The Lemonade of Love - Saturday 8/11/2007

Okay, you would probably respect me more if I didn't tell you how we came to drive over this bridge on Big Tujunga Canyon Road on Saturday. But I can't seem to help myself.

After the fabulous Mort Sahl concert on Friday night, I realized that I hadn't brought home the work I needed so I could sleep in after watching Sunday's Perseid meteor showers. Hydra offered to drive us from the West Side to Toluca Lake at 9:30 at night without batting an eye.

As we approached, I realized that I left my keys on my desk in the office. Good grief. I mean, really. To make a long story short, on Saturday OneL graciously agreed to meet me at the office so I could retrieve my files and my keys. (I'd offered to pick them up at her house, but she is just that helpful!)

Hydra drives down with me to get the keys, etc., and we took the long scenic way home, stopping along the way to take photos.

You ask how we made it 20 years? I'll tell you: it's all his fault!

(I can see the movie title now: I Married a Lemonade Machine.)



I saw these steps down to a little tunnel.

"Hey," I called up to Hydra, "I'll bet you could totally tumble right out of this opening!"


I was right! The other side of the little tunnel. This doesn't really show how far you would continue to drop if you fell out this end. It's a couple hundred feet to the creek bed.



Is this not a lovely vestige of old school road building? I love stuff like this. Next time I need to get a shot from the other side of the bridge. One of the nearby tunnels was built in 1941, so I'm guessing this is of a similar age.

Hydra likes to say things like, "Don't count on those pillars too much when you're taking that photo," when I do stuff like hang over the edge to get a shot of the dangling broken chain against the pretty stone wall.



Probably every time we drive past this road house cafe I fantasize about living in some place remote like this (but still only about 50 minutes from L.A.), running a business where people would come to you, so you wouldn't get lonely and start behaving like some character out of a Stephen King novel.

I promise, Hydra, we won't even own an ax.

Around Town - Friday 8/10/2007

As promised, a shot of the restored Papoo's Hot Dog Show sign.


The sign in context. The patio's around the back. This is one of those classic old eateries. They do some terrific diner food. My favorites: bacon breakfast burrito with salsa on the side, pastrami Reuben, vegetarian Reuben (both are served with avocado inside!), and the French fries.

I have only had one hot dog there in the 8 1/2 years I've worked down the street. It wasn't bad, I'm just not that much into hot dogs.



Just a cool converted garage that caught my eye. We parked near here on our way to McCabe's.



McCabe's Guitar Shop on Pico. This place is hands down, my favorite concert venue in L.A. Because I like its small, unpretentious atmosphere, the quality of the acts, and the intimacy of the performances.

We saw Mort Sahl there last night and he was amazing. I don't know if I've ever laughed so often in an hour and fifteen minutes. He set a fun pace, and was so smart. John Stewart and Stephen Colbert have nothing on this man. Great tales of his experiences, commentary, etc.

I'm telling you, if you have an opportunity, see Mort Sahl live. He's one of the wits of our time.

Nice Logo - Thursday 8/9/2007

I just liked this logo. It was painted on a truck that was parked outside of Big Boy when I came out.

Waitress E told me that one of her regulars committed suicide on Friday night. Not someone I know. He used to come in with his wife for breakfast around 8:30 or 9:00. His wife came in on Saturday to tell them about it.

There's a lot more that I took quick notes on as Waitress E kept stopping by to tell me. She was partly choked up, partly very curious.

Happy Anniversary! - Wednesday 8/8/2007

We went to Vincent Hill Station in Acton to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Yikes. It's astonishing to think we have towels that are older than Lindsay Lohan. Thank goodness they are better behaved.


Don't judge! These crab stuffed mushrooms were actually much better than they look. In fact, they were the best part of the meal.

Vincent Hill Station looks better in the dark when the interior glows with firelight, which it has been when we've gone there before, for my birthday. The service was actually very disappointing and the food was just okay.

I think the combination of the France trip and watching Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (which is miles and miles superior to his trashy Fox-TV series Hell's Kitchen) have spoiled us for prepackaged or frozen foods at high prices.


The flowers Hydra brought home with him. Cheery!

More Calories On Your Hand Than In Your Mouth! - Wednesday 8/8/2007

This post was going to be called The Big Little Hostess Cupcake Expose' until Weens busted loose with the comment that became today's title.

OneL brought in these 100 calorie packs to share. Thanks, OneL!

We were all excited. Then we were all amused.

Objects on the package may appear larger than they really are.



Yeah, baby. Kick back. Slide off your shoes. Brew a cuppa' joe. Indulge in these sumptuous treats.

