Weather and Boog

Wow, there are about 7 different things I want to write blogs about, but I have some stuff I need to get done, so I'm just going to write a quick blog about the weather :)

Right now it's roughly the same temperature here as in Michigan.  According to weather.com it's mid 50's here and in Grand Rapids/Battle Creek.  It's actually a degree warmer in BC.  However, it's sunny here and cloudy/foggy in Michigan.  It rained a bit and that cooled things down.  Before that however, when everyone in Michigan was talking about snow, terrible roads, snow days, etc.  I was enjoying this:

It got too warm for Boog.  I walked out of the shower one morning and the rug was all messed up and his sweater was lying in the hallway.  Corey was home so I first I thought he was playing with Boog, but it turns out Boog just got too warm, decided to take off his sweater by himself, and run around naked.

Speaking of Boog, apparently he doesn't like it when Dee's alarm goes off.  Mary woke up one morning before it went off and managed to capture this video of him:

Here's Boog super excited to see me after work one day:

And stealing my spot after I got up:

I've been chatting with girls online all day, don't tell mom!

He's a weirdo.

Why my roommates are still awesome + more days off

I feel like I'm constantly behind on this blog and trying hard not to forget everything that's happened.  I guess it's good because if I updated everyday some days you'd get boring posts about how I slept in, got ready for work, worked, got out of work late, came home, ate a grilled cheese from In & Out, watched Corey play video games, then went to bed so I could get up for work the next morning.  Plus updating 1-2 times a week give people a chance to catch up if they don't have time to come here very often.  So now I have to remember what happened since the last time.  Let's see...

Last Saturday my friends had a get together for Rachel's birthday.  Rachel and Jeremy are married and both originally from Ohio.  They were at our Thanksgiving party.  The get together started at 10, and I was supposed to get out of work at 10:30. Well, being the weekend and being understaffed due to hour cuts, I didn't get out until 11:15.  And the only reason I punched out at 11:15 was because I was going to hit my 5th hour after lunch (CA has laws about how many hours you can work before taking a lunch break, and Target takes it even further.  It's a HUGE deal if you accidentally work 5 full ours straight, even if you're over by a minute.  People have been fired because of it).  Luckily the bar they were meeting at was almost right across the street.  Grant and Adam were just getting there as I was walking up.  After the bar closed we walked to Rachel and Jeremy's apartment, which is just down the road from where I live, to hang out.

That night, I met Mary's friend Bess from Minnesota.  Apparently she just showed up at our apartment that afternoon.  Based on talking to her and something Mary said, it sounds like a group of them drove out here to Sacramento to help a friend move.  She then flew from Sacramento to LA to visit Mary and Mary's old roommate which was a childhood friend. She was only here for a couple of days before having to fly back, and I was at work most of the time, but she sounded like she enjoyed it out here and might come back sometime when she has more time so she can do more touristy things.

Monday was supposed to start my 4 days off in a row, but Target called and asked if I could work from 3:30-8.  I got there and my manager said "I was hoping it was you they called in."  :)  She was also hoping to finally get me certified, but we were, of course, busy.  She also thought I was there as a 3rd closer, but didn't realize I was only scheduled until 8 until I punched out, and by then it was too late to change it.  It would have been nice to get a couple of extra hours, but I was also so exhausted from working all weekend that it was nice to be able to come home early.

Mary cleaned out her old car to start showing to to people, and she gave me a TON on fabric she didn't want anymore, along with some thread and ribbon :)  Best roommate ever!

Corey had Tuesday off as well, but I can't remember if we did anything that day.  Wednesday I got some laundry done and cleaned up a bit.  Dee went to Ikea and bought us a nice Dining room table as a belated Christmas/New Years gift!  So we can actually sit at a nice table to eat, or have extra prep room.  Before we just had a dirty folding table with a leg that kept collapsing that the old roommates found on the curb.  We spent the evening hanging out around the table in celebration.

More space for bread baking!

Thursday I baked some bread.  My sister Leslie's been bugging me about sending her some of the bread I baked so I was going to send her one of the loaves Friday.  I looked into shipping costs though and it would be roughly $36 to overnight it, or $15 to get it there by Tuesday (and it probably wouldn't be as good by then).  Sorry, too much!  So we're just going to have to eat it.  Darn...

