Furlough Monday activities!

Ohhhh, furlough days. I'm supposed to hate you. I'm supposed to be incensed and resentful that I am forced to take days off from work, unpaid, due to the California budget crisis.

And yet, I don't hate you. I adore you. I don't know how I will live without you, once I am required to return to a normal work schedule.

I spent today's furlough day with Mr. Siegel, who took a day off from HIS job in order to kick around with me! We opted to do activities that The Boy hates, since he wasn't with us. Aren't we thoughtful?!

We decided to start the day with breakfast at DuPar's in Farmer's Market. Delish! From there, we ambled out into Farmer's Market and The Grove, where we enjoyed the wares and the people watching. Our final stop of the day was at one of our most favoritest stores -- Amoeba Records in Hollywood! (I don't have any pix of that cuz by then, my fone battery had died.)

All in all, it was an absolutely fabulous day. We love our boy, but grownup time is pretty awesome, too. ;-)

I have no idea what these signs mean.

That's not bacon I'm holding -- it's giant striped pasta. And, it's $23/bag.

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.