Mostly Melicent.
November 24
I’m off to Palm Springs for what I expect will be a Fantastic Thanksgiving Festivo with the kids. This picture is from last year. Today it is raining. When we went in 2002 there was snow at the top of the Palm Springs Aeriel Tramway. Whoo…thinking of it…I’d better bring my snow socks!
December 29
There was a house full of people in celebration of Carl and Lynn’s Big Six OH, most of whom I see a couple times a year at their place, and here are a few of them.
Everyone’s having fun. I would go so far as to propose that we folks circling around our 60s are more easygoing and having more fun than ‘before’. It just seems that way to me.
From Lynn:
Top row (from left): James Jordan and Andrea Zinder, Mike Goldstein, Bill Flumenbaum, Ben Pomerantz, Tricia Flumenbaum Bottom row (from left): Carol Baume, Lynn Rosenfield, Tricia Flumenbaum, Joanne Altschuler
December 30
Roger and Sandy took me and Nancy and Jim out to lunch in celebration of Nancy’s birthday. How lovely!
More, and our Carl, as ever, declaiming. I think the topic was football…
From Lynn:
From left: Debbie and Glen Kane, Nina Asher and Steve Raiken
Below: Carl, waxing eloquent or pontificating or
December 27
I got this note and photo from Ronald. It’s funny:
We should have a competition about who is happiest as a retired person.
Im not normally a happy person. But Im ten times happier now than I was commuting to Valencia. And when the temperatures are like today, I am 20 times happier than I was standing in the cold in Newhall waiting for a bus.
I find it is the little things in life that make it worthwhile. Ive left my alarm clock to ring at 6am so as not to miss the pleasure of turning it off and going back to sleep without worrying about what excuse I would need if I called in sick.
Meanwhile, now that I have an iPhone, Im getting into fotos. Here are two of Hezbolah. RVA
December 25
HoHoHo! Santa Claus came to town!! What fun!!! Angela took this shot of Christmas morning. I didn’t take a single one that turned out. Thanks Angela for stepping into the gap!
ak.
December 24
Christmas Eve at Marija and Brian’s! There were many tens of guests in the house but all the kids found their way out to Christopher’s room. You would have too if you were their age. Of course we forced them to come back in and entertain us. (I do notice that when I was the age of the eldest here Darryl was TEN.)
Then I went to D&A’s for a slumber party in anticipation of Santa Claus Comin’ To Town!!
December 22
Andrea Graham. Holy cow, we haven’t seen each other in more than 40 years.
I didn’t get to go to the ‘JB Girls Give Themselves a 60th Birthday Party’ party Andrea and another pal put together because I was out of the country, JB being our Junior High. We met for lunch and a walk around the old neighborhood and it was Great!
Then I took 28 pounds of magazines out to Celina and she cooked dinner. Just Look at this dinner. Celina is a wonderful cook. Lucky me!
Orchids! Soo many orchids. This place is in Culver City and what a pleasant surprise. I’d never even heard of it before but on an afternoon walk with Rosie she pointed it out. Wow.
December 19
Fall in Sherman Oaks. I left D&A’s early to get back to Santa Monica in time for…
…holiday dinner with the boys. We ate at this same restaurant last year (it’s Il Fornaio on Ocean) and it’s a winner. We made some serious Merry.
Ken, me, Bill
December 18
I had lunch downtown with Robert. We ate in a really colorful place specializing in Mexican seafood. It’s set in an industrial open-brick cement-floor building with radical political artwork as part of its dramatic decor.
And I didn’t take a single picture. Bummer. So I snagged this shot off Robert’s site. Three of these youth are his. The three cutest of course, in the front, from the left.
RL
December 20
It’s Rome’s Play Group. What a bunch of cuties! You can see the whole festivity by clicking here December 2007 Play Group!
Then for extra added fun you can click on these. Halloween 2007! And here’s another one not to miss January 2007 Play Group.
December 20
It’s Rome’s Play Group. What a bunch of cuties! Here’s Rome, Sam, and Nora…taking turns!
You can look through these and then for extra added fun you can click on these. Halloween 2007! And here’s another one not to miss January 2007 Play Group.
Beth and Kayla; Charlean and Synde; Angela and Rome; Susie and Ellie
Andrea and Sam; Emily and Zoe
Click here for fun! Halloween 2007. And here’s another one not to miss January 2007 Play Group.
December 17
Look who’s here! Hana and Tai’s GRANDBaby Nagi!! And their son and daughter-in-law too but mostly NAGI!
December 14
This doesn’t give the real feeling when you’re In it. This is like looking at it from the sky and thinking ‘oh, no, yuck, that’s nasty for all those people down there’, but you’re not Feeling it.
