I just had one of those “blink and you missed it” weekends.

Yup, so busy that I didn’t even have a chance to whip off a post. So this morning I’m playing a little catch up.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of my last 48 hours.

SATURDAY AM

Welcome to Griffith Park.

Battled the snooze bar a bit, but did get out of bed a little after 6am to do my long run at Griffith Park. This run was more about the vertical than the horizontal as I’ve got a few “hill” races coming up this fall (more on that in the near future). So while I ended up doing a standard 10 miles, I did take not one, but two trips over “The Hill” (half mile up and a half mile down). Since my next race isn’t for four weeks (Madison Half Marathon) and I was still recovering from last week’s Shoreline Half Marathon, I went at a nice casual clip instead concentrating on my form. I did notice a lot of runners on the road today (a few running groups just started new training sessions and are overflowing with new faces) so there was a whole lotta waving and “Good mornings” going on.

Shave and a haircut… (you finish it).

Then it was back home for a quick shower and then right off to get my hair cut. I’m not evil enough to subject my stylist to my post-run sweatiness. Felix Omar has been trimming my cabeza for about five years now and he’s hands down the best stylist I’ve ever used (and he does an awesome straight razor shave). Since I like to keep my hair short, I get it trimmed often (about every 4 weeks) and Felix and I spend many a Saturday morning chatting about running and movies (our two most frequent topics of discussion).

SATURDAY PM

Observe this!

Sporting my neatly trimmed mop, it’s a quick lunch at California Pita (good gyro plate) and a bunch of quick errands. Then I grabbed the girlfriend as we had to make a dash back to Griffith Park. Lindy is from Australia (Melbourne to be precise) and her closest friends have been in California on vacation for the last month touring around the state. This was their last weekend before heading back to Oz and they were swinging back through LA to catch up on a few last sights to see. The destination o’ the day was the Griffith Park Observatory. It’s a great place to visit (beautiful, historical and free) and apparently everyone from Los Angeles was also at the Observatory causing a serious traffic snafu. I ended parking over a mile away from the observatory (I dropped Lindy off closer to the entrance) and hoofed the rest of the way up the hill on foot. I treated it like some “epilogue” hill work.

After gazing at the LA skyline for a while and taking in some good ole educational fun at the observatory (BTW, Pluto is still considered a “dwarf planet”) we all drove over to Hollywood for a dinner (and a few pints) at the Cat ‘n Fiddle.

Bring on the gutters!

No rest for the weary as I quickly drove home, showered again and changed to make myself presentable in time for my buddy Scott’s (apparently Scott is a popular name for guys my age) birthday party at Lucky Strike… yup, back in Hollywood. Needless to say, I put some mileage on the SUV this weekend. Scott’s B-day party took a very nice twist as it also served double duty as an engagement party. He had popped the question last week but wanted to surprise everyone with the news. So kudos and “Woo hoo” to Scott and Miriam.

After a few more pints and some pins (I wowed exactly no one with my incredibly mediocre bowling ability). It was back home for some much needed zzzzzs.

SUNDAY AM

Batter up!

Insufficient rest for the weary as I was up early and meeting Lindy and her “mates” for brunch at the Beverly Glen Deli up near Mulholland. I love talking to Australians in general. Not only are they about the nicest and most “down to earth” people you’ll meet, but it’s fun talking about all of the subtle differences between America and that land down under. I had to laugh as I did my best to explain the intricacies of baseball (they were playing on the TVs at the Deli) and failed pretty miserably.

SUNDAY PM

Yum, with nuts!

After lunch I got to play chaperone, driving Lindy’s friends all around town to pick up last minute souvenirs and a few items that are hard to get in Australia. Hershey’s bars aren’t in big supply there… who knew?

Once we bid “G’day” to our Australian visitors, Lindy and I plopped onto the couch for a casual dinner and a DVD courtesy of Redbox. I’ve been watching plenty of Australian films as of late, so I called dibs this time around. The movie du jour turned out to be “The Lego Movie.”

Don’t laugh.

As a hardcore Lego fan ever since I was little, I knew this flick would be right up my alley. And for those of you not in the know, it really is a funny and touching film. Don’t believe me, check out the reviews (96% from Rotten Tomatoes, FYI).

Everything is “awesome”… including this movie.

And like that, the weekend was over and I realized I hadn’t done a post for two days. I actually had a interesting post I’d been working on for today, but it’s not quite finished. So I thought I’d hold off on it until tomorrow (should be an interesting one, be sure to check it out).

And this week is shaping up to be even crazier than last week because of two words: COMIC CON!

Yup, time for our annual “boys’ weekend” down in San Diego where me and the guys celebrate all things geektastic.

So stay tuned.

Have a great rest of the day… and Run on!