Portland Trip: Day 2-4

Since I’ve been watching pictures of the wedding and reception and camping and general good time-ness flash endless on my laptop, I suppose I should get around to describing it. Sorry for the delay (Beth!).

Bux has been my friend since high school; sophomore year to be exact. It was English with Ms. Rhode and I sat in the front row between the two Jasons (which I have never in my life called them by). Long legged Bux to my left, long legged Soch to my right. I’m sure we worked on a few Macbeth projects together at some point, but the whole end result was that we became pretty good friends. It amazes me sometimes how some people stay with you well after the period of time that you knew them in has passed. Beth is one of them (kindergarten) and Bux is another. Since I have a habit of moving out of state (again and again), keeping in touch with people has never been easy. But somehow I kept in touch with Bux. I guarantee it was more the result of his efforts then mine, but it worked and there you go. Have I mentioned that Bux is 6’8”? He’s my tallest friend and incredibly huggable. That has no point to the story but I had to mention it. Anyhow, it was St. Patrick’s Day two St. Pats past when Bux sent me a little picture on my phone with a picture of his girlfriend. You could tell he was pretty proud as he’s never sent me a picture of his girlfriend before. About 10 months after that came the wedding invitation. I couldn’t have been happier for him. I was also happy to hear that it was an informal affair taking place in an Oregon campground. I hate panty hose, I really do.

Cape Lookout State Park

To pick up where I left off last time, Beth and I arrived at Lookout State Park around 4 in the afternoon…wearing nice clothes and full makeup. We said hi to everyone and had a beer, hoping that we would stay pretty long enough for everyone to see us pretty before we had to change and start the camping dirt on skin process. We lasted about 45 minutes and then I started to panic that all the good tent spots would be gone. So I changed into my two sizes too big jeans and my bad $3 on sale at Old Navy t-shirt and started pitching my borrowed tent next to a tree in the 2nd site (there were 5 sites in total in the group site). This decision turned out to work well for us (Beth pitched her tent next to mine) as the 2nd site was the gathering grounds for all the late night parties-short stumble from fun to bed.

Tents perfectly placed
Beth, Bux, and Lou

Soon after the tents were up, the wood guy (which c’mon, sounds a bit dirty, doesn’t it?) came around and bundles were bought. Then the fire started up and the cooking began. I like the below picture by the way…Beth and I had tried to start the fire and we were doing…OK, then Mr. I-used-to-be-a-boy-scout comes around and completely shows us up. The guy’s name was Terry, but I thought he looked like a Kent and called him such the entire time we were there. Not that he reads this, but sorry Terry-come-Kent. You were a good sport and a great fire starter.

Kent takes over...

Finally, Bux’s bride-to-be, Krissy, showed up and we paparazzi-ed her.


The bride to be

As the day wore on, more people showed up. Some old high school friends, some people I had previously met visiting Portland, and other people I had never met but who were all really cool. We ate and drank and talked. I’m not sure what time we went to bed finally but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with a damaged head in the morning.


Diana, Jeff, and Beth

After breakfast and a shower, we all started to get ready for the wedding. It was to take place at the picnic grounds, overlooking the ocean…a short walk from the group camp site. Bux and Krissy had decided not to hire a professional photographer. There was really no need, every one of us had a digital camera and used it. The ceremony was nice (and short!) and the barefooted bride and groom were married (that is officially the corniest line in this post people). The reception was right there as well, with BBQ chicken and pulled pork, cupcakes, two kegs of beer and wine as far as the eye could see. Man, I’m not describing this well. Enjoy the pictures; I think you’ll get the gist.


Drinking beer at the ceremony...awesome!








By 6 PM we all, including the one remaining keg, headed back to the campgrounds. There was more of same eating, drinking, talking….and headache in the morning. It was a great time. Well, not the headache bit, but the rest of it.




Dog Butt!

After two days of dirt, Beth and I were anxious to get to our Portland hotel for a nice shower and cloths laundering. We said our good-byes, stopped for a much needed Starbucks fix, and headed to Portland.

