The End's Not Near, It's Here

I'm sorry to say that I am closing down the blog tonight. I spent 3 hours working on one entry which I then lost while trying to format.

If I ever find motivation to continue blogging I'll let you all know. Thanks for reading over the past 9 months. Happy holidays.

DMatti

Holy Actober!

Monthly update detailing a crazy September is coming soon. Until then please visit:

http://www.actober.com/Vote.aspx

and vote for my video "The Sox and Me" to send me and my roommate to the World Series.

Until next time,

DMatti

The September Chronicles

September 2nd marked my 5 month anniversary in California. One of my friends gave me 6 months before I was back home. Barring disaster I think I'll make it.

Saturday was the first day of September and the start of Labor Day weekend. Time has flown by. It was about a year ago that I first seriously started considering the move to California. This is kind of scary. Next month will be my 6 month Caliversary. A half a year.

Saturday I woke up super early and drove to Huntinton Beach to get an oil change for the Stang, a haircut, and see the Newest New Yorker Sean Helvey who was back in town for a visit. All went smoothly. Every time I'm down in Huntington there is something crazy going on. This time it was Boardfest: The All Girls Action Sports Weekend. Attached are some shots.

In the afternoon I met up with Helvey and Ian. We went to Barcas for a burrito then Jamba for a smoothie. We did some shopping at the surf shops on Main Street then headed back to the Chalet to relax. We had a chill Corona and guitar session on the balcony before I returned to the LA chalet for the night.

Sunday and Monday are a blur. It was 100+ degrees out. I literally sat on the couch with all fans on me and watched movies. I only got up twice. The first was Sunday to go to the grocery store and cool off. The one thing I bought was a quart of ice cream which I polished off by sunfall. Sunday night meant the end of Entourage for the season by the way. Good conclusion, poor season overall. Then Monday I left to pick up Sutton at the airport. Sounds lame, but I actually enjoyed doing nothing for 48 hours. Well, that's the end of Labor Day. Can't wait to start the shortened work week. No seriously, I can't wait, it's going to be 110 tomorrow and at least work has A/C.

Movie Review Time:

Crank: The movie, not the drug. I haven't been able to score any real crank since Lohan's parents threw her in rehab...celebrity dealers are SO unreliable. Crank stars cult British action hero Jason Statham. I had very high expectations for this movie and in the end I was a bit disappointed. Bobby, my roommate, who had no expectations going in enjoyed the movie a lot. He said it had the perfect mix of action and comedy. Overall, highly entertaining movie, but it could have been longer (80+ minute running time). However, it is nearly true to time because the plot is about an assasin who has been poisoned and has 1 hour to live.

The Big Lebowski: I don't think any movie has been overhyped for me as much as this one. Probably 10 people have told me to see this movie in the past 6 months. I hated it. Originally borrowed from the library, I fell asleep twice in the frist 30 minutes before returning it. Then, coincidentally, it aired on HBO and I caught the rest of it. Big Let Down Lebowski.

Lady in the Water: Another movie I caught on HBO. I was distracted by trying to figure out the twist ending of this movie because it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan of Signs, The Sixth Sense, and The Village fame. The twist? There isn't one. Overall I found the movie entertaining. It was better than I expected after hearing critic reviews and complaints from Shawn who saw it in the theatres last summer.

Roommate Update: The soon to be famous roommate has been pretty busy lately. Upon finishing Jack and the Beanstalk he has done two music videos. One was for a local band and one was for the very popular Country band Rascal Flatts. Keep an eye out for the video for their new single "Take Me There" off their yet to be released Still Feels Good album. Here is a little behind the scenes video from the Beanstalk set and a photo from the Rascal Flatts Video (The lighting is bad, but that is Bobby with Jay the bassist of Rascal Flatts and two of his co-stars):

Lastly, Clay Buchholz is better than Philip Hughes.

Blog: A series of events that follows another series of events

Californication is a great show. You should watch it. You should buy Showtime for it. I should work for Showtime. Insert sellout.

The week after the fam left I was supposed to be studying for my California State Fire/Casualty Broker Licensing exam. Instead I procrastinated, just like college all over again. On that Monday night, the 13th, I drove up to Santa Barbara. I stayed at a Motel6 and watched E! tv for 4 hours. It's crazy what people will do to avoid studying. Tuesday morning I had to work at a client in Santa Barbara and then drive back home in the evening. I couldn't tell you what I did the rest of the week, but it probably had to do with avoiding studying.

