So I had a really intense week in LA. My project and weekly travel is taking somewhat of a toll on me, but a lifeline was thrown my way... Brian came to LA with me this week and we stayed at The Standard hotel in Downtown LA. We had so much fun and I reminisced all week about all of the good times I had there with Chris, Adrienne, Ilya, Denise, Girl Chris, Byron, and Matt back in 2003-2004. Good times, let me tell you.

Anyway, we made some more good times this past week when our most recent project team stayed there. Brian and I went to a Beck concert on Sunday and Saturday night at the new Club Nokia, it was the first night it was open, very cool. We also went out for sushi at Takami Sushi and partied on the roof top bar of The Standard with my project team. Without divulging details, we enjoyed a lot of champagne, we danced like it was 1999, and Chris, Brian and I were still at it and playing pool at 3:30am... Fun stuff. I needed to let off some steam, and boy did I.

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween, we went to Austin and Ava's school to a "parade." That means that we gathered together about 25 2-3 year old children and we walked around the block. It was really funny. Austin was a ninja (or "inja" as he originally called it) and Ava was a lady bug. I was a red Power Ranger. I actually used a costume for a 7-10 year old boy that I found in a sale bin for $3. With an undershirt and sassy boots, it didn't turn out half bad!

Austin is really into good guys and bad guys right now. I think he prefers being the bad guy right now. It gives him an excuse to snarl and grit his teeth and play fight. Most of his school friend were super heros. They all ran all over the place playing at the school. We also did fun activities like face painting, lots of crafts and karaoke. While both Austin and Ava were a bit of a microphone hog, they shared for a few minutes before we headed home.

That night, Ava crashed as soon as we got home and Brian, Austin and I put sleeping bags all over the living room floor for a "slumber party" and we ate pizza, salad and Halloween candy and watch Ratatouille. It was so much fun. At one point Austin even had to stop to kid both of us on the cheek to tell us how happy he was. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Rain, and treats and painting, oh my!

We had a REALLY nice weekend at home. Literally, we didn't go anywhere except for the grocery store. We made rice crispy treats together (or "rice Christmas treats" as Austin calls them), we played in the rain, we played LOTS of cars and trains, and we even painted our garage refrigerator with finger paints (it will come off... we think).

And then we crashed hard at the end of each day (especially little Ava).