Amber B.'s Profile

Caring for a furball friend can be costly but Value Vet makes the financial impact a bit easier to bear.

$35 exam fee
$36 for Rabies booster + yearly DHPP vaccine

The only thing that brought it down to 4.5-stars is the 50-minute wait to see the doctor after my set appointment time. I've never even waited that long for my own doctors! Nobody really even gave me an estimated wait time which I would have really appreciated as I was using my lunch hour for this. I did not experience a significant wait at my previous visit which was first thing in the morning so if you're pressed for time I'd recommend making your appointments for early in the day before they have a chance to get too backed up. If you're just in need of a vaccination or two for your furry friend you don't even need an appointment (though you should call ahead of time just to be safe) as I saw several pets quickly receive vaccinations as walk-ins during my wait (these are administered by techs so it does not interfere with the doctors keeping on schedule).

An improvement at this visit from my last visit was the extremely warm and friendly care my pet received. Not to say the doctor or techs were cold before but this time I really felt good vibes from the people helping us and was at ease putting my pup in their capable hands. A tech, RJ, administered Alex's vaccinations so gently that the 2 needles only elicited 1 mini baby growl and Alex didn't even fidget or try to get away. Being a rescue pup with some snippy ticks to his personality I expected my baby boy to act up and start biting fingers left and right but aside from being a bit antsy he was not nervous at all and in the hands of strangers behaved like the sweet little boy I know him to be.

Holy crap, I can actually chew things on BOTH sides of my mouth without risking random sharp stabs of pain! After YEARS of discomfort from an ill-fitting crown (done by a negligent local dentist during my UCLA student dental insurance days) I finally sucked it up and got my root canal post and crown re-done and THIS time I was in the aptly capable hands of Dr. Joyce. My case was a bit of a tricky one but with patience and diligence and the steady hands of her lovely assistants I now have a well-placed crown that I can actually CHEW on (save for a bit of residual tenderness from the recentness of the procedure). At the same time that the permanent crown was delivered Dr. Joyce also went ahead and took care of an existing cavity in the area that had been missed at my previous visit. Initially, I was sort of cursing her for the extra pain inflicted but hey I'm a happy camper now and that filling didn't even cost me a copay!

I really like Dr. Joyce (I have recently been switched over to her care, having previously been seen by Dr. Cheung). I've learned a lot of things about dental care and my own physiology thanks to her in the couple of visits we've had together. Even better, she has been right on top of juicing me up with more Novocain during procedures right when I am starting to need another hit and before I even have to ask. This is HUGE to me because in the past with other dentists when I was younger I wasn't aware that I could even ASK for more or that I wasn't supposed to be feeling the drill! I still shudder at the memories (and am still fricken' terrified of the dentist due to this early traumatization) but Dr. Joyce has made dental visits a lot easier for me and even the first Novocain shots don't hurt all that bad.

Such luck to find a dentist I trust and actually like!

After stopping by this sale briefly (and during the last hour of the last day to boot), I can not imagine ever ever ever ever EVER purchasing a single thing at an LF store for full retail price. Check the pricing and you'll see for yourself that it's an absurd markup. It's so handy that you can find price lists floating around the warehouse too so you know exactly how deep of a hole you're about to burn in your wallet (although is it just me, or does it always end up being significantly more than what I optimistically calculate in my head?)

Plenty of inventory remained even at the tail end of the sale. PLENTY. Like mounds upon mounds of clothes. The only sections that showed obvious depletion were the shoes and accessories and maybe the skirts/shorts. Oh, and the $500 leather pants selling for $35 (wtf?)...not a pair could be found bigger than a size 26 and those suckers run about 2 sizes small in the waist though the legs fit true to size and felt like a buttery soft dream. Sigh. Wasn't meant to be. I still scored like crazy and walked out with:

1pr J(heart)CO multicolor slip-ons ($15)
2 knit beanies ($7 each)
1 Millau black/plaid vest ($18)
1 Millau cropped lace blazer ($24 - original price $168)
5 LF tees ($6 each - original price $54-84 each)
1 Car Mar corduroy skirt ($12 - original price: $108)
1pr leggings ($7)
1pr Era of Chaos denim ($12 - original price $238)
2prs Furst Premium denim ($12 - approx original price $216 each)

A lot of the "original retail price" tabs are missing from the clothing tags on items but being LF you know those original prices are sky high.

Next time I am definitely down to be one of those eager beavers who gets to the sale an hour or more before it officially starts and queues up at the closed doors waiting patiently. You might want to consider doing it too. I think it would be SO worth a few less hours of sleep to score some RIDIC deals.

Though slightly cost prohibitive at around $3 a pop Papparich peddles crack buns! These bad boys are so freakin' delicious.

Try to get them freshly baked and WARM and they will just melt in your mouth. Buy a box of 6 (and get a discount if you bring back the reusable box in which they pack half-dozen orders) and take some home to friends or save for yourself for later because you know you're not gonna want to part with even half of a bun once you've tasted one. Each bun comes in it's own paper bag printed with microwave instructions you can heat them up individually at home. Ohhhhh man, just thinking about these things is torture. I want want want right now now now!

