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Its “a mouse you want around the house, with metallic leather ears and nose and black bead eyes.”

I feel like I was the last person on earth to learn of these Marc by Marc Jacobs Mouse Flats. I may be behind the trend, but I love them just the same. I picked up a pair at our local Marc by Marc Jacobs store. They just happened to have one pair in my size. Fate.

Yume brought up some crickets from LA that were flavored with bacon AND cheese.

Can’t say they were super delicious, but we ate ’em anyway.
Actually, the worst part about them turned out to be the artificial bacon and cheese flavoring.

The other night at the restaurant we were pretty stoked to have this home style classic for staff meal.
We work with gourmet food all night long, and work up quite an appetite. Its fun after a long shift to be able to dig in to something like this.
I just had to take a photo to capture its cheesy gooey essence.

(and of course that is all house made ground organic yummy meat in there!)

Recently I attended my Uncle Tom’s graduation from Stanford Medical School. He received his PH.D. in Molecular and Cellular Physiology. Yay Uncle Tom! His thesis was titled “A New Approach to Treating the Failing Heart”. I love that name. Its medical, yet romantic.

Other thesis titles weren’t quite as easy to understand – “Cell Context and Subtypespecific Trafficking of the Alpha 2-adrenergic Receptors”, “At the Surface of Host-pathogen Interactions in Toxoplasma Gondii Infections”, “Calcineurin/NFAT Signaling Controls Pancreatic Beta-cell Growth and Function”, and “TEC-1 is a Novel Marker for Human CD4+Recent Thymic Emigrants”.

Just being around all those smart people made feel very simple and kinda dumb. Its amazing to me just how smart people are sometimes. And my friends are smart people too! Turns out Elise was also graduating that same day from Stanford Medical School. Of course! I just hadn’t put 1+1 together and come up with 2 (Math has never been a strong point of mine). So Elise is now a Doctor of Medicine! Officially Dr. Lawson. How cool is that??

Check out the photo gallery link to the right to see the photos!

Its official. I’m able to go to Burning Man this year. I took one year off while Dallas went, then last year we both took the year off for our honeymoon – so I’ve missed the last 2 years! Crazy. I had written off being able to go anytime soon (this decade), but turns out I’m going in 2 1/2 months! Yay!

I’m super excited. Since the primary mode of transportation on the Playa is a bicycle, we have decided to upgrade to a tricycle. It will be sort of like a chair on wheels. Plus we can also easily haul things like ice and beverages around. The theme this year is The Green Man, so of course the bike will be green and decked out in green EL wire.

See you on the Playa!

Sometime around last June I decided we needed a BBQ. MMmm… Just the thought of seared meat and its caramelized sugars sizzling away on the grill makes me daydream. All in a matter of minutes, I could whip up some tasty grilled vegetables for the Hubby, and a juicy steak for myself. Both would have that nice smoky char flavor. We’d be cooking outside, perhaps drinking a beer – just like Americans do.

Living in the city, barbecuing is still quite a treat. It requires outdoor space and a commitment to hauling the equipment around every time you move (which city folks tend to do often). This outdoor space doesn’t have to be a full sized yard, or even a deck. Some people will bbq on their fire escapes, hunched over a tiny plate sized grill, hoping not to arouse the landlord. Others have no shame and will set it up (along with the cooler of beer) right on the middle of the sidewalk. However you grill, it is always a special occasion and a good reason to have friends over.

Anyway… Last June I found the grill of my dreams. Modern, sleek, sexy (yes a grill can be sexy), innovative, and best of all it has, in the same unit, both gas and charcoal. It is the Fuego 01. Check it out at fuegoliving.com

To make a long story short – the Fuego 01 has finally been released (almost a year later). I went and checked it out live in person yesterday. It is gorgeous and looks exactly as expected. So I was about ready to dive in and order it right then and there – come to find out many of the “accessories” haven’t been released yet.

Included in the list of un-released “accessories”: Charcoal drawers, Infrared drawers, All weather protective cover, Hood (to cover food while cooking), Digital read screen, and Hooks and baskets for hanging on the grill face.

If you ask me, these are necessities, not accessories.
We are currently pondering the purchase.
It is sexy though, right?!

Well, its gone and happened. I got myself a job. After a year and 4 months of living the life of leisure, I have a job.
I just finished my first work week. I’m having a lot of fun there in the kitchen – its a really good pace for me. I can’t imagine working anywhere else right now. My sleep schedule on the other hand is quite off. I’m not used to this staying up until 2am business. I’m more of a morning person. It will probably take another week before I’ve ironed out a routine.

I’m going to take the plunge and try out for a kitchen job. We’ll see how it goes!

Range

A few years ago we discovered these wall stickers made by Blik. We used the green ellipses and had them overlapping all willy-wonka on the wall opposite our couch. We had grown sick and tired of looking at a white wall, but could not think of what sort of art would look good over computer displays, and trailing wires.

Now we used them again in our kitchen. This wall called for something bold. We were thinking maybe paint just that wall – Red, or gray, or yellow. Eventually that just didn’t seem cool enough. The pathway along this wall is a major throughway in our house, so I didn’t want some bulky piece of art that we were going to bump every time we walked by.

I’ve always been inspired by the design of The Standard Hotels, both in Downtown LA and Hollywood (I have yet to stay at the Miami one). In their rooms they have swirly wallpaper bits that add a modern appeal to the room. This is what I wanted – modern appeal, and a bit of whimsy.


This is what we came up with:

There are a few birds that are cut off in the photo, but you get the idea. It is kind of hard to tell, but in person the birds add a bit of dimension to the room that would be hard to do with just paint. I think at this point it is safe to say that we will use Blik for a long time to come. Eventually we will have a baby room, and when we do we already have the perfect Bliks all picked out!