Last night we saw coyotes running from the zoo. We were driving home from a series of errands and SeanYoda decided to check out the festival of lights at Griffith Park. He was going to drive to the zoo parking lot and have us walk (I didn't feel dressed for the cold snap we had over the past couple days nor did I have the camera with me). As we drove through the lot however, there were a couple of dark shadows running from the main gate of the Los Angeles Zoo. Like the silly I am, I asked "omg! are those coyotes?" and SeanYoda replies, "why yes I think those are coyotes!" and my imediate thought was that they had escaped from the zoo (I would too!) but before I really entertained the thought of that or that maybe they were stealing popcorn from the snackbar or whatever, Sean said "but there are coyotes in Southern California," and that was that.
My first real wild coyotes.. scampering through the zoo parking lot. Berkeley has raccoons. Los Feliz has skunks (and so does Atwater Village I might add). Places like Corona and the inland empire has coyotes, and now for the first time, I see Los Angeles does too! Keep your cats indoors folks!
Still they were beautiful.. and I thought a hopeful thought that they find their way back to where they came from and don't get hit by cars (we saw another as we turned around to drive out).
Regarding the lights.. we drove through and I tried to take photos with the cel phone, but alas 'earwax' as they say. The 2 photos I attempted to upload to flikr didn't work and the other pix I took weren't really worth keeping.
I was so happy about the coyotes though, I posted about it on my LJ. =)
Friday, December 01, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Hope Street Alley Cats
The i5nomads have moved to a downtown alley near you! (or maybe that's Starbucks?) Seriously though.. after signing the lease and finally getting the keys to the old place turned in on the 3rd of November (yes, this place really is smaller than our old digs in Anaheim.. but, it's nice.. very nice. If only we could get the folks to stop setting off the deafening fire alarms int the building.. that one at 2am Tuesday night was more than I really could handle with the cat wrangling and all. Also the cats are now terrified out of their minds every time some buzzer or thing goes off. (oh and if I ever do catch the person supposedly 'having fun' with the fire alarm, they will be the ones to help me catch the cats and put them in carriers at 2am cause I'm rather tired of that.
I've decided for the huuuumanz though, we will be adopting the mindset of volunteer firemen when the alarm sounds.. no more fumbling for pants and shoes, we'll have our fire alarm costume all laid out and ready to go, so it's only the cats we need to grab and shove into their Petmate carriers.
Yep, welcome to downtown LA folks.
Otherwise we like our apartment just fine so far. =) It's nice to be just a few blocks from a lot of neat stuff.. including the nice firemen who either came to save us or came to find out who tripped that fire alarm at 2am.. seems a little late on election night to be burning popcorn, so who knows what happened? I'm just glad they came.
I've decided for the huuuumanz though, we will be adopting the mindset of volunteer firemen when the alarm sounds.. no more fumbling for pants and shoes, we'll have our fire alarm costume all laid out and ready to go, so it's only the cats we need to grab and shove into their Petmate carriers.
Yep, welcome to downtown LA folks.
Otherwise we like our apartment just fine so far. =) It's nice to be just a few blocks from a lot of neat stuff.. including the nice firemen who either came to save us or came to find out who tripped that fire alarm at 2am.. seems a little late on election night to be burning popcorn, so who knows what happened? I'm just glad they came.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
a big shout-out to the downtown LA blog-LA-sphere!
I want to send a special shout out of thanks to Celia & Jim & Eric as well Franklin Avenue's Mike & Maria for letting us know about the free (say it with me! FREEE!) Downtown LA Housing tour.
Sean & I had taken the tour on a lark Saturday the 9th of September. As mentioned in my personal blog we saw some neat places and although we thought we had a place already picked to move to in North Hollywood, we decided to look into moving downtown after seeing what was actually available.
Sean & I will be part of the downtown Los Angeles life come this next month! I don't think we'll change the name of the blog.. if we did what would we call it?? Hope St alley cats?? hee hee..
Sean & I will be making a trip out to pick out our wall color tomorrow and thanks to Blogdowntown we have a few other early Sunday morning options in case the Original Pantry line was just as long as it was last week!!!