There are 2 flavor varieties aside from the "Milk" bun and while tasty, neither of them are as good as the original. Crusty and slightly sugary on the outside, soft and buttery on the inside. Perfection.

Today Groupon ran a special $1 lunch deal on many restaurants around town and Frankie & Johnnie's was one of the deals listed. I snapped it up right away since it's so close to my work and it was one of the few that offered something I could eat on my current diet plan i.e. a salad w/protein. I presented my Groupon Now code to the cashier who was about to happily accept it but then she looked puzzled and consulted with the owner who also was puzzled and then told me this was not a deal they had approved of! Hmm..okay..so  now what do I do?

I called up Groupon customer service and they promptly apologized and issued me a credit to my account for the money I paid and the owner of F&J also asked to speak to them so he could clear things up. He was really concerned with the fact that customers were going to be coming in and getting upset and angry when they couldn't use the deal and he made sure the Groupon representative knew it was imperative to get those orders canceled right away.

To compensate me the owner offered me a slice of pizza which I had to decline due to my diet to which he exclaimed, "what! a diet? but you look so great!...you want a salad? ok, it's ok, go ahead and have a salad it's ok". So in the end I did get my salad after all and didn't have to compromise my diet! THANK YOU!

At first I was going to be a little bit grumpy and "wtf-facey" but the owner was so nice and really customer service does go a looooong way with me so I left a happy camper. The pizza did look and smelly yummy though so once I am on a diet-hiatus I will for sure be back to try out a slice or two in the future.

Holy crap was this a feast for gluttons! It took me one whole hour on this particular day to even GET ON the 405 in WLA so I was horribly late to the event, fearing the worst that all of the food would have been gobbled up already but as it turns out I made perfect timing and lucky for me my buddy Ricky H. saved me a share of any dish served that I missed! Thank you!

Right when I took a seat the food started rolling out hardcore. Plate after plate of different dog varieties. The Rueben was bombtastic, loved the Thai Slaw dog and the Green Monster too! I tested out my luck with the ghost chili pepper sausage and was pleasantly surprised! Different folks had different reactions but it didn't *taste* hot to me but whooo boy were my sinuses cleared out and the next day so was the rest of me..wah wah. The star of the show was the sweet potato tater tots (hey, I think these are okay on my diet on carb days! yessssss). Gimme gimme! We asked for a 2nd order and it got swiped by other fans while we were up in line for ice cream. Booooo but I don't blame them. The unique sauces served on the side are gems too. Servers were alwasy on hand bringing more food and asking us if we wanted to try something new or make any special requests.

After slowing working my way through all the dogs and sides that were delivered to our table as well as 2 or 3 glasses of fancy schmancy wine poured by the hostess with mostest herself I managed to find room to try the ice cream (of course I did). That creamy goodness was the perfect end to a night of gorging.

Such an amazing event. Thank you Slaw Dogs for your unending and overwhelming hospitality and thank you Brittany for making it all happen!

The Great Scott! event totally surpassed my expectations and I've eaten at The Tam in the past on a few occasions! We arrived halfway through (an hour late) but we were still able to get plenty of food and drink and sampled every single item offered! There was never a dearth of food nor were there any crazy lines or vultures to elbow through. We all sat at tables and booths reserved for us or bellied up to the bar and had a very civilized and enjoyable Sunday evening in Atwater Village.

The beers were poured for us in small little taster glasses (great sized glasses, I want to find some like that for home!) so we could sample all varieties. The beers tasted great but I was really wowed by all of the deeeelicious food offered up. In order of my favorites we tasted chorizo balls, cheese balls, brisket sliders on sweet rolls, kobe beef corn dogs, peanut slaw, chili, house made chips. The 1st two faves are fairly self explanatory...what's not to love about anything in the shape of balls? The brisket sliders will for sure bring me back. Mmmmmm such tender delectable bites and NO yuck-o fatty pieces. The peanut slaw was unique and fresh, pairing perfectly with the sliders.

Such a nice Sunday early dinner event. Thanks to Katie for showing me a better side of The Tam O'Shanter than I'd ever seen before and thank you of course to The Tam for such friendly generosity!

Pink Taco's patio has become infamous for its great parties and this one was no exception! The space was filled to the brim with Yelpers costumed in their finest artistic/creative/funny/slutty attire and with all those heat lamps surround us the chill of the evening had no chance at putting a damper on the festivities.

The man and I were unable to partake in the plentiful oceans of booze being passed around (the drinks seemed bottomless!) and had to bow out of several rounds of shots with some fave friends like Niva S., Janea W., Sue Z. (+K.B.!! wooot), Tara C. (with fabulous Dia de los Muertos full face makeup she did herself on the fly!), Travis I, Bong E., et al but we still had a blast chatting and eyeing everyone's cool duds. I t was a real struggle to refrain from the mounds of tamales de elote and brownies and churros but we were strong(!!) and limited ourselves to just the protein (pollo y asada) and a bit of guacamole and our the growling tigers in our tummies were sated.

