This weekend, I:

• Took my car to Carmax and got a really low offer for it.
• Test drove the CRV at the Honda dealership and finally met in person the very nice Internet sale guy.
• Took an order for a dozen red velvet cupcakes from the Internet sales guy, went home and baked, then returned to the dealership to deliver said cupcakes. (They were for a party he was attending that night.)
• Did not buy a car because I decided I will sell my Civic on my own rather than trade it in.
• Paid for a month of Jdate then immediately regretted it.
• Listed my Civic on Craigslist.
• Spent most of Saturday in my pajamas being a total bum and catching up on emails and blogs.
• Had sushi and rented a movie Saturday night with DG. No we are not dating again, although he did kiss me which was weird. And he also offered to come over when strangers want to test drive my car.
• Got massive compliments from DG on my curls and came to the realization that I spent entirely too much time flat ironing my hair before all of our dates.
• Used the heat in my apartment for the first time in forever.
• Like an idiot, went to a super packed Target.
• Was supposed to have an outing with my Little today but was unable to get her on the phone to make plans. Of course, she responded when I emailed her on MySpace. If that wasn’t the easiest way to communicate with her, I would not be on that site. Did I mention her best friend also requested to be my friend on there? I now have five million comments from two 13 and 14 year old girls.
• Added a 101 in 1001 list to the blog.
• Added Previous Entries and Next Entries links to the bottom of the page so now you can read the entire blog (from the current post to my first ever post) in order if you’re really bored.

In other news, next weekend I’m going down to San Diego to celebrate Hanukkah with my family. Also, if I haven’t sold my car by then, my dad has graciously offered to sell it for me down there and let me swap cars with him. I can’t wait to get the new car!

My parents bought me this menorah years ago and I’ve used it ever since. And yes, I’m really bad about scraping the previous year’s wax off. Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating!

Every year, the City of Los Angeles sends a calendar to LA residents. And every year, I find a huge error. In 2006, they added an extra day to a month that had only 30 days. (Duh?) This year, they labeled December 5 with “Hanukkah Begins at sundown.” Not only did they capitalize random words, they have it on the wrong date. Hanukkah began December 4 at sundown. The Hanukkah error I can almost forgive, but everyone should know the proper number of days in each month. It’s not like that changes year to year. Way to go City of LA!
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Last week I was waiting in line at the worst Rite-Aid in the world (Fairfax and Sunset) when a man came up to me and asked me something (I have no idea what) in Hebrew. Aside from prayers and the such, my Hebrew is pretty much limited to, “How are you?” “I am fine,” “I need a pencil,” “Where is the book?” and “I don’t speak Hebrew.” I opted to go with the latter with him, being as the other responses wouldn’t have fit the situation as well. According to the guy, neither did the one I chose. He apparently didn’t like my answer and went off on me (in English now) saying that I obviously understood what he was saying or I wouldn’t have answered in Hebrew. Um ok. Lesson learned. Next time, I will ask “Where is the book?”
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On The Hills, Spencer was picking up wedding invitations from Soolip, one of my favorite stores in LA. It’s the most amazing paperie I have ever visited. (Jenifer, this is the one I was telling you about!)
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Today marks day four of my attempt to cross off #47 (Wear my hair naturally curly for two weeks in a row) from my 101 in 1001 list. Unfortunately, my hairdryer not only decided to quit yesterday, it flamed up and smoked too. That’s how I love to start my Wednesday mornings. Fortunately, I bought a new one last night and my curls seem quite content. Good thing there’s rain in the forecast because I’m getting tempted to bust out my flat iron again!
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While driving down La Brea, I’ve noticed lots of people standing outside a store recently, but until last weekend didn’t realize it was that LA Ink place (from the TLC show). For some reason I thought it was further east in Hollywood.
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Sadly, I haven’t sold my car yet. I reduced the price on Craigslist and also posted on autotrader.com last night. I was thinking about swapping cars out with my dad and letting him sell it in SD, but I think I may give it some more time up here first.
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This week’s question: Is there a song that whenever you hear it immediately brings you back to a specific time in your life? If so, what song and what was the situation?

