Tag Archives: glendale

Our Old Concrete Neighbor Says Adieu

Can’t say it’s a surprise, but the fortress-like Sears that was next door to where Larry & I lived in Glendale is finally shutting down in March.   That place was not something you’d call attractive, but it certainly was a landmark.   Apparently even my aunt Helen worked there when she was a teenager!

Anyway, I always laughed while walking by there as they NEVER fixed the neon lights on its exterior, the entire time we lived there.   One of the signs, facing away from Central, had the “E” burned out, so the sign was for “SA RS”.  Recently before we left, the featured image above was one I took where another sign just said ” EAR “.

Anyway, it’s sad I guess that the store is going away, but also, probably something else can go there.   In Glendale’s case, likely another apartment building is gonna go up, but maybe Larry’s long-dreamed-of Crate & Barrel will show up.  🙂

Week One Complete + All Sorts of Other Stuff

Yep, the first week of Larry’s chemotherapy is complete.  It’s been a whirlwind, a rollercoaster, and exhausting, and I don’t recommend it for anyone.  But it’s all in service of the fight that we will be winning, and I am frankly glad to get it started.  No more quarter for these fucking cancer cells in Larry’s liver.  No. More. Quarter.   Get the fuck out.

The beginning of the week was when Larry had to go and sit in the treatment center for about 3 hours hooked up to an IV.  He’s taking the Folfox treatment chemotherapy which is the standard method of treating colorectal cancer.  We didn’t do Avastin this round, which will likely be back for Round 2.   With this therapy regimen, Larry will go every 2 weeks.

On day one of each cycle, he’ll get chemo in the center.  Before he leaves, the staff then attaches an infusion pump that attaches to his port and he carries around with him, which keeps administering the chemo.  He keeps the pump with him for the next 48 hours, and after that, can then go back in and have the pump removed.   His regimen is then over for the next 1.5 weeks.  All things considered, it is something he has to deal with for like a full 2 days, but after that, he can get back to just building his strength and living his life.

Obviously it doesn’t come without side effects.   Neuropathy, nausea, and fatigue are the main ones we experienced, but I don’t think they were too overwhelmingly bad this round.   I don’t know what we can expect as this continues, but I do know the key is to keep him eating, drinking, and exercising.  So that’s what we’ll be doing, dammit.

To prepare for naps and relaxation on the couch, we got some help from Nicki to go to our storage unit and grab the chaise part of the sectional couch.  We’d put it away as our apartment just really wasn’t big enough to have it present…but now it’s like, fuck it, we want to be comfortable!

Honestly, while the walking space was intruded upon, you can still get by.   And it’s amazing to have a full couch again.  You can truly sit a few people there now to watch TV!  And I like having a chaise option to sit in.  Sometimes you don’t want to chill in the chair, right?

On the weekend before chemo, on Saturday, July 14, Larry and I happily made it out to the Hollywood Bowl.  We’d had to miss our first planned show around July 4 as we just weren’t feeling good enough to make it, but Larry’s made huge progress in feeling back to normal, at least as much as he can.  It was a huge happiness to make it to the Bowl this time though, as the performers were Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, and Michael McDonald.   Yep, the Kings of Yacht Rock were all together, and the songs and performances were amazing.  AMAZING!  And that place was sold the fuck out, as obviously many are unashamed in their love of smooth pop rock!

Anyway, that concert was a nice thing to have right before heading into chemo.  We got through the week of chemo with its ups and downs, but this isn’t really the place to go into all of that.  Just know that Larry made it like a champ, and he will continue to fight to be free of this cancer.  His youth will be an asset and we’re going to take advantage of that in this fight.

So on Friday night, Mila and Sveta dropped by and it was just a blast.  We had dinner, talked, drank wine (well, Sveta and I did), watched TV (showed Sveta the first episode of Pose, which is one of our favorite recent shows as it’s glorious) and just overall had an amazingly fun evening.

On Saturday morning, Larry & I went for a brisk walk around Glendale, and Brand Blvd was shut down in advance of the annual car thing they do here.   So here are some pics of that:

This weekend, we had yet another Hollywood Bowl concert in store!   On Saturday, July 21, it was a screening of the movie Jaws accompanied by the Hollywood Bowl orchestra.  As a reminder, Jaws is a fantastic movie, and even with it being 40+ years old, it still thrills and kicks ass.  Seeing it with a giant crowd makes it even more fun, as it was clear there were some who weren’t ready for some of the scares.   Chief Brody’s snap to attention when the shark nearly takes his arm off is still fantastic.

And now it’s today!  We just came back from seeing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! and gotta say…it WAS FANTASTIC.  So much fun, they got some of the deeper ABBA cuts into the song (“Andante, Andante” was a particular delight), the new members of the cast portraying the younger versions were amazing, CHER was wonderful, and the story ended up being very poignant.  The ending scene might have made me cry just a LOT.  But then there were the upbeat numbers to “Waterloo”, “Dancing Queen”, and happily, “Super Trouper” that just made my heart swell with happiness.  ABBA is the fucking best and will always be.  And I’ve heard that Cher is going to release an album of ABBA covers and that just makes me so happy.  Anyway, go see it, you’ll be very happy you did so.

