My friend’s dad passed away on Monday. Another person my age who has lost a parent too young. Life is not fair. K, if you’re reading this, take care of yourself and we’re all thinking about you here at work!
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I finally made the decision that it’s time for a new car. I’m still debating between the Civic hybrid or the CRV. (Yes, I am aware they are totally different cars.) This of course means I need to sell my current one, a 2000 Honda Civic EX with super low mileage–only 62,000. If you live in LA and are interested in possibly buying it, let me know!
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Speaking of LA, how happy am I that Law & Order was held back to be used as a mid-season replacement! At least I’ll have one new scripted show to watch since it appears the writers’ strike may actually happen. Of course, this could also mean I watch more crap reality TV, but I could think of worse things.

In other TV news, is The Hills getting boring or is it just me? And is anyone else watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians? What about Beauty and the Geek, what team do you want to win?
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It took me an hour to drive the five miles home last night because of the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval. They totally stepped up the security this year–there were cops on practically every corner north of Santa Monica and south of Sunset. Did anyone go? I haven’t been in about 10 years, when The Ex and I walked there from my old apartment down the street from the parade.
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I bought a super cool camera bag and a tiny little case (looks like the one in the link, but it’s for the new Nano) for my iPod at Best Buy the other day. For my Blackberry, I bought this, which hopefully will prevent me from scratching the screen even more. And um, also protect it from when it hits the ground in my garage, like it did last night. Oops.
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In baking news, I am so going to try one of these candy bar recipes!
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In other news, I’m off to northern California tomorrow! And while I’m there, my parents will be staying in my apartment down here because my dad has a seminar in LA. Then when I get back, my aunt and cousin (hi Jason!) will be in town. Then two weeks after that, my parents and sister and I are heading to Texas for Thanksgiving and to spend time with both sets of aunts and uncles, four of my five cousins (the fifth one is living in Israel), and two new babies. I can’t wait to see everyone and meet the newest members of our family!
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This week’s question: When did you first begin to think of yourself as an adult?

I’m back! Here are the details of my weekend up north.

Friday
Sara picked me up at the San Jose airport in the afternoon then we headed to lunch at her office (she works for Google). I am so jealous and want to work for a progressive company like that. They have an enormous cafeteria that reminded me a lot of a mall food court, laundry facilities, massages, a gym, toilet seats with warmers, foosball, and anything else you can possibly imagine. And it’s all free.

After checking out the office, we went back to the house in Palo Alto (Sara’s living there while she’s helping take care of her grandma) and changed clothes and met met up with Joe and Brad, two other Googlers (yes, that’s what they call them) and went into the city. We grabbed a quick bite then saw a BATS Improv show. It was fun, but not nearly as good as the improv down here. It should also be noted that I think Sara and I annoyed Joe and Brad to no end, because we had a lot of catching up to do and suddenly reverted back to being silly girlfriends. It was fun.

Saturday
Sara and I slept in then drove past my aunt and uncle’s old house in Palo Alto. So many memories came flooding back, and I could very clearly picture certain rooms in the house. When I was a kid, I would fly out there to spend weekends with my aunt and uncle, and my aunt and I would go into the city and shop and eat and paint each others nails. Ahh, good times.

Sara and I then went back into San Francisco, this time to be tourists. We had lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf (shrimp and chips for me, clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl for her), and basked in the sun. The weather was absolutely perfect–around 75 and sunny, not a cloud in the sky! After stuffing ourselves with lunch, we walked over to where else–Ghirardelli–for some chocolate. And since there happened to be a cupcake bakery right next door, we grabbed a cupcake too. Of course, our bellies were too full, so I ended up walking around with the cupcake for a while. Or at least until…

We were tired and hot and wanted to relax, so we took an hour long cruise around the bay. (Yes, we are suckers.) It was really pretty, we had great views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge, and we had a chance to re-energize, and of course, eat the cupcake (which by the way, was just eh.)

On our way out of the city, we got a little lost (I think we passed the same dog park about five times) and ended up passing Lombard Street so I convinced Sara to drive down it. It was quite amusing watching her drive, and we laughed all the way down. Once we got home, we relaxed for a bit and freshened up then went out for sushi. By the end of dinner, we were both exhausted so we went home and and sat up watching TV and chatting until our eyes began closing.

Sunday
We met up with Joe for breakfast, then she and I went into Palo Alto do some shopping. I bought a super cute INC coat (that is not 100% wool so it won’t itch!) and Sara bought a dress for a work party. We then went to a different area and did some window shopping and had a late lunch. Ready to collapse, we went back home, packed up my stuff, and then were off to the airport.