Beth and Diana talk it out...whatever "it" is.

NEXT TIME….PORTLAND….

Portland Trip: Day One and Two

Ah, summer vacations. Long past the days where we can look forward to three blissful months off of doing nothing in particular (save those souls with grown up teaching positions) the grown up us has to plan a measly week or two away from our soulless jobs and try to cram in three months of bliss into it. There’s a lot of pressure on our grown up summer vacations. They have to be good and exciting, yet lazy and relaxing. Depending on the type of person you are, you’ll have a list of all the necessary things that must happen on your vacation for it to qualify as great. Depending on the type of person you are you may even have designated time slots that simply read: Relax Time.

It was about three years ago that I really started planning a specified summer vacation. I had previously just taken my vacation anytime in the year where I felt I needed a one. Recently I realized that I NEED a summer vacation as much as I need a Christmas break. It breaks up the monotony of work days and generally makes me a saner person. When I got the invite for my buddy, Bux’s, wedding I immediately decided to take my summer vacation around the event. Plus, it would be in Portland, which is awesome.

Without going into gas prices (because I couldn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before) let’s just say that I decided to take the Amtrak train to Portland because 1) Even with a sleeper car, the cost would be only $50 more than driving there and back and 2) President Bush’s little stim-u-lie package was just enough to fund the cost. Before you give me a speech on how flying is faster than both the train and driving, let me gently remind you of my aversion to flying…or more specifically, heights. Kevin also wasn’t able to come with me (or when we are frank, I couldn’t come with him because of the flying thing) because his youngest brother was getting married on the exact same date (and oddly, the exact same time when factoring in the time zone difference) in Virginia. Congrats to Ryan and Liz by the way!

OH and three paragraphs down and on a completely unrelated topic, Kevin proposed to me the Saturday before I left. I will give details later, I promise. I just wanted to let you all know because I just realized that I hadn’t mentioned it yet. There, consider it mentioned.

Portland Trip: Day One\Day Two

Most people don’t really enjoy hearing about how a person gets to a destination. I realize this…but I also don’t care. It’s my blog after all. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. Hee.

I caught the Pacific Surfliner in Irvine on Wednesday morning at about 8 AM. The train was busy and I had decided to bring the world’s most awkward suitcase. It’s huge and it’s heavy. Basically it’s the type of suitcase that would fit a small child comfortable and strangely feels like there is one inside too. I only brought this suitcase because Bux’s wedding was a camping affair so I had to bring supplies…sleeping bag, pillow, sleeping mat, as well as all my camping clothes. Loaded up, I had a huge difficulty lifting the thing so I blow a kiss to the person who invented luggage wheels. You are awesome, whom ever you are. Anyhow, on the Pacific Surfliner they don’t have a luggage rack on the bottom floor so I was required to drag the luggage beastie up a very small aisled staircase to the top floor and attempt to stow it in a rack that already was quite full with other people’s luggage. I am not proud; I know that I showed some serious plumber’s crack trying to maneuver my bag in. Sorry Wednesday’s Pacific Surfliner heading north to LA passengers. But really, you could have helped a girl out.

Once in LA, there was an hour layover before the Coast Starlight was ready. I almost missed my train waiting for it. I’m so stupid sometimes. I was out on the platform and I could have sworn the train waiting there had Hawaitha on it (which I could have sworn was another one of Amtrak’s trains) so I didn’t board. I just sat there waiting for some mysterious train to arrive, smoking my cigarettes and checking my watch. Finally, at about two minutes before the train was suppose to leave, I asked one of the train people when the Coast Starlight was going to get there. The lady looked at me like I was on crack and jacked her thumb to the train she was standing next to. Two minutes people and I would have missed it. I would have been standing on that platform for an hour with the world’s most awkward suitcase.

Notice the train there on the right? Yeah, that's the Coast Starlight. Totally missed it.

Once on the train, things started to improve. My little sleeper room (and it is little, a bit like a half of a walk-in closet) was cozy and my concierge guy, Tom, was pretty cool. He is a smoker too so whenever there was a stop where I could get out and smoke, he’d knock on my door and let me know, though half the time I was already by the train car door, pawing at my skin with the look of death in my eyes waiting for the train to stop.

Just by coincidence, an old high school friend of mine (also going to Bux’s wedding) was also on the same train with his girlfriend. We had our lunches together which was nice as I really don’t like eating with strangers. I always feel like I have something stuck in my teeth or something. I had also loaded up my laptop with tons of television and movies so I spent the 30 hour train ride holed up in my very small closet-room. I typically only came out for meals, bathroom breaks, smoke breaks and … well, that’s it. I know it’s kind of sad in a way; I missed a lot of beautiful scenery. But never has 30 hours via train gone so quickly.

The train arrived the next afternoon in Portland about 2 hours late. It was 6:05 when I got in and the rental car company that I had a reservation for closed at 6. 5 minutes. Beth had flown in earlier that day and spent a good deal of time getting to the train station to meet me. Of course because of the car rental, we had to take a taxi BACK to the airport to pick up the car. I’m proud to say that this is probably the biggest tragedy of the entire trip so…not so bad when put in perspective.

After getting the mini van (with Texas plates! The drivers of Portland hate us!) we started out on the hour plus drive to the coast to get to the hotel in Tillamook. It was dark at this point and I was tired so poor Beth had to drive the entire way. We were concerned about running into something along the dark road…like elk…or Satsquatch. Thankfully we didn’t run into anything but a fallen tree (not run in, but passed) and by 10 we were in the hotel room with wine doing best friend catch up.

Texas plates! BOO!

Portland Trip: Day Three

Beth and I woke up the next morning and spent a good two hours getting ready. There was a lot of ironing and hair styling and makeup applying. We were going to be going camping in a few hours, we had to look good. It would be the last time in awhile.

Since it was just down the road, we first headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Their cheese is pretty well known in a lot of the country but Beth, straight from the dairy state, had never heard of it. She also made the comment that she lives in WI and never went to a cheese factory…she had to come to Oregon to see one. Typical…you never see the sights you live around. Anyhow, the factory was pretty neat and they have some awesome ice cream and (duh) cheese. I think we might have spent more time in the gift shop then actually checking out the factory which is…typical. Hee.


Mmmmm....Cheese.

After the Tillamook Cheese Factory, we headed down the street to Blue Heron. This was actually one of my favorite stops. They had a $2 wine tasting, a free sample of cheese, and a bunch of farm animals. It was a really odd collection of farm animals too. They had your typical cows, horses, and chickens but then they also had llamas, emus, and a…peacock.


Beth bounds with her cheese maker.

Later in the afternoon we started to head down to Cape Lookout State Park where the wedding would be held the next day. We made a quick detour to check out the state’s largest waterfall…or so someone told us. I’m sorry that I have no idea what this waterfall was called but it had a beautiful foot path to get there.






NEXT TIME…CAMPING, WEDDING, RECEPTION…

Sleepy Birthday in Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara, CA

“Hello? Blog? Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Where have you been? I thought you were going to write about your trip to Santa Barbara last weekend.”

“I was! But I was a complete dumb ass and forgot my camera. These entries aren’t any good without pictures to back them up.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think the people would understand.”

“You think?”

“Yeah sure, why not? Plus, you know, you could always steal pictures off of the web and claim them as your own.”

“That’s a bit dodgy to do.”

“You’ve done it before.”

“Well yeah, sure, I’ve done it before…but not for an entire entry. I usually only steal one or two.”

“What about the fire entry? Did you take any one of those photos?”

“Shut up.”

“Just saying.”

This is one of the missions in Santa Barbara. I didn't go here, but I saw it.

Last weekend was my birthday. About a month ago I didn’t have any plans for it, which is weird since I usually plan something a good two to three months in advance. This un-planning may have stemmed from the fact that I really wasn’t looking forward to turning 34. I know, it’s stupid, but I really was freaking out like 34 was officially the end of my days. What’s sad is that I’m sure I’ll look back on this 10 years from now and will want to kick my 34 self in the head with a big ole steal toed boot. Anyhow, I finally decided a few weeks ago to spend the day in Santa Barbara. And I decided this because I really wanted to take the train.

