The following pictures, in roughly reverse chronological order, are of my 5 day trip to Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee. I mostly hung out with my friend Julie C, and also spent a night with my friend Dan in chicago. It was a great trip... it was cold, but still well above average for the area this time of year. It even rained a bit! We went out to various bars and pubs (including the Milwaukee Spy Bar), toured two breweries, ran around in Chicago, went on a hike, and just caught up in general, since I hadn't talked to Julie in a long time.
I have to say... although LA has Chicago beat on natural surroundings (Malibu Hills, the San Gabriel Mountains, the beach, the desert), Chicago itself is a far more impressive looking city.. much more active at its core, beautiful at sunset, and in this case true to its nickname... it was rather windy and cold. Milwaukee is a bit more laid back (as some would say, it 'has many problems', but we didn't encounter them while we were there.) Madison is a nice college town with a neat downtown area full of places to drink beer and congregate.. the lakes and campus are also very nice.
So Sara is in Ireland and France for three weeks, and she left some food here which I didn't want to go to waste. I ended up making food, which I almost never do anymore. I made scrambled eggs with avocado, cheddar cheese, potato, onion, and ham. It was good, although there were so many other ingredients, it didn't really look like scrambled eggs.
This weekend I moved into my new apartment in Ventura. It is a 1 bedroom on the edge of the downtown area, a few blocks from the beach, on the second story. The place has several large windows with lots of light, and views of the hills, part of the city, and a very tiny wedge of ocean (sometimes). The picture above is looking down the hall from the bedroom towards the living room. 
As far as weather goes, this month has been extremely unusual. After a week where high temperatures neared 80, a freak frost moved in, bringing record-breaking cold to southern California. Snow fell in Malibu, ice formed on roads in the San Gabriel Valleys, and pipes burst throughout the city as temperatures dropped into the 20s in almost all areas. Several nights of below freezing temperatures led to a disasterous freeze which lead to the death or severe damage of many avocado and orange orchards. In a frantic attempt to keep the trees from being killed, sprinklers were kept running all night, because when water freezes, it releases a small amount of heat. Thus, many plants were covered in a layer of ice in the mornings.
