$910.  Not bad for five hours.  Even better, we got rid of a lot of junk we didn’t want.

Threw my back out just in time for the garage sale.

Saw Angels and Demons. I’d rather have my teeth pulled than watch this one again.  Which by the way is what Brit had done this morning.  I thought a movie would talk her mind off the pain once the Novocain wore off.  Not sure this Hank’s “masterpiece” helped much.

#57 Done. I was lecturing Brittany on the way to school today when she said, “jeez, your teeth are white.”  A couple of months worth of Crest White Strips has done a bang up job.

Began a course taught through Stanford devoted to developing applications for the iPhone.

It may have been the most uninteresting Memorial Day in a long time, but a major home cleaning was necessary.  We continue to prepare for a major garage sale that we will have next weekend. $1500 is the lofty goal.  Stay tuned.

Spent our weekend at UC Irvine watching Brittany and her team just miss the finals by a couple of points.  Her play continues to impress me.

Saw The Brother’s Bloom last night.  It was a creatively ambitious con man flick.  Liked not loved.

#24 in progress.  Lunched at the newly opened The Counter today.  My fourth burger in four days.  If you’re into opening a franchise (Sean), this one is a good one.

After moving up a division, the Wilshire Bombers are champions once again.

#21 STILL in progress.  95% sure this deal is falling through.  Despite the house needing little things here and there, we asked the sketchy caretaker, a diminutive Thai woman who turned out to be the owner, nothing except for a $300 safety repair job on the balcony’s railings in order to prevent any unnecessary deaths.  The owner refused and said that the railings were fine as long as no one leaned against them.  Well, we felt there was a good chance that someone would indeed do just that at least seven hundred and thirty times over the next, say, seven hundred and thirty days, so we stood firm.  It’s a great house, but I, represented by my former co-tenant Matt Lucey, have already taken one landlord to court and I don’t care to do it again.  Wouldn’t want to tarnish the one for one record.  Long story short, we’re still looking for our view.

#21 in progress.  The new abode. Moving in June.

Watched the Lakers barely win with my Dad, Sean and Sonia.  Won’t be a cake walk.

Add Star Trek to #23.  I was never a Trekkie, but this was watchable. Live long and prosper.

#21 in progress. Starting to look.  Fell in love with a place with a view that will ultimately break my heart.

http://www.viddler.com/player/854ba03/

In the ridiculously exclusive hills of Brentwood, across the street from the Governator’s abode, Devin and his classmates, dressed in their old Hollywood best, enjoyed a “little” pre prom get together.

Prom 2009.  More to come tomorrow.

Finished off the regular season with a 9-8 loss to a sub-par team.  Could’ve won the league, but we end up sharing the title with another team.  A truly pathetic finish.

#25 not really in progress. After demolishing a pulled pork sandwich, baked beans and a few brews I got to thinking, am I losing weight?  Well, turns out that I am not.  In fact, I may have added a few lbs.  How could this happen? Looking back on the week that was it is easy to see why the pounds aren’t flying off.  Over the past seven days I have eaten buckets of sushi, two burgers and fries, an enormous steak dinner, syrup and butter covered pancakes, a large pizza (not once, but twice), an all you can eat brunch, a big fat burrito, an all you can eat BBQ dinner, a few hot dogs, a bagel every morning and the above mentioned pulled pork sandwich.  Oh, and maybe a beer or two to wash it all down.  So why am I not losing weight?

#81 in progress. My dad let his Chicago office know that he would appreciate it if a few tickets to the Cubs vs. Reds game on July 24th were made available for our trip to the city.  A few hours later we had six seats locked and loaded. Few things are more enjoyable than a Friday day game at Wrigley. Thanks, Dad.

Back to the grind.  Burritos and Margaritas to cap off the work day.

Happy Mother’s Day from Lake Sherwood Country Club where we ate, drank and were more or less merry.  For some more pics from the day click here.

#24 in progress. Finally tried Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock, a down home Italian joint famous for its pizza.  We waited 45 minutes to be seated, another 45 minutes to be served, but in the end it was well worth it.  Great Za.

Dry Heat

#24 in progress. Took Sonia and Brittany to Morton’s for a steak dinner.  Despite spending eight or so years in the midwest I had never eaten at this Chicago staple.  I have to say, from apps to entree it was excellent.

#53 Done. Escaped to Palm Springs for a couple of days for a pre Mother’s Day celebration.  We scored the best poolside bed with amble shade for the 95+ temps.  Kindle + Food + Drinks + Pool is just what the doctor ordered.