Friday night I drove out to the valley and went with Ken to look for a party venue with dancing (so I got to dance a-plenty, relieving my traffic-tantrum). Yummy.
Saturday night I tried to drive to Maxine’s party but after an eternity and not yet reaching the Getty Center I just had to punk out and turn around. It was like being trapped in one of those ‘toil and trouble’ cauldrons and I had reached my personal boiling point. Bummer.
December 15
Cookies! Nancy hosted a holiday cookie decorating party, and sweet and festive it was. Cookies all made up in all the shapes and sizes, and 15 different colors of frosting and jars and jars of decorations. What fun!
Top Row L to R: Katherine Fibiger, Lisa Lawrence, Nancy’s dearest daughter Molly, Nancy Artz
Bottom Row L to R: Sandy Chaves, Carol Shelton, Louise Edgerton
Also I went with Brigitte for a walking tour of USC and a stop-off at the Fisher Gallery to see Robert Graham’s new work. These are my least favorite of the pieces. The best were dancers – they were wonderful.
Here’s a surprise link to a well known Robert Graham design.
December 13
A classic representation of life around The Brown House. There’s Trevor on the blow-up bed in the middle of the living room; Charis up front; Beth, my big sister Lona, and Caleb on the left; Christa and Hartley straight ahead. Why are they all bundled up in sweaters and coats? It’s that whole ‘central heating’ thing…
The Hawaii Browns are here for a quick three-nighter, to give moral support for Hartley’s eye surgery (that went very well) and enjoy an early Gift Exchange. What fun!
Then we ate 16 pounds of prime rib. Yes we did.
December 12
Check it OUT. Yes, it’s TRUE! Rome’s gonna be one FanTAStic Big Sister!! Oh lucky lucky me. Hurray Darryl and Angela!
December 10
Monday Night Gift Exchange. Whoo we had fun!
(Ljubica, Ann, Maryanne, Lourdes, Alicia, Maxine, Marsha, Becky, Ruth, Marija, me)
Twelve minutes before this photo our plates were Piled High. It was a feast of the first order and Alicia made every dish.
Here we go: Turkey; stuffing from inside the turkey; perfect gravy; mashed potatoes so delicious everyone clambered for the recipe; a mound of mashed yams on a pineapple ring and a decorative marshmallow toasted on top; Alicia’s world famous jello salad; green beans; carrots; a ‘pumpkin crumble’ dessert so yummy we Just Kept Eating.
A clip from the holiday decorations…pa rum pa pa pum.
(There is some difference of opinion on the internet as to these lyrics as others wrote it ‘pa rum pum pum pum’.)
This is one hot Christmas Tree. All the fabulously jewelled and be-ribboned balls have the names of Alicia’s grandchildren scripted in gold. Santa’s gonna be spending plenty of time here just staring at this tree!
December 8
A two party day, but no real pix.
I went with Nancy (A) to see Enchanted and it is true, we were both enchanted. Too bad about that tv actor playing a love interest, he of the limpid eyes and pathetic, joyless demeanor. But other than that.
Then I got to see Rosie’s new place (Tres ChIC) since she was having a holiday ladies candle party sale thing. It was fun. Good food and a lively crowd. And so many people like to buy candles.
December 7
Althea and Allen at their annual Holiday Party where, according to Althea, you can’t miss their home as it is lit up like a Vegas Casino.
And so it is. Ever since Allen appeared on the scene several years ago the lawn and roof and windows and Everywhere, every year, gets more and more full of lights and decorations until now I would say – can there possibly be any more?! I didn’t catch a shot because it was TOOO COLD out there in Lancaster to stand around for a photo. Take my word for it. It was b.r.i.g.h.t.
December 6
Brigitte has been Soo busy but now ‘Maybe I’ll get my life back’ she was allowing just yesterday. I hope so! Today we walked and I got to hear stories of all these adventures. Like a good radio drama!
December 5
Dinner is cooked, eaten, and cleaned up. The dog is walked and everyone (everyone!) has a few minutes with their laptop to check email (or the Laker scores…or the letter ‘g’) before bath time.
Come to think of it, it must have been public money that did the refurb and ‘we’ surely did do a FABulous job. Hmm, I took this picture. Not 100% not skew-y, but cool none the less.
December 2
It’s the re-assembly of Team Kauai. Yea! Betty’s here at Sharon’s and joined by Nancy, we ate a delightful brunch at Tam O’Shanter (thanks Nancy, what a kick!) and then enjoyed a most entertaining and interesting afternoon at the iconic Griffith Observatory.
