Haiku Friday

Cesar Chavez Day!

He brought us "Si, se puede!";

rights for farm workers.

California, thanks!

For celebrating this man

by closing the schools.

Buddy day for me.

She's still a little sickie.

But she's on the mend.

Mega Millions

I hope I win.

Buddy probably has a UTI. I spent all morning at the doctor. I've been up every night trying to make her comfy because of her terrible fever. Now I will spend the next five to seven days trying to get her to take antibiotics. Which she won't take.

I left my house at 11:30 to finally get to work today. The 405 was jammed because of a "stalled vehicle in the fourth lane." So, I hopped on Sepulveda but there was road work, so it was down to one lane. So, I took Palms over to Overland. Palms was under construction. I got to Santa Monica and there was a back up all the way to Overland because of the back up on the freeway. And an ambulance going by.

Numbers - one day late

1. Sorry guys. I'm one day late because my buddy was/is sickie. I had to work from home yesterday. Working from home with a toddler means that you are frantically trying to get things done while every other minute holding your buddy. Until they nap and then you work with a fury until they wake up. I sent a lot of emails and ran a couple of reports with Buddy on my lap yesterday. "Up?"
2. $400 million for Mega Millions. I just organized an office pool. Hey, you never know!
3. This past weekend was terrific. Oldest pal (not in years of age but in how long we've know each other - since we were 5) Gabs came up and we went out on the town! The town being Culver City and the out being a cute bar called Alibi Room with unbelievable food.
4. Then, I took Babe to the airport so he could head up for the Rancid 20th Anniversary show and some partying with the homies. 
5. Ang came up and spent the weekend with me and the Buddy! Boy did we have a good time. You saw the pictures - we cruised around Venice Beach and the Canals and walked for miles and miles. Like seven or eight to be exact.
6. Then on Sunday I volunteered to read scholarships for the UC Berkeley Achievement Award. I went downtown (took fifteen minutes to drive their on a Sunday morning) and read a bunch of scholarship applications and ranked them. Met some other alums and really had a good time!

Weekend pics.

The Canals in Venice Beach are way prettier than you could imagine.

Ang and Buddy and I strolled around and imagined what it would be like to live there.

It would be nice.

Then we went to Venice Beach, the boardwalk. Which is not nearly as nice. But, there is ice cream.

I took this picture to illustrate the seagulls who were ravenous.

Back to the canals and the little story book houses.

Plus there was a darling little park and Buddy and Auntie looked at the ducks.

And Buddy drove a little car.

Buddy got a new pair of shoes from her friend "Abby."

And, we spent some time coloring of course.

Eating french fries at The Wood

Haiku Friday

An ubiquitous 

sound in the southern part of

California.

Leaf blowers, mowers,

shrubbery trimming thingees.

(A technical term.)

Loads of gardeners

keeping the place super nice,

the lawns freshly mowed. 

Good, Bad, Ugly

Good

• Weather, full time job, Buddy's cuteness, springtime, my new converse, Babe's cuteness, sleeping through the night, greek yogurt, to name a few.
• The book I am reading, which we can talk more about when I am done. 

Bad

• $66 to fill up the Subaru.

Ugly

• Dude. Not really much to say on the Ugly front. My hair isn't great right now.

Numbers

1. It's the first day of Spring! My first Spring in Southern California, Buddy's second Spring ever. 
2. My little full time job is going nicely. Five days in an office. Did I already tell you my schedule? It’s 8-4 MWF and 9:30 – 5:30 T and Th. That 8-4 is the life saver of lifesavers because I get to go pick up my buddy from daycare. The days being that short mean that I work through my lunch and also tend to answer emails from home. But, as far as I can tell, that’s just how it is going to be.
3. This past weekend was a hoot. Our pal, and frequent blog commenter, BrooklynVinny came out to check out the hood. He’s maybe probably hopefully going to attend USC this fall as a PhD student and so we were hosting him on the West Side of LA. Also, Stretch came out and we went out. Good ole Babe took over Buddy duty so Mama could go party down. And party down we did. Stayed out til about 1:45 am.
4. Sunday it was windier than anywhere I’ve ever been in my life so we mostly took it easy on the inside. Took in a brunch downtown in Culver City and did a short tour of Culver City and Venice Beach so the NYer could see where he could live. Four adults and a baby in the Subaru.
5. There’s so much more stuff I want to tell you about: we got tacos from Playa Cantina which I love and then a second taco trip to Cinco De Mayo Saturday late night. We utilized the third row seating in my friends SUV so we could get a ride to the bar. (We walked home.) It took us 25 minutes to leave the bar on Saturday night because Stretch and I had made friends with everyone there. There! I told you.

Weekend photos (sorta)

FC West Coast Reunion! Cozy Bar, Saturday night.

Little Buddy, big balloon 1.

Little Buddy, big balloon 2.

Cheeeeeeeese!

I love this face.

Rainy day lounging

Haiku Friday

Buddy is better

than she was last Friday, true.

But not all the way. 

Called doc yesterday,

they said i should bring her in.

First sick day?? Okay! 

She is feeling fine. 

But better safe than sorry. 

And now, we can play. 

