The Night Watch with my dad as Count Dracula and a 130 pound Raccoon

click on the image to see a full size version, I'll have to explain why Rembrandts painting is better this way some other time, I have guests over.

The Year of the Amphibian

Welcome to the 2oo8th year in the gregorian calendar, international year of amphibian conservation. While I myself am not an amphibian, the above image (kindly provided by Kevin Lionais), shows how I am hungry. A state which hasn't changed much since last year. Speaking of being hungry last year, one of the last exciting things I did in 2oo7 (of the gregorian calendar), was eat my first real mexican food in Mexico. I also earned the distinction of being one of the first people ever to nearly freeze to death in Mexico (it was windy), which would have been ironic, considering the other perils people usually picture in association with the place. Going with the food theme, brings me to what I really wanted to blog about which is the Watts Towers in LA which I got to visit also near the end of 2oo7, but I was unable to tour because, my mother, whom accompanied me there, had forgotten her credit card the previous night at a restaurant, due, I believe to excessive alcohol consumption, which in turn was probably related to the stress of having to spend all day in a car on the freeway in LA with her son behind the wheel (by the time that my brother and I had parked the car and joined her at the table she had already plowed through two martinis) which indirectly led to us having to spend the following entire day in traffic also, as we had to drive all the way back across LA from Santa Monica to Long Beach in order to retrieve the missing credit card, meaning there was insufficient time left in the days schedule for me to tour the Watts towers. Incidentally the food was excellent, I had the Yellowfin tuna steak, just barely cooked on the outside, I cant remember the name of the place though. so the pictures are: Nogales, Sonora, Mexico / My mom in front of the Watts towers / A palm tree at 60 miles per hour / and a yellowfin tuna at regular speed in that order.