Month: September 2010

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Wicked Attraction on Investigation Discovery

Make sure to watch my friend, Claire Booth, tomorrow on the Investigation Discovery channel show “Wicked Attraction.” The show is chronicling the Helzer serial murder case that rocked Northern California in the summer of 2000.

Claire, along with myself, was one of the Contra Costa Times reporters who covered the bizarre case. She wrote the book “The False Prophet: Conspiracy, Extortion, and Murder in the name of God.”

The show airs at 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30. Here is the description from Investigation Discovery:

Deadly Disciple
In the summer of 2000, a gruesome discovery is made along the Mokelumne River in Northern California. Duffel bags containing the dismembered body parts of more than one person have floated to the surface. At the same time, detectives in multiple counties search for three missing people, trying to solve a double homicide. As the evidence mounts, it’s clear that all of the crimes are connected, and a clear suspect comes into the picture. He’s a self-proclaimed prophet of God who police fear may be using promises of heaven to coerce his disciples into creating hell on earth.

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113 Degrees in Los Angeles

It was 113 degrees in Los Angeles yesterday, the hottest it’s been..ever! Needless to say, I wasn’t about to cook. I dragged my kids to a pizza place with air conditioning. One son sat mesmerized watching a cartoon on the television mounted above the booths while the other played games on my iPhone.

I grew up in excessive heat with no air conditioning and do you know how many times we went out to eat because it was too hot to cook? zero. Absolutely never.

My mom would be in the kitchen frying up tacos or sautéing calabacitas in the dead of summer. We had a swamp cooler growing up in Tucson, but when it was in the 100s and God forbid there was a little moisture in the air, it seemed to do very little.

Sitting there in the restaurant with my kids, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Not so much for being there last night, but for going out to dinner the night before. My mom had 4 kids and the first 3 were 18-months apart. I only have 2 kids, and we’re blessed with air conditioning and the convenience of Trader Joe’s. I cook for them, but not nearly enough.

My boys wanted to go for ice cream after dinner, but I couldn’t bring myself to take them to another restaurant. Instead I had them help me make coconut ice cream in the ice cream maker that I had used about 5 times since I got it as a wedding gift. They helped me pour in the coconut milk, cream, vanilla and sugar.

While it was churning, my older son finished his homework and the younger one played in the kitchen. I could have easily done the same thing to make a healthy dinner at home.

Today it’s only expected to be in the 90s. I’ll definitely cook tonight.

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Toys R' Us Gift Card Giveaway

I’m starting a new feature here at YvonneInLA called Giveaway Monday. It’s Giveaway Monday because I was looking around my house last weekend and noticed a few things that would be great to pass along. I don’t do many giveaways, unless it’s tickets to something fabulous or items I think my kids would enjoy like video games.

My first giveaway for Giveaway Monday is pretty good and one that will come in handy during the holidays. I’m giving away a $25 gift card to Toys R’ Us. The company sent it to me to help promote their combined new and remodeled Toys R’ Us and Babies R’ Us stores around the country. All you have to do to get this useful prize is leave a comment below with your contact information and I’ll pick a winner on Friday, Oct. 1. Good luck and thanks for playing!

This week’s winner is Adrienne! Thanks everyone for entering and please check back on Monday for the next giveaway.

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Chevy Silverado Hybrid

I was very excited when a Chevy representative asked me if I wanted to try out a car for a week. One of the options was a Silverado Hybrid truck with an extended cab. I knew that was the one for me.

The first new car I ever bought for myself was a Ford Ranger pickup truck way back in 1997. The Nissan I had been driving died one day and the mechanic said it would cost more to fix it than the car was worth. I parked it in my friend’s front yard and sold it for $500 at a garage sale along with some books and old clothes. My brother sold cars and was able to get me a bare bones new truck with a bench seat and manual transmission. My options were a white truck with a CD player or a silver truck with air conditioning. It was an excruciatingly hot summer in Southern Illinois where I was living so I chose air conditioning. It was a great truck and I loved it.

