Monday, October 20, 2008

Monday Morning Memo

Weekend Recap and Random Thoughts:

-Friday evening a group of us all met for dinner at Frida's for Mexican food. There were ten of us in all and it was a great way to get together with friends and friends of friends. Decent food and great margaritas.

-Saturday Molly and I got up and moving and headed north to Pacific Palisades to tackle a hike in Temescal Canyon. 4 miles, 1000 ft elevation gain, all in the first mile... and ohhh did we feel it. Absolutely gorgeous hike with views of the ocean and a variety of "terrain" reminiscent of the climax in Sleeping Beauty. The nice thing about this particular hike is that it is a loop so there isn't any backtracking. Roughly 3o minutes into our climb, we realized that we were crossing paths with numerous groups of fellow hikers but we had yet to catch up to anyone or be passed by anyone traveling in our same direction. This observation was confirmed by a couple we passed who made the comment that we were "brave ones that chose to hike up on the sunny side" rather than the cooler, shadier side of the canyon. Hmmm you live and learn. However, Molly and I concluded that although it was the path less travelled by (haha) we reaped the benefits as we cooled down in the shade toward the finale of our Temescal Canyon adventure. Gold stars for us.

-This weekend I stumbled upon a TV show on MTV - "The Hills According to Me" I hate everything about the original but love the clever* mocking of this remake. Below is a sample. The clips from the episode I saw are so much funnier that the scenes below but you get the idea...
* It makes me reevaluate the quality of current television in the sense that The Hills is an embarrassing reflection of a segment of society. So just the existence of parodies of such a show are comforting/hilarious but disturbing at the same time.

-Saturday night I went to the restaurant Beso with some family friends. Definitely recommend this place....perfect for a girls night out or a romantic Saturday night date. Despite high ceilings and expansive spaces, the decor creates a cozy and lounge vibe. Latin influences on a classic steakhouse menu yields an eclectic variety of starters and entrees with the famous Todd English as head chef. Expansive list of cocktails as well... the Bee's Knees: dry gin, honeycomb and lemon....the Looking Glass: le tourment vert absinthe, blackberries, fresh sour.
-Molly and I are devoted fans of AMC's Mad Men and once again last night's episode delivered. The show especially in the last two or three weeks has been incredible. The last scene from the episode entitled "The Mountain King" might be an all-time favorite.... Don standing in the crashing waves in southern California while the George Jones song "Cup of Loneliness" plays in the background.

photos courtesy of
citysearch.com
flickr.com
cinema-review.com