I’ve actually been (not in a scary creepy way) obsessing about the train recently. I’m going to Portland in a couple weeks via the train so I think since I ordered my tickets for that I’ve been checking weekly on other places I can take via the train. Did you know you can’t take the train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas? It’s true. It’s the busiest freeway anywhere from Friday afternoon to Sunday (this is not a fact, just something I would believe as true since I’ve sat on that freeway for 7 hours before…) and they don’t have a train to ease the congestion. I guess they USED to have a train between the two cities but was cancelled because no one was using it. They are thinking about bringing it back though with a fancy high speed levitating magnetic train instead of the slow ass shit Amtrak train. That would be awesome.

So yes! Santa Barbara. The night before we were suppose to leave, I decided to be really good and stay home, not drink a single pre-birthday cocktail, and go to bed nice and early so that I wouldn’t be tired waking up at 5:30 AM to catch our train. Of course an unforeseen kink put a wrench in my ingenious plan….I couldn’t sleep. And when I say I couldn’t sleep, I mean, I couldn’t sleep AT ALL. I don’t know if it was excitement or nerves, or over thinking the previous day at work or if someone slipped in some caffeine in my decaf, but after tossing and turning for 4 hours, I finally gave up. I had to get up at 5:30 and by 2 o’clock I’m still on the couch watching Dr. Who. I finally dozed off around 4:30 which means, by all accounts, I did get an hour sleep. It was going to be a great birthday.

The view from the train had my eyes been open to see it.

We caught our train in Irvine and I tried desperately to sleep on the train. But, like my mother, I cannot fall asleep during day light hours. It’s impossible and normally I don’t even try. My mom tells me that in pre-school she had to tell my teachers not to yell at me if I wouldn’t go down for a nap, because I never would. I actually have a faint memory of playing on a plastic slide while all the other kids were sleeping on their mats. I can only imagine that my not napping must have drove my mom crazy early on, I mean, c’mon…naptime…isn’t that what all parents wait for during a day?

So yes! Santa Barbara. We arrive in Santa Barbara around noon. The previous plan was that we were going to go wine tasting right away. However, with an hour sleep under my belt, I didn’t think I could do it. Wine tasting is a lot of standing, drinking, and socializing. I certainly didn’t feel like socializing and I could barely stand (and would be less able to with drinking) so we just grabbed some lunch and took the shuttle, then bus, to our hotel on State Street.


There are a couple things I’d like to mention about Santa Barbara. Number one is that if you do take the train (which I would suggest to anybody since it’s awesome) and if you plan to stay on State Street, the public transportation system is great. Near the beach, you can take the State Street shuttle for about 12 blocks for 25 cents. From there you can grab the city bus for $1.25. The shuttle runs every 10-15 minutes and the city bus, although it always said we would have to wait, was always RIGHT THERE. It was almost eerie, that city bus. We’d go up to the bus stop and look at the schedule and even though EVERY TIME it said we’d be waiting at least 15-20 minutes for the next one to come, it was always right there-like it was following us. It was weird, but cool.

25 cent shuttle going up and down State Street.

The second thing I’d like to mention is that everyone says Santa Barbara is expensive. I personally don’t think that’s overly true. I mean, it’s not cheap by any means but it’s not going to break the bank. Well, except for lodging. Getting a hotel in Santa Barbara on the weekend is going to make you faint over the price you pay verses what you get. I’ve gotten 4 star hotels for under $100 in Las Vegas, San Diego, Toronto, and Chicago (over a weekend no less). Using the same means, I still ended up paying $140 for a flea bag hotel in Santa Barbara. The Motel 6 was a few bucks cheaper but it was farther away. We stayed at the Orange Tree Inn on State Street. The room was a bit dirty, we had to ask for soap, and there were ants. We did have a room overlooking the pool that we didn’t use. So yeah, something to keep in mind if you ever go.

