The Home-Improvement Chronicles: The Kitchen Completed!!

behold the new kitchen! it looks a lot like the old kitchen. only this kitchen is sans leaky fridge from hell, which has been replaced by the super sexy Nutid fridge from Ikea.


the hotness: the bamboo floors, which were damaged by the mold spawned by the leak, were also replaced after much waiting for a shipment from china. thankfully these boards matched the old flooring perfectly, except for the dog scratches, which were conspicuously absent.


the sexy fridge: i looked at a lot of fridges before landing on this one — at sears, best buy, frys, even a used appliance store. they were all decent and dull, as good as any other fridge. truthfully i didn’t know what i was looking for in a fridge beyond the basics of being able to refrigerate my food and not leak. then i saw this Ikea fridge, with its sexy silver pulls, and suddenly believed in love at first sight. i was smitten immediately and had to resist the urge to rub up against inappropriately in front of the sales clerk.


so i waited until i got it home: where i rubbed it, caressed it, cuddled it and put it in my will, especially after i saw how beautifully its pulls matched the silver pulls on the existing ikea cabinetry.


other fridges do, too: the new fridge, however, has done a great job not ruining the kitchen or anything else. welcome home, fridge!

The Return of the Love Note

i can't believe that it's been over a year since i posted one of these love notes. apparently Mo has been slacking with his dry-erase board drawing duties, but i think i may have found one of his sweet spots that reduces him to putty in my hand. i won't disclose much of it here beyond saying that it involves buying him beer and cooking him bacon.

The L Word

a few concerned readers (my parents) have asked me how my job situation is and whether the dreaded layoffs my company announced in march have finally occurred. sadly they have not yet occurred, and i use “sadly” here because imagine the anxiety of coming into work for the past two months wondering, “is today the day?”

imagine the whispered conversations with coworkers by the water cooler that go something like, “hey, heard anything?”
“no, have you?”
“no.”
“what do you think is gonna happen?”
“i don’t know. what do you think is gonna happen?”
“i’m not sure either. it’s messed up, man.”
“yeah, it is. but hey, i heard there were leftover donuts in the breakroom.”
“cool, let’s go check it out.”

tragic, right?

imagine the sleepless nights and wild dreams spent worrying about the future. just the other night i dreamed that i walked into work and was intercepted at the elevator by some faceless HR drone with a clipboard who led me into a room where a few dozen of my coworkers were already waiting. it became clear that the drones were leading everyone into different rooms where we would all wait to find out our fate, American Idol style.

through the glass doors, i could see Randy, Paula, Simon and that new judge entering rooms to tell us employees, “sorry, the journey ends here,” or “congratulations, you’ve made it to the next round!” some rooms erupted in cheers, others in wails. then they approached the room i was in and walked through the door in slow motion. i looked around to see whether i was in good or bad company and saw that others were doing the same. it was impossible to tell as there were bad and good seeds (and singers) among us.

a lump gathered in my throat as Paula began to speak. as usual, she seemed drunk, maybe drugged, slurring her words and ribbing on Simon. she even leaned over and squeezed his nipple before throwing her head back and laughing maniacally. confused looks shot all across the room and i looked over at Randy, wishing he would call me his “dawg” like he did during Hollywood Week.

then Paula became serious, steadying herself to finally deliver the news. i could feel myself twitching nervously, a panic overtaking my body as i waited for her to tell me whether i could still pay my mortgage after today. she was about to say it, the words rolling slowly out of her mouth while my heart pounded in my chest.

then i woke up.

One-Hit Wonders: May 2009

• how to start a conversation to jerk off


• japanese girls hot sexis


• overproducing snot


• high school wasn't that traumatic


• AryanDoctor.com


• i fucked my mil stories


• maytag fridge keeps triping out


• straitjacket sneakers orgasm


• big tits and sexy ass hole pic


• the most friendest towns in the us.


• why is new york city so alluring


• ma jerks me off

The Home-Improvement Chronicles: The Doorway

the before shot: this doorway, with its obnoxious geometric shape, is another one of the inexplicable uglies my beautiful house suffered from. the previous owner seemed to be trim-averse — despite living in a 1920s bungalow — with only a handful of doors and windows having any sort of molding, most of which was attached with staples. love that Chuy.


Mo says hi: we were going to fix the doorway during the house gutting and fix-up that was done prior to move-in, but vetoed it in favor of replacing the rotted subflooring. Mo and i have quietly endured the eyesore for a year, smiling politely when friends have come over and said, “oh, it’s not so bad the way it is. i kind of like it.” thanks, guys, but we know it looks like shit.


enter Leaky Fridge Drama: the drama, which is 95% resolved, provided the perfect opportunity to finally fix this hot mess of a doorway. thankfully we had some trim left over, so the extra expense was reasonable and the extra mess blended in seamlessly with the kitchen disaster just around the corner.


the after shot: for the first time, the four doorways in this area looked cohesive, symmetrical and even happy. or maybe it was just Mo and i who were happy to finally see the kids wearing matching outfits and looking alike. no more red-headed stepchild of a doorway to endure.


aren’t they cute? the twins in the corner even befriended their brother, or at least stopped calling him Hexagon Head. then they all ran out to the yard and played kickball.


the deck door agrees: a little trim does a house good.

