Bob and Suzanne have been wonderful about arranging dinners for me. Last night was a brief visit with Edie and dinner with Yosufi. Amazing what a decade will do, yet, how much Yosufi looks the same. Well, except for a few grey hairs.

I wonder if he thought the same about me.

Tonight James Douma is joining us for dinner. Which is strange, as I didn't really know him when I was down here, and have last seen him in Northern California. Smaller world than I normally think it is, though not as small as it could be.

Yay! They let me buy!

As he left for work on Thursday morning, Kris told me to "keep the L.A. driving to a minimum."

I took that to mean, "Don't do any of your crazy driving moves learned when you were driving the streets of Los Angeles." I notice that Andy drives much the same was as I do. Which also might explain why I feel comfortable in a car he's driving.

Of course, I feel comfortable in a car Kris is driving, but that's because we're going 20 miles an hour under the speed limit in the right lane, being one of four cars in California where slower traffic really does move right.

I'm not sure, however, what I'm supposed to do when I'm driving at a constant speed (one that was UNDER the speed limit, thank you very much), and another driver just sorta drifts her white Volvo station wagon into my lane in fromt on me. No turn signal. No hand signal. No indication she's moving over until she barely misses my front bumper on her way in front of me.

With no other cars around for at least ten car lengths.

Surely in front of me is the best place in all the freeways of California to be.

So, sorry, Kris, I did my L.A. driving. I dropped a gear, pulled left, accelerated around the I'm-so-safe-I'm-in-a-Volvo driver, and pulled back into my lane in front of her, having left enough room to be safe in the lane change, with signals on and working, to demonstrate to the lady, PROPER lane changing techniques.

I'm sure the lesson was lost on her.

Sadly.

After seeing this license plate:

I've decided that my next vanity license plate, when I ever decide that I'm really willing to waste money on a customized license plate, is going to be:

Not because I'm a United States Marine Corps General, but rather because I want everyone to think that I am.

Or maybe so that everyone knows that my car belongs to one?

I find it interesting that, in Southern California at least, it is okay to just leave your shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot.

Not only is this okay, it's actually ENCOURAGED by large, stand alone, retail establishments. How?

They put in one cart return location NEXT TO THE STORE ENTRANCE.

I'm 100% convinced they don't understand the concept of making life easy for customers. Look, customers actually don't want to actually WALK the forty yards to return the cart, so put the cart return spaces all over the parking lot for convenience. Do they think the loss of maybe 4 or 6 parking spots is going to adversely affect the bottom line? If anything having all the carts in six places around the parking lot will the time of that poor employee that has to spend 50% of his work day rounding up the carts from all over the parking lot.

And speaking of those parking spaces, I also find interesting the fact that, in the car-centric culture of Los Angeles, parking spaces are smaller around here than they are any place else. Maybe the reasoning goes there are more cars, so we have to fit more of them in to our parking lots, so let's make the spaces smaller since we'll have more of them? I don't know. I do know that even with my narrow car, I have to squeeze into parking spaces and squeeze out through my door to get out of my car and not hit the car next to me.

Maybe that's my problem. Maybe I should just open my car door into the cars next to me. Maybe that's just expected here.

I think I'll find a Jag to park next to next time. Or maybe that Lotus I saw.