Weekend Update: Part 1 - The LA and The OC

I almost missed Saturday morning's SDTC run completely due to my day on Friday, which didn't end until about midnight when I got home, but I'll get to that in a minute.

The really important thing is that I did run this morning, and even though I didn't run for very far, or for very long, I DID RUN...and that is the most important thing, isn't it?



OK...I established that I did run on Saturday morning, but back to Friday. On Friday, Walter, the kids and I went to a memorial service for a distant family cousin. We hadn't planned on going until almost the last minute, but for various reasons, including the fact that I was planning on going to Orange County in the afternoon (more on THAT in a minute too) anyway, and if we all went together, we wouldn't have to figure out what to do with the kids, we decided to all go together.

Geez...when I write this kind of stuff, it sounds like we have such an overly complicated, life, and sometimes I do think we tend to overbook ourselves. Lord knows I do on a regular basis. Also, I don't have to explain every blessed little detail of why I do this, or where I go, or why I do that...but I do...

Anyway, we went to LA.

The man who passed was a lovely man. I met him several times and he was always generous and the epitome of old-school politeness and graciousness. I was completely blown away when he showed up at my mother-in-law's funeral service in February despite being in a walker and clearly having difficulty getting around. But that's the way he was...which is also one of the reasons we went to LA, to show our respects to him and his family.

After the memorial, there was a reception at the Brentwood Country Club (la de da). Funny side story - before we left, Turbo went to the men's room. He came back out looking very spiffy, hair combed, fresh breath. He was pleased that the men's room had COMBS and PRODUCT and MOUTHWASH just sitting there for him, so he availed himself of it.

So DramaGirl and I went to check out the ladies room. It was quite lovely. I probably should have used the hairspray.

DramaGirl and I in the Brentwood Country Club Ladies Room - Mandatory RR Shot. DramaGirl needs to learn to look at the BR window and not the screen :-))

First snarky comment of this report...at the Brentwood County Club our almost 10 year old Honda Pilot was very low class. DramaGirls comment was that she wished SHE had a LIMO. (I guess the mom-limo doesn't count).

Also, I have not done nearly enough plastic surgery.

We left the reception to head south. My sister had a pre-grand opening of her clothing boutique in Coto de Caza (sorta inland Mission Viejo, Orange County) which didn't start until 5pm, so we meandered through LA on Sunset.

Second side story. On several occasions, Walter has suggested that we go to LA on vacation. I laugh...I mean why in the world would I want to go to LA? Usually, going to LA is something that I endure, but I'm rethinking that right now. There are some cool things in LA that my kids haven't ever seen before.

The Pantages Theatre--I had to settle for photos like this when I was in Hollywood. It was far too early in the day to take pix of any of the REALLY interesting sights...those come out later at night.

DramaGirl and Turbo on Hollywood and Vine. Mostly Turbo was disappointed that he didn't know who any of the stars were in this part of town.

For example...isn't this the Mad Magazine guy? Clearly I don't know my Hollywood history either

Walter went to UCLA, so we had to drive by the campus and let him relive a few moments of his youth.

Actually, this is a street in Beverly Hills, not in Westwood, but when Walter was in college he delivered for a pharmacy (or at least that's what he SAYS he did...anyway, he says this is one of his favorite streets. I'm always struck by how close Beverly Hills, and Westwood, and Hollywood are to each other (in a city where I think everything is pretty spread out). It is a really pretty street. The trees form this canopy that is very cool. I think this street ends up in A LOT of movies. I can see why.

I also thought about how the LA marathon ran down Sunset, so I thought of Glenn. I'm not saying I'm doing the LA marathon anytime soon, but I do think it'd be a great marathon to do. Lots of distractions and interesting things to see.

Finally, we got on the 101 and headed for the 110 and made our south...GAH! Friday LA traffic. Geniuses that we are, we decided to take the 101 (which goes right through downtown LA) right at 4:00...which means we were going nowhere.  Penny called (I'd been posting some updates to FB, so she knew I was in LA), and we got to chat for a bit. She ran the OC 1/2 Marathon this morning...woot woot girl!

We made it to the 405 (which for non-SoCal peeps, means that we were close to OC) ...we don't know what this was about at all, but as we headed into OC, we saw this car, which appeared to have a pretty serious cake in the back seat..

Can you see the yellow in the back window? That's a cake top...or part of the cake top, there was a box on the very top that the kids SWEAR had the Food Network logo on it.

And this car, following it with the camera crew...

Again, can you see the guy in the front passenger seat has a big camera? (yeah, yeah, that's what SHE said). I know, my mad photo skilz are really shining through here.

Since DramaGirl is a HUGE Ace of Cakes fan, we were screaming at Walter to speed up, slow down, speed up, so that I could take some really bad pictures... Although I don't see how it could be Ace of Cakes since they're in (I think) Baltimore, but it could have been the new Private Chefs of Beverly Hills, but then why would they be taking a cake to Orange County? OK...I've already spent too much time thinking about this...

Finally we got to OC and I went to my sis's grand opening (shameless plug for my sister's store Olivia's Closet Boutique...if you live in OC, go visit her and see her clothes. They are way cute. Tell her that you found her through my blog :-))

Adorable little shop, just my sis's style

Racks of trendy (but not over the top trendy) clothes - very cute stuff for summer (am I a good sales person-sister or what?)

My sister Doni (third from the left in the black and holding a drink) and some of her friends. Yes, that one. She is beautiful and fabulous, but don't let that intimidate you. She is really one of the nicest people around. Everybody loves her. Try growing up with THAT! (just kidding. I adore her).

It was a fabulous event. She's opened her own store! I'm so proud.

I'll save all the details of my Saturday run for another post, let's just say for now that I did it and it's done. We didn't get home until nearly midnight, so it wasn't my most stellar effort.

Shoutouts to everyone else who is running the OC today.