The American Apparel factory boutique downtown was having a big sale.
The called it a factory flea market, and it was in the back around the corner.
We were there early in the morning before almost anybody else was there, but they had used these bundles of clothing on pallets to create a back-and-forth line, so they must have been very busy the past few days.
Pretty cheap.
Ogii digging through boxes.
Some maybes.
This is just a little pop-up umbrella held up with duct tape and caution tape. I guess it works.
Didn't see too many deals for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but I did see these mini touchscreen laptops from Microsoft. Maybe I could use them for the office. Normally they're $350 but they were only $200 for the sale.
Plus, they're supposed to be free of all the crap that most computers come with nowadays.
Another bonus is most Cyber Monday sales limit you to one of each item. Here you could actually buy up to five of them.
Mongolian BBQ.
Although it's not really Mongolian at all, so I wonder who started the naming convention.
Christmas trees at Ralph's.
An exciting game on Monday Night football; it went to overtime.
I have more fun watching comments online than watching the game.
They can be quite brutal.
It got so popular the servers couldn't handle it and you couldn't post at all near the end of the game.
The servers actually crashed a bit after that.
That's OK; I can still watch the game.
There were over 30,000 comments in that thread alone.
Like this guy says, anything you write will probably be pushed down in seconds, so pretty unlikely anybody will see it.
They seem happy it was so popular.
It's almost "good," but is it actually "goo?" Or maybe "Go 02" for oxygen?
Crash on the highway.
Looks like he smashed his front on the divider.
Semper Fi, with an extra "n" thrown in there because somebody had the normal spelling?
Monday in German? That'd be really weird. There's also a man named Montag in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, so maybe it's for that, and there are some celebrities with the last name Montag as well.
This is an exception: usually the last few appointments of the day are packed a week ahead of time; today they were all empty. In fact, there were no patients the entire afternoon.
I hate reading reviews on Amazon where the item is given to the reviewer for free in exchange for a review. Of course they could write a negative, but you almost never see that.
Strumpet.
A real tree smells so good.
Ogii doesn't know how to cut grapefruit. She got it wrong once before, cut these in a different direction and got it wrong again. Since there are only three spacial dimensions, if she does it differently one more time it should be correct, right? Or can you cut it another way that would be wrong? Without cutting it at a funny angle, that is; if you stick to the major lines oriented by the little white plug? I'm not good at this higher math stuff.
The dryers finally got repaired. Of course, another one is broken again. I wonder if the repair people ever get sick of coming here.
Two things wrong with this picture. First, people are stopped in the intersection. Even though it's a green light and you'll probably be able to get through before it changes, what if an ambulance has to come through before then? Also, the third lane on the right is supposed to be a turn lane; people shouldn't be going straight there.
Pretty much all of the Hispanic children are fat, along with all of the parents. Studies say that's partially due to lower-income neighborhoods not having grocery stores with affordable healthy food, but there's a Mexican grocery store a few blocks away that's cheaper than the white person grocery stores. I think it's more to choosing to eat unhealthily. It's not helped when there are candy trucks that park right outside of the schools and all of the kids run there as soon as school gets out. I'm sure the candy truck driver is just trying to make a living, but he's really screwing over the long-term health of his fellow Mexicans.
Some sort of little party at this 7-Eleven.
Holiday dinner with one office at the Pomona Valley Mining Company.
Neat stained glass windows inside.
Another one with light behind it.
Cool entrance area.
It's up on a hill and I see it when I drive by, but we've never gotten around to going, so I'm glad we had the party here.
Good steaks.
And huge desserts.
There's a new Planet Fitness going up downtown. We just exercise at home, but there are a few exercises we don't have the equipment for, so maybe I'll check this one out. The problem with all of the other gyms I've looked at is they're way too crowded, though.
We hiked around Ascot Hills Park. One path winds back and forth up this side but there's a shortcut where you can walk straight up.
Downtown at sunset.
Pretty panoramic view.
I wanted to take that exit. Thankfully the navigation instantly reroutes me so I don't drive around lost on little side streets.
Steep hill.
Neat old car on the highway.
We were trying to decide where to eat before the concert and Ogii found a Chevy's at Ontario Hills Mall, so we went there. It was packed, so the wait was around 30 minutes. We didn't have that much time, but there was one stool open at the bar, so Ogii took that and I stood. The bartender was amazing; he was working non-stop and pouring drinks faster than I'd ever seen. The people by us were cheering him on and he was really friendly.
The concert was at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. I thought it was going to be kind of small and intimate; instead, it was huge, like where they would have basketball games.
Mannheim Steamroller. What I was expecting: will I be underdressed without a suit coat? What we got: Christmas rock music + Rammstein's pyrotechnics + a gigantic arena + some songs with singing and some only orchestra + overdramatic singers and musicians + a story about a runaway girl which was started a quarter of the way into the show by a guy who came out and narrated it + early 90s CGI backgrounds that could only have been conceived during an acid trip. The whole show felt a bit wonky and mishmashed, but I enjoyed the orchestra music.