I also walked down to Jo-Ann Fabrics to get a few things for a skirt I've been working on altering.  They were having a going out of business sale!  Everything was 75% off, but there wasn't much left, and now I don't know where there's a fabric store within walking distance :(

Days Off

 The way my days off worked out 2 weeks ago and last week, I had a 5 day weekend.  I had planned to be super productive, but Corey ended up having 4 of those 5 days off so I wasn't as productive as I'd hoped.  We did do quite a bit though.

The company that manages our property changed.  Mary used to walk down the road and drop off rent in an after hours slot, but now our place is in Burbank and they don't have an outside slot.  Luckily Corey and I had Friday off so we went there during business hours to meet them, make sure our lease agreement was the same, and to figure out what to do about dropping off rent if we're all working while they're open.  All of our lease agreements are the same, and they seem willing to work with us since we might not be able to get there when they're open, and Mary doesn't always get paid on time.

Since we were already in Burbank where Ikea is, we decided to stop by and use the gift cards I got for my birthday.  I had a list of few little things I wanted.  We started in the As-Is Clearance section though.  They had the exact model, color, and size bed frame I wanted.  30% off.  There was a small hole in one of the boxes and the outer wood finish had a small crack in it.  It's under the bed where you can't even see it, and the structure is perfectly fine.  They just can't sell it at normal price because the box is damaged.  So instead of getting all of the little things, I now have a bed frame for cheaper then I was probably ever going to find it :)  My mattress is now raised off the floor, and I have under bed storage!

We took that home (it almost didn't fit in my car!) and Dee was home when we got there.  We'd been wanting to check out some thrift stores North of us in the mountains that Corey's co-worker told him about.  So after we unloaded the car, the 3 of us went up there to try to find them.  We ended up not making it to the really big one he'd been told about, but we stopped at a Goodwill up there.  I got a couple of books, some clothes, and found this tea set.

I'd say it's the best thing I've ever gotten at a Goodwill for less than $10. 

That night Corey and I met up with Grant and his roommate, Adam, and finally saw Quentin Tarantino's new movie "Django Unchained."  We'd been meaning to see it since Christmas but hadn't gotten around to it yet.  I got 2 tickets to AMC theaters from work for Christmas, so Corey and I got in for free :)

Saturday we were hoping to finally go hike around Griffith Park and see the observatory, but by the time we got up and got ready, we wouldn't have much time before it got dark.  It may have been for the best because Dee went Friday and she said it was really crowded.  Saturday was not only the weekend, but super warm and sunny, so I'm sure it was packed.

One time when we were hanging out with Mary's friend Jeremy he mentioned a movie called "Miami Connection." It's about a martial arts rock band fighting a gang of motorcycle ninjas who sell drugs. Jeremy had it on Blue-Ray and it was so ridiculous that we all needed to get together sometime to watch it.  Well Saturday night was that night.  Corey, Jeremy, and I went over to Grant and Adam's place to watch it.  Grant's neighbor he'd just met came over to watch it too.  He does film editing for a living.  It was funny because I didn't know until towards the end of the night that Grant had just met him a few days earlier when dropping off rent.  He got along really well with all of us and I assumed Grant had known him from Michigan or something.

Corey and I ended up hanging out at Grants SUPER late, and didn't end up getting home and going to bed until 5-6 in the morning.  Sunday was cold and rainy though, so I didn't miss much sleeping in.  It was a pretty lazy, relaxing day.  We cleaned and rearranged the room now that I have storage under my bed, and I'm pretty sure I didn't change out of my pajamas all day long :)

Monday we finally made it to Griffith Park!  Everyone had to work, so it ended up being just Corey and I.  I think we hiked around for 3 hours.  I took 60-something pictures and narrowed them down to 29.  I was going to try to narrow them down even more so this page didn't take 6 hours to load, but I like them all.  So here they are, enjoy!  (I believe you can click on them to make them bigger and click to get to the next one)

Mountains to one side

Houses on another side

Snow covered mountain peaks in the distance

The Hollywood sign from far away

I think that's Culver City off in the distance

Zoomed in.  You can see Santa Monica on the Right

The Observatory

At the dunes in Michigan it's water as far as the eye can see. 
In certain spots at the observatory it's city as far as the eye can see.

