’07 August

August 12

You can click here for the big view of Sandy’s ART SHOW!

Here’s a Promenade dino from last month (when I bemoaned her neck rash) because…

August 30

Hana and Brigitte and I met at a trendy new-ish sushi joint in Culver City. Brigitte had been watching as the place got more and more dressed-up and more and more crowded, so it was time to go! Yum!

We compared calendars and will have another chance to get together…in NOVEMBER!

Then Brigitte took us touring to this neighborhood of commercial buildings in Culver City. There were a lot of cars disturbing the big shots. Maybe we’ll go back on a Sunday morning?

Here are excerpts from an article on the internet (source of all…http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0102/smi/index_b.html).

“…a line of idiosyncratic buildings–mostly radical reconfigurations of existing warehouses, but recently entirely new large-scale structures–has grown along a diagonal strip that cuts through the neighborhood.

“The buildings, which now number more than a dozen…are all designed by a single architect: Eric Moss.

“But even he would hesitate to claim authorship of the overall scheme. That credit goes to his clients, the husband-and-wife team of Frederick and Laurie Samitaur-Smith.

“In the mid-1980s the Smiths began searching for an architect who could understand their vision of a complex architecture mirroring the nonlinear mathematics of computer-chip design. They were turned down by every notable designer in town.

“Moss was a tenant in a building that Frederick was managing at the time. “One day Frederick went into this small space he’d rented to this unknown architect to get the rent check, and noticed his drawings on the wall and T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets on his desk,” Laurie says. “Let’s be frank–this was desperation time. He walked into a tenant’s office and thought, ‘Why not try it on this guy?’–because no one else was responding.”

“The Smiths aren’t finished by a long shot. “We will not stop expanding unless we have some cataclysm,” Laurie says. Their biggest project to date–a pair of 230-foot-tall high-rise towers that will house only twelve stories, each with 25-foot ceilings–was recently approved by the Los Angeles city council. “We don’t just have one building we’re working on with this architect–we have a whole neighborhood,” Laurie says. “Architects love to talk about all the great designs they did that will end up on a library shelf because nobody had the guts to build them. We’re defying that. We’re giving this particular architect the chance to build his wildest dreams.”

You can visit too. I think it’s off National Blvd? I’ll have to ask Brigitte. I didn’t drive. I didn’t pay attention!

August 29

Rock Me Baby!

Does Rome have a snack? Can xo be far behind?

August 28

Usually I schedule not more than 2 ‘things’ in a day. I’m retired and I like to take my time! But today I hardly had room in the calendar square to note all my doings!

First a nice long conversation with Elizabeth, then a nice long walk at the beach and a pancake breakfast with Sharon, then a lovely it’s-been-forever visit and lunch with Althea, then a nice long visit with Bob at his place…

…and then the occasional yet traditional evening snack plate that I bring over to Margaret’s next door from which we eat while we drink a bottle of her 2-buck-chuck.

I have to go to bed now!

August 26

That nasty big bad boy next door. Ok, so they are building a house and it’s noisy to build a house. I speak not one word of complaint over the howling saws and the sharp CrackCrackCrack of the hammers or the BEEPBEEP of the backing up trucks.

But I’ll tell you, those RADIOS Drive Me NUTS. Why I ask you, WHY do we have to have a blasting radio in every room? Tuned to various stations? WHY do I have to listen to that &*$%^!?!?! I’ll confess to anything just make it STOP…

Really, I mean, it’s not real torture, it’s just the radio (radioS Loud and AEEEEE) and I should mention that all staff meetings occur right here at my front door, LOUD Exclaiming, LOUD Laughing, LOUD LOUD.

If I can hear it, it’s TOO LOUD. Or so I believe. LORD-Y.

Sunday’s are this beautiful little mercy when no one is around. Ahhhh.

August 24

The fam has been under the weather all week but I went by for a few hours today anyway. Even in illness – so charming – blue-eyed babies!

(this/w: @S w/J; L-D; KofK; Sofa; L-jf; b-W; L-H)

August 23

Had a nice walk down to the beach with Bill. More goofing around with the pier Because It’s There.

Ahh, sunset. For real.

