Avenue of the Stars

Posted on May 13th, 2008 in Motel Matches, Welcome to the Working Week, All This Useless Beauty by Mrs. Hall


I love the way the sunset looks when the light hits the building across from the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.  This is my view as I sip a glass of Beaulieu Vineyards Pinot Noir this evening on my balcony.  No food porn tonight as today was a very unexciting food day.  The Marriott served me Frosted Mini Wheats and papaya for breakfast, I picked at my chicken teriyaki at Kabuki, and it was a Hyatt Turkey Burger for dinner.  Meh.  Hey, at least the wine and the view is good.  Tomorrow, I’ll head down to Orange County, and maybe that side-trip to In N Out Burger.  Although my travel companion isn’t doing any carbs right now… maybe he can have it Protein Style.

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Yujean Kang’s

Posted on May 12th, 2008 in Welcome to the Working Week, All This Useless Beauty by Mrs. Hall

What a name, right?  I flew into Pasadena today.  After a nice man named Walter deposited me at the hotel, I walked around Old Town Pasadena, stopped in at Famima! (don’t you love the exclamation point!), and then dropped into Yujean Kang’s for some delicious authentic Chinese cuisine.  The walls of the restaurant are the most perfect red.  The picture makes it look orangey, but it was really a lovely pomegranate color.  I was one of only three tables.  I had some yummy dim sum:

Dim Sum

And then the Tea Smoked Duck Salad.  Mmmmmm:

Tea Smoked Duck Salad

I’ll also get to visit L.A. and Orange County while I’m here this week.  Hopefully, more delightful food pics to come.  And if I can convince my travel companion, maybe a side trip to In ‘n Out Burger!  I owe a pal of mine a return visit, since I kind of dissed them the last time I was in L.A.

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It’s Summer…

Posted on May 10th, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Party Girl by Mrs. Hall


judging by all the cute white pants at the Stevens Park Estates Block Party.  Our friend David played with his band, The B Street Blues Band.  And we saw his wife Janet, and our friends Darlis, Wally, Denis and Scott.  There was barbecue, a firetruck, and one of those inflatable bouncy houses for the kids.  And it was 93 degrees and 100% humidity.  Ah….. Summer! Pics of summery goodness are here.

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Possumblossom

Posted on May 9th, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Living in Paradise by Mrs. Hall

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So, I’m partly writing this post so that my last post will no longer be on the top of my blog. That’s some picture, isn’t it?

But also, so that you can look at this dog. She looks so innocent, so mild, doesn’t she? We used to call her Finn. But now we call her Possumblossom. And here’s why:

Last Monday, Mr. Hall took Angus and Finn out for their nightly perambulation, as usual. When they came back, he removed their leashes and went to his office. I have not moved from my seat in the living room. As Mr. Hall emerges from his office, I hear…”Oh. My. God.” Then total silence. “Don’t move. Don’t look.”

Okay…..

Apparently Finn found a possum, brought it into our living room, and ate it. Holy shit!!! So, Mr. Hall manfully cleans up poor, wee, dead possum. And when Finn throws up, well, he cleans that up too.

Tuesday night… one more dead possum…. but this time on the driveway, thank God. Um, let’s keep the dogs on a shorter leash, shall we?

Wednesday night… one more dead possum… apparently this one was committing suicide by Finn - just sitting on the driveway waiting for Finn to end its sad existence.

So, last night, I came home very late from work. It’s dark. I walk into the living room, pulling my laptop roller bag behind me. “Oh”, I say, “Finn has been tearing up a stuffed animal in the living room”. Then, it occurs to me… Finn doesn’t have any stuffed animals. I walk back into the kitchen, pulling my laptop roller bag and saying, “Oh. Oh. Oh”.

Les says, “What?”. I say, “It must be a stuffed animal, there is no blood, it must be a stuffed animal.” So, Mr. Hall manfully goes into the living room. Sure enough, It’s a dead possum. So… final tally: One possum family genocide, and Possumblossum gets a mouth check every time she comes into the house.