See the little smudge of filling to the left of the cake-lette? Yeesh.

I mean, come on folks. I just looked up the full-sized full-fat version and I think the extra 100 calories must be worth it.

Over 500 Years of Experience - Tuesday 8/7/2007

They boast a lot of experience in the dry cleaning business on another of the signs outside of Milt & Edie's Drycleaners. And they're open 24-hours. So if you're at Bob's Big Boy in the middle of the night and you spill coffee on your tux, you can walk over here and drop it off.

You have to have affection for people who go to the trouble to put advice and deep-ish thoughts up there with their advertising.

Figgy Joy - Monday 8/6/2007

Three figs on a plate.

You don't know beans about figs until you've eaten them fresh.

Wow. They might just be the perfect fruit.

Wall and Piece - Sunday 8/5/2007

Pages from Wall and Piece by Banksy.

I think I may have seen some of this guy's stenciled graffiti art in Paris. Whether it actually was or not, I liked it and the images here a lot. Especially the rats. I think there’s a place for creative graffiti in the world.

I used to work at The Blue Mountain Coffee Company in Fort Wayne, IN and the women’s bathroom was famous for its witty and artistic graffiti. They even did an article about it in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette.

Anyway, the images are interspersed with snippets of commentary from Banksy about his experiences in creating street art (I could have read even more of that), and about the art scene, and about society in general.

The only thing that I really didn’t agree with was his painting on the sides of living animals. I didn’t see anything that said that he didn’t use regular spray paint on the cows and pigs he graffitied, and that just really doesn’t sit well with me. Especially the pigs, who have sensitive skin and not much hair to protect them.

Oh, and the stuff where he’s messing with someone else’s art…which I guess he does in a way that doesn’t permanently deface it.

But how interesting to see art that actually challenges you and makes you think.

I love this image [taken from the Internet], which is wrapped around the cover of the book in a way that doesn’t let you see the punch line. It caught my attention and drew me in. I sat with the book at Barnes & Noble for about 20 minutes last weekend and decided I needed to buy it and bring it home.

Cool Thing: He has a website!

It's a Hoot - Saturday 8/4/2007

A couple of friends, singing at a hoot. I usually don't post photos of people, but I don't have any others from Saturday. It's really not fair to take pictures of people while they're singing. Usually, they have their mouths wide open.

On Saturday night we drove down to Anaheim Hills to sing swan songs to some Songmakers friends who are moving away for at least a year. It was a great evening. Started with a potluck and conversations at 6:00 and moved into music at 8:00.

It being the last one hosted at this home by these people for a long time, and maybe indefinitely (our hostess was very enthusiastic about the reception they've received so far in their new community in Washington State), there were lots of emotional songs interspersed with the usual stuff. Hydra sang Tom Paxton's "Thank You for the Honor of Your Company" and I did "The Dalai Lama's Candle," an Eric Bogle song that for me is about staying connected to our past and to each other. Hydra also did his rousing Russian-accented version of "Those Were the Days," which got everyone clapping, and a few people dancing. And I did "Teenager In Love," which is silly and is a great sing-along.

So it wasn't all intensely serious adios material, see.

We've been members of this acoustic music club, the people we also go camping with several times a year, for ten years now. It's amazing to get together with a bunch of talented people who will forgive you for hitting a wrong note now and then. I'm in it for the chance to harmonize, and for the hugs upon coming and going!

What with taking a break from the music a little later than usual, and the two-hour drive, and our inevitable inability to just go straight to bed after a night like that, we didn't get to bed 'til 3 am Sunday morning.

As you may or may not know, Hydra usually rises around 3:15 and I get up around 3:50. Big, fun night. We slept till (gasp!) 8 o'clock Sunday morning!

Von's 5:27 a.m. - Friday 8/3/2007

You probably aren't remotely curious about what they're doing at your local supermarket before dawn. If so, you have permission to stop reading right now.

They're getting ready for the day. The aisles are littered with boxes and torn plastic wrap. It's one of the few times in life when you can come upon a man crouching with a matt knife in his hand and not hear scary movie music in your head.

The freezer doors are foggy because someone's just held them open to restock all the frozen dinners.

Someone's waxing the floor. You may run into him several times as you circle the store in your pre-caffeinated state. If so, you will feel like old friends by the time you leave.

Someone's unloading rolling 7-foot high carts of baked goods into the bins. She is inevitably the cheeriest person in the store, because the scent of new bread absolutely does inspire euphoria.

The cashier is doing some kind of paperwork because she's about to finish her night. You forgive her for being distracted by the numbers and the stiffness in the back of her neck.

