Labor Day

"These guys are soft right now," Paul Martinez said. "They're going to struggle. " He was right. We were watching a group of apprentice ironworkers with hard hats on their heads and 35-pound tool belts around their waists trying to climb a vertical girder, using nothing but hand strength and the leverage of their work boots on slippery steel. The girder was marked at 10 feet with a strip of white tape. That was the finish line. As we watched, one made it and eight failed. Some could barely get one foot off the ground before giving up. "By Friday, they'll all be making it," Martinez said.

-- Online retailer Piperlime is opening its first bricks-and-mortar shop in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan next week. Piperlime, owned by San Francisco apparel giant Gap Inc., is set to launch the 4,000-square-foot shop Thursday. The store will transform online pages and features such as top picks from celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe into sections of the store. Jennifer Gosselin, the brand's general manager, told Bloomberg News that the store will carry clothes, shoes and jewelry priced from $49 to $600.

As they hit the highway for that last road trip of summer, many drivers will pay more for a gallon of gasoline than during any previous Labor Day holiday weekend. And it isn't all Hurricane Isaac's fault. In California, the recent Chevron Corp. refinery fire is the main reason the state will see a second straight record high for the gas price average during the traditional three-day ending of the summer driving season, analysts said. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline Friday was $4.157, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report, well above the previous record of $3.915 to $3.973 set during the three-day period last year.

Each Monday morning, we dish on our weekend eats on Twitter using the hashtag #Weekendeats. People share their recipes and photos of what they've been eating. After the chat, we ask people to upload pictures of their #Weekendeats to our "What did you eat this weekend?" photo gallery. This weekend happens to be Labor Day weekend and the L.A. Times is hosting The Taste, a three-day culinary festival. You can catch all the details here . Because of the holiday, we'll have our#Weekendeats chat on Tuesday, Sept.

Hotel Maya in Long Beach has a sweet little deal for those who spend the night on Labor Day : a room price of $93 on 9/3. Get it? OK, for most of us the holiday ends Monday, but it might be a pleasant unwind for those who have an extra day off.  The deal: The Hotel Maya, whose design is loosely inspired by its namesake ancient civilization, used to be a Joie de Vivre property but now is under the auspices of DoubleTree by Hilton. The property near the Queen Mary has 199 rooms and a man-made beach called Playa at the Maya.

If you're revving up the engine to get a jump-start on your holiday weekend, you're already too late. Travelers should have hit L.A.'s freeways before noon Friday to avoid big traffic, and the worst will come between 5 and 6 p.m. this evening. Best time to flee? Saturday morning. That's the advice from INRIX traffic information that says New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., in that order, will be the most congested areas of the nation over Labor Day weekend. "Those leaving [L.A.]

Don't have reservations for the weekend in Yosemite? No problem. Curry Village has openings. The national park experienced a jump in cancellations after news broke earlier this month that two visitors staying in certain cabins in the Boystown section of Curry Village had become infected with the rare and sometimes deadly hantavirus. On Thursday, the number of cases jumped to six, with two people having died from the disease transmitted by deer mice. Lisa Cesaro, spokeswoman for the Delaware North Cos. Parks & Resorts, which operates cabins and other lodgings in Yosemite National Park, said she didn't know exactly how many guests decided to ditch their park vacation rather than risk getting sick.

Weekend shoppers brave enough to withstand 105-degree heat forecast for this weekend will be rewarded with great discounts along Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. Boulevard , Pawz pet boutique , Interior Illusions and other vintage and modern home decor stores on Palm Canyon in the Uptown Design District will be running sales through Monday.   NotNeutral is selling select rugs and Lino coffee cups at 50% off, as well as lanterns, ceramics and barware that are overruns, seconds or discontinued lines at 80% off. Trina Turk is discounting pillows and books as well as men's and women's apparel and jewelry.

Labor Day is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate the holiday than with some good food, cold drinks and friends? If you're planning a barbecue, be sure to check out these 38 grilling and chilling recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen. Feel like having someone else do the cooking? Here are some food and drink specials happening around town: Rock and Reilly's is hosting a white party from 11:30 a.m. till closing. The Irish rock pub will be serving $5 Patron specialty cocktails, have DJs spinning and a slew of games to play including ring toss, corn hole and darts.

Audiences typically avoid the multiplex around Labor Day , devoting their time instead to last-chance summer pursuits like barbecues and back-to-school shopping.  But Walt Disney Studios will attempt to lure people back to theaters this weekend by expanding its Marvel superhero blockbuster, "The Avengers," and Pixar princess tale, "Brave," to roughly 1,700 theaters apiece. An end-of-summer push has been attempted before by the studio -- last year, “Cars 2," which first hit theaters in June, expanded from around 200 theaters to more than 2,000 during the Labor Day holiday and grossed $1.8 million.