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Happy Blogiversary

Posted on May 6th, 2008 in Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

Today is the one year anniversary of my current blog.  Unfortunately, I’ll celebrate by writing a big check to the City Property Tax Collector.  We realized that they won’t answer your phone calls or your emails, or see you in person.  However, they will continue to send you bills with interest and penalties.  So, short of hiring an attorney, and it’s not THAT big of a check, we’re just going to give up.  And THIS is how I feel about that.

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Zen Sunday

Posted on May 4th, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall


Blogging from Flock, a super cool browser/homepage/blogging tool/social network aggregator.

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A Very Good Day

Posted on May 3rd, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Living in Paradise by Mrs. Hall

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It was 72 degrees and sunny in Dallas today. As a friend of mine said, a day that makes you feel glad you’re alive. Well, that’s not a very original sentiment, but one I agree with. I got busy in the backyard this morning: weeding, raking, watering. And I transplanted a very large aloe vera plant. Our nice metal pots that we got in Santa Fe are ready for the hibiscus that we’re going to plant. We just have to go to Covington’s to get them.

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We’ve noticed that our lovely bamboo forest, which houses the wee Buddha is growing quite a bit out of its bounds. Like all over our yard, and our neighbor’s yard. Oops.

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Meanwhile Les, who has taken to calling himself a caulksmith, finished caulking our porch posts so that we can paint them tomorrow. Hooray.

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Then tonight, Howard and Lisa picked us up and took us to Culpepper’s in Rockwall. It’s the kind of place that kids go for their pre-prom dinner. You can see some prom-goers above behind Howard.

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Lisa and I shared some very good and fairly economical Coppola Black Label Claret. I had the Chilean Sea Bass with jalapeno buerre blanc over pine nut risotto. It was to die for. Unfortunately, Les and Lisa’s steaks tasted funky and they had to send them back. So when they got the steak replacements, the waiter added some quail to their plates to make up for the inconvenience. Ewwwww. Little tiny bird carcasses. But still, a nice dinner. And a very good day.

iTunes Widgets and Tax Miseries

Posted on May 1st, 2008 in Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

I’ve been instructed by Mr. Hall to purchase my music on Amazon so that we can share, but I’m so used to iTunes. I guess I need to make the switch. But in the meantime, iTunes has this little widget to display your favorite artists. I like widgets.

Meanwhile, we wait with baited breath to hear from the City Manager’s office and/or our city councilman on the fate of our unexpected, and incorrect, back property tax bill. I thought that stories about the byzantine bureaucracy of city governments were exaggerations by miscreants who didn’t pay their bills and obey laws. But, in fact, city government offices are populated by imbeciles who work in silos that do not and can not communicate with each other. And most importantly, they do not give one shit about you and your problems.

Here Comes the Bride

Posted on April 28th, 2008 in Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

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No, not me. I got married last year. In fact our anniversary is coming up. And we’re going to spend it in a very romantic way: framing out a back porch cover. Sexy! Actually, we’re both pretty excited about it. And nothing says, “let’s do some construction work outside” like Dallas in July. We’ll both probably be hospitalized. But enough about me. My friend Leah’s only son got married last weekend at a beautiful resort in Phoenix, where the bride is from. I think Leah looks stunning. And I think it’s cute the way her son kind of looks like a little kid in the picture. A very large little kid, but still. His last moments as his momma’s boy. Oy vey. The setting was gorgeous. And I love the fancy little sofa out there for having cocktails. That’s just so Leah. Congrats Nate and Elizabeth!

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The Great Dressing Room Reveal

Posted on April 27th, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Living in Paradise, Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

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Ah, at last the dressing room is done… other than finishing the hanger changes. Above you see the right side of the room from the door. The curtains hide all the shoe racks and hanging stuff that isn’t so cute to look at. The folding screen hides the treadmill, but if I whisk that away, the treadmill unfolds for, ahem, daily use. Well, more or less.

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This is the left side of the room. It’s so anal, I just love it!