Friday after work I drove down to Huntington Beach. I strolled down Main Street, bought a pair of board shorts, and enjoyed the tourist watching. Friday night Dave, Bobby, and I drove to Phoenix. It was great to be back on the road again. In Phoenix we were staying at Dave's cousin Zach's place. Saturday we were to float down the Salt River (http://www.saltrivertubing.com/), and Sunday hang out before driving back. Keep in mind that I have a huge exam Monday. So out of character for me, but sometimes you just have to live in the moment. Here are some details on the Phoenix trip. sorry for the lack of pictures, but we didn't bring cameras out on the river.

The River: We arrived in Phoenix pretty late on Friday night/Saturday morning and headed to Zach's apartment to crash. Saturday morning we drove to Scottsdale to pick up Zach's friend Doye and go out to breakfast. We went to a diner called Coney Island where all the waitresses knew Zach and Doye. Zach was telling us that he can't leave this place without giving the waitress a hug. On the way out the cougar waitress made us all give her hugs. Bobby was able to escape, but not for long. We were halfway to the car in the parking lot when the waitress came running out the door yelling "hey green shorts, don't think you can get away from me!" She got him.

We took the drive through the desert to get to the tubing place. We filled up our faderades and rented some tubes. Next we loaded our tubes onto the bus and took the crazy busride up to the drop point. We tied our 5 tubes in a circle around our cooler and waded into the river. The next 5 hours were the greatest mix of insanity and relaxation I've ever experienced. We don't have any photographic evidence, but that would have been nice. Did I mention it was Mardi Gras theme weekend out on the river? Halfway through we hit some rapids and lost our cooler. Bobby the lifeguard was able to swim ahead and salvage some refreshments, but all was pretty much lost. Thankfully Zach loaded lunch into a backpack instead of the cooler. Soon after we stopped to eat. We climbed a 20 foot hill that overlooked the river, it was pretty sweet. It was also 110+ degrees out.

We jumped back into the lazy river and floated towards the finish. Just before the end there is a cliff that is perfect for cliff diving. The problem is you have to do a little bit of rock climbing to get to the cliff. Bobby and I headed up barefoot just for the extra challenge. We were followed by Zach and Doye while Dave sacrificed himself to watch the tubes. Doye, Zach, and Bobby all jumped. I was up next, can't wuss out now, time to live in the moment. The river was the highlight of my summer.

After the river we drove back into Phoenix, exhausted. We ate at a place called Philly's where Zach's roommate Annie works. The greasy food was a great pick-me-up. We drove back to the apartment to relax before having some of Zach's friends over. I slept very well that night. Sunday morning we woke up and drove to Chipotle for brunch. After Chipotle we relaxed by the pool where I started studying. Next we hit up 7-11 for slurpees before getting on the road. I studied for as long as I could in the car. We got back into Huntington around 10 and I had to drive back to LA. Of course there is traffic on the 405 at 10:30 at night, so I didn't get in and settled until after 11:30. Study or sleep? The age old question that every college student faces before every exam. At this point the sun had zapped my energy, I had been in a car 7+ hours, and I could barely keep my eyes open. Sleep won.

I woke up late the next morning, around 8:30. The exam was at 1, better start studying. I crammed for a few hours and drove to downtown LA. I took the test and was very nervous because the exam results come in very quick. If I fail this exam I don't know what will happen at work. I went to the waiting room, the lady came out moments later and called my name. She gave me my results, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and I passed! Gotta love living in the moment.

Let's keep this thing going...That Monday I went to a softball team tryout in West Hollywood. There were literally transvestites in the outfield. The worst part was that 30 guys showed up to try out for 2 roster spots. What a waste of time. Thankfully later that week 2 other teams called and asked me to join there teams. That Friday I went to play for one team and had a decent night going 3-5 at the plate with an RBI and 2 runs scored. In the field I had a few put outs with one error (I lost the ball in the lights).

