December 4
High Tea at the Biltmore! Thanks to NA for organizing such a perfect bon voyage and welcome kickoff for the holiday season. The selections, quantity, and quality of the tea, sandwiches, and sweets were all excellent and the setting was gaga.
Sandy, we missed you.
September 26
Too bad that I ran into this picture facing in the wrong direction. This is an interesting phenomenon of perspective and not just because of my enormous head which I shrunk with photoshop. The tall ones who always like to lord it over us, the short ones, well they don’t look so dang tall now, do they!?
(Hey back off tall ones – I didn’t do it on purpose. It’s because of the camera angle and because we were standing in a V shape with the short ones in front, so settle down will ya.)
OK ladies, Baby Pictures follow. Let’s hear some ooowing and awwwing.
Here’s Mom going through the slide show of her seventh GreatGrandBaby, Rome!
It was very very cool. Even Lona noticed. She really saw Rome and at the same time she could remember all of her other great-grandchildren which has not always been the case recently.
She was in top shape (must have been the ride in the Convertible Car) and did pronounce that Rome was indeed one marvelous child.
Lona’s got a nice awww thing going too. Good Granty Lo.
Yup, I’ll be drivin’ this baby for a couple of weeks. That Bill, what a guy. He’s vacationing in Europe and I’m driving his Chrysler Convertible Car!
Don’t look Bill. So I’ve been driving everyone around all day for the last two days. Do we need-ta go somewhere? I’ll drive. Even my mother was kickin’ it on the way to the doctor’s office.
And could the weather be more perfect for a Convertible Car? Nope.
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After a clean-up and a weigh-in Rome stayed for an hour or so under the lights to get all nice and toasty warm.
The whole time she was stretching away. It’s so cool how you could see her trying to test out each and every single muscle. It was mesmerizing. You could put a thing like that on tv and no one would turn away.
Sandy took this picture of her mom Harriet, La Princessa, a week or so ago and soon after, Harriet passed. On Wednesday Sandy and her family made a touching and loving memorial service and reception in her honor.
One of Sandy’s sisters described their mother as the hub of the wheel of the family and all the adoring words brought life to this image. We should all be so well loved.
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Angela in the recovery room, happy and doing so extremely well. Mazel tov sweetie!
September 29
Our reflection in paradise.
Much to the woe of Bob and Carol they have to move their office. All they really want is another one just exactly like the one they have – the problem being that the one they have is destined-for-the-wreaking-ball any day now and it would be better if they could get their stuff out first.
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September 23
So regular life does go on but there’s that twinkly little difference since now I’m a GRANNY. Maybe I’ll have an on-going chapter of just Rome pictures… I’m not sure how to organize this yet… But oh baby oh baby plenty of pictures will be forthcoming!
Me and Bill and Ken, out for our monthly night on the town meaning we have happy hour cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and some dinner and then go home. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a lovely night on the town.
A Japanese-connection lunch. We ate at a pan-asian place in Culver City. We all brought pictures of our trips to Japan and encouraged Sharon in her future status as mother-in-law to a lovely Japanese girl. We had fun.
We were crazy for this guy who was with Angela and Rome for the first many hours of Rome’s life.
September 25
Susie and Ken put on a real Dinner Party tonight. What a treat! Ben and Bonnie came as well as Ken’s sister Cynthia, and David too, happy possessor of a faaabulous new editor/writer job. Check him out!
I’m fermenting plans for a trip to South East Asia. I need to do something like this so I can have another whack at a travelog and so I can continue to put off the looming and unwelcome Car Decision. Thank you L&H for the fall-back-Ford without which it would be much more unpleasant, this thing about putting off buying a car!
Rome with a little toy bug from BenBonnie. (Darryl and/or Cynthia used to call both of them by the same name, BenBonnie. Do you think the kids are sick yet of hearing me tell that story?)
