On Tuesday, November 24, 2009, my wife and I met up after work to get dinner and attend a Wolfmother concert (see earlier review).  For the dinner portion of the evening we went to Pastagina.  It's a chain eatery that I'd seen in mall food courts such as the Beverly Center.  In Downtown L.A., Pastagina had a small, sit-down eatery in the building that also included the Ralph's Fresh Fare and the Market Lofts in the South Park neighborhood.  This building is attached to the apartment building where we used to live in Downtown L.A. a few years ago.  That was before there was a Ralph's, Market Lofts, and Pastagina.  They were still under construction back then.

On Tuesday I left work at the usual time and walked to my sister- and brother-in-law's home that's in South Park near Staples Center.  My wife drove down from her work and parked in the parking garage for my sister- and brother-in-law's home.  We actually arrived at the parking structure at about the same time.  We visited with our sister- and brother-in-law a bit and left sometime after 6 pm to have dinner.  Pastagina was a standalone shop among many other businesses on either side of the Ralph's Fresh Fare/Market Lofts building.  We just walked up Hope Street to get there.  It was a very small eatery with only 5-6 tables and 6-7 more seats at a counter near the window.  The décor was very simple: walls colored orange below and white above where they hung photographs of pasta, chefs and related images.  It had a high ceiling with exposed piping indicating a loft style and consistent with the Market Lofts condos in the floors above.  The floor consisted of large gray stone tiles.

The entrance to Pastagina led right to the register counter.  The small open kitchen was right there behind the counter to the left.  High on the wall behind the counter was a large menu with all the pasta selections along with salads, soups, beverages, and desserts.  It listed the first two options, tomato and basil and primavera as vegan.  Customers could choose between about 15 different toppings including the seasonal "Special of the Month" and five different types of pasta including spaghetti, penne, fusilli, and multigrain angel hair.  Pastagina's specialty is that they have the technology to make freshly cooked pasta to order in a fairly short amount of time.  I believe that they were a fairly new chain.  The cashier handed us a take-home menu that listed the locations: Beverly Center, Little Tokyo, Irvine, Grand Avenue (Downtown L.A.), and Market Lofts where we were.  It said they'd be opening locations in Westwood, Santa Ana, Koreatown, El Segundo, and Cypress.  The take-home menu also lists catering options.  My wife noticed one difference between the take-home menu and the posted menu: the take-home menu said that the primavera topping had cheese while the posted menu said it was vegan.

The dessert options consisted of many different kinds of gelato displayed behind a large glass counter to the right of the cash register.  We placed our orders and the cashier gave us a plastic number.  We sat down at a small table and as we waited we noticed that they played salsa music over the speakers.  It only took 10-15 minutes for our orders to arrive and it looked like the cashier did all the cooking.  I think she called our number and I went to the counter to get the orders.  They both came on one tray in wide, shallow bowls with the Pastagina logo on the rims.  Each order came with a small piece of bread that looked like a miniature French or Italian loaf.  I had ordered the primavera and specified "no cheese" to ensure they followed the posted menu that listed it as "vegan" and not the printed menu that said it came with cheese.  They followed my instructions.  The primavera was very good with the pasta cooked perfectly, just slightly al dente.  I chose fusilli pasta since I hadn't had that for a while.  It came with tomato sauce and vegetables including asparagus, peas, carrots, and red bell pepper.  They were cooked just right, retaining much of the crunch and flavor.  Despite being a vegan dish it was a decent amount of food.  The accompanying bread was also good, tasting fresh.

My wife enjoyed her seafood pasta on multigrain angel hair.  It was also free of dairy so I could have had it.  The sauce included shrimp, calamari, and baby clams along with diced tomatoes and garlic.  My wife had the tropical coconut gelato for dessert that she also enjoyed.

While we ate other parties came in, placed orders, and usually got them to go.  The restaurant had one restroom for patrons only who had to borrow the key from the cashier.  It's hard to find a free restroom in Downtown L.A.  The ones at Macy's Plaza shopping center cost 25 cents to use.  Anyway, we left Pastagina at 6:45 pm, well satisfied and ready for the concert.