The fruit is lined up like children in an elementary school choir. It wants you to take its photograph.

I've been coming to this store before dawn for years. It never ceases to kind of excite me to see the inner workings. Like being in the tunnels beneath Disneyland for the first time, I expect.

I would really like to do a series of photographs of all those things I just mentioned. But I still run into photography emotional blocks. Like someone's going to wrestle me to the ground and take my baby--er, camera--from me because I just took their picture.

I barely managed to snap this shot before the produce guy looked up--probably in response to the flash I'd forgotten in my guilty haste to turn off--to see me shoving my Nikon back into my purse.

And then, of course, I felt like I was stealing peaches.

Martino's Bakery - Thursday 8/2/2007

Hmm. Okay, you work in a research office with 8 other women. The television season is heating up and everyone's working through breaks (what breaks?) and lunch. In other words, the stress has hit the fan.

What would be the logical response?

Tea cakes! Of course!

A dozen of them, from Martino's Bakery in Burbank. Just another one of those urban delicacies that you (almost) wish you didn't know about.

OneL brought these in to share. I love the box design.

You can tell they have been made this way for a long, long time because they are a reasonable size (like they show you in Weight Watchers as an example of what a serving used to mean and it's actually--gasp!--smaller than your head), they aren't too sweet, and they haven't been embellished with some fancy squiggle or white chocolate aspen leaf.

The last lonely tea cake. Who will put it out of it's lonely misery?

Maybe you?

(Oh, and BTW, I'm pretty sure that they sell these very tea cakes at the cashier's counter at...drumroll please.... our very own Bob's Big Boy!)

Bob Bob Bobbin' Along - Wednesday 8/1/2007

The Elegant E gave me a Big Boy bobble head last night!

I love him. He's the perfect size for my slimline monitor!

Now it's all Bob, all day long.

There's so much to tell you about Bob's. I was in there Monday morning, and the Old Lech (trust me, I'm sure about this moniker but I can't tell you everything all the time or this would be the Big Boy Blog) was joined by a friend.

The Jolly friend was named "Man of the Month, well, Person of the Month" at a nearby country club. It was his fifth time and he was overjoyed. And loud about it. I was sitting probably 30 feet from him.

"I have five stars now. I'm a five star general at the Blank Club now! The wife and I had the haddock. It was delicious. " He pours sugar from the container into his coffee cup. "I feel just like Doug MacArthur."

Now that he's on a first name basis with the generals of World War II will he continue to patronize Bob's? I ask you.

On a less than cheery note, another guy was giving Waiter D a hard time. I found out when I went to the cash register that the customer had fallen on the freshly cleaned sidewalk out front. Luckily, Waiter D had put out the "Wet Floor" signs.

They comped him his meal, even though it really wasn't their fault. "Should I put it down to 'spillage?'" The cashier asked the manager. Sure. That's just good business. Easier to appease in the moment than to let something brew.

Ah, the high drama, the passion, the nitty gritty of life that we Morning Hawks witness...

Papoo's - Tuesday 8/31/2007

Turns out that the patio behind Papoo's Hot Dog Show is a great place to hang out between work and my writing group meeting. They're repainting and restoring their wonderful winged hot dog sign right now. I'm so glad they're investing in the upkeep. It needed it.

I'll show you the heavenly hot dog when they get done with the renovation.

Yes, Virginia. Sometimes men are hot dogs.

Evening Light - Monday 7/30/2007

This doesn't really get it, but the light from this rice paper lamp in our bedroom is so lovely. It's bright enough and soft enough to read by in the chair right below it.

It makes me happy.

Sci-Fi Landscape - Sunday 7/29/2007

Apparently, the people who built our neighborhood dumped excess concrete up on the hillside. It adds to the alien look of the post-wildfire landscape.



Looking back toward our house through the remains of a juniper tree. This will be an easy spot to find and photograph again as the hillside recovers, hopefully next winter.



Burned out yucca heart. Pretty in it's own way.

Farmer's Market Adventure- Saturday 7/28/2007

My first objective upon arriving at the Farmer's Market was lunch at Monsieur Marcel. Hydra was meeting an old friend for lunch in Culver City and dropped me off on the way. The food's good here, unpretentious and not badly priced especially for French food.

They really should break loose some of the salt and pepper grinders they sell in the gourmet shop, though, don't you think? The flowers are nice, but otherwise it's a diner set up!

I had a hard time deciding. I had a wonderful salmon salad when Mom and I were here last October. Thought about the Charcueterie Francaise, which include duck rillettes (my oh my...duck meat in reduced duck fat which is heaven on French bread), but it was a hot day, and all those meats seemed like a bad call.