The Sads

aside from that first week spent in new york, i had an intense case of The Sads all through april. i think the new york trip played into this considerably in the way that vacations tend to produce depressions fixated on the idea that life should always be a vacation.

i became fixated on the idea that my life should be, as well as the lives of my friends whom i would visit in various cities around the country at a moment’s notice. together, we would go out to fancy meals, drink pricey bottles of wine, visit museums, see movies and plays, and enjoy each other’s company without ever having to worry about the scary Excel spreadsheet waiting for us at the office.

but the scary spreadsheet beckoned and i soon found myself in the office again, immersed in daily shit storms that brought long hours and endless office drama. add to that the looming threat of layoffs “any day now” and the nonstop rumors on how big they would be. (“bloodbath” was the term bandied around the most.)

then add to that a rocky home life born of the leaky fridge drama and the fact that Mo and i had been bickering about everything and nothing for weeks. plus, my birth control pill was making me a complete lunatic, no doubt intensifying my Sads into a case of The I Can’t Do Anything Rights.

i even saw people grabbing their children and running away from me on the street when they saw me and my unhappy aura walking toward them. it got so bad that my own dogs wouldn’t play with me despite the steak i attached to my neck. and there was that piece of spinach always stuck to my tooth and the pile of poo permanently attached to my shoe.

i seriously felt like the Sad Girl in those commercials for antidepressants, the one who walks around with a little cloud raining just over her while smiling children frolic in a meadow nearby. i even thought of taking some antidepressants despite my disbelief in them. ultimately i opted not to.

(of course, i speak only for myself in poo-pooing antidepressants. if you take them and they work for you, more power to them and to you. i just don’t want to take any mood medications because i don’t believe i have a chemical imbalance that needs correcting. you might, though. but trust me, i’m not crazy. so what if i speak to aliens you can’t see? it only means you’re not as perceptive. where’s that voice coming from anyway? it’s commanding me to eat cheesecake. weird.)

these Sads were getting out of control and too often became The Mads that turned even the usually cute things the puppies do (Pinko talking) into a source of tremendous frustration. i didn’t feel like writing, and when i tried, all that came out was, “this blog entry sucks.” i began thinking i would never again have a day when i woke up feeling optimistic. instead it was all irritability, all the time. even cheesecake didn’t help.

and then it happened. May happened and the tide turned. two huge work projects finally launched, making the workday feel more like a workday and less like finals week in college. suddenly i could breathe a little easier. then the kitchen flooring finally arrived, as did a new refrigerator (photos forthcoming). then i got news that my mom found a job after months of unemployment (pops is still out of work). then Mo and i had a series of great days when we kissed and made up, which lead to more kissing and even some heavy petting.

gradually i woke up each day feeling better, calmer and more optimistic, charmed again by Pinko’s incessant chatter. it’s amazing what a little heavy petting can do. also amazing is what a little yoga can do, and also a pill switcheroo courtesy of my doctor. plus, i picked up some mighty nice freelance work that made me reconsider applying for that part-time job as the Towel Girl at the Y. the universe really does provide!

i’d like to think it provided me with a shitty April so i could appreciate a spectacular May, but with the month not even half over and layoffs still looming, i can’t be sure. what i am sure of is that the last 11 days have not sucked hard enough to make me respond to the Starbucks barista who always says “good morning” to me with, “yeah, what’s so good about it? huh, bitch? tell me because i’d really like to know.”

i only hope this trend continues, though i doubt it will because, clearly, the Entire Universe Is Against Me. now if you’ll excuse me, a strange voice is ordering me to eat cheesecake. i must obey.

One-Hit Wonders: April 2009

• milla jovovich's cell phone number


• photos of termite feces


• 500 yards is 1 milla


• keflex for ingrown toenail infected badly


• low hangers


• milla cause and how to treat


• +wife +corset +straitjacket


• 38d uncovered tits (self taken pics)


• ecstasy seizures "eye twitch"


• www.milla.is.a.homo.dk


• family matters when father carves the duck


• tania amazon is as happy as retard in a crayon factory

The City So Nice

i spent the first week of april in new york, hanging with good friends and loving on the city more than i usually do. it’s a love that surprised me especially, given my generally lukewarm feelings for new york, which amount to regarding it as a great place to visit, awful place to live. but this trip was different. this trip, i found myself enamored with aspects of the city i’ve long disliked, like the subway, which is still a cesspool of bacteria that makes me yearn for a full-body chemical peel each time i ride it, but it does go places — far more places than the cleaner LA metro. i can't say it didn't make me jealous.

even the congestion, the prices, the daily hassles that make life in the city seem like an endless pain in the ass suddenly appeared exciting. i found myself taken by the fuss of it all, infected by the contagious energy that defines new york and its residents, my fabulous friends among them, who make living there look so glamorous and alluring. there’s a palpable feeling among them that they’re the privileged few who live at the center of the world where everything important happens. this trip, i felt that, too. this trip, i wanted to remain a part of it. i thought of defecting, of uprooting and restarting.