November 3
A visit with Rome. Yeah Yeah Yeah! I don’t remember we had fantasmic toys like this one when our kids were babies. All that stuff makes noise too. Very entertaining for everyone.
Bon Voyage! We Love You!! We’ll Miss You!!! I’ve got dibs on Costa Rica. Others have also ‘pre-booked’. I don’t think Alex and Carol will find themselves lonesome.
Oh baby. What a face.
And speaking of entertaining, I can barely wait to sit with a great kid and watch Sesame Street again. I just loved watching Sesame Street with D and C, maybe I loved it more even than they did… Oh man, I hope it’s still good. I know I know. I don’t have a tv. But you do.
November 13
Last weekend I got to have my own Bon Voyage party – today everyone else got to come too.
Is this not the absolute cutest little Halloween pumpkin you ever ever saw? It is, I’m sure.
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November 12
Rosie had a house warming party. Her place is perfect. These two were guests – I don’t know who they are and this is my only picture. They’re so cute my camera refused its place in the bag and insisted on this shot.
October 4
Following are a few pictures from Angela of Rome’s first Halloween. The Fam!
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Bath Time! Rome just Looves bath time. And check out that bath tub. It has places to hold the bathing implements and a cool back rest for the baby.
And a rubber ducky! He makes bath time lots of fun.
Oooo, look at those amazing fingers…
November 5
A fall trip to the Getty with Nancy dressed in her perfect colors of fall.
You can click on this Visits to the Getty where all the pictures are now just sitting there and the whole mess has turned into a muddle. I’m going to need to rework this thing.
Every visit is just so entirely different that trying to tell one consistent story is looking weird. But isn’t that among the most amazing features of the Getty – you are guaranteed to have a fresh and engaging experience every time.
November 14
Amit has come for a visit!
When I was growing up my mother and father loved to serve as American parents to many young USC graduate students. They were mostly couples and mostly from India. They came for dinner, celebrated the holidays, and my mother was there for the birth of every child.
Many of these families are still entirely devoted to her and here is one of the children she helped attend to all those years ago.
November 6
Here they are, Team Lopi, off next week to position Nepenthe in Mexico, the first leg of Alex and Carol’s new life as sea-going vagabonders. A dream of many, attained by so few.
Merlyn is joining for a couple of weeks assigned to fisherman duty, Hilda joins in Cabo, and then Merlyn and Hilda leave and Karyn and Paul finish up in La Paz. Chapter One.
Today we futzed around in Long Beach harbor mostly as a treat for me because I will miss them A Lot when they’re gone.
Ready Set GO!
Windy rented one of those vaguely immoral mega-vehicles. The kind that ride up with the buses and you can’t see through them and you can’t see around them and they get 8 mpg.
Everything fit though, and they made their flight and now all we have to think about is when, exactly, will be my turn to visit.
Another sunset. Check out the link below for yesterday’s sunset at the Getty. Wow, two in a row.
At midnight, closing up the last of the boxes. But wait! What about This and what about This. OK, so it wasn’t really the last box.
What you don’t see here are the piles of trash bags and Goodwill items and souvenir coffee mugs and a full refrigerator and so very much stuff. And Lucas and Betsy have been up literally for the last two days trying to finish. No way. But no problem. Loving relatives can manage the last of it.
Whoo, what in the world is That? The consensus guess was that it is a ship sailed from China bringing those already assembled dock yard cranes ready for delivery here in Long Beach.
This thing crossed the Pacific Ocean?! I can hardly imagine the economics that would make such a voyage a good idea.
November 17
I still get to go to the yearly Berkley Blast-o-rama. What a Blessing!
Every few years we go back to Valentino because it is so utterly grand. It’s a real feed-me place. Omakase for Italians.
You can click here to read about Piero’s empire. He is a five foot giant.
My how big you’ve grown. Here’s the back-end of the Carnival Pride butt up against the Queen Mary. Remember when the Queen Mary was big?
