Birthday Fun!

It's not everyday a gal turns 44. I decided to celebrate MY day by spending it thrift-shoppin' with the husband!

Thrift shops are SO awesome. I don't really understand people who think they're weird, or yucky, or wonder why you'd want to buy stuff that had been owned by someone else. Heck, don't buy any of it if you don't want! Just LOOK at it! There are amazing treasures at every turn!

Here are just a few of the delightful items we saw... we even bought a few of 'em.

After a day of thrift shoppin', sustenance was in order. We had some fabulous Chinese food from Golden Hunan for dinner, and then came dessert! YUM!

I had a great b-day.

Amoeba Music. Extremely Rad.

Today, we dragged The Boy over to Amoeba Music in Hollywood. We'd been there before, but this time I was snappin' pix to share with y'all!

This place is undoubtedly the most awesome music store, EVAR. Oh, sure. Rhino was cool, Moby Disc was cool, Licorice Pizza was somewhat cool (and had THE best name), Second Spin is STILL cool. But none of them could hold a candle to Amoeba. There's something amazing going on there... some kind of spirit that other stores just can't capture. I'm not just bein' corny! It's true!

Here's what it looks like on the outside. (I found this lovely photo on the 'net, with no credit given. Therefore I can't provide attribution. But it's a great pic!)

Here is a view of the store from the staircase that leads to the 2nd floor. This gives you a pretty good view of about 25% of the 1st floor. The place is GINORMOUS.

The second floor consists mostly of DVDs, with a smattering of video games, VHS tapes, and laserdiscs. They have the best selection of british television I've seen this side of the Thames.

LASERDISCS, people! LASERDISCS! All kinds! But seriously -- 'Black Like Me'?!?!? This is indicative of the types of obscure treasures you'll find at EVERY turn at Amoeba!

I took this snap of the Jazz Room especially for my friend Eric. Everyone else can look away. ;-)

But I think my favorite thing about Amoeba, curiously enough, are the POSTERS. The posters here are AMAZING. They cover just about every wall space, and range from stuff like Three's Company and Star Trek, to Jimi Hendrix and Guster. SO. SO. AWESOME.!!!

So, there you have it. My love letter to Amoeba. I hope they will be around for us to visit and patronize for a long, long time.

Do stop in if you should find yourself in the Hollywood/Berkeley/San Francisco areas.

Gym clothes? Check. Locker combo? Check. First day of middle school a rousing success? CHECKITY-CHECK-CHECK!

Another milestone, successfully passed.

Today, The Boy survived his first day of middle school. w00t!

Not only did he survive it, he seemed to ENJOY it as well. He likes EVERY teacher (that certainly wasn't the case for ME when I was in Jr. High! Mrs. Hamilton for math! BLERG!). I daresay, tho, he's most excited about his NEW LOCKER! And who wouldn't be?! Havin' a place to stow yer gear is certainly among the best things about middle school.

Thanks to all who (once again) sent good juju to my family on this momentous day! IT WORKED!