The LA Experience

After the run we drove over to Noah's and bought a half-dozen bagels and some lox shmear, then stopped at Starbucks to get the caffeine portion of the breakfast. I also bought Darin his favorite breakfast, the apricot panettone from La Brea Bakery, which Starbucks carries.

I asked Rob if he and Laura had wanted to do more while they were down here in LA other than see what our lives were like down here. Rob said no, they came down to see us -- the entire time they've lived in Northern California, they've never once visited down here. So they didn't come for the tourist attractions.

We decided to stay in all day because Nutmeg had gotten sick during the night and yakked on the comforter in the guest room. (Psychic Friends note: last week, our cleaning lady had changed the guest comforter from the usual down comforter to a synthetic comforter that's been in the closet for months. I had meant to switch it back to the down comforter before Rob and Laura arrived, but I was glad I didn't.) Rob and Laura cleaned the comforter off and ran it through the washing machine.

I went into my office and started playing Fallout, a pretty addictive new post-apocalyptic adventure agame. I would be totally sucked in, except

1. there's a time limit, which fills me with a sense of fear, even though it's just a game: I hate pressure like that, and
2. it's the same damn game over and over again. I think it would be easy to mix stuff up.

After some Fallout and some Nutmeg-yakking-up-water on the carpet of my office, I went downstairs to lie down. I don't know if I fell asleep or not, but I don't remember much for the next few hours.

Darin got me up and the four of us sat down in the living room to play the new expansion boards of RoboRally, Grand Prix. Most amazingly, I won. No, really, all you Northern California RoboRally guys: I won, and Darin came in second. I think Rob and Laura must have been more distracted by Nutmeg's upset stomach than they let on.

We finished RoboRally just in time for us to watch the early edition of The Simpsons. Rob and Laura packed everything up, including Nutmeg. We then loaded up the car and headed out to LAX. Of course, Sunday night at 6pm, the 405 was packed.

Note to friends: please use Burbank airport.

After we returned we watched King of the Hill and The X-Files on the West Coast feed. The X-Files sucked way less than last week, but it's still a giant tease -- do you feel like you got anything out of that episode? No, me neither. We all know Smoking Man isn't dead. And why isn't Mulder suspicious that his sister was a clone? I especially loved Scully's instant cancer "remission" -- is that the kind of thing that could be measured in hours?

But next week: Detective Munch!

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

3 miles, with Rob. I bonked towards the end though: I just couldn't breathe. We had to walk about a block before I could pick it up again.