Four Days Over

Our game. My highest scoring word was "toxic."

I'm spending my remaining hours of Christmas watching Elf on tv. How the four day weekend has flown by. My parents came up from the OC and stayed with us for a couple days. It was only the second time they stayed overnight. I felt pretty grown up having them here, even though my mom cooked all the meals. Funny how some things don't change. We showed them Disney Hall. We walked around the Farmers Market at The Grove. And we played a very good game of Scrabble with my dad. It was a complete game, with my dad and I getting rid of all our letters (Octopus couldn't get rid of his Q). Hope you all had a great Christmas.


Not quite what you want to see at the Farmers Market. Especially during the holidays.

Your Friday Afternoon Video #19: Little Drummer Boy

David Bowie and Bing Crosby Christmas duet.

Goodbye Time

I'm in the kind of mood where I put on The Carpenters and listen to Superstar over and over again. Only tonight I'm listening to Dusty Springfield do The Windmills of Your Mind over and over. I'm a late discoverer of Dusty Springfield (as in I bought Dusty in Memphis over the weekend and before that really only knew her from Son of a Preacher Man). It's the kind of night where I listen to melancholy music, mull over time passed, feel a sense of loss over another year gone by. The kind of night where it should be snowing.

"I've Been Channed!"

That's "channed" as in chanchow, thank you very much.

Apparently, this phrase has come into use in the DC area. At first I was aghast and embarrassed that this phrase existed, but now I'm amused, even flattered, and in my self-promoting effort to become part of pop culture (and possibly an entry in wiki or a superpoke on Facebook) I am sharing this story with my millions of readers.

The origins of being "channed":

Several years ago I was at magazine party in NYC and some guy started talking to me. At the end he asked me for my number and, for some reason, I gave him my business card. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but I wasn't looking to date him and I hoped that he wouldn't call. (I know, I should've just said No, but being a girl, I said "here's my card" when really I meant No.)

A few days later he called me at work. I was pretty surprised and secretly wished that the call had gone into voicemail. Here's the gist of the conversation:

Him: "Do you want to hang out this weekend?"

Me: "Uh, well, I don't think so... Cuz, um, I have to do my taxes."

Zing! He got the point.

Fast forward to last year when this guy started working in the same office as one of my good friends. This friend was at the same magazine party and he relayed this story about being turned down for taxes. Long story short, he now refers to this as being "channed."

So here's my definition:

to chan (also, to be channed): to reject or decline by giving a barely plausible or transparently made up explanation. For example, "I have to chan him" or "Bitch channed me."

Have you channed or been channed? Please do share. And please feel free to use this word in your normal, everyday life!

Anti-Mansionization

"...a homeowner in West Los Angeles tore down an 1,886-square-foot home and replaced it last year with a two-story, 13,874-square-foot residence -- on a 13,000-square-foot lot." - From the LA Times article.

LA is considering a law that would limit the square footage of new and rebuilt houses in certain parts of the city. I'm all for this. I don't like big houses. I don't want to live in one. I don't want to live near one. How big is too big? In my opinion, unless you have a huge family that lives with you, I don't think you need more than 3,000 sq ft.

One of my favorite things about Eagle Rock is that there is no tract housing. The area is full of houses built in the 20's and 30's. Every house is different and the size of the house is proportional to the size of the lot. Some houses are pretty big and grand, but for the most part they are old and have character and are situated on big lots.

The Wire is the Sh*t

Dominic West as McNulty (foreground).

I'm not big on crime dramas (other than SVU) or other macho stuff, but after hearing about The Wire I thought I'd put it on our Netflix queue. Man oh man, this show is good. It takes a few episodes to ease in-- there are a lot of characters and the accents are hard to understand (we've started watching with subtitles)-- but once you're in, you're hooked.

We just finished watching the first season. Season 2 is in the mail. Season 5 (the final season) begins on HBO in January. A friend says that the show has gotten better every season, so I'm looking forward to spending this winter with the cops and criminals of Baltimore.


From 300 (I hated this movie). That's him again in front, looking a little too hunkalicious for me.

Your Friday Afternoon Video #18: Michael Jackson at the '84 Grammys

Sorry, I couldn't resist posting this footage of MJ at the Grammys with his entourage- Brooke Shields, Webster, Janet and LaToya (looking like Wonder Woman).

This will be the last MJ post for a while, I promise.

Awards Show Season

'Tis the season that awards nominations get announced. The only awards show I ever make a point of watching is the Oscars. Last year I even won the Oscar pool in my office. I really love winning. It feels so good.


The Grammy nominations came out today. I've never really been a fan of the Grammys. The only Grammy memory I have is watching Michael Jackson win a boatload for Thriller. Which reminds me, can you believe that Thriller came out 25 years ago? What's your favorite song off that album?


Back in his heartthrob days...

I've Been on a Quiet Health Kick Lately

A few months ago I decided to cut back on alcohol. Now I have just a glass or two of wine a month. I also cut back on coffee, to about a cup a day. And most importantly, I'm eating less meat-- only four meat meals a week. The meat thing has been the hardest. I never thought I ate much meat, until I realized that cutting back required a conscious effort (as opposed to not drinking, which hasn't been that hard for me). Limiting to four meals (and not five or three) was pretty arbitrary. Four seemed like a challenging, but doable, number. It's like I'm on a meat budget.

I'm not making grand plans to cut out alcohol or meat completely, although the idea of becoming a teetotaller is appealing. I think I'm just trying to be healthier. So far it seems to be working. I sleep better, I feel better overall. I think I've even lost some weight. And of course not drinking saves a lot of money. So all in all it's good.