Love Parade

We went to the Love Parade in San Francisco yesterday. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to post the photos I took, since there are about 350.

I'm signed up on Flickr, but I think that limits me to 20mb or so, which means the pictures I post are going to be pretty small.

More on LA

Saturday night we went to the Mark Mothersbaugh exhibit. We had no idea of what to expect of traffic, exactly where we were going[1], and we planned on getting dinner before hand, so we left the hotel pretty early.

The 405 freeway sucks. I mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. LA drivers suck.

We found the exhibit around 6:30. Even though it officially opened at 8, we asked if we could come in and took a quick walk around. I bought the framed artist's proof of the DEVO poster for their September 1, 2005 show for $75. We still hadn't eaten, so we asked the two girls setting things up where we could get food.

We wound up going to a place called "Swingers". The name conjured up images of The Power Exchange, but thankfully it was nothing like that. Think of Mel's Diner, but make it emo. I had some excellent macaroni and cheese (which was all my stomach could tolerate) and Ambo had a grilled cheese sandwich. The menu had some items that looked really good. As it was, I had a hard time deciding on what to get. I don't know how I would have decided on something if I'd been feeling better.

One thing that Ambo pointed out was that there was a sign advertising the restaurant's Bloody Marys. We'd had a late breakfast at Good Stuff in Redondo Beach, and they had similar advertisements out as well. Maybe everyone in LA is hung over every morning?

After diner, we went back to the exhibit. There were several other exhibits in the same area so we took a few minutes to look around. There were some interesting (but somewhat uninspired) sculptures, some photography, and some mixed media paintings. The paintings were the most interesting, by far and I would have considered purchasing one. But if I'm going to be spending several thousand dollars on a painting, I'd rather buy one from a friend.

After the exhibit we went back to the hotel and I made the first blog entry, we watched some TV and went to bed.

[1] Yes, I had the GPS but that only gets you to the parking lot. Finding the front door can still be a challenge.

Los Angelos

We rented a car for the trip to LA because a) my car is a 5-speed, which Ambo can't drive, b) my car has a nail in the tire, c) Ambo's car doesn't have air conditioning, and finally d) Ambo's car needs some service before we'd trust in on a long drive.

I must have looked like hell when I picked the car up. I was still feverish (but feeling better) from the food poisoning, I was wearing sweats and I hadn't showered.

We were given what can only be described as the coolest car on the lot: A red Dodge Neon. Let me say, when it comes time for me to buy a replacement for my Subaru, I'm getting a used rental Neon. There are what I can only hope are not love stains on the front seats. The alignment is so far out it's somewhere in the next state.

The drive pretty much sucked, but that's to be expected. Drivers on the 5 in the middle of the night should not be expected to know what they're doing. Luckily I wasn't awake for most of the drive. I drove the first hundred miles to Paterson. I'm supposed to keep drinking fluids to help detox my system, which means potty breaks. Ambo had joked about driving away if we had to stop on the side of the road for me to pee. We stopped at the Denny's there for a bite. I managed to choke down some French toast and a bit of a hash brown. Ambo took over the driving when we left and I pretty much crashed out until we were at the base of the Grapevine.

We pulled off the road to get gas. Ambo filled up the car and I took a quick restroom break. She went inside to use the bathroom and while she was inside I moved the car away from the pump and up to the door of the station. When Ambo came out, she didn't see me. Not what I'd intended but still pretty funny. She was not amused.

The rest of the drive to Redondo was pretty much a blur. Thank god for the Garmin Quest that I brought along or we never would have found the hotel.

The woman at the counter of the Best Western was a total bitch. Sure, it's the middle of the night but that's no excuse to treat a customer like shit. After finally getting checked in, we went to the room. We climbed a few flights of stairs and upon entering, the stench was truly overwhelming. We had booked a non-smoking room but the bitch behind the counter had given us a smoking room.

We dropped off our bags anyhow. Ambo was too tired to deal with it. I went back to the counter and got us changed to a non-smoking room. I think the bitch intentionally put us on the ground floor so we'd have to carry our bags further -- I had seen her initially put us into 316, the room next to the smoking room before moving us to a room on the ground floor.

Today was much better. We slept in, expected after the late night we'd had. We decided to walk and get some breakfast. Since it it's her home town, she was leading the way but was afraid that she wouldn't be able to find anything. As soon as we got out of the hotel, she recognized where we were.