the thoughts lingered as i looked upon the faces of my smiling friends, while sitting across the table from them for drinks and dinner, drinks and brunch, sometimes just drinks and drinks, spending days with them loitering in central park, at the whitney, eating oysters at grand central station, pub crawls through the lower east side, meals in fancy restaurants, shopping in soho, even a celebrity sighting.

life was good in new york. i had fun in new york. it was an intense, much-needed fun, my first real getaway since taking on the house last year. only when i was flying home to los angeles, eager to see the pups and enter into Mo’s arms again, did i realize that all my daydreaming about living in new york was the result of a damn good vacation, one that hypnotizes you with escapist fantasies. a week of work-free gluttony, spent anywhere, will do that.

now that i’m back in LA, back to the daily grind and still dealing with the evil fridge, i no longer daydream about moving to new york, only vacationing there again, anywhere again. (i hear cruises are cheap.) big thanks to the friends who made new york so enjoyable by housing, feeding and liquoring me up: jon-david, cesar, john john, karen, als and zahra. all nyc photos can be viewed here and below.

Pinko & Mo Conversating

The Home-Improvement Chronicles: The Kitchen Revisited

how it started: who knew a little discoloration could wreak so much havoc? i feel dumb for not noticing it sooner. rather, i feel dumb for not doing anything about it sooner. i noticed the floorboard changing color months ago, but chalked it up to sun damage. little did i know the evil that lurked beneath.


then the paint chipped: it fell right off the baseboard. i couldn’t blame the dogs for scratching it off as there were no scratch marks nearby (nor are they particularly destructive). more unsettling was the fact that the area behind the paint appeared pitch black, a far stretch from the blond-colored MDF it once was. that’s when Mo let out a big sigh and crawled under the house.


satan’s fridge: what he discovered was a leak that appeared as a big watermark underneath the house. a plumber came over and further uncovered that the leak was many months old, caused by a faulty water line running from the wall to the fridge. i know it seems the water line is to blame, but i’m positive this leak is the fault of the used maytag fridge that has been the source of endless trouble since it arrived. the evil fridge that had blown out two outlets in the house. the fridge that, for months, needed to be defrosted every three weeks for some inexplicable reason, a monumental pain in the ass that miraculously stopped being an issue about six months ago, the time when the leak probably began. this realization caused me to etch a very important NOTE TO SELF in my head: Never buy a used fridge from a used appliance store again, because the appliances in those stores are discarded by previous owners for being broken pieces of shit.


the damage: this is what we saw when we pulled the fridge away from the wall. clearly, water had been seeping onto the flooring behind the fridge and cabinets for months, causing the floorboards to warp as they swelled with water, the paint to chip off in huge chunks and mold to form.


the nasty: the area stank like mildew and i worried that super toxic black mold had begun to grow, a worry perpetuated by the fact that the mold looked pretty damn black. then i started making phone calls.


my contractor to the rescue: he was one of the first people i called, and as he has before, he came through like a champ. he showed up the next day, assuring me that i didn’t have to go through one of the pricey mold remediation agencies i had been calling for estimates. instead, he and his guys could handle the mold removal and treat the area with bleach once it had dried. and that’s what they did. (call him for all your home improvement needs: Platon Markarian, 818.279.3118. he’s the best!)


gutted: sadly, some of the plywood subflooring that was less than a year old didn’t make it and had to be replaced. this hole in the kitchen, which stayed for a few days, caused all sorts of fun as the dogs kept trying to dig into it and mosquitoes kept flying up from the basement. my solution: vodka.


meanwhile: Mo and i were living in this kitchen nightmare, with cabinets, counters, canned goods, utensils and dishes everywhere. the only cooking the kitchen could actually support involved making coffee. i never thought i’d say this, but i actually got tired of the tacos from La Estrella, which we ate about five times a week.


this is Miguel: who was prompt as hell, arriving each morning at 7am to work the drywall while i sauntered around in my bathrobe, coffee in hand, rubbing my eyes. sleep was elusive during construction, and i found myself waking up every morning on the proverbial wrong side of the bed, pissed off, irritable and covered in this nasty layer of construction soot that seemed to line everything in the house.


then came bad news: as if things weren’t bad already, the espresso flooring, manufactured by Teragren, was out of stock. all i needed were five measly boxes, totaling 100 square feet, but every warehouse in the country was dry. Teragren reps said a shipment was coming in from China in two or three weeks, which meant Mo and i had to endure a protracted construction and still dysfunctional kitchen. i was livid. i tried arguing with them, then bargaining, then begging but was repeatedly told OUT OF STOCK, to which i finally said, “ok, i’ll wait.”


waiting: once the drywall was finished and painted— a process that took about two weeks — we pushed the cabinets against the wall and are making due with half a kitchen floor. this is the kitchen as it currently looks. ETA for flooring is sometime in April.