Where I'm Calling From

It was not my intention to take such a long holiday break from the blog, but somehow, the last days of 2006 were lost in a blur of out of town guests, cross country travel and other adventures. Among them:

1. Johnny Depp sighting at Amoeba Records. He's very short.
2. Made my folks fans of both Oaxacan food and Veronica Mars.
3. Went to the Rose Bowl to watch people build floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade, where Brady proved that he is not too old to eat an entire funnel cake.
4. Began 2007 by running from one end of this island to the other and back again - 12 miles. This served the dual purpose of getting in my marathon training and balancing out the epic eating I would go on to do in Mobile.
5. Hung out with a blacksmith at Fort Gaines. Discussed merits of gas forges versus coal ones.
6. Went to Biloxi to gamble at the recently rebuilt casinos. This is just about the only thing in Biloxi that has been rebuilt. Grrr...
7. Luggage lost at LAX. Current whereabouts unknown.
8. Returned home to find there had been a windstorm in L.A. that had blown most of our windows open and knocked out a screen. One cat was at large. We found her cowering under our neighbor's window and surmised that she must have fallen from the second story sometime during the storm. Not sure how long she'd been there, but when I brought her inside, she proceeded to eat for twenty minutes straight.

I've read many books in the past few weeks. Reviews of The Night Gardener, Prisoner of Trebekistan, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence (which I DID get for Christmas... hint-dropping was not in vain!), and many many more to follow, not to mention the previously promised and severly overdue Best of 2006 list.

But plans for tonight: pour bourbon into glass, repeat as necessary.