(Noun): 1) an article or report in the media that is based on exaggerated praise to promote a person, entity, or event. 2) an online journal all about me and my life that is in no way exaggerated or purely promotional, but a true, unbiased and unembellished account of how fabulous I am.
I've been mixing/ burning my Xmas mix CD for years now, and it morphs and evolves every year. This year, I thought I'd distribute it online. So, for one week only, get your very own copy of my Xmas 2008 mix right here!
The folder also includes a CD case with a track list in a powerpoint file that you can print out and insert into a case, should you want a hard copy. But if you just want the tunes, those are there too. If you've gotten a copy of this mix from me in the past, then you already have most of the songs. But, like I said, it changes every year, so there could be some new treats on there for you.
It's been almost a month since my last entry, so first I'll do a quick list of bullets of what we've been up to, for those of you keeping track of my life (ahem, Mom). Then we can talk holidays.
Thanksgiving 08: What a fantastic holiday. We hosted members of our "chosen family" at the house this year, and it was just wonderful. My friend Tony the Chef did the most amazing things to our turkey--brining in brandy, shoving garlic & rosemary under the skin next to the meat, stuffing with apples and oranges. It was one of the most moist and delicious turkeys I've ever tasted. All of our friends brought delicious sides and snacks, actually, because they are classy like that. For my part, I baked 2 loaves of dill bread and 3 pies: pumpkin, pecan, and apple with a lattice-top crust. I hope to get caught up on photos over the next week or so, but suffice to say they all came out gorgeous! Good food, good wine, great friends--GREAT holiday.
Seattle Trip: The first week in December Mac and I went to Seattle to visit friends, do some business, and enjoy some proper chilly weather. Not that I'm complaining about our fabulous SoCal weather, but it's hard to get into the holiday spirit when it won't stop being 80 degrees outside (the weather has since changed, thankfully). This trip was PACKED, and as usual we ran out of time before we got to do everything or see everyone. We got a lot of great business done, striking up some fun partnerships and strengthening our Seattle press relationships. We got to see some of our favorite people on the planet. And we ATE. Oh, my God, we ate our way through that city. Someday I'm going to write the Mac & Dinah Guide to Seattle, with a list of must-sees, must-dos and must-eats. The newest revelation was The Black Bottle in Belltown. YUM.
Family Portrait Time: Yet another separate blog post in the making, we took family portraits with Mac's family at Sears the second weekend in December. We wore coordinated outfits and posed uncomfortably (at one point I was laying on my stomach). Mac's family all look happy and natural in all of these photos. I look like a robot.
Which, okay, I'm actually checking my calendar to remember what all we've done this month. We took the LA division of our awesome staff out to a holiday dinner, after video chatting with Scott and his lovely wife. The whole team chipped in and got us a Wii Fit. I'm choosing not to take this as a personal commentary on my need to lose weight, but as an amazingly intuitive and thoughtful present that we actually had every intention of buying for ourselves. They also got us a game that you play with your butt. Awesome. Seriously, we employ the best people on the planet.
We also hosted a holiday party for one of our clients, which went off perfectly and inspired a separate blog I need to write about throwing parties. Because, for real, I pulled that thing together in about a day, had tasks for everyone to help me with, and did the whole thing BEAUTIFULLY and under budget. I'm not bragging; I'm just good.
Everything else has just been a mad scramble to get prepared for the holidays. I always stress out about Christmas, every year. What do I get? Is it too much, not enough? Why do I put it off every year? Christmas cards still haven't gone out--it might be a New Year's/Wrap Up card this year. Plus I'd love to do a "Best of 2008" mix... but I never even finished or mailed out my Summer 08 mix. Oh, I'm a mess. Ho ho ho.
So that brings me up to date. The checklist of future blogs I just mentioned includes: photos, Seattle guide, family portraits, how to throw a fabulous party, and Best of 2008 mix. Yeah, we'll see.
Thanks for checking back on me, even though I haven't been updating. I appreciate everyone who reads Puffpiece, and hope you're all enjoying a fabulous holiday season!!
Generally speaking, I feel that LA gets a bad rap. The traffic, the smog, the obnoxious Hollywood/hipster types, and general assumption that there are a lot of plastic, disingenuous people in the city are all pretty much true, and can be a pretty big bummer. Honestly, I didn't love LA for a full 18 months after we moved here.
And then something switched, and I started loving it. There's a lot I love about LA, actually, but mostly I love Christmas in LA. Sure, it's not all snowy & picturesque, but hi, it's 60 degrees right now, I don't need 6 layers of clothes when I go outside, I know my car will start when I put the key in and won't need to "warm up" for 5 minutes before I drive it, there are no windows to scrape, and the traffic is just typically crappy, instead of crappy and icy.
Best of all, lookit all the stuff you can do and see! 1. The LA Zoo: My undying love for the LA Zoo is well documented, but the zoo is even better at Christmas.
Reindeer! Santa! Fun photo ops! Churros!
And if you're a member like me, you can go as often as you want (I popped by one day just to shop in the gift shop & say hi to the lemurs--because I can).
2. The LA DWP Lights in Griffith Park: Every year the LA Department of Water and Power does this big stretch of light displays depicting Los Angeles history and landmarks plus holiday music that is free to the public and also rad. You can either drive slowly through it or park and walk, which is what we did.
