Walking my dog through Echo Park bright and early on a few weekends ago, I caught this dog just hanging out on the roof of the house.  Just – standing there, watching us with his/her steely eyes.  I took it as a sign, but of what exactly, I’m not exactly sure.

The future of Metblogs is looking up (yay!), and we’re really energized after this weekend’s awesome Canter’s blogathon (yay again!), and, to top it all off, the Donut Summit is getting closer and closer!
Last week, Kevin and I headed up to Griffith Park to do some location scouting, and we think we’ve found the most donut-friendly spot in Griffith Park. If you’re looking for donuts on June 13th, you’ll want to head to the Vermont Ave entrance to the park. There are three picnic areas just slightly north of that entrance and slightly south of the Greek theatre, near the intersection of Vermont and Commonwealth Canyon drive. We’ll be in one of those three picnic areas, and we should be super easy to find – look for our donut signs! We’ll also post a quick update on the blog and on twitter the morning of the event to let you know which of those three picnic spots we’re in. And hey, look, here’s a map to help you find us on June 13!  We’ll be at one of the three spots indicated.

In the meantime, we’ve created a clearinghouse for Donut Summit info over at donutsummit.wordpress.com. You can also follow @donutsummit on twitter, and, if you’re still kicking around facebook, join our event page, and help spread the word!

Don’t saw you weren’t warned.  Both Arcadia and Pasadena have special enforcement programs set for this week.

Arcadia has the week set aside for seat-belt and child restraint enforcement.  Remember if the kidlet is 6 or under, or less than 60 lbs they need to be in an approved safety seat or booster.  Adults…well you know the drill, click it or ticket and that goes for your passengers too.  Arcadia PD Blog post HERE

Pasadena has its 4th sobriety check point of the year planned for Thursday night starting at 7Pm and running until 3AM Friday.  Pasadena Star News post HERE.

The Blog-a-thon was a wild adventure into 24 hour Canter’s Land! I spent a total of about 6 hours there and I will admit my clothing and hair still, uh, smells a bit like it. Luckily it’s laundry day…

More importantly! While we fell way short of our fundraising goals (I did aim REALLY high), we did raise money for LA Foodbank. There was $61.78 deposited into our collection box. I hope you don’t mind if I round up and donate $62 even.

$62 donated = 248 meals or 310 pounds of food.

Fantastic!

As for the canned goods, I estimate we collected between 60 and 100 pounds of it. The breakdown is as follows:

56 cans
4 package of pasta
5 packaged meals
2 jars
1 GIANT container of peanut butter
1 box of popcorn
1 bag of nuts
1 bag of pretzels

I will be delivering the cash and all these foods to the Foodbank tomorrow.

Thanks again to everyone who came by to nosh, kibitz and donate. We loved being there.

On behalf of Lucinda, Julia, all the blogathoners, everyone who supported, contributed this endeaver — especially Canter’s! — I just want to say thanks and good day! We’re out!

Dashed into Canter’s this morning to say hi to WilL… we’re two of the oldest bloggers… and by that I mean we’ve been around 5-6 years on this site… okay, okay, maybe we ARE even the oldest of this crew of kids… I’m not fessing up, but we’ve been around!  And he’s an inspiration in his bike riding!  I think of him riding around the city a lot of moments I’m stuck in traffic.

But back to this morning….I have to say one of the greatest things about Canter’s is that they have FREE PARKING!  How rare is that in this city?  Damn rare. And more restaurants should take notice. Canter’s has been around since the 20′s. How’s that for surviving endless financial meltdowns!!!

But amidst the cacophony of early Sunday, the array of characters was really splendid.  If you want a slice of life of LA, young, old, hipster, native, ethnic…. it’s all here.  And white toast too.  I had a Bially.  Yum!

Thanks to all you hardworking bloggers (especially Julia and Lucinda) who put this together!  Hope we raised lotsa cash for the cause!

There are 15 minutes remaining to the blogathon, still plenty of time to get here and drop off cash or canned goods to benefit the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, and earn my unending adoration that will continue even beyond Metblogs scheduled lights-out on May 31.

The gentleman in the booth to my right just ordered a Tanq martini “with one olive.” My MAN!

http://twitcasting.tv/wildbell/movie/177230

Lucinda’s shown up with her parents, along with Metblogger Annika and her sister Kjrsten!

In the booth behind me, an elderly gentleman sat eating his breakfast, when out of nowhere Canter’s owner Gary dove into the booth with a bag full of baked goods, apologizing profusely telling the gent that he was losing his mind.

In the next moment Gary was up walking away and gesticulating wildly in mysterious and distressed exasperation. And a few moments later he’d returned, again begging forgiveness before leaving.

Was the gent in the booth behind me some sort of mobster? Relative? Food critic? Of course I had to ask and it turned out none of the above.

“Gary is my good friend,” he said. “And usually he makes time to sit and talk with me, but this morning he’s too busy and it’s driving him crazy.”

Just then Gary returns and says he expects the man to be in attandance at his upcoming funeral before jetting off down the aisle and out of sight.

“He’s very upset,” I remark, and the man nods.

“I’m upset that he’s upset!” he says before getting up from his breakfast and settling his bill at the cashier.

Not gonna guarantee the quality, but I set Twitcast to stream  live (whatever “live” means), stuffed my iPhone into the sugar packet dispenser on the Canter’s counter and pointed it at some guy sitting in a booth with a computer in hopes that the line of thousands of people streaming out the door to drop off canned goods and monetary donations  for the LA Regional Food Bank doesn’t let up!

http://twitcasting.tv/wildbell/movie/177088

OK! My order of eggs benedict has justly re-elevated my dangerously low blood sugar levels and I’m in place here at Canter’s ready to blogathon the heck outta this place until noon!

Brief twitcast from my iPhone: http://twitcasting.tv/wildbell/movie/176945

Five cups of coffee later, I am fully caffeinated and handing things off to Will for our last shift! You’ve still got two hours to get down here with your foodbank donations, so come on down, have some pastrami, and support an important cause!

I was on my way into work in Beverly Hills this morning so I stopped by quickly to say hi to Alexandra, who is holding down the fort at the LA Metblogs Blogathon/food drive.

I saw Pam, the manager, on my way in to the counter.

On my way out, I picked up a half dozen assorted bagels so I will have bagels for breakfast all week!