Trojans Win! Jets Win! Falcons Win! Great Weekend!

LA/XC-2 DAYS SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN, AND EIGHTEEN:  SANTA MONICA, L.A., SAN DIEGO

Let me set the stage for you.  It’s 45 minutes before kick-off . . . Falcons vs. Chargers . . . on a sunny, super-hot Sunday in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium.  We’re enjoying all sorts of access to the Falcons via our pre-game sideline passes, courtesy of our friends Rich and Terrin.  It’s all very

exciting.  But my mind is elsewhere.

Across the country, in Miami, my Jets are playing Robby’s Dolphins.  Carol and I (did I mention Carol flew in Thursday evening for a long weekend?) watched the first half at Randy’s, a sports bar a

couple of miles from the stadium.  (God bless sports bars.)  The Jets were down 10-3 at halftime, but no reason to panic.  I figured I’d catch the rest of the game at Qualcomm; what modern venue doesn’t have TV monitors, out-of-town

scoreboards, and updates up the wazoo all over the stadium?  Apparently the answer is Qualcomm.  Not an out-of-town score to be found — anywhere! No iPhone service, except for T-Mobile.  It was like Chinese water torture.  Fortunately, I was able to get the occasional update from a kid in the row in front of me who did have T-Mobile, but I was sweating green bullets until I finally got the

word:  Jets win 23-20 in O.T.  Now I could breathe — and enjoy the Falcons beatdown of the Chargers, 27-3.

In case you were wondering where my trusty sidekick was during the game, he was having a

high old time back at Loews Santa Monica with Keko.  At first blush we took Keko to be a diffident, old-fashioned, wisp of a woman — I’m sure she couldn’t have weighed 100 pounds.  But looks can be deceiving.  She turned out be a pistol: witty, a writer of children’s books, a black belt in karate, and a dog whisperer to boot!  My guess is if she had a few more days with Ricky, she might be able to train him to do something other than

sniff and eat.

Keko was also in charge of Ricky on Saturday, while we were in L.A. for the USC game.  (Yup, that’s three west coast games for me in the last 9 days.)  The Trojans snapped back from last week’s loss to Stanford with a 27-9 win over Cal, but — at least to this expert — they still don’t look anything like the national power they’re cracked up to be.  But I will say USC on game day — a rollicking ocean of cardinal and gold with the best marching band on the planet — deserves its national ranking.  Also cool:  Pre-game, Carol and I pretty

much cleaned out the bookstore, as I added to my ever-expanding USC wardrobe.

Other L.A./Santa Monica highlights from the last few days:

•  Mastro’s Steakhouse in Beverly Hills.  Whoa!  This one’s the big cahuna!  Robby, his roommate John, and their friends would happily eat steak 7 nights a week, so we’ve now been to all the big names in the area, from Fleming’s to Boa.  But Mastro’s is in a class by itself.  From the steak to the sides to my twin lobster tails to dessert . . . best ever!  Service to match.  Five stars all the way.  (And our server’s name was Robbie 🙂

•  Discovered a great little independent coffee/sandwich/delicacy shop on Santa Monica Boulevard last Tuesday.  Proudly took Carol to it

on Friday.  Turns out it’s not so little, or independent.  It’s called Le Pain Quotidien, and apparently it’s part of a fairly large national chain.  Carol reminds me we’ve even eaten at one before, in Washington, D.C.  So much for my cute, quaint discovery.  We started talking to some

local 20-somethings at the next table.  Of course they weren’t L.A. natives; no one is.  Their hometown?  You guessed it:  Westport, CT.

Finally — cannot leave L.A. without telling you about my truly life-changing moment right here in Loews Santa Monica.  A week ago — last Monday night — right after Ricky’s “accident,” David, the bellman, was showing me around my

room and offered to teach me how to use the Keurig coffee maker.  I had heard about these little “miracles,” but at that moment I was a little discombobulated, saw more than two bullet points on the instruction card, and assumed it would be yet another technological advance I’d have to live without.  A morning or two later, when Ricky was back to normal and I was more acclimated, I gave the Keurig a whirl.  EUREKA!  Best invention ever!  Great, hot coffee in 3 minutes, no muss, no fuss.  Gotta get me one of these, pronto!

So now, after 10 nights in Cali and 7 of them right here in Santa Monica, the west coast portion of LA/XC-2 comes to a close.  In a few minutes Ricky and I will say goodbye to all our friends (and believe me, Ricky has a lot of friends!) here at the hotel and will hit the road for Sedona, Arizona, and points east.

So long, L.A.!  Till next time . . .

YOU CAN FOLLOW BEAGLE MAN ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER