Rainy Sunday in LA

Since both our parents don't live in LA... Arthur & I want to try to spend as much time with our brothers as possible.. More reason why I love our new place .. it's gigantic and lets us host get together with our brothers..

The menu this weekend is BBQ! Only problem is that we picked a day where it rains (like probably 0.1% chance ever in LA).. in any case we started bbq ing at 11.30 (ok really Arthur started bbq ing) and we have the bbq in our balcony with some slight rain coming into our bbq.. a little extra seasoning never hurts..

We are also lucky that on Saturday, we went out with Nicola + Bo, Giuseppe + Federica and Nicole gave us his family made, home made salami (!!) His family actually rears the pig, butcher it, prepares the pork meat and dry cure it for 1 year... it is amazing!! we finished it in two days.. yum.. sad that this is not something we can just pick up in the store.. maybe we should ask Nicola to smuggle in more salami from Italy the next time he returns home..

 Arthur has prepared two special types of burgers for us.. The first is a more fancy burger with garlic butter + baby spinach, the last is a traditional bacon burger with cheddar.. I only managed to eat the traditional burger since I stuffed myself with salami and baked brie, cheddar, pepper jack.. (Ohh boy there goes the diet)...

I had also gone to the Brentwood Farmers market earlier, it's in the corner of Gretna Green Way (1 block west of Bundy ) and Montana Ave. Despite the rain, I had an inkling to buy some flowers and manage to find some good priced and great flowers!! about 2dozen ranunculus for $6!! it's probably about the same price as when I went to LA Flower market.. I also noticed many vegetables are sold really at an affordable price at the farmers market.. not sure if its because of the rain, but i plan to return to the brentwood farmers market every Sunday morning now :)

you see those gorgeous OPEN ranunculus.. it was not open when i bought it.. i put the ranunculus on my dining table, next to some fruits (banana) and they open up really fast.. usually it takes much longer for the flowers to open up..

Tips : when you buy flowers, you want them to be slightly close so they last longer.. the vendor told me the close ranunculus last 10 days while the opened buds last 5 days..

Lo and behold.. i had though the sugar i put into the water cause the flowers to open up..... turns out it's the BANANA!! banana emits a certain type of gas that speed up the opening up of the flower buds.. so if you want your flower to last long don't put it next to fruits/banana... boooo it definitely helps to open up the very closed buds but now my red ranunculus probably will only last me 5 days.. will report back..

Another tips : put a 1/2 teaspoon of bleach into your water in the vase to kill bacteria and make the flowers last longer, change the water every day and obviously cut the stem (under running water they say but i have not been doing so) to make the flowers last...

And lastly this amazing flowers come from the last flower vendor (right by san vincente on gretna green way)...

Paris' Skin Allergy

Ever since we moved into our new place in west LA (which we loooveeee!!), Paris has not had a good experience in the new place.. Namely because as you can see in the sad sad sad pictures, he's been having allergies (to what i don't know) and has been chewing his fur (and skin raw)... :(

 We have gone to the vets twice.. to no avail.. because every time the vet just prescribed him on steroid but does not really know what cause the allergy.. A couple weeks ago Paris' allergy got worse and he basically chewed 1/4 of his back fur off.. I am losing hope on the vet and decided that I need to take him to a specialist.. That's when I stumble upon this animal dermatologist, who is basically next door to my current vet yet I never know they exist!
Animal Dermatology Clinic
13286 Fiji Way Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
(310) 822-3376
http://www.animaldermatology.com

 I called them up and they informed that they are only open on weekdays.. and on Mondays they work until 9pm (i believe) According to yelp, their superstar vet is Dr Kirby , but I was desperate and Dr Kirby was booked.. so i set up an appointment with dr Wilson. The receptionist kindly told me that the first consultation is $160 for 1 hour long !! not including medicine.... I couldn't decide if i want to take paris in or not , but finally cave in.. the night after I made the appointment, Paris had made a bigger scar on his skin and the wound is bleeding :(

 I went to my appointment, dr Wilson asked a lot a lot of questions, took Paris back and did some examination on his skin and his infected ear.. She thinks that paris is allergic to flea and his food.. because he chewed around his tail area, he doesn't like to eat his food as much, he is a lil gassy .. we have changed his food recently.. she prescribed Paris on twice a month flea medication instead of once a month and prescribed him to eat Kangaroo/oat kibbles... yes KANGAROO! zzz....

paris seemed to be better.. our only problem is he is supposed to be on a strict kangaroo diet and nothing else.. but he always managed to find ways to get to our food (that breakfast pastry on our dining table - yup gone.... the night i forgot to put the trash can away.. yup trash can rampage...) ZZZ... he was on that trash can rampage yesterday and today he is all itchy.. but he is off the steroid medication today (the steroid medication is put on tapered schedule so he doesn't become tolerant to it) the poor boy is all itchy...

i wish to say that HE LEARNT FROM HIS LESSON AND WILL NEVER AGAIN RAMPAGE THE TRASH CAN.. but of course.. that is my inner hope and not his thinking... so that is the journey of Paris' skin allergy... and yes the vet's bill cost an arm and a leg, and Arthur declares that I can't eat sushi until June (!!!).. Lets just say thank god i have my own credit card.... :p