Time, Timer, Timest - Sunday 2/18/2007

Sometimes I feel it slipping away, and it scares me.

This usually happens when I have not worked for a couple of days on whatever writing project is supposed to be my focus.

Herding Class at Drummond Ranch - Saturday 2/17/2007

I love when this happens! You do something you've never done before, and a whole world opens up to you. Sheep herding! There are people doing this with their dogs all over the place.

Braveheart and Luverly came up to our neighborhood to participate in a herding class at the Drummond Ranch. This is Luverly and Lulu getting started. Lulu's border collie blood informs her approach.


I had a great time with my new camera. Clicked off 129 shots without having to stop and reload film, or worry about all the dust when reloading. Also, the big camera gives you the same sort of entree that a clipboard does. You look like you know what you're doing and people let you do it!

Working! Isn't it cute how Lulu's back feet are off the ground? They were airborne in about a third of the shots. Hydra and I found this quite funny when reviewing the photos.



Rounding them up.

This is one happy pooch!

This guy is a working cowboy. He's a friend of the ranch, and was picking up this puppy to take home.


Janna Duncan runs Drummond Ranch and trains dogs. She was very friendly, and has the respect of the dog owners we talked to while we watched.


Hydra made a friend!

I had so much fun taking pictures, talking to people, watching the dogs work. It was a truly fun day and I want to go back to the ranch to take more photos of the dogs working. Great practice for taking action shots.

Breakfast of the Damned - Friday 2/16/2007

Well, maybe not damned. In fact... I hope not damned.

Breakfast of the overworked might be more appropriate, but where's the drama in that?

Friends, I worked 6:30am-5:45 pm yesterday, ate fast food on my drive home (which took till 7:30) and fell asleep on the couch at 8:15. Right in the middle of our TiVoed Boston Legal. Sigh.

This morning I skipped my writing time and went straight into the office at 5:30. It's pilot season, so I'm working on a couple of extra scripts beyond my usual work load, plus the film I picked up in November is now shooting (Juno)--which means sending me work--and a new series is starting up. (Army Wives for Lifetime.) When a new series starts, they often need to populate a whole street with businesses, which is what's happening.

If it weren't for the upcoming three-day weekend I would now blatantly solicite your tokens of verbal sympathy. But now it's Friday evening, and there are good plans ahead.

Yes, that's a triple espresso trying to balance out the banana.

Hmmm - Thursday 2/15/2007

Apparently, Bob comes from a town where the gene-pool is rather... limited.

This probably explains the chili spaghetti.

More Fun Than It Looks Like - Wednesday 2/14/2007

Hydra and I hiked across some open land to get to a restaurant for dinner last night. It turned out that there was a big ravine in our way. Hmm. Then found that there was one on the side of us, too.

When we got close to the restaurant we had a choice of going several hundred yards to where the ravine bumps into the road and has been managed with bulldozers or climb down through it. We climbed. It was about five feet deep, 12 wide at the top and 3 wide at the bottom. Good thing I didn’t wear my pumps!

Sadly, the food at La Cabana is not as good as that at Don Cuco’s (which is three miles away…maybe a Saturday hike?).

But we had fun hiking back. It was completely dark--hence this fabulous photograph--so we kept to an established horse trail. Had to walk right next to the backs of a bunch of houses at one point, and there was a German Shepherd just going bats three feet away behind a chain link fence. No matter how compose one remains--"Good dog, gooooood dog"--this sort of thing rouses one’s adrenaline!

It was good exercise getting back. About 15 minutes each way, and all uphill on the walk back. Good to burn off the margarita!

Birdlife - Tuesday, 2/13/2007

My best raven shot yet! Hydra and I went out for a hike as soon as we got home and this guy was kind of toying with us. Hopping and flying ahead of us for a little bit. Taken with my "old" Kodak point and shoot, which will probably be a part of my life for a long time in spite of the new Nikon. It's light and smaller.

Now, see, this is some kind of hawk. Wider wing span than a raven.

And it doesn't absorb all the light. Ravens seem to cut black holes in the sky.

In the Details - Monday 2/12/2007

Detail of a plant outside Hondista's apartment.

Detail of Hondista's napkin holder.

Detail of Hondista's NutraSystem lunch. "You can eat pizza!" Hmm. In all truthfulness, that should be edited to "You can eat a big cracker smeared with tomato sauce and freeze dried cheese!" And this is a double portion. This and a big bowl of broccoli will keep you on track. Right.

