Last Saturday at the mall, I was walking towards two women and I could see they thought they recognized me.  They seemed excited as they nudged each other, so I stopped, nodded and smiled as if to say, yes it’s me.  “I know you!” one of them said. I tried to stay humble but it is always flattering.  “I’ve seen you on TV!” she said, “I know you, I know you… Oh my God, you’re Jenny Craig!” I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or give her some weight loss tips.

It’s a special day for some people, but not for me.  So I chose to do something I’ve been meaning to do for months – I cleaned my oven.  There are quite a few things I’d rather do, like having my nose hairs tweezed out, one buy one, but the oven had to be cleaned so I put on my protective gear and got to work. Okay, it is a self-cleaning oven, but still…

I had lunch today with my attorney and he picked the spot.  I’ve never been to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel and what an experience!  They only have valet parking so I had to pull up in my dumpy old Lexus into what looked like a scene from a Turner classic movie.  They had Bentleys, Rolls Royces, a Maybach, and some other shiny cars I didn’t recognize but one of the dozen or more valets agreed to take my car.  Inside were the most beautiful people in the most beautiful clothes – one woman had a fox draped around her shoulders (with the face!!).  Luckily, I got seated right away so no one could study the $49 skirt I was wearing from Macy’s. It was the ultimate Hollywood experience.  I saw a couple of faces that might have cost more than those cars.

Last night, Denis and I had a date night and went to see “Date Night” at the Arclight Cinema.  This is where you pay a little more (but not with our senior discounts!) and you get to pick the seats you want off a seating chart.  They also have more upscale snacks like their own caramel corn and high quality chocolates.  We didn’t get any snacks or popcorn but I brought my own red vines, but only two.  Then a real person comes out in front of the screen, welcomes everyone, gives us the rules, like no cell phones or texting, etc.   The movie was fun and I’d give it a 7 out of 10.  I love watching Steve Carrell.  We didn’t snack too much at the movie so we came home and finished off the pie.

We spent the last two days shooting more How-To videos for this website.  I think everyone will like the healthier hot fudge sundae and my 50-50 tricks for staying healthy.  I hope to get them posted next week.

It’s freezing here in SoCal, and raining.  After the rain, I took a picture of a pansy in the back yard.

Spent the weekend running errands and working on my cookbook. I’ve decided it will be a cookie-only book because baking is what I do best. I set up my photo spot so I can take all the pictures like I did the last book. It rained last night, pretty hard but no leaks in the house. There were lots of hummingbirds in the back yard this morning but then they stopped coming. I took this picture of what was scaring them away.

It’s Easter Sunday and there was a big earthquake in Baja, not too far from here although I didn’t feel a thing. Denis and I were driving at the time because I wanted to go to the mall. I hadn’t been to the Westside Pavillion for a long time and thought it would be fun, as long as parking wasn’t too crazy. Well, we found parking… lots of parking. It was closed. Since when do the malls close for Easter? It’s not a national holiday. So we decided to go the the mall in Beverly Hills. It’s not a Jewish holiday so this one must be open. We got there and parking was not a problem. Neither was shopping because everything there was closed too, except the Gap, which was jammed because everybody else thought the mall was open. Once the shopping momentum starts, it’s hard to stop. I got 2 hoodies marked down from 39.99 to 14.99, both fluorescent colors to be visible when I go walking. Tonight I made oatmeal cookies and cinnamon raisin bread. Denis got me a chocolate Easter bunny and I ate some of that too. I need to learn restraint. I’ll walk it all off tomorrow, in my fluorescent fifteen dollar hoodie.

So this guy has a monkey. He dresses the monkey in an apron with pockets. He teaches it to put out its monkey-hand and take whatever is handed to him and put it in its apron pocket. That includes dollar bills. This guy is making a fortune! We went to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica yesterday and this was one of the street performers. People were lining up to give this monkey a dollar! They waited with cameras and couldn’t give their money away fast enough just for a photo of the monkey taking their money. Imagine the thought process leading to this: “Let’s see… I have no marketable skills, I don’t really want to work anyway, so how can I get people to just give me money?” He’s a genius. I don’t have a picture to share, but I still have my dollar.

It was a beautiful day so Denis and I went to the zoo. Of course, I brought my camera and found this meerkat posing just for me.

I did something I’ve never done before. I sent something in to the Tonight Show Headlines, the one they do every Monday. If it runs on Monday, I’ll reveal which one was mine. If not, I’ll post it here anyway. I think Jay will like it.