Birthday fun

Gene, Matt and I all have birthdays within two weeks of each other, so the last few weeks have been a birthday bonanza.

A week or two ago, we had a birthday barbeque for Matt. We (I) decided to try to make a vodka watermelon for the BBQ. This didn't work out very well as the watermelon would not absorb any of the vodka, but -- on the bright side -- we did name the watermelon Wayne and take a bunch of pictures of it. Yeah, I know that makes us (me) kinda weird, but whatever.

Best buds -- Cheese and Wayne

Most BBQs are held in parks on sunny days. I decided to embrace the fact that we were having a BBQ in a dark apartment in the part of LA that consists mostly of concrete and homeless people. So, I bought  "homeboy" tortilla chips (made by ex-prisoners, I think?) to make the best of the situation.

"jobs not jails"!

Later, we forced everyone to play a competitive, slightly awkward game of Cranium.

After the BBQ we had an oversupply of straws, so we started drinking water out of jugs with straws (jeez, am I really documenting this in a blog?). Here's Matt at one of our "straw parties."

Today Gene had a birthday barbeque so we headed over to Elysian Park near the Dodgers Stadium...

The best part of the day was watching Gene swing with all his might at the air, trying to hit his "tron" pinata.

On the morning of my birthday, we rubbed elbows with rich people at a brunch buffet at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. I'm not sure, but this might be the Pretty Woman hotel. At any rate, there was no shortage of Japanese businessmen/old white guys with their trophy wives.

The Four Seasons seems pretty classy, except for this hokey statue of people from 1988 reading a newspaper. I really don't know what they were thinking with this one...