Flavors on Tejon- Edit: This restaurant is CLOSED

July 22, 2008March 6, 2011 by adrienne

We went to Flavors on Tejon this afternoon for lunch. They’re located across the street from Poor Richards and up the street from Tony’s. They’re only open till 3:00 (cuz they hate money apparently) according to their website but I thought their sign said 2:00. You should call first.

The inside is really kind of cavernous- spacious but kind of cold. Like it needs to be broken in. It could use some walls or something, too.

The service was pleasant but a little bit slow. I don’t mind that sometimes but I think dangermike was annoyed.

They didn’t have breakfast available at noon when we were there which was kind of lame. If you’re gonna act like a diner with those ridiculous hours you should act like a damn diner (altho the ambience and food was not dinerish at all) and serve breakfast all day. This is the second place we’ve been to with those hours that only serves breakfast for like 5 minutes. The other place was Sheldon’s Luncheonette over in Old Colorado City-ish. OMG I forgot to do a review of them but I will. It was delish. ANYHOW back to Flavors on Tejon.

They do serve omlettes all day- I guess omlettes aren’t really breakfast. So I ordered a spinach, mushroom, sundried tomato, and goat cheese omlette. It came with either potato cake (hmmm intriguing) or caprese tomatoes. I love caprese tomatoes (tomatoes with basil and olive oil- these also had some seasoning which was really good) so I ordered them. And some hot tea. They didn’t have any regular black tea so I had chai tea. I like to have black tea and it bugs when places are too fancy for plain black tea. But the chai was fine. The whole lunch was really good. I’d definitely recommend that meal. Dangermike had the Philly which was roast beef, peppers, and onions with cheese on a nice thick sandwhich bread. Oh yea, mine also came with really amazing thick whole grain toast. They were a little skimpy on the butter but not as bad as most places. The only place that’s not skimpy on the toast butter is Maggie Mae’s over on Pikes Peak by Union. That place rocks. I’ll do a review on it someday. We go there like once a week so I have a lot to say about it. ANYHOW Dangermike’s also came with fries or chips. They also had sweet potato fries which you know I love. DM offered to get them for me but he’s not a fan and I don’t really need the carbs so he just got the chips. I liked the chips, they were thick and they tasted sort of BBQish but he said they weren’t. I dunno.

They had about 3 or 4 other omlettes, a huge breakfast menu with all the usual suspects, as well as several other sandwiches and salads. I’m gonna definitely need to come back for one of the many french toast items. Someone nearby ordered the veggie sandwich which was my second choice and probably what I’ll get next time. Another neighbor got a steak salad that looked spectacular. I love steak salad! I”ll get that someday, too. They have a sections called “Random Flavors”. You know I love anyone who uses the word “random” on a menu.

So yea, go to Flavors on Tejon, it’s really great.

Aspen, Buena Vista, Maroon Bells, Crested Butte

July 20, 2008April 2, 2011 by adrienne

Much delayed Aspen post
For my birthday weekend (a month ago!) we went up to Aspen. Check it behind the cut.

First stop: Buena Vista which is pronounced Byoona Vista because people in Colorado are somethin’ else.

Had a picnic of fruit salad, tuna sandwiches, roasted lima bean salad, and brownies. Because of the high altitude the brownies were mostly crust, which according to DM is the best part anyway.

There was a pretty blue sky

And a little creek going thru the park. I wandered around while DM napped. He was starting to get a headache.

Funky old motel cabins. We peeked in the windows and they’re funky and 50’s inside so we totally want to come back and stay. They aren’t really in BV tho and they aren’t quite to the next town (Twin Lakes) either, so we’ll see.

Random waterfall on the road.

Scary! No guard rail despite the crazy drop!

The Continental Divide. For some reason I decided to pledge allegiance to the flag here.

Hrm, no flag. Oh well.

Here’s a more normal picture.

Again with the problems. Ok yea, the snow is cold on bare feet but that’s no excuse for this maneuver.

Awwsocute

Now it’s DMs turn to look like a dork.

Aspen trees at 50 MPG. DM: “If you want I can stop so you can take a picture” Me: “No, it’s cool this way!”

I was fascinated with the snow melt and runoff onto the road. I probably took 30 pictures just like this one.

Ahhhh the destination. The Maroon Bells, the most photographed mountains in Colorado. They were really pretty and it wasn’t crowded at all.

DM looks annoyed here because I guess I was taking forever doing this picture and a line was forming to get by me. Ooops.

Aspen trees at 0 MPH.

It was all fun and games up till here. Then it all went south. The condo we stayed in was a monument to the 70s. I’ve never seen such a pristine, off the showroom floor stove specimen!

The bed that LOOKS comfy but was (a) a full sized (who does this anymore?) and (b) hard as the proverbial rock. I slept on the couch. Which was not fun since despite the couch being a pull out (I didn’t pull it out) there were no extra sheets So I slept with the bedspread and probably got 14 new diseases from it. Did I mention that DM had a headache? It was a full blown migraine by the time we go to the condo and even a nap didn’t cure it.

We did have lilacs (my fave!) out our back door and a view of the ski lift.

Out front were the most gigantic poppies I’ve ever seen. Dude.

