Here's a quick look-back and recap of the last three months ...a very shortened version...
We've had a lot of quiet date nights out and in ...lots of good food, good wine, and good company. I picked up multiple babysitting gigs to make some extra cash. We've both been extremely busy working, and I've been busy literally working my ass off (healthy eating & daily workouts). There has also been a lot of Laker games thrown into the mix.
During the rest of October, we got to go to a pre-season Lakers game. We were lucky enough to be there for Dwight Howard's first game as a Laker! We were also fortunate to attend a private Michael Franti show where Charlie had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Franti before the show. My Giants won the world series!! We dressed up and celebrated Halloween weekend at Saint Rocke (where else?!) where we saw Hoist the Colors.
At the beginning of November, we got to see a private Rome (as in 'Sublime with Rome') soundcheck at Saint Rocke. We went to the actual show with three guys who were visiting from Peoria, and after the show, we met Rome outside of his tour bus. He is a seriously cool and talented guy!
Charlie's company, IROCKE, had their launch party. I worked the guest list for the first half of the night, and then I got to party with the guys (our friends Luke, Harry, & Brian all came as they are in the music industry). It was a great time and a huge deal for IROCKE. Charlie's birthday was the week after the launch party. On his actual birthday, we got a big group of friends together and had dinner at The Rockefeller in Hermosa Beach. The hospitality was great -- we had tasty food, cold champagne, great service, and I even got to bring in my own cupcakes. The weekend following the big birthday dinner, my dad and Lisa treated us to a birthday breakfast at Polly's on the Pier in Redondo. They also got him a boogie board as a gift! That night, I took Char wine tasting in Malibu followed by dinner at Taste at the Palisades.
Thanksgiving was spent at my dad & Lisa's. I did majority of the cooking, and for the first time ever, it was a very small holiday spent with my family. The food was incredible, the weather was beautiful, and the company, as always, was wonderful.
The first weekend in December, we went to a parade of lights in Palos Verdes followed by dinner at Wahoo's (a little taco spot up the street). The next night, my dad & I got to enjoy a father-daughter date night out! He took me to dinner at The Farm in LA Live, followed by a Lakers vs. Orlando game (which was my treat).
Brand new Kareem Abdul Jabar statue
Towards the beginning of December, we asked Lisa to shoot pictures for our Christmas card. So on a warm, Sunday morning we headed to Hermosa Beach to snap some shots. I had never done a couple's photo shoot before, and we had a blast. The morning was filled with lots of laughs, smiles, & fun. Thank you to Lisa for doing an incredible job!
Also in December, we got to spend a night out with Charlie's cousin Dan and his fiancé Laura. We went to Fritto Misto in Hermosa Beach where we enjoyed a very filling dinner and a bottle of red wine. Halfway through the month, Kate (one of the girls I nanny for) had her winter dance recital. Jen and Todd invited us along with their family, and following the recital, we all ate a big meal (accompanied by three bottles of wine) at Fonz's steakhouse in Manhattan Beach. The day after the recital, we celebrated Christmas at my dad and Lisa's. We opened presents, snacked on cheese and crackers, and then the Diaz family came over for an Italian dinner. I made bruschetta, and Lisa really outdid herself this year. She made her grandma's sausage and peppers, lasagna, salad, and crunchy bread. It was definitely the best Italian Christmas dinner to date. After stuffing our faces, we stopped by our friend Harry's Christmas party where we had a couple glasses of wine. Fast forward a few days, and we spent a Thursday night at The Roxy in Hollywood. For Charlie's birthday, I had gotten him Camp Freddy tickets. They're a super-group made up of famous musicians from well-known bands that we had wanted to see for a while. They only played for an hour, but they played some great hits that everyone knows -- including 'Wonderwall' by Oasis and 'Nookie' (with a surprise appearance by Fred Durst).