Sean & I had taken the tour on a lark Saturday the 9th of September. As mentioned in my personal blog we saw some neat places and although we thought we had a place already picked to move to in North Hollywood, we decided to look into moving downtown after seeing what was actually available.
Sean & I will be part of the downtown Los Angeles life come this next month! I don't think we'll change the name of the blog.. if we did what would we call it?? Hope St alley cats?? hee hee..
Sean & I will be making a trip out to pick out our wall color tomorrow and thanks to Blogdowntown we have a few other early Sunday morning options in case the Original Pantry line was just as long as it was last week!!!
Friday, September 01, 2006
summer's end..
HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND FOLKS..
oh, and no I never did finish editing those Bay Area pix from August.. nor the Tofu Fest pix. Nor the last minute visit to Santa Monica on Tuesday. Got a lot of stuff on our minds lately.. (well mine anyway) like where is an affordable and transportation friendly place to rent in North Hollywood or something. I'm tired of looking online, and coming back to the same place. Maybe that particular place is meant to be, (it can't be much closer to good transportation & fun) but they just raised the upper end of the rent so it may cost even more to be on a top floor.. sigh. Everything else around it is even more.. Maybe it's time to rent a house? heh. oh well.
Oh and the other thing.. when looking at apartment ratings why is everything rated a "2" or less? Is the world of apartments so horrible?? I look back to places like Berkeley, where we rented for some time.. and it really was a good place. A bit small for 2people with a lot of stuff, but it had a good location and rent control. We had a good manager too. Not to mention it was extremeley cat friendly. I wonder what sort of places the students rent in Iowa or wherever where they expect to not have to pay high rents or deal with other humans making sounds as they walk around their apartment or goodness knows, watch their tv and have company over (within reason mind you). It doesn't matter how nice a place is they seem to throw that word "ghetto" around too much. sheesh. Who's paying their rent anyway? Probably their parents is my guess. Rents in CA are expensive. Even more so if you don't have a job or room-mate(s).
Lately I've been wishing for plumbing that worked and didn't bang like a banshee with a wrench every time one turns on the water. Maybe a door that closed properly and hung on its hinges properly, not letting the 'central air' escape and spiders enter. When it does come time to move, we'll have actually left our current place in better condition than when we moved in. How sad is that anyway?? (and no I'm not replacing their crappy door). But it does make my list of easily attainable wishlist look like a sad refugee from another place when my eyes light up and say "ooooh the door shuts! It really shuts!!" LMAO.. the main thing I'm wanting is a fun & quirky neighborhood and proximity to bus lines and secure building (and I mean really secure, not the joke of a gate that is where we live now) and people don't steal your mail (granted I am not aware of it happening yet, but you wonder if it hasn't). A place where if you have friends over they can park somewhere close by and not at the mall down the street. Seriously. How about a place where the residents can park? (that isn't an issue with us but it seems to be with the residents).
As much of a laundry list of items I have about our current place, it is in no way "ghetto" at all.. it's just too big for itself. A well run complex is one that has a staff that can maintain the buildings and it's residents. I just wish that more people would be honest in rating a place and not just put their anger out there. If every place in the world is "ghetto" and the management crap don't you think there would be a mass reforendum on getting these places up to snuff and have harsher penalties for management that runs the place like they are only in it for the money (or better yet, doesn't run it?). I don't know how we got to this. All I wanted to say was:
Have a good long weekend folks and don't set the bbq on fire. no, seriously don't. =P
oh, and no I never did finish editing those Bay Area pix from August.. nor the Tofu Fest pix. Nor the last minute visit to Santa Monica on Tuesday. Got a lot of stuff on our minds lately.. (well mine anyway) like where is an affordable and transportation friendly place to rent in North Hollywood or something. I'm tired of looking online, and coming back to the same place. Maybe that particular place is meant to be, (it can't be much closer to good transportation & fun) but they just raised the upper end of the rent so it may cost even more to be on a top floor.. sigh. Everything else around it is even more.. Maybe it's time to rent a house? heh. oh well.
