A strong earthquake centered in Chino (east of Los Angeles) occurred this morning just before noon Pacific, causing only light damage despite a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale. I was in a (rather dull) interviewing skills class in a 21st floor conference room when the quake struck. Lots of bouncing, then we had to go back to the coursework. Feh. The instructor had flown in from NYC - she had just finished telling an anecdote about 9/11 (you can't make this kind of thing up) when the conference room started rockin' and rollin'. She didn't miss a beat though - we just kept plowing forward after the building safety announcement that all was well. Of course none of us in LA feel better after an earthquake until we hear from Caltech's quake expert and "lesbian-in-charge," Kate Hutton. (I don't know if Kate IS a lesbian, just saying she has that can-do, no-nonsense attitude.)

Another wedding task to check off the list: we have selected Caroline Tran as our wedding photographer. Recommended by my co-worker Linda, we love Caroline's photojournalistic style - can't wait to see what she captures at the wedding!

Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, 8:30 this morning...

Woman on Cell: "I am at the rental car place. No, I haven't gotten a car yet. They wanted me to take a PT Cruiser. No way am I going to be identified as a PT Cruiser driver. No way. My only other choices are an SUV or a Pontiac. And I am NOT driving an SUV, you dig? So I guess I have to take that ugly red Pontiac."

Met with the florist this morning to make arrangements for the wedding party...Philip selected iXora Floral Studio in Pasadena - they recently did a terrific job on the decor for a co-worker's ceremony. Lisa was amazing - she knew exactly what we wanted. Getting more excited about the event now...

A Qantas jumbo jet carrying 345 passengers made an emergency landing Friday with a gaping hole in its fuselage after a mysterious "explosive decompression," officials said.

There were no injuries, but some passengers vomited after disembarking the Boeing 747-400, said Octavio Lina, Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations.

Wow!

The best part? Flight attendants continued with their meal service even AFTER the oxygen masks dropped. Maybe that was the cause of the post-landing vomiting.

Woo! Our fridge has been posted on Fridgewatcher.com, a new site where people open their fridges to others via the Internets. Cause, like their slogan says, every fridge tells a story. Visit and behold the contents of my food preparation area cooling unit.

Lost 3 more pounds, for a total of 15 now...steady as she goes, despite the eating binge I went on while Philip was out of the house watching the new Batman film on Tuesday night.

OMG - Loving "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," a new three-part musical miniseries produced specifically for the Internets by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon. Neil Patrick Harris is brilliant in the part of the nerdy supervillain, and the songs are great!

Tasted wedding cake samples at Pastries by Nancy this morning. There were all tasty and great, especially the red velvet and the chocolate-vanilla marble, but we ultimately liked the lemon cake with lemon cream the best. We decided to go with a two-tier round version, similar to the one pictured above. Another choice made and one more task to check off on the "Wedding To Do List."

Philip and I both left work early this afternoon so we could go to the County Clerk's office to pick up our marriage license. We chose the East LA location since it is fairly close to where I work downtown. It was pure chaos at the facility - hundreds of people lined up to get marriage licenses, birth certificates, etc. Lots of screaming babies and Spanish being spoken. We waited in line over an hour just to get to the glass window with the little speaker hole in the center. Since we had applied online last month the process was quick - the clerk printed out our license and asked us to raise our right hands and swear that the information we provided was true. It felt so official - we were both a little emotional at the unexpectedness of it.

Lost 4 more pounds, for a total of 12 so far...another woo!

Spotted these recently:

Arizona 456 YVX - Has a plate-holder from Barber Volkswagen in Ventura, California!

California 5CJT217 - Expired in April 2008!

Our custom-printed wedding invites from Wedding Paper Divas arrived today! Super-fast turnaround - I ordered them just four days ago. Really pleased with how they came out...now I just have to sit down and address them all...

OK, I'm a huge fan of the iPhone, but seriously people, this is a little out of hand. This is the third day of tremendously long lines at all of the Apple Stores here in Los Angeles, with the wait at the Pasadena store topping out at SIX HOURS yesterday. Um, I 'm guessing Apple has reached the correct price point to capture the masses.

Lost 8 pounds after one week on Weight Watchers! Woo!

Celebrated my 45th birthday today. Co-worker Michelle blew up tons of balloons and decorated my desk in fine style!

