Happy Birthday, Victoria!

Anita and I decided to attend our friend Victoria's birthday party last weekend (I think her birthday was actually on the third, but never mind). The only trouble was, we were short on money and Victoria lives in southern California. So we decided to drive.

We left home at 8 AM on Sunday morning, and arrived at the party at about 1:30 PM. We haven't tried driving to LA since before Anita got her license, so this time we took turns - I drove for two and a half hours, then she took the wheel while I slept. Time passes a lot differently when you sleep in the car! I had no perception of time - it would seem like I would nap for fifteen minutes, except that an hour had actually passed.

The party took place at the original site for the LA Zoo, now a park. Some of the animal enclosures are still there, just without the cages. We had a picnic barbecue (meat and veggie burgers) in one of them, looking now like an old set from Planet Of The Apes.

I guess I wasn't the only one to think so, as there was a low-budget film shoot was going on right next to our party. I'm assuming they weren't recording any production sound, since we frequently got loud without bothering them. I have no idea what it was about, but it looked like it should have been called Goths With Super Soakers Vs. The Ragged Trash Clowns.

We chatted and chowed down until about 4 PM or so - most of the guests I had met before, with maybe one or two new acquaintances. At that point, the group dispersed - Anita went to see the Puppet Up! show again in Anaheim, and I went to meet up with some old friends in Pasadena. We had dinner at a cook-it-yourself fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot.

Eating there is pretty involved - there's four courses, with lots of dipping in cheese and chocolate, as well as boiling-wine cooking and hot-oil frying. I liked the food - I wound up cooking mostly in the wine pot, and it really made seasoning unnecessary, as far as I was concerned. I probably overcooked things because I was worried about getting food poisoning, but everything tasted good to me!

It was terrific to see everyone, and I had a great chat, but I don't know if I'd recommend the place, aside for the multi-course social value. My part of the check (even after the wine bill was allotted to the people who drank it) was $100. Whew! It was good, but I don't know if it was $100 a plate good!

I got back to Sean & Victoria's house in Glendale around midnight, and we had to start driving back to Berkeley right away. I know it sounds insane, but I was on a tight deadline at work, so I couldn't miss a day. I was pretty tired, so I slept first (and soundly) while Anita got us three hours into the trip. It's the longest she's ever driven without a break, and she did a great job! I took over and drove the second half of the trip. We got home safely at about 5:30 AM, but it was pretty grueling - I wouldn't want to do that drive very often!