Posted on
by

Two arches of water pipes sticking up out of the ground and back in next to a hedge, with valves at the top of each. One has a sign hanging from it that says Macy's Domestic Water.

We made our first Christmas-season foray into South Coast Plaza over the weekend. Well, really, we just walked over there to grab something at the Coffee Bean after a late lunch at Finbar’s at Metro Pointe, then walked back…but it was a taste of the holiday insanity of the mall. Especially that mall. (Usually I try to avoid it during the holiday season, but I always seem to end up making at least one trip.)

Anyway, the phrasing on this sign just struck us both as odd. Okay, obviously, these valves control the water for Macy’s, which was right on the other side of the shrubberies. But why Macy’s domestic water? Is there another pipe for foreign water?

Posted on
by

Wow…nothing like flood damage in the office to start a Monday morning. Fortunately people were in over the weekend & caught it.

Ooh, neat! Server problems too! (Not flood-related.)

But wait, there’s more! They had to shut off the water line to the coffee maker! Can the entire office manage on a tiny 3-cup coffee maker?

Posted on
by

A man dressed in aluminum foil with a sign on his back reading Sir Reynolds of the Wrap, talking to other people dressed in more serious Renaissasnce Faire garb. More people are milling about in front of some shop stalls.

Somehow I don’t think he’s taking this quite as seriously as Faire folk might prefer…

At the Renaissance Pleasure Faire held at Glen Helen Park near San Bernardino, California in spring 2001. (Yeah, I’ve been scanning old photos again…)

Update: I like this filmstrip-style filter and border. It’s a good fit for a Throwback Thursday on Instagram.

The same photo, cropped square, colors faded and wrapped with a border that looks like the border of a strip of film.

Posted on
by

After a Friday spent relaxing at home (no after-Thanksgiving Day sales, unless you count skimming the recommendations at Amazon), we drove up to LA to see the play Equivocation at the Geffen Playhouse. The drive was astonishingly fast (everyone must have been either at home or at the mall!), so we had plenty of time to wander Westwood looking for someplace to eat.

We ended up at Yamato, a Japanese restaurant that I’d definitely eat at again! I did wonder about the original purpose of the building, since it clearly hadn’t been a restaurant to start with. One of us spotted a plaque outside identifying it as The Westwood Building, built in 1929. Among other things, it did include a bank, which was one of my guesses.

After dinner we went looking for places we could get dessert and/or coffee after the show. The two Coffee Beans were both going to close by 9:00, but the Starbucks was open until midnight, and Diddy Riese was open until 1:00. We stopped in at Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory to get some sugar-free chocolate for Katie, and then made our way over to the theater.

Edit: I’ve moved my review of the show to its own page.

After the show we walked down to Diddy Riese, but the line was long enough it looked like it might take an hour just to get ice cream. By which time coffee wouldn’t be an option, unless they had some there. So we ducked over to Starbucks for a half hour or so, then drove home.