’12 November

November 29

No pictures of the girls from yesterday but I should say that Lilly is still entirely delighted with her pee-pee and poo-poo in the potty parades and her chart is full of stickers.

I went to LACMA with Nancy and Sharon to catch the new offerings. Caravaggio .. a matter of taste but still all these important pictures are here for you to look at as well as many works by the artists Caravaggio influenced. It’s one of the blockbuster shows for which you have the privilege of paying twenty bucks to enjoy.

In the Resnick Pavilion, leading into the Caravaggio show is another of the modern installations that so tickle my fancy.

This is a Walter De Maria work first exhibited in 1992 in Zurich.

That’s Nancy and Sharon taking in the angles.

These objects have 5, 7, and 9 sides. They are all painted the same color of white white. Where they are situated in the Pavilion light falls from the full glass walls on both ends and from the open ceiling causing all the facets to be constantly changing colors. I thought it was awesome.

Then we went over to see the HUGE Stanley Kubrick exhibit. It was like walking through the looking glass into a life-sized scrapbook of Stanley Kubrick’s mind.

Just as an example there are cases and cases displaying old typewritten script pages and the handwritten notes marking changes and emphasis that really are gripping. There’s video playing everywhere, costumes, stills around the set, technical equipment .. like Nancy said, it makes you want to see all the movies all over again.

(Fear and Desire (1953), Killer’s Kiss (1955), The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Uncredited work on One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Napoleon..an unrealized film, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Work on A. I. Artificial Intelligence)

November 25

Marsha always wanted a driveway that would hold a lot of cars and here they are, a lot of Monday Night cars and there’s one inside the garage too – Marsha’s new treasure, a brand spanking new shiny-&** Camaro.

November 24

I met Lori, who’s known Nancy for years and is a long-time friend of Muriel and Muriel’s sister, at Muriel’s open house. Lori has moved back to Santa Monica from a long relocation in Idyllwild, so I said hey, let’s go for a walk, and we did. Lori lives on 5th off Ocean Park so it’s an easy stroll to the beach.

And since Windy also lives off Ocean Park I stopped off there on the way home and we said to each other hmmm, isn’t this just the day for a foot massage, which, since every day is such a day, we treated ourselves to the luxury.

Later I watched the kids so D&A could have a Date Night. What a nice day for ME!

November 23

The day after Thanksgiving .. heck yeah, time for another Thanksgiving Feast thanks to Celina and Steve.

Squash and apple soup, persimmon salad, amazing sautéed green beans, baked Brussels sprouts, baked yams, Turkey and Dressing and Gravy, and two kinds of pie all personally made, down to the bread for the bread crumbs on the green beans, by our Celina.

Ronald came to eat too, and we were all Happy.

November 22

What an exciting day! Lilly did a pee-pee in the potty! Pee-pee in the pot-ty. We did a pee-pee in the potty parade and Lilly got the first star on her pee-pee in the potty chart. Oh happy day.

Eight people sitting comfortably around the table ready to Chow Down.

Dev, Liz, Rome, Darryl, Angela, Lilly, Gary.

Our Thanksgiving Feast!

Stuffed acorn squash, baked beets, mushroom casserole, mashed potatoes, orange and fennel salad, carrots and parsnips with onion flakes (not done yet)…

ak.

…wild rice salad, Brussels sprout salad, and for dessert pumpkin cupcakes, apple crisp, and ice cream.

ak.

Oh yeah.

Thanks Angela for the food shots AND the lovely day.

ak.

(Note for next year – for a full oven, nuke each half separately for 5 minutes, bake at 350 covered for 1 hour, uncovered for 30 minutes, sit covered 15-30 minutes.)

November 20

Pictures of Hilda and Merlyn at Roy’s in Oahu and a surfer at the mighty North Shore, both from Merlyn.

We had a delightful catch-me-up lunch at the oh-so-trendy Gjelina. Yes, Trendy = Noisy, but we lucked out with a table in the back patio in the corner and enjoyed ourselves entirely.

mc.

November 19

Cynthia, Mike, and Kieran in Minnesota, out for Mike and Kieran’s first ski trip. Mike writes that by the end of the day Kieran was racing ahead full speed down the hill. You go!

mh, cc.

November 18

Angela sent this picture. It’s Lilly calling me on ‘her phone’. Apparently we had a long ‘conversation’ full of great enthusiasm and expressiveness on Lilly’s part. Oh yeah.

I’m better. Hurray! I went to bed Thursday afternoon and got up Sunday mid-morning. Maybe that’s the trick, just stay in bed, to a quicker recovery since, although not 100%, I’m at a solid 85.

ak.

November 16

I’m sick. I was sick yesterday and I assume I’ll be sick tomorrow. Same Old Same Old! Hacking cough, sore throat, running nose. Always the SAME. You’d Think there would be a cure.

An allergy update:
2012 June first in MN on into LA; November at home
2011 March in MN; November after W’s wedding
2010 February; June (both mild)
2009 December at home
2007 November during the fires
2006 March just back from Hawaii
2005 April; June; October; (now that was a bad year!)

