Weekend of Eating and Doing Nothing

Our grand plans of going to San Diego or Santa Barbara were put aside when we realized everybody and their grandma would be there and we would be payinig a high premium to join in. Why bother with the herds of crowds and wait until another less-crowded weekend was our thought. So we decided to do things around town, go to a few parties, make dinners, brew Sangria, and pretty much go on an eating spree.

We went to Whole Foods on 4 consecutive days and on Monday, the “crazy eyed” checker (our nickname since she has this really weird wandering eye) couldn’t help but hone us down on every visit and make comments about the stuff we were buying. Like $6 Sheer Bliss Pomegranate Ice Cream with Premium Dark Chocolate –yum! We always see her but didn’t realize that she knows allot about us just from observation. She talked about our infant daughter like she knew her in High School. I guess that crazy eye sees more than we thought.

Early Saturday we made a visit to the L.A. Zoo. This was my wife and daughter’s first visit and my first in about 10 years. I came out with a few observations, 1) English is a second language 2) Most food outlets have really authentic Mexican food like ‘carne asada’ 3) Where’d the Elephants and Gorilla’s go? (They’re doing a rehab of the popular exhibits, with no completion dates). 4) Everybody and their neighbor was there. 5) I don’t remember Flamingo’s smelling that bad. Oh and did I mention that some kid asked his mom if Antonio Villaraigosa was the president of California while my wife and daughter were “getting a closer look” at yelling monkeys?
Later that day we went to our old neighbors new house up the street (I had mentioned before how they sold their house on a whim) for a dinner party thing. The best part wasn’t just the curiosity factor to see their new HUGE house and wonder why they would move from our small neighborhood, but also eating the grilled oysters. Their new house is very nice, but the backyard---outdoor fireplace, bar with grill, waterfall Jacuzzi, deck amazing view. Between their backyard and our friends Steve & Rick (HGTV just remodeled their backyard) we now have major backyard envy.
Soon after, my grandfather came up to have dinner with us (all of those oysters made me hungry) and stayed with us until Sunday afternoon until friends came over to make food and eat again. And then again on Monday.

I think we needed Tuesday off to recover from the weekend.