Welcome to the Hotel California

Just got back from shopping with Jae and we had fun. Getting used to taking our own cloth bags to the stores with is the hardest part. We hit Trader Joe's for cheese, almond milk and other stuff then went to Ralph's for lunch stuff for work. Ralph's is the equivalent of Gerbes or King Soopers or Krogers - all owned by the same corporation and my old King Soopers key chain fob works there. Also, my Safeway card works at Vons. Oddly enough, the shopping is just as good as I remember but the restaurants aren't. Most of the wonderful little hole in the wall gems we used to go to have gone out of business. Oh well, guess we'll just have to find new places. We have found all the really good malls/shopping centers around so that's good. We have Costco instead of Sam's and the closest WalMart isn't. All in all, both of us have discovered that we still have a definite love/hate relationship with California in general and LA in particular. Oh yeah, we've given up and admitted we're here for awhile by getting the car insured and registered in California and getting library cards for the Los Angeles Library. Next week, we plan on getting library cards at the Burbank library. Know that sounds odd but believe it or not, depending on the subject or genre you're looking for, one can be \better than the other so you really need both. The other thing I've done to admit I'm staying is get a bank account here and get my checks direct deposited. Now all I have to do is find my own place that I can afford and get my stuff and babies from Wyoming.