Tragic Sandwich

So many reasons. Here are just a few:

• The revolving crowd of guys who hang out back drinking. Who knew a dumpster could be so happening?
• The consistently and creatively failing plumbing.
• The five parking spaces for six apartments (two of which are 2-bedroom units).
• The lack of laundry room etiquette.
• The occasional lines of unidentified white powder on top of the washing machine (I’m not sure who left it there, but I know it wasn’t either of us).
• The total lack of insulation.
• The weird placement of the coat closet, which sticks into the living room and creates an alcove that is the only place to put the couch–perpendicular to the TV, meaning that only one of us can sit there to watch television. That’s right, in four years we have almost never been able to sit next to each other and watch TV.
• Most recently, the neighbor’s relatives who brought their dogs over and let them deposit nasty piles behind our car–which they left for someone else (me, apparently) to hose off.

So while the housing market may not yet have hit bottom, we’re satisfied with the fact that it’s no longer at its high point. Home ownership, here we come!

It’s time for some housekeeping, so I’ve simplified my blogs. Now that I’ve imported the posts from Cake Batter and the original Tragic Sandwich, I’ve deleted the old blogs. I haven’t been using them, and they were just sitting out there unattended. So now I’m down to this one, although it’s still lacking sandwich imagery.

Yesterday I was tired because of all of the swimming and biking during the day on Monday, followed immediately by the evening at my in-laws. J was setting up their wireless internet so that they can use the laptop with the webcam to talk to their granddaughter, who just turned two. Never mind that my father-in-law refuses to contemplate web commerce in any form (he has J make all of his online purchases, because apparently it’s not so bad if J’s identity is stolen)–the webcam has been identified as the very highest of priorities.

Today, though, it’s my own fault. I know not to stay up until 11:30 when I have to get up at 6 a.m.–that’s why we have TiVo (well, one of the reasons). And I didn’t even enjoy this latest version of “The Andromeda Strain.”

One of my friends describes a cupcake as “the perfect ratio of frosting to cake,” and I think she’s got a point. She also describes my brother as “a sweet little cupcake baked by the devil,” and I think she’s got a point there, too. Someone’s got cupcakes on the brain, and I’m keeping her company.

A few weeks ago I made a trip to Sprinkles for cupcakes. Today I continued my unofficial cupcake tour of Los Angeles with a visit to SusieCakes on San Vicente. Our refrigerator now contains three cupcakes–one vanilla, one lemon, and one coconut. I, on the other hand, contain one vanilla cupcake. SusieCakes describes their cupcakes as “frosting-filled,” and based on the one I’ve eaten so far, I have no idea what that means. It was delicious, though, and I’m looking forward to the other flavors.

The cupcakes came on the heels of a strenuous afternoon. J and I did our first ocean swim in preparation for the triathlon (less than two weeks away! Aaaaagh!).

Here’s what I learned today: sixty-degree water is very cold. It’s extra, extra cold when you leave your wetsuit at home. But I steeled myself to the cold water and swam. I actually did get used to the temperature, but I missed the buoyancy provided by the wetsuit.

After that we went biking on San Vicente, which has excellent bike lanes–even for me and my fear of biking downhill. San Vicente is not at all steep, but I’m a downhill wimp. I admit it. Oddly, I’m not bad on the uphill portions.

Oh, yes, I earned these cupcakes.

What does a girl have to do to get a meatball sub in this town?

Yesterday J set out for adventures with friends, and these adventures included using the car, which meant that after my friend picked me up for coffee, I was on foot for most of the day.

For the portion of the day that included laundry, this was no big deal. However, when J called to say that he and his friends would be eating copious quantities of BBQ at the Bear Pit (previously discussed here), I realized that I would need my own hearty late lunch/early dinner.

One of our favorite local haunts is The Coop, a tiny hole-in-the-wall pizza place with no seating, cash-only sales, and amazing New York style pizza (New Yorkers, don’t start with me. It may not be exactly what you’re used to, due to the water–see, I know–but it’s good). Since J doesn’t like vegetables on his pizza, and I can’t eat oregano, we usually get a large pepperoni and Canadian bacon. That provides plenty of meat and avoids the sausage.

The Coop also makes excellent meatball subs. Their posted Saturday hours are 11-9, so I figured I’d call and place the order, then walk over and pick it up. But no one answered. That suggested that they might be closed, particularly given the holiday weekend. Just in case, though, I walked over and discovered that they were, indeed, closed. On the way back I stopped at the sandwich shop on the corner of Palms and Motor. I can’t remember it’s name, it’s changed ownership at least once since we moved here, it’s nothing special. And, as it turns out, they do not have meatball subs. I toyed momentarily with the idea of a Philly cheese steak sandwich, but then realized that I had no confidence in their ability to make one–and that it would not meet my needs. A cheese steak sandwich, no matter how good, is not a meatball sub.

From there, I headed over to Kristina’s Italian Kitchen, on Overland. Now, according to the Citysearch-provided menu, they do have a meatball parm sandwich. But their in-house menu showed no sandwiches at all (thanks a lot, Kristina’s!)

