’13 February

February 28

Sharon and I went for a walk around the Silver Lake Reservoir. It’s nice to see but this fence totally separates the path from the water and it’s mostly a path along big streets where the sidewalk would be except…

…a short distance here, and a section of very nice lawn for lounging.

Then we went to a hipster joint in Silver Lake called Berlin Currywurst with black and white pictures of Berlin over all the walls and a dressed-up version of the well-known Berlin street food, currywurst.

February 27

Les is in town for a couple of weeks and today we walked from the place he’s staying on Comstock up to…

…the Fowler at UCLA. And back. Good job, us.

February 26

I didn’t take any pictures today but here are two from Darryl and Angela. We’ve got Lilly’s Paci Fairy Doll strapped into her car seat, and Lilly enjoying lunch at her daddy’s office.

dj/ak

Cutest kid on tv today .. Timothy Olyphant, on Justified. The show is bloody and violent but that Timothy Olyphant, as I have heard said, a tall cool drink of water.

February 24

Fun morning talking about Remembrance of Things Past (now more frequently called In Search of Lost Time). It’s a Meet-Up, and I’m very hopeful of getting through the seven volumes. The schedule is to read 80-100 pages every two weeks. It took the last group of readers about 18 months to finish.

Then Sharon hosted us for an Oscar Party. We enjoyed ourselves plenty! (My favorite part was Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger.)

February 23

Happy Birthday Dear Gary .. Fire in the Hole!

…Naples Island, since Sharon had never been here. It’s lovely not just during the season of extraordinary Christmas lights and the boat parade.

Interestingly both this development and the Venice Canals area were originally begun in the early 1900s, Naples following in the model of the Venice Canals but apparently Naples went for bigger-is-better.

February 21

Due to a series of circumstances I watched the kids tonight and this turned out to be the very night Lilly announced she wanted to give her pacifiers to the Paci Fairy who takes them for babies who need a paci and leaves a special gift.

So we bagged up the pacifiers, left them on the porch as Lilly instructed, had a couple of extra talks at bedtime, Rome was so sweet and helpful, and that was it. Lilly slept all night and the Paci Fairy Did Come! She left this amazing doll which Lilly found on the porch in the morning.

Angela sent the morning picture. You go Big Girl Lilly!

(Never heard of the Paci Fairy? Me either. It looks like she came on the scene around 2008 coincident with the publication of a book called The Paci Fairy describing this process.)

February 20

Ken and I went today to see the Endeavor at the California Science Center. The Center itself is totally cool, but of course with many bus loads of school kids buzzing around like bees in a hive.

There was a film of the movement of the shuttle through the streets of LA that was so much fun to watch we watched it twice.

That shot in the lower right is what I got taking a picture of the movie and the rest are from the internet. I couldn’t find an actual photo of that scene driving down the residential neighborhood.

Helloooo. It was great fun. One of the guides was available and she stayed with us for a while sharing so many interesting stories that either we never knew or had forgotten.

This is a pano of two pictures – my camera couldn’t actually get it nose to tail.

The we enjoyed a delightful late afternoon-early evening of Happy Hour Hopping. First Shutters, then Casa del Mar, then Enterprise Fish with a stop-off at the Viceroy because Ken had never seen it.

February 19

Fun, lunch in the shape of one’s own initials.

February 17

I went out for a nice Sunday Brunch at the Shangri La with Anya this morning, and then we strolled to the pier and back, just like a Sunday Brunch outing should be.

The Stop Wars display was on today but we didn’t go down to read the signs.

Then I went over to Elaina’s in Burbank and whooo, there are some serious collections collecting here. This is a picture of a small part of two of them, both Elana’s husband’s doing. And there are more, oh many more.

(Too bad about the fuzzy focus but the flash shot was not as much fun…)

Liz introduced me to Elaina, we’ve had a few walks all together, and today we did a Big walk…

…this far up, with a view to Glendale.

Our destination was Anil’s Garden. It really wasn’t too hard since after all I did do it.

It’s in Griffith Park and you can easily leave your car near the merry-go-round or the golf course driving range. There were many benches and picnic tables scattered through a wild and beautiful garden. Thank you ladies for coming out.

February 16

Windy came over for dinner and then we went to see Becky (on the left) at the Presbyterian church in Westwood where a group was putting on Shakespeare for charity.

They were doing Two Gentlemen of Verona and many times we laughed out loud. Good job!

February 15

I kicked in $14.95 to an online site for some Spanish lessons, to see just how little I remembered and with hope of getting enough back for some fun in Cuba if this trip materializes.

The problem is that the program is on The Internet and once on The Internet I continually find myself toggling out of study mode and into ‘I wonder what’s on TV?’ or ‘I wonder if there’s any news?’ or ‘I wonder if they’ve updated Cats With Captions?’ or ‘Netflix Break!’ mode.

