It's been a good year for mushroom hunting. My dad, his friend Kevin and I went out Saturday morning and found about 590 of them in 3 hours. They both said that it was the best year they can ever remember. In the picture it's (left to right) Kevin, me and my dad, Jim.

We filled up our bags and were still finding them, so dad and I each tied our jackets into bags and left with them half full. Dad found one spot where 20 were growing within a foot or two of each other and 10 or 15 of them were actually touching. We scooped the dirt up around those and brought them back together.

I mowed my yard yesterday and found 3 more there. Not enough to bother with frying, but I chopped them, sautéed them in some butter and scrambled them into my eggs tonight. There are some more pictures in my photo gallery.

I spent so much time at home over the weekend I almost went nuts. But I did manage to get out here and there. On Friday I was sick, so I asked Ric if we could get food out somewhere. We ate at the Elephant Bar. Once we got home, I let the cat out on the patio with a leash because he had been craving it for so long. Poor little guy. Our patio is so much more boring than Little Vietnam. I think we must have watched tv or dvds the rest of the night.

Saturday was a work day, but only after sleeping in. I spent about five hours working on trim. Thank goodness for audio books, because Tarzan of the Apes helped me get through the monotony. Ric worked on painting doors. Once we were sick of paint, we headed out to run a few errands, which ended up taking almost the whole night. We went to Panera because we hadn't eaten anything all day and were starving. Then we went to Best Buy because our Vonage adapter (actually, it's made by V-Tech) broke down. We bought a new set of phones that aren't made by V-Tech, which makes us happy. Then we went to Lowe's to re-order a water heater because our first one we ordered ended up being too big. That took an incredibly long time. After that, we went back home and spent more time watching tv together.

Sunday I forgot about a special church service being at an earlier hour, so I missed it. I spent most of the day lying around watching tv and dvds and reading. I went out once to get some dinner, but that was about it. It was a very long day. I did get some cleaning done, though.

Up this week: not all that much. Probably more paint. Sigh.

So the L.A. Times Festival of Books ended up being a bust. My friend Matt and I got pretty close to the UCLA campus on Saturday morning only to find an insane amount of traffic. Not to mention it was about 95 degrees outside. We decided to retreat to the cooler confines of his apartment and then I went across the street to the Grove and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I really enjoyed. I then met up with my friend Brett and we went to the Dodger game, which was exciting for the first inning when the Dodgers scored 10 runs and then quickly died down. I love going to the ball park though so I had a great time.

After seeing the traffic situation at UCLA, looking at the current gas prices, and seeing as how it was even hotter, I opted against going to the book festival on Sunday. So I sadly didn't get to meet Wil Wheaton. I'm pretty sure he'll be at Comic-Con though so hopefully I'll get my chance then. Hope you guys all had a good weekend and stayed cooler than I did. The roommate hunt is still on in earnest. Here's hoping for my sanity that something works out soon.