We finally are having a real weekend over here! Totally making up for the madness that was the Auntie-filled Vegas weekend.

First of all, the work gang didn’t get to Shabu Shabu at Little Tokyo as planned. Even arriving a good 15 minutes before the joint opens, we were already in the 2nd round of seating! Although, we did learn that if we were to take a late lunch at 1 p.m., our chance of actually getting to have shabu would be better than trying to arrive early. So we mozied over to T.O.T. Fantastic rice-and-noodle bowl place. Hip…yet so traditional!

Friday night, I went over to Brenda’s to drop off the Yuzu juice, a Japanese citrus fruit juice, I picked up for her from J-Town. The plan to just exchange the juice for a hunk of steak Brenda picked up for me from Plowboy turned into an hour of visit over a glass of wine. LOL. It’s been a long time since I solo hang out with Bren…and the first time with Jon too.

I haven’t hung out with Brenda alone in what seems like a million years. But now that I’m starting to cook, there is a common language there for us that could go on forever. Brenda is a teacher in profession, so she is more than happy to give me guidance on my journey down the foodie adventure.

And hence, I walked away with baggies of spices Brenda recently order in bulk. And yes, she gave me a baggy full of what I should be using instead of Herbes de Provance. Just add lavender, which she also gave me, and voila! (No more bastardized HdP!) She also handed me the Alton Brown’s method of cooking steak so that I wouldn’t accidentally repeat the roast beef disaster a few nights ago.

Steak is one thing I had down somewhat. But it’s good to learn yet another fool-proof method. I did redeem myself. 🙂

(And yes, I will probably repost this bit on Hmm…Food…Good. Heh.)

Saturday was packed. Yet, it was a fun errand day. A bit of running and chatting with Shane turned out to be a perfect way to start the day. Then it was lunch with Brandon all the way down in Santa Ana. When you crave Pat & Oscar’s bread sticks and house Italian dressing, nothing else would satiate.

We then ran errands around the Main Place Mall. Party supply. Bookstore. Hot Topic. See’s Candies. (And we walked when the fresh free sample of caramel and marshmallow just came out. O. M. F. G!!!! It was just so damn good!) Gas and a car wash for Merlin, my blue Corolla.

After a few minutes rest at home, off took off by myself to to recycle our bottles and cans, drop off dry cleaning, a personal care appointment, Trader Joe’s, Borders, Sears, Hallmark, Bristol Farms, and finally the local Vons. I made dinner and we watched Stranger Than Fiction. A great movie, by the way. Will Farrell amazes both of us. Then it was a long string of Tivo’ed shows: Battlestar Galatica, The Black Donnellys, Mythbuster, and BBC Robin Hood…which we agreed suck major ass.

And today? I woke up first and hauled all of laundry to the laundromat to get all 5 loads done at once. We lunched on scrambled eggs with bad sausages I had to throw out. I put my old books up for sale on Amazon. And now, I probably would get in the kitchen to make dinner in a few hours.

Brandon suggested that we go out today, being the first day after we sprang forward. Any other day I would jump to the chance. But strangely, I wanted to just be home for the rest of the evening.

Gee. I wonder why that is. LOL.