Day 4: 178 days to L.A.

Today, today felt like we actually got some stuff done.  I took down everything off the walls, except the big mirror and the stuff in the children's bedrooms.  Lori researched paint colors and window treatments.  (She has already been doing other planning exercises, like looking for good furniture for staging and researching other purchases like new countertops in the kitchen and some new sinks.  We had a chance to talk about it briefly, but we were both running in opposite directions today.)  I also cleaned off a bookcase.  Some stuff will need to get packed and I put think or two in the donate pile and cleaned the area underneath the TV.  If you came over today you might be hard-pressed to see a huge difference from yesterday to today, but I feel better about having gotten something done.  I also did some consolidation of stuff, put away my Christmas gifts and got my next two L.A. trips planned. We also talked more about the actual logistics of the move. Soon I'll probably need to adjust the countdown (there probably isn't 178 days left). No new listings yet in our desired neighborhood. Zillow got a little loopy tonight and suggested a property in L.A. proper on Rampart St. Not that desparate, Zillow. Sorry, but perhaps that street should have been renamed. Either way, can't do L.A. city because of the schools.

I'm going to do something daring for my next trip: I'm going to go carless.  The last few trips have spent so much on cars that it's ridiculous.  Over $100 to store my car 18 miles from my house, another $100 to drive someone else's car from the airport to the hotel, and then to and from work twice and then to work a third time and back to the airport.  And then close to $100 to store that same car at the hotel for a few hours each night while I slept.  Crazy.  So this time, I'm going to go Lyft.  I can get a ride from my house (I know! Even way out here!) for about $34, I can get a ride from LAX to the hotel for about $22.  I bought into the Santa Monica Breeze Bikeshare so I can ride my bike to work while I'm down there.  And then on the last day when I have my suitcase, the hotel can give me a ride and then I'll catch a Lyft from there back to LAX and then a Lyft from Seatac or the nearest Link station.


When we lived in L.A., we had a membership with the L.A. Zoo and went regularly.  It was a pretty good zoo and you didn't have any of that indecision about whether to go to Pt. Defiance or Woodland Park, both of which are also great zoos, but a bit of a drive.  Also, unlike PD or WP, there was always ample parking.  (It was also where we'd park when we'd visit the Hollywood Bowl.)  Sure, there's a bit of a hill at the start, but it's not as bad as the San Diego Zoo and it's good exercise.  I'm excited to see what's changed since we were there last.  I don't know why, but beyond the Capybera exhibit, all of the zoos kind of blend together in my mind.  I always thought they should call it the Los Angeles International Zoo and Botanical Gardens, personally.

There was also a slightly dated, slightly cheesy lighting exhibit put on my LADWP.  It was a long street with different lighting displays along one side in Griffith Park adjacent to the zoo.  I'm reading now that they stopped doing it for five years because of construction on the street but brought it back in 2014 with a lot of enhancements and moved it inside the zoo itself.



I'm also way under my calories because I did a lot of freestep today. And my work-provided Fitbit is on its way. Woo!