zrath

There was a weekend, and I had Monday off, so it was long, and this is what I did.


Saturday: the Sibling and I went to the theater! We saw Ghost Rider and Bridge To Terrabithia.
Ghost Rider was fun and contained themes near and dear to us both: bikes, bikers, Harleys, the Old West, Elvis.
Great special effects of course, a nice sense of humor, maybe a leeeeetle bit predictable. Pretty cool overall. We liked it.
Bridge To Terrabithia was, I dunno, kinda odd. I'm not sure what the intent of the film is.
The little girl lead looked awfully familiar. I IMDBed her when I got home and found that she had starred as Violet in
the Johnny Depp Chocolate Factory film. And she was also in "Because Of Winn-Dixie" (cool dog!).
After the movies, we went home and had a light snackish dinner. Then the Sibling left and I watched my "Airplane" DVD.


Sunday: was set aside as my personal shopping day. I got up at 11am, showered, dressed, grabbed some bus schedules and left.
I went to the storage unit first to pay the rent. Then lunch at Del Taco. Those little chicken soft tacos sure are tasty!
Then I grabbed a Blue Bus going North on Robertson, got off, and walked about 7 blocks to reach the La Cienega Toys'R'Us.
I was buying my delayed and belated Christmas gift: a Star Wars Lego set!
I had my eyes on the newest iteration of Slave I. This version is evilly beweaponed and larger than the original Lego set.
It wasn't in stock, so after some deliberation, I picked up the new Imperial Landing Craft instead.
I know a place online that has the Slave I, so I'll order it later.
I also picked 5 new 2007 Hot Wheels, including both the Camaro and Challenger concepts.
And I found a small Platinum die-cast of the "Invisible Hand" cruiser seen in "Episode III".

I walked back to Robertson to grab the Blue Bus and go back South. This bus went South, West, then North all the way up
to Westwood, so I used it to get to my next destination: Casual Male XL on Westwood Blvd. I needed underwear, by Jove!
Ever since my unmentionables got delivered to CompUSA by those idiots at UPS, I no longer mail-order my briefs. :)
There was a bunch of stuff on clearance too, so I walked away with a black dress shirt, a casual blue shirt, a rum-themed
t-shirt (Arrrr!), and an extremely blue Reebok t-shirt. I mean, $6.49 for the Reebok t-shirt? Can't pass that up!
I had a pair of $10 off coupons too, so it was Deal City all around, baby!
After all this shopping excitement, I got back on the buses and headed home.
The Sibling didn't feel like cooking and expressed interest in getting a pizza from the place across the street.
So I ordered a large thin crust cheese-tomatoes-Canadian bacon for pick-up, and went to pick it up 20 minutes later.
We ate it while watching "King Kong" on HBO. ("You wrote 'two grands' on the check." "Did I?")
Then we watched (Jet Li's) Fearless on DVD. And lo and behold, it kicked much buttocks and was fine cinéma!


Monday: after a very light breakfast/lunch, the Sibling and I set out for West Hollywood.
A slight tactical mistake was made when we didn't get off at Fairfax. The limited stop bus we were riding was not stopping
again until La Brea. Now, for those not familiar with L.A., that's a distance of about 16 city blocks. And our destination
was about 5 blocks from Fairfax. The law of averages dictated that a stop halfway between the two thoroughfares would exist.
But nooooooooooo! This is the dreaded MTA we're talking about here! Logic has no place here! Oy!
Anyway, we got off at La Brea and started walking back. We stumbled across a BevMo! and went in.
I was hoping to find sodas from other sales territory, like Citra or Barq's Red Creme, but no dice.
They had all the oddball glass bottle sodas (Leninade, Jolt, Moxie, etc...) but not what I was looking for.
We resumed walking and promptly came across a Payless Shoe Source.
The Brother went in. I did too, but didn't look at anything. They stop at 13, and I wear 15 or 16 depending on the brand.
El Hermano found some nice Shaq shoes more along the style I wear (medium-rise basketball shoes). He usually wears skater
shoes like Airwalk and Skechers, shoes patterned after the classic Vans design. There was also a nice pair of Airwalks,
and since Payless was doing "BOGO" 1/2 off (Buy One Get One 1/2 off), he got those too.
Upon removing the Skechers he was wearing, he discovered that the sole was coming off at the front of the right shoe.
They were looking kinda beat up too, so he salvaged the laces, tossed the shoes and put on his new Shaqs.
We resumed walking and he commented that the new shoes felt really nice. That they supported him really well.
Given the problems with his back and skeleton, maybe he should wear that type of shoe more often.

We reached our original destination: a store that sells DJ gear.
Le Frère needed a new twin-CD unit to replace his old one, which was borrowed for a gig and never returned (long story).
He had seen a nice compact unit here for a good price: the Gemini CDM-500, only $299.99!
It has 2 tray-style CD players, mixing board controls, jog wheels, and 2 phono-ins (for turntables hook-up).
As luck would have it, the only unit in the store was busted. We looked at some other units, but they all lacked the
phono-ins and jogwheels, and some didn't even have the mixing board controls.
So we decided to order the Gemini deck and have it delivered to my work. The store is closed on weekends, you see.
On checking on her computer, the owner told us the Gemini deck was actually $199.99! OMGWTFCHEAP!!
Man, at that price, everyone should get one! It's like a party in a box! Sort of...
There was no A/C to speak of in the store and it was incredibly hot.
After 15 minutes of being in there, I started feeling faint and light-headed. My legs felt weak.
This had never happened before! I needed food, badly! And water!
The store owner gave me a glass of cold water, and I went outside to get some fresh air.
I went back in, completed the transaction and we bailed.

Walking back to Fairfax made me feel better. I was still hungry though.
We decided to walk down Fairfax to grab a nice shwarma or falafel pita at Pita-Pita.
We stopped at Roobois on the way to get some delicious South African red tea.
When we reached Pita-Pita, we discovered that it was closed, locked up, out of business.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
DJ Bro mentioned a good Thai restaurant just around the corner, so we went there.
It's called Taste Of Thai, on Beverly Blvd., one block East of Fairfax, and it was pretty good.
I had chicken pad thai, the sib had chicken satays, and we shared some chicken fried rice.
Who you callin' chicken?!?!?!? :D
There was a Subway next door and, on a whim, I bought a 20oz bottle of Coca Cola Zero.
More about that later.
The food was delicious. The satays were moist and flavorful. My pad thai was a bit too sweet. The rice was very nice.
We walked back to Fairfax and grabbed an MTA bus down to Pico, to grab a friendlier Blue Bus and head West.
Once home, we putzed around with various things, then the Sibling left for the rest of the evening.
I luxuriated in some me-time, inventorying my 2006 Hot Wheels (still missing 9 new ones), then building my Xmas Lego set.
The Landing Craft actually has some Technic trickery in it: an elaborate wing-folding mechanism.
It also has two missile launchers, two bomb bays, and four stormtroopers. Not bad!


And that was the weekeend.
I hope y'all had a nice one.