The End of Summer Vacation, For Some Of Us That Is

This weekend being the last summer holiday, and the veritable end of summer, I get an email from Mom who takes the opportunity to rub it in and let it be known that she's on vacation every day.

Will and I decided to make a late afternoon trek to the California Science Center yesterday to use up a couple of VIP passes to the Body Worlds exhibit. Entering the Science Center we headed towards the winding line of ticket holders where a purple-shirted attendant checked our tickets and said "follow me". I didn't know what was happening at first but our VIP status tickets worked like magic. The velvet rope was swept aside for us alone and and we got to go right in.The exhibit is on two floors and as we left one exhibit hall and topped the escalator to the next to be confronted by another winding line of ticket holders, we walked right up to that rope and found a purple-shirted attendant and the magic worked, again we were ushered in. Score!

Unless you're a surgeon or something you've probably only seen text book diagrams or motion picture and television scenes of the body's internal organs and everything else that holds us together. So this was a weird look inside of me. Not only was every part opened up and sliced in pieces, it was positioned in extremely unusual ways. Definitely not your textbook diagram. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside.
Afterwards we strolled through the Rose Gardens and then headed across town to R23 for Japanese dinner. This is the first time I've been to R23 and I was really looking forward to fulfilling a recent craving I've been having for soft shelled crab. In reading some of the customer reviews it appeared that the crab salad was a must, so I added that to the list to be ordered.
We arrived there plenty hungry and while Will ordered a Soporro beer our server was so helpful when I asked him to help me select a Saki. It came chilling in it's own glass carafe with a little ice chamber, it's taste on the sweeter side of the spectrum. Then we had just about the best crab salad ever. Plenty of crab and fresh greens and a light and fresh dressing with ginger in its ingredients. We also had soft shelled crab that was hot and crispy in its tempura batter with a smoky dipping sauce on the side. That was followed by a variety of sushi then shrimp tempura. For desert I had green tea ice cream.

Nice.

What's up with the Renovation

We have completed the house renovation design and planning stages and made decisions on all flooring, finishes, design elements etc. I've had an HVAC company come out to give me an estimate on central heat and air. I met with Jesus and went over the plans to start getting some cost estimates together for the construction. We're waiting for the number$.

It is timely that the Anaheim Home and Garden Show was this past week and through the weekend so I could go see and touch some of the materials. On the way I stopped at SimpleFloors in Commerce to look at some Bamboo floors and pick up some samples.At the Home show I saw the pedestal tub we plan to use in the master bath. Saw all of the recycled product counter tops, including PaperStone. Checked out closet systems and lots and lots of kitchen cabinets. There is still a long way to go but it's going.

A Dog and A Ball

Sweetamus Dogamus
aka Ranger

I Told You You Were Gonna Be On The Internet

We saw lots and lots of dogs in Mexico. A pack of them guided us through the Toltec Ruins of Tula, and we saw them everywhere we went in Guanajuato.

This little girl though, really stole my heart. I would have packed her up in my suitcase if I could have. She lives in a really nice part of town though and I think she is well cared for. Although not wearing a collar, which I don't think is that unusual, when we reached a certain distance from where we first saw her she stopped following us and turned towards an open shop doorway and stayed there.