Roadtrippin'

I hope all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving. Mine was solid - spent it with my brother, sister - in - law, and some friends - the first Thanksgiving with any sort of family in four years or so.
So probably the biggest change in my life since my last posting has been that I bought a car. Biking was getting to be a real hassle, especially since my night classes have me coming home late at night, and the rainy season is approaching fast. So, I bought a black 2003 Mitsubishi Galant. Since it's a Japanese car (even though it was made in Normal, Illinois,) I decided to give her a Japanese name - Emiko. She's a pretty good car, and has been running nicely.

So I've taken her on a couple of trips already. An old friend of mine, Bart Green, who was my boss in Japan, is in Law School at USC down in LA. So he came up to visit a few weeks ago, and we hit the city and went to Muir woods. Then, since I had this past week off, I returned the favor, and spent a couple of days with him in South Central. I also visited other old friends, including Nick "Debauchery" Bauch, an old friend from Madison, Eric "EA" Anderson, who is in Dental school at USC, and Anjun Grewal, a friend from high school, who is a high-rolling doctor in west LA/Beverly Hills. It was a great time, and Emiko did well on her maiden road trip. Here are some pictures!