’07 November

November 29

Sandy had her holiday art show today debuting her new series ‘Everyday Angels’ and they are lovely indeed. You go Sandy!

I went with Sharon and we met Nancy there. Nancy said she liked this picture.

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.

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!

November 23

Hi Rome! Sooo grown-up.

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.

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.

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.

Time to head back.

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.

More.

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 17

I got Ken to go with me to a salsa class. Oh we laughed all right.

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.

Then Darryl and Angela were off to the AFI Gala…

…and Rome and I are gonna have some f.u.n.

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.

We enjoyed a highlights tour.

And the gardens of course.

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!?

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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.

At the museum bookstore – Day of The Dead.

(Don’t miss this year’s Trick ‘R Treat!)

A particularly popular DotD figure. I don’t know her story but she is always one of the main characters along with the bride and groom.

Here’s one explanation from a children’s website:

‘…the star is the Elegant Lady, whom you can always recognize by her feathered hat. The word calavera means skull in Spanish, but is also the name of a lot of things relating to the dead, poems, drawings, candy skulls and more.

‘This famous calavera who happily lives among the Mexicans is called Catrina. You will always find her very elegantly dressed to go out with her great feathered hat. Her creator was draftsman, painter and engraver José Guadalupe Posada, who lived at the beginning of this century. Posada was a great illustrator of his people and his times. His work includes more than 930 illustrations that reflect the Mexico of the end of last century and the beginning of this one: political and cultural events, and the customs, traditions and feelings of his country… he was like a reporter of Mexico, but in drawings.

‘Posada drew our Catrina imitating the French-styled ladies of his era, that is to say, they imitated the fashions of France; they were known as Catrinas or dressed-up ladies, and their husbands as Catrinos. That is why he thought of using a skull as a figure we can play with, decorate, and even joke about.’

Here are the pelicans at the pier.

And more.

The fog bank didn’t lift all day. Then we went to a movie and then Dinner.

Next morning after a hearty Breakfast we stumbled onto a cute park near the Mission.

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.

More…

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.

More of that.

And more!

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.’