Friday I spent another wonderful morning at the DMV. I had my oil changed Thursday night and Amy had told me to get a smog check. I wasn’t able to get my plates on Friday because I didn’t get the smog check done. I should really start listening when Amy tells me things…this has to be the 8th time I’ve ignored her advice and felt stupid for it later. I made an appointment at the DMV this time (for next time) so I don’t have to wait three hours again.

Friday night Amy and I went to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. We ate dinner at a Greek place on the sidewalk and discovered that she was allergic to every single soup that they had (we both ordered the “gyro and soup special”). Then we went out onto the pier. It was sort of like New Jersey’s Coney Island with little rollercoasters and ferris wheels right there on the pier. The best part though was going out on the lower (further out) deck of the end of the pier to watch the sun set. This is the only benefit I’ve seen of having smog around, it doesn’t hurt your eyes to look directly into the sun and watch it go down. Eventually it disappeared in the hills north of Venice Beach. The Pacific water seems much greener than the Atlantic.

The plan for this morning was that I would meet Amy at her Honda dealership (she had here 30k mile check-up) and we’d go to National Sports Bar (or something like that) to watch the OSU game because it is only on “ESPN Regional Plus”…which only satellite users get. Well, we got to the place about fifteen minutes before the game started and found out the place had closed down a long time ago. Then we proceeded to “Clancy’s Sports Bar” across town. A woman on the phone at Clancy’s had assured me the night before that they would be showing the OSU game. Clancy’s had a sign that said they didn’t open till 10am. We decided to try this chain sports bar in Pasadena called Moose McGillidullicuddywhatevers because it was on this: http://osula.usinter.net/html/viewing_sites.html

Apparently whoever maintains that site is full of it, because the Moose place didn’t open till 11:30. So, needless to say, I missed (ALL OF) an OSU game for the first time in a long time, or perhaps…ever. We went back to my apartment so Amy could watch the US Open, and I could try to find the game broadcast online. It wasn’t (for free), but after much hassle I did find a radio station broadcasting (the audio feed of) it.

After lunch we went over to Amy’s mother’s house and I washed 3000 miles of dirt and grease and bugs and bird shit and nastiness off of my car. We stayed there for dinner, and then went out to an Asian restaurant called Maxim with Amy’s friend Marie, and her brother (also named) Andrew. The place was ok; we were all pretty full so we just got drinks. I had a Lychee shaved ice drink that was pretty good.

I’m starting to learn the freeways and learn how to get around out here now.

By the way, here is where Byron and I had dinner a week ago: http://www.mitierracafe.com/

I had the El Rancho Special