’04 May

May 3

Angela took this picture with my camera and a bridal veil hooked on over the lens. I like it!

Like what we used to do before, back in the olden days before cntlJ-filters-blur-gaussian blur made our lives so beautifully rich and complicated. Now I like to gaussian blur a top layer and then erase the eyes and mouth and maybe the tips of the hair down to the shaper background layer. Or try some new thing. I wonder what would happen if this…? There are an endless number of ‘this’es.

How fun is this? I’ll tell you – too much fun!

May 7

Here it is Saturday night and for the last however long it always seems I have something chore-ish that needs doing, not that I do those things but I feel reluctant to do other things meaning blah blah. But making this was fun. Ah – too bad I cut out the top of the ‘y’.

I had just finished this bit when my sister called on the cell phone to say that the doctor had reached her to say that Mom’s tests from last week indicate she really does need to have that pacemaker installed. Thursday we had had another rush to the Emergency Room where four hours later she was released without a diagnosis. It must have been so unsettling I didn’t even snap a pic!

May 11

Yesterday we gathered in honor of Marsha’s birthday to acknowledge to ourselves that our dear young friend Marsha was OLD. So be it. FIFTY. If this does sound old to You then I am Very Grateful because that means YOU will be paying MY Social Security.

Marsha’s sister Nancy was there for the festivity.

May 16

It’s Mother’s Day! Angela took the pictures and I happily left her to it!! Hi Mom. The matriarch. It’s all about YOU.

US! We had seats for 13-14 people in my 700 square feet. That’s way cool. Now if some perfect person would just need to rent my cottage all will be well…

Darryl took this shot with Angela’s camera. This is a great picture. So many teeth. You couldn’t shake a stick at all these teeth.

More pictures coming in this set from the 16th to the 11th but my new Photoshop has C*apped Out and I’m Stuck!!

May 18

I think this looks quite like one of those Victorian postcard illustrations so I’m keepin’ it. Actually, it’s flowers from Mother’s Day.

The best pic from Marsha’s birthday weekend – more to follow.

This was our !Surprise! party for Marsha’s Big Five Ohhh. That’s right. Church. She about bust a gut when she saw us sitting there, like I knew she would.

Before the choir came in, fortunately, Maxine’s phone rang (and doesn’t Maxine clean up good…). She answered it real quick. She whispered… ‘I can’t talk to you right now honey, I’m in church.’ Her daughter on the other end said ‘For G**’s sake Mom, shut off the d*** phone.’

Here it is two weeks later and I’m still chuckling over that one.

After church, brunch. Isn’t that what you’re Supposed to do?

May 22

Angela took a few of these pics of the twins and I Photoshopped them so intensely that once again I had to reload the whole Photoshop program. Apparently there is a limit to the number of layers you can enjoy here in the new Photoshop…

May 23

It’s the Team Photo! Next week they will even have shirts that match. A color being the first step, a name might follow.

From the bottom left around:
Sid, Darryl, Juan, John, Dave, Souhil, Chris, Kevan

It was half time, the guys were catching their breath, having water, wringing out their socks and when I could see they were suited up to start the last half I called out, maybe twice, maybe only once ‘OK Ya’ll Team Photo‘ and they all, every one, without further instruction, dropped into this pose. It was Such a kick! Check out that symmetry! Darryl said well of course it isn’t like every guy hasn’t done a hundred team photos in his life.

Action!

These guys were really having fun and each one seemed to appreciate all the others for their good humor and camaraderie, their skill, their playing-by-the-rules, and for showing up.

When I was in India I noticed I myself adopted this pose of elbows out, hands on hip as did most everyone else there. It then became clear that this is not the aggressive posture I always took it to be but rather a way to stand, ever hopeful, that some small breeze might find you and cool your fetid armpits.

Totally Wasted…

We had fun too!

I’m mad for these chairs. Roger and Sandy got them hand-me-down from Charlie under the provision that they would give them back at some point. So I would feel reluctant to whisk them away in the dead of night. But then… Also, in my Perfect world, they would have arms.

OOOPS, too blue or something. Better fix that…

Happy Happy Birthday Maxine!

Angela and I took Windy out for a shopping trip to get her a computer. This was a labor of Love and we were glad to do it.

HappyHappyJoyJoy.

