’18 June

June 29

Beach walk day with Sharon checking out my new telephoto. I’m very far away past several volleyball courts and the gym equipment.

An Indian wedding coach near by Shutters and Casa del Mar.

June 28

It’s summer and my day with the girls is going to be pretty flex this year because of all our activities and theirs and my trips.

So this is a Thursday and I and the girls had our Welcome to Summer lunch at Kochi. We walked over there which is always my preference because we get to see things along the way, like these massive sunflowers, and I want some of those guys bad.

Lilly and I spent a few minutes taking pictures of patterns around the back yard and then we showed each other our shots. It was super cool to see what she had chosen and how ours were almost all different.

Growing there in a pot.

June 27

David’s drawing of jacaranda blossoms for my birthday. Thanks David! I had a fun lunch here for David and his harem including Jo Ann, Muriel, and Nancy. I had fun!

June 25

Marsha, in her first weeks of retirement, is sprucing up her house by having the popcorn off her ceilings, painting all the walls, and here she is Buying Furniture. She knows what she wants!

Except I made her buy dimmers. She didn’t believe that she wanted those but she does want them, she just doesn’t know it yet.

June 24

Tango class! This time we got there in time to have the whole hour and it was fun. We’re going to go four times and then Ken is off on a trip and around the time he’s back I leave for South America where I’ll get to take a tango class… in Argentina!

(ps It’s dark and the window is dirty!)

June 23

It’s Tony and Lill’s annual Summer Solstice party and their 25th wedding anniversary. Too fun you guys.

And speaking of festivity, it was Lill’s idea, we sent flowers to Brigitte in Belgium for her 60th birthday. They turned out so well. Good job Lill!

June 21

Done. Camera bought, put together, and tested. I went out after 6pm to snap a few in fading light and I’m ok with the outcome. Not enough light. All these are at pretty high iso because it’s dusk so I do have to try it again.

From the online manual: “When [Spot] is selected and [Focus Area] is set to either [Flexible Spot] or [Expand Flexible Spot] while [Spot Metering Point] is set to [Focus Point Link], the spot metering point can be coordinated with the focus area.”

These guys were walking fast.

From a mid-distance…

…and zoomed.

Awww. Not thrilled with the color though. Oh yeah, I have to deal with color profiles again.

The camera decided what to do about this.

Oh look, it’s Cheyanne from across the street.

Lime, the Bird competitor, and a cutie-pie kid rolling by. If you want to get a feeling for the homeless situation in Santa Monica just stroll down Palisades Park at dusk.

The Promenade.

More.

June 20

Bonnie and I had a Beverly Hills day, eating of course, wandering around ‘the village’ (I couldn’t imagine getting this shot without cars, wow)…

…and a fabulous hang-out at the new Waldorf-Astoria at Santa Monica Blvd and Wilshire. For example you can enjoy a nice afternoon tea time in the lobby bar for $100 each but we…

(night shot from the internet)

…got a perfect seat up here on the roof terrace and for the price of a beer enjoyed a delightful rest, people-watching up the ka-Zoo like I couldn’t believe, and fabulous views.

I’m definitely coming here again!

June 19

Happy Birthday to Meeeee! Many thanks to DAK&L for a Special day.

June 18

Merlyn and Hilda installed a Te$la charging station in the garage of their high-rise condo. Now there’s commitment to an electric car.

So I drove home from Long Beach and almost directly headed out to the valley for dinner, and then home. I slept well that night!

June 17 afternoon

After Father’s Day breakfast with d and the fam I went to Merlyn and Hilda’s for a festive lunch at the Long Beach Art Museum, a sweet little exhibit of Matisse drawings, and then we went to Rancho Los Alamitos because none of us had been there.

Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Ranch and Garden, they have a house tour and everything.

“Today Rancho Los Alamitos is 7.5-acres, a rare vestige of the original 300,000-acre Los Coyotes land concession given to Manuel Nieto in 1790 for his service on the Gaspar de Portolá expedition to California under the Spanish Crown.”

The house underwent a major refurbishment and it reopened very recently.

Sweet peas, oh joy!

The cactus garden was designed by, and is maintained by, the same people who do the Huntington Garden in Pasadena and we know what that means.

It’s Nice.

