Now I need to re-hang my curtains and find some art. Maybe someday I’ll even take the painters’ tape down.

I just can’t stop admiring it — I am loving all of the colors!

Over the past month, I’ve eaten a hot pocket (lean pocket, actually) and yogurt for lunch (at work) almost every day.

But I find this exceptionally hilarious:

Hey, I got a new tattoo. It’s very itchy today (but I’m not scratching!).

Stuart recently began apprenticing at Tough Love Studio in south Minneapolis. He needed some victims volunteers to begin his new adventure in tattooing, so I said “sure.”

I found an image of a bison cave drawing through Google, and Stuart worked with the image to customize it for tattooing. He did a very lovely job; I’m very happy with it!

The colors in the tattoo are perfect — when it heals a bit more and calms down, it’ll look nice and organic. Maybe I’ll call it my bison birthmark.

Stuart kept his workstation very orderly. It was all very clean and comforting.

After a brief break so I could stretch my leg, little droplets of water (or is that ink?) would gather on the tattoo as if it was sweating. I thought that was kind of cool — this is the first tattoo I’ve gotten that I could actually watch while it was being done. My first tattoo was a scorpion (because I’m a scorpio) in 2000, and the second was a very small line-drawing of a rooster I doodled in Germany in 2004).

The actual tattooing was more uncomfortable than I remember it being, but I suffered through pretty well (though not without verbalizing “ow ow ow”).

This was the sketch Stuart created before making his stencil. There were slight modifications between this and the final tattoo that we discussed beforehand.

I go back for a touch-up in about a month!

When we were done, Stuart wrapped me up and we went out for a celebratory beer. Yay for a new pet!