Later that Day - Sunday 2/11/2007

Hydra snapped this shot of what I think is some sort of falcon, on a powerline, hunting.

This Color of Blue Makes Me So Happy - Sunday 2/11/2007

Not much else to say, really. It rained last night and the sky was scrubbed clean. Everything that became dusty in yesterday's winds was refreshed. Even us.



I will never grow tired of watching the ravens dip and glide along the currents created by our local hills.

Nikon Goes for a Hike - Saturday 2/10/2007

Hydra suggested that we take my new Nikon out for a hike. Yes! It was a great day for it. We hiked the peaks around our neighborhood instead of sticking to the lower fire road. This makes for a challenging workout, because the hills are very steep and the dry paths are loose and a bit treacherous.

This first shot is looking past "my" mountain toward the Angeles National Forest. I think that might be Mount Gleason in the distance, but you probably don't want to quote me on that.



Yes! The big 300mm lens from my non-digital Nikon works on the new one, just as promised. We were at least 30 feet from this thrasher.


I love grasses. Love the way the wind works through them and the way the sun illuminates them. Once Hydra surprised me by mysteriously whisking me off to the pass near Tehachapi just to see the sunset light up the grassy hillsides. He'd seen it on his way back from Bakersfield and knew I'd adore it. Is that romantic, or what?

This grass only about four inches tall. It was dancing in the wind in a way I always associate with stop motion photography.


Looking back across the neigbhorhood at the fire road we usually walk on. It looks like it's snowing on the other side of the mountain, but it's just wind-borne dust lit by the afternoon sun. Did I mention it was very windy?

Luke, the neighbor's dog, would like us to know that he's up for a hike any time. I wish we could take him with us!

Marx Brothers to the Rescue! - Friday 2/9/2007

Fire extinguisher on the Metrolink train I took to work on Friday.

I can just see the three of them struggling to get the refreshed bottle behind the glass in the cramped quarters of the train passages.

Fogginess Ensues - Thursday 2/8/2007

Was it really foggy outside, or just in my brain? Having stayed up late last night writing for the GBA(s)FC last night, I slept through my alarm.

Did not hear it. Must have turned it off in some semi-dream state. Hydra came in around the time I'm usually leaving and asked if I was going to work today.

Hoo boy.

And here's where I admit just what a great part of my life this diner has become. I walked in a few minutes before six a.m. to a small chorus of "You're late!" and some ribbing. I stopped to talk to the print shop guys, who usually arrive about 45 minutes after I do and by the time I got to my usual booth, my hot tea and tall ice water was already there.

Only had half an hour to write this morning, but it is so good to have this habit. I have Elegant's invitation to do NaNoWriMo to thank for that!

Now she's talked me into contributing to 100 words. Which my writing group pointed out is about the opposite of NaNoWriMo. It's good to run sprints as well as distances, even in writing.

Early Hours - Wednesday 2/7/2007

The lights outside Hondista's door as I left her place. Another of the kind folks who save me the drive home late at night on a writing group night.



Sunrise over Riverside Drive in the moments between breakfast writing and work.

There's a New Kid in Town - Tuesday 2/6/2007

Ooooooh! What a beauty, huh!? The new Nikon D80 arrived! I worked from home in order to be there to sign for it.

Very exciting. But I was sooooo busy that I worked 6am-5pm with just a half hour break to do some killer DVD pilates and heat lunch to take back to my desk. Left the battery charging when I left for my writing group around 6pm.

It's now Thursday, I'm just now updating my blog, and I haven't had time to load the software, so still no shots from behind this lens. Something about saying I would update more regularly invited an avalanche of day-job work.

Plus I worked on my story for Maht's contest over at The Moon Topples. (Go over there and read and vote when you get a chance.)

Priorities are such a drag sometimes.

Virtual Street Golf - Monday 2/5/2007

Stance lessons on the sidewalk in front of the cafe below my office. I've long suspected that a couple of the barristas are also part time golf pros.

I don't pretend to understand.

Sago, Sago, Any Way You May Go - Sunday 2/4/2007

We went to Costco Sunday morning. Sat at the little cafe where I had pizza and Hydra had polish sausage, and we watched the peculiar world of the big box store roll by.

There must have been a good deal on these sago palms. We saw cart after cart of these wheel by. They were kind of magestic, separating from the grove at the center of the store and heading toward the yards of the Antelope Valley.

Okay, does anyone recognize the song I'm referring to in the title? Who famously recorded it?

