It's my crack. I must defend HRC against the Koolaid drinkers!

Enjoy your day tomorrow, Maven And Happy Birthday

Thanks! I am going to have a lie-in, then do some packing. I made an executive decision not to go into the office tomorrow, so I will try to keep work-related activities to a minimum. Might go to the beach if the weather's nice enough.

Beach? It's 67 here. brrrrrrrr

Happy early Bday!

i feel your pain.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Elmcitymaven.

It's Maven's birthday! It's Maven's birthday! Click to view attachment

Where's our cake?

Do you think she'll like this one?



I just realised that cake has a big 65 on it!! No offence Maven.

henc

the '65' is the first thing I saw



Happy Birthday, maven! may every year be better than the one before

That's an AWESOME cake, Gillian! Who cares if she likes it... I do. The cake's for the guests, anyway.



I didn't even notice it formed anything. I thought it was a design. I guess that's why it has pearl necklaces around it.

Oh my god! Thanks everyone -- you guys are so great! I'm at home in my pyjamas, answering work emails. Bleh. But all the birthday related stuff is so wonderful. Thanks to all of you.

I love the cake, but not the 65... 30 years to go until I hit that. I realise that now I'm 35 I am out of the all-important 18-34 "youth market". Does this make me a grownup...? Noooooooo!!! NEVER SURRENDER!

And yes, cake is for the guests. I only got one piece of my wedding cake at my reception. Greedy guests ate it all!

Breith la shona duit a Maven!!!!



Happy Birthday to you Maven!!!


Now gimme my cake!!

In the world of television we are always breathlessly targetting the "advertiser friendly 18-34 demographic"

I had a fit when I turned 35 and I realized that advertisers and television executives were not longer trying to appeal to me. I still plan to watch the 90210 spinoff however.

Happy Birthday maven!

so - I'm finishing work on July 15th yayayyayayay. So happy and relieved.

Now got to book flights, London to Ireland, Ireland to Miami and Miami to LAX. Whooooo hooooo


Incidentally, do any of the LA people know of any short term let apartments? We would like to have a place for the first 2 or 3 months while we get jobs etc sorted out. We figure till we get jobs, we won't really know where we want to live in the longer term. I've found these people but they're pretty expensive, and don't have loads of availability. Anyone got any good recommendations.

I stayed at the Oakwood (they have a few branches around town), which may be a bit cheaper than the Archstone but not cheap - they do come fully furnished and all bills except phone and laundry however (but including cable, wireless internet and fitness center).

http://www.oakwood.com/

You could also check Craigslist for sublets - I imagine there may be a few going over the summer (edit - just checked - there are lots!)

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sub/

Congrats on booking the flight!

thanks!! Actually I'd just found Oakwood! They don't have any prices on their website, but that's the great thing about the time difference. It's still business hours there when I get home, so I'll give them a call tonight.

I thought about the sublet, but I'd prefer somewhere that I could extend the lease if we had to. We'll see. I'll keep an eye on Craigslist anyway, never know what will crop up.

Happy Birthday Maven!

Doing anything special for your day?

I seem to recall we paid about $1600 a month for a studio - one bed was a few hundred more. I did like it because it was very easy when you are new in town and have just moved country and don't have everything you need. They provided everything from cutlery to a laundry basket to sheets and towels.

Did you say your husband already had a job lined up?

it's not a certainty, I'm afraid. He works in Disney here, and might be able to transfer, but his bosses haven't secured anything for him yet. Plus he's looking around for other jobs, seeing what's around. So we want to keep our options open.

I see - I was going to recommend the Toluca Lake Oakwood if he was working at Disney! (also right down the road from Warner)

a famous one i hear! Yeah, I'll give them a call later and see what their rates are these days.

I also really like the idea of having everying sorted when we get there, so I can concentrate on job hunting straight away, rather than getting distracted furnishing an apartment etc.

Happy birthday Maven!! And awesome cake - looks soooo yummy

We kept the top (chocolate and in the freezer now) tier for our first anniversary... Mmmmm

Poiteen - we used apartmenthunterz.com - I think you have to pay something to use them but they have *tons* of stuff on there - might be worth checking out? It's how we found our apartment

OMG JEREMY IS GOING TO BE HERE IN TWO WEEKS!!!!!

You have more fortitude than I do...I was asked if I wanted to keep the top tier and I said no. To be honest I'd likely have the late night munchies and it would be consumed well before the first anniversary :-p

Yes - where young Hollywood goes to die, I mean try to become the next Dakota Fanning/Dina Lohan

I had a fit the first (and 2nd and 3rd and 4th) time I was called Ma'am.



Try googling executive rentals. Realtors usually have rental properties on file too. The Marriott has the Residence Inn and Springhill Suites.... like a home away from home.... but I can't remember how to access their long term stay prices.

Good luck! Let us know where you end up!

HB Maven! Enjoy your cheese-filled dinner.

---

Poiteen - I was going to say Oakwood too - but yeah, it ain't cheap. It's worth it tho, and better than a hotel. That one close to Disney is where the Hollywood fire started last year!

