Please, I beg you, not Centro's again.

I am so tired of Centro's. Even free Centro's. Even free Centro's potato burritos and free Centro's molcajetes of guac.

A quick wrap of today's unfortunate experience:
At work, when we go for a group lunch, we usually hit Centro's because we have a ton of gift certificates for the Paragary's chain and most everyone likes Mexican food. It's great to be able to eat for free, so you won't find me complaining too much about that. But here's where I'm going to need some cheese with my whine. It's that we've been there so many times this year. Hopefully this last time is enough to change our next outing to Bernardo.

Instead of the papas y rajas burrito I tried the enchiladas de hongos, which I hardly ever get anymore. Total mistake, the sauce was terrible! It was a nice red, which I like, but overly tomato-y and lacked any real depth of flavor, even with the mushrooms in the enchilada filling. I think they used shittake, but I think crimini would have been less chewy. Then our boss dude found a giant piece of glass in his verduras, so he sent it back. When the manager came to our table, he was pretty unsympathetic about the whole thing. "It's actually plastic." The entire incident was kind of tense and weird.

Winter weight

Amy took some fab photos of the bump it or dump it afterparty. I was looking at this picture of myself and thought, man, I'm looking a little porky lately. I couldn't really put my finger on what it was...is my face rounding out? Is it my thighs? My goiter? Then I took a closer look. Holy tamale dudes. It's my giant enchilada gut. I've eaten just way too many lately and it's starting to show.

Stuffed pig

I cooked too much. I ate too much. One night, I drank too much. My time off was much needed and I made good use of it by being as lazy as possible.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year. My dad, nieces and sister came over. Mom couldn't make it over because of a dying cat and some funny business I'm hoping she'll get over. I cooked for two days and the whole meal was over and family was out in 2 hours. I guess I overcooked for the holiday, but had little trouble getting rid of the left overs. I tried a stuffing recipe that I found in the Bee a few weeks ago and it turned out delish...red bell pepper instead of celery, sourdough instead of cornbread, lots of chopped fresh sage and parsley.

Most of the weekend we spent on the couch watching the rest of Lost, season 1. I am completely drawn in to this series and have no shame about it. Also, we figured out that our other (freebie) dvd player is region free! Now we can watch the Brass Eye dvd we got earlier this year and finally buy our own copy of Look Around You, season 1.

If it's not raining when I get off work tonight, I'm going to make an effort to jog off the 40 or so helpings of mashed potatoes that I ate over the past 5 days.

Trip to LA in pictures.

We went to visit Amy in LA this weekend.


Chris caravaned with us down there. He was driving to Phoenix anyway.


We all ate lunch at Canter's on Fairfax.


And got some hammentachen to go.


Later, we got hungry again, so Amy whipped up this snack. Dates with goat cheese.


Leon savors a morsel.


Ella came to visit and fixed this really scary looking pilot light.


There were cute things all over Amy's place. Like these beads.


And this elegant unicorn tapestry.


Y, la tortuga.


Wine? Oui!!


The next day we went to walk around Santa Monica. We put on our shades and tried not to look like tourists.


Am I blending in?


We walked over the catwalk to the pier.


Address from a swanky home on the beach.


Elephant at the arcade on the pier.


Sign for a restaurant on the pier. "Eat here! I'm delicious."


I didn't want to ride any rides, so I got called a pussy.


Then we went for beers.


And had our only celebrity sighting.


We did a bunch of other stuff. Including going to Echo Park for some club. We got dinner first at the Brite Spot.


There were so many vegetarian choices on the menu, it took forever to decide what to get. Grilled cheese or salad?


So I got half sandwich, cup of soup. It was pretty good.


The club was kind of lame. The bands were boring and the drinks were too expensive, so we left. In the morning, we got bagels at a coffee place. They had great coffee, but terrible bagels. This one tasted like it had been soaking in some old dishwater.


We also squeezed in some quality time with relatives in Laguna Beach.


And caught some nature in action.


More nature, acting natural.


Before we left in the morning, we went to the farmer's market for breakfast. I had the fruit.


No, wait. I had a fierce, gastro-intestinal war with the fruit and won.


Uhh, this sauce doesn't look so appetizing.


We hit the road for a while, but made a point to hit Pea Soup Andersen's.


Ordered the Traveler's Special, which includes a bottomless bowl of soup, bread...


Spices...


And Flavor Magic.


I ate two bowls, but shouldn't have. This is the second one.

We came home today and pretty much crashed out from too many awesome times.