I think I sprained my ankle. I was going along my own front walk made of stepping stones this morning and my right foot slipped off the right edge. I didn’t fall although my foot hurt, but not a lot. I went about my day, had breakfast, planted some lettuce and parsley, worked at my desk and about 6 hours later, my foot started hurting. By evening I couldn’t walk on it and I was in pain, so I looked up what to do. It was the old “RICE” routine: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. I’m doing it but I don’t like it. I had other plans.

Today was our housekeeper’s birthday so we invited her mother over and we all went out to an El Salvadoran restaurant in Silver Lake for lunch. We had papusas and other traditional Salvadoran foods with all of us sampling each other’s plates. After lunch, we drove to Hollywood for cream puffs. They make the best cream puffs in the world at Hollywood & Highland and luckily, I don’t get there often. There was a lot of traffic and streets blocked off in the area because the movie premier of Valentines Day was going on. But we found parking and had a fun time; however, I was a bit lethargic the rest of the day. I suppose I should have only had one cream puff.

I woke up to the sound of helicopters overhead and with more rain coming today, I thought there might have been a mud slide, but that wasn’t it. They were there because Charlie Sheen’s car went over the side on Mulholland Drive and the news and paparazzi were flying overhead to get the story. Apparently, his car was stolen, Charlie was at home, but there was no one in the car. It went down a steep embankment, about 300 yards and I don’t know how anyone could have walked away from it. I need to be somewhere this morning and Mulholland Drive is closed.

I watched the Grammies tonight – well I was cooking and watched while I was cooking. I don’t think I could ever sit through 3 1/2 hours of television. My favorite performance was Pink, not just that she was dangling and spinning with no net, but that she kept singing through it all. It was amazing! I baked egg bread and then made bread pudding with it… so good it was all I could do to leave some for tomorrow. Then I worked on my cookbook recipes. More rain is on the way but I’m ready this time, equipped with my new slicker, rubber boots, and sandbags. Oh, and I loved Lady Antebellum and the tribute to Les Paul. I remember when his music was on the radio in the 50s.

What do we do with our sandbags? The fire department doesn’t want them back and they’re still wet – and heavy. I guess we’ll wheelbarrow them around to the hill in back where all the deer roam. When I say “we” I mean the gardener but he’s going to wait until they dry out a little. The good news is we never needed them after all because the rain didn’t get that close to the back door. The sun was out today and the hummingbirds are back… and the bees. I stood under our flowering pear tree today and could hear hundreds of bees inside. Here’s a picture of the tree.

We went to see Avatar in 3-D tonight. It was really good but in my opinion, a little more violent than it needed to be. The visuals are really stunning. You watch and wonder, “How did they do that?”

The sun is out! The endless rain finally stopped, although it did rain yesterday too. All seems to be well so far in Los Angeles. Last night four of us went to see Riverdance at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood and I loved it. We had dinner beforehand at Musso & Frank Grill. Everything is “a la carte” there – everything. $3.50 for salad dressing! This restaurant has been in Hollywood for almost 100 years, in fact Charlie Chaplin used to go there. Most of the waiters are old. I think I recognized one of them from the Last Supper. :o)

Rain Report 4 p.m.: It rained the hardest today, sideways part of the time. But by dinner time, the rain stopped and it seems like the worst is over. It’s still going to rain tonight, and tomorrow but not as heavy. Then the rain starts back up Monday… oh well. The city has had mud slides and rock slides and we’ll see if the saturated hills hold up. So far, the mud slides have not taken down any houses, probably thanks to all the sandbags and K-rails everyone put up to divert the flow. I miss my walks, so for exercise, I walked around the house, up and down the stairs. I can’t wait to see the sun again.

Second Rain Report 11 p.m.: Just after I posted the entry above, it started raining really hard again. By the time we had dinner, there was lightening and thunder, and a few minutes later – hail and very strong winds. Around that time, there was another tornado, this time in Ventura, that lifted trees and seriously damaged some homes. Then after dinner, we heard helicopters hovering above the house. I couldn’t believe they were flying in the strong winds, but it turns out a power pole came down on Mulholland Drive causing power outages close by. We’re not done yet.

Rain Report: We got pummeled again today. There was hail in Malibu, lightening at the beach, in fact 2 planes coming into Burbank were hit by lightening. The waves at the beaches were huge and dangerous. One person did try to surf but quit as fast as he started. There is mud rolling down the hills where most people have evacuated so I guess they’ll watch the news to see if their homes got hit. Several schools are closed tomorrow and more trees have come down. We have water coming into the house in 5 places. The ground is very saturated right now and the biggest storm of them all – #4 – is coming tomorrow.

Rain Report: We had a tornado today at Seal Beach. I couldn’t believe it. It lifted an SUV off the ground and two boats out of the water. It also broke windows. This storm has also uprooted trees and a lot of cars were under water. On the news last night I saw that a 100-year-old tree fell on a house, and other trees fell on cars. So far no one has been hurt but there is lots of mud everywhere and some of our freeways are closed. It rained really hard today but the worst is still to come… on Thursday.