Nah - I think I would kill anyone who touched it... As it stands I am going to fight Jeremy so I have an unfair (in my favour) half


Hehe - I freaked when I was called a "Lady" - to me I am still a girl

Have a good weekend everybody & goodluck to all those with interviews coming. I leave for Chicago on Tuesday, via Dublin which will be my POE. So I will post my experience of that. I lose net access tomorrow morning. So yeah have a good one everybody!

Can't believe we're finally here. I arrive in Chicago Wednesday, a year to the day of our NOA1.

Today involved going down to the beach for a lobster roll and some cole slaw. It was overcast but mild and nobody was there! Bruce won me two stuffed animals from one of those "put quarter in, move the claw, and maybe win a plush toy" machines. Then we ambled about a bit. Went on a shopping expedition to look at satellite radios. I'm thinking about getting one for the Taurus. Tonight Bruce, my parents and I are going out for Thai, and tomorrow is the cheese extravaganza! A happy birthday so far.

Poiteen -- I hope you're not abandoning our Silver Lake/Los Feliz compound!

We decided to stay in a motel for a couple of weeks until we find a place to live. We're all signed up to westssiderentals.com -- practically a monopoly in LA, from what I understand. You might think about having a look there.

westside rentals is a must - you will also find far more rentals on less expensive end of your price range there than Craigslist, in my experience. I'm not sure how they are for sublets though.

Maven - I'm still hoping to be living the Los Feliz / Silverlake area, but both of us want to try to get work sorted as quick as possible, and really only then can we decide for sure, exactly where we should live. Also we have limited savings to do this whole move on, so I would prefer to wait to have to buy furniture etc, till we have an income. In the same way, until we have jobs, we won't even know what our budget for the apartment rental is. So even though the monthly rental will probably be more expensive, it would be worth it to have everything taken care of

Thanks to Robin and Dev for helping a soon to be LA noob

Julez - love your new name

Aly, you get some VJ cheerleaders for the very short countdown that's left

That cake is lovely But I didn´t know what those letters on top were first I thought it was GS so I thought it was someone´s initials

You are finishing earlier than I thought you would Good for you I´m sorry I don´t know much about the apartments but if you can´t find anything, you can try the Extended Stay hotel chain (I think that´s what it´s called). When you stay for an extended period of time you can get some pretty good bargains

You can have your wedding cake made again for your first anniversary then

g'morning everyone. have a good friday!

Morning Charles! And I wish the same to you. TGIF!

Happy belated birthday, maven.

OMG yeah I know!! Just over three weeks!!! It still hasn't sank in - I don't think it really will until I go although when Jeremy gets here (in less than two weeks!!!) it will prolly start to feel more real - I mean, I won't be able to get rid of him half as easily as I could do!!

My bachelorette party is tonight...I heard that I might possibly have firefighters come over to help me blow out the candles on the cake...

Once again craigslist is a great resource for furniture. Most of the furniture I got for my apartment is from there, and I spent less than $500 furnishing the place (got a free 32' tv and tv stand, free futon, $70 pier 1 coffee table, $25 couch, $90 shelf, $30 and $15 on side tables, $20 microwave $50 on lamps/decor etc). It helps having your own vehicle for this (I imagine in LA you will have one) but sometimes you can work it out with people to drop it off for an extra few bucks. All of the stuff I got was in good condition aside from the nicks here and there. At least here in Chicago, there are lots of people who don't like to move their stuff when they move...ie they would rather sell off all they have and just go out and buy new furniture alltogether. I would imagine it wouldn't be all that different out in SoCal.

Well if so then I hope they are younger than the ones I work with!!

That must be a huge cake with a lot of candles then Have fun

LOL...it better be HUGE

I want a refund! This is supposed to be the frozen North and it is about eighty bajillion degrees out there and inside.

Got an XM satellite radio with gift card prezzies from family. Woo hoo!

Now is as good a time as any to get used to the heat . I hope you have air con in your car for the big road trip!

What's a satelite radio? Is it the ones they have on ocean going boats? That sounds like a pressie for Bruce, not you!!! Are you sure your not going to just re-gift it to him??

Satellite radio is like a regular radio, but uses a satellite to broadcast instead of a terrestrial transmitter. This means it can broadcast over a much wider area. It's kind of like DAB in the UK.

XM, which I got, has something like 150 (or more?) stations and is commercial free. It has as much 80s and 90s indie music as I want and lots of other stuff. And traffic and weather too -- we were out in the car, sweltering away, and we found out it was 69 degrees in LA while it was 91 in CT. It was weird to hear about where the accidents were on the road in Detroit!

This is definitely a prezzie for me -- no regifting!

And... it is going to be 100 tomorrow. I have to go to a cocktail reception tomorrow night on the Connecticut River and I hope it cools down on the water. Then on Tuesday I face my biggest fear: public speaking.

OMG I am so hot!!

It's around 92F (33C) here and I'm not coping very well. I also discovered today that the air conditioners give me earache.

I'm sure I'll acclimatise in time but I'm not a happy bunny today.

Oh dear... well if it is any consolation, Palm Springs is about 42c in the shade most days through July...

Grrrrrr flights are soooo damn expensive. And there's two of us. Maybe I won't go at all. How much does the boat cost?

I think it's around 800-900 quid a head from Southampton to New York.

Oh, so now you're not going, eh?