’07 February

February 21

I’m leaving tomorrow – Atlanta-Savannah-Charleston-Virginia-Washington DC. Stay tuned!

(internet pic)

February 18

What have I been doing since Christmas? Here It IS! 1,000 Origami Paper Cranes. Wow. Wow-ee Wow.

I made a ‘production’ schedule back then in December and was ticking along no problem and then all of a sudden, there were three days left and Problemo! a glitch with the stringing! Thanks to all of you dear friends and family who pitched in to help me at the end. A project finished on time and on budget. Just the way we like ’em.

(angela took the photo)
(senbatsuru senbazuru 1000 Cranes One Thousand Cranes)

It’s for Cynthia – her 29th Happy Birthday present. Happy Happy Birthday sweet Cynth!

(angela took the photo)
(senbatsuru senbazuru 1000 Cranes One Thousand Cranes)

These kanji say sen-ba-zuru which means 1,000 Cranes. Here’s the card:

‘From the ‘olden days’ in Japan legend held that the person who folded 1,000 Cranes so pleased the gods that the folder would be granted a wish.

In recent times displays of 1,000 Cranes have come to symbolize a desire for peace. The Peace Memorials in Japan are covered in these bundles and those who fold them and those who look upon them are meant to feel this desire for peace.

So my dearly beloved daughter, I get a wish; I wish you peace.’

Then I said ‘with 1,000 hugs and 1,000 kisses and All my love.’ Sooo Sooo MUCH fun.

(senbatsuru senbazuru 1000 Cranes One Thousand Cranes)

At my home-factory here it is about 3/4 done. If you ever embark on such an adventure please be sure and let me know so I can share my story. I surely could have used some tips before starting!

Yea, here’s another shot this one from Angela’s website. Awww.

(angela took the photo)

February 15

Wow, I’ve seen ’em all. My vote goes to Little Miss Sunshine. There is not one thing I would change. For months now many scenes from that movie just burbble up in my mind and make me smile.

I don’t know what to change about The Queen – The Queen and Tony Blair were Hot and actually everything about it was well done, but it didn’t make my heart beat fast enough to overtake LMSunshine. Iwo Jima was also very good but a little too obviously manipulative for me. And to my taste The Departed and Babel, although both were pretty good, were still not all that memorable.

(internet pic)

February 14

Telephone’s ringing…it’s Rome’s friend Zoe. Zoe made a Valentine for Rome. Angela made a Valentine for me!

Rome has taken up the exact pacing motion one makes when talking on a cell phone in the house. She makes little chatting noises while she paces. She doesn’t need the phone to do this. She does the same thing holding her hand in this position even without the phone.

‘Oh goodie oh goodie I reeeally reeeally like Granny’s camera!’

Yet again another Getty shot. Darryl said he liked this one so here it is. Since we were leaving right at closing time the tram station was packed so we walked down. Good and good for you.

Sorry ladies. How foolish to take one shot and hope for the best. I don’t have other tries with open eyes to paste into this picture.

Happy Birthday Marija and Ljubica!

February 11

I buzzed up to the Getty for an hour this evening with NA. The main stairs from the tram now have a guard on duty because of this sculpture. Check her out. She is balanced entirely on her hip and she’s doing really really hard leg lifts.

We went for the icon exhibit which was well worth seeing despite the universal theme of Tortured Saints.

…Just wander around for a while and then go home. Such a treat.

February 10

In honor of the twin’s birthday Marsha and I took them to everyone’s #1 favorite restaurant out in the old neighborhood – Golden Hunan. We all just looove to meet for lunch at Golden Hunan. We always wanted to be Ladies Who Lunch.

And you girls, so pretty, so young. Pretty young? Or, as Marija’s mother-in-law used to say to Marija, ‘you are such a pretty young woman.’ We’ve been laughing about this for years.

I had a lovely (and yummy) visit with Steven, Celina, and Gideon. Here’s Gideon and his pet bearded dragon lizard. Inevitably, these kids just keep getting bigger!

I always like to look at this picture of the Shutmans from 2004.

(Yesterday I saw Sharon, and Richard and Emilia had a party for Bob…no party pix though…)

February 8

Fun! Bobby Z is down in LA to go to the Grammys with a friend. This Foundation put on a pre-Grammy show at the Wilshire Ebell to highlight themselves and their projects. I got to go and it was a kick.

Marty Stuart did the MC chores and wowza-yowza did he hit it with this mandolin. Smokin’.

LeAnn Rimes. She sang a really nice version of Crazy.

Over and over throughout the program they would drop a screen and play old footage from The Grand Ol’ Opry promoting the preservation projects of The Grammy Foundation.

This bit got hysterical cat-calls and hooting from the audience. After a long and stuttered speech highlighting the importance of character, our Mr Nixon played a number on the piano. And the crowd went wild.

Wow, Porter Wagoner! Check out The Suit. Phew. He was guided onto the stage by lovely young women, held this guitar without playing a note, and quietly and expressively spoke a song. It was very touching.