This weekend, I was originally planning on going to Randi and Michael’s Hanukkah party on Saturday night and take my Little to the annual bowling party on Sunday afternoon. Then plans changed, and I was going to go down to San Diego to celebrate Hanukkah with my family and leave my car with my dad to sell. Of course, I did none of the above. Instead, my weekend went like this.

Friday
Went to Off Broadway and bought a pair of tall black boots that I’m going to return. I didn’t like them when I got home.

Later that night, I received an email from a Jdate guy I had been corresponding with inviting me to the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concert (which is nothing close to acoustic, FYI) on Saturday night. It should be noted that said Jdate is friends with Nicole, and I met him very briefly almost a year ago when a bunch of us had dinner at the restaurant he works at as a chef. Anyway, I originally told him I was going down to SD but then I spoke to my mom who said, No! Go to the concert with the nice Jewish boy. So, I asked if the invitation was still open, and it was. Yay!

Saturday
Slept in then received a phone call from a man super interested in buying my car. Made plans for him to come look at it Sunday afternoon.

Cleaned my apartment and ran errands then tried to figure out what to wear to the show, taking into consideration that a) it was a first date and b) we were going to be standing for hours while seven bands performed. I opted for the layered look because I thought it would be freezing outside and hot inside the amphitheater, so I decided on a long sleeve t-shirt, a short sleeve t-shirt, a sweater, and jeans and Converse. Of course, the amphitheater was ice cold and even with my three layers, I was still shivering. (Do you guys even care about this? I thought not.)

Since The Chef had VIP tickets given to him by a customer, we went early for the free food and drinks in the VIP area. It was nice, and we chatted for a bit with the customer who graciously gave him the tickets. We missed most of Paramour’s set because we were enjoying the free drinks, so I can’t really comment on them. Angels and Airwaves was well, Angels and Airwaves. They just sound exactly like Blink to me; maybe I’m missing something. Avenged Sevenfold was my least favorite, and also seemed to be a popular time for a bathroom break. Serj Tankian was a trip and a half, but sounded just like System of a Down. Rise Against was good too, but kinda loud (maybe I’m getting old?). Anyway, my favorite band of the night was Bad Religion, as expected. They are great live and never disappoint. The headlining band, Linkin Park, was good, but I’ve never seen them live and I’m not a huge fan so I don’t really have much to compare them to. The Chef really liked them though.

After the show, The Chef drove me home and came upstairs to chat. After a couple of hours, we hugged goodnight and I got one of those half cheek, half lip kisses, and I’m not sure which one he intended to kiss. I think he’s very cool and nice and if he is interested, I wouldn’t mind getting to know him some more. And if he’s not interested, at least it was a fun night.

Sunday
Slept in until 11:00 (!) then ran errands and did laundry, all while waiting for the interested car guy to call me back. I finally called him and he’s no longer interested. Grrr. Frustrated, I then decided to bake cookies and of course, they turned out to be a disappointment (another Dorie recipe!). Now, I’m going to clean up and try to enjoy the rest of my evening!
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In other news, I am now halfway through my goal of wearing my hair naturally curly for two weeks in a row. Yes, that means I wore it curly on my date, which is something I haven’t done in years.

Monday morning, I had another appointment with my dermatologist. This time, instead of offering up botox or laser treatment, he tried to set me up with his friend, a 47-year-old nice Jewish boy who lives in Ventura. He also asked how my Jdating was going and told me I need to find a “nice guy” who may be a little “boring” but will “make a good husband.” It’s like he’s channeling my mom.

Speaking of Jdate, The Chef is not interested. I emailed him thanking him for taking me to the concert, etc. and he responded with a pretty bland email and no mention of another date. Oh well. At least now I have a chance of finally sitting at a very coveted window booth at his restaurant!
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Anyone want to do the Chinese food and a movie thing with me on Christmas?
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P.S. I Love You opens in a couple of weeks and I cannot wait to see it. The book was so good, I hope the movie doesn’t suck. In more movie news, I stayed up until midnight earlier this week watching Grease 2. It’s just as bad now as it was in 1982. Go figure.
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In car news, I’m over this whole selling my car thing. I’ve lowered the price again and now I keep getting phone calls from people who claim they are so interested in the car then never make an appointment to see it. (Anyone else see the dating analogy here? Well, minus the whole price part.) Aaaarrggghh. I’m giving it a couple more weeks then I’m probably just going to trade it in. I know I’ll lose money that way, but it’s a small price to pay for my sanity.