November 14

What a couple of cutie pies. Lilly and Rome at the park.

November 13

Time to change out the ‘refrigerator door’. I take everything down, put it in a one quart baggie, and stack the baggies out in the garage.

From the top left: an origami crane that I always have some of around, a strip of DKA&L photos from 2011, a Levitated Potato from my Road Trip with Sharon, the charms from Istanbul-Jerusalem-Rome, crafts from Rome. Top right: another of the great flying pig cards from N Donald, a hula girl from my yearly trip to the land of Aloha, bills from my trips to Africa, China, and Vietnam, a gift from my host in Rome, one of my mother’s turtles, the chair I’m lusting after, the corsage from Cynthia’s wedding, the cranes that I can’t give up (I see they’ve been there since at least 2008).

Here are some more:
2011
2010
2009
2008

November 12

From some other day, a shot with my phone out the car window, looking toward downtown from the 405.

From Nancy, from the day at the art studios open house. It was SO extra cool to have the kids there. It’s true that adage about seeing things though a child’s eyes. I just love to hear them tell about what they are seeing.

November 11

Nancy rode the airport bus from Santa Barbara down to LAX where I picked her up and we spent a totally delightful day eating, not drinking, and making merry enjoying the open house at the art studios in Muriel’s building.

Nancy ran into many old friends including Lori who lives in Santa Monica.

Darryl, Angela, Rome, and Lilly came by too making it all extra special fun for me.

Rome wanted to understand about everything she saw and I suggested she could ask the artists ‘what were you thinking about when you made this?’ which she did and it generated some very interesting stories.

November 10

Dinner at Celina’s restaurant, Cooks County. Actually a feast at Celina’s restaurant. We had 8 of the first course and salad dishes, 2 sides, 5 mains, and 6 desserts. Earlier in the day Celina had made All the desserts and we had one of each. We had several selections of good wine to go with it all too. Oh lucky lucky us.

Steve, his brother Sam visiting from New York who treated us to this feast, me, Ronald, Gideon, Celina

November 9

I’ve been on a movie going extravaganza the last 10 days or so, all of them dang good. In order of how much I appreciated them: Argo, Lincoln, Flight.

November 7

Watching Lilly sleep. When Rome got home from school we made a nice picnic snack and when Lilly got up we walked over to the park around the corner. It was a fun day!

Their new dining room light, in Redondo Beach.

From their old neighborhood in Sherman Oaks Darryl’s commute was an unpredictable 1-2 hours each way and is now a reliable exact 14 minutes. Wow YAY is right.

November 5

I went down to Union Station to meet Liz who was coming in by MetroLink from La Puente.

This is the wing of the splendid Union Station left for private events and making movies.

Our plan was to walk walk walk. Here we are on our way to check out Grand Park…

…all the way to the top.

Kids enjoying the Grand Fountain.

We wandered around the whole Olvera Street part of town where we ate a lovely olé lunch…

…with just a few bits of Dia de Los Muertos still about.

Our last stop was a stroll through Old Chinatown, and then we walked back to the train station. Liz was wearing her pedometer and we logged over 15,000 steps. Good for us!

Later that night, part of Monday’s potluck dinner and what happens when everyone brings what they want. There were seven tonight and we had four salads. Three of the salads had avocado. No problem, yum actually.

November 3

Ben and Bonnie, foot massage converts.

I’ve been lusting after the chair on the right for ages. It is the most comfortable chair I have ever sat in but since you can only get it at Des$gn Within Reach (ha, whose reach would that be), it’s not mine yet.

Then I saw the one on the l$$ft and wanted it more. But I’ve never sat in it and now that they are side by side I can see why the one on the right is so comfortable – a little more upright but still low and not too deep.

One of these days…

November 2

I had dinner with Bill last night and lunch with Boban today. I’ve been Crystalized! Thanks guys, too much fun.

November 1

Susie and I went downtown to enjoy the recently opened Grand Park.

We bemoaned our losses of the bygone Olden Days .. and cheered our gain of the Grand Park. (Not an entirely fair trade but we take what we can get.)

The park is three terraced blocks long from the DWP building to the north-west (and behind me in the picture) down to City Hall and bordered on each side by government buildings.

The fountain is very grand indeed.

The Grand Park website’s map.

From the DWP looking south-east we find the Fountain Plaza, the Performance Lawn, the Community Terrace, the Event Lawn right in front of City Hall crying out to be occupied, lots of great landscaping but the grass not so much, picnic setups, and…

…the flag garden display of historic flags, opened on 9/11 2012. It was definately worth spending some time reading the plaques.

We walked past Disney Hall glowing more gold than its usual blue…

…to enjoy lunch at the Omni.

Then a roll down Angels Flight…

…to the Grand Central Market just for the fun of it.

On the way back to the car we passed back through Grand Park to enjoy an afternoon coffee and cookie break, where a small Dia de los Muertos display was on view.