Now, thirteen years later, a Chevy pickup truck with an extended cab would be perfect for the road trip to Tucson that I had planned for my boys and on our last week of the longest summer vacation ever (LAUSD took 2 weeks of additional furlough  days during the summer to avoid layoffs and keep class size smaller). But just like at the beginning of the summer, my end of summer road trip plans didn’t work out.

We weren’t able go to Tucson, but we had plenty of adventures that week with the loaner Silverado. We drove all over Los Angeles and it was fun to be driving a truck once again. I drive a Toyota Highlander Hybrid and I always think it’s so tall, but it’s nothing compared to the Silverado. I had to hoist myself up to get in and so did my two boys.

I forgot how convenient it is to have a truck until the weekend of my son’s 5th birthday party. We used truck bed to transport wet chairs that my friend leant us and had just washed off. So convenient. The car drove well on Pacific Coast Highway and I felt very safe. It had good pickup and handled really well for a truck. I was worried about the Silverado’s size on the day we went to the Grove for the Marmaduke DVD release event. I took both boys to meet the real Marmaduke, see friends, and have lunch at the Farmers Market. The truck seemed too big for the crowded, Farmers Market parking lot, but I need not have worried. The car wasn’t as big as I thought and I made it in and out no problem.

All and all, I liked the Silverado and thought it would be perfect if I were single. I liked the bad-ass feeling I had behind the wheel  like I was on a mini adventure driving around town. I cranked the EStreet and Outlaw Country stations on the XM Sattelite Radio, a fun feature in the truck. My husband also thought it was fun to drive and thought it handled well for a truck. My kids had mixed feelings about it. My 5-year-old loved it and enjoyed climbing in and being higher than some of the other cars, but my 6-year-old thought it was uncomfortable and didn’t want to ride in it at all. I thought it was very comfortable, in both the front and the back seat, and if I still lived in Tucson or Southern Illinois I would seriously consider trying to buy one. But we’re in an urban Los Angeles and I’m not sure it would work for our lifestyle now.

But I can always dream.

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Blogger Prom

My party-girl days are long behind me, but sometimes I really miss getting dressed up and going out on the town. Mostly because I’m painfully aware that my kids will wake me up sometime during the night and then again at 6 am.

But when my invitation to Blogger Prom landed in my inbox no amount of sleep deprivation was going to keep me away (or soccer practice or work).

Blogger Prom is a once-a-year invitation-only event for Los Angeles bloggers. This year’s theme was Hollywood Confidential and it was held at the Hollywood landmark Yamashiro Restaurant. I brought along my friend over at Mommy Toolbox, Mary Kay Holmes, and we caught a ride with Elise over at Elise’s Ramblings.

We started our evening with a drink and I chose the Pinky Confidential made with Pinky Vodka. I love any outing that involves food, but the food was exceptional from Yamashiro’s Chef Brock. My favorite was the duck tacos with wasabi guacamole. Amazing. Also amazing was that he made vegan tacos for Mary Kay. And I loved the oatmeal cookie and salted caramel ice cream sandwich from Cool Haus. (I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I made ice cream and cookies Friday, but unfortunately it wasn’t the same).

It was all quite fabulous. The most fun was seeing how people interpreted the Hollywood Confidential theme. But the evening wasn’t all about dressing up and enjoying cocktails. The Blogger Prom Committee raised $2,400 for Operation Frontline. Alas, at the stroke of 9:30 our pumpkin turned into a minivan and we had to go home.  It was a school night so no after party for us. We did manage to sneak in one more picture.

Me, MommyToolbox, Elisesramblings, and LA_Story
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Glee!!

I like to project the image that I’m an intellectual who reads books, goes to see art films and watches PBS. But the truth is, I watch plenty of television that isn’t in the least bit highbrow like Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance, True Blood, Modern Family, and of course my favorite show of the season, or dare I say, all time: Glee.

How could I not love a show about high school where the characters break out into pop songs or, better yet Broadway show tunes? It’s more fabulous than I can possibly describe. My kids call it “the show you make us watch where they sing.” The subject matter is too mature for them, but I fast forward to the singing and dancing because it’s too good for them to miss.

