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!