November 8, 1997

Venice And Melrose

Places we visited, not an intersection.

One of the things Rob and Laura wanted to do while they were here was visit one of the ice cream shops either Ben or Jerry of Ben and Jerry's rated as one of his favorites: Robin Rose, in Venice. We knew that at some appropriate ice cream part of the day we would go there for a dish.

So it was off to the Santa Monica/Venice portion of the world. Once again, we went to Schatzi on Main, because they had a patio and we had a Nutmeg. They wouldn't allow Nutmeg on the patio though, so we put Nutmeg on a nearby non-fascist, dog-friendly patio and she watched as we ate. Periodically Rob and Laura sent tiny bits of food her way. That terrier has the hangdog thing down to a science.

After brunch we decided to walk down Venice Boardwalk. You've seen the Boardwalk; it's in every single goddamn LA montage ever put in a movie. It's a row of spiritual healers and Tarot card readers and massage artists. One guy who was doing massages really caught our attention: he's a huge man with jet black skin over a finely carved body and hair spiked into 7 or 8 tufts.

There are also lots of homeless people, and lots of marijuana smoke, and rollerbladers, and tourists gawking at the street artists (all of whom ask for a "donation" before you take pictures). Oh yes, and dogs. Dogs, dogs, dogs. Dogs of Nutmeg's size, and dogs of Nutmeg's nightmares.

After a good sized walk, we headed back to Robin Rose and got some ice cream. We got ultra chocolate chunk (me), cinnamon (Darin), coffee toffee crunch (Rob), and mint chocolate chip (Laura). Nutmeg, despite constant in-our-face cuteness (and begging), did not get any. We all ate from one another's ice cream and decided that it's quite good but not as good as Toscanini's in Boston. Sadly, I live in California.

We drove back from Venice and Darin called the Boys to find out what was going on and possibly put together a game of Myth at their house. By the time we got home the only game I was interested in involved me being asleep. Darin, Laura, and Rob decided to go over to the Boys. I slept for 3 hours.

When I finally woke up (about 30 seconds before D, L, and R arrived home), I got ready to go to dinner. The 4 of us headed out to dinner with Brent and Therese at Caffe Luna on Melrose. It was pretty good, although if they told us one more time that we couldn't have wine and beer on the back porch we were all going to insist on having a nice merlot with the meal.

Caffe Luna makes a damn fine spongecake with strawberries dessert.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

3 miles, with Rob.