• Teens “say e-mail is, like, soooo dead” — a little bit makes me weep. I like having super fast access to backdata through email archiving. IM logs don’t work nicely enough, and sms logs? forget it. Teens: I shake my fist at you.

• Twiistup 2 in Venice Aug. 8th — Last night was the Geek Dinner, an outgrowth of BarCamp LA, at Galanga in WeHo. I met some interesting people, but more importantly, I had some crazy good food. I ordered the “garlic” entree with beef. Classic. Galanga is dry, so BYOB if you go. They do make a mean strawberry lemonade.

• Tiffany Bridge’s standup from last weekend — go Tiff

• It’s All Good in the Hood — Queen Michelle reports on hoods for F/W 07/08. I adore the white Chalayan.

• Fresh Fare Loves to Talk About Fresh Fare’s Opening — Downtown L.A. is getting its first supermarket when the Ralph’s [finally] opens on Friday. I also received my invitation in the mail yesterday; it cleverly included an application for a club card so one can make the sign up process that much faster. I thought I had found interim supermarket joy at the Vons on Vermont & 3rd the other day, but it took me three stoplight cycles to make a freaking left (which I would have needed to do from any exit point). The joy of Sierra Nevada on sale was stymied by the slowness of exiting. Do I not seem stressed for time?

• Suspiria cemetery screening on Jul. 21st — Ordinarily, I’d be all about a Suspiria screening, but cemeteries are kinda creepy and sitting cross-legged on dirt for several hours doesn’t particularly thrill me.

And what we’ve learned today, boys and girls, is that I’m a crotchety, old thing.

• Roar and s’more — LATimes on sleepovers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (best zoo ever). I will be attending an adults-only mystery/scavenger hunt sleepover at the San Diego Zoo in September entitled “Zoo-Napped!” It should be kinda the most fun ever, and I intend to win. This is me.

• NBC signs new series deal with Norman Lear — Well done, Silverman.

• Milos Forman, cinematic historian — any resemblance to Iraq war commentary is strictly coincidental, my foot.

• Who writer Steven Moffat addresses rumors — I’m hoping Moffat is slightly uncomfortable because he is knee-deep in negotiations.

I had a half day at work yesterday. My boyfriend and I both had some things to take care of, but we met up for an early dinner/late lunch Vietnamese bite. Him: “It’s, like, light outside. What do you want to do?” Me: “Let’s go to Disneyland.” So we did. Left L.A. around 7:00pm and got down to Anaheim shortly after 8:00.

We had gone last year on a Saturday, which had been a) crowded, b) hot, c) sort of not totally worth the total effort put into the trip, and d) not especially pleasant. That trip was my first time at any vaguely magical kingdom, and his first trip there since he had been a teenager going with parents.

Last night, we had barely any wait times, and we got to do all the things we didn’t do last year. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride had been under construction last year, so we hit that (really fun), as well as the Haunted Mansion (which I adore), the Indiana Jones thing (kind of bumpy, plus I think my current hip bruises were earned on this ride), etc.

All in all, it was so much fun and exactly what I needed right now. Work’s been go, go, go for the past few weeks, and between after work schmoozing/events, birthday parties, reminding friends that I exist through drinks, I’ve been kind of a wreck. So, Disneyland was a kickass start to this long weekend.

. . . Or, as I’m calling it, the vacation before the vacation. I leave for Europe on Thursday night.

A gigantic brush fire began in Los Angeles yesterday around 1:30pm. I was at work, and our internet was down. By the time I was heading home, the fire had stretched around Griffith Park and was threatening the homes in the northern part of my neighborhood, Los Feliz.

My commute was actually pretty terrific. I didn’t leave work until 7:00pm, and I suspect most people heading in my direction had already done so. I turned the corner from Franklin onto Vermont, and it was like some event movie. Flames, red smoke, grey smoke, black smoke, helicopters, etc. There were lots of sirens and stuff.

Somewhere in the 8:30-9:00pm range, houses began being evacuated mandatorily. About 9:30, all of the buildings directly across the street from me were evacuated, too. We didn’t really stay to find out if that was going to be us. I’m having allergy problems, and with all the smoke in the air, my chest was tight and I was having serious difficulty breathing. We gathered documents & identification, a few changes of clothes, our laptops, and left for a friend’s house in Glendale.

Driving past the fire on the way to our friend’s house, my boyfriend says, “Remember Revenge of the Sith? I think we just drove past Geonosis. I hope the firefighters have the high ground.”

One tense night later, most of the streets in the neighborhood are still shut down, but the homes are out of danger. We came home mid-morning, went back to sleep for a while, and now I’m getting ready to go into the office.

At this time, the fire is still going and the LATimes says that more than 830 acres have been burned. It was freaking scary, and my home wasn’t in immediate danger. I hope everyone else was okay, too.

I’m going to Yosemite on mini-vay tomorrow, back sometime on Sunday. There’s very little planned for this trip. I have somewhere to stay, but otherwise I haven’t worked out any of the details. I really know very little about the park, and, at this point, I err on the side of figuring it out when I get there.

I finished a long-term project around lunchtime. I cleaned. my. desk.

My friend Amber and I went to Descanso Gardens (as seen on ANTM) yesterday. Please enjoy this cherry blossom tree.

Lots more photos can be found on my Flickr.