(no subject)
So, it’s been another week of summer vacation for me, with work on the horizon. The days kind of blend together when there’s no structured schedule, so it’s hard to remember exactly what happened each day. I guess I left off last Tuesday, when I went over to Chad’s for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, which Miami won against Dallas 98-96. At halftime, and spilling over into the 3rd quarter, we played some backyard soccer after getting a new ball from Big 5. We played two on two, with Chad and I beating Jack and Jimmy. After the game, Debbie paid me a visit (she actually made it to my house before I even got back, by about 5 minutes). So she stayed until about 11:30, and eventually I got to bed. On Wednesday, I slept in and then went off to run errands with my mom. We made a trip to the bank, went to EZ Lube for an oil change, grabbed some Carl’s Jr. for lunch, and then headed out to this office in Culver City for my drug test. That didn’t take long, thankfully. After all the errands, I played some tennis with Justin. I hadn’t played in quite a while, so I was a little rusty, but I still won 6-1, 6-3. I’m hoping to get some exercise this summer so I stay in shape, since I hardly do anything physical at school. After tennis, I stayed home for the night, eating dinner with the family and watching the Dodgers game. For Thursday, the main activity was a trip out to Oxy, just like last week. I went out to Chipotle in Burbank for dinner with Debbie, Matt, and Nick. Upon returning to the school, I played a game of poker with Debbie, Matt, Ben, Kenny who came for a visit, Erik Fast, Sam Gale, and I forget who else played but there were 8 or 9 of us. We played til midnight, I took Debbie home, and then returned to SM and got some sleep. The weekend was pretty eventful, thanks again to Ms. Weiser’s presence. I’m not sure if I did anything early on Friday, but I don’t think so. Only thing I can think of is going to Hollywood Video and picking up Big Fish, as well as signing up for a card. Debbie got here around 5:30, and we went out to California Pizza Kitchen on the Promenade for dinner. I invited my Mom to join us, because my sister and dad weren’t around and she wanted something to do. Maybe I should have just kept it to me and Debbie, but I think it’s often more fun to eat dinner in groups because the conversation is usually more lively. We ran into the Bromberg parents at the restaurant, and Carol impressed us by remembering that Debbie was from Redmond (I assume she talked to Jimmy after we visited him at UW). So after a lovely Margherita pizza, Strawberry lemonade, and a hot fudge sundae brownie, we returned home, where Debbie and I watched Big Fish. We both liked the movie - I had already seen it, but it was still good the second time. We went over to the Shack at 11:45 the next day to watch the US World Cup game against Italy, accompanied by Jack and a friend of his from work. I think if Debbie had the choice, we would have done something else, but I really wanted to watch the game so I kinda made her come with me. And the Shack has housed a lot of memories for me, so it was good that she got to see it. The game itself was quite entertaining. If the US lost, they were basically eliminated. Italy scored the first goal, so it looked bad, but the US managed to tie it up about 10 minutes later. Right after that, an Italian player got a red card, so the US had a man advantage playing 11 on 10 for the rest of the game. However, a US player got a red card a while later, so it was 10 on 10, and then another US player got ejected so it wound up being 10 on 9 in favor of the Italians. Then, the US scored another goal, but it was taken away because of an offsides call. So the game ended in a 1-1 tie, and the US is still alive. They play their next game Thursday against Ghana, in a must-win situation. After the game, Debbie and I hung out at home for a little while and then went to the movies on the Promenade with my parents and Anie and Vlad. Since I felt kind of guilty for making Debbie watch soccer earlier, I agreed to go see The Lake House, your classic chick flick with a weird time-warp twist. I didn’t care much for the movie, but then again I didn’t really expect anything from it. We came home and had an Italian-style dinner of pasta, garlic bread, and salad. After dinner, Debbie and I watched the end of the Dodgers game - it was tied in the 9th inning when I turned it on, and somehow it lasted until the Dodgers blew it in the 17th. Since the game took longer than expected to end, we ditched our plans of returning to the Promenade for some nighttime shopping - I figured we can pretty much do that anytime. We had to wake up pretty early because Sunday was Father’s Day and we were all going out to breakfast to celebrate (me, Debbie, Mom, Dad, Anie, and Vlad). I guess we arrived at IHOP around 8:45, where I enjoyed my traditional Pancake Platter. After breakfast, Debbie and I went over to Venice for a neat Farmer’s Market on Main St. The market has delicious fruits and foods (we picked up some strawberries and avocados), homemade breakfast foods like pancakes, tamales, and crepes, a band playing music, even horses for the kids to ride. I had fun just looking around, and we sat down on the grass for a while and did some people watching. There were some really cute kids there. Next, we walked up and down Main Street, doing some window shopping and going in a few places. Debbie was particularly excited to see the rock store. We came home for lunch with the family + Gran, who came down from Santa Barbara for the day because she had a doctor’s appointment in the area on Monday. The best part of lunch was the dessert, our version of Strawberry Shortcake in which my mom bakes a cake, puts a layer of whipped cream and strawberries on it, followed by a second layer of cake, whipped cream, and strawberries. Delicious. After lunch, we visited with Gran for a while and looked at really old pictures of me from my childhood. Then we watched a little baseball and Sex and the City, and then enjoyed a nice barbeque with the folks.