Were you one of the many crushed by today’s announcement about the cancellation of The OC? Do your part. Let your voice be heard. Go to Fox’s website Save The OC and sign their petition. Another website, savetheoc.com, has created four days of activism. You gotta love their loyalty.

Just doing my part for TV.

Today is December 31, 2006. The year 2007 is only 3 ½ hours away. This is a first for me, I am writing this blog from an American Airlines jet bound for Los Angeles. To my right, the city of Las Vegas has just been passed by. To my surprise and elation, Deutsch and I are comfortably sitting in First Class, also known as Business Class but that’s less glamorous. Thanks to my wonderful hubby and his frequent flying, we have been upgraded. Woo hoo! This is my first time flying First Class on American. I was so giddy that I thought I would share my experience with you.

We boarded the plane and found our window & isle seats in the 6^th row. Our seats look huge compared to the seats we usually sit in. I particularly enjoy the large armrest between our seats. Awaiting us are two sets of ear plugs for the movie, two bottles of water and blankets neatly folded in specially designed pockets attached to seats in front of us.

Once in the air we are offered complementary beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Since it is New Year’s eve, Deutsch starts of with a glass of Champagne. Since I am unfortunately feeling a little under the weather, my choice of bubbly is ginger ale. Due to the stealth of our flight attendants, each of our glasses always seems to be full. Now the good stuff starts. We are each offered a small bowl of warm mixed salted nuts. I’m afraid that I was so distracted by my warm nuts that I forgot to whip out my camera to document the beginning of the food. The attendants continue to refill the beverages and nuts until dinner. Oh yes, I said dinner. I never knew that in these days of airline cut backs, they are still feeding the lucky bastards seated in the first six rows.

At first when I heard they were serving dinner I was a little worried. Since the upgrade was only issued late yesterday, I was sure that they would not have had time to get us our vegetarian meals in order. My First Class meal opportunity may be missed! However, once I perused the menu (the MENU?!?), my worries were laid to rest. I did remember to take pictures from here on out. Some photos may be a little dark. I avoided using the flash for fear that my fellow First Class companions would mock me…. a lot. I also didn’t want to give anyone a heart attack with a bright flash on an airplane. I figured better to have dark pictures than an undercover airline Marshall jump me. Handcuffs may have ruined the rest of my First Class experience.

Mojito Shrimp served with Somen Noodles and a Combination Salad featuring fresh seasonal Greens and Chili-cucumber with a Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing and a whole wheat roll.

Eggplant Ravioli Pasta filled with a rich Eggplant Puree, topped with Bechamel Sauce and a light Marinara Sauce.

The Ravioli was delicious.

For dessert I had the Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae with my choice of hot fudge and pecans to top it off. Yum!

Now for the movie portion of the flight. I was happy to find out that they were playing The Illusionist, one that I had recently missed in the theaters. It stars Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell. I was thrilled to get in one more movie to add to my 2006 list. It was an enjoyable movie, but predictable.

After the movie we were offered freshly baked Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. To accompany the cookies we were given a choice of milk, chocolate milk and/or sparkling water with lemon. I chose the later.

As we make our decent we are treated with good-bye Ghiradadelli chocolates. Dark chocolate with white mint filling, what more could one ask for? I saved mine for later that night after I had chilled it in the fridge.

That concludes my First Class experience. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please keep your fingers crossed for future upgrades. For an interesting flight food read, check out Airlinemeals.net.

It is 2007! Happy New Year! I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous year for you and your loved ones.

Concerts

This was a good year for concerts. The past couple of years I just slacked with music. I made a goal for myself this year to get back into the music scene. Here is a list of the concerts and venues I went to .

Sisters of Mercy - House of Blues in Annaheim
Coachella Festival - Empire Polo Field in Indio, CA (see picture of line-up below)
Ministry & Revolting Cocks - House of Blues in Annaheim
Artic Monkeys & We Are Scientists - Wiltern
She Wants Revenge - Wiltern
Yes, I Killed Him - Lava Lounge
Nouvelle Vague - The Fonda Theatre
Massive Attack - The Hollywood Bowl
Beck - Element
Sonic Youth - Wiltern
Cake - Wiltern (Almost, I was had to miss this concert due to a cold)

Movies

This year I have seen 41 movies. It may be difficult to believe, but this has been a slow movie going year for me. Early 2007 I will have to cram in all of the Golden Globe and Oscar nominated movies. Good times! Here is a list of the movies I have seen. The * symbolizes the movies I particularly enjoyed.

