Xander’s birthday, Venice Canals, Topanga Canyon, Bergamot, Yas(!) and Dale, Ronald, and Valley Girls.
February 4
I’ve got three ads running now for l&h apartments. You can really feel it – people are being much more cautious when looking for housing, and seemingly less inclined to go for the upscale beach properties that l&h have on offer.
They are such attentive landlords, real professionals, not like me. What they do, it’s real work.
February 20
Mañana it’s Adiós mi familia y mis amigos… I’m off to Guatemala, maybe some Belize-Honduras-El Salvador… and then The Island of 1950’s Chevys and commie pink-o fun.
I hope you’ll check back for the travelogue and Write To Me!
(internet photo)
I went for a little hit of PhotoPhoto with Bob. Bob’s camera, that classic and beautiful piece of machinery, Bob enjoyed pointing out has, in total, six controls one of them being film-forward and another being film-rewind.
February 17
Hi sweetie! We had a good day today. The next time we’ll get to have our day again it’s going to be APRIL. Let’s write email!
February 16
On Monday nght I did Facebook Photos for three of the Monday Nighters. Oh yeah, eeeverybody’s doing it.
(Bummer about the shadows… it was night and we were sitting in Becky’s dining room with only the little baby onboard flash, but what a trio of cuties!)
Maryanne, Lourdes, Alicia
February 14
It’s my great-nephew Xander’s 7th birthday. Happy Birthday Xander! He’s the ninja on the far right. Oh these kids, so cute! Rome hadn’t arrived yet – there would eventually be eight decked-out kids tearing through the house.
My little sister’s boyfriend – my potential future brother-in-law Jeff (who has had this title for about THREE Years now), and my nephew Lucas who is my little sister’s oldest son and father of the Birthday Boy Xander.
Lucas did a great magic show for the kids. They were all a-gaga. And then when he was finished he asked them if they wanted to know how he did it. YES! they cried out. YES! cried out the adults.
And he showed them all the tricks because, as per Lucas, ‘there is no real magic.’
The table cleared of the crafts project in preparation for the Happy Birthday cake.
It’s my little sister Windy and her grandson, the Birthday Boy, Xander.
I got to have SO much fun with the King family of Lucas, Betsy, Xander, and Anya in Dusseldorf and in Barcelona.
February 11
Wow, Yas was in town from Japan and Dale joined us for lunch. We all worked together more than 30 years ago in my first computer job. Get this…we did all our work by writing our programs on big sheets of paper and then getting the keypunch operators (keypunch operators is pc – we actually called them The Girls) to type up our work on 2 feet tall stacks of punch cards. Then you had One Chance Per Day IF you were lucky, to run your program. One itty-bitty mistake like the keypunchers mistaking letter O for number 0 and you’ve lost a day. Probably two days because you can’t find the mistake. Yikes!
Yas LOVES to tell the story of finding me weeping, huddled in the corner of David’s office because ‘my program won’t work’. Oh he laughs about that!
Someday…I WILL DO This Thing OVER and make those guys NOT SO BLOTCHY!
Let’s do our shoes snuggled up with Mommy.
You can’t see the shoes…they are down there by their feet, house shoes coming off street shoes going on, or vicey-vercy I forget.
February 9
Happy Birthday to Our Twins! Ljubica and Marija…Hurray!!
front: me, Maxine, Maryanne, Lourdes, Anita (Marsha’s friend visiting from Up North), Alicia, Ljubica. back: Marija, Becky, Marsha, Ann
…”Ljubica and I would like to thank each one of you for a wonderful Monday Night birthday party. Alicia, starting with your table setting to your delicious dessert everything looked like you were expecting some dignitaries! It really feels great to be honored like that. We thank you, and appreciate it very much! We can’t forget our dear (secretary) Maryanne, for being so official and keeping a record, our state should hire her and we would not experience the budget crisis. Of course, we thank each one of you just for making it so special and so relaxed and wonderful. We thank you all for generous gifts, and we look forward to receiving beautiful pictures of us all, thank you, Penny. We are so lucky that we ladies are so talented, rich, and blessed! Looking forward to Alicia’s birthday at Becky’s.
Thank you all again! Ljubica and Marija”
February 8
Walking up to my little sister’s new home in Topanga Canyon. That’s her entrance along the side by the white bench. She’s renting a studio apartment from the guy who owns all what you’re seeing now and more…
…and here is her back entrance that opens onto the huge deck and looks down onto the creek.
Birds and frogs, and wind in the trees, and the gurggling creek mask the sounds of the nearby Topanga Canyon Blvd. Rustic…bucolic…idyllic even.
February 7
I went with Nancy and Sharon today to see the Crochet Coral Reef exhibit at Bergamot in the Track 16 gallery.
It was pretty cool and although I wasn’t really blown away, you know, it’s always fun to go, and all of Bergamot is free. I read that there were many many contributors (there aren’t any signs to tell who did what) and that as the exhibit moves around from gallery to gallery it grows, just like a healthy coral reef does.
The jelly fish were in a case with jeweled coral and shiny creature-y things. I enjoyed them.
There is another exhibit at Bergamot, ‘across the way’ from Track 16 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art that is showing Elias Sime’s Eye of the Needle, Eye of the Heart and I think it’s well worth going out of your way to experience (no photos allowed). I could leave the goats behind, but the works on the walls make you stand there and look. The artist is Ethiopian and reading the brochure is a very interesting mini-lesson in modern Ethiopian history. It’s running until April 18 so you’ve got plenty of time.
February 5
Here’s a tourist map of Guatemala with all the hot spots noted. I don’t know how much I’m going to be able to visit and also devote the weekdays to study. We’ll see. Here’s my so-far list of highlights, a list I am sure will grow as I learn more.
Antigua, colonial capital and UNESCO World Heritage city center. I’m going here first.
Tikal (National Park), once the urban center of the Maya world.
Quetzaltenango (known as Xela pronounced shay-la), a very popular study-spot and central for touring the highlands.
Lake Atitlan, ‘astonishingly beautiful’ lake surrounded by glorious volcanoes.
Then I’m thinking of a bus tour to see the capitals of Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador…but that is wildly optimistic. And then…C.u.b.a!
February 3
Rome and I were out for our walk and this woman was walking toward us on the sidewalk. Rome stopped in her tracks, her wide, googly eyes following the approaching woman.
‘HI!’ Rome called out. ‘HI!’ the woman replied.
As we passed each other Rome turned to tell me ‘Granny she is the prettiest girl in the whole wide world.’
So of course I hurried after the woman to tell her what Rome had said and to ask if we could take a picture together. ‘Of Course!’ said the prettiest woman in the whole wide world.
Our regular route is starting to bloom up which gives us new flowers to name.
I’m feeling pretty sunny myself. First I am Knocking On Wood. All the big expensive project that have been weighing on me …it’s all about over and I’m near ready for my trip. The Car (oops more to do-still no a/c); Eye exam and Glasses (I ‘see’ there’s a bummer in my future…); The Front Door (what a KaChing of a nightmare that’s been); My Tooth (a small cut, two stiches, KaCHING, and done); Inoculations (it costs a Lot to protect yourself from dread disease); Taxes(!) (which I always want to pay more of…).
Phewww. My homestay in Guatemala costs $85 per Week for your own room in a nice house, with 3 meals a day provided. I’m looking forward to that!
