Wow, this is the kind of day dreams are made of! At least my dreams being the Autumn-addict that I am! Yesterday (Sunday) we took a walk into Queen Anne with jackets buttoned in search of coffee (and a birthday card). The right coffee is easy to find, the right birthday card is another story….

I know the rain will come eventually but so far my 3+ months in Seattle have included a lot of days like this with brilliant blue skies and white puffy clouds. This is especially beautiful when overlooking the Puget Sound!
And now that the leaves are turning colors it’s in my book, even better!

My girlfriend Valerie is coming into town this Thursday and we will have FUN rain or shine, but please please please let us have a couple of days like this!!!

Thanks to modern technology – and in this case the wonders of SKYPE, although I now live in Seattle and my book club is in Los Angeles I was still able to participate via this application! Of course this was not nearly as fun (or easy) as actually being there but at least it was something! Thanks to everyone in the book club for taking the photos and helping with the notes, could not have done it without you!

A Hedgehog. Spiky on the outside, elegant on the inside!

And of course, host with the most, Craig who somehow managed to work probably a 10 hour day and then still come home and welcome 5 book club bombshells into his home!

Below, the gang at Craig’s house. Yup, here we are – spiky on the outside, elegant on the inside?

It seemed that not everyone fell in love with this book and the discussion was not as thorough as usual. Some thought the author was verbose or nothing seemed to happen and the story just didn’t move enough? Coupled with maybe we were a bit distracted when Elizabeth brilliantly asked everyone to go around the table and tell the highlight of their summer? There were several juicy stories but
can you say “multi-colored sarape?

And were we further distracted when we each gave Miriam our favorite childhood book as our own book club version of a baby shower?

Little Henry already is off to a good start into the world of Literature!

Come on Craig, who needs to cook lasagne after a day like that?
Middle Eastern cuisine delivered right to the doorstep! Lots of it and delicious!

And the usual gallons of wine!!!! Cheers Meredith and Miriam!

I too was not a big fan of this book at first although was liking it more and more towards the end. I have found that being in a book club, and actually being “assigned” a book to read makes me finish books I would otherwise abandon. And then to refresh my memory for the club’s discussion I went back and re-read quickly and found parts that I really liked.

I liked that the book takes place in Paris (although it really just centers around the various different apartments in one particular building and rarely ventures out of this setting).

I liked how there was a lot of tea drinkers in this book. A quote from Renee “when tea becomes a ritual it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things”.

The good guys seemed to own cats!

And most importantly, and one of the points of the book, they had an appreciation for the simple, smaller things (camellias on moss) in life that many overlook.

Elizabeth and Sara enjoying the simple things. Or, just drunk.

So then on to what seems to be the favorite part of the evening, where we cast the book as if it were a movie. What can we say, this is a Los Angeles book club….

The casting:

We are pleased to announce with this ensemble cast and Parisian location our director is none other than Woody Allen.

And I will take this time to note that although no hedgehog ever appeared in the book, if it did, it would be played by Craig’s dog Coco.

The concierge, Rene – Kathy Bates or Yolande Moreau (a French actress who looks like Kathy Bates!)
Paloma – 12 year old Jodie Foster or Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird
Manuella, Renee’s tea drinking friend – Sophia Loren playing a Portuguese
Ozu Koiziumi – Former Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi or Nobu
Ozu’s assistant Paul Nuygen – Jason Wu
Lucien, Renee’s husband – Jacques Cousteau
Maman – Carla Bruni
Papa – Roman Polanski
Colombe – Paloma’s sister – Lindsay Lohan or either Olson twin or both…
Tibere, the drug addicted son – Michael Cera
Tibere’s father – Nicolas Sarkozy
People in the building:
Jacinth Rosen- Anjelica Huston
Arthrens – the food critic – Jeremy Irons
Arthrens druggie son Jean – Justin Timberlake