This was the perfect jump-start to a long week/weekend of Halloween festivities. Thank you Pink Taco, Brittany and Christina!

What a wonderful experience...Jusstine has such a warm and exuberant spirit you can't help but instantly like her and feel at ease. I was both excited and nervous when I was preparing my list of questions to ask her. I felt very vulnerable and insecure knowing that I would be opening my heart, mind and inner thinkings to a veritable stranger but once I was sitting with Jusstine all of my insecurities melted away and I was able to ask her so many silly questions that I would never ever allow myself to ask even my closest friends! Right from the get go Jusstine told me what she saw about me right away, about the nature of my spirit and my path in this life. From there we segued seamlessly into my questions and easily filled a full hour. My questions ranged across all topics from the future of my career to my current romantic relationship to repairing broken friendships and even to the emotional well-being of my dog! She cleansed my dog's energy of negativity he was still carrying around with him from his former caretaker who abused him, my dad's energy of negative thoughts and worries concerning his health and upcoming surgeries, and MY energy too. After I had exhausted my giant long list of questions, Jusstine led me through a healing that was fun and gave me useful tools to employ in the future on my own. Jusstine made a recording of the entire session and promptly uploaded and emailed it to me the very same day. I have yet to listen to it again though I intend to do so in another month or so to see what new things have come to light that might make even more sense.

So many things Jusstine mentioned instantly jumped right out at me as being true about myself, about this absolutely amazing man in my life, and about past life experiences. She noted several locations has having significance: SF - where my family lives, Texas - where I am going in January for work related training, New York - where I just 2 days ago (about a week after my reading) found out I'll be going for work for a week, and Paris - no current significance, but we'll see! She will NOT give you an answer just because it's what you want to hear and makes it clear that so many things to come in the future are affected by personal choice, for example exactly when I will have children. It was also comforting to hear her take on certain things about my relationship were consistent with what she had told me the very first time I met her and had only been able to ask her 1 specific question.

The healing Jusstine did on my shih tzu Alex has been transformative. The morning before our meeting he had been crying and hunching up his back, not wanting to walk much, in obvious pain. When I got home to him later that day he was totally fine physically, walking normally etc. and in the days SINCE he has had all kinds of energy when normally he's lethargic and mopey. He's happy and spunky and is actually AWAKE and active every time I come back home to him instead of being passed out asleep somewhere and not even aware that I am home for up to an hour! He actually RUNS when I take him out for walks now and has been barking his little heart out when he wants something like to be let up on to the bed with me (somewhat to my chagrin)!

Whether you have a burning question that you need answered right away or you are just looking for some insight in to your life in general GO SEE JUSSTINE. Do it! If you sign up for her newsletter she sends out deals here and there for substantial discounts on both in-person and telephone readings. And when you do go see her, make sure you make that list of questions, the more specific the better!

9am on a Sunday you say? I was slightly apprehensive about my ability to be friendly at this hour on a weekend but thankfully I didn't go out boozing the night before per usual so that plus with the help of finding a carpool buddy in Linny H. I made it to the event right on time and in a cheery mood to boot!

Immediately at sign in we were treated to coupons for savings at several Halloween themed events in the area and of course, some Yelp schwag, bouncy balls! Immediately upon entering Cinema Secrets I spied with my little eye a giant bottle of vodka. Yes! Beeline! Vodka, OJ, Bloody Mary mix (in various flavor varieties) as well as countless other BM accoutrements were laid out on the counter. There were even Slim Jims or something similar to them. The booze kept being replenished as soon as a bottle ran dry and some people were definitely sippin' on a little too much of that sauce. Had to duck and dive a few times from some awkward drunk guy situations. Once done concocting a morning cocktail to perfect we just kept on moving down the line for some grub! Mo's served up whole grain pancakes (yum), creme brulee french toast, and brisket hash (oh praise the Lord this was divine!). I went back for a heaping plate of seconds of that hash. Later on the Hot Sauce truck arrived so on our way out to the car I sampled the tri tip and chicken versions of their chili with a little of ALL flavors of the hot sauce sprinkled atop. Tri tip was the winner for me.

Cinema Secrets itself is an awesome store! Fully stocked with all kinds of goodies! I ended up purchasing several pairs of outrageous fake eyelashes, a mustache for my boyfriend's costume, thigh high stockings, Pumpkin Pop Rocks, and on impulse a $1 fake cigarette - all for 20% off! I felt a bit overwhelmed and almost didn't buy anything, thinking I would just return later when the store was not so jam packed but once I spotted the giant wall of REAL YAK AND HUMAN HAIR mustaches and beards I knew I couldn't leave empty handed...although with price tags of ~$35 for those I instead opted for the cheaper synthetic versions.

I wasn't lucky enough to have my raffle number drawn for any of the prizes BUT the girl who won the voucher for $200 worth of makeup application randomly came up and asked if I wanted her prize because she wouldn't be back in the area. Uhm, YES? Hell yes! I flipped through the makeup design look book and was impressed! I can't wait to get my makeup done! Thank you thank you Katie B, Cinema Secrets and unknown girl who gave me her prize. It's gonna be an awesome Halloween!