The little vendor booths that were blocking off the street a while ago moved into this little area. Still not that busy.
Another fun game of poker.
A little Yoshi doll hanging from the back of someone's truck.
Bill Watterson didn't want Calvin & Hobbes used for any commercial purposes, so buying a sticker of Calvin praying at a cross breaks the "Thou shalt not steal" commandment.
Usually I work late on Wednesday, but it was Yom Kippur, so we took it off. That meant I could go to Dave & Busters, which has half-priced games on Wednesday. First stop: Guitar Hero.
Linda didn't do so great for her first time: 7%
But all the way up to 57% the second time.
She thinks the soccer games are the best ones of these. I didn't like them as much as the others: the goalie was quite annoying and I never got the coin in the little goal for a bonus.
These people had sackfulls of winnings.
I don't really like the small basketball games, but I like this big one.
Everybody loves air hockey.
A giant Connect 4 game.
Whoever wins gets to play the bonus game afterwards. A vertical line goes back and forth under the different ticket amounts. I hit the jackpot and won 500 tickets this time.
Nice little pile.
Me with my winnings.
Here you have to hit the lights that turn on as fast as possible. This is actually similar to a device we used in school for hand-eye coordination rehabilitation after certain injuries. Our scores were really close.
Here you hit the little acorn with the mallet and a crack goes through the ice to the line in the middle that determines how many tickets you get. The jackpot is really tiny, but I wonder if you can time it just right by using a landmark on the middle line or if it changes speed.
Some people actually come here on Wednesdays since it's half price and basically work. If you play the games with the best chance of getting bonuses, redeem the tickets for things like iPads and sell them on eBay, you can make OK money. This guy seemed really serious and had a ton of tickets, so I wonder if that's what he was doing. Although the problem with turning something like this into a job is it's not fun any more.
Jumpin' Jackpot.
I've hit the jackpot on this before, but not this time.
I've never been a fan of claw games. Again, you can win if you watch it and figure out how often it will close hard, but that's work, not fun.
Nice little sampler platter.
This group of guys was trying to win a bar bet with the gals. You bet them you can drink two beers before they can drink two shots. The rules are they can't touch their shots before you finish and put down your first beer and they can't touch your glasses. The secret is you drink your first beer and put the glass upside-down on top of one of their shots, thereby preventing them from ever drinking it, and finish your second beer at your leisure. However, the guys forgot the "can't touch their shots before you put your first glass down" rule, and some of the women were holding their shots, so I had to remind the guys about it so they wouldn't lose.
Onto pool, which also was half priced.
This doesn't look good for me.
Pac-Man Battle Royale is a lot of fun, too, since you can eat the other players. Except we played against a woman and her very young daughter, so I kept having to avoid killing the little girl.
I love these sunglasses, but the lenses are so chipped that they pop out a lot. Thankfully I bought them on Amazon which had a record of the exact type I bought, so I could just re-order the same ones.
Off to the LA County Fair a second time to hopefully catch some of the things I missed the first time. We really wanted to see the live bear that you could feed, but it was closed down for the night.
Guess we'll have to settle for a picture of Farrah by a bear statue.
Good ol' pork sandwhiches.
An English exhibit with lots of flowers.
Some zebras.
Dogs jumping to catch frisbees. I didn't think about the fact that we'd get splashed standing here until it happened.
A traveling band.
The mechanical bulls. Two women seemed to really know how to ride and had cowboy boots and hats.
And belt buckles, so I'm guessing they actually ride horses a lot.
This woman was having a ton of fun.
The petting zoo.
You could buy feed in an ice-cream cone for them.
They were pretty pushy.
Aww, so cute.
Dancing.
Tiny little babies.
A fawn.
OK, guys, back off a bit.
I didn't consider the fact that theyd eat the cone as well. That was gone in a few chomps.
Hey, no eating my shorts!
This guy liked to jump on the other animals' backs and ride around. Not sure if he's a mountain goat or if he just thought it was safer.
Some clowns putting on a show.
A girl out of the audience on the trapeze. After this they took her to the back and she changed outfits.
Wait a minute, I don't think it's just some random girl they picked.
That's impressive.
Jumping blind folded.
And she makes it.
That's a lot of husks.
I had no idea porcupines could eat with their hands like this.
Peacocks.
We were wandering around here and when I first saw this I thought it was a real lion. I realized there was nothing between us except this rope and got just a touch scared before I figure out he was fake.
In the safari zone.
A band playing, although it was mainly older folks listening.
Me with the Blues Brothers.
I wonder what that refers to. Taxes? Hair? A rug? Being LA, it's probably a movie director.
A female lawyer?
Saturday I went down to Hermosa beach for a volleyball class. The teacher, Cindy Grebliunas, was really good. She gave excellent advice without being too critical, and she went over a bit of everything so it felt like we could play every part of the game better rather than just focusing on a couple of areas, but it didn't feel like we rushed any section.
Working on hitting. I learned a lot; now I just have to practice it.
I love this view of downtown from the south except for the cars.
A taxi dragging a piece of bumber. I don't think it belonged to his car, though.
Saturday night was a League of Nations meeting at a downtown loft. After The Fall performed, and they were recording for the music video for Don't Feel.
Drinks.
And more drinks.
I like the second notice: "$10 surcharge if you want them to piss in your drink."
Hanging out in the garden.
Dumb marathons blocking the roads.
This person might be a jerk, but they might also be crippled.
A guy playing chess on his computer at the bar. I was going to ask if he wanted to play a game but he took off in a hurry.
It's sad they need a sign for this.
Blade looks like an Axe ripoff.
This is neat: plastic drink carriers filled with fluid you freeze to keep your drinks cold.
First the burrito was basically just hamburger wrapped in a tortilla, nothing else, and then my fork broke.
Three boxes for $5? That's seems impossibly cheap.
It's sad; almost all of the missing children are "abducted" by a parent.
I don't think an 18-year progression based on a baby photo would be very accurate.
"Pierced ears" doesn't really narrow it down much.
A fairly new clinic near the office.
A little restaurant with some arcade games like Dave & Busters.
I was walking down the street and thought I noticed something in the upper window.
A closer look revealed a mannequin decked out in paintball gear. It looks like a sniper at first glance, though.
Very smart. These guys were cleaning the branches off the sidwalk, but since they didn't have brooms, they used big tree branches instead.
A fun little outfit at the thrift store.
Aw, the Out of the Closet thrift store by The Grove closed.
For some unknown reason my phone changed all of my ringtones and alert sounds. And it's not like it reset them to the original settings; they're just random. It's actually done this a couple of times. It can be a bit of a pain if it goes off and starts playing a long song rather than just a beep if I'm seeing a patient or in a meeting.