The Orange Tree Inn, the good angle.

After dropping our bags off in our room, we caught the bus back to the main entertainment area of State Street. I’d love to go into details about what we all did, but to be completely honest, I don’t remember much. I was so tired I was loopy. I remember giving a dollar to each performer I met on the street (“It’s my birthday, I’m being generous!”), I remember going to a used CD store, and I remember going to the Old King’s Road to play pool. We actually go to the Old King’s Road every time we’re in Santa Barbara. It’s close to the train station and we love their ‘No Wankers’ motto. Kevin bought me a sweatshirt with that on it. He’s awesome.


Finally we went the Chase for my birthday dinner. They had a special with steak and lobster and since I’ve never tried lobster, I decided to get it. Not surprisingly, I didn’t like it so Kevin ate most of it for me. After dinner I was pretty much done so we had a quick nightcap at the Croc bar (I couldn’t resist have a croctail) and went back to the hotel. That’s right. I was dead asleep on my birthday at 9 o’clock. And I slept like a rock.

Inside of the Chase restaurant. That's actually our table...the Elvis table we were told.

AND I was up at 6 in the morning. Its times like this that I really feel bad for Kevin who has a fairly normal sleeping schedule.

The next day was so much better than the first (since I was actually walking around like a normal sleep filled person) except there was the sadness of the trip ending. We packed up fairly early and went downtown. We did some shopping, had brunch, went wine tasting, grabbed dinner, then caught the train back home.

Downtown State Street

I think next year I’m going to stay up all night long the day before the day before my birthday in a huge effort never to waste the day again. Though I have to admit, turning 34 wasn’t so bad when all my concentration was spent on trying to remain upright.

See you all in a month when I return from Portland. Or maybe I’ll blog from Portland. That would be new. Correspondent Moe: Live from Portland!

Boycott the OC Register

So my dad didn’t win, he came in second. I expected this. By Sunday night (the end of the contest) my dad had 6567 votes! Thank you everyone! However, a late contestant came in on Thursday night and wound up with over 20,000 votes. I suspect the person who submitted this late entry cheated. I don’t fault this person from cheating if that’s what they did as in all honestly, I probably would have done the same thing if I had the programming skills and motivation to do so.

I was pretty pleased that my dad came in 2nd (the old fashioned way) and I looked forward to seeing his name in print today (hopefully that is, as a runner up). The contest rules (which have conveniently been pulled from the OC Register website) clearly stated that voting would end on Sunday and that the winner would be printed in the June 18th paper.

Guess what? I have today’s paper and you know what? No article. None. Nada. Zilch. Not even a mention of the winner, much less my dad. I happened to catch the web version of the article (also conveniently pulled from the website) on Monday afternoon but alas, no picture of my dad, not even a mention of his “advice”. Though the creepy dad who told his daughter, “As long you are under 100 lbs you’ll be alright!” was in there.

*Sigh*

If I wasn’t already down sick today, I sense I would be.

Thanks again to everyone. Hey! We tried right?

Vote for my Dad!

KINDA A WEIRD SOMETHING NEW....

I've entered my dad in a "best advice" contest on the Orange County Register website for Father's Day. I don't think I'll be able to gather the 1000+ votes needed to win at this point but I'm hoping to get him as a runner up so his picture will be in the paper. He'd get a real kick out of that.

Anyhow, if you feel like helping me out, go here and vote for my dad:

VOTE HERE!

Choose '10' for the best if possible. You can also vote as many times as you like (HINT HINT!)

Thank you for your help and to the fathers out there, Happy Father's Day!

So it's come to this...