The best part of the weekend was catching up and reconnecting with Sara. We’ve known each other since we were 16, and even though we haven’t seen each other in almost a year, it felt as if we talk every day. There’s something to be said for high school friendships. I hope that the next time I go up there Julie will come too, because I would love for the three of us to hang out together again.

More pictures here, but as usual, pictures of people are viewable only by Flickr Friends & Family. Let me know if you want to be added.

First off, a very happy birthday to Julie, her birthday was yesterday!
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Tuesday night I had dinner with my sister, aunt, and cousin at La Buca on Melrose. This was the first time I’ve been back since the remodel, and the place looks completely different. They have a nice (wine only) bar now (the last time I was there they didn’t have a liquor license) and gone is the cute, rustic feel the restaurant had prior to the renovation. Oh well. After dinner, we headed to Club 1160 so my cousin could participate in the jazz jam session. It was really cool, a lot of fun, and I think Jason was the best musician there.
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In writers’ strike news, my sister (an assistant) will be out a job November 30; her boss (a producer) got the boot yesterday; and DG (a grip) can’t find any work. The trickle down affect in action. Bethany was planning on leaving the industry at the end of the year anyway, so it’s not a hardship for her.

However, with all of these writers out of work, I may find more competition in my job search. Why yes, it is all about me today.
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In random news, I’ve been hearing those OnStar commercials a lot lately, and they seriously make me want to cry. Do you know the ones I’m talking about?
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I’m going to stay in town for Christmas this year (there’s nothing like LA on Christmas–the city empties out and it is awesome!). If any of my non-Christmas celebrating friends will be in town and want to do the Jewish Christmas thing (movie and Chinese food) or volunteer somewhere, let me know!
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Apparently I’m an idiot, because I can’t figure out how to charge my iPod without using the USB cord. Is there something I can buy to charge it the old fashioned way using you know, a plug in the wall? The reason I ask is because I’m not sure I want to shlep my laptop with me to Texas.
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I want to join a book club again, preferably a co-ed one. Anyone know of any?
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Hanukkah is December 5 this year and I just about finished shopping for it and my sister’s and dad’s birthdays as well! Most of the stuff I bought online–I love the Internet.
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I had a follow-up dermatologist appointment so he could see how the moles he removed are healing. While I was there, I asked him to please remove more of those white bumps that I have around my eyes and on my eyelid. This time I remembered to ask what they are called–milia (aka whiteheads, who knew?). He again reminded me they are from getting older. When I whined to him about the little creases next to my eyes when I smile, he offered me botox. I declined so then he offered up a laser. I declined that too so then he suggested a $120 bottle of eye cream. Ahh, to be a Beverly Hills dermatologist.
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I want to see Confessions of a Superhero. I have this weird fascination with those people–they have incredible patience for dealing with tourists all day.
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Has anyone been to Kiichi in West Hollywood? It’s a Japanese small plate place and sounds like it could be yummy.
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This week’s question: If money didn’t matter, what would you do for a living? Apparently I asked this last month. Whoops. I need new questions for future posts though, so feel free to suggest some.

This weekend, I:

• Slept in, in my own bed!
• Had a long overdue dinner with Lori at Cheebo.
• Went to Old Navy (got a hoodie) and Steve & Barry’s (got jeans and a purse) with my sister.
• Went to boule and checked out the candy corn (it was their recipe that I used to make mine) and bought two tiny $2.50 fleur de sel chocolate caramels. They were good, but not sure if they are worth that much money.
• Tried to go to the Whole Foods at Santa Monica and Fairfax to pick up the powered soy milk they ordered for me (so I can make vegan candy corn) but after driving around the parking lot for five minutes looking for a space, we declared it a bust.
• Did grocery shopping at a very empty Ralphs. The checker said he hoped the lack of people had more to do with football and less to do with the writers’ strike. Also, the bagger was a kid who lives in my apartment building.
• Went to Target and bought travel size stuff for my trip to Texas.
• Did three loads of laundry.
• Paid bills and shredded a million pieces of paper from my “to shred” pile that was taking over my desk.
• Baked cupcakes using my coworker’s leftover Halloween candy. They were a slight failure but I’m sure will be gobbled up tomorrow anyway.
• Cleaned my apartment, including cabinets with way expired medicines and stuff. The weather today made it a perfect day for cleaning and organizing.

A relaxing and productive weekend, which is exactly what I needed after being out of town for the last one.

