Mom, Three Meals, and a Museum

In my family there are three foods you must love: Juanita's carnitas, Tony's chile rellenos, and El Grullense Jal.'s tacos al pastor. My self-chosen Spanish name in kindergarten was "Juanita," in honor of the taco shop. We've been known to drive a few hundred miles out of our way to eat them. And anyone who as ever been through Pacheco pass with me knows that I get grumpy if we don't take a taco detour. Needless to say, mom and I made it to each place while she was here a few weeks ago.

We also made it to LACMA and checked out the Islamic Art collection, as well as the "Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles" exhibit. Both my mom and I love ceramics and textiles, so it was a couple of hours of bliss. This tile panel says something along the lines of "the seeds of the next life are planted in this life."

And the Winner of the Golden Picnic Knife Is...

Reasons to Love LA

One can enjoy tea with high society.

One can frolic at LACMA-meets-the-$.99 Store.

One can win the Golden Picnic Knife at Film Fest.

One can see Mahler's 5th at the Hollywood Bowl.

Albus Gets the Led Out

I was fortunate* to be invited to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the other night.
It was an enjoyable movie, though it reminded me that I can't seem to keep the HP plot straight.

My favorite part was when Dumbledore first meets young Tom Riddle in an orphanage--mostly because Dumbledore looks an awful lot like Robert Plant. Oooooooooooooh yeah.

Oddly, he moves an awful lot like Robert Plant does nowadays too, though I couldn't find any good Youtube clips to prove it. Sorry, you'll just have to take my word for it, or go see the movie and Robert Plant in concert yourself.

*Sorry about the swine flu, Greg.

Let Them Eat Quiche.

Happy Bastille Day!

Also, Happy Republic Day to Iraqis.

A few more national holidays are coming up. Get you kimchi ready for South Korea's Constitution Day on the 17th, get your coca on for Colombia's Independence Day on the 20th, and fire up your waffle iron for Belgium's Independenc Day on the 21st. Want to know when the Seychelles or Andorra celebrate themselves (i.e., ever want an excuse for a party)? http://www.kidsturncentral.com/holidays/glossary/defindependence.htm

It's Called Appreciativeness.

Thanks to Jill and Reuters.

In the meantime, I guess I will have to blog myself to sleep.

"Women who are married or who have stable partners appear to sleep better than women who have never married or lost a partner, according to research from an eight-year study presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies annual meeting."

Parker-Pope, Tara. 2009. Marriage linked with better sleep. New York Times, 10 June. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/marriage-linked-with-better-sleep/?scp=1&sq=sleep%20marriage&st=cse>