Let's Get One!

[thepnutgallery]

Saturday - Having eaten so much the night before, I really wasn't hungry. Ken made his Cinnamon Rolls, and his mum had her oatmeal bar. We headed over to the Zoo, where everyone else was already waiting for us. Ken dropped us off and then went to look for parking. On the walk towards our friend's, his mum asked me how long we'd officially been together, and if things were going okay. I didn't really feel this was the appropriate time or place to unload the reasons I'm going to Therapy on Monday, so I just said we were getting through, and it occurred to me that that was an odd question to ask. She just said that I was the longest relationship her son had ever had (wow), and she appreciated it. We ran into everyone else before I could talk to her more, and went into the park. Ken bought tickets for the bus ride, using the 2 for 1s we get as members, and then we stopped in at the cafe for breakfast or lunch or whatever you eat at 10:45. Ken got some chips, and there was a little confusion involving the tuna sammich that Chris ordered, but we got it all sorted out. Nelson showed up along with Michael (of Jean and Michael, who threw the Michael/Madonna party a while back) and Michael's nephew Anthony. Michael is the youngest of 13 children, and is very big on family. We got on the bus, which was a lovely time, although we didn't stop at the exhibit that caused me to bring my notepad. Some sort of mustelid looking thing that's in the oldest cages in the zoo. I did write down several other animals to look up, though, and I was kind of awestruck by the giraffes, elephants, and rhinos when we went past them. After the bus, we headed over to the Children's Zoo (my favorite part). We looked at everything but stopped at the underground viewing of the otters, and then Ken went back to them even after everyone else moved on. I went back with him and I'm SOOOOOOOOO glad I did. We looked in on the upper portion, and the otters looked back. Unspeakably cute. I got a couple pictures, though I was hesitated for fear it might be too late to catch them posing, and by the time I got over that fear, they were largely done posing. Brandon, Dallas, Chris, and Nikki tapped out at that point, opting for the beach, and Ken's mum, Nelson, Anthony, Michael and myself all took the sky-ride (also free for members) over to the polar bears. They were cute, but even the limited hill there was rough on my ankle.
After the zoo, we headed for lunch at George's in La Jolla. I could have had an open-faced grilled pita with veggies, but I still wasn't hungry, so I opted against it. Still had a good time, and then we walked down to the cove itself, where a small but effective percentage of the men were dressed in speedos. We walked around down there for a little while, and then Ken volunteered to go back up and get the car. I'm glad he did, because I would have walked back up, even knowing that it would have been very very bad for my ankle. The walk down was pretty bad. While we waited and watched the people swimming in the cove, I realized I had never been there before. I'm not really surprised by the fact, seeing as how my papa wouldn't have cared for either the hill or the crowds, and the only time I would have gone there would have been as a young kid.
Back at home, we winded down and relaxed before getting ready for the evening. Brandon and Chris had invited us to a BBQ at their place, so we stopped by Nelson's and picked up some fixin's from his place, and he followed us over there.
The BBQ was fun. Chatted with everyone (Chris, Brandon, Matthew, Nikki, Allen, his friend Todd, Todd's French trick, and Dallas), drank some booze, ate some food. I got a little tipsy, and wasn't having much luck with poker even before I started drinking, so I tapped out after a few games, and just watched. There was some awkwardness involving too few chairs, and whether Ken's mum or myself would use one of them, and a little more awkwardness when Matt and company went out to Rich's, and took Chris with them at the last minute. Brandon was significantly more composed than I would have been in his situation.
We headed home, where Ken suddenly got distant for no reason I could tell, and took a good 20 minutes or so after laying down to touch me, and even then it was just a touch, as though it were much hotter than it was. Huh.