On a brighter note (I’m trying not to get my hopes up), I am meeting a woman at her mechanic’s shop tomorrow morning because she and her husband are really interested in the car and want him to check it out. Please cross your fingers that they buy it!
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Am I the only one that finds Victoria Beckham extremely weird looking?
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In job search news, I have decided I would like to work for this company. Their benefits are amazing (20% reimbursement for fresh produce purchase (?), celebrity sighting intercom announcements, bring your pet to work, and oh yeah, mandatory Martini Fridays). And while their website is sort of annoying (pop up windows, really?), I think their staff retreats in Cancun or Palm Springs could possibly make up for it.

Actually, job search is sort of on hold until after the new year. Unless the kind people mentioned above would like to hire me. Then I’m all over it.
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This week’s question: When you got a new car, did you sell or trade-in your old one? Was is aggravating? Easy? Tell me about your experience.

I sold my car! And bought a new one! All within a few hours!

Friday morning, I met with the buyer at her mechanic’s shop. He looked at the car and declared it a “great car” and the woman said it had great karma (hey, this is LA) and made me an offer immediately so we made plans to meet at AAA at 4:00. As soon as I got to my office, I called the Honda guy (the one I made cupcakes for a few weeks ago) and said I’m ready to buy! Of course, he had none in stock in the color and trim I wanted (black EX-L), but he went majorly out of his way to help me locate the three available in southern California and totally prepped me on what to say. (Thank you Dave!) I called the closest dealership Internet person, asked if she’d meet his quote (she did), and got the out-the-door price and told her I’d be in later than night to pick up the car. This was pretty much done by lunchtime.

Closer to 4:00, everything seemed to be going so well that I assumed the buyer would flake out or the saleswoman would try to up the price when I got to the dealership. But no! I met the buyer and her husband and son at AAA, she gave me the money, we switched over the title, I showed them how to work some stuff in the car, and then we hugged. Yes, we hugged. The woman was so nice, and after the transaction was completed, she pulled out Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins) from her purse and said we must celebrate. I said yum, I love gelt and we did that whole oh, you’re Jewish? so am I! thing and that was it! She and her husband offered me a ride home, thanked me for making it so simple, and I thanked them. I was so relieved the whole selling process wasn’t a nightmare.

DG picked me up from AAA and drove me out to Pasadena to pick up my new car. As soon as we left Hollywood, I called the saleswoman and told her I was on my way so she had the paperwork and the car (almost) ready. When it was finally done, they even put a bow on it! (I jokingly asked the guy if I got a bow like the ones on the sales floor.) About 30 minutes after arriving at the dealership, I took DG (in my new car!) for sushi as a thank you for taking me to Pasadena in horrible Friday night traffic. Anyway, the car is awesome–it has leather, seat warmers, an ipod hookup, dual things in the front so the passenger and driver can each have the temperature the way they want, and all sorts of other fun stuff!
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In other news, I forgot to mention some super cool Hanukkah gifts. My parents gave me an awesome knife set and block which is something I have wanted forever as well as the world’s softest pajama pants from Banana. My sister gave me cake pans (which were on my 101 list) and a cookbook called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth which I cannot wait to use (is that not the most awesome name for a cookbook?). In other 101 news, this weekend marks the completion of wearing my hair curly for two weeks straight. It wasn’t so bad and I got lots of compliments on it. Go figure.

Yesterday, I had a long overdue meal at Tender Greens with Jen and her husband and finally got to catch up with them. Then I returned the second pair of tall black boots and bought two new pair (for the price of one pair that I returned to Macys)–one from Banana for $71 (I know, quite the deal!) and another for $54 from a random shoe store at Westside Pavilion. And I braved Best Buy in order to get the cable needed to hook my iPod up in my car. Also, I got three calls about my car that afternoon; of course I did.

Finally, I spent about an hour sitting in my car with the book learning how things work, and today I am trying to find more errands to run so I can drive my car some more. I really do love it.