Don’t miss the free film telling about the refurbishment and expansion. Whoo, very cool.
…just the way it’s supposed to be!
(from Birgitte – L to R; T to B)
Tai Phyllis/Paul Eiji Kelly/Paul
Knut
December 1
First Holiday Party of the Holiday Party Season! It’s Knut and Brigitte’s 6th Annual Holiday Slipper Party! Friends Food and Fun…
(from Brigitte – L to R; B to T)
Nancy/Jeff Daryl Bettie Hana
Stacey Brigitte
Tony Miriam/Adolfo Inga-Lill
November 29
Sandy had her holiday art show today debuting her new series ‘Everyday Angels’ and they are lovely indeed. You go Sandy!
November 28
I was up and down Wilshire tonight doing some chores and walking past this scene I was compelled to stop. The aroma of Christmas Tree whacked me upside the head. It has begun. Next up, endless Silent Nights and Little Drummer Boys until you BEG for mercy.
November 26
Everyone who knows me knows I don’t have a tv, I don’t want a tv, if I had a tv I’d give it away. But you can’t escape. You can watch tv on the internet! Tons of whole shows even Dancing With The Stars.
AND You CanNOt, as far as I can tell, fast forward through the commercials.
Maybe those Producers don’t know how much money they are going to make, but I’ll bet it’s a good lot of something already, and the Writers are thinking they want sum-a-that too.
Totally wow on this condo. The complex is wow too as is the siting. There are a few more pictures later. All the rooms look out onto a patio with this fountain and also a nice big jacuzzi. Check out those mountains. Wow is right.
We’re up and out before 10 to catch an early ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.
And now I guess it’s fair enough to install the omnipresent Holiday Decorations as a necessary adjunct to Holiday Shopping, even if it does mean co-opting the endangered Bighorn Sheep.
That’s Darryl and Rome in the middle of the picture. We three did a nice trot down the paved path to the popular Long Valley trail.
Rome was lovin’ it, getting up a head of steam as she careened down the hill. Darryl did however, carry her allll the way back UP. I trudged along behind, feeling as though I was on the mountain going home in Guanajuato, but this path wasn’t as steep or as far. Still.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway! It’s a highlight!
The altitude in Palm Springs (that’s it down there) is about 450 feet, the Valley Station of the tramway is about 2600 feet and the Mountain Station up top is about 8600 feet(!). That’s high! When we came in 2002 on this exact day, the Friday after Thanksgiving there was Snow but this time it was just cold.
Notice the windmill farm in the far upper left corner…I’ve always wanted to wander around in there.
On the ride down Rome was quite sure she had had quite enough of this swinging in the air business and the whole crowd WHOOOing and AHHHing every time we passed over a tower.
Then we ate another enitre Thanksgiving dinner, polished off the desserts, did a little IT and went to bed groaning with delight and misery.
November 22
Happy Thanksgiving! How 110% cool is this. Cynthia got her company’s condo in Palm Springs and we all cooked up a Vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast-Fest-O-Rama.
We each picked 2 dishes to make. Stuffed squash and waldorf salad-me; scalloped corn and banana bread-Cynthia; mashed potatoes and broccoli and cheese-Darryl; beets and apple cobbler-Angela. YumEE.
November 20
The new Hairspray is just released in video, which I saw in the theater when it came out. So tonight I re-watched the John Waters original (the stage show came after the movie btw). It’s good, but ya know, it was better in the hazy glow of my memory, or maybe I think differently of it because now I’m not in a theater, or maybe it’s the 20 years…but my experience of the new one might have suffered by an unfair comparison. Now I want to see the new one again to get it fresh in my mind.
Oh for goodness sake, are these two movies worth even one more thought I ask myself. Oh, who cares I answer.
And I thought I wasn’t going to watch any more movies about my olden days when we actually thought that we might overcome someday.
November 18
Hartley’s having a surgery on the 19th so L&H decided to have Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday the 18th. What a Major fiesta. And we did it without our mother. Loona said my Waldorf Salad was better than hers.
November 16
We live in a city and we have art, even if it can take us 120 minutes creeping through insane traffic to get there on a holiday Friday night.
At the LACMA theater we saw a fabulous collection of animated works. There’s a big Salvador Dalí exhibit on now and featured at the cartoon show was a presentation of a recently completed work, Destino, which was begun in 1945 as a collaboration between Dalí and, yes, Walt Disney.
Apparently they got on famously. The program also included q&a with the Disney team who animated Destino and a presentation of several other very early Disney cartoons, as surrealistic as any dripping clock.