Oh and the other thing.. when looking at apartment ratings why is everything rated a "2" or less? Is the world of apartments so horrible?? I look back to places like Berkeley, where we rented for some time.. and it really was a good place. A bit small for 2people with a lot of stuff, but it had a good location and rent control. We had a good manager too. Not to mention it was extremeley cat friendly. I wonder what sort of places the students rent in Iowa or wherever where they expect to not have to pay high rents or deal with other humans making sounds as they walk around their apartment or goodness knows, watch their tv and have company over (within reason mind you). It doesn't matter how nice a place is they seem to throw that word "ghetto" around too much. sheesh. Who's paying their rent anyway? Probably their parents is my guess. Rents in CA are expensive. Even more so if you don't have a job or room-mate(s).
Lately I've been wishing for plumbing that worked and didn't bang like a banshee with a wrench every time one turns on the water. Maybe a door that closed properly and hung on its hinges properly, not letting the 'central air' escape and spiders enter. When it does come time to move, we'll have actually left our current place in better condition than when we moved in. How sad is that anyway?? (and no I'm not replacing their crappy door). But it does make my list of easily attainable wishlist look like a sad refugee from another place when my eyes light up and say "ooooh the door shuts! It really shuts!!" LMAO.. the main thing I'm wanting is a fun & quirky neighborhood and proximity to bus lines and secure building (and I mean really secure, not the joke of a gate that is where we live now) and people don't steal your mail (granted I am not aware of it happening yet, but you wonder if it hasn't). A place where if you have friends over they can park somewhere close by and not at the mall down the street. Seriously. How about a place where the residents can park? (that isn't an issue with us but it seems to be with the residents).
As much of a laundry list of items I have about our current place, it is in no way "ghetto" at all.. it's just too big for itself. A well run complex is one that has a staff that can maintain the buildings and it's residents. I just wish that more people would be honest in rating a place and not just put their anger out there. If every place in the world is "ghetto" and the management crap don't you think there would be a mass reforendum on getting these places up to snuff and have harsher penalties for management that runs the place like they are only in it for the money (or better yet, doesn't run it?). I don't know how we got to this. All I wanted to say was:
Have a good long weekend folks and don't set the bbq on fire. no, seriously don't. =P
Thursday, August 10, 2006
i5nomads go home for almost 2days!
i5Nomads made it up to the Bay Area last weekend for Meeko's bday. We managed to do some fun stuff and eat a lot (as you may or may not have gussed by my nick' I am a big fan of the eating!) I would have worked on the photos Monday and had them up but all the traveling sucked the energy from me. Suffice to say we went to several food eateries that are my favorites.. and luckily husband didn't complain.. he likes the same places, to varying degrees. =)
I guess this post is supposed to make me accountable to finishing my birthday trip photos.. including those random pix around Emeryville. My first SMART car I've seen, outside Trader Joe's in El Cerrito and a classic beetle that hubby had to have a photo of. I feel weird taking photos of other people's cars when they aren't asked first. So I'll need to fuzz out the licenses of course. It's the polite thing to do, regardless of whether it's a public place or not. Let's see if it takes a month like last time. So new stuff coming soon! =) *fingers crossed*
I guess this post is supposed to make me accountable to finishing my birthday trip photos.. including those random pix around Emeryville. My first SMART car I've seen, outside Trader Joe's in El Cerrito and a classic beetle that hubby had to have a photo of. I feel weird taking photos of other people's cars when they aren't asked first. So I'll need to fuzz out the licenses of course. It's the polite thing to do, regardless of whether it's a public place or not. Let's see if it takes a month like last time. So new stuff coming soon! =) *fingers crossed*
Thursday, July 13, 2006
i5nomads spend a day in Old Pasadena =)
title links to our page of photos taken last month at the Car fest & Chalk Festival in Old Town Pasadena. (finally up!).. Also, it's our first page made with pix edited in Photoshop Elements 4.0 =) (can you tell I'm excited? I'm still learning!)
We had a good time although the heat was intense and we didn't bring extra water, and hadn't planned on the car festival taking place the same day for some reason. There were many great chalk artists out there and Seanyoda took a lot of great pix. One of the things we found odd was the proliferation of advertising in some of the chalk art. SeanYoda didn't bother taking pix of these, although it is kind of interesting in a marketing sort of way.