In late March 2010 we wanted to eat at the Market Lofts Pastagina before going to the Tears for Fears concert.  Unfortunately we found Pastagina to be closed down and we ate at Ralph's Fresh Fare.  In early May 2010 I had hoped to eat at the Pastagina I had seen in the Beverly Center after my doctor appointment.  But I found it also to be closed down.  I hope the chain hasn't closed down completely.  At least we enjoyed it very much during our one chance.

We saw Toy Story 3 on Monday, June 28, 2010 at the Terra Vista 6 cinema in Rancho Cucamonga.  It was the second film we had seen in theaters in 2010 and the first children’s film I had seen in a very long time, possibly since the 1990’s.  I had seen the first Toy Story when it came out in the mid 1990’s.  I think it was one of the first if not the first computer-generated cartoon major motion pictures.  I enjoyed it very much not only for the animation but also the humor, character, and the story.  The idea that toys have lives of their own when the kids are away is intriguing.  I did not see Toy Story 2 when it came out in 1999.  Maybe I felt I had outgrown it or I didn’t want to see it in a theater full of young kids.  Within the past couple of years I’ve seen parts of it when they played the DVD at our church’s hot dog Saturday night and when they showed it on TV.

My wife had seen the first two Toy Stories and wanted to see the third.  It sounded interesting because it would take place around 10 years after the previous one.  Again I didn’t want to compete with the crowds of kids so we decided to see it on a Monday matinee.  My wife planned to take the Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT) exam in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday, June 28 and I had some spare vacation time.  We originally planned to see it at the AMC Theaters at Victoria Gardens shopping destination.  They charged $11 for the 3D version for matinee.  They also had a 2D version that I believe was less expensive though the price for the matinee wasn’t given online.  The evening prices were $11 for 2D and $14 for 3D.  Using moviefone.com I checked whether there were any closer and less expensive theaters and found one: the Terra Vista 6 that’s only 3 miles from the test center.

I researched the Terra Vista 6 online and learned that it showed first run movies at bargain prices: $5 for matinees and $7 for evening shows after 5 pm with discounts for students, seniors, and kids in the evening.  On yelp.com past patrons said it was an old cinema and I figured (correctly) that it didn’t have stadium seating.  They said it was clean and never crowded.  On the 28th we drove to the test center on the southwest corner of Carnelian and Base Line in Rancho Cucamonga.  We arrived at the intersection 45 minutes early so we decided to “do recon” of the theater and the place where we would have lunch.  We drove further south down Carnelian to where it became Vineyard, crossed Foothill, and turned left on Arrow Route.  On the Southeast Corner of Archibald and Arrow Route was a strip mall that contained Guido’s Deli where we planned to have lunch.  We recalled this place from when we tried to eat dinner there before attending the Fashion Empire 2009 Mood Indigo Fashion Show in June 2009 (see earlier blog).

We found Guido’s that actually has the sign “Guido’s Pizza” above it and continued to drive east on Arrow Route.  We turned left on Haven, crossed Foothill again, and turned right on Town Center Drive.  There were a couple of drives to the right with signs that said “Food Court”.  The MapQuest directions said the theater was on the left side of Town Center Drive going east but we couldn’t find it there, only some open space and a few office buildings.  After dropping my wife off at the test center I returned to Town Center Drive for a second “recon”.  This time I was more successful since I noticed a building with “Theater” on it on the right side of the road.  I turned right into the second drive with the “Food Court” sign and made another left into the parking lot before the drive reached the small roundabout.  The parking lot was empty.  The theater building was tan-colored and looked a bit like a mission-style building.  On the north side it had a row of “buttress” pillars similar to a mission building.  I followed them and turned right to the east side of the building where the entrance was.

The Terra Vista 6 did not look older or very different from most movie theaters, at least from the outside.  It had ticket windows outside, video games and a long concession counter inside, movie posters, and a large board with movie times and prices above the ticket windows.  The entrance was near a plaza and across from ta Subway sandwich café and a taco eatery.  There were benches and tables near the eateries for outdoor seating.  The theater was closed at this early hour of 9 am.  I left, drove west on Town Center Drive and turned right (north) on Haven.  I merged to the left lane that led to the 210 freeway west.  While my wife took the exam I returned home and shopped for our weekly groceries.  She called me around noon to say she was done and that she had passed the exam.  I returned to the test center, picked her up and we drove to Guido’s to get lunch (see later review).

