A praying mantis on a tire.
We went to the Haunted Hayride on Thursday night. Good night to go because it's super-crowded on weekends and we didn't have to wait at all.
The five of us.
The start of the ride.
We'd go to a set piece, monsters would attack, and then we'd move it.
It wasn't scary, but it was still fun.
A carousel that goes backwards.
You ride on skeleton horses.
Some lecture on scary stuff.
A mirror maze.
Inside.
A witch hanging.
There were a lot of teen TV stars. Here's Emily VanCamp from Revenge.
This was pretty sad. Instead of fans getting signatures, it's just a bunch of paparazzi who are going to sell them later.
Jonathan Bennett.
Tons of photographers around the photo area.
There were a lot of monsters wandering around. This was the tallest one.
The group with him.
Art Night in Pasadena was on Friday. First stop was a dance performance.
We picked up this map of stops. They were scattered over about 20 blocks by 5 blocks. There were shuttles running, but we walked to most of them by starting at one end and zig-zagging to the next one.
A performance in a little open area.
Cool store; lots of various creatures.
A big snake.
An indoors band.
3D artwork.
A 3D movie.
Nice that there were a fair number of people there but it wasn't packed.
An exhibit you walked on top of; a child watching TV and some other stuff. A bit creepy.
Ogii with a giant fork.
The employees at the library were dressed up as book characters.
Ogii with a couple of them.
A musical performance.
Another one.
A crafts table for kids.
The smaller rooms were very pretty.
This guy was in a back room all by himself. Hopefully a fair number of other people visited him.
City Hall.
Hot cocoa.
Food trucks.
A crazy sign.
The parking garage of an art museum.
It looks like someone left their luggage here. Interestingly, the two cops walking towards it completely ignored it.
Road partially blocked by some bicycler event.
Over the weekend we went looking for a new car. This car's hood was kept closed with a padlock. I think I'll pass on this one.
Ooh, glittery paint.
The KIAs were pretty clean and nice looking.
Kind of small, though.
Dodge Viper is a little out of my price range.
Stopped in to the dollar store for a few items and got stuck behind someone buying half of the store.
Got these frames at the Vision Expo. They're for tiny kids, and the manufacturer has to damage them so we can't resell them. They damage them by putting tiny holes in the temples, though, so they're still basically useable. I guess I'll hold onto it in case a kid who really needs them and doesn't have any money comes in.
Checked out Toyotas Monday morning. That's pretty impressive gas mileage.
The blue is fairly pretty.
Notes I had from my vehicle search. The better gas mileage from the Prius, 50 vs 15 in the Jeep, almost makes the monthly car payments.
Decided to lease the gray Prius Plug In. There's a $1500 government rebate and a $5000 manufacturer rebate, and they salesman dropped the lease price when I said I wanted to think about it for a day, so I think I got a decent price.
Don't know if I'll find somewhere to plug it in, and it only goes 10 miles on electric anyway, but it's a nice option.
This display says what mode it's in. Left is charging the electric motor when you're slowing down with the brakes, next is electric, next is gas, and last is power.
It has this floating console. Kind of cool looking.
It also has a gas mileage indicator to the right of the speedometer.
I spent forever clicking through the computerized center control center trying to change the time. It's just these buttons off to the side, though.
That's good. I was a bit worried about driving away with the car plugged in, but it doesn't let you do that.
People not knowing the Prius is there because the electric engine is so quiet is a known problem. It says it makes a sound a low speeds, but I've never heard it.
That's a neat option.
I don't like that it beeps while in reverse, though. It's a car, not a giant truck.
Aw, this is one option I didn't get that I would have really liked. It keeps you at the same distance from cars in front of you while in cruise control. Would be really useful on LA highways.
You could even tell it how far away to be. Very nice; I'll have to keep it in mind for my next vehicle.
A metallic foreign body in a patient's cornea.
I use an alger brush to remove the rust ring left after I take the foreign body out. The battery died on mine, so I had to replace it. Glad it was just a battery rather than the entire device.
A little lunch table set up outside of work.
Had a breakfast meeting at Grifols.
Very pretty view.
To the north.
Assemblymember Jimmy Gomez.
CA Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor gave a presentation on the California budget. It was pretty interesting. Most of the state's budget is from income taxes, and 80% of that is from the top 10% of income earners. Since it's so concentrated, even small changes in the economy can have a big effect in California's budget.