Cruizin through a busy week

This last week has been a whirlwind. Jon and I decided to get away and take a 3 day cruise to Mexico this last weekend. We left on Friday night and headed down to Ensenada.The boat was so big that we could not fit it in one pic frame. :) We got a room with a view...well, more of a small porthole view. The trip became more of a recovery cruise as I was under the weather with a shot site infection (diabetic stuff) and Jon had sprained both his thumbs skiing on Thursday. I had warned him that if he went on a ski trip right before the cruise something was going to happen...cause that is Murphy's law...and yup, he was hit by a punk snowboarder and bent both of his thumbs in directions they were not supposed to go...as you see in the photo he is wearing a brace in order to heal one of his hands.
We docked in Ensenada on Saturday morning and Jon and I signed up for the wine country tour. Normally you do not think wine when you think Mexico, but we were pleasantly surprised. We ended up bringing back a couple of bottles along with some olives and some olive oil that they had at one winery. Here we are at the wineries. Jon pressing some grapes at the first winery and the both of us in front of the bull ring at the L.A. Cetto winery.On Sunday, the ship was at sea so we hung out on the deck for a while and I sufficiently burned my legs. After crisping my legs in the sun, we took a long nap as the ship seems to lull you into a deep sleep..rocking back and forth. We also caught the musical reviews they had in the evenings and the two comedians which were pretty good. Everyone at our dinner table was really cool, except for an elderly foreign couple who decided on the first day to change tables....I believe it was because they could not keep up with us. The one thing that we both felt about the cruise was how wonderful, nice and hospitable the staff was. Even when the activities on the ship were a little cheesy, their enthusiam never waved. They made the trip!!!
We returned on Monday and both of us ended up having vertigo once we were off the ship! How strange to be perfectly fine on the ship and then be at home and feel like you have to grab the counter for balance.
We ended this week with a Lakers game on Thursday night. They were playing the Phoenix Suns which was fun because Shaq was there. It was fun to see how the crowd reacted to the old Laker. :) The one thing that made the game even more fun was the HOT burrito that Jon ordered from the stand. It was soo temperature hot, I saw one employee almost quit when she tried to place it on our tray. She yelled, "Oh hell no, I am not dealin' with this" (delivered with ghetto attitude) and a second employee had to come over with a pot holder to transfer the burrito to our tray. I wish she would have given us the pot holder because I tried to move it to make room for our drinks and felt the lava like hotness radiating from the wrapper. It was so hot, Jon was worried that he would be libel for a hole in the ozone. One hot burrito:This weekend we plan on taking it easy and maybe trying to clean the pit we live in. We hope.

Ski Freakout & Downtown Art

I do hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day. We do not do too much for the holiday, but we did get out a bit. The new Dan Graham exhibit opened at the MOCA so we went to the special preview during the day. I really wanted to go in the evening when they were having their opening ceremony with DJs and cocktails and finger foods, but I was excited just to go see it during the day.
Dan Graham: Beyond was interesting and kept us there for quite a while. He experimented with architecture as well as video and performance art. He had one certain room with two cameras, two monitors and mirrors so that you could see yourself walking away as you walked toward yourself...if that makes any sense, but it was really cool and we spent a lot of time trying to turn around really fast and see what it looked like....which we could because one camera was on delay. That room was worth the entire trip there. so cool.
Right before visiting the gallery, we had lunch at a place that I will DEFINITELY go to again. It was a little French Dip sandwich place called Cole's French Dip. Clink on the link and check it out. I normally don't enjoy spicy foods, but I even loved their atomic pickles that they served with their French Dip sandwiches. The atmosphere was the best and they played a ton of good music. They are the oldest running restaurant and saloon in LA.We made it an early night and did not stay out too late as the next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to hit the road and go skiing. The conditions were perfect and I was getting along really well at the easy green slopes and I even met the chairlift operator Mike who said I was his favorite lone passenger. I was actually having a darn good time even though my face was being exfoliated by the fierce winds, when Jon said, "Oh, let's try this other run. It is not that bad and I think you will be able to make it....only the end is really steep. I thought, no problem, I am getting good at this and haven't even fallen once.
Well....Let's just say the entire run from beginning to end was steep. I uttered more curse words than a sailor after a case of rum and had the ultimate freak out moment when I was able to stop myself mid...sheer cliff face and start crying because I had this image that I would never make it down to the lodge. Jon in all his smugness was skiing backwards saying, "Oh just take it slow, just lift up on this leg or that leg." Things you cannot tell a person who is fearing death on a 90 degree angle.
Thankfully, I survived and what should normally take a seasoned skiier 15 minutes to get down took me about an hour. I now have various bruises on my...well, let's just say everywhere and my legs have given up on me and are advertising for a new body.
Today was full on hard core rain and all I wanted to do was stay at home and watch movies and drink Celestial Seasonings Peach tea - which has become my favorite right now.