Going to Valentino always drives Dale deep into his wine cellar and this time the results were breathtaking. Gaspingly delicious.
Piero chose an Italian white for the first few courses. ‘Very rare. No one has even heard of the maker.’ That was true enough.
It was quite lovely I think but the minute the waiter opened the next bottle I forgot entirely about that white. A 1988 Le Roy Chambertin. You could live on the smell alone.
We finished off, a few hours later, with a 1978 Hermitge. It’s the stuff of dreams.
November 7
Sandy’s picture of Roger and baby Lucas. Man-Oh-Manischewitz. We should have to pay to see this picture!
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They’re really doing it. They’re moving to Germany. Oh no. Grandma is putting up a brave face but she is going to miss those grandbabies SOOO bad.
November 8
Me. From Nancy. I think I look uncharacteristically calm in this picture. I also look like I’ve had just a little mini-stroke. But I’m used to that by now. One drooping eye and the opposite drooping mouth. But I’m used to that by now…
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November 19
I asked Darryl if when I’m really old and just rocking back and forth and crying for who knows what reason and unable to assemble a coherent sentence would he please play the guitar for me too. Sure, he said. Pheww. That’ll be nice!
And the best most dear pair of Mom and Dad you could ever hope to know. Lucky lucky Rome.
I’m leaving December 8 for six weeks in SE Asia and I’ve been driving around in cars for ages now. Must stop. Must walk.
But today I almost had a seizure. I am still shivering with despair and fury. The MTA is now subjecting us to COMERCIALS. This is EVIL. As if the cell phones weren’t bad enough.
During the getting-ready, Mom needing a nosh.
On Thursday we spent the day getting L&H&C&C ready for their trip to Israel on Friday, mostly me nagging Lona through her paperwork. It was a good thing we had it planned this way since on Thursday L&H still had No Passports! Friday was a scene of cosmic/comic drama but they’re off and all is well.
(ps as if I’ve never said it before, everyone should have a passport. Got one? No? Might as well go get it now. You just never know!)
I then went to Bill and Cheryl’s in the evening for dessert and fun. Very lively good fun indeed!
November 27
Baby Lucas! We do adore our grandbabies and this is Sandy’s. What a charmer. One day older than gorgeous baby Rome. Do you suppose the grandmothers every now and then find themselves plotting the future?
I’ve got pix in my camera but I’ve actually been busy recently. That’s odd! Maybe even a little wrong. Retired and too busy to get pictures out of my camera? Whoo, baad.
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Nancy Oh Nancy. We ate the whole thing. That’s the key to caviar rapture. It has to be quality, you’ve got to have enough and pile it high, and you’ve got to eat it all. Get some good champagne and you’re in your own dreams.
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November 29
Marsha’s cat Simon (Simon Shoe-ster) can’t resist a nice pair of spiky shoes.
Simon is actually the reincarnation of Uni. Uni isn’t dead yet, I know, so reincarnation simply must have decided to make an exception here – since there is no disputing they are the same cat in different fur.
November 30
Here we have our own Becky and her son Nathan…
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…dancing at the wedding of her dearest daughter Kelly. Most of the Monday Nighters were there to offer a hearty Mazel Tov to the gorgeous Bride and Groom.
The father of The Bride, Jack, took these photos. Thanks Jack.
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The Saito’s took me out for a real hipster bon voyage lunch at Cafe del Rey. Thank you!
December 2
Pix from a couple of holiday outings which I am going to miss so many of for being gone. I just focus on next year. Next year I’ll get to go again.
Marsha and a now-retired x-employee still meeting at their very most favorite lunch spot – Ye Olde King’s Head in Santa Monica where they both get the KIng SIzed fish and chips. Mighty cute ritual, and truly exceptional fish and chips (really just the fish part, not so much the chips.)
What a cat. Nineteen by now I think and still going strong. He is recently engaged in battle with a young opossum who wants to move in but might be thinking better of the idea. Uni must have got some mighty strong genes.
