Wait, we're already talking about next season? I'm still dealing with this one.

Guess what I got in the mail today that totally made my day?  Of course it's Kings related:

Someday...someday.

I noticed that the logo on the return address on the evelope is not the current crown, but the third jersey "home plate" logo.  I think it was a forgone conclusion at this point, but apparently we really are going to switch to the black next season and as much as I like the black thirds, the logo on its own is surprisingly plain and certainly a lot less kingly (in my opinion) than the crown.  What do you think?

When you look at them on a plain background, I think the home plate gets a lot less interesting.

Also, hey, three Kings related posts in a row.  Hat trick!

On the downside, I also received a jury summons in the mail today, and that was after coming home after dropping the car off for $1,100 of repairs.  Joy.

What does an L.A. King have to do to get trending on Twitter?

Just get a horrific looking injury, that's all.

Get well soon, Kopi!

Update: Broken ankle, out minimum six weeks.  Curse you, hockey gods!

You don't get to 500 million Mateys without making a few landlubbin' enemies

Thanks to my friend Liz, I was recently tipped off to Facebook's "Pirate" language option and decided to give it a shot.  Although the novelty wore off after a while, it was pretty hilarious and I'll probably switch back to it periodically just for a laugh.  Whoever it was at Facebook that came up with all the pirate language really knows their pirate language.

One of the many changes Piratese makes is that it adds the title of "Cap'n" before everyone's name.  Which resulted in this:

Dustin Brown is the team captain of my beloved Los Angeles Kings.

Dinner at SteingartenLA

The Bro and I recently (and belatedly) celebrated his birthday at a new restaurant on the Westside near his office.

SteingartenLA, at 10543 W. Pico Boulevard, just opened a few weeks ago and has had some pretty decent buzz.  They also have an extremely interesting menu that includes sausages made from rabbit, alligator, elk and bison, along with more conventional Polish, Bratwurst, chicken, duck and lamb selections, plus tons of beers.  The Bro and I are wine people, but he's getting into beers and wanted to try the place out.  Our awesome waitress Natalia was very knowledgeable about their beer selection and was able to make recommedations that we both enjoyed.  I asked for something that didn't have a really hardcore "beer taste" to it and ended up with Los Abbey Devotion and The Bro had Dogfish Head Aprihop.  We both finished our beers, so that's two thumbs up, even from a non-beer person like me.

I decided to take a walk on the wild side and try the elk sausage.  I figured as long as I was at a place with such exotic (to me) dishes it would be a shame not to try one.  The sausages are served on a bun with a selection of toppings (I chose caramelized onions).  It was good, although if I didn't know it was elk I would have thought it was a more common meat.

Yes, there is an elk sausage buried under all those caramelized onions.

For me the real highlight was the side of sweet potato fries.  They were absolutely delicious and I'm already working on my own version of them that doesn't involve deep frying.

MADE. OF. YUM.

The Bro played it safe with the Chef's Choice Burger with parmesan fries.  It's a good-sized burger and he polished it off, along with most of the fries.

Fuzzy Crackberry photos are fuzzy.

SteingartenLA just opened this month and it looked like they're a welcome addition to the neighborhood; the place was packed.  It's a place we will definitely return to, as well as a new place for The Bro to meet with clients.  Natalia mentioned that they'd had a couple rough nights early on when they were short-staffed, and it's not a place you go for a quick dinner, but the service was good and like I mentioned before, very helpful to a beer novice like me.

Total for dinner (and beers!) for two was about $45 before the tip.

Welcome to the neighborhood! (No, I don't know why their sign says "Hendricks").

SteingartenLA links/reviews: on Facebook - Eater LA - L.A. Times - The Craft Beer Chronicles on This is Brand X

Listen up

What do you get when you combine meditative, atmospheric music and the LAPD scanner?  Why you get You Are Listening to Los Angeles, of course!

I love it.  To me, it's the perfect soundtrack for Los Angeles.  Kind of spooky and noirish, yet also strangely mesmerizing.  Defining the sound of a city by combining dreamy music with the voices of its police dispatch?  I wouldn't have expected it to work, but it does.  The internet wins again.

