Darin and I are over at Fernando's house. It's Fernando's birthday, Fernando's barbecue party, and we show up early and without a present. Someone had mentioned food; we forgot all our other manners.
And here I am, on Fernando's 'puter, writing an entry.
To show that you are a better sort than I, send a happy birthday message to Fernando at: falves@earthlink.net. No, he's not a clam. He's a very nice guy who deserves better than having freeloading friends show up sans cadeaux.
One of the reasons Fernando deserves better is that he took us out to breakfast yesterday at Du-Par's. Nancy was already at work, so Fernando met us and then treated us. The three of us then went to USC (where I showed them the exciting Film School complex of the (George) Lucas Buildings, the (Steven) Spielberg Score Recording Facility, the (Harold) Lloyd Sound Stage -- you have to drop names at USC; this is a school whose athletic team is sponsored by Nike, for crying out loud. After that we went to Exposition Park (right next to USC, where I had never been -- in fact, I'd never been on that side of USC) and watched two IMAX films: Special Effects and Antartica. The Special Effects was so-so; Darin says skip it. The Antartica one was cool, except for the scenes showing the prominently placed crosses -- yes, even on the empty continent, the long arm of Christianity has made its mark.
After Fernando's party: we had a whole bunch of errands to do. Therese decided to go shopping with us, so we went to the Glendale Galleria and started trying on dresses. I'm going to three -- count 'em, three -- weddings in October and I need dresses. The last time I bought dresses was for the engagement/wedding parties for Darin and me three years ago, so I don't feel I'm getting extravagant or anything. (I dislike shopping. Intensely. I can't wait to be so incredibly wealthy I can have a personal shopper.)
I tried on a lot of dresses. I found two I liked; I bought 'em. Therese didn't find anything. Or rather, she did, but the worksmanship was shoddy and it wasn't worth one hundred dollars to wear a skimpy red dress that looked like you had underwear on underneath all bunched up.
After dropping Therese off, we drove back to our apartment because we had to get Darin ready to go to the airport. I said, "How do you feel about flying up tomorrow morning?" How's that for a come on line? It works pretty well; he readily agreed. The choice of flights was between 8:25 (ack) and 11 (even worse) a.m., so we switched his flight to 8:25am and he spent another night. Nothing on television, so we just snuggled on the couch some.
Two nights together per visit isn't going to cut it; we need to plan for longer weekends.