Happy Odd Day.  Today’s date, 05/07/09, is a rare occurrence in that it consists of three consecutive odd numbers.  It is an event that happens only six times a century.  The first Odd Day of this century occurred on 01/03/05.  So if you’re feeling odd today now you know why.

All my life I’ve had one dream, to achieve my many goals.

Homer Simpson

Happy 5th of May.

Now who’s paranoid?  The Swine Flu has struck at Devin’s school and class has been canceled for at least a week. Fear the swine.

Speaking of Swine (from Pulp Fiction)

Vincent: Want some bacon?
Jules: No man, I don’t eat pork.
Vincent: Are you Jewish?
Jules: Nah, I ain’t Jewish, I just don’t dig on swine, that’s all.
Vincent: Why not?
Jules: Pigs are filthy animals. I don’t eat filthy animals.
Vincent: Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste gooood.
Jules: Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know ’cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherfucker. Pigs sleep and root in shit. That’s a filthy animal. I ain’t eat nothin’ that ain’t got enough sense enough to disregard its own feces.
Vincent: How about a dog? Dogs eats its own feces.
Jules: I don’t eat dog either.
Vincent: Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal?
Jules: I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.
Vincent: Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true?
Jules: Well we’d have to be talkin’ about one charming motherfuckin’ pig. I mean he’d have to be ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I’m sayin’?

Netflixed “The Happening” last night.  This movie has a good shot of gaining cult status for being so god awful it has to be seen over and over just to reaffirm that it was actually made.  The Crappening is proof that once you produce a hit you can work in Hollywood forever.  Ever since The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shamalamalawhateverhisnameis has been getting paid tens of millions of dollars a picture to write and direct the most absurd and unwatchable movies around.

APRIL RECAP.  If I had only waited for the Kentucky Derby to bet my long shot, the race in which long shot Mine that Bird (60-1) won, my $50 dollar bet would have netted me $50,000 dollars.  Damn.  Nevertheless, April was a good month.  I turned 36, our business grew up a bit, hung out with my sister Michelle briefly, haven’t contracted Swine Flu (yet), baseball is back, and my buddy Matt, a guy who couldn’t even arrange for a proper haircut (as evidenced in the above photograph) had a kid.

Over the last month Sonia and I knocked off another eight goals and continued to chip away at a number of others.  Let’s start with the ones we put to bed…

#15. We finally got ourselves insured.  Thankfully my Ambien fiasco didn’t result in a hospital visit.  Which reminds me of some great advice, never take Ambien and a laxative at the same time.

#60. Sonia bought me a watch for my birthday.

#50. We visited the largest buddhist temple in the country.

#17. Got our passports.  Trying to figure out where to use them.

#13. We became altruistically generous.

#23. Saw my tenth movie of the year in the theatre.  At least ten more to follow.

#39. Took a boat ride.  Regretted it.

#83. Put metal in my daughter’s mouth.  Good to see the immediate confidence boost.

As for the ones we’ve put a dent into…

#5. Hardly

#8. Revenues continue to grow.  Expenses too.

#19. Yep.

#22. Read Tropic of Cancer, my second of five.  Review to come.

#24. New restaurants tried are: XIV in Hollywood, Castaway in Burbank, The Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, 8oz Burger Bar on Melrose, King Fish in Long Beach and Kiwami in Studio City.

#25. Going the wrong way.

#28. Saw my second of five. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

#57. Better every day.

That’s about it for April.  Off to May.

# 8 in progress. April was an interesting month for LA Fashion Insider.  We suffered a minor setback when a vendor launched an attack on us after learning one of his employees wanted to join us.  Nevertheless, the vendor was easily replaced and damage appears to be minimal.  As a company our April revenue was up 63% from April 2008 and up just over 5% from last month.  We also hired our first employee who starts later this month.

Insomnia

So, I often have trouble sleeping at night.  Every so often I take an Ambien to catch up on my Zzz’s.  This morning I swallowed what I thought was my thyroid meds, but instead took 12.5 mgs of Ambien.  Needless to say I slept through my morning, including running into not one, but two poles with the truck.  Sleep driving.  Could have been the WORST morning ever.  Turned out to be the “worst” morning ever.

The Youmans brothers locked down the left side of the infield and Devin was a thief in the outfield as the Wilshire Bombers took control of first place with just one game to go.