It’s my unabashed not-so-secret love for Glee that brings me to why I’m writing this post. The second season starts tonight. I was given the complete first season on DVD and I had every intention of doing a give-away. But then I noticed that there’s an extra 2 hours of content including karaoke. I don’t karaoke in public, but I sure will when no one is home.

And now that I have the DVD I can watch Kristen Chenoweth and Matthew Morrison sing “One Less Bell to Answer” over and over and over. And Idina Menzel and Lea Michele singing “I Dreamed a Dream”. And any time Mathew Morrison sings hip hop.

It’s not just the singing. It’s really funny. I think the writing is smart and insightful and hilarious. The only issue I have was with the very last episode (excluding, of course,  the amazing rendition of “To Sir With Love”). I was a little disappointed with the plot twist that made Sue Sylvester seem like a nice person. I thought her character served as a good life-lesson for kids. Some people are jerks and they don’t have a secret heart of gold.

(Some people really are jerks. Let’s take yesterday for example. I had both of my kids in the car and I was driving them to soccer practice. A woman came into my lane so I honked so she knew I was there and didn’t crash into my car. She honked back at me and then yelled for me to fuck off and gave me the finger all while my kids were watching.)

Like I said, some people are jerks. And Sue Sylvester should have been left a jerk.

But that’s not stopping me from watching tonight. John Stamos as Emma’s new boyfriend is genius. He can sing (appearing on Broadway in Nine) and he’s adorable. I also read that Gwyneth Paltrow will be a love interest for Will.

Yes, I love Glee and I don’t care who knows it! But I can only fit it in when I’m not watching PBS.

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Blogger Prom

My friend Elise over at Elise’s Ramblings was brave enough to post her prom picture so I thought I would suck it up and post mine. Blogger Prom is Wednesday and I don’t think I’ve been this excited since my last prom way back in the….well you can probably figure out the decade from the voluminosity of my hair. It took an entire bottle of Final Net and a lot of determination to get my bangs to stick straight up like that.

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Alpha and Omega 3D

I went to a screening of Alpha and Omega 3D on Tuesday and I’ll start with the positive: My kids thought it was funny and want to see it again. The movie, which opens Friday, is about two wolves, an Alpha and an Omega, who are taken by the forest service and introduced in another park to reproduce. Now here’s what I think. Why couldn’t it have just been a cute movie about two wolves going on an adventure?

It seemed like a perfect follow-up to our family trip to Yellowstone. We saw a wolf midway through our 10 day trip in August. Cars had stopped and dozens of onlookers were watching a wolf through binoculars and zoom lenses. There were other wolves we didn’t see and the rumor was they were hunting an animal.

On our way to the screening I reminded my boys, ages 5 and 6, that we had just seen so many magnificent animals and now we’re seeing a movie (at 7:30, the night before their second day of school. No parenting awards here) about the same animals. But these weren’t the same animals. They were sarcastic animals trying to hook up with each other. It didn’t seem appropriate for the kids the movie was targeting. It was PG, I know, but it seemed overly provocative and not very funny. I’m not a prude, but it’s billed as a cartoon movie not a teen comedy.

One thing I did like was that the toughest characters in the movie were the women. The Alpha wolf Kate, who was competent and smart, must save the day by marrying another alpha from a warring tribe of wolves. Kate’s mother has a strange sickly sweet voice, but makes frightening threats to anyone who messes with her kids.

If my kids were older they probably would have understood more of the jokes about falling in love and mating, but it was over their heads. And like I said, they loved it.

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Alpha and Omega DS Game Giveaway

I don’t do many giveaways, but this one includes a DS game. We recently received a DS from Nintendo and it’s allowed my husband and me to enjoy a nice conversation when we take our kids out to dinner. (We rarely have a babysitter so they go everywhere with us).

The game is for the movie Alpha and Omega 3D, which opens Friday, about two wolves that are taken by park rangers and must get back home.

If you leave a comment below you will not only be entered to win the game, but an Alpha and Omega Activity and Coloring book, Alpha Ears Book Mark, a movie poster, and the DS game.

