It was a long drive.

On Friday morning, we left the house around 9:30 am and had a pretty smooth drive with the exception of a 6-mile stretch near Buttonwillow where they closed the road to one lane.  We even stopped at In-N-Out for lunch and the dog some time with his head out the window.

We got to Dodgers Stadium around 3:30 with another 1.5 hours to go.  We had a dinner reservation for Lawry’s at 7:00 so we decided to just go straight to Beverly Hills instead of Cerritos.  With about 2 hours to kill, we stopped at a park on La Cienega to walk the dog.  Then we stopped at a local Coffee Bean to change our clothes.

At 6:30, we pulled up to the restaurant and valeted the car AND the dog!  Heh heh.  The valet guys were super cool about it and even rolled down the windows for him in the garage.  The prime rib was yummy as usual and we also kicked in the standard peanut joke for my brother.

After dinner, we gave the dog to my parents who drove home and Brother took us to MILK for some ice cream sandwiches made with large French macarons.  Yum.

We finally got to my parents’ house around 11:00 after a 14-hour ride from SF to Cerritos.

Night Shift

I had Thursday off but had a photography gig from 6-10 for a Project by Project fundraising event.  So I got a little taste of what it’s like to work a night shift. I used to do this all the time at Disneyland but it’s been a while.

I spent most of the day running errands but took some time to have a tasty Chinese breakfast with my pal Matt from work.  We were talking about Chinatown the day before and decided to meet up for porridge and fried dough since he had the day off too.

In the afternoon, I tidied up the house and then headed out to 111 Minna for the PbP event.  The event had a slow start but picked up by 8.

They sold discounted tickets to their annual Plate by Plate event and took some donations for their sponsored organization.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was necessary to eat before the event so I was pretty hungry by the end of the night.  I didn’t actually eat “dinner” until afterward at the bar across the street.  What an amateur move.  Luckily, I didn’t have too many of their $5 punch drinks because that microwaved corn dog was not very good and not very satisfying.

Here are the photos from the event.

DIY HH

On Tuesday at lunch I got an email from Dot that said that she had some free Giants tickets for that night.  I called Jes to see if was interested and he said, “Sure.”  So, I emailed her back and found out that she actually had 4.  So, at 3:30, I asked Steph if she wanted to join us since her husband works right by the ballpark too and they were in.

After swinging by to pick up the tickets, we dropped off the car, and walked the dog to Safeway to pick up a bottle of wine and a six-pack of beer.  Unfortunately, when we got back to my building, I discovered that I had left my keys at home.  Doh!

So we sat down at the outdoor tables at the cafe downstairs to regroup.  I went inside and ordered a $3.50 happy hour spinach dip and asked to borrow their bottle opener after telling her that I was locked out of my house.  The girl behind the counter was super nice and said, “Sure, no problem.  Do you want some glasses too?”  I opted for the plastic water cups and we were set.  So, Steph, Koa, and I sat outside and enjoyed our wine, beer, PopChips (also purchased at Safeway), and spinach dip until Jes arrived.  It was an awesome less-expensive HH with a view of the ballpark across the street.

We continued our pre-game snacks upstairs while we waited for Steph’s husband to arrive.  We eventually went to the game with a good happy buzz and enjoyed the last 5 innings.  Not bad for a Tuesday night.  Being spontaneous totally rules.

Maker Faire

On Saturday, we got a call from Jason who is now in the Bay Area for his summer internship.  We knew he was coming but we just didn’t know when.  Surprise!  He’s staying in Palo Alto for a couple months so we planned an outing on Sunday.  We met up with him in San Mateo where they were holding Maker Faire.  It’s basically a large-scale science fair, craft fair, and DIY show all in one.  It was pretty interesting and super nerd-tastic.  Here are some of my favorite parts.

Someone made a tricycle lawnmower.  I want one!

They had a glass blowing demonstration outside.  I wanted to buy one of their $15 mugs but didn’t.

Inside, there was a big Lego-building cage.  Brother would have enjoyed that.

Outside, I took a magazine cover photo with R2-D2.

On our way out, we found this igloo made of plastic water jugs.  I need to make one for the kids at work.

Here are the rest of the photos.

Birthday Brawl

Jimmy turned 36 earlier this month and Eleen threw him a BBQ a week later (5/15).  The food was tasty, the usual peeps were there, and the dogs were outnumbered by babies this year.

Vyl and Bang brought Rowan and he was a new and improved happy-fresh baby.  It’s cool to see how he’s changed so much since I last saw him a month ago.

Koa and Brando had a nice afternoon in the backyard until the end of the evening.  I don’t know exactly what triggered it but I watched them get into a full-on brawl.  Jes had to break it up and ended up getting bit/nipped by Brando in the process.  Brando also got nipped on the ear and was bleeding.  So of course, they got separated.  Bleeding Brando got all the sympathy while Koa was stuck in the sideyard with everyone stopping by saying, “Be a good dog, Koa”.  I felt horrible.

The next morning, Koa was limping.  In fact, he was limping all week and wasn’t walking normally until Sunday (5/22).  Looks like the meathead was actually the one that got his butt kicked by the scrappy one.

Here are photos from the BBQ.

Lazy

We had a super lazy day today.  I got up at 9:30 and lazied around until about 11 to walk the dog.  Poor dog.  Around 3:00, we finally changed out of our PJs and headed out to the dry cleaners and then had some lunch.  We walked down to The Creamery, which is just down the street but we never considered trying it until today.  I don’t usually blog about salads but I really enjoyed my hipster lunch.  Mine was the baby arugula fresh mozzerella and tomato salad and Jes had the salmon crepe.

Afterward, we went home and watched the last half of the first season of Glee.  I just started watching this season’s episodes and found Season 1 on Netflix.  So, Jes and I watched the entire season on our DVD that streams “Watch Instantly” material.  Yep, Jes likes Glee.  Heh heh.  It makes sense.  He can actually hold a tune (unlike Brother and I) and has said that some of their versions are better than the originals.

For dinner, Jes smoked up the house while cooking the prime ribeye that we bought last weekend.  It had been thawing in the fridge all week and was finally ready to cook before rotting.  It was tasty and dog got a tasty snack too.