You can also listen to New York, Chicago, San Fran and Montreal.

Hat tip to Curbed LA for the link.

One of the benefits (???) of insomnia

Beautiful early morning sunrise:

A little later (and lighter):

I'm going back to bed now.  Have a beautiful morning (and day)!

Just another gorgeous day in the Southland

Beautiful clouds in the sky over the City of Angels.  The view from my balcony:

Cyberspace Open is on

Here is the premise/prompt:

The Premise:

Your PROTAGONIST and his or her LOVE INTEREST are at odds. One of the protagonist’s schemes has gone terribly awry, and the love interest has had it. Write a scene in which they have it out – but in an unconventional way. Their words seem measured and reasonable; but the subtext says another thing entirely. You may use additional characters other than the ones specified.

Note From Contest Management:

This is going to take some crafty, non-on the nose writing here. For example, they can talk about boiling water, but it’s clear they’re really talking about something else. Use sarcasm or body language or timing or other means to convey your true meaning.

Ugh, I got nothing.  Last time I was able to use a project that was already semi-written. This one is going to take some work.  *Puts writing thinking cap on*

Happy Valentine's Day - Southern California Noir-Style

Novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler and his wife were reunited in death today, 50 years after the fact, thanks to a couple of really dedicated Chandler fans:

Then, last year, two Chandler fans from Malibu, Loren Latker and his wife, Annie Thiel, found references from the author hinting that he wished to be buried alongside his wife. They successively petitioned San Diego Superior Court for permission to have Cissy's remains buried in the grave of her husband. Seeing no opposition, the judge agreed, and on Monday over 100 people attended the reburial ceremony.

Well done, Loren and Annie.

Customer service fail

So Typepad decided to dump the Widget Gallery.  This did not make the natives happy, especially when Typepad answered the question of why:

You know, it's not like Typepad is a free service, like Blogger.  Failing to keep features up to date and them dumping them instead of getting them caught up is pretty damn lame.  When I moved my previous blog from Blogger to Typepad, it was because I felt it was worth the cost to upgrade.  Might be time to reconsider that.

Even lamer is how they specifically ignored comments asking why they didn't update the Gallery instead of just dumping it and replacing it with a "recommended article" that lists a whopping seven major widgets.

Yeah.  Customer service FAIL.  To the point where I might look into going back to Blogger.

Update: Looked into Blogger and unfortunately they don't support importing from Typepad.  In addition, if you cancel Typepad your blog is "no longer accessible online".  So in other words, once you're with Typepad, you're with Typepad for life, unless you want your blog to disappear from existence.  Lovely.

My next door neighbor still has that festive holiday spirit

First, a little background - please read this post from my old blog: Have yourself a Merry Little Fire Hazard.

This year management posted notices in the lobby before the holidays reminding everyone that Christmas trees quickly go from festive to fire hazard, so be sure to dispose of them in a timely manner.  I figured I wasn't the only one who had noticed and thought it was a nice, anonymous way to let my next door neighbor know that it isn't cool to keep your tree (with lights!) into spring.

I was wrong.

Went to the store yesterday evening and when I returned she had her door open.  She does that a lot, to get a breeze I guess.  And guess what was in her living room, all lit up and everything.  If you guessed her Christmas tree, well done.  You get a cookie.

Funny thing is, the notices are still up.  Apparently my next door neighbor is incapable of taking a hint.  Or she's really just that clueless.

I hate to be a snitch, but I'd hate to die horribly in a fire even more.  So yeah, I'm going to have that conversation with the manager.

The holiday spirit it burns brightly in this one.  Emphasis on burns.

Catnip fail

Because I am an awesome CatMom, for Christmas I got her Sophieness catnip in a bag.

Because I am a CatMom fail, I just finally got around to planting said catnip about a week or so ago.

You're supposed to put the seeds in, water it, cover it in a bag for 7-10 days, then voila!  Catnip garden!

Today it was time to check out the results.  Let's take a look, shall we?

Do you see it?

Here's a closer look:

FAAAIIILLL!!!

I got it at Fresh & Easy, so it was dirt cheap.  A lesson in getting what you pay for, I guess.  It seemed like a bargain at the time.