While we were out Darryl was fixing up my website. Then when we got back I had So Much Fun. Angela was making dinner. Windy was messing around with her set-up. I was checking out my website.

Darryl was answering Angela’s questions about dinner as she was making one of his signature recipes (the best portobello mushrooms Ever). He was helping Windy, giving various tutorials along the way. He was making more changes to my website as I changed my mind again and again. Oh so sweet and kind and versatile Darryl!

So it seems the world has indeed Not gone mad. It seems there are not scores of eagar folk pleading to pay outrageous sums to live in a 300 sq foot studio in my backyard. Bummer. But they get the Artist’s Studio too! That makes it all closer to 500 sq feet and a bargin!. So what’s with That?!? You could just die from this floor.

Cynth at the Pottery Barn. First we left D off at the Starbucks to work on RoadTripWeekly, then we went to Angela’s photo show (and I took Not One shot), then we went to Pottery Barn to look at sofas, then we ate yummy lunch/dinner at the Chinese place everyone likes.

Angela brought a bag full of goodies – cookies and a mechanical toothbrush for me, a shirt for Cynthia, pictures for Windy and Mom, maybe More even. It was like hohoho Santa Claus has come to town!

Then it was Marsha’s 50th birthday…

MY GUYS on the Promenade. This is the she, the he-s don’t have the flowers…

I haul my camera around every step I take but have stopped taking a picture every time the scene changes. Whole events go undocumented. That’s ok. It’s a phase.

May 25

Following are some miscellaneous pictures I’ve been meaning to get to.

Dawn
He stands on my head.
Insistent. Get up Now. FEED me.
Then he bites my nose.

May 26

From CC for Mother’s Day! standing in front of Julie’s picture. Art for art’s sake…

ps, yes, those are truck bays.

May 30

OK OK I Made them stand there but they were funny all by themselves… Susan, Nancy, Windy, Sharon, Nancy.

Hilda and Merlyn. Cute again. If I ever get to go to the Middle East it might well be because of Hilda – her mom and various other relatives still live in Iran and all our mutual friends are trying to get her to tour-guide us next time she goes.

Arianna! I was beyond pleased, I was Happy when I thought we could vote for Arianna for governor. But no, it was not to be.

So here she is in a church auditorium in Venice with a bunch of Democrats running a rally for John Kerry. It was weird weird weird.

Those guys lined up to ‘ask questions’ were actually there to speechify and nanner on and on and on. You had to listen to five paragraphs of blather before you could get five sentences from Arianna and even at that the whole setup was meant for evangelism (more like preaching to the choir!) so even her comments were less than truly thoughtful and hardly enlightening. Ewwww.

Bummer!

May 31

Memorial Day! Hi David!! Hi Schatzi!!!

I drove on up to see David’s new place in Ventura and let me tell you it is faaaabulous. Utterly utterly. This is one of his two spacious patios looking out over the blue Pacific. Right There. Below is the beautiful Ventura strand, perfect for walking any time of the day or night.

I am so happy for him I’d have to go stupid with the exclamation points or line up a whole row of happy faces.

Five minutes down the strand and five minutes down the beach and here we are.

More.

Schatzi is one amazing dog. Actually she has every personality characteristic of a fully realized cat. She is demanding, willful, and sweet when she is of a mind to be sweet. We are all here but to serve.

She is also bullet fast. I was chin in chest over her speed. It reminded me of all the times I’d been run away with by horses. She would be running and you’d think wow, that dog can run, and then she would, like a shot, light out in an entirely new stride and be a far distant blur, fading fast.

She’s a Basenji. Here’s A Besenji Website if you’re interested.

Those prehistoric pelicans.

Isn’t life a treat? You never know what’s going to be right around the corner.

Check out those Little Egypt sand shapes and that adorable child. Dad was standing behind, ooozing cute and charm and happy.

As David was changing his shoes this kid came up to us to display his collection of crabs. ‘Look! Do you know what I’ve got? Crabs!’

Bye David! Bye Schatzi!! See you next time!

LUCKY me. Terry and Arlene were having a holiday bbq that afternoon at their home in Thousand Oaks, right on the way back from Ventura, so I got to do BOTH. Lucky me! Lucky big headed me.

Hello boys.

Kevin and his wife. Kevin, soon to be DAD! Wowwww. As Burt noted, soon we’ll get to be Grand Friends.