We all went to see our first movie in LA tonight. We decided on the Universal City Theatre, just three miles from our place. It's connected to about 30 stores in a long outdoor walk. It's actually a really cool little strip mall type thing. Only every store looks like they have about three times the budget of a normal store to design the exterior. Hot Topic had giant flaming torches, Billabong had a working "ocean coastline" under their entrance, and the Hard Rock Cafe had a giant Fender guitar. Also the movie theatre had a 12ft Hulk ripping through the wall and smashing the ticket sign. They spend more money on everything here. Even McDonald's on Hollywood Blvd has giant film reels hanging above you.

The movie theatre was absolutely packed, and everyone made a lot of noise during the movie. Their reactions were more like those of people at a premiere back home. Nobody seemed to mind voicing their opinion halfway into the movie, but it wasn't too annoying. Mostly we were all just laughing or jumping at the same parts. Oh, almost forgot. The movie was Dawn of the Dead. I know what you're thinking, but it was actually pretty good. I'd recommend it for the non-squemish. This movie has a lot of history too.

I think we'll be going back soon, just to check out the stores and stuff. Billy and I had fifteen minutes to stroll around before the movie started (since Mike and Amanda went to get something to eat) and we didn't even make it all the way to the end. We did see a few places I'd like to go. Turns out LA has a "Howl at the Moon", a piano bar that Jessica has always told me is really cool. You can request just about any song and they have dueling pianos to play it for you. We had a really fun night. Though the movie tickets were $9 and the parking was $8. That's right. I said parking. Get used to it.



The morning we spent at Billy's cousin's party for her daughter. Her name is Azrel and she just turned 4. I almost took out Crystal's boyfriend's dad with a frisbee, while Mike and I were tossing it around, but he was pretty nice about it. We had some great barbecued chicken and her mom gave us some giant oranges and cake to bring home. The oranges are as big as my fists put together. They look tasty, but I haven't had any yet.

I think tomorrow I'm going to hike up to the top of that hill off Mulholland Dr again. It's been a lot clearer this weekend, and I'm hoping the fog or clouds or whatever was hanging over the city will be gone. It was beautiful before, but there was sort of a point where you couldn't see anymore. I wanted to start running again, but the last time I tried my knee felt really sore. It hasn't bothered me as bad lately, but I don't want it to be bad again.

Other than that it's look for work and keep mental notes of the places I want to take Michelle when she comes to visit me in a month. I've already got the two from yesterday and today. I'm sure they'll be more. I've sort of been wondering when I'm going to stop feeling like a tourist and start feeling like a native.