Our little sand art flipper thing made a mini-mountain.
These people are up at 6am playing tennis.
We had our CE seminar Sunday morning. We used to have a stamp to verify people's attendance, but we don't know where it went. Last year they ran to Office Depot and made this one, but it'd be nice to have a more professional one.
Well, with Amazon, I can order it right there. Unfortunately it's not available for 2-hour delivery, but since it's a custom item, that makes sense.
We had around 80 attendees.
A speaker on dry eye.
The attendees talked to some of the sponsors.
These guys had lots of items to give out.
One speaker on cataracts and glaucoma.
And another on retina surgery.
A break for sponsors.
Some discussion.
Everybody liked the goodies.
Checking out their services.
Another speaker on eyelid surgery.
Raffle time.
iPod Mini winner.
A few years ago we met a woman at a friend's party. We didn't see her for a few months and then saw her at the candy store at The Grove when we went there to buy an Advent calendar. She was working there while in school. We didn't see her until we went back to buy an Advent calendar again the next year and she was there again. This year she wasn't there, so hopefully she's done with school and doing well. They also didn't have Advent calendars this year, only this Advent tree.
Ogii spent a lot more on this tree than on the normal calendars, but all we get is a Hershey's Kiss?
And one of these little ball chocolates? I thought the candy would be better. I feel like I'm going to get a piece of Candy Corn like from Bad Santa next.
Huge accident. Thankfully I was able take the very last exit before it because I noticed the traffic slowing down in time. A 40-minute delay over less than a mile.
The traffic on the highway.
There were these weird looking airplanes flying above some hills.
Ah, there's a fire.
There were helicopters as well. Thankfully it didn't look too big.
Lakers fan.
Pretty sunsets lately with the clouds.
The mailperson could get this box into our mailbox because the whole front opens up, but I couldn't get it out because of the lip along the door. It took a lot of prying and squeezing to get it free.
It takes around two hours to drive to Apple Valley.
And a little over a day to walk there. I guess it's assuming average walking speed of four miles per hour, but nobody is going to walk for an entire day without a break, whereas if it's a day of driving, you can switch of drivers and actually make it in that amount of time.
This prettier walk goes through the forest and takes a few more hours. I'd think it'd actually take a lot more because going up the mountains is going to really slow you down.
That's a horrible river card; straights and flushes both got there. Thankfully the other guy had 88, we both flopped sets, and I won.
I wanted to fold preflop but accidentally hit reraise instead. I bet the flop, they called, checked the turn, and then bet the river and they all folded. Glad that worked out.
Set over set, AAA vs 999.
I bet the flop and the opponent folded.
I folded on the flop to a check-raise; too bad I didn't just check the flop instead because I would have seen the 7 on the turn to make my set.
I went all-in preflop and got two callers. I had some outs on the flop but didn't make the flush.
Another one where I was all-in on the flop. He turned an ace to take the lead but then I rivered a straight.
The opponent check-raised the flop and went all-in on the turn. That seemed like a really weird line so I called with ace-high and won. A lot of the time I'll lose but that just didn't make much sense from him.
Three players were all-in on the first hand of this tournament.
Aw, I wish I would have seen the flop.
Especially now; one guy had the other ten but I had him out-kicked and then I would have made a full house.
That's a good flop. I went all-in on the flop and two opponents called.
They both only had an ace with a rather bad kicker; even though they had top pair, I'm surprised they called my flop shove.
They both caught another ace on the turn, but while that gave them three aces, it gave me a full house.
Another big hand where all three players were all-in preflop.
I won by betting the flop, but the turn would have been nice for me anyway.
All that to just chop it up with the same hand.
I raised preflop and bet all three streets. He called with only bottom pair the whole way. I guess I'm only repping overpairs, but still, that's a lot to call.
I was a bit short, went all-in, and got two callers. Made the flush on the river.
Against a made flush on the flop, I'm crushed. I was so short I had to call, though.
This should be an easy win for me. I'm up a pawn and have a rook versus his bishop.
Unless I'm dumb...
... and lose my rook and then run out of time.
Another buggy game where my pawn is missing. It's especially annoying because once I move a piece the game starts normally and the pawn comes back, but that's the piece I want to move and I can't, even if I click on the square and where I want the pawn to go. So I can play a different opening or let the game be aborted after not moving for 15 seconds.
I chose the latter and apparently my opponent wasn't happy about it.
When you're both low on time, it can be really good to just keep checking your opponent so they have to keep moving their king instead of another piece.
However, because my connection was bad, even though I premoved, the server still said I lost. That's really annoying. We're supposed to have 50Mbps cable internet; that should not happen at all. Dumb Time Warner.
I trapped his queen.
He appreciated it.
We played a bunch of games. I won most because he ran out of time even though he was usually up in material in them.
And a bunch of games with another nice player.