This cat is so entirely spoiled.
The ladies next door can’t be completely sure just what he wants at every possible moment so there is always at least three different things to eat and if he turns up his nose at the buffet they go out and get him something else!
The Biltmore is truly a remarkable place inside and if you are ever in the area help yourself to a wander through the public rooms. And be sure to look UP as the ceilings are a total art project.
On Friday I got to hang out with Cynthia for a while and we went to Chinatown for a late lunch and a drop-off at Union Station.
I ate myself up and down the streets of our own grotty little Chinatown and enjoyed every bite.
November 25
A Wednesday Thanksgiving at Mom’s place and about all she could take. After a couple of hours she announced that this had been swell and we could all go, any time would be fine.
…and a Mariachi band. I am absolutely sure they were playing wild and bawdy songs because the crowd was whooping it up big time and the singer was full of suggestive hand gestures and broad winks.
January 17
This is my first entry since the faabulous wedding and I’m going to skip all the prior and subsequent cr*ppy stuff for now because that’s what I want to do, and I can, so that’s it.
Olvera Street with Sandy! The weather had cleared and we soaked up the sun and all the colors the sun revealed. Mirror magic and PhotoShopPhun.
(Now I’m telling the Jury Duty story. Later I’ll tell the bus stop story. (I’m fine…no problem…next time I’ll just be walking a few extra blocks in the opposite direction is all…))
The charge was felony ‘lewd acts with a minor under the age of 14’. Of course it would have been a horror to deal with and there were many among the prospective jurors who ended up in tears and we hadn’t yet heard a word of testimony.
The whole process of jury selection and especially the judge’s participation was quite interesting, a real civics lesson, and now I’m so curious about how it will turn out that I have toyed with the idea of going down to listen to the trial! But probably not That curious.
January 20
Jury Duty: I was assigned to a jury panel on Tuesday and was among the first 18 to be questioned.
I was thinking to come up with any story that would get me out but then I decided telling the truth would just be easier. So I did and after hours and hours and another 12 jurors being called to fill in for those excused, late Wednesday afternoon I was released anyway. Then I thought, hey, what’s the matter with me? I’d be a perfectly fine juror. But they thought otherwise..
So far, since I gave back the rental car on Tuesday I have bussed it to Jury Duty downtown, to Mom’s, to Japanese class, and to a movie date with narry a hesitation.
So far so good however even now I can see that at some point I’ll be quite done with this phase. I have no idea at all as to when that will be but since I’m already mentioning it…
What a crack-up: ‘Free Dinero for College’ – classic LA Speak. (I’m just assuming everyone recognizes a bus-ad when they see it.)
We, the daughters, did our traditional birthday skit of course and Mom was one happy camper.
She turned 87 this year and her greatest excitment was that on her Next birthday she would be 88 and we would all have to talk double we would all have to talk double and we would take her take her to the Ojai Valley Inn to the Ojai Valley Inn so she could repeat so she could repeat the best birthday ever ever when she was 77 when she was 77 and we went there we went there and talked double talked double for the whole weekend The WHOLE Weekend.
WE the girls, were ExHHausted by the effort but Mom just looooved all the attention such a display generated so…
January 22
Happy Birthday Mommy!! L&H hosted many guests to a delightful brunch at Shanghai Reds in the Marina.
January 25
Yesterday I took the bus to Sherman Oaks, to Darryl and Angela’s place and back. It was the agony and the ecstasy, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but mostly agony and defeat. Forty-five minutes to get there, three hours to get home.
I woke up this morning ready to devote myself to a jihad upon the dark forces of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Why WHY had they left me standing on a corner late into the night?
Fortunately having not yet gone completely insane, before embarking upon a holy war I checked the online schedule again. Ooops. My fault.
