I’ve been watching Roswell recently on DVD.  Our roommates own the first season and so I’ve been enjoying it as I eat lunch or power down in the afternoon.  As Darling puts it, Roswell is “Dawson’s Creek with Aliens.”  He makes fun of me, but I’m still enjoying it.

So we were watching the first episode and Darling grabs for the remote.  Scrolls it back and pauses it mid-scream for a better view of the crash-down cafe.  “That looks like it’s in Pasadena, but I know it was filmed in Covina” he says.  We stare at the picture for a while.

Here’s the cool thing about living in Southern California.  There are all these places that you know, or sort of know, that you see again and again in movies and television series.  Covina, CA, where Darling grew up is, indeed, home to the former set of the Crashdown Cafe (seen here).  I love to try and identify the places that I’ve seen on television and one of my favorite sites for this is Seeing Stars, which not only has location of star’s homes but also great pictures and maps of where things were actually filmed on location.  It’s only about 4 miles from where I sit typing this and it turns out that much of the town was actually used to film Roswell, including the Sherif’s station and the park among others.  Perhaps I’ll go check it out this evening.

If you could see any television or movie set, which one would it be?

What is your town’s silver screen claim to fame?

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Ok folks, so since this blog has been steadily rising in page rank, now it’s time to grow in subscribers. The goal? We want to get 100 RSS subscribers to Startgo.com!

Since it seems to be the thing to do to offer some sort of ‘reward’ or ‘prize’ for doing this sort of thing and then to post a humorous video of you doing said thing.  I’m good with this.  I’m very, very good with goals.  So here it is:

When we get 100 RSS subscribers (I need to figure out how to track this still) I will ride my bike from Palm Springs, CA to Venice Beach, CA.  And I will video it (or parts there of) so that you can watch as I sweat and cry myself through the horrid heat.   So I need everyone’s help to make sure that this happens ASAP  so that I don’t need to do this in the middle of SUMMER, which would totally suck (to use a CA terminology).

So tell everyone you know, your friends, your family, blog about it.  Help us get there!  I’ll do my best to make the journey from here to there worthwhile!

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It’s official.  I’m addicted to coffee.  I resisted as long as I could, but my own folly brought on the addiction slowly over time.  I’m buying into it as an acceptable addiction in the same way that I’m beginning to admit to myself that I love being a freelance writer.

At first it was hard.  You know, bitter around the edges.  But I wanted it because everyone else wanted it.  I did not, however want to be the pot-guzzling coffee swilling on the way to work kind of person my parents were.  I wanted coffee to be a lifestyle identifier not a lifestyle necessity.   So I avoided it, claimed I didn’t like it, satisfied myself with caffeene in carbonated form.

Then I met espresso.  Enter the beginning of my end.  Espresso was the perfect fix to my coffee love/hate relationship.  I could put as much “other” stuff in my coffee without being considered a wimp.  They even had names for it.  Coffee with milk?  Latte.  Coffee with chocolate? Mocha!  Not only was it acceptable to add large quantities of milk to your espresso, unlike when I added it to my tea, it was almost expected.  Espresso without a bit of milk or extra hot water is almost unheard of.

And espresso was so chic, so conversational.  It was an event not a beverage.  Espresso was beautiful time spent writing (or reading) the next great novel.  Long afternoons on the porch of Starbucks redacting the finer points of Aristotelian theology with my friends.    Espresso was love.  And it was expensive.

So my habit wasn’t a full-blown  daily requirement, simply because a writer’s salary doesn’t fit the $4 a cup daily indulgence very well.  Joe and his lovely machine fixed all that.

You see, recently my husband and I moved into a condo with two of our lovely friends.  It is fitting to call our male roommate Joe, which the foresight of fate saw fit to name him, for he is probably 1/3 made of coffee at any given moment.   Joe is the kind of coffee feind that puts wind connoisseurs to shame.  He has probably every coffee gadget known to the world, and  his corner of the kitchen rivals any independent coffee shop in it’s selection and abilities.  Best of all, the holy grail, he has his VERY OWN espresso machine.

I had thought about buying one of these in the past, however the high price and my lack of obvious enthusiasm for coffee always deterred me.  Now, I am afraid, I am hooked and will need my own before I can safely transfer my addiction out of his house.   It’s one of the fancy Starbucks brand models, with the H2O compartment that makes everything go so smoothly.  After only one failed attempt where I managed to get Soy Dream all over the kitchen, I have now mastered the art of the Sugar-free Vanilla Soy Late.

It is beautiful.

It is love.

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During the month of December, we read Eat, Pray, Love for our bookclub.  Now it’s time for us to discuss it.  

We’re wrapping up today our discussion of Eat, Pray, Love so we’ll conclude with a discussion of the impact that this book has had on our lives.  Has this book changed you?  If so, how?  What will you carry with you after you’ve returned the book to your library or exchanged it for another at the used bookstore?  What will you remember about reading the book?

Post your comments below, either by typing them into the comment section or by posting a link to your reflections on your own blog.  Remember to check back tomorrow, we’ll be announcing our next book.

Read my reflections here….

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During the month of December, we read Eat, Pray, Love for our bookclub.  Now it’s time for us to discuss it.  

Today we’re going to be discussing the writing in this book.  Any great travel writing should be rich in descriptions that evoke a sense of place.  While this book is much more a personal memoir around a travel experience and not true travelwriting, what makes it so provocative is its beautiful descriptive writing.  What is your favorite descriptive passage?  Why?  What did it evoke in you?  (Please remember, don’t post a long direct quotation, as the book is under copywrite.  Describe passages and if you can include page numbers in your references.  If you must quote, use quotation marks and cite the quote.)

Post your comments below, either by typing them into the comment section or by posting a link to your reflections on your own blog…

Read my reflections here….

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