We drove to the Terra Vista 6, parked, and ate lunch at one of the outdoor tables near the plaza.  There was still a lot of time before the 2:50 showing of Toy Story 3 so we walked to an ice cream parlor, Marble Slab Creamery, that’s located on Foothill to the south and east of the cinema.  On the way we saw a building with a Mervyn’s sign but it turned out to be closed.  We walked south on Aspen and then east on Foothill to a large shopping center that included a Bally Total Fitness.  Marble Slab had signs for a “Buy One get One Free” special.  Other signs said they made their own ice cream and served freshly baked cones.  My wife had the Banana Traveler: sweet cream ice cream with banana, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and caramel.  She enjoyed it and it followed an “Elvis” food theme from the days before: “Elvis” crepes of banana and peanut butter at our sister- and brother-in-law’s baby shower on Saturday, and leftover bananas with peanut butter (a.k.a. Elvis Dipping Area) on Sunday.

We returned to the theater where there were many parents with young kids gathered around.  They had a queue set up to the right of the entrance for those who had bought tickets to the 2:50 showing of Toy Story 3.  There were just a few others buying tickets so we quickly bought ours for $5 each and queued up at 2:24 pm.  A mother with a young child in front of us asked if we could save her spot.  We couldn’t since the queue started moving at 2:30 pm before they came back.  We entered and found our way to Theater 6 to the right of the concession counter.  The theater wasn’t very crowded when we got there and we found seats towards the center.  All the other seats soon filled with kids and their parents and some teenagers.  The theater did not have stadium seating and, unlike what it said on yelp.com, it was crowded with kids, most of them shorter than us so no one blocked our view.  Overall the kids were very well behaved throughout, not making much noise during the movie or talking excessively.  I didn’t think anyone had to make their way in front of our seats.

Other than the lack of stadium seating the theater did not seem old.  Its floor sloped down toward the screen that didn’t look too small or too large.  On the screen they showed motion (as opposed to still) ads for HGTV, Sprint, and movie and music trivia.  There was a spot for the film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice that starred the guy who played Oswald on Numb3rs and compared the new film to the Fantasia cartoon.  There were also spots for Argosy University (targeting the unemployed on a Monday afternoon?), the trailer for the movie Inception available on Sprint phones, a TV movie or show called Standing Ovation, the Toy Story 3 sticker collection, and a Google ad featuring the Toy Story characters.  The official trailers began at 2:51 pm.  First was the third installment of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader directed by Michael Apted.  It would be screened in 3D as I believe was said for all the films previewed.  I thought it was a bit ironic that they were advertising these films as showing in 3D in a non-3D theater before a film that was showing in 3D at other, more expensive theaters.  Next was a quick trailer for Smurf’d that wasn’t coming until summer 2011.  The last trailer was for the animated movie Tangled, a variation of Rapunzel.

Before the feature presentation they showed this very strange short animated film called “Night and Day” that involved these literally transparent cartoon characters who never spoke.  I couldn’t really get into it and I was glad it was short.

Then the feature presentation began.  I’m not going to give much detail because I don’t want to spoil it but it was excellent.  We already knew a bit about it from the previews online and reading reviews.  While eating lunch a woman sitting near us told us a spoiler but we still enjoyed the film very much.  It has excellent animation, action, and effects, all better than the first two Toy Stories.  But it’s the story (the toy story?) that truly elevates it.  The main characters are now well-known and have their own histories but we still got to see other sides of them, some hilarious.  I thought the film explored deeper and more complex themes than the first two: family, growing up, transitions.  Nothing really new, but still different from the toys’ perspective.  It made think of the toys I used to play with.

The voice acting by both the familiar and new characters was top notch.  I really thought of them as full living characters and not just things, just like how children see their toys.  The film has a lot of humor and some suspense that I thought got rather intense for its G-rating.  Parts get emotional and I was almost brought to tears as my wife was.  Everything is well paced and easy to follow but a lot was unexpected even with the spoilers we knew beforehand.  The film lasts for one hour and 45 minutes but doesn’t seem that long.  There are many new characters some of whom are well developed and complex, others are hilarious.  Overall, I couldn’t find any flaws with the film.  It would have been worth seeing in 2D at the AMC evening show for $11 or even in 3D for $14.  We got a real steal seeing it for $5.  As we left we saw people queuing up for the 5:15 pm showing of Toy Story 3.  This crown looked like it had more teenagers.  The film appeals to all generations.

