Last night I discovered a hidden treasure in Santa Monica — the Blues club, Harvelle’s, located on 4th Street. I had passed by dozens of times, but finally decided to go in with my uncle. I don’t know if it was just the band that night (The American Monster Show), but it was incredible. Highly recommended for fans of dive bars and live music.

Not technically LA, but I did a day trip to one of the nearby Channel Islands today. Totally different experience from Catalina, and I can’t wait to go back again (hopefully for a long weekend).

More photos from my aunt/uncle/cousin’s trip to LA to come!

The highlight was playing golf on a lovely course. My friend Dan’s sixth drive hit a tree and landed twenty feet behind the tee box. Here’s Dan proudly posing with that shot.

One nice result of working a lot recently has been the business trips. This week brought me back home to one of the greatest places on earth: the beautiful, unique, and always weird Austin, Texas. Chuys and Salt Lick (airport-style) were consumed, Pecan Porter was imbibed, and great friends were visited. I hope I don’t have to wait another 10 months to visit.

The past two weeks have been quite busy, dear readers. I have flown to Palo Alto for depo prep, Cambridge for a recruiting event, back to San Francisco for three depositions (two of which I got to take), and now off to Austin for another deposition. Somehow, I’ve fit in two Texas visitors during that time. This past weekend was one of my oldest and craziest friends, Katie.

In addition to doing the usual Ryan tour of LA — forcing my friends to look at all of the Hollywood Hills houses that I’m obsessed with, touring Nazi ruins in the Palisades, and helping a young girl who had an allergic reaction in the middle of Will Rogers Park (I blame the Nazis) — we went to see Shitty Jobs, an improv show at UCB. The show creates a long form improv based around someone’s crazy/shitty job from the past. Katie’s job working at a knife store in the Baybrook mall at age 16, complete with thirty something creepster boss and nerdy knife-enthusiast coworker was chosen. So that was my weekend. Enjoy the photo recap!

Now I’m going to go enjoy one of the best cities in the world. I love you, Austin.

Hidden away in the Hollywood Hills is a magical little garden inspired by The Wizard of Oz. I don’t want to reveal its exact location online, but just ask me and I can give you the address. It’s worth the trip.

I finally made it down to see my friends Josh and Lauren’s new baby boy. His name is Caleb, but I only call him Ryan. Also pictured is one of their other kids, Olive.