The next week of work was pretty crazy. I won't go into details, but I do have some good stories if you're interested. Give me a call. This past Friday night I went to scrimmage number 2 for the Friday night team. I ended up 1-1 with 3 walks, an RBI, and 3 runs scored. In the field I did much better because I wore my glasses. Wow, I never wear my glasses, it's crazy, everything is in HD! I felt like a superhero with the power of 20-20 vision. I made all my catches in left field and even had an outfield assist, gunning a guy out at third. We ended up losing, but hey, it's just practice. First games of softball start this week. I play Thursdays and Friday nights.

Well, this takes us all the way to August 31st, so I will continue with September in my next post. Signing off- Dmatti.

Vacation

Mattioli Family Vacation: The California Chapter.

Whew this is going to be a long one. Here's the play by play:

Sunday: The fam: Mom, Dad, Shawn, and his girlfriend Katie arrived on Sunday morning. Bryan would have come, but he was too busy throwing a raging pool party kegger back in the 'Boro. They rolled into B-Wood in a Grand Marquis. I gave the fam a neighborhood tour, we ate at In N' Out, did some grocery shopping, cruised to Beverly Hills, and then went to check in at the hotel in Hollywood. They stayed at the Renaissance Hotel right at the Hollywood and Highland Center. I had to work Monday so after checking in we returned to Brentwood for dinner and the family went back to Hollywood.

Monday: While I worked the family took a scenic drive to Zuma Beach in Malibu. I was pretty jealous. Later on that day, Bobby and I drove down to Hollywood to meet them at Bella Cucina Italiana for dinner. Adam Goldberg (Entourage, Saving Private Ryan, Friends, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco) was eating a few booths down from us. We also saw restaurateur T.J. Torregiani (Paula Abdul's new boyfriend). After dinner we toured around the Hollywood area to see the Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame, and the freaks. The Hollywood and Highland Center is awesome. It is built right off the Kodak Theatre and it is like an outdoor mall. It is really nice looking and hopefully a sign of what's to come for the otherwise very trashy Hollywood. Later we hit the hotel pool. It was freezing, but i had to dive in because I miss having a pool. The time came for Bobby and I to cruise back down the Sunset Strip to Brentwood.

Tuesday: Again I had to work so the rents and kids took some tours and drove around Los Angeles. Actually they just sat in traffic. They picked me up from Beckman in Fullerton and we cruised to Angels stadium for the Sox game. The Sox got CRUSHED and the Angels fans were obnoxious. I guess Angel Stadium (or Fenway West, home of Redsox Nation West) has a huge rat problem. It was documented in the local newspapers as well as in the Washington Post the week we were there. The stadium had 118 violatons over 2 years in comparison to 2 at Petco Park and 7 at Dodger Stadium. I completely understood when we arrived as I saw rats with my own eyes, about 35,000 of them, all dressed in Angels gear. I crashed at the hotel Tuesday night because we had early plans for Wednesday.

Wednesday: Rise and Shine for breakfast at Johnny Rocket's. Surprisingly great breakfast at this place. We took the 101 to Universal Studios. What a great place, I should get a job there. A job making movies there. We did some of the special effects shows and then went on the studio tour. I loved every second of it. We watched some more shows and rode The Mummy ride and such. It is kind of a small place. I feel like this one is more of a studio and less of a theme park while the Florida version is the opposite. Late in the afternoon we headed back to Hollywood. Mom and I drove to Brentwood and then Santa Monica for the sunset while Dad napped and Shawn and Katie went to a movie.

Thursday: We woke up early yet again and headed down to Huntington Beach. We ate on Main Street at the Sugar Shack. I had never ate there before, but I heard nothing but good things from my hungover friends who frequented the place. After breakfast we walked down Main Street and the pier before hitting the beach. The waves in Huntington this day were the biggest of the summer. They were definitely the biggest I had seen in HB. Shawn and Katie rented boogie boards and we hit the water. I was having a blast catching waves and definitely impressed Shawn and Katie. At one point I was easily 10 feet in the air on a wave. Exhausted from the beach we drove to Southcoast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Not our kind of mall (I have no need for Armani, Jimmy Choo, nor Burberry) so we skipped shopping and went to dinner in Newport. Post dinner we tried to explore Laguna, but every tourist in OC had the same idea. After struggling to find a parking spot we called it quits and headed back North to The LA.

Friday: Friday was supposed to be the return to Universal Studios but I lazied out. While the fam headed back to the park I slept in. When they got back to the hotel we drove to the Beverly Center Mall. We ate at Chipotle and did some shopping. From there we went to Venice Beach. Friday night we went to see the new Harry Potter at Mann's Chinese Theatre before calling it a night. I thought the new Harry was decent, but the books put the movies to shame. It was at this point that my camera died. No more pics from me.

