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Donna Baker is everywhere. When I first came to Monrovia I looked at a house and she was sitting on the front porch. When I took a home tour Donna Baker was there selling cookies, when I go grocery shopping her image accompanies me on the basket. The other day I saw her in the Pavilions parking lot and I couldn’t help but blurt out her name, “Donna Baker!” She turned and said, “Hi, have we met?” I explained that I saw her every time I bought groceries. She smiled. “So those ads really work!” Well, I didn’t buy a house from her but she is practically a household name. Monrovia wouldn’t be the same without her.

Saw this fab-u-van parked on a side street near Old Town. Just couldn’t resist a snap. What a color combo!

I always drive past this little psychic reader house on Foothill when running errands, though I’ve never had a desire to go in. It’s funny how every town seems to have one. They never go out of style.

Today is Chinese New Year and I stopped by the meditation temple (formerly an Elks Lodge) on Foothill. They had just finished their ceremonies and a nice man showed me around the rooms. The main prayer room is gorgeous and has a giant golden buddha on the far wall, and you are bathed in golden light with red accents. In addition, everything smells wonderful, as they have incense burning in abundance. I found the offerings of fruit to be quite pretty.

Apparently, people born in the Year of the Dog (1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006) have specific traits:

People born in the Year of the Dog possess the best traits of human nature. They have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, and inspire other people’s confidence because they know how to keep secrets. But Dog People are somewhat selfish, terribly stubborn, and eccentric. They care little for wealth, yet somehow always seem to have money. They can be cold emotionally and sometimes distant at parties. They can find fault with many things and are noted for their sharp tongues. Dog people make good leaders. They are compatible with those born in the Years of the Horse, Tiger, and Rabbit.

I spotted this shot by CathieV on Flickr. I haven’t been out shooting for a few days, but hate to let too much time pass without posting. I couldn’t resist this little guy. Click on the pic to go to her photostream to see more of him! AARGH, doncha just want to bite your knuckles he’s so cute?

I’ve been wanting to introduce myself here. I’m deeply flattered Amanda has invited me and hope I don’t disrupt too much, at least when it’s uncalled for.

One of the many similarities between my hometown of Burbank and Monrovia, where I work, is how the city is often used for filming TV and movies. I love coming down the offramp, or going to lunch (as in this case today) and being greeted by these odd little directives.

I finally made it to Monrovia’s newest restaurant, Ice Spice Indian Cuisine on Lime Street. This little gem is tucked away in a theater alcove, and you can actually see the inside of the theater corridor from the dining area. Not sure if this is one-way glass or not. In any case, I would love to give it an A++ for the naan (I had onion-sesame). It was super fresh and delicious. Cooked just right. I also ordered two of my favorite dishes, vegetable curry and Aloo Palak, seasoned spinach with potatoes and spices. I was pleased overall, but the carrots in the curry tasted a bit woody, as if taken from a plastic bag with lots of other carrots. Although I’m usually a “medium spicy” eater, they didn’t ask me how I wanted my curry and it was on the high end of what I’d consider medium spicy. In the end, I committed the sin of mixing some of my very spinach with the curry sauce, thereby calming it town to acceptable levels of hot.

They’ve been super busy, and I hope that they are able to make a go of it. I suspect they get a lot of take-out orders as the dining room was on the spare side, but I imagine after they have lived in this new space for awhile they will begin to make it more homey.

Har, I’m feeling punny. Here’s a pic of one of the wackier gifts I have gotten this year. It’s a mushroom log. More specifically, it’s a shiitake mushroom log. At first I laughed at it. Remember the “log lady” from the old David Lynch series? It was kind of like getting a pet rock, I thought, but then when I investigated further, I realized that this log actually is infused with spores of said mushroom, and can keep producing them for weeks at a time for a number of years. Whew! They are my favorite mushrooms, and I’ve never had them fresh, and they are so good for you.

As it happens the instructions are rather involved. I had to soak it for 12 hours in water, thump it three times on each end to “activate” the growth, and then keep it in a shallow bowl of water at all times. One the mushroom babies start to appear you must keep them misted. Quite an involved process. For now I have placed it on the dining room table as a rather rustic centerpiece. I will post updates to this weblog as soon as I get some of the little guys. If my cat is any indication, they should be pretty good. My cat was chewing a bit on the log before I submerged it.

I am happy to read that more builders and cities are thinking over the relative unfairness of the men’s and women’s “equal” space allocation for doing their private business. As we all know, woman have much more to fuss with in there, especially if they wear stockings or fancy undies. Then there is hair and make-up. To read more on this topic, check out this article on “Potty Parity.”

I am in love with Dreamlines. I typed in my name and snatched a quick screenshot when this came up. It’s really amazing. I think that it could be a great fortunetelling tool. So much fun. Here’s what the creator, Leonardo Solaas, says about it:

“Dreamlines is a non-linear, interactive visual experience. The user enters one or more words that define the subject of a dream he would like to dream. The system looks in the Web for images related to those words, and takes them as input to generate an ambiguous painting, in perpetual change, where elements fuse into one another, in a process analogous to memory and free association.”