Frozen Jasmine Tea Pops!

Here's how I've spent a lazy Saturday (so far).

After watching some Saturday Morning cartoons, Amy and I headed over to our mutual hair stylist, Joseph, so that I could get a beard trim. On the way out of our alley-access garage, we saw that someone had put a clothes dryer next to our garbage. I walked across the alley to a house where an addition has been under construction for nearly a year, and asked the workers there about the dryer. They immediately walked over and moved it to the garbage area at that house. Apparently they saw nothing wrong with leaving me with the bill for disposing of a major appliance -- until they got caught at it. (Meanwhile, they also filled my recycling bin with nonrecycleable refuse; and someone -- possibly them -- left a child's bicycle in my garbage area. Sigh.)

Anyway, we got over to Joseph's in Venice, where I had the first really professional beard trim I've received since my trial started in April. We went over to our favorite brunch place in Marina Del Rey, Paninni, where Amy had the lamb chop salad and I had a breakfast burrito and a hazelnut cafe au lait. On the way back, we stopped at Mitsuwa, a West LA Japanese market, and bought lots of Japanese bevereges and the thick bread we fell in love with in Japan last year. Amy also bought various kitchen tchotchkas there, including a frozen pop mold (which figures into the story later).

When we came back, we tried out the Comcast cable DVR we had installed (along with a Hi-Def cable box) on Thursday. I exercised on a mini-stepper while we watched episodes of TEEN TITANS and THE BATMAN that had been recorded automatically.

While we were watching, Amy got a brainstorm: yes, frozen jasmine tea pops! At Mitsuwa, I had bought several cans of one of my favorite Japanese teas, Pokka Green Tea with Jasmine (see photo above). Amy used the pop mold she had bought to make jasmine tea pops. We had them later that afternoon and pronounced them delicious.

Anyway, after exercising, I donated an old TV (a 20" stereo Mitsubishi which I bought 18 years ago, and which still works like a champ) to Goodwill; stopped by Radio Shack and bought various cables needed to rewire our Audio-Video setup (more fallout from the new TV and cable box); paid bills; took them over to the Westside Pavillion, where I discovered that the post office that used to be open Saturdays and Sundays is now only open on weekdays; put the bills in a street mailbox; walked over to the new CompUSA across the street from the Pavillion, and bought a power inverter so that I can plug our laptop in while riding in our car; stopped by the Anime Gamers store next to the CompUSA, and bought the latest DVD volume of SAMURAI CHAMPLOO; went home looked up the register for the housewarming party we're going to tomorrow; and went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up a housewarming gift (after waiting in several lines).

Still to come is to do some work-type work for Monday, and to do some of the audio-video wiring for which I bought the new cables.

I also discovered that my brother Steve's new blog had generated multiple comments from relatives, including one who thought that Steve was me.

I love Saturdays. They're so relaxing.