The next day we woke up, went to work, met at our apartment in the evening, and got ready to go to LAX. The month flew by incredibly fast, and we were headed 'home' for Christmas. The first night we were home, Amanda and Phil had their bachelor and bachelorette parties. The girls all met at Megan's (Amanda's sister) apartment where we all caught up, had a few drinks, played some games, and laughed hysterically. We then had dinner at Basta, headed to Martini's for a few drinks, and met up with the bachelor party at Sullys. Sunday, I ran errands, wrapped presents, and ate Avantis (mm, my favorite!) with my mom. Sunday night my mom, Mike, Beth, and I had dinner at Biaggi's with Charlie, his dad, and his stepmom, Giann. After dinner, we went to The Stadium Club for a drink followed by Crusens for a few. Everyone was so tired and hungover from Saturday night, that no one would come out on Sunday! Ha! Monday, Christmas Eve, we did Christmas at my mom's. Lots of food, drinks, and presents. We left my mom's and headed to Charlie's dads. After a few drinks and some appetizers, we went to The Last Chance to meet a few friends. Sunday morning we woke up and spent Christmas morning opening presents & eating breakfast at Charlie's dad's, followed by a huge, fantastic meal at my grandmas, Christmas with Charlie's mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin, and we finally finished up the night with some beer and Apples to Apples at my sister and her boyfriend's new house! The next day was spent running all over town to see friends and family! We had lunch at One World with Charlie's mom, Aunt, Grandma, and cousin followed by beers with my mom, Mike, and Beth. And of course our last night in Peoria was spent at The Last Chance with a big group of friends from high school.
The two who are always the most excited to see me!
Christmas Eve at my Mom's
Christmas Eve at Charlie's dad's
Christmas Morning at Charlie's dad's
Christmas Day at my Grandma's
Lunch with Charlie's Mom, Aunt, Grandma, & Cousin at One World
Pictures at Wilder Waite -- our grade school which is located conveniently near the bar
Stopped by Jess's for our final drink in Peoria!
Waiting for our flights at LAX! Last picture of the trip!
The next day, Thursday, we were headed back to LA. Friday night we saw Donovan Frankenreiter at Saint Rocke, and then we were sick all weekend. We had to push through our illness and find the strength to make it to Vegas on New Years Eve. We left extremely early in the morning, and got to our hotel (The Luxor) in Vegas by 730am. We spent most of the day relaxing since we were feeling under the weather, but by the late afternoon, we were as ready as we were going to be! We had a huge meal at Bucca di Beppo inside of the Excalibur, grabbed a few drinks from our hotel room, and then headed to the Cosmopolitan. We were going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. After standing around for almost four hours, the show finally started. They played all of their classic old hits, and also a few songs from their new CD, did a countdown at midnight, and an hour and a half later, it was all done. We drank, we danced, and we had a great time.
Pretty mountains on our drive home
To start the new year, we woke up early and were back in LA by 1PM. We really haven't done much this month, besides this past weekend. We had breakfast at Dinah's Diner in Culver City with Harry a few weeks ago and breakfast at our place with my dad and Lisa the following weekend. Lisa, my stepmom, had brain surgery last week. It was a rough couple of days, but she is on the road to recovery and doing well (thank you all for your well wishes, thoughts, prayers & love!) This past Friday night Charlie and I took advantage of dineLA's restaurant week by going to BOA in Santa Monica. We got there a little early, so we grabbed a cocktail at the bar. I had a drink called BOA 405 which was a Grey Goose, simple syrup, fresh strawberries, balsamic, & cracked black pepper. It sounds strange, but it was delicious. For $45 a person, they had a prix-fixe menu. For my meal, I chose the broccoli cheese soup, the petite filet with a mushroom mousse, wild mushrooms, & a whole head of roasted garlic, and for dessert, I chose a GIANT 1/2 chocolate chip, 1/2 macadamia nut cookie with a scoop of ice cream. Charlie chose calamari with a sweet chile sauce (which was delicious! my first time trying calamari!), lobster carbonara pasta (also delicious & I don't eat seafood), and the same dessert that I got. And of course we also got a bottle of red wine to accompany our meal. Saturday we headed to NAMM which is a private music trade show. Basically, a bunch of instrument & music related companies bring in all of their latest & greatest models, and musicians come to check it out. There are some scheduled performances, some surprise performances, and meet and greets. Taylor Guitars had artists on their stage all day -- we got to catch a pretty rad all-girl group called Raining Jane followed by Allen Stone (which is funny that my last blog three months ago was written about his show!). We also saw Stevie Wonder playing in a sound-proof booth, Victor Wooten going an autograph signing, Foreigner doing a signing, and countless other big names wandering around. Sunday, we woke up, and I was about to go for a run when I ran across a post on my Twitter about Laker tickets. I looked up tickets, and they were $45 for the same day against Oklahoma (the best in the west). We spontaneously bought tickets, and we couldn't have asked for a better game to go to this season. It was playoff atmosphere ...SO fun!
Stevie Wonder
Whewww, so there you have it friends & family, the last three months in a nutshell. More updates to come soon, I promise! ;)
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