So yeah. I’ve been giving this blog a lot of thought recently and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to take a little break for awhile. Or I guess I should say that I’ve already been on my break for awhile, and I plan to continue it for a little while longer. I’m going to sound pompous when I say this but I’m going to say it anyhow…I’ve been working on other projects. Like that? Projects? Like I’m in the 3rd grade and I’ve got a pile of felt and a wee little bottle of Elmer’s glue right next to me. It is the truth; I’ve been working on a personal project for the last couple of weeks that I’m thinking will take me into the summer months. Of course this ‘project’ is filled with many in between hours of ‘TV watching’ and ‘PC Gaming’. The more things change, the more…well, you get the picture.

I do have some plans this summer that I fully intend to blog about so I won’t be gone forever and definitely not gone for long. I will miss you guys in the mean time.

Catch you on the flip side.

Dear Blog,

Hi! How are you doing? I’m just fine, thanks for asking. I’m sorry I haven’t written on you in awhile. I really don’t have much of an excuse, especially since I’ve done plenty of new things in the last month; I just haven’t taken the time to write about them. I know you were worried about me…but I promise you that I am indeed alive and well. Don’t give me that look. If I was run over by a bus or kidnapped by a group of roving gypsies I’m sure someone would have told you about it.

So how have you been? People still coming to check out you out for the Paul Frank Warehouse Sale that was a billion years ago? Well, that’s good, at least our friends in Malaysia and Poland still think Paul Frank is the bomb, or ‘ten bombardować’ if you will. I know you wish people would come for other reasons but I think we’ll just have to accept the fact that they won’t. Paul Frank Paul Frank Paul Frank Paul Frank. There, that will get them coming.

What have I been doing you ask? Well, lots of things. Kevin and I went to Dave and Buster’s two weekends in a row. Yeah, I know that’s not new. Um, we had a semi-dinner party a couple weekends back where I made pesto chicken and we all played Trivia Pursuit and Cranium Pop 5. Don’t look at me like that! It was fun! I took last Thursday off and went to the Farmer’s Market and then rode my bike down on the peninsula. That was awesome; I got a bit of a sunburn on my forehead that day. Why are you looking at me like that?! It was the best Thursday I’ve had in a long time. I’ve also increased my cooking skills and tackled fresh guacamole, fresh lemonade, Shepard’s pie, and carrot cake. Not all at once of course. STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! Oh! I also painted. I recently came across the works of Miles Thompson and thought that they were awesome (mostly surf\tiki type of stuff). Since I can’t afford a print, I decided to paint a copy. It turned out really well. Of course when I tried to get it framed I was told that it would cost as much (and a bit more actually) then getting the real print. Go figure. Why are you walking away?! What’s that that you are mumbling? Something about you being glad I’ve stayed away? Well I never! I guess I won’t even mention me watching the entire first season of BBC’s Robin Hood and deciding that my sister, Maggie, should marry Jonas Armstrong who plays Robin Hood. Why are you crying? Did you hurt yourself?

Well, I guess that’s about it for me if you are going to be like this. I’m sorry, blog, that I have disappointed you. Yes, I promise I won’t stay away for so long next time. And yes, I will bring pictures next time too. In the meantime, rest up and cheer up. And make sure to say hello to all my Polish Paul Frank friends. Powitanie , przyjść znowu!

As always,

Moe

Amoeba Music - Los Angeles, CA

Let’s talk about L.A. Well, let me talk about L.A. as this isn’t an interactive blog (save for the voting right there on the right…get in your votes, as the polls close soon!).

I don’t live in L.A. I never have and I can say with conviction that I never will. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but every time I go home to WI, inevitably someone will say, “Hey, how’s L.A.?” or “This is Moe, she’s from L.A.” This is irritating for the fact that Orange County is nothing like Los Angeles. For my WI friends, it’s like saying you live in Milwaukee when you live in Madison. For everyone else, it’s like saying you live in Toronto, Canada when you actually live in Buffalo, New York. I’m not saying Los Angeles is horrible and awful and I could never dream of living in a place like that…quite the opposite actually…it’s just different. It’s nice having L.A. fairly close because there’s so much going on there, even if it’s a pain in the ass getting around.

