A few months ago, while walking the dogs, I noticed the Google Maps van making passes through my neighborhood. At the time, I wondered if we would be caught on camera. I forgot about it until tonight and I decided to go see if I could find myself. Check it out! Heheheeeee
In Picard's chair: My offical Star Trek The Exhibit photo
With the Star Trek exhibit in town, I decided to use Halloween as an excuse to dress up for it. (Because, of course, I’m not nerdy enough to dress up for it otherwise. 
)
I chose to go as an Orion slave girl, an iconic character among Star Trek fans. I thought it would be easy to pull off - a little green body paint, tussled hair, and a sexy outfit. Boy, was I wrong. Applying the green body paint was a major pain in the ass.
I used a professional product, Mehron Paradise AQ makeup, in Amazon Green. It’s a water-activated makeup that doesn’t smudge off once dry. That was a big plus for me because I didn’t want to be worried about rubbing off on people or furniture. Cream makeup would have been easier to apply but it transfers quite easily. However, getting the water-based makeup to go on evenly and smoothly was next to impossible. It really was like working with watercolors. Streaks and layered edge lines were easy to come by and hard to get rid of. It dried quickly so I had to re-wet an area in order to blend it better but sometimes instead of blending it would just come off! It was two and a half hours of utter frustration. In the end, I gave up on trying to make it look perfect (I had washed and redid my face 3 times already) and settled for good enough.
As expected, I got stares everywhere I went. No one really knew what I was supposed to be except at the Star Trek exhibit. (Throughout the night I got: She-Hulk, reptile, Tinkerbell, Green Girl, and zombie.) There, everyone knew I was an Orion slave girl and they all got a big kick out of it! Little did I know, they were also having a costume contest and made sure I put my name down for it. A few other attendees were in Starfleet uniforms, but needless to say, I really stood out.
The exhibit itself was pretty small and was mainly a gallery of models, costumes and prostheses. The biggest attraction for me was the replica of the NCC-1701-D bridge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. TNG is my favorite show of all time and I was so excited to be on the bridge and have my picture taken. As expected, they had a professional take pictures of you so they can sell you the photos on the way out. I ended up giving in and buying the one of me on in the Captain’s chair and they gave me a deal on a hologram of me in the transporter room because I had “such an awesome costume.” I was a bit disappointed in the lack of a gift shop; they had a few small items for sale but nothing I wanted like a communication pin or replica shirts. I still enjoyed it though!
Below are some pictures I took plus scans of the photos I bought. I got so lucky with my camera because the battery was dying and I was able to take almost all the pictures I wanted before it died! The only thing I missed was a shot of sickbay; my camera died as I was about to take that picture. I didn’t have a camera for the rest of the evening though there was only 1 costume I saw that I wanted to take a picture of: a man was dressed like the guy with the baby from The Hangover! It was hilarious. He had on the same clothes, a beard, sunglasses and a fake baby in a carrier on his chest. It was instantly recognizable:
A still from The Hangover
And now the pics:
This is a hologram where I "materialize" as the photo gets tiled
At Quark's Bar from Deep Space Nine
A model of Deep Space Nine
The original that started it all
The Enterprise soaring through the galaxy
The Borg Queen's head
In the engineering room trying to prevent a warp core breach
Shuttlecraft from one of the Star Trek movies
At the helm of the Enterprise-D with my crazy eyes
Love this image - so awe-inspiring
A long-lost relative found in the mini gift shop
And Tim went as the same thing he was last year…
Tim in his Halloween costume
Guessing that these are chipmunk holes since I saw a couple of the critters along the trail earlier.
The following pictures are of the view of the city from the trail. Los Angeles is so spread out and flat!
The skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles are on your left.
A close-up shot of downtown L.A.
You can see the tall, commercial buildings of Wilshire Blvd.
A close-up shot of the Miracle Mile, which is about 3 miles away.
Another wide shot spanning from downtown across to Century City.
It was a slightly cool, cloudy day which made it great for the hike. We only made it half way up the trail though. I am slowly admiting to myself that both Jesse and Penny aren’t as young and spry as they used to be (they are 11 and 7, respectively). Penny actually made the hike pretty miserable because she had one of her “fits.” Every now and then, for reasons unknown, Penny gets into a frenzy and tries to eat everything in sight. Now, it’s normal for dogs to eat grass now and then, but Penny not only goes after grass, she’ll gulp down leaves, twigs, weeds, roots, stalks, and even dry, rough stuff like those things that look like wheat stalks. They’re all too tough to be chewed, so she ends up swallowing stems that are as long as 12 inches or more! She gets very persistent about it and it’s the only thing on her mind; I end up having to drag her away from bushes and brush areas while she make these awful hacking and choking noises as she’s trying to get the plant matter down. I’m sure more than one passerby on the trail thought I was somehow abusing my dog!
I basically spent the entire hike, about an hour and a half, holding Penny by the collar to keep her next to me. This didn’t stop her from trying to dive and yank towards the bushes every 30 seconds. She is very strong and it was miserable trying to keep her from pulling us into the brush. My shoulder and lower back are aching from the effort! I also had to stop numerous times to reach down into her throat and pull something out. She was still crazed during th walk home and even yanked hard to try to get close enough to the fern our apartment building has in the lobby! Ugh! I don’t know why she does this and haven’t found anything online about it. Thankfully, it ony happens maybe 3 times a year, but she sure did ruin today’s hike! 