Buddies

The two buddies play pretty good together now. After an initial phase of beating each other up (and what I mean by that is Buddy trying to claw Queso's eyes out and Queso running away) they now seem to coexist pretty happily.

Good, Bad, Ugly

The Good

• Wow! Commuting at 7:30 am is unbelievably easy! I get to work in like 8 minutes. I am working from 8-4 MWF so I can be on time to pick up Buddy from Daycare. Yeah, she's so cute.

The Bad

• Now that I wake up at like 6am, I go to bed at 10pm. Because I am officially elderly. 

The Ugly

• I forgot to put on deodorant this morning. Insert shame face here.

Electric stapler

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say my electric stapler is the second coolest thing abt my new office, after the two screens for my computer.

We use a ridiculous amount of paper in this office and the sound of the electric stapler is pretty rad.

Numbers!

Greetings gentle readers!

1. I started working full time in the office this week! I am now here at UCLA five days in a row.
2. I took over my new office and now I have two computer screens! Wow!
3. I dreamt it was raining. Does that mean anything? After working for twelve hours yesterday, on my feet, I slept like a dead person and dreamt weird and strange things.
4. This two screen thing blows my mind. One minute I am looking to my right, the next to my left. Efficient!
5. This past weekend was pretty chill you guys. We did lots of errands and hung around. Babe and I took the twenty or so mile drive on Sunset Blvd from the coast to downtown Los Angeles so we could see all the different neighborhoods and what not. It was super fun. Buddy slept in the back. It took us about an hour and a half to get from start to finish. Here’s a funny link of facts about Sunset Blvd.
6. Sunday, BFF came over with her Buddy. And the two little ones played and played. They took long naps, too, and Babe did a bunch of errands so BFF and I just hung out and BS’d. Muy bien.
7. Babe grilled us some hamburgers that afternoon and I wanted to eat two, they were so good. But I only ate one.

Big day

We have a big event at work today, so even though Buddy is kinda sickie still I couldn't stay home and take care of her.

Her papa is, though, so she doesn't have to go to school and be all coughy and sad. She plays so hard when she's with other kiddos! I want her to rest.

Anyways, her papa took this pic for me. She is ready for her day! See?! She is fine. Just a little sickie.

Hopefully weekend pictures to come later.

Haiku Friday

Buddy is sickie.

Well, not really sick, but she

did have a fever.

Kept her home with me

on my last day working here.

Have to shuffle things.

We danced all morning.

I think I wanted her here.

Maybe some hookie?

Numbers: 30 hours in San Francisco

1. This past weekend, I took a solo trip to the Bay to check out my peeps and see how Gustav was getting along. I ended up spending about 30 hours in the Bay.
2. I took the one hour flight from LAX at 10:30 or so Saturday morning and arrived at GUS's house around 12:30, thanks to Scooter who swooped me up from the airport on his way into town.
3. We grabbed some lunch around the corner from her spot at La Taqueria on Mission and 24th. She and I split a chicken burrito and a carne asada taco. The taco made me weep.
4. We then meandered to Rosamunde to sit outdoors and have a couple of beers.  
5. At that point, one of my other all time favorite people, Jojina showed up and then we split to GUS's to get ready. I hadn't kicked it with Jojo in years. She came to NYC once a couple years back.
6. We went over to Oi's house near pacbell and shot the shit for awhile. A couple of other dear, dear friends showed up and so we got to hang out with them and their little buddy.
7. Then out! First to Laszlo Bar, (watch that link, the music is loud!), for just one, then out to dinner at Nombe, where we ate everything on the menu. Did we order chicken hearts? Yes. Did we eat pork belly? Yes. Was there beef cheeks involved? Indeed. Were there japanese craft beers on tap? Indeed there were. Another couple of pals showed up for that.
8. And then it was time to go out. Hahahahahahahaha. We hit up a number of places which I think will remain locked in the vault for now. We may or may not have ended the night with bacon wrapped hot dogs. $3 each. 

Dude! I'll have to tell you about the next day next time! I got to get some work done today!!

Weekend pictures

This weekend, I spent 30 hours in the Bay Area. Which meant I had to leave my buddy for a bit. I didn't like that too much. Neither did she! But she had a good time with her papa. This is her in her Spring Outfit.

Here's Scooter, when we had lunch at the Taqueria down the street from Gus's house.

This is my Sunday morning breakfast. Called The Sandhya! No kidding!

Me and Gustav on Sunday morning!

Nice picture of a random mission bodega.

Bloody Mary at Zeitgeist Sunday morning.

Twin trying to apply a tattoo that was 20 years old.

Trading cards, like close encounters of the third kind, wrestlemania, Bill & Teds...

Me, in San Francisco.

Twin Sandwich take 1.

Twin Sandwich take 2.

Candy from the early 90s for the plane ride home. 

****

Such random pictures, I know! And what happened to Saturday night, you might ask yourself. If you do in fact ask that, you wouldn't be the only one!

More details tomorrow on Numbers - 30 hours in San Francisco edition.

Buddy in the bath

Haiku Friday

Refrigerator

has just arrived from Best Buy.

Should keep it all cold.

Delivery guy

was the same one who brought the

new dryer we bought.

He talks without pause.

From the moment he knocks to

the moment he goes.