Saturday: The fam had a flight out of LAX in the afternoon, so in the morning we slept in a bit then drove back to Brentwood. We hung out at the LA Chalet for a bit and had a jam session with Bobby. In the afternoon when the fam left I got ready for valet. Credit to Shawn for the pics. Overall it was a fun week. It was good to see Mom, Dad, and Shawn (and Katie). It as also nice to have a break from work. It's always nice to have the excuse to be a tourist in LA because there are so many things to do and so much to see.

Here are some photos, I tried to format the photos in, but because this is THE WORST BLOG SITE on the internet I spent 3+ hours on it and it wouldn't work correctly. California Album is the link to my Snapfish where all my pics are hosted.

Might As Well Valet

August, it's the last real month of Summer. We wanted to start August off strong, so we planned a baseball night and a hike for the first weekend of the month. Friday August 3rd, Sox vs. Mariners at Sonny's (www.SonnyMcLeans.com), my new favorite place in Southern California.

Bobby and I headed down to Sonny's in Santa Monica to watch the game and see the band The Standells play 'Dirty Water' live. We got there late, but still enjoyed some brew and the game. Dave met us there later on and we all agreed that walking into Sonny's is like warping back to Boston. Saturday morning we were planning on getting up super early and going for a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. Unfortunately our valet boss called and told us we had to be at a wedding in Costa Mesa at 2:45. There was no way we could fit in a hike and make the wedding so we cruised to the beach for an hour instead. It's ok, the wedding was worth it.

Wedding's aren't usually the best for valet, but at this wedding there were only three of us. We pulled over 60 cars, got great exercise, and made some serious cash. As a kicker, Bobby and I drove a drunk couple to their house in Huntington Beach and they gave us $80. Easy money. The following day my family arrived, but I'm going to put that in a different post, so instead I'll talk about my next valet gigs.

The Saturday my family left I worked a Hillary Clinton fundraiser. I thought it would be cool and I would make good money, but I was wrong. The event was a Pakistani-American fundraiser in support of Hill. Nothing against Pakistani's, but the tips were awful at this event. If I didn't get stiffed I got $1 per car. I guess the guy hosting the fundraiser lied and there were two times the number of cars than expected, totally screwing over my boss.

One thing I have learned from valet is the importance of tipping. For the first time I am on the other side of a tipping situation. Getting tips feels great because I work really hard sprinting to and from cars. When I get stiffed I get pretty angry. If you ever get your car valeted, tip $3 minimum. $3 is a good tip, $5 is a great tip. Anything beyond that (I got a $20 at the wedding mentioned above) is a great bonus.

The following Sunday I worked an art show in Long Beach. It was 90 degrees out and the parking lot was a half mile from the event. By the end I was drenched in sweat, but the guests noticed this and started giving me extra money. For example, people who had $5 in hand reached in their wallets and gave me $1-3 extra for hustling. I ended up making a lot more money than the other valets.

I apologize for the filler post, but I'm on lunch break at work. Coming up soon is the Family Vacation post with tons of pictures and the Phoenix Weekend Trip post. Stay tuned. I'll wrap this post up with a screenshot of this weeks weather in LA. Sure, it's not a big deal now, but come January when ya'll are freezing your asses off you're going to be really jealous.

Living

Monthly update? That's not cool at all, I should definitely be updating more often. I think the last post was July 19th so let's wrap up July quickly. Oh and here are a few sunset and palm tree pics, it's my new calling card:

The second half of July started off really strong. The 3rd weekend was action packed and lots of fun. It started by having Jenny P over and heading to a bar in WeHo called Lola's. Lola's was decent at best. We met up with a few of my co-workers and moved on to Jones. Ok so if I'm out on a Friday or Saturday there's a 99% chance I'm at Jones. You can't really beat it, it's easy to get into and it has a great atmosphere. It was nice having a group of friends in Los Angeles. Saturday morning I ran out to get my hands on Harry book 7. I returned to the LA Chalet and Bobby and I went to pick up Jenny P in Palisades for an afternoon beach sesh at Zuma. I read a little of Harry on the beach, but was too distracted by good conversation and people watching. By Saturday night we were pretty shot and stayed in. Relaxing didn't last long because we woke up early, biked to the gym, then went to see Transformers. I can't believe I remember all this stuff so vividly. Time out.

