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The kitties have been more snuggly than usual the past couple of weeks, and this is the closest I’ve seen them.

I first noticed these graffiti cats cropping up along the 110 freeway.  I couldn’t get a good photo, since driving and taking pictures at the same time is an activity that other drivers frown on, but LA Eastside blog posted some.

Today, as Rick and I were walking around the neighborhood, we saw these new additions to the cat population:

And here is what used to be on the same spot.  If you look carefully, you can see it underneath the cats.

I’ve been keeping an (almost) daily photoblog on tumblr called Elevens:

(Okay, okay.  It’s not even close to daily.  I know.)

Yes, it has been a while since I posted.  I could give excuses why I haven’t posted, or I could try and do a mega-post with all the things I’ve been meaning to write over the past few weeks, but I’m going to simply start posting and pretend it’s what I intended all along.

I didn’t do an in-depth visit to Chinatown.  I wanted to get out and stretch my legs and see something interesting, so I took a bus up Broadway to Cesar Chavez and walked the rest of the way up Broadway.  My intended destination was Ooga Booga in the Central Plaza, but I enjoyed the beautiful weather and the mix of residents and tourists as I walked past shops filled with produce, fish, cheap souvenirs, and “lucky” bamboo.

In the central plaza I avoided the souvenir shops and watched people.  There was a man having his Tarot read near the fountain.  It must have been a horrible fortune, because he had the saddest look on his face and his whole body sagged.  Poor guy.

Among the shops filled with paper parasols and plastic buddhas, there are a few interesting places.  I found Ooga Booga, a tiny place filled with zines and t-shirts and other cool stuff.  I stumbled on flock shop, where I found some great little gifts for people on my Christmas list, and a home decor store with beautiful glassware and pottery – Realm.

After my wandering, Rick met me and we went over to Los Angeles State Historic Park, more commonly known as cornfield park.  We walked around the perimeter of the park, and down a path lined with tall stalks of corn through the ever-changing Anabolic Monument.

Toast comes out of hiding now and then.

—-

Cheddar is helping.

• Work.
• Had a birthday.
• Went to Ciudad to celebrate.
• Read some books.
• Work.
• Listened to some music.
• Visited an art gallery.
• And a museum.
• More work.

You?

A rainbow of sweeteners from brunch at Bottega Louie.

These are four things that make me happy today.

Three day weekend.

Not that I’m doing anything particularly exciting, but it’s always nice to look forward to an extra day off.  I’m planning to try some new baking (if it cools off), go see a movie or two, and kick around downtown.

DnA tribute to Julius Shulman.

This was a couple of months ago, after the architectural photographer died at the age of 98, but I just listened to the podcast this morning. I’ve been thinking about inspiration and motivation for the past few days, and doing what you are passionate about.  I find the story of a man who immersed himself in his art and craft until almost 100 years of age inspiring.

My parking garage.

The parking garage for our apartment building is also the parking for Grand Central Market.  It’s a really good garage: it is regularly cleaned, constantly patrolled by security, and 11 floors high.  The thing that makes me happy about it is the fruit paintings to indicate each floor.   We usually park on peach (10) and the door to the apartment building is on banana (3).  It makes me smile to twist my way down past pineapple, kiwi, apple, and coconut on my way to the street and on to work.

Röyksopp ‘Happy Up Here’

I danced around to this song as I got ready for work this morning, making the inevitable a little more fun.

Several years ago, we visited the California Avocado Festival in Carpenteria.  I tasted some avocado ice cream and was delighted with it, but had since completely forgotten about it.  A couple of weeks ago I was trying to decide what to make with the large bag of avocados I had bought from the market downstairs and remembered the ice cream.

I found a recipe from Food Network from Alton Brown.  The ice cream turned out fantastic, very creamy and avocadoy, and a lovely color of pale green.  I highly recommend it after a meal of spicy Mexican food.   The week before I made the ice cream, Rick Bayless made an avocado ice cream as part of the penultimate episode of Top Chef Masters.  He used liquid nitrogen.  I didn’t have any of that on hand, so I used an ordinary ice cream maker.

I’m taking a few days off from work, just to de-compress for a bit.  (I’m not going to use this term, because I have an unreasonable amount of hatred for it.) While I was going through photos on the computer, I found this from an abandoned and ill-conceived project.  I still like the photo though.