At my sister’s place, I ate at and of restaurants more than I was typically accustomed to on the road. I don’t know if I can recall all the places, but I can try. There was Houston’s, Pizza Hut, Chick-Fil-A, Dusty’s, Baja Fresh, Whole Foods, Mario’s, Pappa Cristo’s, and The Outback. Alas though, no Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles... in fact, it’s been so long since I’ve been there, I’m not even sure exactly what the place’s name actually is.
I didn’t keep great track of all my doings while in the greater L.A. area. There were some pretty eventful... events, but by and large I whiled away the time there by watching and interacting in some fashion with various screens. There was the television, which kept me entertained with various movies, television programs, and also the video games. There was also the computer, on which I occasionally made a weblog entry, found and read different yet interesting things, and discovered, with a little help from my brother-in-law, The Show with Ze Frank. I don’t know exactly what Ze calls it, but if I had to put a name to it, I would say that The Show is a week-daily video weblog, which is almost always entertaining, and very often insightful in some way. Oh, I also played the occasional game on the computer as well, mostly in the form of those wacky ‘yahoo! games.’
As for the other things I did, and maybe some pictures I took, here we go:
Firstly, this is my sister’s dog, his name is Spencer.
He was around quite a lot. Sometimes he’d climb on my bed, sometimes he wouldn’t. He barked a bit too, mostly when he thought someone was trying to break in (which was an awful lot, because there was work being done in the apartment complex), and when he thought he was going to go outside (which was generally late at night).
One day, instead of watching television or playing games, or surfing some ‘interweb,’ I decided to go with my sister to a place called ‘I-don’t-remember-where-but-I-saw-Foothill-Blvd-again’ and saw her horses. The one horse I’d met before, but there was a new one there. Here’s a picture of the new horse, and if you look closely, you’ll notice two things about the picture (at least): that you can see my sister’s feet (you’ll have to trust me on that one), and that the horse is hungry for rope.
And here’s an action shot of the other horse; he’s considerably younger, and needs more exercise.
For a few days while I was at my sister’s they had a friend over, and I got put on the couch, the couch that was about a foot and a half too short for me. In hindsight I should have just slept on the floor. Anyway, he and his son were both pretty entertaining. So, I’d say meeting them was worth the... inconvenience(?) of the couch. It was while they were there that I made my first trip to my brother-in-law’s parents house to the south and east. It was fun, and barbeque-riffic. We also watched most of the movie, ‘In Good Company.’ Before that, however, we all went to see the movie ‘The Descent,’ which was good, but the U.S. released truncated ending was dumb. I don’t really think I can be any more eloquent than that. It was just dumb. I’m quite glad I got to see the original U.K. released ending back at my sister’s. Oh, and right before it was time to leave the house of the barbeque, I was introduced to ‘Fruit Pizza.’ Now, my first reaction to that was that it didn’t sound at all appetizing, but when I saw it, and proceeded to eat a piece of it, I found my first impressions of it quite in error. It is a bunch of sugar cookie dough that has been rolled out to cover a cookie sheet, then with either cream cheese or frosting (I’m not sure which, although I do believe that if it were cream cheese then it was mixed with sugar) spread over the top and different bits of fruit stuck on the top. I recall strawberry, blueberry, and I think kiwi. There may also have been banana. It was good, quite good. Oh yeah, there was an enormous dog there. It was called blue, and it was an Austrailian Shepard, I believe. It was probably the most obese dog I’ve ever seen. It was so obese (how obese was it?) that when you pet it, you can’t feel it’s spine. I am pleased to report though, that one of the dog’s owners insists that it’s losing weight. That’s always good to hear.
A couple of days later we headed back out there because my sister’s husband’s father had a bit of a health scare, but every thing turned out alright, maybe better. As it turned out, the health problem that he had that morning revealed what may have been behind some extreme weight loss he’d experienced over the previous year or so, and now that the problem’s source is known, it can be more easily counteracted. And we went to dinner at The Outback. It turned out to be a pretty good day, at least from my perspective.
