Westwood

Last Wednesday was the second time I adventured to Westwood, the heart of UCLA territory. I had been wanting to see Cloud Atlas, a movie that most people seem to know very little about except that Tom Hanks is in it. I was looking forward to seeing this movie as the trailer was incredibly epic and wonderful with great music and editing (although a little long, like the movie) and ultimately I was happy I went and saw it in theaters. Click HERE for a review of the movie by Alex Barker.

What made the day even better, though, was after a nice buttery popcorn in a cold and nearly deserted theater I was finally able to try out Diddy Riese! This place is an institution in Westwood Village and many UCLA students live off of their ice-cream cookie sandwiches (just under $2 for any combo of cookie and ice cream!). I think it was worth the search for parking to be able to say that I've finally been there (I had cinnamon sugar cookies--aka snickerdoodles--with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, quite tasty).

The rest of Wednesday was spent celebrating Halloween! I baked some amazing cookies from my favorite baking blog! Then I went to a friend's place in Silver Lake and we had rye Sidecars, Trader Joe's appetizers, delicious guac, mashed potatoes, and ratatouille with sausage (plus a few other potlucked items) while passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. It was a ton of fun and exactly the low-key evening I was hoping for.

Plus, Friday I was able to go to a Halloween party that was Christmas themed, a weird and yet awesome way to combine two holidays that all the retail stores have been mushing together for years.