’04 June

June 28

Roger is Sixty!! Six Oh!! The dinner party picture at Ocean Avenue Seafood simply cannot be used say I in the passive voice but this is the scene out the front door. Ah Life, even at sixty… and Beyond.

Pretty obsessive don’cha think, me and those palm trees.

June 27

The last event of the weekend was Russell’s ‘this one’s for you baby’ memorial and luncheon party. Louise did her usual wonderful job and everyone was touched by the fond remembrances of Russell’s family and friends.

These folks are all connected to Donmetz and to me, from the past, present and future!

I seem to be back into the snap-a-pic swing. Here’s Alex and Carol on the patio at the World Cafe. Always a pleasure!

Sandy’s third art show. Actually, Sandy is art all by herself and anywhere she is is an art show.

Happy Birthday to ME! It’s exactly what I wanted – a nice walk and a picnic lunch. Thank You dear and wonderful ones!!

Here’s a website that tells about all the parks in the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

I copied this photo from the chapter on Escondido Canyon Park. Note the towering 150 foot water fall, the premier destination on this easygoing trail.

Hummm. We must be too late. What we’ve got here is a dribble down the cliff and a future mosquito farm.

We all enjoyed Cynthia’s yummy lunch and, oh joy…

Foto-Foto! Angela is deep into film-world these days so under her careful tutelage Cynthia started playing around with the Sony digital…

Hurray! Cynthia’s first contribution to Road Trip Weekly. Her comment – ‘Darryl taking a picture of… something.’ Nice shot Cynth!

…and Darryl’s got his new Elf so we are so Happenin’!

Isn’t color just the most amazing thing. See D and A against the green-ish cliff and C and A against the red-ish ground?

These guys (actually, just that cutie in the center) sent us off on quite an adventure. ‘Just 10 minutes up the way, it’s no problem, you’ll find a much better place. Just 10 minutes up the way. No problem.’

Right. Ten minutes equals twenty minutes. Twenty minutes hanging by my fingernails On My Belly going up and twenty minutes On My Butt coming down! I’m glad we did it though. It added a whole ‘nother color to our outing!

June 23

This was fun. The daughter of a colleague at work was dressed up for her prom and they were out on the front lawn taking pictures. This skirt flipping thing and the I-am-so-Marilyn pose really ‘just happened’ they said.

Lovin’ those teenagers!

Too bad about the cars in the driveway and the power lines and the what all in the background and the bushes and lawn in the foreground, and the small print from which came the low-res scan. But this was fun!

June 19

Here’s a stroll down Main Street with Hana. A totally charming sales clerk with finger puppets. Yup.

Remember that horrifying mess of crayon shavings dug under your fingernails and on your desk and the floor and stuck to your socks and melted into your clothes? Photoshop and some filters and here you are, mess free. Unfortunately that sweet waxy smell is missing too as is the fact of being eight years old.

These are a small part of the salt and pepper collection in Charlie’s store. What’cha got here are your folk and spoon, some nuns, Dalmatians, clasping hands, cocktails, sombreros, farm animals and etc. etc. It’s a verrry cool store.

Charlie and Hana. Sweet!

More.

My ever so sweet and dear sister Windy took me to the Greek Theater for the local live performance of this week’s Prairie Home Companion. It was utterly too great. I loved watching the radio. I love the radio and it was such a reinforcing experience.

Windy bought the best seats and she said she hoped it would make up for all the times she forgot my birthday. Sure it did!

June 17

Here’s Mom! Those flowers are a gift from Roger and Sandy. Roger and Sandy have stuck in her mind and she never fails to ask after them, sometimes more than once in the same visit and our conversation is unvarying. Unvarying.

‘Oh! How is your dear friend… you know…’ ‘Sandy?’ ‘Ah yes, dear Sandy. She is so sweet. And ummm… ahhh…’ ‘Roger.’ ‘Yes, yes, Roger. Dear Roger. Did they ever get married?’ ‘No Mom, they never did get married.’ ‘I just can’t understand that. I just can not understand.’

That’s it except that last week they came over to visit Mom. Mom, never having actually met Sandy before and not having seen Roger in a generation, has added ‘my Roger has aged well’ to her litany. Right after the ‘I just can not understand’ part.

It started when I told Mom that Sandy had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and since Betty had Parkinson’s and since her time with Betty and Ed was in many ways her happiest time in life she’s got Sandy and Betty stuck together now as wonderful, wonderful people.

I confess to coming up with some entertaining story about Roger and Sandy whenever she asks, even if I have to ‘dig deep’, since she is always so happy to hear it.

June 12

Out for sushi with Gwen and Al. It seems I have decided that no picture is so bad I won’t try to save it.

We are here sitting under the fireplace-red sushi sign beginning a spectacular meal of course after course of omakase.

They have two set meals actually, and you must choose one of them – the Japanese style which includes uni and abalone and such, or the ‘ok I’ll eat yellowtail and tuna’ style. We had some of each for a comparison. It was Very delicious and especially interesting as the pieces came one by one instead of two by two.

A fence in Mom’s garden.

Another sushi outing with colleagues from NY.

Darryl and Angela’s new couch is perfection itself and to prove it we all sat most comfortably, watched the Lakers and played with our computers. Life!

Angela took this picture while we were sitting on the couch. Here’s what she said: “This was NOT photoshop. Entirely film; double exposure. It is a bit scary, I think.”

June 6

A couple of hours at the Descanso Gardens with Burt and Charlene and it was all just photo-photo-photo. Burt himself has indeed gone digital and he was happy-happy-happy.

In the LA Times this very morning was a feature about the Descanso Gardens so that Burt, having read the article, was able to docent our tour. Here’s their website Descanso Gardens pretty much confirming Burt’s commentary.

It was a beautiful day and a good thing I could manage some distraction from my near-madness about getting that %^&* place rented. I went straight home to check messages and pout. Good thing too, about the messages, not about the pouting because the tenant of my dreams had left a message.

…but not a dream come true!

This is cool!

One of the most appealing things about Descanso Gardens is that most of the places to walk are shaded and when you’re thinking of going somewhere outside in the summer in the Valley, you’re really thinking shade.

June 5

So which shall it be? This one…

…or this one? Windy’s church had a Mad Hatter’s Ladies Tea. She saw this baby in the window of a costume store and reserved it weeks in advance.

It’s Saturday afternoon. I’ll be out all day Sunday and I am getting th.> <.is close to a mini-freak-out. What to do what to do. Sigh. All in good time.

Ronald Reagan died today and my neighborhood was all a-jump as one block down and two blocks over is the mortuary where the family was bringing his body.

The TV trucks were lined up literally surrounding the block on all four sides and we counted 30 police on motorcycles, 6 helicopters and various other vehicles all highly visible and Loud.

As the crowd gathered.

I love how the folks with their little pocket digitals were elbow to elbow with the pros and the guy taking pictures with his telephone got as good a shot as the rest.

There were so many reasons to wander down there that were not political (neighborliness, a good story, celebrity sightings) and with all the hu-la-ba-loo (sp?? help!) and since it was 4:30 already no one was going to make it to Rent My Apartment anyway so I decided to catch a few shots too.

Everyone from my block was there, kind of like an impromptu block party. Hi Daisy. People with dogs, you never really learn their names because they are just the people who belong to the dog. Daisy is a real sweetie. So are the people…