Honey, look at all the money I saved!!!

Friday
Vanessa and I went out for sushi at Yoshi’s. Yoshi’s is about a mile from our house and has had some impact on our wanting to stay in the area. The sushi is great quality and the people that work there are fun. We have been going for about two years now. We’ve tried other sushi places, but we keep coming back here. We always finish with a Kawasaki Roll (shrimp tempura, rice, and red spicy sauce wrapped in lettuce).

Saturday
We started our day with lunch at Mimi’s Café. The Artichoke Spinach Dip makes a great breakfast and the Café Club with fries was a nice dessert (or appetizer and lunch if you prefer). After that we headed home. Too much time in the sun is bad for the skin. I watched Once Upon a Time in the West so I can knock another movie off my list. I have about 10 movies recorded now that I am trying to get through.

While we were at Mimi’s Albert called and told us he was planning on going to Lobster Fest in San Pedro with a couple of our friends. I had never heard of Lobster Fest (apart from Red Lobster), but when he mentioned a lobster dinner for $13.00 it sounded like a good deal. I’m not a lobster fan. I can take it or leave it, but since it’s so expensive, it makes since for me to leave it. Vanessa on the other hand is a fan.

Albert had to work for most of the day, but we decided to meet there around 9:00 pm. It was okay, but I wouldn’t go back. I expected a nice event with seafood vendors and perhaps some white wines to taste. What we found was a tent with picnic tables and trash everywhere. It was more of a carnival setting with carnival games, psychic readers, and temporary tattoos. We made the most of it. Vanessa got a butterfly tattoo and I ate a bratwurst while she devoured the lobster. For dessert we shared a funnel cake. I enjoyed getting out and seeing Albert, Keith, and Jerome.

Sunday
My day started with picking my dad up at LAX. He was returning from another trip from Thailand. He goes twice a year for two weeks at a time. This trip was a little different as he was getting details on retiring there. He looked at places to live and the overall cost of living. Rather than traveling to resorts, he stayed in one place and tried to do “normal” non-vacation actives such as shopping for groceries. While looking for places to live he looked at a 2,000 square-foot condo with 3 bedrooms (twice as big as my last 3-bedroom condo). Total price: $150,000. Not bad at all. Despite the 18-hour flights and having to return to work, he is always in such a good mood when he gets back.

Vanessa and I went to Chili’s to grab some lunch and watch the football games. They have a great burger there. It’s called the Chipotle Bleu Cheese Bacon Burger. I get it every time I go. Yummy. The 49ers lost and the Patriots won. No surprise there.

I have been looking for a sale at Robinson’s-May for the last month or so, because they luggage I want is only sold there. It’s Pathfinder Presidential II. My dad has a couple of their suitcases and they are super durable. I won’t bore you with details, but trust me when I tell you it’s good quality. I spotted a sale going on and an additional 10% off coupon. Within 5 minutes I was out the door. I picked up three pieces. A 22-inch wheeled carry-on, a 26-inch wheeled suitcase, and a wheeled backpack. The backpack is great. It is 20 inches, opens like a suitcase, has hidden straps so you can wear it like a backpack or hide the straps and roll it along, and it has a smaller backpack that unzips from the larger one for day-trips.

All of this is for out trip to Europe in December. Total price for the 3 pieces: $419.00. Vanessa crapped her pants (not literally) when I told her how much I spent on it. We had talked about it before, but I don’t think it ever settled in until yesterday. We had set $500.00 aside for luggage out of our savings account. I know I sound like a woman, but I saved a lot of money. The backpack was $89.00, which is 48% off of the suggested retail price and 25% off of the lowest price I could find on the internet. Anyway, we shouldn’t need anymore luggage for a long time.

Later we ate dinner, watched Perfect Storm, and ate homemade strawberry ice cream. The movie was good. I enjoyed it a little when I realized Vanessa was under the impression everyone survived. There was one part where she commented, “they’re all going to live anyway”. It was fun watching her expression when the boat sank and everyone died. Oops! Did I just give away the ending?