Day 10 San Diego

Today is my second to last day in San Diego. I am sad that our vacation is almost over. We woke up pretty late today, around 9 am. We went to lunch at a "Fresh Mexican Grill" called Rubio's where I ate a deep fried fish taco. It was as all deep fried things are -- tasty and delicious. We also went to Blockbuster and Von's and a bike shop. When we got back, Seth's uncle was here so we met him. In the afternoon, Seth and Lydia went bowling and to dinner at Seth's uncle's house. Dane and I brought a load of stuff over to his new house, and then we went to a shopping center to look up movie times for Up. Since we had 2 hours to kill, we went to the 99 cents store and Big Lots where we got various items like bathroom rugs, grippy things for the tub, shower curtain rings, a Spanish Santa Claus shower curtain that says "jo! jo! jo!", hand soap, etc. We still had almost an hour so we went to Costco, where Dane found an ultra on sale mattress so we bought that, and a bed frame, and an ipod alarm clock. We put all this stuff in his new place but by this time we missed the movie. Oh well. We came back and got sandwich stuff at Von's. We made sandwiches while we were eating, Seth, Lydia, and Seth's grandmother came back. We chatted and watched the beginnings of the movie The Wrestler, directed by that guy who does Pi and Requiem for a Dream. I hemmed some rags and Lydia fell asleep. Seth's grandmother said it was the worst movie she had already seen, and went upstairs. I started surfing the internet and Dane and Seth finished that movie. Now they are watching some horror movie but I have already retired for the evening. I'm watching TV that consists of mostly commercials. I feel that I need many of the things that are advertised... that must mean that I am in every single target market.

DAY 9 San Diego

I woke up when Dane had to go to Scripps around 7 am but I was busy coughing up both my lungs so Dane went to Scripps by himself. I watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch and then Step By Step on the TV. I went inside to Seth's grandmother's house where I ate raisin bran and milk. When Dane got back, Dane, Seth, Lydia, and I went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant where I had a gross flan. I typically am a gigantic fan of flan too. After lunch, we went to Costco where we looked at cheap and high quality mattresses, but Dane did not want to buy because they do not deliver. We found a Walmart, where Dane basically bought everything he needs for his new life in San Diego. We also went to Sports Authority where Dane got a Jansport backpack, and OrthoMattress where Dane wanted to buy the first mattress the sales guy recommended but I strongly felt that Dane was getting ripped off (I think maybe Seth felt the same way, but less strongly than I did), so we ushered him out of the store before he could buy while he gave us a confused look. Then Seth and Lydia had to go out to dinner with Seth's family so Dane and I ate leftover pasta. We fixed his bike wheel and went to a bike shop near his new apt, and then we went to his new apt to look around. It is super nice! It is large and in charge, very clean, and has a gigantic kitchen. I felt this way about Dane's first kitchen, but then they were so dirty that the kitchen became smaller (counters were covered with stuff, messy insides of cabinets, etc) and less usable. I hope that this does not happen with the new apt. The landlord was nice and talked our faces off. We went back to Seth's because he and Lydia had just arrived home. I ate a leftover pork chop, a piece of key lime pie, and a piece of cheesecake (strangely, the cheesecake crust contained pepper??? or was that from the pork chop????) while everyone including Seth's grandmother watched the movie Taken. I thought it was okay... but implausible and unrelatable. Following the movie I went to bed, and I don't know what the others did.

DAY 8 Las Vegas to San Diego

We chilled in Las Vegas in the am and Dane ate pudding and coffee. I ate pudding, chips and salsa, and orange juice. Then at 10:00 am we peaced out of our hotel and drove to LA. We first went to Caltech to visit Jeff Kaplan but he wasn't in his office. To find his office, we found the astro/astrophysics building and literally walked past every office on every floor starting from the bottom until we found his on the third floor. No one seemed to know where he had gone. We left a note for him.

We went to Target to walk around because we were there really early - we arrived around 2 but we had told my brother that we'd be there around 3:30pm, and when we called, he was at some restaurant buying lunch. At Target, I found a cookie monster cap, the summer counterpart to my winter oscar the grouch beanie, but I didn't buy it because it was 16 dollars. That is a lot of money. Instead, I spent $1.09 on a blue icee. I actually wanted the cherry coke one, but then it was too watery so I had to ask food seller lady for another cup. Then I got blue, and filled her up but while I was putting the lid on, the icee exploded all over my hands. So I had to get another cup. I put the lid on first this time. It was great. My hands and face were blue.

Next we went to the Coffee Bean to meet with my brother. My brother had hot coffee and Dane had some sort of hazelnut milky iced coffee drink. Then we went to Borders where Dane spent his entire gift certificate on a map of San Diego. We ate at some Thai restaurant that was pretty good. Then we went back to my bro's apt to chill while we waited for my friend Jeannie to call. Jeannie called and we went to this place called Wurstkuche which sells exotic sausages and beers, a lot like Hot Dougs, but more swanky, and in downtown LA. Jeannie had the rattlesnake and rabbit and Dane and Andrew shared the duck and bacon for second dinner. Finally, we went to some yogurt shop where I had that tart pinkberry like yogurt that I like. Yum.

Then it was 10pm so we dropped off my brother and were on the road to San Diego. It was at this time that I discovered, trying to navigate for Dane, that the pages of his new San Diego key map from Borders were completely out of order. Dane felt angry because it was an $18 map. He says he is going to tkae it back but I think it might be faster to take it apart and put it in order and put it back together.

We arrived in San Diego around midnight and basically said hi to Seth and went to sleep in his grandmother's garage apartment. His grandma's place is SUPER nice. It is basically on the beach @ Del Mar and is really spacious and well decorated, and clearly built to accommodate many guests. I also like the shower, which has tiles with raised relief turtles on it.