It was really cool to see Ambo rediscovering her childhood town. She had been afraid that we couldn't find her grandfather's house, but we did almost right away. We wandered down to the beach and back into town. Ambo bought herself a Redondo Beach sweatshirt while we were there.

Food Poisoning

We went out for dinner last night, and I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning. I'm basing that mostly on the abdominal cramps, nausea, and diarrhea.

Still it could be worse. I could be spraying out both ends.

Poor, poor motorcycle

Put your own caption on this:

Princess Leia and Jabba, all in one

Princess Leia slave girl costumes are pretty popular. But if you're gonna post a picture of one on your Ebay auction, at least make sure that the model doesn't look like Jabba the Hutt.

Item number: 6560454209

From the "Ask the seller a question" page:

Q: If you want to sell this you need a much better model!!!

A: ya know what, i am here to sell an item, not to fuel your masterbatory fantasies with princess leia. looking at the items that you have purchased and your attitude, i bet that there is no chance that you even have someone to wear this but your mother...what i am saying is that not everyone is a perfect size 3 with a huge bust and you need to realize that (and even if you are, that will change after children) and the bottom line is that i don't need your advice! there was already a bid on this when you made your insult...get off of ebay and hunt for porn somewhere else!

Someone sounds a little sensitive.

I hate cars

I had to take my car into the shop today. It took me longer to get on the freeway than it normally takes me to do my entire commute. Grr.

Get Off The Fucking Freeway

Go read this:
'Get Off The Fucking Freeway': The Sinking State Loots its Own Survivors

I have nothing witty to say about it.

And I take their candy, too

To put things in the proper context, you have to understand that Amber is a huge Star Wars geek. She teases me about being a nerd about some things, but when you get right down to it, I'm not the one with Princess Leia and Death Star tattoos.

Through one of her sources of Star Wars info, she found out that there is a Star Wars bowling league. At the end of the league, you get a commemorative bowling ball and bag, or some posters. We signed up for it on Saturday, and it started this Sunday.

I had suspected that the other people in the "league" would be either: a) nerds like us, or b) little kids. The answer, of course, was the latter.

One benefit, I guess, is that the kids using the same lane as us needed to have the bumpers raised. This make it impossible to get a gutter ball. My mad skilz led to me making good use of the bumpers as well.

There were some "sports parents" there, critiquing their children's bowling. I hope to god that I'm not that kind of parent. I always hated it when my dad did it to me, and unless a kid is asking for help, I don't see how it's positive.

Grumble

So far I haven't really had a lot of comments on my site, and 5 of them have been spam. It sickens me.

I had it set so that users had to be registered to post comments, which I thought would discourage spamming. Since there is no way to complain about users who make spam posts, it really doesn't matter.

I noticed the "Word Verification" option (why isn't this on by default) and turned that on. Let's see if it helps.

It's medicinal

Ambo decided that it would be healthy for us to have a glass of wine in the evening.

Of course, with my tolerance (on par with that of a pre-pubescent schoolgirl) I'm totally buzzed. Yay!

Catch up

Two weeks with nothing written isn't that bad, is it? In any case, this will be a quick catch up post.

In August, we watched Ambo's parents house and her youngest sister over the weekend. After that experience it reaffirms how happy I am that I'm not a teenager anymore. Her boyfriend broke up with her, which was no real loss, but she was upset by it. We also worked on wedding invitations some, but didn't finish them completely.

Ambo's other sister was out visiting from back East over Labor Day weekend. She's doing really well and it was really great to see her. Her younger sister, on the other hand, had really been fucking up, and it was very disappointing to see.

We took the boat out on Anderson Reservoir on the 31st. I got to water ski for the first time in years. Getting up on two skis was easy enough, but I couldn't quite manage one ski. Derk wants to take the boat out one last time this year, so I'll have another chance to try. We also talked about getting a Jet Ski next year, which I think would be a lot of fun. There's enough water nearby and I can tow it with my car, so why not? This will happen post-wedding of course, since getting married is expensive.

Ambo talked me into going down to LA next weekend for a Mark Mothersbaugh art show, a trip to Magic Mountain, and a visit to the "Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars" exhibit. I think we're going to stop by Mutato Muzika while we're there, too. Since Ambo's car probably won't make it, and I don't want to drive the entire way, we're getting a rental car and driving. Even with gas as crazy expensive as it is now, it's still cheaper (and more convenient) than flying.