Memorial Day Weekend and an Apology

First of all, an apology to my readers: I have fallen behind lately and have been posting a couple days late and backdating. The backdating is not to be deceptive, but so that posts in the archive will fall in the proper order on the proper weekday. I'm going to try to work up a few posts in advance so I have a little buffer in the future.

Since this post was actually written on Tuesday (5/26), I'll cover all of Memorial Day weekend.

Friday was my day off work, so it was actually a 4-day weekend. I started off going to breakfast with Stevo on Friday at Creme de la Crepe in Redondo Beach. This place rules. It's authentic French food, French press coffee, and French waitresses. I got a custom crepe with Raclette cheese, turkey, tomatoes, and chardonnay creme sauce.

Saturday I got a haircut, took a motorcycle ride (on the BMW) with Stevo (on Daniel's scooter) around Palos Verdes peninsula with a pit stop for a snack at Malaga Cove Market. Later that night, I picked up Mom and Dad from LAX (which was insane) upon their return from St. Louis visiting Dad's mom. They brought back sandwiches from Amighetti's. St. Louis has some of the best food in the US.

Sunday involved church in the morning, Rudy's for brunch, and an afternoon of cleaning the garage. We got rid of a lot of stuff and did some reorganizing to make the available space and stuff more useful. Sunday night we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still - the new one with Keanu Reeves. I am a big fan of the original and was impressed with the new one. It's more of a re-imagining but they capture the essence and fear of the original while translating it into a modern setting.

Monday was taking stuff to Goodwill and another motorcycle ride around the peninsula - this time with Daniel and me on the BMW and dad on Daniel's scooter. We stopped at the yellow taco truck at Vermont and PCH - which has the best tacos around. Later in the evening we watched Ronin, a DeNiro film from 1998 with the best car chase scene in a movie that I have seen to date.

All in all it was a good weekend with lots of quality time with family and even some productivity.

Two Reviews: Ben Folds Concert and Star Trek

I guess this isn't STRICTLY a financial post, but they're both things of an entertainment nature that I spent money on after some consideration so it flies, albeit loosely.

Wednesday night (5/20) I went to a Ben Folds concert at the Hollywood Palladium. I took a friend who is a big Ben Folds fan for a belated birthday celebration. The venue was really cool. The Palladium is an art deco style relatively intimate venue with standing room (dance floor, balcony, VIP balcony) for about 4,000 people. The acoustics were excellent - we stood on the balcony about 45 degrees of the center of the stage. The concert itself was great. Four acapella groups opened with Ben Folds covers and the audience voted for their favorite by applause. Ben himself is an awesome pianist and singer. The band was also quite good - drum set drummer, miscellaneous percussionist, keyboardist, and bassist. I knew probably about half the songs - Ben did a fair bit of his newer stuff. For the encore, he brought out Josh Groban to sing for the first song and then did a Dr. Dre cover for a final closer. Final verdict: a great concert at a great venue - well worth it.

Thursday night (5/21) I went to see Star Trek in IMAX at The Bridge with my brothers and a couple friends. The IMAX experience is never disappointing and the film itself was quite good. The characters were well written and acted, and the first time Kirk plops down in the captain's chair it screams young Shatner. It's cool meet all the familiar people from The Original Series as young men and women. I don't want to give away any plot for those who haven't seen it, but I can heartily recommend it for experienced Trekkies and newbies alike.