Gronk. Had kind of a rude awakening when my upstairs neighbor walked in at 4 am. The door to the interior stairway I only really use if I'm going down to the storage and I must have left it open. She leaves hers open all the time and was coming home somewhat, um, altered.

She apologized, shut the light and closed the bedroom door, and then after a moment I realized she hadn't actually left but had gone into the bathroom. Where she stayed for like 10 minutes. I intercepted her when she came out, still not apparently clear that she wasn't at home, and walked her up one more flight to her door, stopped her from continuing on up to the rooftop door (yikes) and went back to bed.

Will be curious to see if she has any memory of all this.

I was positive LA must have a Russian neighborhood. Still, Russian, Polish, Hungarian or German restaurants are nowhere near as common as Chinese, Mexican, Thai or Indian here.

That sounds very, um, interesting, brenda.

Yikes indeed.

Oh man, Dirty Dancing is on. Good thing I did my errands already -- library, bank, groceries.

Goodness, Brenda.

One pie done (the maple pecan cracked a bit across the top, but otherwise looks good).

I over-filled the pumpkin pie shell with the filling, so it spilled. Lucky for me the hot bottom of the oven was there to catch it. Yay. Maybe that'll prompt me to clean the oven.

Probably not.

And now we're under an advisory to boil water. Ha. Ha ha.

Dana, I think you crossed into an alternate universe and are on Earth-Plague. Or Earth-Shithole. Or Earth-Seriously-BACK-OFF-NOW.

Damn. I am so sorry that so much shittiness is being heaped upon you.

I want to go shopping, but no idea what for and really I don't think I need anything.

I think that somewhere around the time Nixon was elected we became the universe where Mr. Spock will have a goatee. Clean-shaken Spock will occur in the alternate timeline we are not fortunate enough to live in.

West Hollywood has a decent strip of Cyrillic signage. I was just reading bout them in the West Hollywood papers.

Dana, I'm sorry you're going through all that.

LAistas, I just read this happens today:

"Just in time for the upcoming holidays, Epicure Imports opens its doors to the public for its quarterly warehouse sale. Get everything from Valrhona chocolates to truffle oils, vinegars, dried pastas, olives, French and Spanish cheeses, charcuterie and wine at wholesale prices. Go hungry: Sampling is encouraged. 6900 Beck Ave., North Hollywood; 818-985-9800"

Hmm, I could walk there. Of course it is bucketing rain, so not RIGHT NOW.