Movie Review Interruption:

Transformers: Waaaay cool. Loved this movie. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the underdog/ love storyline. Megan Fox was impressively hot in this movie and I have a new found respect for Shia (aka Bobby's Hollywood competition). Interesting Megan Fox fact: She is engaged to Brian Austin Green of 90210 fame, yea, she's 21 and he is 34. Not uncommon in H-Wood. I'm going to have to give the film 4 stars even though I think it went on a little too long which caused me to nod off for about 10 minutes.

Superbad: Just see this movie. Probably the funniest, raunchiest comedy I've ever seen. There's a reason this movie is #1 in theatres right now. It's the next Napoleon Dynamite, hell it's the next Borat. People are going to be quoting this one like crazy.

Californication: Ok not a movie, but this new dramedy on Showtime is worth ordering Showtime for. This is David Duchovny's comeback project about a washed up writer/womanizer in LA and it is solid. By the way, there's new X-Files movie coming out in 2009.

Back to my life, it's much more important. The last week in July was brutal. I had to go to Fire/Property Insurance Licensing class for 9.5 hours a day including Saturday. Then I had to pass an exam to get my Broker License, more on that later. Sunday Bobby and I drove down the HB for the U.S. Open of Surfing. It's funny that the surfing is the most boring part of the event. There is also motocross, BMX, skateboarding, live music, tons of free energy drinks, and girls in barely there bikinis. I miss HB. Here are some shots from the U.S. Open:

Big air from Tim Curran. I should be an action sports photographer:

Another great action shot, this one is Nike sponsored Sergie Ventura in the bowl:

These motocross guys are incredible, backflips over 80 ft gaps!

Some trophy from a completely irrelevant sport. There was a buzz in LA the week the Ducks won the Stanley Cup....because it was the same week Paris was thrown in jail.

This basically wraps up July. Show me some comment love on this post!! Just because I post 5 in a row doesn't excuse you from giving me comments on each blog.

Baseball Hollywood Stops Cadillacs and TV Spots

Here we are nearing the end of July. I just got my Mustang back from the shop, looking sharp again. I can finally end this tailspin of negativity that started back on April 22nd. Seriously though, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that this whole situation is over and paid for by that lady's insurance. On to the good stuff. Sunset and Palmtrees in LA:


As Timothy Olyphant says on the Indie 103 sports report every morning...Joe, let's talk baseball. I was going to live blog the Homerun Derby last week Bill Simmons style, but I didn't realize that it airs live. For some reason I thought it would air delayed at 8 pm pt. It instead started at 5 pm pt while I was at work. Good thing too because it would have been a waste of time. That was hardly a Homerun Derby, it was more like Homerun Drought. Someone get those guys some steroids. There weren't even enough Homeruns for Chris "Back-Back" Berman to get on my nerves. I was going to crack an old Simpsons joke about having implied oral consent and not expressed written consent for use of the game, but I forget how it goes.

In other baseball news, there is a Redsox minor league team called the Lancaster JetHawks that play about an hour from me. Even better news, every Monday is all you can eat Baseball food for $10. I'm definitely going to check this out, I'll let you know how it is. The Lancaster park is Homerun crazy because of the wind. Two players have had a game where they homered four times. This has never happened in professional baseball before. Should have held the Homerun Derby at this place.

Moving on, Gattis visited last weekend. He had a job interview in the City of Angels. Breaking-news is that he got the job and could be on his way to LA. Saturday night we cruised to Hollywood in the Cadillac rental I've been driving. This song by TI came on the radio while we were on Hollywood Blvd. "Ya see the Cadillac swerving down Hollywood Road on the flyest spur in Cali effing Hollywood Ho's." I got a good laugh out of it. (and out of some of these pictures, Ballin')

Lastly, Bobby's television commercial has been posted online.

You heard him, come visit LA.