Monday, June 26, 2006
FLIKR pix
SeanYoda had edited many of the photos from the COLES PE Buffet adventure a couple weeks ago but they were needed some resizing, retouching & 'watermarking' (copyrighting really) before I felt comfortable posting them anywhere.. So basically these are miscellaneous pix from the last couple weeks that haven't hit our i5nomads webpage. One of these days.. so right now.. they'd be here..
SoCal places (that include the COLES PE photos.. =)
It took me setting up the San Pedro pix to realize that free accounts on FLIKR get 3sets max. well.. makes sense I guess. Like many of the things that we i5nomads do, flikr isn't our main photo posting site.. that's what we have i5nomads.com for. =)
Just as the rest of our individual postings are on Live Journal somewhere.. =)
This weekend has been a bit of a bear what with insomnia, possible self induced food poisoning (too much steamtable chicken??) & non-stop disney fun has left us exhausted and sleep deprived. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.. Some good sleep might put us in better spirits. Either way.. the new photoshop elements 4.0 SeanYoda assisted Meeko Pamela into installing on her computer will go a long way in improving (hopefully) her photo editing skills.
SoCal places (that include the COLES PE photos.. =)
It took me setting up the San Pedro pix to realize that free accounts on FLIKR get 3sets max. well.. makes sense I guess. Like many of the things that we i5nomads do, flikr isn't our main photo posting site.. that's what we have i5nomads.com for. =)
Just as the rest of our individual postings are on Live Journal somewhere.. =)
This weekend has been a bit of a bear what with insomnia, possible self induced food poisoning (too much steamtable chicken??) & non-stop disney fun has left us exhausted and sleep deprived. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.. Some good sleep might put us in better spirits. Either way.. the new photoshop elements 4.0 SeanYoda assisted Meeko Pamela into installing on her computer will go a long way in improving (hopefully) her photo editing skills.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Coles PE Buffet meet! =)
SeanYoda & Meeko headed to downtown to meet FranklinAve's Mike & Maria & blogger-baby as they celebrated their 100th "rate a restaurant"!
Cole's P.E. Buffet
118 East 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA.
It's the sort of place one might expect to meet a secret agent or a shady hangout for beer bottle weilding bloggers at last call. =P They take their sandwiches and history seriously here. It is the original French Dipped sandwich.. yes, the original.
SeanYoda & Meeko parked at the meter outside on 6th, and headed down the corner to Cole's which had an unassuming entrance into a dark cavern of a bar & buffet. You order, you pay and then you sit down. SeanYoda ordered the roast beef sandwich plate which came with 2 sides (he chose mashed potatoes/gravy & green beans). Meeko ordered the pastrami w/ 1 side order of macaroni (which looked good, but was a bit overdone and bland).
We were surprised, in that we expected the dip to be a complete dip perhaps like one might expect at Philippe's the other french dipped sandwich place made famous (make no mistake though, COLES PE is the original!) SeanYoda got a large diet soda and it did look big enough to split.. we paid (they take credit as well as cash) and then headed to the back. While we were waiting, a lovely lady with a little boy who looked vaguely familiar (well his curly locks looked familiar..)walked by and smiled. we were guessing that might be Blogger Baby & his mom Maria.. but wasn't 100% sure.
The front booths were mostly empty except for a lone diner or the occasional couple of folks at the bar.. we saw folks in the back room, where Sean guessed that was where the 'meet' was. Of course he was right. =)
While we didn't really recognize folks (Celia we recognized by name.. some folks we recognized by their blogs.. *grin*) there was no mistaking Mike.. =) We introduced ourselves.. (hopefully Maria & Mike got the RSVP we sent ok) I guess we represented the blog readers contingent as the rest of the folks were friends & blogging buddies that Mike & Maria may have known already..
We stayed for about an hour.. enjoying Blogger Baby's cute baby antics and chatted folks, but mostly listened, as we ate our late lunches and learned more about some of LA's blogging community and the individual people we enjoy reading so much. We got a chance to ask some questions.. well, Meeko Pamela did.. as SeanYoda sort of smiled and tolerated the silly sounding questions.. one of these days we'll be relocating (and while it won't be Berkeley.. although it would be nice to go home) it's more likely to be the Studios area.. or LA proper.. getting to know how folks deal with the traffic and commutabibility by foot of Downtown.. and how things seem to be ever-changing was helpful. Sean works in LA all the time, but it's a matter of getting there & home.. not so much lingering and enjoying the neighborhood... taking in a lunch or just enjoying the commute.
