Feast And Rain!

Yom Kippor, the Jewish day of atonement, was this past week and Tracy insisted that we celebrate with a breaking fast dinner. One shopping spree and $250 later, Tracy and I had all the makings of a delicious feast. We ran into a bit of a snag when it came top timing though. She had friends coming in from back east and she needed to pick them up at the airport at about 8 o'clock. The problem was that the fast was supposed to end at sundown. But, since Tracy represented exactly 50% of the Jewish population that was supposed to attend, we ere not big sticklers for religious protocol. For dinner I made matzo ball soup, honey mustard baked chicken and noodle pudding. This, in addition to crackers and cheese, bagels, lox, cream cheese, some sort of Jewish wine, and a variety of pies and cakes rounded out our feast. Not to mention that we also had salad, corn on the cob, and a fruit plate that didn't make the scene because we forgot about them in the fridge. But the feast went off rather well, despite the fact that I was kicked out of the kitchen and resolutely banned from doing the dishes afterward. Apparently I have become somewhat territorial when it comes to cleaning the kitchen, a fact Mom will no doubt disbelieve.

I spent Friday taking Tracy's friends to see her at her internship at HBO. That was a neat trip in that I got to see HBO headquarters. It was not a neat trip when I discovered how much unvalidated parking at HBO headquarters is. When I went to leave the parking garage after lunch, I was shocked to find that I owed almost $16 for parking! That's more than my lunch was worth, and certainly more than I had in my wallet. I had to get out of the car and go find an ATM because parking attendants can't be trusted to operate credit card machines. Anyway, Katie and I rounded out Friday by ordering in calzones and watching "Threshold."

Saturday was uneventful, disappointing even. We had planned to go to San Francisco to see a girl Katie met in Mains and had become friends with. Turns out she was coming home to Los Angeles and said she'd call when she got here and we could hang out at the beach on Saturday morning. Must have slipped her mind, because when noon rolled around, we decided to do laundry and read some Harry Potter in the little park out front of our building. The only part of our plan for Saturday was to get a smoothie that Katie was craving, and that was through a concerted effort. On the whole, not at all a good Saturday.

Nothing compared to Sunday, though. I told Tracy's friend on Friday and my Mom on Saturday that rain in Los Angeles was about as common Yankee fans in Boston. Well Sunday, the only day of the week with sun right there in the name, was rained out. Pretty much most of the day was covered in a light drizzle which was just enough to make the smog accumulation on everything run just a little bit. Katie, Jess and I set out to go see a play by Steve Martin directed by one of the guys Katie works with, and that simple idea turned into a colossal undertaking and resulted in ultimate failure. We got lost on the way to the theater and ended up in the valley with no hope of making it on time. Katie had to call and cancel our tickets and trade them for next Sunday which threw a wrench in our plans of being away from LA for our 3 year anniversary. Tracy's friend Josh's 21st birthday was today, so Katie and I made a cake, which served the dual purpose of making us feel better and making him have a complete birthday. Katie maintains that no birthday is complete without at least a candle to blow out and make a wish on. I suppose the only good thing to come out of today was that we did cement our plans to go to Disneyland next weekend. That should be a fun trip, and we have a whole week to wash away to effect of this crumby weekend.

One final note: I have noticed that most of my blogging goes pretty much uncommented upon by those who read it. I hate to ask for complements, but at this point, I don't feel like I have an audience anymore. I know most of you are daunted when you click on the comment button and get the register page, but I promise it is painless. No credit card numbers, no spam mail, and I'm an almost positive that the music industry will not use it against you in their class action against anyone who ever downloaded illegal music. If you never make any comment beyond a simple shout out to let me know who is reading, I'll be happy. Thank you for your time.