Things that sucketh:

• 71-year-old men checking me out on Jdate. And 55-year-old men emailing me. Ick.
• Uggs, and other furry boots.
• The writers’ strike causing me to have an empty Tivo, thus forcing me to watch live TV and endure the stupid ass Kiafest Flashdance commercials.
• The writers’ strike causing friends to be out of work.
• Job insecurity.
• Allergies.
• Having nothing exciting to blog about.

Things that rocketh:

• Bossa Nova. (Thanks to Samantha!)
• Scrabulous.
• Rain! In LA!
• My new car.
• Losing the three pounds I gained in Texas. Julie, we will be going to the spa, I promise!
• Going to SD this weekend to celebrate my dad’s birthday and give him the most awesome birthday present ever–a lighted “Welcome to Tiger Stadium” sign. And to celebrate a belated Hanukkah with my family. And to see Julie’s new house.
• A half-day on Monday and no work on Tuesday.

As usual, feel free to add to the list.

Monday night I had a fun dinner with Samantha at Bossa Nova. We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, so we had a ton of catching up to do. Plus, I had never eaten at Bossa Nova before and it was delish!
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In TV news, due to the writer’s strike, my TIVO is empty and I have been forced to flip the channels and endure commercials. My least favorite at this moment? The stupid Kiafest Flashdance commercial. I cringe every time it comes on.

Did anyone else catch the ad for Law & Order? It’s coming back in January! New episodes!

In celebrity sighting news, I have two this week. Monday night we saw Ali Larter eating a few tables down from us at Bossa Nova, and last night I saw Mindy Kaling in the lobby of my office building.
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In happy news, yesterday marked the one year anniversary of being tonsil and Strep free. Woohoo!
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Wednesday morning I had a Big Brothers Big Sisters breakfast meeting at a committee member’s office in Beverly Hills. Since it was raining and I was wearing three inch heeled boots, I parked in the building’s parking structure rather than the public lot up the street. One and a half hours later, I paid $21 for parking. And since the credit card machine was broken, and one of the members of the board of director didn’t have any cash, I paid $15 for him too. I like to think I have good karma coming my way.
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In other news, I’m going down to SD tomorrow for my dad’s birthday (happy early birthday Dad!) and to spend the weekend with my family, and see Julie’s new house. I’m coming back to LA Sunday night though, because we have a half day of work on Monday (Santa comes in and everyone brings their kids, oh so much fun) and then Tuesday I’m of course off–I’m either going for Chinese food and a movie with a friend or lounging around in my PJs all day; haven’t decided which yet.
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Also, next week I have a date, and hopefully there will be alcohol involved because I’ve been craving a martini. Stay tuned!
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If you’ve emailed me lately and I didn’t respond–sorry! My email is all wonky again.
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This week’s question: What gift are/were you most excited to give this year and why?

Happy Birthday Dad, I love you! Can’t wait to come down to San Diego tonight to celebrate with everyone.

I went down to San Diego last Friday night to celebrate my dad’s birthday and a belated Hanukkah with the family. The drive down was awesome–very little traffic, and I got to spend time in my new car! The weekend was a lot of fun and I ate more in those couple days than I think I ate in the entire week prior. Stuffed. Myself. Silly. I also got to see Julie’s beautiful new house and ate about a dozen of the delicious cookies she had just made.

On the drive back to LA, the outdoor temperature display on my car went wonky and kept saying it was 75 degrees outside at 8:00 at night. It was actually somewhere around 55 or 60. Then my ipod went black and kept scrolling “connect to power” and when I connected it to my car charger, nothing happened. Same thing when I connected it to the computer via the USB. Finally, I tried the wall charger (that did not come with the iPod) and that worked. All three ways of charging used the same USB cord, so I don’t know why only the wall outlet charge took. Any ideas?
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A while back, I found a three months for the price of one coupon for eharmony and decided to give it a go. For the past two and a half months, I had no matches that were even remotely interesting (they kept trying to set me up with people in Colorado–what the hell?). Then I matched with a local guy and we went through Dr. Warren’s stupid process and finally exchanged emails and decided to meet up on Christmas Eve.

