Our 22nd Anniversary - Communal Coffee, OB Beans Coffee Roasters & Supannee House of Thai

I decided to just cram our anniversary day in one post so here it is...

Yesterday, with the lovely overcast sky and the benefit of being super early (8 am) at Communal...

John Marshall High School

The morning was still young. We were planning to take our Christmas photos on a particular painted flight of steps in a different neighborhood. For now, we were still in Los Feliz, having had some really great pastries from Twenty40...

A few minutes away was one of the most filmed high schools ever...

Mysterious Galaxy

A month or so ago, Bert and I were exploring Balboa Interntional Market (you MUST try their vast selection of Turkish Delight, no lie)..

and wanted to stop by one of San Diego's premier independent bookstores, Mysterious Galaxy...

Bert's Birthday Dinner @ Sea 180 Coastal Tavern + a sunset at the IB Pier

It was a rare occasion for all of us to be out on a week night, a school night if you will...

The main reason for our outing in Imperial Beach today was to celebrate Bert's birthday.

We were able to make it with ten minutes to spare before Happy Hour ended, ha ha...

"The Girl Can't Help It"

With our trek to the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge behind us, I wanted to take a quick detour to North Park to check out a small gourmet shop on Ray Street. But first, we had to find parking. I parked a few streets back from University Avenue, ending up on Grim Street.

When I got out of the car, I was pleasantly surpised to see that we were near Lucky's Breakfast, which used to be calledGolden Phenix (no "o" in their spelling), a place I've only read about through Kirk's blog (that post has a photo of the old sign).

It had an old school look and feel both outside and inside. It was already the early afternoon, so Lucky's was definitely closed, as they are open for breakfast only. A quick peek in the windows showed a completely, uh, "uncleaned" restaurant. No one was around. Dirty plates and dishes were still on the tables.

I actually wanted to take a quick peek in the store that was next door to Lucky's before going to that gourmet shop...

Mike's Movie Madness - Part 1

A video store you say?

What's so special about a video store?

Movie Contest

Due to my Cliff Clavenesque skills in the pompous spewing of all things trivial and pop culture , I have won a movie contest from my friend's blog. Cool and nifty! Thanks C!

The funny thing is, I've never seen any of these movies in its entirety. I just have a propensity to memorize movie titles, years/dates, actors/actresses, etc. The genre of the movies are also not my cup of tea. I'm not into weepy, tear jerkers or chick flicks.

Other than this pleasant surprise as well as turning another year older last week, my life has been filled with a lot of surprises lately as well. Some pleasant and some not so pleasant.

For other news, courtesy of Superman, I am currently reading Starman, a recent incarnation of a Golden Age comic hero. I read the first graphic novel compilation, Sins of the Father (Issues 0-5) in a little over an hour. I am currently on the second book, Night and Day and will finish that shortly after signing off this blog post. So far, I like the story line. The art work is okay. I have a lot of reading to catch up to, such as the Palomar - The Hearbreak Soup Stories compilation by Los Bros Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame (Fantagraphics Books), the series Concrete and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman - Endless Nights compilation.

More on the Sandman here.

Newest favorite movies:

Shaun of the Dead (funny as hell!)

Hot Fuzz (even better than Shaun of the Dead)

The History Boys (which has a great soundtrack by the way!)

Would like to see:

Run Fat Boy Run and

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Gotta go and finish reading the 2nd book of Starman!