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This nook houses all our financial files.

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Finn is investigating the pandan storage ottoman. It holds my dirty clothes. I’m maximizing my space!

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Even my jewelry has a little home. These jewelry organizers fit in the shallow drawers and slide out very handily. My satisfaction is complete. Many thanks to the patient Mr. Hall who did all the work of putting up the elfa and the curtains.

Working for the Weekend

Posted on April 26th, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Living in Paradise, Party Girl, Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

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Friday evening, I flew in from San Francisco and ran to Martha and Bryan’s house. Actually, we stopped at Kavala first and got some hummus and chicken souvlaki. We sat out on their back patio and drank wine and ate Greek food. I’ve never had friends in the neighborhood, just a couple of blocks away, where dropping by for some wine on a Friday night was an option. I hope they never move! Les said the fact that my foot is in focus in the above picture means that I didn’t move it at all for at least 60 seconds. Maybe I’m getting more Zen in my old age. Or maybe I was just falling into a stupor. Take your pick.

Saturday, we went to Ikea for some finishing bits for my closet, including curtains, lamps, storage ottomans, and galvanized storage flats. I ran out of my new hangers… so I only changed one side of the room to the fabulous “huggable hangers”. The rest we’ll have to do next weekend. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll hang the curtains and I’ll be able to post some pictures. My dressing room is now truly magnifique!! We stopped at the Ikea cafe for lunch where I had a Caprese salad:

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Strangely, it was labeled “Typically Swedish”. Um, I don’t think so. Les had the Swedish Meatballs which strangely weren’t labeled “Typically Swedish”.

After a hard day of shopping and hanging clothes, we did another round of Zen Sushi. We had the Ika Sansei salad again, plus summer rolls and gyoza. The gyoza dumplings were incredible. You can see them below. Then for sushi we had the dragon, jalapeno and spider rolls. Last time the dragon rolls were so loaded with chinese mustard that I felt like I was on an episode of Jackass every time I ate one. But there’s nothing like blistering hot horseradish mustard to get the endorphins going.

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Now, we’re about to watch There Will Be Blood. I keep hearing about how at the end Daniel Day-Lewis says, “I drink your milkshake”! I can’t wait to find out what the hell that is about.

Truly, Madly, Deeply

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 in Motel Matches, Welcome to the Working Week, All This Useless Beauty by Mrs. Hall

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That is how I love the Acqua Hotel in Marin County. My last job, although fairly glamorous in many respects (fabulous office, no real work to speak of), was a sea of Hampton Inns and PF Chang’s when traveling. My current job, at which I slave away and am happy to do so, has quite fabulous travel benefits including the most lovely hotels. The Acqua Hotel is one of them. I wish I could take a picture that does my room justice, but I can’t. Suffice it to say, the incredible decor, the lakefront view, the soaking tub… well, they make me very happy. Above is the hotel from across the lake. Below is a bit of the mossy rocks that line the shore. Sigh….

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I was on my own this evening, so I walked across the parking lot to the Robata Grill and Sushi (I know… squeal!) for dinner. It was a very traditional sushi bar. No Jalapeno rolls to be found. Which actually is not a plus for me. I don’t like giant rolls and I don’t like meaty rolls, and that’s what traditional places tend to have. But I disemboweled my spicy tuna rolls and cut my giant veggie rolls in half, and had lots of wasabi and Sauvignon Blanc.

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Ah…. the good life.

Added:

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While in downtown San Francisco, I get to stay at the Palomar Hotel. A few doors down is Annabelle’s Bistro, where we always eat. It’s just superb. This time, I had seared tuna, and we shared some molten chocolate cake. Yum.

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One Way to Get Your Exercise

Posted on April 21st, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Living in Paradise, Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

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So Saturday we began our attempt to create a fabulous dressing room for me ala the picture in my last post. I thought it would just take Saturday… and then I’d spend Sunday mulching the flower beds.

But no.