The "Towering Inferno Cake" that co-worker Barbara made for me! Please note the presence of all of the film's stars. I almost ate Faye Dunaway by accident. There was also a replica of the scenic glass elevator. It was a fairly uneventful day at work, but on the way home things got interesting. First, my mother called to wish me Happy Birthday, but mostly to let me know that our choice of September 12 as a wedding date was inconvenient for her. Not because of prior commitments or anything, her hesitation is because Philip and I do not plan to hang around and act as tour guides for all of our various relatives who might be in town. I was in the middle of explaining that she is more than welcome to come BEFORE the wedding and hang out, but we lost our connection. Not more than 10 minutes later I got into a little fender-bender: I was driving along behind a little old lady (from Pasadena!) who decided at the last second not to proceed though a yellow light and abruptly slammed on her brakes. I did the same, but by sheer physics, the 40 feet between us was not enough to stop abruptly without hitting the rear of her car. No injuries and very minor damage (my front license plate fell off and her bumper was damaged). While I was exchanging information with her, my phone kept ringing - as I got into the car to head home, I checked the voicemail and it was our home security company, calling to tell me that our back door had been breached, and that the police were being called. I rushed home in a panic, fearful that someone had broken in and had hurt my dog Jake - but when I got there I found that it was Philip who had mistakenly entered the wrong disarm code.

Needless to say, my nerves were a complete wreck by the time Philip took me to dinner at Taylors Steak House, but they were soothed by a perfect Manhattan in a freezing cold martini glass. The steaks at Taylors, an old-time steak joint with red leather booths that has been in business since 1953, have been voted the best in LA. Despite the Weight Watchers diet I began on July 4, I indulged in Cream of Mushroom Soup, a medium-rare Filet Mignon with Baked Potato and Zucchini and a bit of Bread Pudding for dessert.

Philip gave me a new Nikon Coolpix camera for my birthday. We love our little pocket Coolpix, and this new one has a 18x zoom and can take 10 megapixel images. Can't wait to learn how to use it!

One word review: Creaky.

From GraphJam.

Oregon YGK 788 - Expired in June 2005!

New Mexico GTX 557 - Has a Pasadena, CA plateholder and lives in Altadena.

New Mexico GWW 966 - Works in Pasadena.

Oklahoma 961 XQG - Works in downtown Los Angeles.

Started a diet today in order to lose 25 pounds by our wedding date: September 12. I signed up to the Weight Watchers online site - it seems to work really well. You track your daily intake and weekly weight loss all online without having to go to an official "Fat Fighters" meeting to be humiliated by merciless Marjorie Dawes. The Fourth of July is probably not the best day to start a diet plan, huh? Wish me luck!

Jeannette, Philip and I sat in the front yard last night in an attempt to catch the annual not-quite-Fourth of July fireworks launched from the Altadena Country Club - they were only 45 minutes late and then ended abruptly with no finale. After we got in the car to take J down the street to her apartment, the finale finally commenced 20 MINUTES LATER. Nice. At least J got to see our insane next-door neighbor "Moonglow" shuffling slowly down the street in the dark - the 65-year-old mother was on a liquor store run. God Bless America!

Joe.My.God asked readers to describe their first car today. I inherited a 1969 Plymouth Fury II convertible - bright yellow with a white retractable ragtop. Naturally it was dubbed "The Big Banana" by my friends. Truly a land yacht, probably longer than today's super-huge SUVs.

The lock on the trunk was busted (you had to jimmy it open with a screwdriver) and the roof leaked - not a pleasant experience in Florida's notorious late-afternoon downpours. The leak was so bad that the floor in the backseat would fill up with water like a swimming pool - the floor eventually rusted away and a hole opened up to the roadway below. But worst of all were the brakes, which failed often...once while driving six fellow students home from high school (we stopped when we hit a small log on the side of the road), and once while traveling on the downslope of a toll bridge, sending me careening through the toll booth area at 45 mph. Sold it (!) after the fan blades came flying off under the hood. Ahh, good times.

Okay, I have been enjoying the coverage of the Olympic Qualifying Trials over the past couple of weeks, but being a non-sports person, one of the reasons I am tuning in is to see the incredible bodies of the athletes. This new "LZR Racer" swimsuit designed by Speedo is completely frustrating - what happened to little briefs?!? Not only is the suit a super-modest body cover-up, it might just be a bit of an unfair advantage: In the last 39 days, 14 world records have been set in the pool, and 13 of them have been in the newly designed swimsuit by Speedo. Proponents claim the new suits offer 5% less drag, water repellant fabric and an "internal core stabilizer" which helps the swimmer maintain form. Are there any swimming enthusiasts who know of similar periods where so many world records have been set in so short a time?

From GraphJam.