Perhaps because of a lack of affection for this book, a little dose of Attention Deficit Disorder and little to no knowledge of French actors, that is as far as we got in the casting, highly unusual for this club! But we did manage to scrape together a pool of actors who we thought could fill in those gaps. Keep in mind we were going for a kind of haughty, snobby and potentially mean spirited crowd..
For the assorted men in the building we would consider:
Edward Norton
James Spader
Mr. Green Jeans (are we sure?)
Mr. Rogers
Morgan Freeman
Andrew McCarthy
Anthony Hopkins
The entire Obama family
(I’m adding two of my favorite French actors for authenticity : Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel)
Women in the building:
Blythe Danner
Gwyneth Paltrow
Chloe Sevigny
Gina Rowland
Catherine Deneuve
Juliette Binoche
Ines de la Fressange
Cher (she has to be in there!!!!)

Did we forgot to cast the homeless man that was ultimately the cause of Renee’s fate? Or did I just not hear that? Please club members, let me know! (maybe this is where Cher fits in?)

The book club also selected the next selection of books. Next club meeting is being hosted by Meredith and is to be held somewhere on the weekend of December 4th:
Below, the order, with the host and the book!

Meredith – The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Leslie – The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
Elizabeth – Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout
Sara – Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Craig – The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Miriam – Menonite in a Black Dress Rhoda Janzen

Until next time bad boy and girls,
Yours truly, Leslie
and our mascot

Wow, Ralph Lauren really raises the bar on their Fall website!( Can’t wait to see how JCrew will counter!)

They say the future of online advertising is all about video and here it is! And how dang cute! Although a little long, they certainly show a lot of merchandise all layered up in that Ralph Lauren way along with a really charming story. Of course getting Harry Connick. Jr. was a nice touch too! Personally I think they could have done a slightly better job at casting but that’s just my opinion.

I’ll be keeping my eye on their website to see what else they come up with – after all Ralph almost invented Cozy (in a most elegant way!).

As you may or may not know, we are moving to Seattle! My life is turned inside out in a mess of boxes and packing materials and I am so over it! We are down to the nitty gritty, all the little leftovers you just don’t know what box to stick them in.

I guess the only thing cozy about moving is the excitement of a new place!

So why the picture from the new Louis Vuitton ad? Because luggage is involved in moving? or is it because we find World Cup Football unbelievably cozy (ladies, have you see what these guys look like???) and if we can get the games they ad a minute of distraction from current reality (changes of address, trucking logistics etc etc).

Needless to say, I do not have any LV luggage and especially not with my initials on it. But if anybody should, I do believe my favorite football legend Zinedine Zidane should.
ZZ. (look closely on the suitcase)
Now that’s luxury!

Something about that smile – btw, his nickname is Zizou.

Distraction is a good thing!
See you soon, from Seattle!!!

In the frenzy of moving I am asking businesses for leftover packing material (trying to be frugal and green!) and have discovered that places receive big shipments of lots of “stuff” on a weekly basis are great places to ask for packing material. For example at TJ Max I asked for and got a HUGE bag of the product above. Boy, did I save some cash (the above is from Staples…) guess you could say a green double whammy!

Martha Stewart move over! Jill and Ben Hill have created an oasis in the Paso Robles wine country with all the basis covered.

Designer chickens that lay gorgeous pastel colored fresh eggs!

How beautiful and delicious!

A driveway lined with roses and every color bearded iris you can imagine (the walk down the driveway alone is a slice of heaven!) – not to mention that at the end there is a breathtaking view of the various vineyards of Paso!

Fresh herbs and asparagus that if you are lucky Jill will pluck out and let you throw on the grill to take to your wine tasting picnic!

Sounds like already all too much? Well, howabout the generous and delicious breakfast she prepares in the morning? And the pool has a shallow end where you can park your chaise and nap or read – always a tough choice in my book!
Gorgeous local soaps

Obviously I could go on and on but you’ll just have to check it out yourself!
Hidden Hills Bed and Breakfast
4490 El Pomar Templeton, Ca 934556
805-239-3115
hiddenhillsbb.com

out crazy moonlit dinner!