Christmas in LA

This year, we had our first chistmas together as newlyweds. It was lovely. We worked on fixing up the apartment - got rid of a lot of unnecessary clutter, got some new furniture from Ikea, and reorganized almost the entire apartment. It was very tiring but really worth it. We still have a few more piles to sort out but once we do I'll post some photos of our new, little home.
The first photo is of Kelly on Christmas eve. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Yang Chow, and got the slippery shrimp and orange peel beef - yumm, lightly fried, sweet meat! There was a bit of a wait so Kelly got a half a duck from a restaurant down the street and ate some while we waited to get our food to go from Yang Chow.



On Christmas day, Kelly made a turkey and we worked on the house some more. We both called our families (who we can't wait to see soon!) after we ate and then went to see The Waterhorse (it was great!). That night Snoops and Athena played tug of war with Snoops' Eeyore toy and there was much rejoicing in the O'Hare house.

The day after Christmas, we went to the movies again. This time we went to see the new Daniel Day Lewis epic, There Will Be Blood. The time we wanted to go turned out to be sold out so we went to The Hungry Cat, one of Kelly's most frequented restaurants in West Hollywood - they have lots of fancy fish dishes. We have since gone back to work but enjoyed our little break and look forward to coming home to Texas in a few weeks!

Kimmy in LA

The day after her 23rd birthday Kimmy flew into Burbank. During her stay: we did a lot of eating out, went shopping on Melrose, walked around The Grove and Beverly Center, went for a walk with Susan, Mindy, Macarthur, Basil, and Mr. Snoops in Elysian Park, watched The Golden Compass and Juno at the Arclight in Hollywood, went to the Silver Lake Dog Park, had dinner at Beth, Steve, and Athena's house with Kelly and Hawk after which we saw I am Legend at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and we went to Disneyland. We ate at a lot of great places including Pinkberry, Elf, Agra Indian Cafe, The Backdoor Bakery, Baskin Robbins, The Urth Cafe, and Flore. It was great just having Kimmy here to hang out with.

First Anniversary

For our first anniversary Kelly got us tickets to see the musical Wicked at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Afterwards we went to eat at the new, highly recommended restaurant on Melrose called osteria mozza. It was a total surprise and we had an amazing time.

Friends Forever

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we did have one guest. Her name is Athena. She is a dwarf jack russell terrier. Her family, Beth and Steve, went to visit Steve's family for the holiday weekend so she got to stay with us. Whenever we go out of town Beth and Steve watch Snoops. Snoops and Athena have become friends and Athena has become like part of our family.

New New Glasses

I decided the other pair of glasses I showed you earlier was too boring and plain. So, I returned to Old Focals and this time I looked at the truly vintage pairs (the others were from the 90s) and found some I like a lot better. They are still not the perfect pair but they are definitely more fun. The guy from the band the Antarcticans who works there helped me choose them and gave them to me for an exact exchange (still only $60) even though they are older and more unique. You can't really tell in the photo but when the light shines through them they look blue and sparkly.

Thanksgiving

This year it turned out to just be me, Kelly and, Mr. Snoops for Thanksgiving. We had a very nice stress-free time. Kelly cooked a turkeyand made mashed potatos and I made stuffing from a box and baked a pre-made pie. Snoops thoroughly enjoyed his share. We fell asleep much earlier than usual and so got up early the next day with enough time to go to the Arclight in West Hollywood to see a movie before Kelly had to go to work later in the afternoon. We saw the new movie very loosely based on Bob Dylan's lifea dn fashioned after Fellini's 8 1/2, I'm Not There. It made for a fun morning. We got to see the kind of crowd that goes to the Arclight at 11 am instead of 11 pm (which is when we usually go). Later I went to visit Kelly at Edendale. It was quite slow in the bar so I stayed for a long time and studied my anatomy book, talked with Kelly about the movie, and drank a wonderful hot toddy that Kelly made special just for me.