I am utterly utterly T*hrilled that it was my fault. Thank goodness. Phew. I can continue this Car-Free-LA project for a while longer and not have to take up my retirement as an activist. I am anyway acutely aware that nothing really desperate will happen to me by the good fortune of my dear family and friends still having cars!
The house next door is now gone replaced by a mud lake causing the cat to be constantly trailing mud through the house and into my bed. So much mud that I have to wipe up and then vacuum every single day.
…If she is well enough next year to enjoy such a display then we will be glad to do it.
This is the one and only picture I took of the rain during what the commentators are calling the wettest 15 days in LA history. Fun though, that within that period the sun did shine for Darryl and Angela’s wedding and for the Rose Parade.
Ken, Car Show, Prime Rib… so I’ll remember.
Walking was the order of the day for yesterday. I hit the laundry, the bank, the video store, the post office, the library and then the market all in one big swing.
Then Nancy stopped by for a late long and luscious lunch and then Marsha stopped by for a pre-chorale post-dinner snack. What an entirely lovely day for a retired woman!
January 26
I met Bill for lunch today before it started raining (one bus in one bus out). It reminded me that during our deluge bus travel must have been a lot less appealing!
A view out the bus window on Santa Monica Blvd.
Marsha’s parent’s church in San Marcos, packed to the rafters with dear family and friends here in wholehearted loving support.
That’s the thing about using the bus – you walk a lot. I’ve been noticing especially how fragrant it is when you walk. It must be the slower pace so that all the smells can be distinct. Jasmine, sea salt, cat pee, bar-b-que…
I Really like the way this fence works. I think it’s something like translucent fiberglass.
Marsha lost her beloved father and these were the officiates at the funeral.
Getting there, first stopping off at Mom’s, worked just like it said on the schedule.
The people who live in this house must have thought it would be amusing to cover one of their windows in two-way mirror. I’m betting they have many amusing moments watching people watch themselves as they pass by.
The Great Quiddler Challange, and Roger, the arbiter of all things word-ly.
January 27
Sandy and Beverly at the South Bay Women In Travel meeting we went to, at the airport, where I bussed it in and ‘car pooled’ home. Thank you Beverly.
Sandy got some great close-ups of the Olvera Street shops so I’ll get her favorite for here. You know how I complain about not being able to get a decent close-up… Do I complain about skin tone more than I complain about close-ups?
January 29
Kent, Robin, and Liz made a lovely wedding reception for the kids and a grand time was had by all. (I couldn’t get a decent shot of the big arbor and the cake in the same frame, so use your imagination!)
October 13
I was well enough to get out today and what a lovely day it was. Check out this SF Valley! You could see the mountains on all sides and feel the heat and the desert wind.
As a change of pace from Golden Hunan we went to Odyssey to fully appreciate the day. Consequently we stayed too late and ate too much. Now I’m exhausted and stuffed. Serves me right.
Today I hung out with Rosie and participated in her most welcome move. She is very happy with her new place and very very happy with her movers.
This time I actually bothered to blend the good features of the two pix and it feels like Magic!
October 21
Oh Goodie! Goodie! The new library is about to open. Very soon it seems as the shelves are becoming full of books. I’m so excited! It’s an easy 1.6 mile walk or an even easier 6 minute bus ride down Santa Monica Blvd.
Speaking of which, I had Bill’s Convertible Car for several weeks and then my mother’s car for a few days. That was good for putting on a couple of pounds. When you have a car it is just so darn obvious to use it. I’m back to walking for a while anyway until it starts raining again.
Now I’m curious about that 10,000 Step Plan to Physical Fitness. I’ve been walking several miles almost every day for nine months not including normal ‘steps’ and I am not so oh-so physically fit. And then a few weeks with a car and a few months of weight loss are right back!!
A clip from the wall behind the bar. It’s mightly lively in there, well worth a look if you’ve never been.
Unloading pumpkins because ’tis the season. And from here on into the new year it’s all just buy-buy-buy.
