Daily Life 2014

We had cupcakes with black frosting for dessert. YUM!

October 31

I went to Lilly’s school for the Halloween Parade this morning while Angela went to Rome’s school. I’ll get some pictures from Angela on Tuesday.

But for now: Lilly’s Halloween Parade!

Some/most of Lilly’s class and two of the three teachers who handle the morning and afternoon T-K program for kids a few months too young to have started kindergarten.

That’s Lilly in the middle and Rock and Paper. I’ll bet you can guess the costume of the third teacher.

Cool costumes.

Here they are parading – Paper and Rock and…

…Scissors!

And Lilly in prime Captain America form.

I know cute-as-pie Roxi on the left pretty well because she’s been over for play dates and her mom drops Lilly off from school on Wednesdays.

(Get the name of the girl in the middle.)

They combined the morning and afternoon classes for this event and the room parents did a singular job of putting on a Halloween party.

We had Games! and…

Angela made it over while craft time was still happening…

…sooo many crafts!

…and took this picture of me with Roxi’s cute-as-pie grandma. Whenever I see Roxi she always wants me to know that her grandma is coming over to her house too!

ak.

Lilly will surely tell me the names of all her classmates on Tuesday.

Roxi, Lilly, Roxy V, Carlie, Sandra, Sofie, Bella, Paloma, Calvin, Ronnie, Vanessa; Sofia S, Aris, ZK, Sofia M, Alex, Lulu, Valentina, Giana, Deacon, Jacob, Chase, Lucas, Kieran, Mrs Baumbeck.

(We first were doing Tuesdays and then we switched to Wednesdays and now we’re going back to Tuesdays…in case anyone is keeping track…)

Check out the eyeballs and spider on that palm, and the baby on the skeleton’s lap. Oh yeah.

Dinner! Good Job Angela!

I wanted to show the trick-or-treat loot and the picture ended up mighty distor-o and flash-blast. Sorry guys.

…and from the back, my Twin Palms!

…and looking up I saw this…

October 30

I saw color gleaming in my window this evening so I went outside and noticed my neighbor’s lantana shining in the setting sun…

October 25-29

Sequoia! Ahhhh!!

You can click here if you want to see the story from this trip to Sequoia and this link will take you to a selected collection from many trips to Sequoia.

October 22

Very (Very) newly-retired Elizabeth is visiting from Boston and we had a great Happy Hour catch-up out here on the patio at Napa Valley Grille. Les was too busy working on his presentation for tomorrow so it was Girls Night Out.

October 21

Our favorite part of today was playing lego. They have buckets and buckets of lego pieces representing a dozen or so kits.

The percentage of pink lego pieces is about equal to all the other colors because that’s the way they make it for the kits that appeal to the girls.

…some lights from the crowd.

We were talking about black and white photography and I was thinking how I never see in b&w anymore even though I had done b&w for oh so many years.

This is the type though, a new one, like the ones from the way back.

More. Nice colors here.

The garden closed at 5 and we went nearby for a surprisingly delicious Thai dinner including a sigh-worthy dish of young coconut.

We had 6:45 tickets to go back to Desconso to enjoy…

October 19

Another photo-photo outing with Lill, this time to the Descanso Gardens in Glendale.

We only had an hour inside the garden and we went for a tromp through the underbrush because a lot of the garden was closed for the reason you will see below and because Lill had spotted a deer so we thought to go on a short safari.

Check out that little opening in the middle of this picture…

…deer! That was fun!

It was a huge display of real carved pumpkins and various other carved squashes and gourds too I think.

The solar system.

There was a sequence with super heroes, another with characters from video games, another with people who had died this year, another with scenes from horror movies, more, more, but my favorite was a gigantic display of all The Kardashians, all of them including Kanye West. That was scary.

They had a few displays with skeletons and a favorite with the kids – dinosaurs.

I’m up to 10 pictures now so I’ll stop. No, I need to choose one more for a closer…how about…

…Rise of the Jack O’ Lanterns. That’s Lill.

October 17

Sharon and I had a long walk around the Palisades and enjoyed the Halloween decorations already filling the streets.

They were all quite awe/gruesome.

Then I had a nice visit with Windy for the first time in many weeks and we might change our New Zealand idea to Paris since I’m infected with the Paris bug and I’m sure it would be fab for her too.