Harry Potter and the Sunburned Pale Kid

After Lyons left I spent the next two weeks locked in my apartment re-reading the Harry Potter series to get prepared for the final book. Ok, this may have been partly due to a sunburn I sustained while spending two hours at Venice Beach. Yes I used sunblock, yes there was a giant white square on my chest from where Harry Year 3 blocked out the sun. But Seriously, I am so excited. I can hardly wait until Saturday to get The Deathly Hallows and finish up this 7 year investment into the Harry Potter series. I'm going to miss Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

This gets us from the final week in June into the first week of July. Crazy, it is July already. This also marks 3 full months in California, 2 in HB and 1 in LA. Because I spent 2 weeks pretty much alone in my apartment reading and watching movies I don't have much to say about early July. Here are some single sentence movie reviews:

Thank You for Smoking: Over-rated, hardly funny, and under-used Adam Brody. **

Hollywoodland: Not as long and boring as most reviews claim. ***

Miami Vice: I got 15 minutes in and shut it off. *

MI3: Vintage fun Tom Cruise action. ***

Serendipity: I am a sucker for this movie...or maybe just Kate Beckinsdale (Piven and Cusack can't hurt either.) ***

Lastly, here is one thing in Hollywood I missed because of work. These events are literally 15 minutes down the road from me. I should go to one. (Photos: Yahoo/Reuters)

If you think you are too cool for Harry Potter, you are wrong. Just read.

The Lyons Visit

The week that Bobby flew out, Mike Lyons flew in. Here is a rundown of The Lyons Visit.

Mike arrived at LAX on Friday night (on the same flight as Delonte West.) Finally my excuse to be a tourist in LA had arrived. That night we drove down Santa Monica Blvd. into Hollywood. When we came out to LA a year prior for Spring Break we felt lost in Beverly Hills as we tried to find our way from Rodeo Drive to Century City. Now a year later we were driving past these sites down the same streets we walked. We went to Jones (same place I went for my birthday) for dinner because it's easy to get into. After having buffalo chicken and marherita pizza we drove down the Sunset Strip. Lyons felt like he was at an amusement park. An amusement park with extremely good looking women.

Saturday we woke up pretty early and hit the road. We took a scenic drive up the coast to Malibu where we stopped at Zuma Beach and the Cohen Mansion. Ok so the Cohen Mansion is private property and is gated off, so we couldn't really see it, but the other houses in the area were pretty sweet.

The Future Lyons Residence, aka The Lyons Den.

Imagine attending Malibu High?

From Malibu we drove down to Venice Beach for lunch. We sat on the beach for a while then walked the streets. Classic Lyons Pose:

After a pit-stop at the LA Chalet (my apt.) we drove to Beverly Hills to see Robertson Blvd. and the Beverly Center. On the first cruise down Robertson we saw the Ivy Restaurant, but no celebrities. We went to the Beverly Center for an hour or so and returned to Robertson. This time there were paparazzi swarming from every direction to photograph Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, Gladiator, Amistad) and Kimora Lee Simmons leaving the Ivy.

Photo Credit: JustJared.Com. Mine came out too blurry because Lyons was trying to get in the way of my picture.

Next we headed down the 405 to Huntington Beach. We arrived just in time to play some volleyball against Sutton and Josh. We went to HB favorite Las Barcas for dinner. We grabbed a table near a large one eyed homeless looking man who entertained us while we waited for our food. His topics of conversation ranged from never trusting anyone in the medical field to "Manny Fernandez" star of the Boston Redsox. Later Saturday night we met up with Sutton and Jenny for drinks on Main Street. Huntington is a good time.

Sunday we again woke up early and hit the road for San Diego. After stopping at the elegant McDonalds in Newport Beach for breakfast, we cruised down PCH through Orange County. Upon arriving in San Diego we scalped $7 standing room only seats for $35. Apparently Redsox fans had taken over San Diego and drove the cost of seats up like crazy. Petco Park in San Diego is a great stadium, we took the time to walk around and explore running into the Eagle family and Jamie from my Bentley softball team. We got to see a great pitching match-up, Peavy vs. Beckett. The Sox won a close game. After leaving San Diego we met up with the Eagles for dinner at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in La Jolla. Probably the best steak I've ever had. Thank you to the Eagles for a delicious meal and a great evening in SoCal.

Lyons spent 8 straight hours watching Entourage on Monday while I worked. I dropped him off at the airport after catching a bite to eat in Brentwood. Thank you to Lyons for keeping me busy on my first weekend "alone" in LA.

As I finish this post I realize that this all took place a month ago, unreal how time flies, so... more updates coming shortly.