Enjoyed dinner and the Lakers game with my Dad where we talked about the Clippers.

Dedication. Playoffs brings out the early in her. Unfortunately, the Packers were too much for the Bears.  But, there’s always a silver lining…. I don’t have to rewrite Cheeseheads.

Netflixed Knight & Day. An entertaining action movie.

#48 done. More and more restaurants are opening in downtown L.A. and for us, Sugarfish is one of the most welcome.  A traditional sushi restaurant that makes it all about the quality of the fish. There were a couple misses, but most of the sushi would just melt in your mouth. I don’t normally eat salmon sushi, but I’ll order it every time at this place.

#16 in Progress. Read The Girl Who Played With Fire. Didn’t like it as much as his first one, but still very good.

When friends open up a gastro pub within walking distance of your home, you tend to discover fewer eateries. This hit home last night when I noticed their computer system had a Ken & Sonia comp.

#50 done. We thought we’d have to get on a plane to accomplish this one, but Summer broke out in January in L.A., so Sonia and I spent the day poolside at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. It was the only way I was going to get over one of the the worst losses in MU history.

Said hello to Marquette Alum, Dwyane Wade moments after the lowly Clippers destroyed them. 

And that is why we live here.

Brit’s team got thumped 10-0 and high school soccer will kill me. But, at least we all know this will be the final season. It’s all club from here on out.

All is right again at Marquette after our boys throttled 11th ranked Notre Dame by 22 points. Playing 7 ranked opponents in 8 games. So far, so good.

#2 in progress. So far, so good, but… Getting our line sold in places like Montana, Alaska, and Wyoming, may be a Herculean task. 

Saturday morning viewing. I liked it.

Brit had a hat trick in the first half to secure a 6-0 win. Still…

After a month off from soccer to recover from a pulled hammy, Brit returned to her High School “team” to play one on eleven against another school. The other eleven beat her 5-0. 

#7 in progress. The New Year’s weigh in. 

2010 In Review

After giving up the list for the first three months of the year, I realized that the push it gave me/us to live a more eventful and productive life was worth the effort to resume it. 2010 was the year that our business transitioned from being a buying agency with little risk to a design and production house with a large payroll and overhead (at least for us). And although it was a necessary step in our eyes, meeting payroll was the main reason we didn’t swim with dolphins in the Caribbean or drink tea with monkeys at a Buddhist Temple in Bhutan.  After completing 80% of the list in 2009, we managed to complete just 53% in 2010. With that said, we probably wouldn’t have done a quarter of that if there was no list, so none of us here on Beverly Glen are complaining. I suppose the highlight was getting engaged after a thirteen year courtship on a hill overlooking London.  As for a few other highlights, here are my top ten from the year in no particular order.

1. Spending Mother’s Day with My Mom
2. Seeing Marquette Play followed by a dinner with buddies.
3. Christmas Eve at Dad’s.
4. Pebble Beach with my Dad and brothers.
5. Set my watch to Big Ben
6. Trip to Nashville
7. Vegas. 5 times.
8. Premiere League FA Cup Championship at Wimbley Stadium in London.
9. Brittany’s 15th in NYC
10. World Champion San Francisco Giants

#10 in progress. One of the better movies I’ve seen in the theaters for awhile.

Rode the Angel Flight trolley on its 100th birthday for a penny.

A rather tame Coen Brothers movie, but good nonetheless.

Went for a hike in the hills with Britt.

Sonia and I tried to keep it humble this year, so on Christmas morning I announced that this year’s theme was disappointment. However, the kids disagreed and were happy with their hauls.  Speaking of hauls, I gained five pounds over the last couple of days.

#54 done. Although I wasn’t as involved as I wanted to be, we provided gifts for a family through Children’s Hospital. Hopefully next year we will be a bit more hands on.

#15 done. “Shit My Dad Says” makes five non fiction books (Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, London & Super Freakonomics) for the year.

If you aren’t familiar with “Shit My Dad Says”, it’s chalk full of all kinds of wisdom. Here’s one for the holidays. 

““Everybody’s broke, so here’s the rule for Christmas this year; if you still shit your pants, you get a present. Otherwise tough shit.”

Just taken from my backyard. I guess this means the worst of the storm is over. 

I hate to quote, Alanis Morissette, but “isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?”. I never learned how to tie a tie as a kid, teenager or young adult. I may have worn a tie a hand full of times before I graduated college, but each time I had my mom, dad, uncle or competent adult male tie it for me. When I graduated college and got a job that required a tie, I would leave an untied tie on my buddy Matt’s door knob for him to tie and leave for me to slip on in the morning. It would have been a lot easier to learn how to tie a tie, but my philosophy at the time was to try to get through life without ever having to learn how to. I was a rebel and tie tying was my cause. Fast forward to today and look who’s the jerk. I talked to Matt the other day and he asked me, “so, are you the tie guy now? You never take a picture without one on.” It’s true, but in casual L.A., I still feel like the rebel. Most nights, I’m the only guy at the bar with a tie on. 

Nothing to do on this very rainy weekend except work, nap, watch TV, read and sit by the fire.

Had our company Christmas dinner last night.  I think it was the moment that the bill came that I realized this was actually a company. We’re up to seven employees, not including Sonia and I. Payroll sucks.

#36 Done. I have more than explored and will begin to experiment with some samples. This is my label.

Damn lucky to be home.

Nightcap at the Palmer House.

Despite the fact that there were no reservations available for two months, we decided to walk in on Chicago’s hottest new restaurant, The Girl and the Goat.  The chef was the latest winner of Top Chef.  One of Sonia’s greatest talents is scoring impossible to get seats, and that is exactly what she did tonight. The food was awesome.

On the river.

A walk down Michigan Ave.

At the Palmer House with Brit.

After dinner. Wine helps dealing with the cold.

Brittany finally got the chance to dress in layers. 

It’s cold.

The only good thing about my dad traveling so much is the possibility I might run into him whenever I travel. Fortunately, we just so happened to be staying in the same hotel, so he treated Sonia, Brittany, me and my buddy, Packy to dinner at an excellent new steakhouse.

On the streets