From the museum website: the Dalí show ‘…aims to illustrate the cinematic influences and elements that are present in Dalí’s work as well as the contribution he made to cinema. The exhibition brings together a variety of key pieces from Dalí’s oeuvre, incorporating painting, film, photography, sculpture, and texts.’
November 15
Doing our morning walk with Sharon. All morning actually. We start at 9, walk for hours, split a breakfast somewhere, and get back around 1. WalkWalkWalk. It’s a blessing.
Hi little cutie nose. We saw dolphins too. It was a spectacular day-and Hot for November.
November 14
Remember when Rome was pushing around all her things in her grocery cart? That phase passed and for a while now it’s been shopping Bags. Fancy ones from fancy stores! Everything goes in. Then sometimes she likes to put her shopping bags in her shopping cart and push the whole thing around!
November 12
What I wrote in an email about going to Cuba: “Right now I’m trying to decide if I want to risk Cuba. I don’t have an actual legal way to go, so No. But I know others who have done it no problem, so Yes. But I probably don’t want to be there when Castro dies, so No. But he’s already effectively out of power, so Yes. But I could just go back to Miami, so No. But it would be so much more interesting to see Cuba before the US cruise ships start arriving 10 per day, so Yes. See how this is going?”
ps What I heard was that Everyone can dance in Cuba.
November 11
In the afternoon Ben took Bonnie and me to a new and secret walking spot. Wow! That’s downtown down there. It was a beautiful stroll. Too bad I couldn’t find it again and he’s been sworn to silence by his source.
November 10
Nancy got reservations for the Getty Villa and she and Sharon and I had a lovely outing there in Malibu among the antiquities, not all of them us.
Click here for MORE photos of The Getty Villa.
November 8
I went to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library with Charlene and we agreed that it was well assembled, interesting, modest, and even worth another look.
The Oval Office mock-up looks just like this.
(RRWebsite)
The big draw these days is a complete Air Force One, the plane that the Reagans used most often while in office.
Nancy is quoted as having said the only thing she misses in Washington is Air Force One. Here we are reflected in its body.
It’s there in a glass case looking out on huge views from every side. You can walk through too. It’s mighty low-tech in there and surprisingly unpretentious.
November 7
Lunch with Rome. Hey, let’s have a grilled cheese sandwich and apple sauce!
Oh you silly girl.
My allergies have been driving me nuts since the fires which is like 10 or 100 days now. Angela gave me some home remedies today. I’ve felt much less sick this time because of the Claritin but still, how much snot can one head produce?! Now I’m drinking organic apple cider and dripping hydrogen peroxide down my ears(!). I’m also squirting salt water up my nose and occasionally I allow myself a really good whimper. Can’t hurt!
Looking back, I’ve recorded outbreaks in the end of April 2005, mid March 2006, and now early November 2007. So maybe I dodged the Spring bomb and the fires did me in?
November 5
From Nancy Artz. Michi, my pal from Guanajuato, met us for lunch in Santa Barbara. Small world and all that.
na.
A shot from Melinda’s wedding back in September. Doesn’t Marija, mother of the bride, look FABulous!?
??.
Next morning after a hearty Breakfast we stumbled onto a cute park near the Mission.
Next we came back to town and wandered around the Presidio, and then we ate Lunch with Michi, my friend from Mexico. More pictures to follow!
Some details from the Presidio website: ‘Founded April 21, 1782, the Santa Barbara Royal Presidio was the last in a chain of four military fortresses built by the Spanish along the coast of Alta California, then a wilderness frontier. Others had been established at San Diego, San Francisco and Monterey.
‘Padre Junípero Serra, well known for his leadership in founding the California missions, blessed the site of the Santa Barbara Presidio four years prior to the establishment of the Mission of Santa Barbara in 1786. El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park encompasses much of the original Presidio site and is located in modern downtown Santa Barbara at the intersection of Santa Barbara and East Canon Perdido Streets.’
And then we visited an orchid farm. Nancy, entirely happy as she devoted considerable energy to her therapy…and that would be shopping…came home with 3 orchids, an apple knife and decorative popcorn from Sur La Table, a postcard, and a sweater.
And then we visited the Mission. These are drawings on the parking lot pavement. I cheated on this photo but my feet really were there. Should I tell every time? hmmm.
November 2-4
A Santa Barbara Weekend with The Cousins, and I being an honorary cousin, hence an honorary second cousin to the well-known Hollywood personality, William (Sweet Cheeks) Hurlbut, he being a frequent topic of conversation.
After settling into our motel we walked all day. Oh my goodness did we eat. Yes, we did. Here’s our Lunch spot.