LA is not Orange County

I recently got it into my head that I wanted to drive up to L.A. one afternoon and go to Pink’s for hot dogs. I’m not sure who even told me about Pink’s, but they are apparently famous. They don’t make their own hot dogs or anything, but I guess the toppings they offer plus some weird potato pancake bun Mari was talking about are really really good and would be well worth the hour long car ride to get there. Southern California experienced a bit of a heat wave this past weekend and what’s better in heat then a good ole American hot dog? Plus my car has air conditioning and our apartment does not.

Kevin’s not a big fan of hot dogs (or mac & cheese for that matter, I don’t think he’s a real American)(ha!) so I was kind of shocked when he said he’d come with. I wanted to make the trip worth it for him so I planned a stop at Amoeba Music and a cocktail at Tiki Ti after the (hopefully) delicious dogs.

...and I used to get so excited over the Hollywood sign...

True to form, traffic getting to L.A. was murder. Kevin spent the time making fairy princesses out of the signs and traffic in front of us. I asked him to stop making fairy princesses and just take some pictures, but between the giggles of fairy princess Hollywood 101 sign and fairy princess CoExist car, he said he didn’t know how to take the frame off.


After an hour, we finally made it to Pink’s. Well, we made it to the corner Pink’s was on anyhow, and got to witness the line that not only went out the door, but around the entire building and even a bit down the block. Damn, those must be some good hot dogs if people are willing to wait an hour in line to get one. I personally do not care if a hot dog is made out of solid gold; I’m not waiting in line for one. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of the line…it was truly incredible.

The line at Pink’s left us in a bit of a conundrum. We had just spent an hour in the car for hot dogs only to be disappointed. Kevin suggested that we just go to Carney’s for dogs but I knew it just wouldn’t be the same. We decided just to go ahead and go straight to Amoeba Music and grab something to eat after.

Every time I come up to L.A., I always end up on Sunset Blvd. and will always past Amoeba Music. You really can’t miss it. I had never been inside though. It was one of those things where Andrea would say, “Amoeba is great, you should go there some time” and I would think, “yeah, I should go there sometime” but I never actually do.


Walking into Amoeba Music was like having a full on circus show of music just exploding right in front of you. It was a complete total overload of the senses. The building itself takes up most of a city block and it has an upstairs and downstairs, and a couple of side rooms. It’s L.A. and its Sunset Blvd. and there are people everywhere. Music is blasting, people are bumping into you, and there are signs and posters and neon lights, and lines going everywhere. Kevin and I walked in and kind of stood there in disbelief. We honestly didn’t know what to do, I’m sure we gave the appearance of a couple country folks seeing the big ole city for the first time look. When our eyes were able to finally focus on something, we headed over to the used CD section. I was pretty amazed at the selection. I know for a fact that if I had lived around a place like this when I was in high school, I never would have had any money. “Grandma gave me $20 for my birthday! Let’s go to Amoeba!” In the end, Kevin and I got 5 CDs for $36 which isn’t that bad.

I didn't take this picture, I got it from the web...the day we were there was 10 times busier.

After Amoeba Music we started to walk down the street heading to the Cat & Fiddle for lunch. At this point we noticed that Amoeba had their own parking garage. I’m telling you this (with photo) so you don’t end up spending $6 for parking at the Public Parking garage on the next block like we did.

Lunch turned out to be OK and drinks at Tiki Ti were even better. Have I mentioned I want to marry Tiki Ti? Oh yeah, I think I have. Anyhow, we headed back home (another hour sitting in traffic!) and finally met up with Patrick, Michele, Mari, and Gunter at the American Legion on the peninsula….where I had a hot dog. Patrick had heard our tale of Pink’s and made sure I got one.

So, to recap:

• Orange County is not Los Angeles.
  
• Pink’s supposedly has hot dogs so good that people are willing to camp out all night just to get a taste of the salty greasy goodness.
  
• When going to Amoeba Music, make sure to bring a flashlight and a bag of stale bread to leave a trail with.
  
• Tiki Ti has not proposed yet, but I’m thinking it will be any day now.

