and i'm back

Tuesday, February 17, 2004, at 01:50PM

By Eric Richardson

I took a trip to nowhere for the last week or so. I think I got busy, but really the time just sort of disappeared and all of sudden I was here now and it was gone and ... uhhh... yeah.

Saturday the waterski team took its first trip out for the semester, braving the 54 degree waters of Lake Elsinore. Weather was crappy in the morning, but cleared out for the afternoon leaving sunny skies and glassy water.

Saturday night Kathy and I went to Tesoro Tratteria for Valentines dinner. OpenTable was my best friend in the hunt for a resturant, along with the Downtown News resturant guide. They were out of the crab cakes in the second course, but other than that I was pretty satisfied. Off their special Valentines menu I had the PUREÈ OF GOLDEN CHANTERELLE SOUP, the AHI TUNA TARTARE ON TOAST POINT, the SAFFRON FETTUCCINE WITH LOBSTER AND MUSSELS, and finally the RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE MOUSSE HEART (sorry about the caps... i'm just copying and pasting).

Sunday night we hit up Genghis Cohen to see Yardley, which is now starting to actually look like a band with the addition of drummer Stuart Johnson (formerly of the New Radicals). Lee Beth had to fight through having an unplugged monitor and not being able to hear herself, but she did just fine.

Monday Magilla and I walked around downtown, looking for an apartment for next year. Our leading candidate right now is Premiere Towers, on Spring between 6th and 7th. They have 2br/2ba for $1300, which would be ridiculous a lot of places, but is cheap in LA. City Park wants $1820 next year for less space and crappier facilities.

And I think that brings us up to date. Whew.