Besides being overly chatty (Why can't I just learn to shut up for once??.. Meeko) Pamela & Sean had a really good time and enjoyed trying the much beloved Coles French dip for the first time before they are likely to shutter the restaurant & bar for refurbishment (under new owners) what may be later this summer. SeanYoda took photos of the dark moody & eclectic (and sinky furniture!) advertisement filled back room..
The place definitely could use some sprucing up but honestly other than a good dusting and a mop (and maybe find someplace else for the party chairs) there's definitely a local's homey quality to the place. It belongs to the neighborhood, unlike many of the shiny new refurbed Lofts that seem to be cropping up all over the place. LA is definitely on the move.. while change and the new urbanist movement is something to be lauded and appreciated by this particular non-driver, let's hope that Cole's remains for another 100+ years beyond its rezoned & refurbished and updated neighborhood.
BIG THANKS to all the folks that were so nice & welcoming to the 2 strangers at the meet.. and hopefully we won't be complete strangers so much but maybe virtual strangers.. which is definitely a step up in the online world.. Thanks Mike & Maria & to Blogger Baby who probably doesn't know what a hit he was with his amazing smile & stroller pushing ability..
**pix to be posted at some point once SeanYoda wakes up from his nap and is properly harrassed to edit pix.. or Meeko Pamela gets around to it. Whichever comes first! Thanks for reading!
Cole's P.E. Buffet
118 East 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA.
It's the sort of place one might expect to meet a secret agent or a shady hangout for beer bottle weilding bloggers at last call. =P They take their sandwiches and history seriously here. It is the original French Dipped sandwich.. yes, the original.
SeanYoda & Meeko parked at the meter outside on 6th, and headed down the corner to Cole's which had an unassuming entrance into a dark cavern of a bar & buffet. You order, you pay and then you sit down. SeanYoda ordered the roast beef sandwich plate which came with 2 sides (he chose mashed potatoes/gravy & green beans). Meeko ordered the pastrami w/ 1 side order of macaroni (which looked good, but was a bit overdone and bland).
We were surprised, in that we expected the dip to be a complete dip perhaps like one might expect at Philippe's the other french dipped sandwich place made famous (make no mistake though, COLES PE is the original!) SeanYoda got a large diet soda and it did look big enough to split.. we paid (they take credit as well as cash) and then headed to the back. While we were waiting, a lovely lady with a little boy who looked vaguely familiar (well his curly locks looked familiar..)walked by and smiled. we were guessing that might be Blogger Baby & his mom Maria.. but wasn't 100% sure.
The front booths were mostly empty except for a lone diner or the occasional couple of folks at the bar.. we saw folks in the back room, where Sean guessed that was where the 'meet' was. Of course he was right. =)
While we didn't really recognize folks (Celia we recognized by name.. some folks we recognized by their blogs.. *grin*) there was no mistaking Mike.. =) We introduced ourselves.. (hopefully Maria & Mike got the RSVP we sent ok) I guess we represented the blog readers contingent as the rest of the folks were friends & blogging buddies that Mike & Maria may have known already..
We stayed for about an hour.. enjoying Blogger Baby's cute baby antics and chatted folks, but mostly listened, as we ate our late lunches and learned more about some of LA's blogging community and the individual people we enjoy reading so much. We got a chance to ask some questions.. well, Meeko Pamela did.. as SeanYoda sort of smiled and tolerated the silly sounding questions.. one of these days we'll be relocating (and while it won't be Berkeley.. although it would be nice to go home) it's more likely to be the Studios area.. or LA proper.. getting to know how folks deal with the traffic and commutabibility by foot of Downtown.. and how things seem to be ever-changing was helpful. Sean works in LA all the time, but it's a matter of getting there & home.. not so much lingering and enjoying the neighborhood... taking in a lunch or just enjoying the commute.
