Tacos

My final day in LA was interesting: We met with a client in West Hollywood and had an amazing lunch at a very SoCal place filled with beautiful people, and their beautiful cars were on the streets - Astons, Bentleys, and Teslas (the electric sports car). It was a very perfect experience. We even saw ladies with miniature dogs in purses.

Earlier in the day, we wandered through the neighborhood we were staying in, avoiding the grubby "characters" in front of Grauman's Chinese (we saw a spiderman in a faded suit with a spider fanny pack... and a lot of Captain Jack Sparrows). These people all were hustling for pictures, and even if there was no money in it, it felt cheap and awful. On the other side of the coin (and other side of the street) we saw Ms Cate Blanchett appearing for her Star on the Walk of Fame. Alas, she didn't have time to join us for coffee.

Finally, I made another visit to Beard Papa and ate a Green Tea Cream Puff. It was not entirely unpleasant, but it was completely unsweetened - a purely green tea flavor that was at odds with the creaminess of the filling, which put me right back into Shinjuku, eating odd muffins that weren't flavored "right" for my western taste buds.

In summary, LA is a very strange place, and there is much to enjoy and avoid. As I visit in the months to come I hope to get more of a grip on this fairyland.

At the airport, my conservative companion attempted to engage another coworker (a consultant who was on the same flight as us) in political discussion. He floated a few trial balloons, to which the coworker replied "Gee, it sounds like you've got some strong opinions on that, don't you?", and left it at that. That was masterful.

On the ride home I was trapped in Coach, but fortunately had legroom thanks to an open middle seat and considerate front neighbors who declined to recline. They were spanish speaking and spent the flight with a huge buffet of foodstuff laid out in front of them - fruits, meats, breads... I read an ebook and watched a few episodes of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles (which is my new addiction). There was a scene in the season 2 opener where a robot (who minutes later has been trying to kill our hero) is trapped and about to be deactivated and it pleads for mercy which was absolutely haunting. Especially for a lover of the robots like myself. Amazing television.

The flight had its own drama: As we approached Minneapolis, we were stuck in a holding pattern for over a half hour, then came in for landing. I watched the familiar sights out the window, getting closer and closer, and suddenly the plane pulled up sharply with high acceleration and we were all slammed back into our seats. The pilot said the runway had been closed and we needed to do a second approach... but we circled for another 20 min before finally landing. I do wonder what really happened, because it was pretty dramatic feeling.

Today was back to family-time: We swam in the AM, I went out on a date with my dad for some shopping and sushi.

Tonight was Taco Night, and Bella amused and horrified us by eating 8 loaded tacos. Eight. And she was munching into them with such abandon that shards of taco shell were flying across the table. After the eight, she kept going with chips to scoop up any meat and cheese that had fallen to the plate. I think she'll put on a half foot tonight.

Bella will be learning to Ice Skate with grandma, and she got new skates today. She's got these big feet (sidetrack: In the hospital the day after her birth, when birthmom Kaitie handed Bella to us, she apologized, saying "sorry, she got my big feet!") These big paddles don't fit into dainty figure skates, so Bella got hockey skates, which she said "look way cooler anyway". And tonight she put the blade guards on, strapped the skates on, and walked around the living room saying "Look, I can already skate!" She's going to be a real terror on the ice, I can already tell.

The evening beyond the kids bedtime was just Pamela and I enjoying being in the same room as one another - she reading a book, me watching another Sarah Connor, both in front of the fire and just happy to be near.