In other news:

• If you’re in the market for a new camera, the one I bought earlier this year is on sale for a good price. I bought it for $215 and when I wrote this post, it was $165; the price keeps fluctuating for some reason.
• It appears I had photos on the now defunct Yahoo Photos. The only reason I know this is because they sent me an email stating they moved my photos over to a new free Flickr Pro account (which remains free so long as I keep ATT&T as my ISP). So, I am in the process of moving my baking photos over to the new Nosh With Me Flickr account.
• Ever since my apartment building started recycling, I have been going to the trash chute about a once a week instead of the nearly every other day I was doing before. That is awesome.
• What do I need to buy so that I can listen to music directly from my iPod and have it play on the speakers that are connected to my receiver? Is this possible? Or is there a better way? I think I’m (shockingly) finally ready to give up playing my CDs.

The end.

I’ve been seriously lagging on my reading lately although I’m sure this will change soon, as there will be less TV to watch due to the writers’ strike. Anyway, as I’ve been reminded by a few readers, it’s time for another one of these posts!

So, what are you reading? And if you’ve read a book that someone posted about in the comments in part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part 10, or part 11, let us know!

I bought the iPod charger at Target and even though the electronics guy said it won’t charge my Shuffle, it does. Of course, the day after I bought it, I got a coupon in the mail from Best Buy for 10% off all iPod accessories. Oh well.
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The other day, I was browsing the cupcake discussion boards I belong to on Flickr (why yes, I am aware I am a dork) and somehow got a little too involved in a thread. I then began receiving emails from other bakers thanking me for standing up to the crazy cupcake woman who uses too many exclamation points and ellipsis and gets mad when people copy her frosting techniques (from photos she posted on Flickr). Gotta love the Internet.
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If you haven’t already done so, please tell us what you’ve read lately.
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In case anyone wanted to know what to buy for me Hanukkah (hi mom! hi Bethany!) I would love this scraper paddle for my KitchenAid. How cool is it?
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Tuesday I was supposed to buy new jeans and a purse but instead spent $375 to fix the power locks in my car. Things are beginning to break. Sigh. Of course, I am now paranoid it will die on the freeway, at night, when I’m alone (thanks mom!). So, I’m buying the CRV (EX or EX-L, haven’t decided yet) next month. If I’m putting money into a car, it might as well be into a new car.
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After killing yet another bee in my apartment (this one was on the wall so I used a book), I am officially on Bee Watch. I am now convinced there is a bee hive on the roof just above my unit. Of course, it’s been super hot here lately (90 degrees in November–insane!) and I am too scared to open my doorwall to cool off my living room when I get home, so I’ve been using the air conditioning instead.
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For those of you wondering, no, I’m not Jdating at the moment. I have gone on a few non-Jdate dates, but they were not extraordinarily good (or bad enough) to write about.
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In TV news, is anyone watching The Amazing Race? If so, who do you want to win? What’d you think about Project Runway? What else are you watching, at least for now?
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Wow, this is a really boring post.
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And finally, I’m off to Texas on Tuesday to eat turkey, meet Jenifer, and spend a week with both sets of aunts and uncles and all but one cousin. I also get to met the new babies, and I am so excited!
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This week’s question: How does religion play a part in your life?

My weekend was relatively uneventful. I ran a million errands, got last minute stuff for my trip to Texas (yes Texas*), did laundry, cleaned, bought and hooked up a thingy that lets me listen to my iPod using my speakers, made vegan candy corn but threw it away because it tasted nasty, braved Hollywood and Highland with my sister, and packed. I also went shopping with Karrin and tried on about 10 Christmas songs worth of jeans before finding a pair that gave me a butt. I’m not sure which is more frustrating: not having a butt or being forced to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! And if you’re looking for some good recipes, I can help you out! Want to make an apple pie? How about a brown sugar pound cake with caramel glaze? (I made the pound cake last week. Mmm.) They’re both delicious!

*Every time someone asks me where I’m going for Thanksgiving and I say Texas, their response is usually, “Texas? Why Texas?”

That’s right. Much to my and Bethany’s disappointment, we didn’t see one cowboy the whole time we were in Texas. Then again, we didn’t see much of Texas, because we were busy catching up with family (including two new babies!) and eating. Here are the highlights of my trip:

• Flew out of LAX Tuesday morning after getting bumped. (Yay $250 Continental voucher!)
• Had a Tex-Mex dinner with my aunt Nan and uncle Bruce at Cafe Adobe. Nan introduced us to sangria margaritas (margaritas with sangria in them, what could be better?). Not much, really.
• Drove to my cousin Rachel and her husband Steve’s house (where their daughter Sabrina and my aunt Harriet and uncle Richard and cousin Freya were–my cousin Ben is studying in Israel so he couldn’t come) in Austin the day before Thanksgiving which also happened to be Bethany’s birthday) and got stuck in a ton of traffic. I slept much of the ride. Hah.
• Rachel and everyone planned a big birthday party complete with pin the tail on the donkey and a donkey pinata. Bethany wore a sombrero while the rest of us wore party hats, and we finished the night with a game of Cranium, which was incredibly fun, even though my mom and aunt cheated. I want to buy it now.
• Bethany got a horrible sinus infection.
• On Thanksgiving day, went back to Rachel’s house and baked an apple pie and a double layer pumpkin cheesecake. I like neither pumpkin nor cheesecake, but I was told it came out really well. The graham cracker crust sure was delicious.
• Had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (amazing turkey props go to Steve).
• Drove back to Houston on Friday and finally got to see my cousin Jason and my cousin Brett, his wife Paula, and their son Bayard. The Austin peeps joined us at Bruce and Nan’s house in Houston too.
• Spent as much time as possible holding the cutest babies in the world–Sabrina and Bayard.
• Sabrina and I shared many games of peek-a-boo and Bayard and I played quite a few games of lets pull out Hilary’s hair. I enjoyed every minute with both of them and wish they lived closer.
• Baked another apple pie, this time with a vegan butter substitute (called Buttery Sticks) and a double batch of vegan pumpkin muffins with Paula which were a huge hit not only with the vegans, but everyone else as well, including the under 1-year-old crowd. So much in fact, we made another double batch a couple days later.
• Had a super fun brunch with Jenifer and met her boyfriend B. They are both really cool and I hope Jenifer makes it out to LA sometime soon so I can show her around my town! And, Jenifer was so sweet and gave me impeccably wrapped Hanukkah gifts that I cannot wait to use!
• I think the same day I had brunch with Jenifer, I also managed to experience Texas BBQ and still had room for Vietnamese food for dinner, while snacking the rest of the day. Our family definitely knows how to eat.
• Called to check my voicemail and received a call for a really cool job opportunity. Think good thoughts please!
• Experienced real weather (rain! cold!) for a change, although I could have done without the sore throat that comes from sleeping with the heat on.
• Got lost driving a mile from the hotel to the houses about a dozen times.
• Learned y’all can be used to refer to one person or more than one person.
• Woke up super early and got into LA with the rest of the afternoon to do laundry and stuff.

As always, it was a blast catching up with everyone, and I especially love that my cousins immediately become my allies anytime my parents even begin to mention wanting a grandchild. Also, I really enjoyed the time I spent with Paula while we made the muffins–she’s pretty cool!

Now I’m going to try to catch up on some TV and eat dinner before I fall asleep.

Pictures here, but as usual, the ones of people are only viewable to my Flickr Friends and Family. On a related note, can anyone recommend a site that will allow me to upload video yet be able to control who can see it? I’m looking for something similar to Flickr, but for videos.

Has anyone ever bought or sold anything on Etsy? From what I can tell, I can set up a shop and sell baked goods on there, I had no idea! I’m going to set up an account, so stay tuned.
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Does anyone know where the shoe repair guy who used to be at Gardner and Sunset moved to?
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I’m [hopefully] buying a car this weekend! I’ve decided on the Honda CR-V, 2WD EX model in black. I was debating between the EX and EX-L, but ultimately decided I don’t want to spend $2500 more on leather, heated seats, and power seats. Apparently other people had the same idea because the EX model is nearly impossible to track down.

I am getting really stressed out because I got a super incredible quote (that three dealers flat out told me they can’t beat, and that I should jump on it) but need to sell my car first. Has anyone used Carmax? Three people have now recommended them to me. What have your experiences been? Also, will anyone (um, that I know) be around this weekend and want to possibly give me a ride if I need one? I’ll owe ya big time.

Can you tell I’m stressing?
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My Tivo is filled because of all the new episodes that aired while I was in Texas. I can’t wait to catch up on them, especially on The Amazing Race!
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I’ve decided to start including random pictures in my Thursday posts. Just because. See below.
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I’m ready for Christmas to be over. It was bad enough being asked multiple times if I celebrate Thanksgiving; now I’m going to have to deal with people asking me why I don’t have a Christmas tree, because “you know, Christmas trees are a Pagan symbol.” And has anyone else noticed the Christmas music coming out of the trees in Beverly Hills? Yes, the trees on Beverly Drive have speakers on them and they are blasting Christmas music.

In related news, can you believe Hanukkah is next week?
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New favorite website: Apostrophe Abuse.
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This week’s question: What would you like to receive as a gift this holiday season? No, I’m not buying. Just curious.