’06 September

September 27

I stole this off the internet. Tomorrow! Seattle! Bon Voyage to me!! So today I’m awake before the birds puttering around here shuffling papers and making lists.

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‘Uh Oh Uh Oh Granny’s got her camera. Time to play.’

Gotta catch some Rome before I leave. When I get back she’ll probably be ready to go out for her first half-marathon.

‘I’ll just stand here a minute. Hmmm, these pants, I think I recognize them…’

Shopping with Snacks. La La Just hangin’ at the Mall.

I see you.

When we got back we watched a taped episode of Sesame Street. Oh good-y good-y!! Sesame Street is the best most wonderful delightful intelligent program ever made for TV and that’s a fact. It makes me laugh, it makes me dance, it makes me clap and cheer. From Darryl through Cynthia, right up into Rome, Sesame Street ROCKS. (The main subject of today’s show was ‘hair’ as in Rapunzel and ‘does a mailbox have hair?’ and it was brought to us by the letter R and by the number 8.)

Oddly, it seems I need a kid around to fully give myself over to the joy that is Sesame Street. So grab yourself a kid and catch some Sesame Street. You’re gonna love it.

September 26

Look what Rome sent to say thanks for helping with her birthday parties. Is this not the very sweetest thing you ever heard of?

ND saw this picture and sent me an email: ‘Man, that kid has good taste and a big allowance.’

(I’ll try for another pic tomorrow when there’s more light!)

The Bird Spa and Resort in Culver City. Located in Knut and Brigitte’s back garden and a favorite luxury of the neighborhood birds – and raccoons and opossums and etc. Pull up a chair and Enjoy!

Thanks for the photo Brigitte, and thanks for the lunch!

BB.

September 25

Monday Monday. And Happy Birthday Lourdes! Lourdes is in fact the youngest which she does remind us of from time to time. And I guess when you’re the youngest you should always feel young. Forever Young, Lourdes.

September 24

Spud and Kathy stopped by on their way home to Phoenix from San Diego. Yeah! Thanks so much for taking the time to have a meal with us. Also in this photo is Windy’s presumptive boyfriend Jeff.

Windy, Jeff, Flor, me, Lona, Hartley, Spud, Kathy, and Mom of course around whom we merely orbit.

Our Delightful Waiter took the shot. Thanks Sergio.

It’s another one from Sandy. So sweet!

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Here are a couple of pictures from Brigitte that are so cool. That’s the opossum in her grape vines. After harvesting 10 giant cans of grapes the opossum is gone and the raccoon is terribly disappointed.

I must take a photo of the fountain over there in Knut and Brigitte’s garden. I rather lust after that fountain, but it’s not just the fountain. You also need the exact viewing location to appreciate it.

BB.

Later I’ll put this in with the JPL section. This is a scale model of the Cassini spacecraft. Those people are made of cardboard and are there for scale.

You need to click here for the Cassini Mission home page. There are very very cool pictures there.

BB.

September 22

Assembling for a group photo at Rome and Nora’s birthday party. Is it possible?

Yes! It is possible!

standing: Susie with Ellie, Katie with Nora, Angela with Rome, and Tracy with Aidan
seated: Emily with Zoe, Tracy with Lucas, Charlean with Sydne, and Holly with Carter

Here come the birthday girls! Happy Birthday Rome and Nora!

A Mommy And Me Happy Birthday Snack Table. Yummy cupcakes made by the Moms of the Birthday Girls and many other tasty bits, favorites of the kidlets. (The little quiches weren’t out yet.)

The regular participants of this gathering are kids born within about a month of each other. Can you imagine all the birthday parties?!

A covey of kids. Coo Coo Ka Choo.

Rosh Hashana dinner at Steven and Celina’s. Happy New Year!

We ate the ceremonial foods with honey noted below and then matzoh ball soup, and then a fancy salad, and then a stewed beef dish and meat balls with some yummy sauce and herbed carrots and a baked cauliflower dish and couscous. Then for dessert we had baked apples and home made by Celina (as was every other scrumptious dish) baklava and ice cream. *Sigh*

From the internet: “Among the many traditions of Rosh Hashana are:
Dipping of bread into honey after kiddish and ha-Motzi, as a symbol of the hope that the new year will be sweet. Dipping pieces of apple into honey, for the same reason. Also, the apple is said to symbolize the Divine Presence. Use of round loaf of bread instead of the usual braided challah. Some say the round shape symbolizes a crown.”

September 21

You’ve got to check this out! Rome is One Year Old! ‘Happy Birthday to YOU.’ It’s the Mom, the Dad, and the Dog gathered to sing. ‘Happy Birthday to yoouuuu!!’.

Liz, Gary, and Angela’s brother Devyn sent this extravagant and wow-zer balloon phantasmagoria. Yeah!

This is from lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Happy Birthday Rome!

Lillian, lookin’ good. I need to get the connections story next time, or from my mother when she is having a good day.

September 19

Lunch! in the range of ‘to die for.’

Dinner!

Thanks Rosie for feeding us all. Yummy! That’s Rosie in the middle, Marsha to the left, and Marsha’s daughter Kelly on the right. Kelly and Cynthia went all through school together. Rosie and Marsha went all through school together. When I went to England with Marsha back in the mid-90s we went to visit Rosie. Now you know everything.

September 18

Remember a couple years ago when Alex went with me to Oregon to pick up the cute-as-pie but long-ago-crashed trailer? We stayed at Terry and Tammie’s place here near Portland.

Now Alex and Carol are up there visiting and having far too much fun it seems from the photos. Following are two more of the pix.

