Well it's been a month since my last blog. Not surprisingly it was around the time my dad had to go to the hospital. He was in there almost 3 weeks out of 4 in and out twice. But now he is much better and we hope he will stay that way and keep recovering. I was also temping as a DVD tester. Luckily the hours are very flexible. The downside is the pay but the upside is the people there are pretty cool, mostly in the industry. There is also the fact that sometimes I watch James Bond in Thai language with Korean subtitles or some combination of it. I've also watched some disturbing animee.

Tara visited the last few days, which was a lot of fun. It forced me to drive around places that Kim's usually driven. I feel more comfortable driving now but if I had a choice I'd still drive less. Tara came over last Wednesday and in the afternoon I took her to Paradise Cove in Malibu. We saw a commercial shoot of a car going off a pier. We also saw some pelicans diving for fish. We did some shopping before coming home and called it an early night since Tara had been up pretty early and with the time difference, it adds up.

Thursday we went to Fred Segal's on Melrose, and check out another store in LA. The second store was a little dissapointing but it really points out how you need to know where you want to go instead of being able to wonder around and hit unexpected cool places. We then went to The Getty Museum which was very nice. It was a clear day so we could see the ocean from there. We hit Universal Walk after that to avoid rush hour traffic and ate some junk food. I think that was also the night we hit The Stand in Encino where we saw Kevin James from "King of Queens". We think he lived nearby because there's a lot of nice houses around there.

Friday I went to my parents in the morning while Tara hit the pool. Then we went to Venice Beach. I wasn't too happy with the traffic but Tara said it was better than L.I.E. at times. I would also compared where I used to live in Thousand Oaks as Long Island is to Manhattan. Meaning I didn't go to the trendy hang outs too much as a kid. Venice Beach was very nice and we kept wondering what all the people were doing at the beach on week days. I think that was only my third or forth time going to Venice. It's gotten alot cleaner and build up a bit.

Saturday we took mass transit! Yes, there's a busline nearby that we drive and park at and take the bus to the LA subway. We took the subway 2 stops to Hollywood and Highland where the Kodak theater and Mann's Chineses theaters are located. We can see the Hollywood sign from there. We had lunch in the mall there (where the waiters were all watching soccer) and then had drinks at the Roosevelt Hotel. There were plenty of Hollywood stereo typical poolside loungers, meaning almost everyone was young and in bikinis. We also walked around and looked at the handprints and stars on the sidewalk. It was pretty hot the days Tara was here and before long we were ready to go back. I'd say the subway/bus/car trip was under 1 hour each way. I will have to explore where else the subway goes. We then went to dinner at Roy's. A Hawaiian fusian restaurant. It's also where the girls took me for a bachelorette dinner in Las Vegas exactly a year ago. There's also one in Manhattan but I've never been. We sat at the chef's table and watch the cooks at work. The dinner was excellent again. We then hung out at the balcony at the apartment and watched "Sex and the City" on demand the rest of the night while Kim kept calling drunk and wondered why we didn't go "out" on a Saturday night. Well it got to be midnight our time and 3am in NY while Kim was still partying. I wasn't sure if he made it to his flight at 6:30am until he landed the next morning. I tried to have him paged in case he slept throught the boarding process but only got an automatic service.

I picked up Kim at Burbank Airport Sunday morning. He made the flight. While Kim slept, Tara and I had breakfast and saw some "open house" of condos nearby. Sadly, too expensive still. I now hear the prices went up a hundred grand since it first went on to the market 5 years ago. Kim then drove us to Santa Monica, the scenic way. Tara had been to the pier years ago but not to the promenade which is maybe 5 years old? Kim and I then visited my dad for Father's day while Tara did some more shopping. Later, Tara and I watched Entourage which ironically had a storyline about how hot the valley is and a blackout happens. Actually there was a short blackout while Tara was here but it was at night and she was already asleep. Today it's actually not hot in the valley. I'll do a little jogging soon.

I hope Tara liked the valley/LA enough to visit again!