3. The Capitol Records Building: Quintessentially LA, the Capitol Records building is a landmark to see all on its own. But every Christmas, they rig a tree to the top of it. This photo isn't great (taken out of my car from over on Cahuenga), but it gives you the general idea. It's a small thing, but it makes me happy.
4. Youngwood Court: There's this house on 3rd St. in the swank Hancock Park neighborhood that is all white and features a long row of miniature statues of The David lining their semi-circle driveway. On its own, this ridiculously ornate house is a fun treat to drive past with out-of-towners. At Christmas, the owners put a Santa hat on each of their David Statues, put big Santa faces on the house itself, park Santa & Mrs. Clause mannequins in the front yard on a bench, and craft a giant, sparkly new year to plunk next to it.
When I lived in Hollywood and worked in Korea Town, I used to drive past this house every day. Last year, I finally drove to it with my camera and took pictures.
5. North Poleywood: My favorite of all the lights and decorations around the city, and we can walk to it from our house.
This place... is insane. They pull out the decorations the day after Halloween, and it goes live the day after Thanksgiving. Every year, it gets bigger, brighter and more ornate. It is, by far, the most Christmas lights and decorations I've ever seen concentrated on one house. It's like a Christmas Giant stomped into our neighborhood and threw up Christmas awesomeness all over the house and yard. I took a truckload of photos, but decided it couldn't really do it proper justice--you can't even see all the moving parts. So I took a video instead (apologies for the poor quality and shaky cam).
For more fun pics of LA around December, click here. Oh, and if you're celebrating Christmas next Tuesday, I hope it's merry and fabulous!
Sweet fancy Suri Cruise I haven't blogged in AGES. At first, it was because I was enjoying The Lull, which is a lazy time when work demands ease up a bit and I, well, slack off a little. Which means reading everyone else's blogs. If you were doing the same, and wishing I'd had a little more reading material here for you, I apologize.
And then, of course, I didn't blog because life quickly reverted away from The Lull and back to The Crazy, and then I just didn't have time. Hence me updating my stuff late at night when I should be sitting comfortably on the couch enjoying the return of my regular TV programming.
So, quickly: holiday summary, and then I'll put the rest in separate posts.
Xmas: AWESOME. We threw the tiniest party ever, which I suppose means it was more a "gathering" than a "party." Whatever, we had a kickass cheese platter and pomegranate cosmos and espresso martinis and then Kim brought those chocolate-covered peanut butter cracker things? And it was rad.
We got stuff shipped out on time, but due to the super extreme Colorado weather, they didn't all show up on time. We got a real tree, and decorated the crap out of our house. For the holiday itself, we went to Santa Barbara where we spent almost an entire day opening copious amounts of gifts, and the rest of the day on a scenic walk with the dogs.
Overall, it was a glorious holiday, and I was reminded again how lucky I am to have all My People in my life, and what a beautiful thing it is to be loved.
New Year's Eve: Due to the inherent suckitude of this crappy holiday, we decided to discard our LA party plans and take off for beautiful Seattle.
We cooked dinner, we played Karaoke Revolution, I kicked ass.
And we rang in the new year like the hard-core party animals we are.
Since then, it's been, well. The Lull, followed by The Crazy. Mostly Crazy. I didn't make resolutions this year, per se, but I did make a mental list of Stuff I Want To Do, which I think is different. I've started some things on my list already, crossed off others, not started most of them, and instead started things that weren't on the list, because I am nothing if not a Master of Procrastination. Overall, not a bad start to the year. If I find a little more balance in my life in 2007, I'll put the whole darn thing in the Win column.
In preparation for this year's holiday, I have spent too much money, bought a gazillion decorations, mixed one CD, decorated one tree, written zero cards and baked zero cookies. I've also managed to ignore my blog almost completely. On the flip side, I feel like I've gotten a truck load of work done at the office, despite the fact that the inbox is so full I can barely send email and my to-do list is never-ending. And I'm probably behind on something even as I type this.
Speaking of work, after everything I said about all the losers I had to screen and interview for this position I'm hiring? I may have found someone. I don't want to jinx anything (or, um, post anything in any way unprofessional *ahem*), but I will just say this: this person BROUGHT IT. Seriously, y'all. I'm thrilled. I hope our offer is accepted, for reals.
On that happy note, I'm going to cut this short. The preparation for the holiday is nowhere near complete. But since we didn't do cards this year, here's an oldie but goodie for you to enjoy. Ho ho ho!
Whether you love or hate Christmas and the songs that go with it, you have to read this essay/rant by Sarah Bunting (aka Sars from TwoP) on Tomato Nation. A sample: "And speaking of things in Christmas songs that I don't understand, what is going on in "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"? First of all, in my house, you stayed in bed Christmas Eve or you got a spanking in your stocking. Second of all, either Mommy is cheating on Daddy with Santa, or Daddy is dressed up as Santa and it's some kind of May-December roly-poly kinky thing that the kid doesn't need to see, which leads me my third point, namely that the child is kind of a voyeur, and when Mommy gets done playing tonsil hockey with St. Nick, she might want to look into a child psychologist before neighborhood pets start disappearing."