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Ooooh you Know what I’m thinking… Terry and Tammie have horses! You go girls.

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And boys and their toys. I can guess with 98% surety that Alex said to Terry something along the lines of ‘oh hey oh hey can I drive your tractor ok ok?’

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September 17

From Sandy – her comments:

‘Roger looking at Fred trying to fix Nancy A’s geisha doll display case and (our Baby) Lucas wearing the sweater Nancy A knit for him. Very cute(!) and China is pleased.’

Thanks Sandy!

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September 16

Happy Birthday Hilda! Some of the crowd gathered to share stories of the spectacular Hilda. What a lovely group of friends and how fortunate I am to be included. Party on!

Boys at the Q. Yup. Like nails to a magnet.

Friends from the Getty.

The view from Merlyn and Hilda’s back patio. Holy-ka-moly is right.

September 14

Look what Paola sent! Photos from Madagascar! Paola and Lallo are the wonderful Italians with whom I happily crossed paths on three separate occasions while traveling in Vietnam. They certainly travel far and wide!

Click here if you want to remember
Ciao Bella Paola in Halong Bay
and Lallo and The Cat
and Paola and Lallo in Hue.

PG.

Paola named this photo ‘bambini’. I think it is the perfect title.

PG.

Who knows hardly anything about Madagascar? That would be me, until I started fishing around on the internet. Now I know a little more. Then I checked on cheaptickets.com and wow, Madagascar is v$ry f$r $w$y from LA!

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Here’s a clip from Wikipedia:

‘The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth largest island in the world. It is the home of five percent of the world’s plant and animal species, 80 percent of which are unique to Madagascar.’ Now that’s worth a look.

PG.

September 11

This was fun, and interesting, and pretty long too – a free tour of JPL. They tell you no problem bring your camera take pictures of anything except the Mission Control Room. And I didn’t get a single shot I liked. Hmm. Maybe Brigitte got something and she’ll send it to me.

Our lively group of around 30 included the two guys on the left who were our guides as well as Rupa, Marsha, Hartley, Brigitte, and Lona.

First we went to the Flea Market at Fairfax and Melrose where we saw Flea Market items including cool pieces of geology and a cool geology guy who entertained us mightily.

Rupa all dressed up!

Then we met L&H and Rupa at Will Rogers State Park for a dee-licous picnic thanks to Lona…

…and Polo!

This time the divot stomping party included champagne. It was a real tournament instead of the usual practice chuckers that we watch. They had a big big crowd of divot stompers which I of course attribute to the free champagne. Wouldn’t you?

Bonnie? Where’s Clyde? After the picnic we toured the Will Rogers house, enjoyed the stables, and we hiked up to Inspiration Point. And a grand time was had by all.

September 9

The Hollywood Bowl and Mr Willie Nelson. And the LA Phil?! That part was weird – Willie Nelson and the LA Philharmonic. But after 45 minutes of soaring strings and sappy arrangements we got a 20 minute intermission, and then Willie came back with a country band and played and sang like the remarkable 73 year old man that he is, until 11pm.

Notice the JumboTron screens on both sides of the stage. The closeups are so compelling I wonder what we looked at before.

Nancy got box tickets from her job, invited Fred of course, and me and Sharon, and it was fun. We ate and drank and were merry!

More JumboTrons for the folks on the benches. Check out that braid hanging down his back and past his belt. This guy has been faithful to his hair.

Oh Willie. What a guy.

September 8

A matinee with David and the women who surround him. Thanks folks, it was fun. Nancy, Jo Ann, Muriel, and David. No one liked the movie and everyone forgave Nancy for suggesting it. Then we ate.

A picture of Sandy from Nancy Artz, her first contribution to this site! Lookin’ Good!

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September 6

This is what happens the instant Rome catches sight of my camera. ‘Oowww that looks gooood. I’m so there!’

My camera has a perfect feature for this situation called something like ‘following focus’ but first you have to Catch the focus before the camera can follow! (And then again I usually forget to take this setting anyway.)

‘Yes?’

‘Hey Granny let’s Play!’

September 5

This was one of those It Takes A Village days. Plans were in place for Lona and Flor to take Mom to the doctor to get her ingrown toenail cut out and Windy and Rupa and I were set for lunch and then we’d meet then all at the doctor’s office.

(One experienced person can manage Mom in the house but I wouldn’t think of taking her out without help.)

But, then, Hartley stuck a stick in his newly surgerized eye requiring a rush to a doctor in the opposite direction and a scramble of re-planning ensued. It worked out quite easily because Windy and I were both available. What if we all had to go to our jobs? Phewww.

September 4

Rupa is here! Aaaand, time for Ice Cream!!

September 3

Happy birthday Nancy! If you go to the Sunday Brunch at Shanghai Reds, and you get there early you get the best tables.

Then we went for a water-taxi ride. It costs a buck and you get a 30-45 minute comfy scenic cruise around Marina del Rey. Waay fun! Happy Birtday Nancy!

Me! from Sharon. On our water-taxi ride. Thanks!

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This is too fun too – a picture from Croatia of Marija and Ljubica with their cousin Leonardo sending me an email! It is, it’s a small world after all!

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September 2

Nancy whipped up another poweful feast today and since I have no picture of that, here’s a picture from Kelly with Charlieee enjoying his own feast.

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September 1

Click here for a Getty Center Update! I’m thinking this is a pretty dang cool pano of the garden at sunset.

Rome and her good friend Nora. Angela took this picture. Do be careful when you look at it due to the potentially blinding level of cutness.

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