The reality was quite different. Above is my old Ikea closet. There was also a couch across the room. We thought we’d remove the couch and old closet and replace them with two new closet units. So…. last weekend we moved the couch out through a guest room window through the backyard and into Les’ office window. Yeah, our friends must really love us to help us with something like that. Then, Saturday morning, other friends came over and moved the Ikea closets through a guest room window and into their truck. Yeah, our friends must really love us to help us with something like that.

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Unfortunately, after the closet and the couch were gone, the room looked like this. Ack.

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So, then we went and had our new closets planned on the computer. Very high tech.

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Mr. Hall is building one wall, which is mainly short hanging and drawers. The other side is mainly short and long hanging, with a section of sliding shoe racks. Very cool. Unfortunately, we only got half way done on Saturday. On Sunday, I spent about eight hours bending over, picking up clothing and hanging it up on new special all-matching hangers. My buns are going to be very firm. We finished the other side on Sunday after much to-ing and fro-ing and cursing on the part of Mr. Hall. Next weekend, we’re going to get curtains to hang in front of the closets, plus some lamps and ottomans, etc. to make it a little more cozy.

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But Saturday night we treated ourselves to some delicious Zen Sushi.…. Above is the delicious Ika Sansai Salad, which is seaweed tossed with marinated squid. Mmmmm. Add some Cajun Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll and a little Sauvignon Blanc… well, let’s just say my buns really deserved it.

The full reveal of the completed dressing room shall be next weekend. In the meantime I head for San Francisco tomorrow. A woman’s work and all……

Happy Birthday to You

Posted on April 19th, 2008 in All This Useless Beauty, Party Girl by Mrs. Hall

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My sweet husband has a birthday on Monday, so we went to our favorite restaurant, Hatties, for a wee celebration. We had prosciutto wrapped roasted figs and fried green tomatoes as appetizers. The birthday boy had the butcher-block pork chop with apple glaze, Hattie’s spoonbread & braised greens, Martha had pecan crusted catfish, Bryan had pulled-pork on grits, and I had the halibut on bok choy, pictured below. Philip just had a whoooole lot of wine. We topped it off with some fried banana pie that was the best thing ever. More food pix here.

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Then we went home and Les opened his presents. A new camera, a new motorcycle helmet and an Academy Sports gift certificate so that he can buy some ammo. Don’t ask.

Today we’re re-doing my dressing room. We’re tossing the icky Ikea closets and installing all new open closets like this:

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Pictures of the process may be forth coming.

The Obsession Continues

Posted on April 16th, 2008 in Love Field, Girls Talk by Mrs. Hall

Les and I were thinking about the last pictures we’d taken of Nick.

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I love this one from Christmas of 2004. Nick always hung out along the top of the sofa.
But definitely the best time in the last few years was when we’d take him to the dog park. He would patrol the perimeter with great authority for half an hour, then spend some time harassing complete strangers to throw the ball for him… you know, just for four or five hours. Then he’d bark at all the great Danes and German Sheperds, just to make sure they were aware of their place in the greater scheme of things. Which was basically:

Nick
Mommy
Daddy
People that throw you balls,
Angus and Finn who never let him play with them
All other dogs, especially ones that are so uncouth as to smell of your bottom
And men with large feet.

In that order.

Christmas Nick

Here he is either screaming “What bloody git put me in this ridiculous girl’s jumper? I want to know NOW”! Or “Ball, ball, can you throw the ball?, Where is the ball? Did you take the ball? What do I have to do to get the ball back? Ball? Ball? Ball?

But this is last official pic of him… 12/16. He’s just gotten a terrible ferret-like haircut, and seems suitably embarrassed.

Little Saint Nick

I’d give anything to see him in that stupid haircut one more time. And course, it marks the end of a huge part of my life. For seventeen years he was the constant while the jobs changed, the cities changed, the friends changed, the men changed. But Nick was always there, ready for a new place and a new city. I feel that a part of my youth is gone, and there is no one who knows everything about me like he did. Maybe that’s the real question. Who am I, without him?

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