Finally – I have to share that my Daily Double clue from my game way back in 2016 ENDED UP IN THE 2018 JEOPARDY DAILY CALENDAR!!!  And it’s today!   And I’m so stoked.  I had seen my super bestie from the taping (Vicki) had posted a few weeks back in the J! group that her clue had showed up in the calendar.  I had bought the 2017 calendar thinking maybe my clues would be in it, but I think that the production schedules of that never would sync up – so it makes sense our clues wouldn’t show up until 2018.   So I was motivated to find a copy of the calendar (got it on eBay) and quickly flipped through it to find anything that looked familiar…and there it was on July 22!   It’s not correct that it was a Final Jeopardy (I WISH), but still, I’m psyched that my question made it:

Last Weekend in my Thirties

This year, 2016, has just been a shitshow.  Giant Asterisk, of course:  Getting married and going on our honeymoon in September was pretty sweet.  But other than that, it’s hard to look fondly at 2016.  And here I am having the last weekend of my thirties and while I’m not considering jumping out of a window it still is kind of like a big WTF.  How did we get from this:

When I turned 30
When I turned 30

to this?

My face when thinking about turning 40
My face when thinking about turning 40

The 10 years in between have gone by like crazy.  Is it really possible that I ended up living in NYC and New Jersey for a stretch, met the love of my life, and then ended up back in Los Angeles?  That all really happened, didn’t it?  I guess it did, and this here website kind of showed all those details too.  Still blows my mind though.  And maybe those 10 years didn’t exactly go by in the blink of an eye, but now that I’m at the precipice of 40?  Sometimes it feels like it.  40 is the new 30, though, so it’s all good. Continue reading Last Weekend in my Thirties

A Gorgeous LA Timelapse Video

This is just so fun to watch.  I’d suggest clicking on the vimeo link so you can then put this full screen.  The random zooms-in are a bit annoying at times, but I can see why they do it as it shows off how hi-res this video is.  Lots of great shots of DTLA and the beach…and a quick and pretty Glendale view along with the 134 at night near the end.

Avengers: Age of Ultron + Other Stuff

A perk for working at PwC manifested this week when we got to attend a free screening for Avengers: Age of Ultron at the LA Live Regal Cinemas. Not too shabby.  I hadn’t been to that theater before and for this screening, we ended up in one of the ginormous theaters.  Anyway, we got there early and scored some great seats, and we were all set to also enjoy a brief intro to the movie by none other than Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, but alas, a man who is overseeing a studio that is likely going to break records this weekend, was running late.  So no Kevin Feige this time.  Ah well, it was time to watch the movie!

avengers_age_of_ultron_team

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015); saw this on May 1, 2015 at the L.A. Live Regal Cinemas

Okay, so it helps if you’ve somewhat kept up with the other series of Marvel movies.  It wasn’t absolutely necessary though as the main thrust of the movie was all about figuring out what to do about Ultron, an AI that comes alive under Tony Stark’s and Bruce Banner’s tinkering.  Unfortunately, this Pinocchio ends up being quite a genocidal maniac, but what can you do?

I’ll say that I did really enjoy the movie, especially its third Act, but to me this movie felt a lot like setting things up for what will come next.  Yes, there was the main deal of fighting Ultron and defeating his seriously catastrophic schemes, but he seemed to be a means to an end in order to get the components of the Avengers ready for their next movies.  The first Avengers movie really didn’t feel like that to me and with that feeling, this movie seemed a little different.  Mind you, this was still wildly entertaining, and count me in, OBVIOUSLY, if Captain America is there.  I’m actually excited to see the storyline continue in the TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  That show has been really good in its second season and scratches the Marvel itch quite well.

For those of you who have seen the movie, I’ve included this link here for some post-viewing knowledge, as I certainly didn’t realize all of this stuff while watching as I’m not a Marvel comics reader:

aou_postmovieqs

Oh, and this Kotaku article was also entertaining concerning what Age of Ultron did much more effectively than the ugh Man of Steel Superman movie.

We actually just finished the third season of House of Cards on Netflix so it’s a good time to now watch Daredevil, which has been getting great reviews so far.  I don’t know yet how much it refers to the events from any of the movies, but it doesn’t really matter.  Entertaining TV is entertaining, am I right?

Movie Rankings, 2015 Summer Season Edition:

  1. Ex Machina
  2. Avengers: Age of Ultron

But let’s be honest, it’s not like #2 is the same as losing.  These were both ridiculously good.

Other things going on:

We made yet more progress on the apartment, this time getting our wine glass rack up on the wall.  It looks pretty great, to be honest, and helps free up some room in the cabinets.  Shelves are awesome.

May 2, 2015 – Bar Is Open!

02-May-2015 12:24, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 40
02-May-2015 12:24, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 32
02-May-2015 12:25, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 32
 
02-May-2015 12:25, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 32
02-May-2015 12:44, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 64
02-May-2015 12:45, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 40
 
02-May-2015 12:48, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 64
02-May-2015 12:48, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 64
02-May-2015 13:03, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 50
 
02-May-2015 13:03, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 40
 

For something funny, like really really funny, see the pic below which I saw on Twitter and killed me:

CD7v2WSWAAAW6pPThe Oxford comma needs its respect!!!  This reminds me of the book that was popular a while ago titled “Eats, Shoots and Leaves,” a book about the state of grammar and punctuation in the world.  Although a bloodthirsty and hungry panda really does sound awesome too.