August 21

oH NOOOO, say it ISN’T soo! But if it’s too good to be true, it’s not going to last forever. And now MY CERAGEM is closing due to their Lease Expiring and Santa Monica rents Killing anything but the big chain stores. Is this a Big Fat Bummer or WHAT?!?!

This crew has been there, calm voiced and cheerfully helpful the whole time I’ve been going. Good luck guys!

August 20

From Travis and Lainee in Texas, it’s my sweet down south great-niece Cali May, y’all! Hi sweetie, enjoy the summer!

Windy told me this story: Cali and Lainee were at the doctor’s for Lainee’s blood test. Cali watched intently and with enthusiasm. Lainee said ‘Oh Cali, you did so well, maybe you’ll be a doctor when you grow up’ and Cali said ‘oh Mommmmy, Nooo, I’m going to be a Princess!’

t/Lb.

August 19

Steven and Celina and Gideon came out today and we met for lunch on the pier. They went for fun in the sun at the beach before we got together (no fun in the sun for me!).

I haven’t seen these memorial guys out in Santa Monica for ages – maybe since last summer. Of course there hasn’t been room for all the markers in years.

The flag draped coffins are for this week’s dead. Just our guys of course, and just the registered military, not the mercenaries or contractors or civilians.

Looks like you’re free to pick among major religions, you just can’t pick ‘none of the above’.

We all enjoyed the really little home-town aquarium under the pier. All the exhibits are from local waters and it’s put on by Heal The Bay.

There is a decent sized touching tank and plenty of Heal The Bay volunteers around to talk to the kids (and they’ll talk to you too!). It costs two bucks for adults and the kids are free. If you go, take a kid. You can watch them feed the sharks.

Then we topped off our outing with coffee and dessert at Broadway Deli. It was fun!

August 18

Burt and Charlene came out west for the day.

We wandered around the Farmer’s Market, Promenade, beach and pier and boardwalk. Summer weekend on an extra hot day – it doesn’t get more crowded that that.

(This picture shows 11 life guard stations!)

This is Burt’s shot – from the left: Charlene, me, and Burt making the funny despite the Fact that he, Burton Weinstein, will be SIXTY on his next birthday. But as we all know Burt will be making rabbit ears until the very day he can no longer form them with his cold dead hands.

The whole set-up was my idea (except for the rabbit ears of course), but Burt’s picture came out much better. That worked out! Then…

bw.

…we brought a late-lunch picnic to the polo field at Will Rogers. Instead of sitting in the sun on the slope by the cars we walked around and sat on the shady side at the tables by the caller’s stand. It’s not a private party over there. You are welcome!

This was Burt and Charlene’s first time and they were duly impressed by the thundering mass and the up-close experience.

Check out the inset and the horse’s back legs. Yikes. He doesn’t fall! Within one or two strides he’s uncrossed and full speed ahead.

Another one of Burt’s. He named this photo his Cute Chicks shot, which is true, we are cute chicks.

bw.

The old gift shop-museum-film center is still not re-opened but at least now they’ve got the original video running in a back room behind the actual house. We enjoyed watching it.

Our step count for the outing? 14,380! Pretty dang good.

August 16

A bit of a bummer – the pictures from yesterday are g.o.n.e. gone. I can feel the cloud of carelessness hanging over my head. And you just Know those Rome shots were too cute for words.

This is the motel next door to the Cafe Brazil across the street from Roger and Sandy. I went to Cafe Brazil with Hana who had not before been to such a place so we had a Lot of fun!

August 14

Many of my grapes are ready! And yummy they are.

You can pull off the big dark ones, suck out the juice and the sweet fruit, and spit out the seeds and the skins, like the squirrels and birds are doing like crazy.

…so much so that the patio under the arbor is about ankle deep in grape debris.

As soon as that *%^$ construction next door is finished I’ll think about cleaning up the place…

August 13

I don’t have anything for today so I’m swiping another pic from icanhascheezburger. There are some themes that you look forward to once you’ve become a fan. Like the ‘invisible’ series, and the ‘bucket’ series is pretty dang fun too.

I fear my passion for icanhascheezburger, perhaps like all foolish passions, will be fading soon, but not yet! I am a fickle fan. Like now I look at cuteoverload not so often.