In the end, I came home and reheated the leftover portion of a chicken quesadilla from Baja Fresh.

Distance walked: 1.4 miles

Meatball subs eaten: 0

I’ve been exploring those little widgets that a lot of sites have at the bottom of articles. Not all of them turned out to be particularly interesting, but I’ve become instantly addicted to one.

StumbleUpon lets you identify your interests, and then shows you websites that correspond to the topics you’ve chosen. In one day, I’ve been introduced to the Encyclopedia of Spices, Writing Realistic Injuries, and the Random Title Generator. Now I want to write a book titled “Darkness of the Misty.” I think it’s a guaranteed best-seller.

It wasn’t all stumbling today. J and I were planning to go to the pool, and then in the late afternoon we got a thunderstorm. Now, it does rain in Southern California, in spite of the song–generally in the winter, which is our traditional rainy season. But thunder and lightning are very rare at any time of year. This afternoon we got downpours, noise, and a light show. Naturally, the pool was closed. And then the storm passed, and by the time we got to the pool it had re-opened. It turned out to be a wonderful time to swim, because very few people were in the pool.

Now the air outside feels cool and clean, and inside I have lots of websites to explore. What could be better?

Clearly this is no kind of sandwich at all.

I like the theme, but it doesn’t like the sandwich photo. I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe I need to take more pictures of sandwiches.

You Are Rocky Road Ice Cream

Unpredictable and wild, you know how to have fun. You’re also a trendsetter who takes risks with new things. You know about the latest and greatest - and may have invented it! You are most compatible with vanilla ice cream.

Interestingly enough, this is actually correct.

For almost a year, J has been involved in a management training program at work. He’s had lots of meetings, a group project, a mentor, you name it. This weekend he also had an overnight retreat to wrap up the program (although there are a couple of months of work remaining).

That meant that yesterday morning I dropped him off so that he could take the charter motorcoach up to Lake Arrowhead. He and his group headed off for the mountains, and I went to a friend’s house to do some scrapbooking.

My scrapbooking efforts are never-ending. We don’t have children yet, but we do have a lot of photos. There are “daily life” photos from individual events (I’m caught up to 2004) and trips (as of yesterday, I’m working on the Caribbean cruise I took with my parents in 2002).

In addition, there are the historic family photos I inherited, which stretch back to the late 1800s. I refer to them as historic not because they have any larger significance, but to distinguish them from the more recent family photos. My mother pretty much abandoned scrapbooking in 1987–although even she was running behind. The last year that went into a book under her auspices was 1977. I’ve made my way into the early 1980s, so I’m making progress. But without a good work surface, it’s slow. I don’t get to my friend’s house very often–she doesn’t live nearby, and we both have busy schedules, particularly since she had a daughter–but I make a lot more progress at her home than I do at mine.

But then I came home to an empty (and with the weather, very VERY hot) apartment. J and I often go our separate ways during the day, but it’s very unusual for one of us to be away overnight. I think he’s probably been away a bit more than I have, because he and his dad have made a couple of hiking trips that required 1 a.m. departures. Those are rare, though, and their last trip of that sort was probably more than a year ago. I’m glad neither one of us has a job that requires lots of overnight travel.

I’m even more glad that he’ll be home tonight!

To begin with, I should probably mention that the sandwiches in the new blog header were not tragic. They were from a friend’s birthday tea, and were delightful. In fact, this was the tea that introduced me to chicken-cranberry salad sandwiches, which were so good that they left me saying “Why haven’t I thought of that?” I’m sure everyone else has been eating chicken-cranberry salad for ages.

Also, I’ve obviously been playing with the blog theme and header. This probably will continue.

Today I had a blatant opportunity to act on my 29-Day Giving Challenge, and I took it. As I walked toward Whole Foods on my lunch hour, one of the guys who sits on the benches along Gayley Avenue and asks for money asked me for money. I said, as I do, “No, sorry,” at which point he says, “A cold drink?” I said, “Sure,” and he said something that I was reasonably sure was “Snapple.” That’s when I recognized him as the guy who has specific requests when it comes to food. But I’m always happy to give people food, and a cold drink of any sort seemed like an extremely reasonable request when the temperature is in the 90s. Fortunately, it turns out that Whole Foods does in fact sell Snapple.

Both of us have been tired all week, so for the second time in four nights, we’re ordering pizza from our favorite local place–The Coop. It’s a tiny storefront with no seating, and they only take cash. However, they do deliver, and they make excellent pizza. It has a thin-ish crust with a sauce that is exactly the right degree of spicy, and it’s delicious when topped with our choice of pepperoni and Canadian bacon. The downside is that it often takes a long time, because the place is so small (tonight’s wait is 75 minutes, for example). But it’s worth it, particularly since it means that they’re getting lots of business. It’s one of the places I’m really going to miss when we move. But I still want to move.

View my page at the 29-Day Giving Challenge