Does this '91 Toyota Corolla really need a spoiler?

LA is a funny town, it's filled with an almost Frankenstein effect of stitched together cars, bodies, and lives. I'm not against it exactly, I'm just kind of intrigued by it.

Indoor Skydiving

Erica's friend Radio works at City Walk of Universal Studios and he got us into their IFly, or indoor Skydiving. Basically, it's a giant, clear plexiglass, vertical wind tunnel. You put on a special suit, goggles and a helmet; and after a four minute video and quick tutorial, you get to go in and fly.

This is me, in the red, dropping about 40 vertical feet and then floating back up. It was pretty cool!


Some more floating around.

WTF?

Apparently, Wolfgang Puck has joined up with Chuck E Cheese.

Walkin the carpet

Hopped the velvet rope and got three quarters of the way down the carpet before they figured I wasn't all that special. Although I did get special treatment from security, who ushered me out, with one guy on each arm. I felt so important!

Portrait of Jared

I've gotten to know some of the people around Los Feliz, mostly from taking lots of walks with Blue. There's a very fashionable and interesting woman who lives out in front of a closed up Masonic Lodge, named Joyce. She's an artist of sorts, and I've bought some of her work in the past for $2 each. Joyce asked me about a week ago if she could do my portrait. Yesterday, I sat down and modeled for her. Outside of the vaguely Asian eyes and the Pseudo Buddhist halo, I think it's a pretty good representation.

Fun games for the drive up to Solvang

To celebrate our independence, we decided to all go up past Santa Barbara to do some wine tasting. Katie made fun gift bags for everybody complete with water, interesting celebrity articles, pirate patches, and a "guess who's boobs" game. The boob game involved a headless boob shot, and we were summoned to guess who they belonged to... Answer: Tyra Banks!

Justin's Thumb Trick

"Survival tips for the Big House" by Katie Spencer Milgrim

This might be you one day. Ignore her words at your own peril.


Justin enacting the terrified guard.

The Height of Cherohonkee

I was blissfully unaware of the term "Cherohonkee" or perhaps "Cherohonky". It's used to describe those wolf t-shirts, and the "back to nature while munching on a twinkee" fads one might see. Katie found this one: inviting us to "Uncover Your Fantasy with True Essence Photos by Eva". I guess Glamour Shots by Deb didn't quite cut it. Anyhoo, the best part is the little flap exposing her butt. Yee-Haw!

Justin explaining the events of the previous night

On our way out of Solvang, at about 9 at night, we had a shower of rocks come flying at the car while we were driving down Main Street. J quickly pulled over and jumped out of the car, sprinting back towards the obvious group of kids that'd done it. Fearing the notorious "Valet" temper brandished on occasion by Brooklynites, I ran after him just to make sure no limbs were unduly separated from their host bodies. When all was said and done, there may have been a little shirt grabbing, but no one was harmed, and I know of one group of kids that won't be chucking any rocks at cars anytime soon.

Ryan and Allison on the super slide

Allison wounded herself on the dangerous, dirty, smelly, slide. I guess that's what she gets for shoving all those little kids out of the way...

Wildfires

I think these are linked to the blazes up by Big Sur, they've been burning for a while now, and have proved to be very difficult to contain. These shots are from the 101 while on our way back to LA.

Tastes of the Valley

We got up to the town of Solvang sometime around noon on Friday. Checked out a couple of local tasting rooms in Los Olivos, although many were closed for the fireworks that ended up being cancelled due to the fires. Once back in Solvang, we stopped in on my buddy Eric, who mans the tasting bar at Tastes of the Valley, which is definitely the spot to stop in on in Solang. Tell him I sent ya.

Chilling out in the limo

So we got a limo to take us around from vineyard to vineyard rather than mess around with all the driving. It was pretty nice. We started at Fiddlehead for some really nice Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Then stopped in on Palmina for their great Arneis, Pinot Grigio, Dolcetto, Barbera. Justin and Katie joined the wine club. Next was Starlane, Foley, and a last stop at a place not worth mentioning.

Pea Soup Andersen's

For our last meal before leaving, Justin kept pushing for Pea Soup Andersen's. As usual, he had a plan in mind. No it wasn't the burgers, Pickled Herring, or even famed Pea Soup he was after- He just wanted to stick his butt in the cut out picture..