Yes, it has been ages since I last wrote a proper blog entry. One is coming, I promise. I’ve just been quite busy these past few weeks. One of my sisters got married and there was a lot of packing and traveling and hand-wringing. We got back a week ago but I’m still recovering. Did I mention that the wedding was in Las Vegas? Oh boy! It made me realize that I’m getting old considering we were in bed at 11 PM. That’s in bed at eleven. On a Saturday night. In Las Vegas. I think I hear my bones creaking 
Details soon.
I will be in Las Vegas in less than 48 hours.
When I booked the trip, I didn’t realize at the time that it was for Memorial Day weekend, which is one of the busiest and most expensive (three-day) weekends in Vegas. I had completely forgotten that my sister had said she was going to set her wedding date for that weekend so more guests would be able to attend.
I realize now what a great deal I got back in February. My flight, with tax and fees, is only $78 each way. Southwest has since done away with their $69 special and the current final price ranges from $108 - $151 for those same dates. Additionally, my three-night hotel stay averages about $65/night. If I were to try to book that now, my average room rate would be $252/night - what a difference! It seems that a Saturday night stay at a decent hotel during Memorial Day weekend in Vegas is $400+! I understand it’s smart business sense to take advantage of all that will flock there, but I am very glad that I had the common sense to book very early for this trip.
Since I booked back in February, my flight and hotel costs are only $254/person (I’m going with Tim). If I had booked it today, that would jump to $680/person! We’re saving over $850! I’m a big procrastinator but I’m really glad that I didn’t put things off this time. Man, I love a good bargain. 
Because of the great weather today (we actually broke a record set in 1914 with a high of 94), Tim and I took advantage of the warm, breezy night and went out for dinner. We walked along Hollywood Boulevard without a destination in mind though I knew that I wanted to try something new.
First, we popped into the new sushi restaurant near the Arclight. Tim and I always joke about how empty that restaurant is; every time we go to the movies that HUGE restaurant is empty with lonely servers standing around waiting. I know this is L.A., but how big is the market really for a pricey sushi restaurant near a movie theater?
Tonight, we were surprised to see a few tables occupied and people at the bar. However, the space had an uninviting vibe; it was very cold with lots of steel and concrete. There was really no character to the restaurant, and after briefly flipping through the too-big menu (burgers? pizza? what?), we left for the also new place next door, Boho.
Boho just opened where Charcoal used to be. Charcoal didn’t really take off. The few times I’ve been there, the place was barely a third full, if even. However, I really liked the atmosphere and decor of Charcoal with its dark woods, leather furniture, stones, antler chandelier and other rustic pieces. It felt like an old school club house.
Boho keeps the warm, inviting lighting of Charcoal but the decor is more laid-back. There’s a lot of lamps and chandeliers, mismatched chairs and utensils, knickknacks, a piano, and the table we were seated at was actually a thick, horizontal slice of a large tree. I also really liked the tall ficus tree in a huge pot near our table.
A warm, intimate setting for a large party.
Boho even has a player piano.
When we walked in, the hostess (who was very friendly) asked if we had reservations. We said no and she replied, “That’s okay.” Tim and I both found that very amusing considering it was a Sunday night and the restaurant was only about a quarter full. Maybe she’s just practicing the philosophy of acting how you want things to be because eventually it’ll happen, sorta like dressing for success.
Anyway, we were seated promptly and given ice cold water. I really like the water glasses and the decanter of water that was left for us. It was a nice convenience to have water at hand. Tim ordered the pulled pork sandwich ($14) which came with coleslaw and a beet and potato salad. I wasn’t that hungry and got something lighter: the Belgian fries ($8) and the fried oyster po’ boy sliders ($9). The fries came with aioli and homemade ketchup while the sliders consisted of fried oysters, applewood bacon, and arugula.
Boho's Fried Oyster Po' Boy Sliders
The sliders were excellent! I love the combination of fried oysters and bacon - yum!
A cute presentation of fries, aioli, and homemade ketchup.
Like the sliders, the fries came out quickly. I really liked the presentation, but found the fries themselves to be a bit hard and dry. The homemade ketchup was nice with a unique sweetness, and the aioli was very garlicky.
Tim’s pulled pork sandwich was huge. The coleslaw came on top of the pork and the BBQ sauce was in its own container for him to mix in. Tim thought the flavor was too mild; I took a bite and was impressed by how fresh and soft the roll was but don’t remember the taste of the pork itself. Tim also thought the potatoes in his potato salad were dry - maybe they’ve got a poor batch of potatoes? He gave me his pickle spear (as usual - Vuthy loves pickles!) which had a nice, peppery taste to it.
So, for our first visit there, Boho gets mixed reviews, but we will come back though. Did I mention that they have 25 different beers on tap?? Boho actually calls itself a “gastropub” because of this and of course I’ll return again to try a beer or two. Plus, they have a Korean BBQ pizza that comes with kimchee that I’m curious about.
Boho
6372 Sunset Blvd (at the corner of Ivar Ave near Arclight Cinemas)
Los Angeles, CA 90028
http://www.bohorestaurant.com/
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