Besides being overly chatty (Why can't I just learn to shut up for once??.. Meeko) Pamela & Sean had a really good time and enjoyed trying the much beloved Coles French dip for the first time before they are likely to shutter the restaurant & bar for refurbishment (under new owners) what may be later this summer. SeanYoda took photos of the dark moody & eclectic (and sinky furniture!) advertisement filled back room..
The place definitely could use some sprucing up but honestly other than a good dusting and a mop (and maybe find someplace else for the party chairs) there's definitely a local's homey quality to the place. It belongs to the neighborhood, unlike many of the shiny new refurbed Lofts that seem to be cropping up all over the place. LA is definitely on the move.. while change and the new urbanist movement is something to be lauded and appreciated by this particular non-driver, let's hope that Cole's remains for another 100+ years beyond its rezoned & refurbished and updated neighborhood.
BIG THANKS to all the folks that were so nice & welcoming to the 2 strangers at the meet.. and hopefully we won't be complete strangers so much but maybe virtual strangers.. which is definitely a step up in the online world.. Thanks Mike & Maria & to Blogger Baby who probably doesn't know what a hit he was with his amazing smile & stroller pushing ability..
**pix to be posted at some point once SeanYoda wakes up from his nap and is properly harrassed to edit pix.. or Meeko Pamela gets around to it. Whichever comes first! Thanks for reading!
Friday, June 09, 2006
another project down the toilet
ok.. I'm tending to be pessimistic these days because nothing I start seems to be going well. I thought we would have moved to Burbank/ LA area by now and I'd have all these great reviews to post about living in the studios area and such.. but no, we're still in Anaheim.. which isn't really the happeningest place on earth (and definitely NOT where we are currently located).. This isn't my ranting spot so let's just say it's been a bit frustrating around here.. I wish I had a box I could scream in. =)
So sorry if anyone came across this blog and is dissapointed, but you can be relieved in that no one is more dissapointed (and embarressed) as myself. Good thing I didn't name this thing after someone's neighborhood.. LOL.
LONG JOHN SILVERS
OH.. I guess I could do a review of Long John Silvers.. I haven't eaten there in AGES (years that is) and SeanYoda brought a couple dinners home the other night. Chicken planks while not being a Anaheim thing, were still better than I could have ever remembered them from the Long John Silver's of my youth.. hush puppies were amazing and the coleslaw was mediocre.. still nice meal and filling.
ps: I honestly don't know what food Anaheim is known for but they do have a Zankou Chicken which we tried the other Friday, and that was excellent!! I had the wrap and that too was filling. I can't imagine ordering anything larger because I almost couldn't finish it. =)
So sorry if anyone came across this blog and is dissapointed, but you can be relieved in that no one is more dissapointed (and embarressed) as myself. Good thing I didn't name this thing after someone's neighborhood.. LOL.
LONG JOHN SILVERS
OH.. I guess I could do a review of Long John Silvers.. I haven't eaten there in AGES (years that is) and SeanYoda brought a couple dinners home the other night. Chicken planks while not being a Anaheim thing, were still better than I could have ever remembered them from the Long John Silver's of my youth.. hush puppies were amazing and the coleslaw was mediocre.. still nice meal and filling.
ps: I honestly don't know what food Anaheim is known for but they do have a Zankou Chicken which we tried the other Friday, and that was excellent!! I had the wrap and that too was filling. I can't imagine ordering anything larger because I almost couldn't finish it. =)
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Mission Accomplished! If not a little late..
We had some issue purchasing it as we are guessing the item was too new for the cashier to have in her system or to ring up. Eventually after some discussion that sounded more like a lame attempt at "Who's on First" I was able to finally purchase it, I limped out of there, cranky but happy despite it all.
This got off topic but hurray for Coke Blak.. After I was able to finally buy it (Sean had already put our original groceries in the car by now) the girl was like "it comes in a four pack" (did I not just say that?) and then "be sure and put in the fridge it hasn't been chilled yet" (doh really???) Sean & I chilled it overnight (oh thank goodness the cashier reminded me or I wouldn't have thought to put an 8oz bottle of coke in the fridge!! *headpalm*) we tried it for breakie the next morning.
Not something we would buy normally but it was tolerable. I'd stick with my lite frappachino or double shot lite. Despite that the drink was about 1pt for the whole 8oz bottle! and it does give you a slight buzz. =)
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