Downtown LA

The Hollywood sign again

In case you can't read it, on the bottom level there is the wormwhole stairway,
and the Cafe at the End of the Universe (in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there
is the "Restaurant at the End of the Universe") among other cool things.

Observatory from a path below.  And a very blue sky!

Cool flower that looks like a bird.

MORE city!  We hiked past some really nice houses too!

And more city (plus some mountains in the background)

Didn't see any Mountain Lions or Rattlesnakes, thankfully!

Cool bridge and stream

Built in rock bench

Hanging thing that I have no idea what it is.

Dried up waterfall/pond thing

Another cool plant

Sun's starting to set!

Culver City at Sunset

Culver City and Santa Monica

Line of Palm trees

The observatory from a hill behind it

I think that's DTLA, at sunset

Snow capped mountains in the distance

Corey thought this sign was funny and made me take a picture.

Going Monday was nice because it was warm, sunny, and not too crowded.  We're planning on going back many more times because it's a nice place, and there's so much we didn't see.  There's a higher up lookout point, you can hike closer to the Hollywood sign, there's other parts of the park we didn't go to, the observatory isn't open Mondays and Tuesdays, and Dee told us about this really nice, cheap, outside cafe in the park, which of course isn't open on Mondays either.

After the Park we stopped to get some groceries.  We couldn't find a place to park in front of our apartment, so we were going to pull into the alleyway to unload.  We got back there, and there was an unfamiliar car parked behind our garages.  I parked in front of it, but it was blocking in the neighbors, so I stayed in the car while Corey unloaded.  Turns out, it's Mary's new car!  Mary's been having car problems for months now.  Back in December just before she went to China, it made it to the parking structure at work, then completely died!  Luckily the parking attendants were ok with her leaving it there.  She'd been debating whether she should keep putting money into fixing it, or if she should put that money towards a new car.  Well when she was in Minnesota for Christmas, she found a reasonably priced, in good working condition, Mustang, her dream car!  So she bought it, had it transported here, and didn't tell any of us because she wanted it to be a surprise!  Here it is!

I haven't gotten to ride in it yet, boo! :(

She's gotten her old car at least running and is trying to sell it now.

Tuesday was back to work, and this past weekend was a very long, tiring weekend, but that will have to wait until some other time!

Holidays

Orphan Christmas Party!

 Oh so fancy appetizers.

Dee and her salad

Grant's Christmas Enchiladas

My Tiramisu, no photos of Corey's cheesecake because we ate it too fast

Nick and Afton trying to adopt Boog?

Some Christmas gifts, you'd think I baked or something...

Dee has pictures of her, Corey and Me from Christmas on her camera but she hasn't taken them off yet for me to steal :(

New Years! (Before half the people left)

 

Cheers!  Or in Thai, Chong!

Boog's sweater is fitting because the weather was cold.

Boog doesn't like the cold, but he likes Mary's new blanket.

My City

A photo/video tour of some of the places around where I live:

 The tower on top of part of the Americana, and the back side of what I'm assuming are some of the apartments in the Americana.  This view is from across the street at the Galleria (where Target is).  For Christmas the tower was green and had "Merry Christmas" circling around it every so often.  For new years it was orange and said "Happy New Year."  The apartments at the Americana must be super nice, but insanely expensive.  The link above is to their website.

 

The Americana's sign.  These are from the other side.

The fountain in the Americana.

 

 Some of the Christmas decorations in the Americana.

The trolly that goes around the Americana, decorated for Christmas.

 

 

The view from the second level of Barnes and Noble

 

A horn quartet that was playing at various times/places during the Christmas season.

The Frog fountain along the main road I walk to work, mentioned in a previous post.

 The Alex Theater.  Also along the main road.

The view outside my kitchen window the other morning, just because it was sunny and pretty.

What else would you like to see?