Back at the condo, a view from the balcony. Yikes!

June 17

Father’s Day morning!

June 16

Yummy dinner with IngaLill, she made us salmon(!), but no pictures of her stunning garden…so here are some more views of Marsha’s sister’s garden in San Diego!

June 15

Liz, Lilly, and Gary celebrating Lilly’s dance school’s wonderful program. There were about 30 dances in the morning and about 30 more in the afternoon. Wow. Lilly and her class were totally totally delightful as one would expect from such a delightful girl!

June 14

The hydrangea is happy again after the termite eradication trauma so that’s great.

The wood worker I met a few weeks ago in San Diego was passing through and he was going to stop by to take my old un-tunable piano apart.

I wanted to use the wood for something cool, but no, it’s just an inexpensive veneer. I wanted to make the ivory and ebony keyboard an ‘art piece’ but no, it all falls apart when you open it.

So it’s a mess now, worse than before. We had to stop trying to take it apart and I’m going to have to pay someone to haul it away!

June 13

Oh goodie, lunch with Nancy and Michi, my Santa Barbara friends.

And then I spent the night with Michi and got to delight in her amazing garden where we ate her amazing dinner. Michi has skills!

June 12

The girls having a ball game in the yard. Lilly had her dance program dress rehearsal today so we got home a little earlier than usual, got finished with baths a little earlier than usual, and then we got to play!

June 11

This is the day I spent with Lona in the emergency room waiting to find out what’s wrong with Hartley. No final answer but he was well enough to go home.

June 10

Happy Birthday David – what a fine and festive event!

Muriel, JoAnn, David, Mel, Karol, Thea

Then I went to Argentine Tango class with Ken, getting into the spirit for my trip to Argentina, and we’re going to go again because it was a blast. Look at that cutie pie teacher.

Now I just have to lose 30 pounds and get as flexible as a Chinese acrobat.

June 9

Walking day, and the dinos are still guarded by a sold fence. This is the best time, when the girls are decked in flowers and the boys are full and green. When will they be done with the repairs? I don’t know but I hope it’s soon.

Even more roses than before.

June 8

Bill and Cheryl were in town unexpectedly to visit an ailing friend and Ken and I got to have lunch with them while they were on the way to the airport.

They came and went by plane. This is from their recent cruise to the Middle East…

b/cr

June 7

Susie drove us out to Pasadena today with the expectation that we would enjoy the Pasadena Museum of California Art. But yikes, they were closed to hang a new show!

So we enjoyed the Asia Pacific Museum instead and it was fun. They even had maybe the last of the PST LA/LA exhibits still up.

There were rooms of interesting displays and artifacts of the Silk Road.

Then we passed through the Pasadena City Hall which was interesting, and then on to a delicious lunch at Café Santorini. I just had the leftovers for dinner!

June 5

A HexaFlexaGon. Who ever heard of it? Not me! But Rome found them on the internet and she showed me how to make them, and it was Fun!

Turns out HexaFlexaGons are a very real thing and Richard Feynman can tell you all about it.

June 3

Wellll. . .it’s official, it’s a summer weekend here in Santa Monica beach and we are shoulder to shoulder packed with people taking in the sun and surf.

These are my pictures from the day…

…but this is my favorite of the welcome sign.

Muriel and I came down for a walk anyway, enjoyed sloshing through the breaks, and my foot got stuck in a serious glob of tar. I smell like a steaming parking lot.

We also enjoyed mutual birthday dinners at The Lobster, treating each other to a fine meal.

(internet pic)

June 2

Marsha took me to San Diego to enjoy a massively festive party at…

…her sister’s place, in Ramona. I have many…

…many pictures of the fantastic landscape. Then we slept over at another sister’s place. Marsha has a lot of delightful sisters, four sisters in total, and a brother. Thanks to all!

June 1

At the Pepperdine track with Sharon, the lawn guy doing his art project and the construction that has been going on for some time.

We took a little spin around the hills looking for a fabulous house we spotted from the highway. We didn’t get a good view of the house but this dino made up for it.

May 30-31

Angela’s pictures from my favorite Jefferson project, Hands On Art. Angela is one of the teachers!

ak.

They do the final display during Open House.

Happy Open House Lilly, Good Job Rome on writing all the narratives.

ak.