Who Says LA isn't pretty?

I managed to see more of LA this weekend, courtesy of the happy mobile-a friend's convertible- and so I have posted these photos-the view is from Griffith Park, in the north of LA, has a lot of hiking trails and in my photos, you can see a steeple-like structure and next to it some "fuzzy" white letters-that's the Hollywood sign. However, I was taking the photos using my camera phone so it's not the best. Who said LA isn't pretty-check out these mountains, it was a beautiful day. I also ate at this old historic Jewish deli-had a pastrami sandwich-my first in years and a knish. Not that I am getting back to my Jewish roots, but who doesn't love a Jewish deli?!

It was a great work week-my technical problems have been solved and I got good results on Friday-results I had been waiting 6 weeks for -so we had a spontaneous lab happy hour-wine, cheese, etc.

I went shopping with a gal pal on Sat night too-indulged myself in some stuff at Old Navy and a chocolate crepe at this crepe place in Santa Monica. Sunday was just my chill day-swam, yakked on the phone, tried to read this new book about a writer's journey through Afghanistan, and watched some dvds.

Julie

Breezy days...

Here are some photos from my drive up the Pacific Coast highway last weekend-these were taken in Malibu which is a beach community. There's no real Malibu center but I did go to this Malibu country mart which has little shops, a park, and an independent bookstore. Anyways, you can read my previous blog.
Last weekend was very social-went to a wonderful bbq and met a bunch of interesting people, then stopped by my postdoc friends housewarming party that same night, so it was a constant eating fest. I've been meeting alot of New Yorkers lately-it reminds me of why I like New Yorkers because they're chatty and gregarious and tell great stories. A lot of them are out here in LA, some associated with the movie business. And a lot of them are hard core Yankees fans. I used to be a Yankee fan growing up but kinda lost my interest (it got diverted to college basketball!). I do have a desire to watch more soccer-last summer I went to a galaxy game and it was fun!
I digress- so this week at work was a busy one but the good news is that after 5 weeks of troubleshooting, I figured out my technical issue so I am rapidly trying to play catch up. I also played racquetball again on Fri night with my labmate who kicked my ass but it was still a blast-nothing like whamming the ball although the game is more about placement than power. Then on Sat, it was a full day-laundry, exercise, cleaning, then was up to the wee hours having a drink with some new friends at this English pub in Santa Monica-rather I had one beer b/c I was driving and some of these Englishmen that I was with made fun of me for it. Oh well. As I recounted to them, I can count on my one hand, the number of times that I have drunk too much in my lifetime-the last one of course was Lisa and Ken's wedding (remember guys?).
On Sunday, it was a glorius day and I did some shopping, saw that new dance movie Step Up (excellent), started reading a new book called The Places In-Between about a man's walking journey through Afghanistan (prompted by having a conversation with this grad student who did a documentary on the nomads in Iran where he is from). Oh yeah-also had a first date with one of these eharmony guys-it actually was fun-we played some carnival games down at the Santa Monica Pier and had some Indian food, it was very chill, so definitely worth a 2nd date although I do have some other potentials, it's been an interesting time lately on that front.
Another work week starts and I did alot of paperwork today so came home earlier than usual so I can go work out.

Julie

Mix&Match

I took advantage of amazon.com and ordered a pair of work-out shorts for myself and a racquet as I have taken up racquetball again-well at least playing it every few weeks. Still, the shorts felt a little too short and I was laughing with my neighbor about it-every year they make them shorter and you wonder what's the point-might as well wear underpants.
I've been tired all week and sleeping late-still troubleshooting at work, and multitasking. I was going to exercise this am but couldn't wake up.
Last weekend was very mellow-I went to this postdoc pub night on Friday at this Irish pub -caught up with a few friends, and then was just lazy for the rest of the weekend. I did see that movie You,Me, and Dupree, it was fairly good and I do like Matt Dillion and Kate Hudson. Matt Dillion appears to be experiencing a revival lately ever since the movie "Crash."

This week was calm except for one night, it started with a vow that I made with a friend of mine here, that we needed to get out more and meet new people outside of our normal work crowd. Plus, we're both single so that is also a factor. We went to this Cambridge alumni event (Cambridge UK) at an English pub in Hollywood-not shishi at all, it reminded me of Scottish pubs, very laid-back and we met a nice crowd of people, incl a forensic psychologist who also consults for a bunch of the CSI tv shows and a movie producer who is very down to earth and intellectual. People were just relaxed and interested and it reminded me of the type of atmosphere when I was abroad-all about meeting new people from different backgrounds. So I may have made some new friends.

This weekend will be busy-going to get my haircut finally (it's been a mop for way too long), going to a bbq, a housewarming party, potentially going on a date (been checking out that site eharmony which tries to make compatibility matches).

More soon...
Julie

Guacamole

Well I just finished eating some-the Trader Joe's kind although I was introduced to Cosco this weekend and it may become my new Trader Joe's in a sense-that store is huge, a friend put me on her membership so I can come and go. I didn't realize that you can get cheap gas there, buy electronics, and they have a ton of cheese and fruit for really cheap. But I am holding myself back because I just went grocery shopping and with my rent now up 50 bucks a month, I need to save somewhere. Last week was pretty uneventful-just trying to work out technical stuff with experiments, but on the bright side, I played racquetball on Friday night -about 1.5 hours worth, for the first time in years. It felt great to whack the ball although a couple of times I hit my partner in bad spots :) and then we each played a game with this expert player called Mr. Miyagi-I don't know if that's his real name or that's what my labmate calls him-kinda like the teacher in the Karate Kid movies. Well, he definitely knows how to place the ball and I only got 1 point off of him! I also somehow managed to hit the ball so it bounced off the top of his head which had me giggling and my partner in hysterics. Needless to say, I was sore for two days after-didn't even have the ability to workout. On Saturday, I went to a friend's bbq, a nice small intimate setting on the north part of town, very relaxing, and other than that, I saw more dvds-I am addicted to these cable shows-I watched dvds of this Showtime series Terrorist Cell which was excellent. This week has just been tiring work-wise although I did feel good about helping a sick friend yesterday who may have pneumonia b/c after all, I would have been in bad shape if it wasn't for all of my Arizona friends helping me out and checking on me (thank you). Luckily, I haven't been sick like that since-some colds here and there but there is something nasty going around at work.
I am already eager for the weekend to come and it's just Tuesday! I have some odds and ends to go to, a housewarming party, and a pub night. We have this monthly postdoc pub night this Friday which I will go to -one of my friend's organizes it and I haven't been going often so I really need to show, and thankfully I haven't volunteered for any leadershipy things on campus with this society, I had enough of that in grad school, although alot of people are grumbling about whether we should have a postdoc union. Some time ago people came around with cards for us to sign without explaining really well what it meant and what the union would stand for. Still, if some postdocs are getting paid like shit, then a union is a good idea.

Well, that's it for now.

Julie