The engagement benefit tour continues. My dad and Georgeanne treated us to a steak dinner at Mastros in Westlake. Excellent as always.

Our Client & Friend from the great state of Alabama (along with her daughter and a friend) treated us to dinner and an absurdly expensive bottle of Dom to celebrate our engagement.  If I’d had known such unexpected benefits were to come I would’ve asked Sonia to marry me years ago.

Brit finally received her High School All League certificate. Only freshman to make first team. Proud.

This is how I feel now that, The Pacific, Hanks and Spielberg’s latest WWII miniseries has come to an end.  

Nothing like 20 hours of flight to catch up on some movies.  Surprising enough I enjoyed four out of the five. Crazy Heart and Brothers were very good. The Road and Exit through the Gift Shop were above average. And Couples Retreat was average at best.

The Photo Dump.  Here is the link for a bunch of pictures from our trip you may or may not be interested in.

That damn ash cloud has shut down Heathrow Airport again. But as luck would have it, we were the last flight to LA to make it out.

#71 Done. Toured the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London. It’s the oldest museum in the world and has an incredible collection of artifacts. The Rosetta Stone and collection of Eygptian mummies was particularly impressive.

#74 Done. That blank goal was reserved for something big and secret. 

#70 will be epic.  We secured the hottest tickets in town and will join 90,000 fans at Wimbley Stadium to watch Chelsea take on Portsmouth in the premiere league’s FA Cup Football Final.  This is Europe’s Super Bowl, NBA Finals and World Series wrapped up in one.

Antique shopping on Portobello Road in Notting Hill.

#62 Done. Gucci was nixed.  At the end of the day, Sonia decided she was a Louboutin kind of girl. 

Harrods is shopping mecca. You can spend days in the place. Thankfully we were in and out.

Tower Bridge.

#13 Done. Enjoyed the gloomy charm and a pint at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in London. It’s been around since just after the great fire in 1666. Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Samuel Johnson are all said to have been ‘regulars’. The Cheshire Cheese Pub is famously alluded to in Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities: followingCharles Darnay’s acquittal on charges of high treason, Sydney Carton invites him to dine, “drawing his arm through his own” Sydney leads him to Fleet Street “up a covered way, into a tavern … where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine”.  

Toured England’s most sacred of places, Westminster Abbey. Cameras weren’t allowed inside, but I’m not sure pictures would do the place justice. It’s truly awe inspiring. Most of England’s Kings and Queens are buried here beginning with Henry III. Saint Edward the Confessor was buried here in 1072.  In addition to all of the royalty, the tombs of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are pretty cool.  Even cooler for me was Poet’s Corner where some of England’s greatest writers are entombed. Some of the more notable ones are Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Sir Henry Irving, Dr Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling & Alfred Tennyson.

Had a meal at Joel Rubicon’s, L’Atelier in Soho, London. Damn good.

This is probably where Keats wrote poetry.

I recently read a quote by some dude smarter than me who said, “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” Moved, I decided to share this sentiment with Sonia while here in London since I like to pretend I’m a character in a Hemingway novel.  We took the Tube outside of the city to a place called Hampstead Heath.  I made Sonia hike two miles through a park to the top of a lush green hill that overlooked the entire city. Interestingly enough, we sat to rest on a bench in front of a place called Kenwood House.  Unable to ignore the signs, I bowed down on bended knee and asked Sonia to be my wife.   Now, I know what you all are thinking, “slow down, cowboy, what’s the rush, you barely know the girl.”  Perhaps, but the heart knows no time table.  Sonia agreed.

Never met a stranger named Kenwood, but there’s a street sign in every city.

At Trafalgar Square.

An early morning walk through Green Park in Mayfair.

At Buckingham Palace. Too early for the tourists. A picture perfect day.

#9 Up and Running. We cashed our first check on the manufacturing side. Hopefully it’s just the beginning.

Had lunch with my Dad today at Tom Colicchio’s, Craft in Century City. After a few Kusshi oysters, I tried the Quail with wild blueberries.  Not a huge meal, but perfect for a guy trying to balance a love affair with food and clothes that fit.  Very good meal.

#7 Done.  

Part of Sonia’s Mother’s Day Breakfast. Egg and Bacon stuffed peppers.

BBQ

Netflixed… Enjoyed.

Making a run for the playoffs.

Happy Mexican St. Patrick’s Day.

April Recap

Time flies when you’re having fun.  Turned another year older last month, but other than a bad back I don’t feel any older.  Brittany on the other hand… Anyway, we finally managed to knock a handful of goals off the list.

What’s done…

#2 – It only took two months to try twelve new restaurants. Surprised? Neither are we.

#9 – Started a manufacturing company.  It was the logical next step. No buying agency can touch us now.  Hurricanes, flooding and oil spills remind us that we can never stop diversifying. 

#34 – Bought a DLSR camera.  More fun than my iPad.  Hopefully I can make this blog a little more visually interesting. 

#38 – Saw the Eagles play the Hollywood Bowl. Awesome.

#58 – Summerized the back yard with some lounge chairs and flowers.  Lounge chair + iPad + Cocktail + BBQ = Alright, alright.

#68 – Compiled the soundtrack to my life. Turns out not even I would buy the album.

#69. Learned how to make one of my favorite cocktails.  It’s a six course meal in a glass.

What’s In Progress…

#1 – First and Foremost we became a corporation.  Unfortunately we became a California corporation.  Sadly, there is no incentive to become a California corporation.  You just have to bend over and let the Governator have his way with you.  And when he’s done he tells you he’ll be back.

#10 – Saw just one movie at the theatre.  Hot Tub Time Machine.  It gets worse and worse as time goes on.

#20 Enjoyed my first poolside weekend in Palm Springs.  

#36 – Named my future line, Kenwood Arthur.

 #67 – No Stranger Danger.

On to May.

#2 is complete.  Took two months to complete what I thought would have taken at least six.  Here is the list.

1. Bouchon
2. The Edison
3. Delphine
4. Thompson Hotel
5. Downtown Taco Truck
6. The Lazy Ox Canteen
7. The Boxwood
8. The Library Bar
9. Lucques
10. Bastide
11. The W
12. Church & State

Not only will this oil spill likely kill the profits of some of our largest clients, it will probably devastate the oyster industry.  Son of a…

#58 Done. The backyard is ready for a few BBQs and a nap or two.

Braces.

First official pic with the new camera.

#34 done. Went with the Canon Rebel T2i.  Can’t wait to learn how to actually use it.

A perfect Farmer’s Market morning.

#2 in progress. Tucked away in an old biscuit factory in the industrial part of downtown is the little French bistro, Church & State. Best French Onion Soup ever. Very good food. Maybe great.

Got the new iPad….iLove.

It’s like Christmas Eve.

Marquette area bar, Hegarty’s Pub, poured its last stout last night making it the final bar of my youth to be shot in the back of the head by the Man at Marquette.  #75 will now consist of me touring a local Dairy Queen where I will try to picture the spot where Matt passed out while standing up and managed to stay upright for thirty minutes before waking up.