We met on the westside for Chinese food and a late night drink and made plans to hang out again on Christmas Day. So, while you were opening presents and celebrating Christmas, we went bowling (he won the first game, I won the second game) in the Valley then for deli at Canter’s (where I bumped into my Little’s best friend and her mom). Both dates were a lot of fun and I am looking forward to hanging out with him again on Saturday night. As for a nickname, my friend and I already started calling him the Dancing Hairstylist because yes, he does hair, and yes, he teaches dance. And yes, he is straight. And while it was kinda cool to be able to talk about flat irons on a date, it was definitely a little odd.

Also, we somehow ended up on the subject of batting cages and he didn’t believe that I could hit a fast pitch (but I can!) so we ended up betting dinner on it. One of these days he’s going to owe me. Stay tuned.
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That’s it for now. I’m back at work tomorrow (waaah) and already looking forward to the weekend. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas/wonderful day off.

I’m in the process of redesigning my baking blog (see below and click to enlarge) and am having a contest (read: win baked goods) just like last time! I’m looking to replace the header image (the brown rectangle with the coffee cup) with something that better reflects Nosh With Me. I’m still working on the fonts, but I’d like to keep the color scheme, at least for now.

Requirements

• GIF image size: 789 x 125 pixels
• Must include the words: Nosh With Me and One girl’s love affair with her KitchenAid mixer.

Also, feel free to use photos on my Flickr account.

Prize
One dozen cookies (or cupcakes if you’re local) of your choice.

Deadline
Tentatively January 31, 2008.

Submission
Email me at hilary (at) noshwithme (dot) com for more information or to submit your design.

Can’t wait to see the entries!

This weekend was quite productive for a change!

Friday night, I came home from work sneezing and blowing my nose like mad. I figured I was getting sick, so I just took it easy, spoke to the Dancing Hairstylist, and went to bed really early.

Saturday morning I felt a million times better (apparently it was just allergies), so I left a message for the Dancing Hairstylist telling him we’re for sure on, then ran a ton of errands, finally returned the jeans I thought I was in love with, bought a pair of jeans I really am in love with, and bought two tops for $15 each (!) at Express. I also made the dough for World Peace Cookies for New Years Eve, and managed to squeeze in some laundry. Then I showered and got dressed and waited for the stupid football game to end so that the Dancing Hairstylist and I could go to a movie.

And I waited and waited. I played a game of Scrabulous with a girl whose husband was glued to his Wii, then I tried on tops to wear on New Year’s Eve. Then I began getting into my pajamas and the phone finally rang, an hour after the game had ended. The Dancing Hairstylist said he was on his way and would be there shortly.

Everything from that point on went downhill, and the night turned to crap in about five seconds. Highlights included him: making fun of my new car; getting pissy because he spent $2 to park in the Arclight garage without seeing a movie because we got there 10 minutes before it started and only the first row was left; yelling at me for pointing at a stop light/lane/street, because “it’s rude and someone may think you’re pointing at them”; getting mad at me for saying that the passenger seatbelt wouldn’t retract when I unbuckled it; scolding me for eating a late lunch and skipping dinner (while planning on getting a pretzel at the movie we did not see) and insisting I will have a diabetic episode because of it (seriously…huh?); suggesting “you get the first round, and I’ll get the second round” at the bar, after inviting me out on a date; refusing to put the heater on in the car, because “the inside temperature is 65 degrees already, what do you want me to do, sweat?”. And there’s more, but I’ll spare you the details because my head hurts just thinking about the night.

Sunday morning, I slept in then got to baking for New Year’s Eve. I made chocolate cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting and silver dragees, and baked the World Peace cookies. The cupcakes taste good, but the frosting is a huge mess–I apparently over-beat it, causing it to get too much air, thus making it nearly impossible to pipe and then sort of deflate. I’m kind of embarrassed to bring them, but I’m hoping to redeem myself with the World Peace cookies.
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In other boy news, I didn’t mention this when it happened, but I was kissed by a boy with a girlfriend (who knows I know he has a girlfriend), and who split from his ex-wife because she cheated on him. I’ll never understand guys.

DG met a girl he really likes. And even though I don’t want to be with him, hearing him tell me he met someone made my heart hurt a little.
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And finally, I hope everyone has a very fun and safe New Year’s Eve. See ya in 2008!