Deb in Fort Wayne

Hey, I wanted to post this here, not being sure whether you'd check for a response to your lovely comments! Thanks so much!

My sister leads a free writing group at the Peabody Public Library in Columbia City. Perhaps not too far to go, depending on what side of the city you live on. They meet at 7pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. It's listed under Adult Events on the library's page. She'd love to have you join in.

If you'd like to contact her to ask questions or just say hi, email me at sallykitt@gmail.com and I'll give you her email address. You're of course under no obligation, but if you'd let me know you've seen this, either through email or a comment, I'll send you the info and delete this post.

Phone Home? - Saturday 2/3/2007

Is it just me, or does this rock formation--the image has been rotated--look like E.T. with a little leafy lunch sticking out of the the side of his mouth? Did Steven Spielberg consult with Erich von Däniken before making his film?


Me and my shadow at Vasquez Rocks. Hydra's around here somewhere, too. We hiked for about 55 minutes, poking around the back part of the park. Most people stay around the big famous rocks so we pretty much had the trails to ourselves.



The view from inside one of the overhangs. This place always stimulates the imagination. It's like a stone city.

Ground Hog Day - Friday 2/2/2007

Celebrated by going to an outdoor taco stand with Hondista, and truly appreciating the fact that we and our local groundhogs could see our shadows. Scare that rodent back into his hole, we don’t mind.

She and I are both from northern Indiana, and agree that with winters like this, you don’t need to wish them away.

They were filming an episode of Desperate Housewives at the adjascent carwash, and I found all the stuff hanging off this crew member's belt interesting.

The End of an Era - Friday 2/2/2007

Buck's all grown up. This is as good as it gets.

I must say, the hat is less than impressive. It looks like a bowler.

His full height is a bit less than 6 inches.

Honestly, I imagine that the skin of drowning victims feels a lot like Buck's biceps do. [Shudder]

According to the packaging, he'll go back to his old size if left to his own devices. And I could start the process all over again!

But I think this is one of those life experiences that should remain precious and unique.

Who knows? It may eventually be the basis of another novel. There's been a lot more pathos involved in the past 72 hours than I have felt comfortable intimating.

Holy Cow! - Thursday 2/1/2007

Hour 53: Noon 2/1/2007

Is it just me? Or are my cowboy's pants disintegrating?

I didn't realize Tomasina sent me a stripper cowboy!

TUNE IN TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!

For the beginning of The Moon Topples Great Big Awesome (Short) Fiction Contest.

In which this wonderful blogger takes the initiative and gets his very own contest rolling. Find out what the topic is and write! Check out full rules by clicking on the link above!

Let's support this guy's initiative! He's saying YES!

Hour 24: 7am 1/30/2007 - Looking a bit saucy, no?

Hour 29 - Noon 1/31/2007

Hmm. A bit larger.

The difference is more obvious in this side view.
And the water’s getting murky. I think I’ll have to change it before the day’s done.

Cowboy Update

Hour 5 : He's getting puffy. I hope this is just a phase.

Hour 8.5 - He doesn't seem obviously bigger from above, but seems to be experiencing a height spurt.

I have to leave him at work overnight. Wonder what I'll find in the morning!

Gonna Grow Me a Cowboy - Tuesday 1/32/2007

What can I say? I work with a bunch of smart women.

But the reason we're all good at this job is because we are all pretty seriously verbally oriented.

So it's really no surprise that no one here can tell me what size jar I need to grow my cowboy. He started out about an inch tall and it says he'll get 600% bigger.

Okay, would that mean 600 inches tall? That can't be right.

Can it?

He's in a vase that's about 5 inches wide at it's widest about about 8 inches high. Hope it's not too constricting.

It's supposed to take him three days to grow to his full size. I put him in at 7am today.

I will keep you posted.

El Taco Llama and More - Monday 1/30/2007

Perhaps the best (formely) kept secret in North Hollywood: El Taco Llama on Magnolia, 1 block east of Cahuenga. It's a cafe attached to a car wash. Tammy discovered it a few weeks ago, and now we're hooked. Great carne asada taco. I'm not the only one who thinks so!

After we indulged in tacos at an outdoor table, we took a walk around the neighborhood.


I got a special kick out of seeing the way this recycling bin is decorated because Gia gave me Hand Book by Jean Benoit Levy for my birthday. Synchronicity.

Tammy and I both liked this palm tree a lot. It is large and robust and just about perfectly shaped.


Cool old panel van.