I must take a break from the pictures now to describe the hell hole that is Aspen. It’s packed full of swanky shops. Not exciting to me since I come from the land of swanky shops (L.A.). Not sure who it’s exciting to since the only people who can afford those things also come from there or other places with that stuff readily available. It’s perplexing to say the least. Aspen was crowded (even tho it was summer) the people were your typical southern california annoying rich people types. The people who worked in places were rude and obnoxious. Everything was outrageously expensive. I expected expensive cuz duh, it’s Aspen. But this was ABSURD. I don’t mind expensive but if it’s going to be that, it had better be good. The stuff here was not only not good, it was awful. We went to Hotel Jerome’s bar for a drink. It was packed with idiot tourists in “Aspen” sweatshirts and flip flops. This is supposed to be a swanky place. We ordered some drinks which were brought to us right away. Then we ordered some food. Food by the way, that I was not the least bit excited about having ordered. We waited. And waited. And waited. The waitress never came back. She was nowhere to be found. Finally after about half an hour we left. Yep, didn’t pay for our drinks, didn’t cancel our food order, just left. Screw you shitty service. Then we went up to another pub type place I had read about. It looked good. Not crowded. We sat down. And waited. And waited. The waitress was busy chatting up some dude at the bar. DM got up to get some drinks from the bartender. As soon as the bartended saw DM he turned around and started fiddling with something. Ok, see ya. We were outta there. On to a mediorce pizza joint that gave DM food poisoning. So not only did he have a raging migraine all night long, but he also had major food poisoning. ANYHOW Aspen is NO BUENO (or Byoono as they say here in Colorado). Here’s a picture of some pretty flowers and a Range Rover. That about sums up Aspen: A really pretty place filled with assholes. This was taken in front of the place we had breakfast. Or should I say a plate of $10 cold eggs. People all around us were sending their stuff back. I usually hate that shit but these Aspen people need to be taken down a notch. Everyone should have sent their stuff back then demanded it for free in my opinion.

After we left Aspen (as quickly as we could) we went down to a little town where I had read they have a monthly flea market/antiques fair. I thought it would be fun to get some junky junk along the way on this trip. Alas, the thing I read must have been really old because some people we talked to said they hadn’t had that market in years. Hey, internet: update your shit, yo. Anyhow, here was a pretty waterfall and yadda yadda yadda.

After this poor DM (a trouper, I tell ya!) finally had to sleep. So I drove the rest of the way (including 20 miles of gravel road that was a “shortcut”) while he slept.
I stopped in Crested Butte to stretch a little and check out the town. There was a wildflower festival we wanted to go to there a few weeks after the Aspen trip. But altho the town was cute, it wasn’t that thrilling and we decided we hate festivals anyhow so we didn’t go. Got enough of it in the 20 minutes we were there. Annoying snowboarder types all over the place. I guess they’re annoying mountain biker types in the summer. Yaaaahhhhh Bro!

Passed The Continental Divide again on the way back. These annoying chicks took fucking FOREVER to take each other’s pictures with the stupid sign. And altho they saw me and could tell I just wanted to snap a quicky, they refused to move any faster or get out of the goddamned way. So now I have a picture of two stupid ugly chicks in front of the Continental Divide sign. Go me!

This trip was more or less sucky. I decided to quit with the trips for awhile because everything is soooooooooooo expensive these days (including gas, duh) that nothing is worth the cost. We went back up to Buena Vista for a day trip yesterday and it also mostly sucked too (but don’t worry, you’ll get pics and enchanting commentary about that as well here in a bit!). I dunno what to do for recreation anymore.
If you want to see an Aspen post from some people who are actually happy and enjoy life go here. She’s a great photogapher and all around cheery person so you’ll enjoy the contrast to my post about the same subject. At the moment all her pictures are broken. Not sure why but I’m sure she’ll fix them soon.

Phoenix condo renovation

July 6, 2008April 24, 2011 by adrienne

Last week I went out to Phoenix on my way back from LA to check out Mike’s condo and meet a floor guy. DM’s deadbeat tenants, Melissa Ann Reed and Rick Hugh Twaddle, had recently left and we thought there’d be some work to be done on it. They said they had moved out and everything was clean. We figured it would need paint and possibly new carpet in the downstairs area. We were NOT prepared for this. Clearly they are big liars which we sort of knew since they never paid their rent on time and always had some excuse or other. Among other things, which I’ll get to in a minute. Needless to say, we need more than just new carpet and paint. Over $7000 worth of more. WTF makes people do something like this? And don’t get me started on the smell.

Outside storage closet:

Front patio.

Just inside the front door. How is this clean?

Livingroom, diningroom area.

All kinds of crap and papers and stuff were in this closet. Including an ownder’s manual to a home theatre system (yet they can’t pay their rent?) and a fax cover sheet which I took back here with me because it had a fax number on it and I was thinking maybe we could track Melissa Ann Reed down that way since, of course they aren’t answering our emails or phone calls or left any new address info. DM tracked the # down and it’s Melissa Ann Reed’s probation officer! LOL. He was all “how did you find this number?” Ha ha. He was also perplexed that she moved without telling him. Hopefully that’s a probation violation (I’m pretty sure it is) and hopefully she’s sitting in tent city with Sheriff Joe. So anyhow, she also lied on the application about never having been arrested.

How does a fan get THIS filthy??? I admit, I rarely clean my fans but they don’t look like THIS. How does this even happen?

Why? Why leave all this and then have the electricity turned off (altho now that I think about it, it was probably shut off for non payment)

Ok:

This is the SINK. There’s water RIGHT THERE. If you just turn it on it will be cleaner than this!

How does your laundry get clean when you’r using a washer that’s in this condition?

They had a dog, which they didn’t clear with us and apparently they locked it in this tiny bathroom on a regular basis.

More general filth:

We decided on acrylic concrete floors downstairs and carpet on the stairs and upstairs so the floor guy came in and did some demo, got rid of the vinyl in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, the carpet, etc. It already looks a little better. Except that the floors under the carpet were soaked with pee. SOAKED. The floor guy was thoroughly grossed out. Guess we need to have it painted over with Kilz or something before the new carpet goes in. We’re also having the cabinets and doors repainted which is why they’re off the frames.