Great TVC

Just seen a great new TV commercial for Californian cheese - on Milwaukee tv (the unofficial home of American cheese - they don't call them "Cheeseheads" for nothing).

It's the latest in a long series of commercials produced by the California Milk Advisory Board. Click on the link to view them for yourself. Click on "HAPPY COWS" then "HAPPY COWS TV". Check out the bloopers as well...

Click on the one called "Blizzard" - far left of second row...

Stick it to 'em California! (Particularly appropriate given that it's snowing outside!)

Une Tarte in LA

A couple of Ryan/Young/O'Neil tartes (spot the apron) in action cooking up a storm at the O'Neil's in LA this past weekend...

We had a great mini-break long weekend escaping the cold. We had taken the kids to hook up with their flight back to Australia, and it worked out that Robbie had some work to do on a boat near Long Beach.

Sheila and Mike took us sightseeing Saturday which included a trip to the Original Farmers' Market on 3rd and Fairfax, next to The Grove shopping mall, where Robbie brought some smoked andouille sausage (for his red beans and rice), where I had the obligatory pillow-soft glazed donut (my first since arriving in America - yes, really!) from Bob's Coffee & Doughnuts - in my mind, the BEST doughnuts north of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, and where we saw some great meats and produce, including fresh miniature apples (they'd have made a great tarte...of another kind!).

We saw some great "plastic" faces, including these two old tartes - Sheila and Maria in a few years?!

We then headed up to Hollywood Boulevard to the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre. We popped in for a peek at the glamourous Roosevelt Hollywood hotel right across the street. Venue for the very first Academy Awards in 1929, after having a major design refurbishment in 2005 the hotel is very hot right now. The candlelit lobby bar, featuring huge black leather chaise longues, armchairs and buttoned sofas, and Moooi blackened smoke armchairs in intimate groupings will the place to be on Oscar night. I couldn't get a good shot of the space, but here's the street front bar cum diner - velvet flocked wallpaper, crystal chandeliers and hamburgers.

Marilyn Monroe's ghost reputedly appears in the mirror now hanging in the lobby outside the gift shop - it once hung in the room where she often stayed at the height of her career.

Who Dat?....sadly, the Bears...

Our neighbours, the Chicago Bears, ended Robbie's beloved New Orleans Saints golden run towards the Super Bowl NFL final today with a sad thrashing. Beating them in snowy conditions (not the most favorable conditions for the warm blooded indoor "Dome" boys from the South) the Chicago Bears won 39-14, booking them a ticket to the February 6th Super Bowl in Miami.

The Saints mounted a valiant comeback bid after a disastrous first half but the Bears sealed the win with three late touchdowns.

Despite the loss, the Saints' season will be remembered as one of the greatest turnarounds in NFL history. After Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and their home ground, the Superdome, the Saints' fairytale march to the brink of their first Super Bowl saw them advance further in the competition than any other Saints team before them.

Another historic fact - the Bears head to Miami under head coach Lovie Smith and he'll meet up with Tony Dungy - the coach of Indianapolis - both black. It's the first time in the history of the Super Bowl that a black coach has taken a team to the final - and this time there'll be two.

P.S The "Who Dat" refers to the Saints' fan cry "Who dat sayin' dey gon beat dem Saints? WHO DAT? WHO DAT?!" (transl: Who is that saying they're going to beat the Saints).

We had our own little bit of New Orleans tradition in the house this morning. Robbie made beignets this morning for the kids - it's their last weekend in the States.

More Pictures from Key West

I will sit down and write a little more of a travelogue for any of you interested in visiting Key West in the next day or so, and report on our search for key lime pie, but in the interim here are a few more pics from our last days in the sun...at least for a while.

Two overly photographed landmarks in Key West:
At the southernmost tip of North America and Mile Marker 0 at the start of State Highway 1.
The end, or beginning, of the line.

Sloppy Joe's - an old Hemingway hangout, now patroned this week by sailors a plenty. Spot the Look.

The Cuban and Caribbean influences are everywhere.

The Truman Annex area where we stayed.



Ernest Hemingway's house. Complete with the descendants of his 7-toed cats...about 40 of them!


Brunch among the roosters and chickens at Blue Heaven. The buggers are everywhere in the town.

About three cookies to every batch of dough...at about 1000 calories each!...

The kids and I went swimming with the dolphins, or we tried...sadly they didn't show the day we went, but had fun snorkeling instead.

The blogger, hard at work...

And this is what we came home to tonight...!

Key West II

I could get used to this place.

The highlights so far:
- tropical rich green gardens which look immaculate in every way. It's as though they're max'd out on fertiliser and TLC, or have been just planted in the gardens as though in anticipation of some big event or photo shoot - they are just perfect.
- relaxing poolside. We're very spoilt that the crew house of Robbie's boat has a fabulous pool where the kids and I hang out during the day. Amongst the sheltered palms, and trickling water feature, I'm just missing that cocktail waiter....

The crew house where some of the guys are staying and where we get to lounge around the pool while they're out racing.

Even the Hard Rock Cafe looks a little stylish.

- White, white and more white...most of the houses and buildings are white on white. Offset with the tropical green of the gardens, the place looks right out of a summer edition of Simply You Living. Many of the houses, especially in the old naval base area where we are staying, the Truman Annex (now converted into a very cool residential development), are painted 100% white. The local council has well-preserved the natural heritage of Key West as it once must have been - it's probably even better now, although perhaps without as much of the bohemian character that made the place such as magnet for some of its literary and artistic former residents - such as Tennessee Williams and Ernest Hemingway.

- the tshirts - in varying degrees of taste and style.

Taking orders if any Ryan's interested in this one!

- the key lime pie. So far the highlight has been at a well known local place called Blue Heaven - a great home made grahame cracker crust, the right level of tart lime filling, and a luxurious mound of soft meringue on top....mmmmmm
- the butterfly sanctuary. Didn't think that I would be so enamored with butterflies - but this place is just great. You walk through the doors and it's as though you've walked on the set of the old Robin Williams heaven movie "What Dreams May Come" - remember the bright surreal colours of the landscapes - and the birds and butterflies...it was just like that, complete with New Age music in the background and seemingly hundreds of butterflies cascading past you. A must do.

These guys on the right are making "butterfly love" - carefully!

- the antique shops. Sadly at Key West prices which have kept me from going a little crazy - still, I am sure to find a classic little memento to take home with me.