King Kong*
Casanova
Match Point*
The Producers
The Matador*
Munich*
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story*
Underworld: Evolution
Failure to Launch
V for Vendetta
Thank You For Smoking*
Poseidon
Da Vinci Code
Brick*
An Inconvenient Truth*
The Break-Up*
X-Men: The Last Stand
Lake House*
Click
Superman Returns
The Filth and the Fury
Pirates of the Caribbean II*
A Scanner Darkly*
The Devil Wears Prada
Clerks II * (Q & A with Kevin Smith afterwards)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Little Miss Sunshine*
Scoop
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby*
Crank
Idiocracy*
The Last Kiss
Hollywoodland
Fearless*
Little Children*
The Departed*
The Queen*
Casino Royale
Stranger Than Fiction*
The Holiday*
The Illusionist*

Look for Part Three of my 2006 summary in a
couple of days.

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I love martinis and Las Vegas more than the average person. However, I must draw the line at a $2,000 martini! The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s elite bar, Body English, has created the ultimate martini. The Aristocrat Martini is a blend of only the finest of spirits, Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac, 150 year old Grand Marnier, and a splash of Dom Pérignon. With a martini of this caliber it is not a surprise that they have accessorized it with a ruby and diamond encrusted swizzle stick.

This would be a good time to be chummy with the bartender!

Welcome to my three-part 2006 review. As much as I like to share my year with you all, I must admit that I am blogging this entry just as much for myself. Having this online journal is making up for my terrible memory. Warning, I may provide more information that you ever wanted to know. Again, more for me than for you.

Traveling was a huge part of my year. I think this may be the most I have ever traveled in one year. The year started off slow, but it eventually picked up. Here is a list of my adventures:

March - Snowmass, CO

Deutsch and I had a wonderful 4 day ski trip in Snowmass, Colorado. We met up with Deutsch’s family, his parents, Imbi & Rein, his brother, Ravo, and wife, Alexa, and family friends, Ruth & Peter. This was the first time I had ever been to Aspen. We actually didn’t ski in Aspen, but we visited the town. Not quite as glamorous as I had expected, but very quaint. We enjoyed our large room, which we affectionately named Club 101, at Snowmass Inn.

April - Las Vegas, NV

This was the first out of four visits to Sin City. On this occasion, we celebrated Deutsch’s birthday. We met up with our drinking buddy, Erin. Erin brought her friend, who brought her friend, who brought their friends and so on. To Deutsch’s surprise, he enjoyed his birthday with five females. A nice treat for him since he is usually stuck with just me. I won’t go into details because as the saying goes, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I will just say the evening involved high speeds, an interesting Score and a pole. Take that as you will, but a good time was had by all. Dinner was at Border Grill and our hotel of choice for the weekend was the Monte Carlo.

May - Napa Valley, CA

Napa Valley was another first for me. I met up in San Francisco with my friends Sue & Angie. Deutsch was supposed to go, but due to a medical emergency he stayed home to take care of our ailing kitty, Tippit*. We spent the first night in SF. We lucked out with a great rate at a fantastic hotel, The Stanford Court in Nob Hill. The next day we rented a car and drove out to wine country. Again, we were lucky to stay in another great hotel, River Terrace. We had a weekend filled with delicious meals and tasty wines. Vinyards we visited: Andretti Winery; Darioush Winery; Goosecross Winery; Domaine Chandon and Van der Heyden Vineyards & Winery.

* Tippit made a full recovery.

July - New York, NY

We met up with my cousin, Krissy, and her hubby, Paul. First, I would like to give kudos to Krissy for conquering her fears and getting on that plane, even in horrible weather conditions! We had a fantastic time eating our way through NYC. We are all vegetarians and we searched out all the great veggie restaurants. My favorite restaurant was Red Bamboo in The Village. Fortunately, it was worth the ourtragous two hour wait. Next time, reservations! Just a few highlights of our trip: our excursion to Williamsburg, breakfast in Bryant Park, the Central Public Library, MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) and all the food. Check out Krissy’s blog part 1, part 2 and part 3 for more. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Mid-Town.

August - Toronto, Canada

In August we were off to Deutsch’s parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary party. It was an enjoyable night celebrating with loved ones on such a wonderful occasion. As usual, the champagne was flowing and we danced till dawn (well, not really, but it’s fun to say). I only hope we are as happy as them on our 50th! We also took the opportunity to visit the rest of our family and friends.