***************************************

Oh, I forgot I wanted to show you where Tom Cruise hangs out:

Wasting my Sunday with Fairy Princesses

Oh helllllllooooo!

I will come right and tell you, I haven’t done a damn thing new in two weeks. I’m not going to apologize for it however as I haven’t gotten paid in…three weeks. And it’s still yet another week until I do get paid. I like myself some entertainment though, and will go pretty stir crazy if I don’t get it. Because Kevin enjoys his sanity (oh, and that whole loving me thing) he’s been trying his best to keep me entertained with as little as money possible. He’s so awesome. The weekend before last we (finally) pumped up the tires on our bikes and took them riding around the neighborhood (even though Kevin’s knee was still dodgy) and ended up gathering all this fresh fruit from the trees around here. It was the lemon tree that started it all. I couldn’t believe how great these lemons smelled. I’ve been using them in every drink I can think of since. And even though I don’t like avocados, I’ve been squeezing the ones we got silly waiting for them to ripen. That bruises them, doesn’t it? Oh well, I know where the tree is.

This past Saturday, Kevin and I helped Michele unpack her new apartment. For Kevin this meant disappearing with Patrick for three hours to ‘drop off a dresser’ and for me (and Mari, Marilynn, and Michele) to unpack the 847 boxes marked ‘KITCHEN’. Michele has a buttload of dishes. Even with three boxes repacked for Goodwill and the dishes that Mari, Marilynn and myself walked off with, I still don’t know how Michele managed to fit everything in that kitchen. It was a decent sized kitchen, but damn.

On Sunday I was getting a bit stir crazy. I had gotten up fairly early (after staying up until the 2AM/3AM time change because I just wasn’t tired dammit (Beth got the email that reflected this)) and basically played around the computer until I was SO DAMN BORED of that too, then took a shower, and GAAAAAAAAH I’M SO BORED WHY DON’T I HAVE ANY MONEY WAAAAAAH IT’S SO NICE OUT WAAAAA and finally decided that I would take my camera and take pictures around the neighborhood and post them all here for you guys. This meant I got out my camera and started taking weird pictures around the house using the ‘frames’ option on my camera.

The weeds I should have been pulling, and the bird seed I should have been picking up.

I had decided that before I left to take pictures, I would stop at the Harp real quick for breakfast\lunch, and then stop back over to Michele’s to bring her a housewarming gift (which would not be dishware), and then I would be off. Easy peasy.

But Kevin wanted to get breakfast\lunch too. So we split the Irish breakfast, had a beer, and had EVERY INTENTION of leaving to go to Michele’s and drop off a housewarming gift before he went back home and I rode around taking pictures.

Yummy Irish Breakfast

But then Dave and Jill showed up. We were two sips away from leaving. But Dave bought us a beer so we had to stay. After that beer, we had to buy Dave a beer back but DAMMIT, WE WERE LEAVING after that one as I wanted to get to Michele’s to drop off the housewarming gift and take some pictures.

But then Steve and Brian showed up.

And then Grant.

And then Derrick.

And then Mari and Gunter.

And finally, who walks through the door but Patrick and Michele!

“HEY! I was going to go to your house and drop off a present!”

“Well, where were you?”

“HERE! ….. You know how that goes.”

It was a sunny day and I finally admitted to the fact that I wasn’t going to be going anywhere, so I had to take some pictures to make up for it. First task for you all is to come up with the bubble sayings. I’m afraid there will be no prizes except blog mention honor. I didn't add that 'Life is fun ' by the way, that's part of the frame.



And finally, if you didn’t notice the poll up at the top right hand side of the page, now is the time to vote for your Favorite Fairy Princess.

KevinDaveBrianSteveGunterDerekPatrickMatt, the Harp Door GuyMichele

Sorry, so sorry...

To all that I saw yesterday and promised a new entry to read on Tuesday, I apologize. I got a little behind in errands and Kevin's broken\sprained foot and dinner and laundry and...well, you get the picture. Not wanting to leave you totally dry until tomorrow, here's this. It's an oldie but a goodie:



See you all on Wednesday!