A few days later, my friend Matthew called me up and we were to hang out. He came up, picked me up, and we headed south toward Hollywood. We went to Amoeba, where I took this picture:
I don’t know what exactly Amoeba’s relationship to the music industry is, but it seemed to me like it was the most gigantic indie record store. It may be the most corporate entity in existence (I really don’t know), but it didn’t have a particularly corporate feel to it. We also visited the Arc Light Theater, where we saw some of the costumes from the movie ‘The Illusionist,’ and wandered around for a while, looking for something to eat. While we were wandering we saw Big Wangs. I’m relatively certain it’s a restaurant, but I’m not quite sure. Anyway, I couldn’t pass up a picture opportunity like that. Call me childish, call me silly, but I just couldn’t help but think it was funny. Somehow, I’m pretty sure that’s what they were going for.
We stopped and ate a Baja Fresh, where I had one good cup of Root Beer, and one bad cup of brown soda water. That’s mainly what I remember. Oh, the quesadilla I had was pretty good, too.
When we left, we had nowhere else to go, so Matthew took me back to my sister’s. On the way, he started noticing a lot of bicyclists. I didn’t really know if it was any more than usual, not being a regular in the area and all, but did think it seemed like quite a lot. Cyclist after cyclist, we saw them ride by, their numbers became staggering. Suddenly, and without warning, we passed by a moonlit park, and saw that it was completely full of bicyclists. I’m rather certain that you couldn’t have increased the number of cyclists (with cycles) in that park more than say... 10% without having massive metal on rubber on metal catastrophes. There were just so many of them! We continued on, found our way back to my sister’s, and then, to complete his cameo in my journey and weblog, I took a picture of Matthew. Several, actually, this is the one that turned out the best.
The next day my sister and her husband were going to a wedding rather far away, and before she left was busy telling me to go out and do things, familiarize myself with the area, etc. So, I decided to go for a walk. I walked to a park a mile or so northward, walked around it, and then went to a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I got some kind of Caramel and Banana Ice Blended drink. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I wanted something caramel, and coffeeless if available. That’s what I saw on the menu, and didn’t think to ask if I could get it without the banana. It turned out alright, though, it was better than it sounded—unless you think it sounds really good to begin with. Then I walked to a parking lot nearby, called my parents for an hour or so, and then called a friend in the Seattle area who used to live in Southern California. I talked to him at length and described the area I was in, and he was familiar with it. I think he was making a pie that day. It was also the day of what I recall him referring to as (to paraphrase) ‘one of [his] worse fast food experiences.’ It was a Wendy’s--in the Mt. Vernon, WA, area, if anyone wants to boycott. Here’s a picture of the drink I bought:
A few days later, I went for a drive. It had been a little less than two weeks since I’d driven my truck, and when I went out to it, I noticed there was a crack in the windshield that hadn’t been there before. I was annoyed, but the only way I can figure the crack got there that makes any sense is that something fell out of the tree the truck was parked under. The crack comes up from the lower right corner and is about four inches long. It’s very strange. I drove to a weird little park. Here it is:
Then I drove around some more, found the names of streets I recognized, followed them, and didn’t get to where I thought I’d be. Eventually I ended up in a part of Glendale that is some distance to the north of the Glendale I know. I found it odd that I entered this Glendale, then exited it, and found no sign of the Glendale I knew. The area wasn’t even similar. Then I went back to a highway I knew, followed that to the Glendale I knew, went back to my sister’s, looked at my map, and found that there is another part of the Glendale I know, a couple of miles to the north. They are technically the same city, but I’m not sure if they’re actually connected. I found the whole experience quite odd and rather frustrating.
And here, for the enjoyment of feline fanatics everywhere, is a picture of my sister’s cats:
There’s probably a whole lot of other things I could report on at this time, like the late night coyote walks we went on, or the rotten smelling chicken grease, or even the excursion to the mini-storage, and the favor I thought I was doing by buying ice cream sandwiches—that I ended up eating almost entirely by myself—but I just don’t remember them that well. Or do I?
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