Spoilers.

I had first seen The Kalahari Typing School for Men several months ago among the audiobooks at the Covina Public Library.  I didn’t read it yet because I read on the cover that it was part of a series that begins with The Number One Ladies Detective Agency, that’s also the name of the series.  The Covina Public Library had this audiobook in circulation and I waited for it to become available.  For a while it was listed as checked out and later it was listed as lost.  I needed an audiobook to help get some tedious chores done so I decided to forego my regular tendency to read mystery series in order and read Kalahari Typing School.  Like all the Number One Ladies Detective Agency books it’s written by Alexander McCall Smith who’s from Scotland and I believe he teaches at either a law school or a school of criminology.  I also had heard that this series was made into a BBC TV Series and was shown on HBO.

Like the other books in the series, The Kalahari Typing School for Men takes place in Gaborone, the capital of the African nation of Botswana.  The main character is Ma Ramotswe, detective and owner of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency.  Other major characters include Ma Macutsi, assistant detective at the agency; Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, Ma Ramotswe’s fiancée and owner and chief mechanic of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors; and his two apprentices.  I believe that they recur throughout the series along with some other minor characters.  Everyone refers to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni by his long formal title, even Ma Ramotswe.  The book teaches much about Botswana and the customs there.  It’s a country of around 2 million people that, unlike most African countries, never suffered through any dictatorship phase after gaining independence from colonial rule in the 1960’s.  Ma Ramotswe remarks how the people of Botswana have long been good, polite people, though that may be changing with the next generation.  She thinks about how the people of Botswana aren’t like the wild Swazis or the aggressive Zulus.  In Botswana people refer to each other as “Ma” for Ms. and ma’am or “Ra” for Mr. and sir.  They also refer to someone who has died as “late”, like most of us do.  However, when asking if someone has died, a character asks, “Is she late?”

The mysteries turn out to be simply elements in the lives of the main characters among the other things going on.  The title of the book is a business venture started by Ma Macutsi.  She went to the Botswana Secretarial College and got the highest score on the final exam in the school’s history: 97%.  Despite this she originally had a harder time finding a job than her lower-scoring but prettier classmates.  The story also includes the characters’ love lives, lives at home, and friends.  One plot line involves the opening of a rival detective agency that stresses that it is owned and operated by a man.  It’s called the “Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency” and has the tagline “Ex-CID, (the South African policy force?), Ex-New York (the proprietor lived in there for a short time), Excellent”.

There is a lot of humor in the book.  The story is rather light and relaxing.  The mysteries mostly involved finding people from the past and checking up on a possible errant husband.  There’s no murder or real crimes committed other than minor ones in the past.  They’re very tame compared to the police procedural mysteries that I normally read.  The book proceeds at a very leisurely pace and ultimately everything is resolved to nearly all the characters’ satisfaction.

McCall-Smith includes in the book some interesting points.  During Ma Macutsi’s typing lesson she asks a student to type an essay about “the most important things in your life.”  What a great topic for a general essay.  Students write about their families and their favorite sports teams.  Lots of Ma Ramotswe’s thoughts are revealed as she takes care of her foster orphans and works on her cases.  She ponders how schools are like prisons where children are forced to be there and the older children and bullies dominate.  When researching the background of someone she’s trying to find, she reflects how people’s lives are fragile and her just a few words from another can change the whole course of someone’s life.

The audiobook is read by the actress Lisette Lecat who has a slight but very understandable African accent.  She gives slightly different voices to the different characters, just enough to distinguish them.  I enjoyed the book despite the mysteries not being the major focus.  It’s definitely a change from the usual mysteries I read since it has a female detective and takes place in Botswana.  I consider it more escapist fiction than the compelling suspense of most mysteries I read.  There are many books in the series and I think The Kalahari Typing School for Men is the third or fourth installment.  A few of the others are audiobooks at the Covina Library.  Maybe I’ll check them out the next time I want some light reading.