Good stuff...

[This post should have pictures... but I didn't have my camera and I ate everything too fast anyways.]

-More sales. :)

-A flickr photo of my roses made it on the Folding Trees website.

-A friend took me to Irv's Burgers in West Hollywood. I started out with just onion rings -- which were freshly fried and delicious. After a bite of my friend's burger, I had to get one for myself. Solid. My German friend's last meal here was a Double-Double at In-N-Out and it reminded me how awesome a good burger can be and so I've been hankering for a burger since then... Irv's satisfied.

Also, the owner lady, Sonia, is so insanely nice and cheerful, genuinely. Not the I'm-high-on-something kind of happy. It's really rare to see her kind of happy. She writes cute things on your plate. My friend's had "Made for you" and a little green shirt drawn on it, because he was wearing a green shirt. My rings had a message that said "Made for me." Then my burger plate said "Made for you and me" and hearts (she thought my friend and I were dating and were going to share the burger). She does this for EVERY person. If you're getting take-out, she'll draw on your take-out bag. She even writes messages in Spanish.

And she has an incredible memory for the details of all the customers' lives (it seems there are tons of regulars). She greeted almost everyone by name and had questions about specific things about their lives (i.e. for friend, "You still looking for a girlfriend?" hahahaha. The spouse-searching question was a common one. Typical Korean lady. :P). One lady rolled in on her wheelchair simply to tell her "Happy Fourth of July." It's that kind of place.

-We also paid a visit to the folks at L'Artisan Du Chocolat. I wanted to get more chocolate and also remind them I would gladly gladly work for them when chocolate high season returns. In terms of purchases:
-Fennel
-Kiwi and curry: I think it's my favorite.
-Green apple and cinnamon: This was one of the prototypes I tried during my first visit and I definitely like the version they're selling right now. The prototype was just really sour. This one has a mild apple pie flavor to it.
-Peach: We both really liked this flavor. I don't know if this makes any sense... but you know how peaches have that kinda blush to them? The peach bon bon tasted like that blushing peach pink, reddish color. It's amazing. And she hand paints them with a cocoa butter with a little gold dust in it. It's so pretty!

She also gave us a free one -- on the grounds that I traveled so far to visit the shop. I chose the cucumber vodka, one of the summer flavors. My friend liked it. I thought it was good, but I couldn't taste the cucumber... probably because my taste buds had been destroyed by years of Tabasco abuse. She said it has a sorbet-like flavor.

We talked a bit of chocolate shop talk... About how to make fruit-infused truffles, which truffles she hand paints, the wonderful magnetic chocolate molds that she uses to transfer the acetate paper patterns (their bon bons are little jewels). Seriously, I want to work and learn from these people.

Her husband was there working too. It's funny, because I speak in Korean to the wife and then English to her husband. The wife's English isn't so good (although I've never heard her try?), but her French is excellent, so her husband and her talk in French to each other. It just ends up being a fun language triangle. Oh my gosh, I really really really really want to work for these people. You have no idea.

-Then we went to go watch The Hangover. Hahaha.

Tomorrow... Work on a ton of orders, but fireworks and good eats in the evening. :)