JenLeoLIVE!

To L.A.: Simpsons Monte Carlo night + Queensbury Kings poker home game

I never thought I'd say it—ever in my life—but I can't wait to go to Los Angeles tomorrow. We had plans to go to the Nancy Cartwright's (Bart Simpson's voice) charity Monte Carlo night on Saturday and are now going over a few days early. John's got to take some meetings, but more importantly for ME, I'm going to happy hour with some LATimes.com web folk and our poker home game straight after. YAY!

I will also admit that my normally sunny self has been terribly grey. The psychic predicted the malaise (not depression) and said that I'm not laughing enough. As  I've had time to analyze it, I think it has a lot to do with a lack of motion (exercise), guilt from not having done the wedding thanks yous, and not enough social time.

Seems easy, do the thank yous, take a walk and make some friends without gambling $200/day. (Speaking of gambling as a way of getting out of the house, Susie Isaacs was at the TI ladies tourney this past Monday)

So you can imagine how excited I am to be getting a full day of it tomorrow. and this weekend. Woo hoo! Cured. Two plans + an orange popcicle. I need another...

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: Los Angeles (Thurs-Sun)

Verana looks good

On the road to figuring out our honeymoon, we're considering Verana in Yalapa.  But, can we take only 5 nights for a honeymoon? Maybe if we follow it up with some downtime in the Whitsundays in Australia.

We could also elongate the Yelapa trip with a few extra nights in Puerto Vallarta. I'd like to look into vacation rentals to get more bang for the buck.

Where have you stayed in Puerto Vallarta?

(this is the Bungalow at Verana)

Find Jen Leo at Plazes

I've been having fun with Twitter, but since I'm not blogging that much here on JenLeoLive, I signed up for Plazes so all of yous could still know where I'm at and where I'm going next. This will come in handy while I roam around sans Mr. C. He leaves for the Barcelona EPT next Sunday and will be staying over there for the 2007 WSOP Europe.

CURRENT: Las Vegas

NEXT: Los Angeles (Aug. 23 - 26)

NEXT for John: Barcelona &  London (Aug 26 - Sept 17)

I can't move and other things like Britney and Li-Lo

For the record, I will not be jalking 7.2 miles the week before the wedding. Your heroine just had to do Bay to Breakers and nearly busted her cheek smiling so much from the pure joy of being out amongst the people on Sunday. Yesterday after the race I walked a little funny, but today I'm full on hobbling around. What a wimp, eh? I ran the full first mile, then when it came to cross every mile marker, and then a good half of the rest of the way after we got to Golden Gate Park which was about three miles.

I'm momentarily hanging out in the lobby of the Millennium Biltmore in L.A.. This morning I spoke on a panel with the Managing Editor of AOL travel at a PRSA Travel & Tourism Conference. Man oh man do I love speaking on panels. Its pure juice to teach someone something. Especially when they appreciate it. I wonder if that's what it's like to be a teacher. One of the things we talked about was how to go about pitching us. I'd like to think that was helpful and I'll be chuffed if all the biz card exchanging we did results in some good Daily Travel Deal Blog leads. I've been having fun lately with posts about Britney and Lindsay.

As for our hero, he got out his cape for the tour d'fiancee in San Francisco. First off was the Brady's kicking cocktail party. More than 30 people turned out to meet John and give us some congrats. It was really fun, good practice for the reception, and yummalicious. The hit was Susan's wild boar sausages, followed closely by her own homemade sausage. And, the cake. Mmmm. Huge thanks, Bradys! The rest of the weekend was non stop hangage and more meetups with friends. John had almost as much fun as I did, not that it's a competition, and we moved on to separate cities.

Until the next time,

CURRENT: Los Angeles waiting for Limo
NEXT: Las Vegas waiting for Hyundai ;-)

The Standard Downtown L.A.

I'm ready to move in. Do we have to leave? A 24hr cafe with a comfy old decor, nice booths, decent food and Wi-Fi. Yes, the rooftop bar is cool, but were I to live in downtown L.A. someone could spread the word that Jen Leo can often be found working and hanging out at The Standard's restaurant. It's perfect for me. I'm going to go work from there now. Check it. The Standard Hotel.