We (meaning Alex and Carol) are at 70%. I’ll ask them again in the first week of March if ‘we’ are moving closer to Hola! Cubanos.

February 14

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, from Palisades Park looking down onto the beach in…

…Santa Monica. There she stands, our Saint, at the start of Wilshire Blvd. in all her saintly welcome.

I looked up the story of Saint Monica hoping for something good but no, I’m afraid she’s not a very interesting saint. This sculpture is by Eugene Morahan, installed here in 1934.

Ahh, another great day in Our Town. Friends, film, food, Fun .. in the Sun Party just like it says on the sign.

February 12

Today’s fancy treat (and we do love to make up fancy treats) – a wheat thin, then some hummus, and topped with a colorful tomato. Yum!

February 11

We had a triple birthday festivity tonight. Wow. Everyone gives everyone a card and that means 27 cards were exchanged and except for an on-purpose matching set (making 30 total), all 27 cards were different.

We have been doing this for years and we (as far as I can remember) never have duplicates. It’s plain old weird since everyone shops at the same stores and the theme of the cards are always the same = ‘yes, you are old .. and hot‘.

Happy Birthday Ladies!

February 10

Here we are at the Self-Realization Center and that’s Nancy getting to know a new phone that might or might not be hers since she’s borrowing it off her son-in-law, and that’s her picture in the inset.

p/na

The stroll around the Lake Shrine at the Self-Realization Center .. peaceful, meditative, beautiful.

One of the lake swans chowing down.

In the evening it was time to celebrate Ken’s Birthday. Happy Birthday! We’re late on the date, waiting for Ken to rid himself of his sling and be on the mend from his rotator cuff surgery. Lookin’ good Ken!

Bill, me, Ken

February 9

Muriel! She had another showing at her studio and I went with David and his friend Carol followed by tea at a delightful soiree at David’s. JoAnn was tied up with another commitment. And we enjoyed ourselves entirely.

I also did a set of photos for one of my older sister’s units. Oh no, she has the FLU! She does get flu shots most years but just hadn’t got around to it this year. That’s not going to happen again.

February 7

Out for a stroll around the Ballona Creek Wetlands area adjacent to the Marina del Rey Harbor…

…that leads onto the beach. This was a swell change of pace from the track at Pepperdine.

More, despite not being at 100% due to an allergy attack. I can’t decide if I should list this one in the list of episodes since I’ve not yet (Cross Your Fingers!) dropped below 60%.

I saw Bob to start on my transition to TurboTax which I’m hopeful will work out, and as of the 8th am well along. Finally finally the entire to-do list for the small cottage is Done requiring a few visits by Edgar and multiple trips to the Busy Bee. Bill came by for dinner and we got ourselves all caught up on our stories.

February 5

At Rome’s school with Rome and Lilly and a few of their friends standing in the states they chose. We had our regular day meaning nothing but fun…

Avery, Taylor, Lilly, Rome, Finley

…and an early bath so we’d have time for Rome to make everyone her own recipe that she created. You get a scoop of ice cream, then top it with vanilla and banana smiley face cookies and a sprinkle of cinnamon. She made me one perfect bite. Good job Rome!

February 4

Ken is doing very well with his shoulder but as of Monday he wasn’t yet driving so we went out for a little of this and that and topped off our day at the movies.

The picture is of a small piece of the mural surrounding the interior of The Yard House, the 42nd opening in the chain. Their specialty is a wall of designer draft beers you can drink by the yard.

We saw The Impossible, which Ken reports is his favorite picture of 2012. I thought it was very good too although I did get distracted by the nearly impossible-to-believe way things turned out, and not that they turned out as they did but the way it happened, hence the title.

February 3

We went to see the Oscar nominated Live Action and Animated Shorts. Four hours at the movies, a double feature like in the way-back olden days.

Nancy, Nancy’s friend Michele, Sharon

February 2

It’s Mike’s birthday tomorrow so here’s a picture of Mike, Kieran, and Cynthia from their Thanksgiving in Colorado. Hi sweet ones! Happy Birthday Mike!

kk.

I stayed in today because of feeling a little ‘Oh Noooo’ am I getting sick?! I’m SO hopeful that it will not develop into one of ‘those’ incidents. SO hopeful.

February 1

Sharon and I have been thinking for weeks that after our walk on the track at Pepperdine we should have a stop-by at the Getty Villa but what with one thing and another – we pick a day when they’re closed, we pick a day when there are no tickets, or it rains, or something else comes up, we are just now making it.

You can check out my Getty Villa collection here.

Yikes, this thing is great. You know in the opening entryway they have always had a water feature that collects rain but today the whole area was covered by this platform and amazing sculpture. It was so unexpected I made a little gasp.

When we first went upstairs we turned one way instead of the other and I freaked out a little. Oh no! Where is she! So many of these treasures are leaving the Getty that it’s easy to think any one of your favorites might be gone on your next visit.