May 2007

On Friday, J and I went to the premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean – at World’s End”. I LOVE the trilogy.
We had been waiting for the third movie to come out for a long time. It was awesome. I really liked it. Johnny Depp aka Captain Jack Sparrow is just outstanding!
Here’s one little piece of advice, in case you want to go and see it… sit through the credits at the end.
Most people left the movie theater as soon as the credits started, but many times it is worth it to sit through them. You’ll understand why.

Here’s a picture of a billboard advertisement in Hollywood. I think it’s so cool.

Then Ute -who I have known for 4 or 5 years now- came to visit Los Angeles with Justin and her Mom. We HAD to meet up :)

They arrived on Saturday morning and were staying at a hotel in Hollywood. We met up around 5 p.m. at our apartment. We gave them a little tour of our place [really, literally a “little” tour, because it’s a small apartment ;)] and we talked for a while. It didn’t feel like our first meeting at all – something that I have experienced with many of the girls that I’ve got to know through the Internet and finally met in person :) we were totally comfortable around each other.

We then decided to go down to Santa Monica. Unfortunately, we came a little to late to see the sunset at the beach, but we walked on the Santa Monica Pier and then had some drinks at Mariasol Cocina Mexicana.

We had a great time talking and eating chips and salsa and the “girls” had coffee and the “guys” had beer ;)

We walked on the beach for a little bit and then got some take-out Thai food for a late dinner at our place.

On Sunday, it was our 1st anniversary and J and I had planned to go out to dinner.

We went to a really cute, little Italian restaurant in Westwood [Mio Babbo’s Italian Ristorante] and had a nice long dinner. We started out with some appetizers [Antipasti platter and shrimp] and then I had “Lobster Ravioli with spinach and mushrooms” and J had “Spaghetti with meatballs”. For dessert, we tried the “Tiramisu” [which was maybe a little too cold, but very delicious].
During dinner we opened our little “box of treasures” – the box with little notes that our guest had written on our wedding day and that we hadn’t been allowed to read for a whole year. Man, it was hard to wait that long, but it was worth it. J and I were equally moved by the sweet and heartfelt messages.

Click the photo for more.

Monday morning, we met Ute, Justin and Ute’s Mom for breakfast in Hollywood, before they had to leave for the airport again. Damn, the time was just too short.