CURRENT: Los Angeles, CA
NEXT: Las Vegas, NV

New York is Lovely

You tell me, at which point in yesterday's perfect day did I jump the shark?

- During my massage at Hotel Gansevoort's GSpa when I asked the masseuse, "Do you think it's possible to talk to your body?"

- at lunch at Pastis when I asked the waitress for paper napkins so I could spit out my gum before delving into chicken liver & foie gras mousse.

- After happy hour with a gaggle of travel writers when I told the New York Times' Frugal Traveler Matt Gross that he should pick up BranchWalks on his big trip across the U.S. this summer. (Big thanks to Farley and Jessie for selecting the Stoned Crow, and to Kelly, Abbie, Gabe, Erik, Alex and Matt for showing up.

- or in the middle of the night when I was spooning the dog Diego and making up a children's book called Diego's Dreams about a Vizla that dreams of having a better collar.

OK, the sun is shining and friends want to meet up. I have to hurry up and LAT so I can enjoy this beautiful day.

CURRENT: New York City
NEXT: Las Vegas, NV

Brother-sister road trip

I miss the blog! But life is one big cram session right now. Jason picked me up on Monday to drive up to Oregon and meet the Livingston side of our family. I think I already mentioned that my Grandma passed and we were all meeting to go up and help organize the property.

Jason and I have driven long distance together once. From San Francisco to San Diego. It must've been about ten years ago and lets just say it didn't go so well. It seemed like we had nothing in common and were on opposing sides of conversations for at least five hours of the trip. We hardly got a long while we were growing up, and during my early twenties it only seemed to get worse. Then Sand in My Bra came out. I blogged about my cross-country book tour and Jason followed along. He got to know me through the blog, and the past five years have been a completely different relationship to the one we knew when we were younger. The night before we left, I was still wondered if we could hack a 12+ hour trip in the car together but John assured me we got a long now and it wouldn't be a repeat of the 90s.

What Jason didn't know, was that I snore. Apparently badly. After the first night, Jason said,  "I woke up in the middle of the night and said Is this really happening?" I started laughing and he  kept going, "I had pillows over my ears and everything!"

New Job Blogging for the LA Times

I can finally tell you about my new job! I am the Travel Deal Watch blogger for latimes.com.

The LA Times launched a brand new travel site today. travel.latimes.com. And on the right hand side, you'll see the Daily Deal Blog. That's me. Our aim is to bring travel deals of all budgets to Southern Californians so they can getaway, relax, and have fun. My boss, Andrew Nystrom, said it best in his intro to the blog.

Go check it out! And please, pass it onto anyone you think might benefit. Obviously we're in early stages. The blog will expand to several writers, with hopefully some columns and posts geared towards building community. It's going to be a fun and inspiring resource!

CURRENT: PASADENA, CA
NEXT: ???

The Trip Chicks Radio Interview

I'm going to be interviewed for 30 minutes today on 1620 AM in Atlanta, GA (3:00pm EST).
The Trip Chicks are an intrepid pair of women with a travel radio show called "Escapes" which airs each Monday on 1620 AM Radio Sandy Springs.

I think you can listen online here on Radio Sandy Springs.

John, Pauly, and Brandon at the Big Day Out

Pauly and Brandon have been posting about their excursions. So, since I know that John's friends come here to check up on him, I'll continue to post what I know about his adventures. They had a blast at the Big Day Out, and left yesterday for the famed Byron Bay. John was concerned about the internet, so I'll just make a public reminder that Global Gossip is the place to go in Oz if you need internet. They've got computers, they've got cheap intl phone booths, and as of my last trip, they even had WiFi where you could bring your own laptop. But, if John is reading this, he has Internet. Next...
Anyway John fans, here's a video from The Big Day Out. Lets hope they're having a blast at the beach. I was thrilled to hear how much John loved the Gold Coast and how relaxed he felt there. Now he knows what I'm talking about! He's headed back to Melbourne on his Wednesday and then he and another colleague will be taking a drive on the Great Ocean Road. I'm so jealous.