Reporter Gets Parking Tickets Live On Air

This is what I love about living in LA!  KTLA was doing a live segment about cars and this meter maid comes and starts issuing tickets — for all eleven cars!

Via Boing Boing:  thanks!

Junk Trucks

Ever since I moved to LA, I've wondered about all the junk-hauling trucks that are parked around residential neighborhoods.  Usually the trucks seem to be from legitimate companies like 1-800-Got-Junk and I just assumed that they were there as cheap, if annoying, advertising ploys.  But lately, I've seen trucks with more unfamiliar names constantly parked around different neighborhoods.  Sometimes the trucks don't even have names on them.  I was curious, but never worried.  Until now.  Altadenablog.com is reporting that some of these trucks are involved in crime.  These trucks definitely haul stuff, but stuff that you might just want to keep, like your pipes.  The operation is quite sophisticated, involving mother ships and cruisers.  For a more detailed report, please go to the link above.

If I think about it, I shouldn't be surprised.  Driving around parts of the SGV, you see a lot of really nice furniture on people's porches.  This is something I never saw when I was living in England, the reason being that enterprising thieves will come in the night and haul anything not bolted down.  You can't even leave potted plants out.  Not that anything was safe in broad daylight — people have come home from work to find that all the paving stones from their driveway have disappeared.  Is the SGV so different?  I guess not.

Parking Hell

We've had two parking tickets in three years and it's always at Silver Lake.  Specifically, at Sunset and Hyperion, near Intelligentsia.  I guess everyone has their parking hell hole, and this is ours.

The first time, the sign was vandalized and we couldn't read the parking times.  We filed a complaint with L.A.  They claimed they never got it and so we had to pay.  This time, the sign was over the hill so we didn't see it.  What's really irritating is that we wouldn't have gotten a ticket if we hadn't waited around for Ricky's Taco Stand to show up!  (Which it never did — the ticket was for $55 so it was the friggin' most expensive fish taco we NEVER ate.)  Man, some days, it just doesn't pay to leave the house.  Screammmmmmmmmmmmmming my head off!!!!!!

Things I Never Had To Worry About Before Moving to LA

1. Black Widows (the spider)
2. Earthquakes
3. Raging fires
4. Flash floods
5. Raccoon warriors fighting it out on top of the roof
6. Attacking squirrels
7. Packs of coyotes
8. Hellish parking in strip malls
9. Skunks who spray constantly
10. Cars that drive sideways
11. Sig alerts
12. Reverse 911 calls
13. Coughing like a TB victim due to dust
14. Having to read signs in Spanish and/or Chinese and/or Korean

Pasadena Power Plant On Fire!

They were doing tests and whoops!  One of the gas turbines caught fire.  But luckily, it all got put out very quickly.

So...how many of us knew Pasadena had its own power plant?

Anyway, bad news for people living in Pasadena.  The cost of the damage was $20 million.  Does that mean the cost gets passed on to the folks of Pasadena?  For more info:

Pasadena Star-News

The Market Grill

I guess this is an update to my big hot dog post.  The Market Grill has a lot more than hot dogs, including sandwiches and hamburgers, but it was the hot dogs that interested us because of the unusual buns.  Instead of serving their dogs on the traditional rolls, The Market Grill uses homemade New England style hot dog buns.  The difference?  The New England style buns are split on the top and the sides don't have any crust.  So it's sort of like rolling the dog in a thick slice of toasted bread.

Pretty much everything at the Market Grill seems to be homemade.  The owner mans the grill and his wife makes all the rolls, which ended up being a problem on the day we went because they'd sold out of all but one roll!  The dangers of making sure you only serve fresh food.  I have to say the Grill's dogs were very good, the inside of the buns grilled with butter.  The only complaint I had was with the dog itself, which was a bit flabby in taste.  The nice thing is that the dog is around $4 and comes with a huge side of absolutely fabulous french fries.  (Warning about the homemade lemonade — it's flavored with mint and artificial sugar.)

Overall, I thought the Market Grill was a great place and I want to go back soon!

The Market Grill
525 S Shamrock Ave
Monrovia CA  91016
626 303-4314
www.themarketgrillmonrovia.com