It was my first time down to San Diego in the longest time. The band had moved out of Casa La Mesa; Bob, Mark and Kevin now had a three bedroom in Grossmont and Brian had moved in with two girls from his work place. We decided to crash at Brian's because his two roomates (they were sisters), were in Colorado visiting their stepdad.

Brian had forgotten to give us his address so Hui Chin and I spent a few minutes hollering out his name in the parking lot. We eventually found a phone and called him.

Brian's new place definitely had a female touch to it (everything was color coordinated and the place did not smell like old socks and stale pizza.) In the apartment with him was Brian's new squeeze, Elena. It was my first time meeting her. Just tought I'd mention that.

To cut to the chase, Hui Chin and I were down in San Diego to catch a Chargers-Rams pre-season game. I had not caught a live NFL game before and it was the closest the Rams were going to get to LA this season.

Qualcomm stadium was packed when we got there and it took us a good hour just to park. As a result, we missed the coin toss. Bummer.

The St Louis Rams, a.k.a. the greatest show on earth, s.k.a. the LA Rams, packed Qualcomm with more Ram fans than Charger fans. In the stands, Ram jerseys outnumbered the home jerseys by about 5 to 1 and a Ram firstdown brought a lot more people to their feet than a Charger touchdown.

The game started off really slow and it was tied at 0-0 up until midway through the second quarter when Warner rolled left on the 15 yard line and completed a pass to the tight end Ernie Conwell. Touchdown St Louis, and we were about 6 rows behind the uprights where all this happened.

At half-time, because it was a pre-season game, Rams coach Mike Martz took back to back MVPs Warner and Faulk out of the game as they marched into the locker room with a slim lead. Trung Canidate took over for Faulk and some yet-to-be-heard-of guy took over for Warner. San Diego scored a late touch down in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 10-10. In the final minutes of the game, St Louis marched the ball the other way to the 1 yard line and find themselves with a 20 yard field goal and 5 seconds on the clock. Jeff Wilkins kicks the ball through the uprights, the clock runs out and St Louis is charged for holding. The play is negated and they go into extra time. San Diego scores a field goal in extra time and the Rams lose.

But, hey, I got to see a Warner touchdown.

Ryoko and Frank arrived. The pizza arrived. Hui Chin arrived. The crazy bunch arrived. We had ourselves a party.

After dinner and some goofing around, we decided to head on to Castle Park for some minitature golf. Ryoko was the best player amongst us having ammased the most points. Unfortunately, because of our after dinner dilly dallying, we weren't able to complete all 18 holes. Or else I would have been able to catch up.

Back at our place, Ryoko translated the Gundam Wing theme song for Hui Chin and I. To my amazement, the theme song was really raunchy. Well, not raunchy, raunchy. It was more along the lines of sophisticated raunchy.

Ryoko had a flight to catch the next morning so she and Frank left early.

Before bed, Bob and the group performed a song they wrote. It's always nice to have song under one's roof. And so I went to bed happy.

I picked up the phone and listened for awhile.

"Hi, I was wondering if you've seen my monkey?"

Bob and Muriel's group were in town without Muriel. This group was going to be a lot of fun.

Until about a month ago I thought I would never see or hear from her ever again. But then she miraculously found my web page when she typed in "Hot Bodied Malaysian Stallion" under Yahoo Search.

You won't believe how many Japanese people you'll find walking outside the Anaheim Convention center. I was like, "Oh that's her!," and then "her" would walk by and I realized that it was just a Ryoko look-alike

I waited in the car for 20 minutes and when Ryoko didn't show up I decided to step out to look for her. She decided to wait way up the street, thinking I would see her before I entered the entrance to the Convention Center Hilton, not anticipating that I may have been early and snuck by before she got there. I was in the midst of crossing the road when she saw me walking towards her, so she met me midway. We exchanged hello hugs in the middle of the road, headed back to her room and waited for Frank to call.

Frank called and told us he would not be able to join us in Anaheim because his sister had robbed him of transport. So we went to Downtown Disney without him. And who's Frank? This Taiwanese guy who used to study at MU, who knows Ryoko, who now lives in Pasadena. I think Frank should write a biography and title it "To be Frank about Frank."

Ryoko and I walked around Downtown Disney for awhile, discovered there was nothing to do, got lost on the Disney tram, got unlost on the Disney tram and then headed to IHOP for dinner. I ended up with a pasta dish that had less taste than Jerry Springer, but thank heavens for their free refills... of their salt shaker. But, it is after all the International House Of Pancakes and not Pasta.

I used to joke about how I've lived in LA for more than two years and had yet to visit the Getty Museum. Well, I finally did it. But not on my own merit.

Thom, Melissa, Samantha and Bobby presented themselves at my door Friday night. We had an entertaining evening at the Santa Monica Promenade, most of the regulars were there; bowls-on-head guy, girl with the chinese "ting, ting, tang, tang' string instrument, rollerblading Arab with the electric guitar, silver painted robot guy, bucket drummer Geronimo Gaspar and street dancers, yelling Christian evangelist and a pissed-off crowd, tap dancing kid in tuxedo and clay sculptor without a fixed price.

After doing the length of the Promenade, we headed back for the apartment and chatted until 2.

I woke up the next morning and it smelled like breakfast. The gang had been up for a couple hours. I rubbed my eyes awake, put some food in my belly and we were off to Rodeo Drive to see if it was all Samantha thought it would be.

After Rodeo Drive, we were off to the Getty Museum, the white building perched on the hill that separated the valley from the other side of the valley. I was reminded of the Getty's bad parking problem as we searched endlessly for a spot, spiralling further and further down the parking lot like a screw in the ground. We found a spot close to the core of the earth, hopped into an elevator to take us to the surface and hopped into a levitating tram that took us up to the museum on a pocket of air.

The architecture at the Getty was pretty neat, a definite paradise to the abstract photographer who loves to squeeze texture out of light and shadow. Unfortunately, we were graced with the noon sun when we arrived at the Getty so most of the buildings were "glared-out" into a big blob of white.

I was really disappointed by the photography exhibit but the other works more than made up for it. This one painting of a guy in a tavern caught my attention. The painting featured an old guy in shabby winter garb at a table blowing his soup, and another guy leaving the table. Apparently, the guy who was leaving was doing so because he believed that a person who blew both cold and hot air; cold air to cool his soup, and hot air to warm his hands; could not be trusted.

I guess when you're in a group and there are mixed interests, you either end up seeing everything or very little of anything. Seeing little of the Getty is still seeing a lot. But knowing that I had not seen it all, I left in reluctance, with a pledge to return.