Too bad for the photos, they only lit him in blue.

Joe Nichols. He sang in a classic Country and Western style while wearing that Mr Darcy outfit. I liked it.

Then there was the one misstep of the show – a trio – Deana Carter was not up to singing with Brian McKnight, who was Excellent, and Kenny Loggins was ok too, only making Deana Carter’s participation all the more unfortunate.

You know him. Charlie Pride. I saw Charlie Pride when we were both young and here he is, still singing his hits from a generation (or two?) ago for a new adoring crowd.

Terrence Howard (of 2005’s Crash and Hustle & Flow, both of which, btw, I think are great movies) did the introduction and told about their new project to make a Charlie Pride bio-pic in which Terrence will play Charlie. I’ll see that.

This guy. Hmmm. His name is Shooter Jennings and the band calls itself the .357s. You will want to note the tattoo on his forearm.

Shooter is the son of Waylon Jennings and according to Richard, Shooter is his given name. That is crazy man. I couldn’t think of a single positive reason to call a kid Shooter. OK, when a guy is hot at the craps table you might call him a shooter (as in ‘we got us a shooter here’), but still.

From what I could tell they were playing your standard 4-man rock band riffs with screaming guitars and unintelligible lyrics. He calls himself a country artist so that’s it.

Here’s a comment from Richard: ‘The song Shooter did was actually a famous hit of his dad, Lonesome, Onry and Mean. For me it was easy to make out the lyrics but I know the original very well.’ A truism: the more you know, the better.

From the left Richard beside whom I got to sit and hear about what I was seeing since he knows all things music; Bob’s friend who introduced him to Desda; Bob; Bob’s friend who has the Grammy connection.

Thanks gang!

February 7

I took a picture of my own toes because they looked so disgustingly ratty, dried out and chipped and basically it was a disturbing sight. I thought it was funny. But it was not funny. It was yucky.

This kitty’s toes on the other hand, are faabulous.

(internet pic. ps I did not do that lousy job with the blurring.)

February 6

Hartley bought one of these gargantuan displays of orchids at costco for, according to Lona, the women in his life. They cost 20 bucks each and you can hardly buy one small bundle of cut flowers for 20 bucks. He bought about 10 of them.

What this brings to mind is that when I get back from New Zealand in May I’m going to try and put some attention to the decor in my 280 square feet. It seems if my ‘space’ is clean enough, I’m happy enough.

But these orchids look nice, and I’m still using an old airline blanket for a cover on my couch-bed. That’s pretty lame. I don’t seem to mind at all that the windows have no shades. All the power cords bug though. One big Obviously is that it could easily enough be a lot nicer.

I’ll think about that later, when I get back.

February 5

This was my chance to offer the kids a Bon Voyage as they were leaving today to visit Betsy’s sister and family in Pasadena.

The Texas crew sent these hats. Yee haw. Click here for the holiday picture of Travis, Lainee, and sweet Cali May.

Windy is going to miss her grandbabies sooo much!

February 4

Superbowl Sunday!

The Kings and etc went to Medieval Times. Xander’s birthday is coming up and he’s just wild for knghts in shining armor. But I’d been there before and knew what to expect…

So instead I went to Tom and Marsha’s for a nice hit of Superbowl Sunday.

Beer. Oh yeah. The cats are a bonus.

And Tom made us a bbq dinner of meat meant for the enthusiasms of bashing heads and playing dirty in the rain.

February 3

Angela got a new camera and she’s back to family photos. Hurray! Lucky me!

We had a picnic in Douglas Park with the King Family, D,A,&K, L&H, and me and Windy. Too bad about the nasty chain link fence around all the duck ponds.

These kids and their daddys Lucas and Darryl are sooo cute! Rome in front, Xander standing, and Anya with her daddy.

For an oldie but goodie, click here to see the cousins and their gran’ma.

ak.

Here’s one from yesterday. Anya!

February 2

Lucas and Betsy and Xander and Anya are Here! They arrived from Germany yesterday and they are all very very tired.

WE are all so glad to see them and they are mighty dang happy to be here too. Where they live in Dusseldorf it has been gray and Freeeeezing Cold for a long time now. Today they turned they faces to the sun, like a flower in the window. ‘Ahhh’, they sigh.

Over the last couple days I saw an interesting double feature on dvd, on my computer. Two NASCAR movies! Whaaa?

And they are the Same Movie. Really, all oozing family values and all, but I think Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, with Will Farrell, John C Reilly, and a funny turn by Sasha Baron Cohen, does it better, and I think it is way more fun to watch than Cars.

(internet pix)

February 1

Welcome February! I did my Japanese lesson this week by eating lunch. Cool, no? Sharon and her friend Satomi came too. We went to the new noodle joint in the Mitsuwa Market on Centinella. YUM!

Then we did a little shopping and I practiced some of my new vocabulary. I had previously copied off a very long list of what was supposed to be sushi-bar terms from the internet. For the last few weeks Hana has been patiently going through it with me. Whoo, sooo many words and sooo many interesting stories.