September - Las Vegas, again

If I recall, this was a last minute trip. We were expericing serious Vegas withdrawls. We stayed at The Excalibur. We also did research for our new and upcoming website, VegasHotelBuffets.com.

October - Chicago, IL

Halloween in Chicago! Our visit to Erin was long overdue. What better time to go to Chicago that Halloween? Well, maybe St. Patricks day, perhaps next year. As usual, Erin showed us a grand time. Let’s just say a lot of Vodka was consumed. We finally saw her cool condo. I was extremely envious. A gorgeous place. Halloween was an evening of bar hopping, with more treats than tricks.

November - Las Vegas, yet again

This was actually a business trip. We attended Pubcon, a web publishing conference at the Convention Center. It was 3 full days of speakers. I learned a lot about the business, but it was long and exhausting. The 4th day was easier, free drinks at the Nine Fine English Men pub. That was tiring too with the pressure of networking. At least the Guinness helped out. We stayed in a nice Spa Suite at the MGM Grand. We went a little overboard with the room because we were also celebrating our wedding anniversary.

December - Can You Guess…. Vegas!

This trip was strictly pleasure and last minute. THEhotel, a botique hotel in Manadalay Bay, offered us a complimentary 2 night stay in a suite. They also gave us other perks like a $35 in dining credit. It was on my birthday weekend, so how could we say no? The weeked was fun from beginning to the very end! On my birthday we went ice skating at The Hard Rock. Yes, an ice rink in Vegas. Ah, the magic of technology. I hadn’t been skating in over 10 years. At first, I was a disaster, but slowly it all came back to me. I was skating like a pro (not) in no time. Then Deutsch surprised me with an evening of dinner and theatre. We saw Phantom Of The Opera and then dined at an Italian restaurant, Zeffirino. At dinner I was presented with a fantastic dessert with a candle and was even serenaded “Happy Birthday” by a troubador (is that the right word ?). It was a great night at The Venetian. The entire weekend was fantastic. Even at the airport on the way home a certain video poker machine was very, very nice to me. Thank you for a fun and memorable weekend Deutsch.

Toronto for Christmas

Since this hasn’t happened yet, I can’t write about it. However, I’m sure it will be a very Merry Christmas!

We always love having visitors. Thanks to Ruth & Riina, my Mom, Sue, Chris & Sonia, Ravo & Alexa, and Ema & Isa for taking the time to see us this year. We hope you will come again in 2007!

I must admit that I don’t know how to answer my own question. I am embarrassed to say that I just haven’t had the inspiration to write. I have done a lot of crap in the past months and most all were blog worthy. I just didn’t write any of it down. Once I fall off a wagon, it’s tough for me to get back on. Like most break-ups, “It’s me, not you.” Don’t panic, all is not lost. As it turns out I just needed some space and required a break. A very, very, very long break.

I am back Baby, and ready to burden you again with all my crap. Visit soon for my next entry: “2006 Summary Of All The Crap I Didn’t Blog About.”

I have come to the conclusion that Ebay.com is evil. The website should be required by the government to have a warning page flashing “Ebay.com is dangerously addictive.” Thankfully, I am on the selling end opposed to the purchasing side. I can only imagine that the purchasing / bidding is even worse.

It all began when the owner of our building decided to convert our apartment building into condos. Before we knew it, we were tossed out on our derrieres (okay, it may have been a 1 1/2 year notice, but this makes for a better story). Now homeless, we went in search for an apartment that was as large. Celebration erupted when we found an almost comparable apartment. It was perfect with the exception of the decreased size.

Now we were faced with the long, over due reduction of our unused belongings. This is where I was introduced to Ebay. I was a little desperate and going through an experimental phase, so I thought “Why not? I will only try it once. It’ll be fun. What harm can it do?” They say many addicts have spoken those exact same words in the beginning. I started cautiously at first, selling only a few items. I started checking the status of our items only once or twice a day. Once I started getting a few hits, I began status checking at a furious rate. Almost over night I was hooked. How many hits have I had? How many watchers do I have? Do I have any bids? Has a bidding war started? These questions kept repeating in my head over and over again. The only way to feel better was another trip to the PC. It only got worse after that. I began scouring the apartment to see what I could sell, sell, SELL! Deutsch is afraid to go out of town. He fears that upon his return, he will step into an empty apartment.