(icanhascheezburger)

August 8

First, we built a taaaall tower, soooo taaaall that it was taller than Rome. She loved to say ‘Taaall TAOWeeer’. I didn’t make that The Joker grin with photoshop, no, it comes straight from my face.

ak.

Lunch time. YUM! DeLicious!!

It’s getting ready for bed time after bath time and a little play time. Rome wanted me to take a picture of her baby.

(ps It’s scary to D&A when I do Rome’s hair. It drys all fluffy and cute, ok, but in the mean time they think it makes her look like some demon seed. I’ll have to stop with the combing straight back thing…)

August 6

Here’s another pitch for Ceragem to go along with more pix at Ceragem (go to the end of the chapter).

It’s gooood. Had I more than one room in my house(!) I wonder if I might not consider buying one. But as it is, I can go almost anytime for Free. Another reason I feel so good after a session is that I make myself walk down there. No driving to the Ceragem!

(Brigitte-PShop; Lona-CCard; MNPotluck)

August 4

A day of adventure with Cynthia. This stop at the Crystal Cathedral was toward the end of our agenda, more pics after the rest of the day.

At the old El Toro Marine Base the Orange County Great Park has a free balloon ride! We went out there and got in line.

Here’s a bit off their website:

“The Department of the Navy sold the property on February 16, 2005 to the winning bidder, Lennar Corporation, for $649 million. As a condition of the sale of the property, Lennar Corporation signed a Development Agreement that deeded 1,347 acres to the City of Irvine for the Orange County Great Park and agreed to pay an additional $200 million for future development and maintenance of the Park.”

And the plan: “The Orange County Great Park Corporation took action today that will create the largest interconnected open space system in the country. The Board approved a $13,460,854 increase in this year’s budget to move forward the design and construction of the Wildlife Corridor.”

The balloon ride is the only thing open. At the sign-up tent they have big hanging murals of how it’s going to look. It doesn’t look anything like that now!

It’s really worth the visit though, for a good before/after perspective.

We were called out of the tent to get in line under the umbrellas. One more group and it would be our turn! But NOOoo the wind kicked in and they grounded the balloon for maybe 20 minutes, maybe all day, and since we had places to go and things to do, we took a Wind Check and now can go to the front of the line whenever we get a chance to go back.

This is the welcoming floor at the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

I rented Oliver Stone’s Nixon before going which was fun since I got an immediate contrast between friend and foe. I-was-there for most of the story…

…and my guess is the truth-scale tilts toward the Oliver Stone view of things.

The Crystal Cathedral. I did the one on the left and Cynthia did the one on the right.

It is a pretty GaGa place to visit. There is a complex of buildings, a regular Campus of buildings. While we were there three different weddings were happening…

cc.

…including receptions. Cynthia took this one too. Cool! The building could have been picked up from the Getty and for a good reason.

Here’s a quote: “Richard Meier designed the $40-million International Center for Possibility Thinking, a building that took 17 years to complete, in part, because of a neighbor who demanded, and got, $1 million for a tract house that stood in the minister’s way.”

cc.

It is dang spectacular inside the Crystal Cathedral. This shot is distort-o-rama and, not surprisingly, doesn’t really give the full effect.

Someone was playing the organ and it was faaabulous. And check out that stadium worthy jumbo-tron. I also heard that during services HUGE panels open up to reveal HUGE fountains. This place was built to impress!

Then we went to see Ratatouille and then we enjoyed the last of many many food stops. Thanks Cynth! It was FUN!

August 3

I had a great 16,000 step day. Good thing too considering the beach food I picked up along the way.

‘Hey Dad, let’s go, hit it.’

Cool shirt. The Wave.

August 1

I was turning to take a picture of the parking lot over on the right, but Wait, Rome racing into view, ‘Me TOO!’

Check out the expression on that dog’s face. He’s trying for a doggie-mind-meld, ‘dropit dropit dropit…’

Hi cutie pie!

From before, not quite full, but b.i.g.

…here’s her boyfriend lookin’ good.

This pair makes their home outside the Barnes and Noble. The really big guys are in the center just north of Santa Monica Blvd, and then the chunky pair live at the end by Broadway Deli and the mall. My dinos.