I’ll announce the winner September 22nd. Thanks for playing!!

The winner has been selected by Random.org and it’s Tanya904. Congratulations! Thanks everyone for playing. 

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Bluegrass Music, Mario Lopez, And A Giant Whale

Like a lot of my best plans, the last week of my kids’ summer vacation was a bust. My younger son was scheduled to start at a new preschool and that was supposed to give the 1st grader and me a chance to  have some one-on-one time before he starts school this week. I thought I could get work done in the morning and then we’d go out in the afternoon and maybe ride bikes or go for a run in the park. I pictured us having meaningful talks that he would remember forever.

Well, the younger one was home sick for 3 days and that was the end of our plans. The poor guy was better by Thursday (but had to be fever free for 24 hours before he could go to school), and both kids were desperate to get out of the house. Luckily, I remembered that The Grove has a Kid’s Club activity every Thursday. It also has shopping, good food, and the occasional celebrity sighting.

The celebrity sighting last week was a good one. Mario Lopez was shooting a segment for Extra at The Grove.

After looking at beautiful people and then wondering aloud why we were looking at beautiful people, we settled in to watch the Kid’s Club show. The entertainment for the day was children’s Bluegrass band, “The Hollow Trees.” I really liked them and kind of wanted to tell the loud mommy group sitting near us to shut it so I could hear the band perform, but after a few songs my kids were ready to go.

We spent a nice rest of the day walking around, looking at the fountains, and having lunch at Loteria in the Farmers’ Market. I had mole tacos and they were excellent. After we bought fresh fruit from a vegetable stand at the Market, we headed home.

Finally on Friday, my younger boy started school. He seemed to love it, which was such a relief, so I took my 1st grader to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. I was worried that my son would be disappointed because the dinosaur exhibit is closed for another year, but the Age of Mammals exhibit was so incredible I don’t think he noticed. It was amazing and if we didn’t need to beat traffic home, we would have stayed until they kicked us out. I was most blown away by this 63-foot whale and to learn that whales once walked the earth.

My 1st grader and I didn’t have any long talks like I had hoped, but we did spend a lovely day together.

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Chevy Cruze Your Own Adventure

This summer was very cold and very busy. One of the bright spots was the Chevrolet “Cruze Your Own Adventure” that I went on with friend and blogger Sarah Auerswald. We got to drive the new Cruze for the morning, pick a Los Angeles adventure, and use a $50 gift card.

It was the day before my trip to Yellowstone and I wasn’t packed, but how could I pass up an adventure. Especially one that would be sick with sugar and campy fun. We started the day with breakfast at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and learned about the Cruze. From there we got to choose our own adventure (my favorite type of books as a kid) and cruise around town. We picked Sweet Lady Jane Bakery and Whimsic Alley, a Harry Potter themed store.

We could have stayed at Sweet Lady Jane all day and we definitely ordered enough dessert to do it. I even bought a slice of flour less chocolate cake to take home to my husband.

The portions were more than generous and it was all very good.

Our next stop was Whimsic Alley. I was really excited about this part of the adventure because I was planning to host a Harry Potter birthday party for my 5-year-old and hadn’t done much to prepare for it. I almost chucked the whole at-home party and asked about having it at Whimsic Alley instead. The back of the store is made up to the look like the Hogwarts castle great hall with candles hanging from the ceiling and a sorting hat at the front of the room. Parties come with food, a magician, and staff to help out. But they won’t do a party for kids under 6, which was probably for the best. I think the little kids would have been terrified.

The Cruze adventure was fun and a great send-off for our vacation. I ended up really liking the Cruze. I drive a hybrid SUV that’s it’s pretty big and I’m used to that. I thought I wouldn’t feel safe getting on the freeway in the Cruze, but the car felt substantial.

One of the safety features I liked was that if the car were to roll over, the airbags form a sort of cocoon around you. We didn’t have a chance to test that out, but the car drove smoothly and was cute with decent pickup. I liked that it felt hip and now, but was comfortable and reasonably priced.