As of today, I have sold & shipped 1 item. I still have several items up for auction, due to end in two days. Some have bids and some are still bid-less. I have come to terms with my addiction and more importantly, I admit I have a problem. I have given myself a deadline. Once in the new apartment, I will quit Ebay.com cold turkey. With that said, I am ending this entry. It has been an hour since I have checked the status of my auctions.

Last Monday night, Deutsch & I decided to forgo our usual exciting evening of television watching to see a play. Believe it or not, it is possible to obtain some culture in Los Angeles. You just need to seek it out.

An evening of culture would not be complete without dinner before the show. Since the theatre was in Westwood, an area we are not familiar with, we ventured to a new restaurant. Deutsch performed his usual restaurant search through the internet and found us an Italian place, Tanino. It was nice, a little stuffy, but nice. We shared a half bottle of a red wine blend. To our defense, we only had a half bottle because it’s never a good idea to consume a lot of alcohol right before a sit-down performance. I learned that the hard way when we saw “The Producers” (on Broadway no less) and almost fell asleep during the first act. Anyway, I digress. Both Deutsch & I had the bland pumpkin tortellini in a sage cream sauce. It sure sounded good, but was a let down. To make up for our disappointment, we indulged in flour-less chocolate cake. It was an improvement, but nothing to shout from the mountain tops. I think we will continue our Westwood restaurant search.

We went to the Geffen Playhouse and saw “Boston Marriage”, written and directed by the great David Mamet. With only a cast of three women, it is an interesting ensemble of Rebecca Pidgeon, Mary Steenburgen and Alicia Silverstone. This Victorian period comedy took place in only one setting, a drawing room. In the usual Mamet way, the dialogue went at a furious rhythmic pace. Between the accents, cryptic dialogue and quick pace, it was easy to miss something. Which I’m sure I did, more than once. On the heels of Brokeback Mountain, this play deals with unconventional relationships in an unforgiving time. All three performances were enjoyable, but Alicia Silverstone was the stand out of the women. I must admit, I was not expecting much from her theatrical abilities. However, Alicia was a pleasant surprise. She had great comic timing. She may have had the smallest role and the shortest stage time, but she took her character and ran with it.

It was definitely an enjoyable evening, especially for a Monday night. We even had celeb spottings at the play: director Kevin Smith and actor Dennis Haysbert. We are even thinking about seeing the production “1984″ this week. Hey, this culture thing is kinda fun.

Last year we enjoyed the Oscars with a lavish spread of room service in a Westin hotel room in Palo Alto, California. This year’s hotel of choice was Snowmass Inn located in Aspen, Colorado. After a wonderful full day of skiing, I had the pleasure of sharing the award night with Deutsch, my in-laws, brother & sister in-law and a lovely couple who are family friends. At the beginning of the evening we had wine flowing, pizza sharing and all eight Oscar ballots completed. Skip to three and a half Oscar hours later… we had four missing viewers who vanished one by one throughout the evening, four coma-like state bitter enders, two slices of cold pizza, seven tallied-up Oscar ballots (one mysteriously went M.I.A.) and a winner (me). As for my acceptance speech, a special thank you to the hosts of this soiree, my in-laws and to the rest of you who humored us with our crazy Oscar obsession. I know it was a long night, but it was so enjoyable to spend it with you guys. As for Deutsch, it looks like he is in the kitchen again for the Oscar Challenge. Bad for him, but really good for me.

Congratulations to Brokeback Mountain, Crash & Jon Stewart. Brokeback Mountain was the expected winner for most of the categories it was up for. However, it was a happy moment when Crash was the surprise winner for Best Picture. Both Brokeback and Crash were my favourite* movies of the year. Even though Jon Stewart had mixed reviews, I thought he was great. I hope he is invited back next year. Kudos to the show for trying to inject more humour* throughout the evening. That is a keeper. However, what was up with ALL the film montages? They can definitely lose those.

As for the fashions, I was very underwhelmed. Nothing stood out except Charlize and her parrot, oops, I mean bow. Everyone looked very nice and safe (= boring). If you missed the fashions, check out In Style, E! Online and the Oscar website.

By the way, the Oscar picture above is me holding the real thing, an actual Oscar. Let me tell you, those suckers are heavy! I never thought I would ever get my hands one. Oh yes, I have my ways!

*Favourite & Humour - Alexa, that was just for you (sorry y’all, it’s an inside joke).