Stan’s Obligatory Blog

This evening we went to the latest opening party at The Underground Arts Society in Altadena. This time, the featured artist was Ace Farren Ford. We sort of know Ace, since he’s the father of our friend and tattoo artist Shannon’s kids. Lucinda had fun playing with their kids Mars and Rose, as well as playing with Shannon’s cats. Lucinda also got a sticker on her back with some of the art on display. And we had fun looking at all the art. So overall, it was a fun time.

Just a quick picture from the office. I decorated for the holidays. I started doing this back when I was in my first office here, since it was the first time I’d ever had an office with a fireplace. I don’t have the fireplace anymore, but I still decorate.

The second picture is just something I saw on the way home today. They had the Feddes furniture store done up to look like a TV store and they were filming something there. I have no idea what it was, but it’s always amusing seeing something familiar dressed up to look different. Too bad they didn’t have any snow there.

We tried another brownie recipe today. This time it’s the Quick & Easy Fudgey Brownies. They are pretty good. Lucinda liked them a lot. But they are still not quite the recipe I’m looking for. I’m still looking for something a bit heavier and darker.

We had a storm last night, and when we got up this morning, the wind was still blowing very hard. And I just happened to notice a piece of tar paper falling off the roof and smacking into the window. And I thought, “This can’t be good.” So I got the ladder and climbed up to find the roof on our laundry room in shreds. Yick.

So while I was out riding my bike, Cathy and Lucinda went and got a Christmas tree. After we set it up, Lucinda and I decorated it. Even though we’re not religious in any way, it’s still just a fun little thing to do. So there.

Since the weather forecast for Sunday morning doesn’t look too good, I went riding today instead.

I started off going west, into Eagle Rock. I took a short side trip just to ride up Nolden Street and the terrifyingly steep hill. Then I continued west into Glendale, where I managed to take my picture reflected in a plate glass window. Then I turned south and went by the Los Angeles Equestrian Center and on into Burbank. I went past Disney headquarters. You can tell it’s them because of the wrought-iron Mickey Mouse heads on the fence. Then past Warner Bros and the Oakwood Apartments, which is the boot camp for child actors.

From there, I headed back home. I went past Travel Town and the L.A. Live Steamers in Griffith Park, and then back into Glendale. I took the long climb up Verdugo and the obligatory trip up “Hospital Hill”. Then back down through La Cañada and Altadena. It started to rain just as I got back into Pasadena, so the timing was just about perfect. 40 miles.

Today I went for a short bike ride just to shake the after-gorging blahs. I went up into La Cañada and then up and over on Chevy Chase. I rode down the hill into Glendale and then took Glenoaks up and over a little hill with a nice view of downtown Glendale, Mt. Hollywood and Griffith Park. Then turned up Verdugo for the trip home. That was where I saw a little decorated tree all by itself on the side of the road. I thought this was a bit odd, so I took a picture of it. Then I went up “Hospital Hill” and back home through La Cañada and Altadena. 25 miles.

I modified ‘quicktags.js’ to default to opening links in a new window. I found the instructions for how to do this here.

So today was the big Thanksgiving feast. This morning, I started out by baking the olive bread that I made last night. Then it was time to put the turkey in the oven to cook while I made potatoes and rapini. But there was a bit of a crisis when we discovered that the cooking bags had been misfiled, and the bag we had wasn’t ‘Turkey Size’. So I got on my bike and rode up to the grocery store. And they were out of the big cooking bags. But I found some in a carton on the top of the shelf, so the crisis was averted. By 1:00 everything was ready. We snacked a bit on the olive bread before the main meal. Then we all stuffed ourselves. The potatoes au gratin were a big hit.

After dinner, I pulled out the chocolate cake I made yesterday. Who needs pumpkin pie when there’s chocolate cake with mousse frosting?

Getting ready for the Holiday here. Last night, I made herbed olives and cranberry sauce. Today I got out early from work, so I came home and got started in the kitchen. First I made a chocolate cake. The “Deep Dark Chocolate Cake” from the Hershey’s cookbook. Then, while the two layers were cooling, I made the stuffing. After that was done, I made dough for two loaves of Olive Bread. This will be served before dinner with the herbed olives that I made last night.

After all this, the cake rounds were cool enough to frost. So I made a chocolate mousse to use as filling and frosting. Lucinda helped a bit here, as she wanted to get dibs on the bowl when I was done. So now we have bread dough and a cake in the refrigerator, stuffing and olives in our neighbor’s refrigerator, and we’re ready for the Main Event tomorrow.