October 16

Susie and I enjoyed an outing at the Hammer and then lunch at Panini Café and then coffee and cookies at Huckleberry. Nice!

Our special favorite was the Jim Hodges retrospective. This is his opening piece called “Here’s where we will stay, 1995”

In the evening I went with my neighbor Kathleen to a lecture at the Annenberg Space for Photography.

The featured photographer and his presentation…Ryan Pyle – Chinese Turkestan: A Photographic Journey Through an Ancient Civilization.

Always a pleasure!

(Wednesday with the girls…no pictures…)

Another from Jim Hodges. We liked them all. We decided he wasn’t an angry guy.

October 14

Marsha’s sister Nancy was in town and we got to play around for a while and then Marsha joined us for dinner at Enterprise Fish Company on Main.

Nancy is staying at Hotel California on Ocean and I was very glad to have a look around. It’s an old beach motel but jollied-up enough to be a recommendable choice when you’re looking for a good location at a good price.

You do have to look at the other options too, to fully appreciate what a good deal it is.

October 13

I am making myself crazy trying to come up with a car that I want to buy. The closest I can get is this Mazda 3 S Grand Touring with the 2.5L engine and sunroof. You can’t get the 2.5L engine and sunroof without going to the top of their line and then you can’t get rid of those two sticking up things on the dash. They don’t fold down, they just stick up there and bug me.

I have spent 50-1500 hours going over and over every new car on the market. You really don’t want to hear all about it.

Then I said to myself oh heck with the car, I want to go spend a month in Paris.

I already have tickets for the big SE Asia trip in January-February, and I’m going with Windy to Australia and New Zealand in September-October…so next up after that, Paris! I hope I can keep my 2004 Ford Focus running until then or some car calls my name. I have such a hard time choosing things to buy but no problem at all choosing destinations to visit.

October 12

I went with Ben and Bonnie today to The Proud Bird just in case it closes soon (and the airport builds a parking lot) as has been threatened for the last decade or so, at least we will have been there recently.

The food is expensive and not terribly delicious but completely fun nonetheless.

October 11

Lynn was out of town so I got her ticket to see Jersey Boys…Thanks Carl!

What I got off Mike’s Facebook – the gang at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival!

Cynthia, Kieran-Kieran, Mike

mh/ch

October 10

From one of the lily ponds in the large, gorgeous fountains that welcome the visitor to Santa Monica City Hall and border the fine new, but not so new anymore, Tongva Park.

October 9

Angela took these pictures at the killer Launch Party at Darryl’s office for the new Skylanders. The party was all about the families for this launch, maybe not so much when Call of Duty releases in November.

ak.

October 7

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Lona and Hartley when I can and I don’t usually even mention it but today I must because today was probably my last chance to see Winny who is leaving L&H for a permanent career-tracked job.

We will all miss her desperately! She really was a splendid help to them both and will always be a part of their story. Who will they get next? Can anyone be as lovely as Winny?

October 8

The girls got their Halloween costumes already. Are they too adorable or what?!

October 6

I drove up to Oxnard for lunch with Nancy and enjoyed this view on the drive back..in the rented car..because the car the was running perfectly fine got a service..and Then broke down.

I will say that the guys at the shop near my house who did the service are stepping up for all the costs to make it right. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

October 5

I enjoyed the delightful company of Muriel, JoAnn, and David this afternoon and came away with this book, Up and Down California: The Journal of William H. Brewer.

David encouraged me to borrow it and indeed it’s perfect in preparation for my upcoming trip to Sequoia. The book is made up of letters written by the #2 guy in the 1860-1864 California Geological Survey. I just read the section of his stop in LA when the population was 4,000. It was very fun to read. Actually, I’m going to copy a paragraph right here, italics are in the original text!

“Here is a great plain, or rather a gentle slope, from the Pacific to the mountains. We are on this plain about twenty miles from the sea and fifteen from the mountains, a most lovely locality; all that is wanted naturally to make it a paradise is water, more water. Apples, pears, plums, figs, olives, lemons, oranges, and ‘the finest grapes in the world,’ so the books say.

“The weather is soft and balmy-no winter, but a perpetual spring and summer. Such is Los Angeles, a place where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.'”