They bring you a tiny bowl of assorted olives and a basket of breads. House chardonnay was refreshing.

It seems only fitting, after all those photos I took of meals in France, I should take a photo of the first French meal I had back in the States. Croque Marcel and fresh greens...there's turkey and goat cheese inside. I hardly ever let the restaurant dress the salad, but this was nice and light.

After the meal, into Monsieur Marcel's gourmet shop, where I sampled olives (and brought some home), found the same brand of mustard I'd bought in France, and bought an Egyptian dipping spice mix. Fun just wandering around in there.

I roamed around the market for about an hour, just snapping photos of people and things that caught my eye. Fun, for me!

If you weren't eating ice cream, you were probably thinking about it. The market's a jumble of old stands with awnings. It was uncharacteristically humid in L.A. Whew.

I was going for a photograph of this Todd Goldman painting at Jack Gallery, but I like the way the other painting in the background looks like it's printed on the reflection of the guy in the right's polo shirt.

On the way home, we missed a couple of freeway entrances and decided to check out our first L.A. neighborhood, which was near LA City College. Along the way, I saw this sign outside a Jolibee restaurant.

While I'm interested in expanding my meager experience of the cuisine of the Philippines, I have to admit that neither of these items sounds enticing.

Downtown Acton - Friday 7/27/2007

We ventured the 2 miles to downtown Acton last night to give Wences /Acton Chinese Food another try. Sadly, overpriced and not very good food. Overcooked penne ($8.95, no sides) for me and boxed mashed potatoes and not all the way thawed vegetables with Hydra's chicken picata ($12.95). Zero atmosphere. Dang it.

When Hydra asked how the crispy chicken on the Chinese part of the menu was cooked, the waiter looked panicked and said, "Well, you know. They put it in the thing and dump it in the grease."

Trez appetizing!

But here's a shot of the Tahoe in the parking lot. This is downtown.




Standing in the same place, looking north (I think) across Smith Street, downtown Acton.

I know that more changes are coming and I feel compelled to take random seeming photographs.

Back in the Saddle Again - Thursday 7/26/2007

The view from my usual booth, around 5:20 this morning.

The night manager who used to talk to me quit. Hmmm.

The morning waitress gave the new young night manager the most evil laugh yesterday morning when he was in for training. I think he was moved up from being a waiter. (Which never seemed like a good deal to me when I waited tables. Let's see...work more hours, make less money, wear a different badge. Nope.)

"You don't want to get on my wrong side," she said to him, "You'll never know what hit you, honey."

Yikes. Probably true.

She's the one who scared off Grumps.

On a lighter note, three or four people said nice things to me today. It was the first time since the infamous back injury that I had my laptop with me. Working on a short story that may demand to be a novella.

And doing my small part to keep the wheels of commerce oiled.

If there really is a writer's strike and I and the crew people who come in at all hours of the day aren't around, it's going to put a big dent in the whole economy. We're all just waiting.

Wrong. And Wrong Again. - Wednesday 7/24/2007

I like this sign, which hangs outside Mo's in Toluca Lake, right across from Bob's Big Boy.

Wrong: The food is not fine.

It's overpriced and not even very tasty. Their "famous" burgers are fat little wads of ground beef that glare at you from the center of the bun. They still have a burger bar with a handful of condiments and some bean salad on it that they think is the bee's knees. Not since 1977 was this impressive.

Wrong Again: The service is not friendly.

The actors-- I mean, the waiters--don't want to be there. They are working here because producers, directors and writers from the nearby studios eat here. Sometimes you see a former waiter--er, actor-- who has hit the big time, taking a meeting. The acoustics are terrible. Maybe they feel safe talking in a place where you can't hear your lunch partner's voice, let alone whatever's going on at the next table.

I've been dragged--erm, have eaten--here at least once a year for the past 8 years I've worked in the neighborhood.

Maybe two wrongs will make a right and the next time I eat here I'll find something to like about it.

What the Heck Time Is It? - Tuesday 7/24/2007

Time to go home! I've worked my eight hours and I'm leaving.

OneL brought in this be-boppin' clock just to confuse me, I swear!

Work has become very stressful very early in the season. Waah.

Progress Report - Monday 7/23/2007

The Granny Smiths are coming along nicely.


So are these flowers, which came from wildflower seeds. I'm not sure what they are, but the goldfinches like to eat the seeds when they lose their petals.

New Homes - Sunday 7/22/2007

Some kids make a whole new art form out of this, bopping to mp3s and flipping the sign like they're doing a high school flag corps routine. It was hot and humid Sunday as we headed home. This kid looked fairly grim and I don't blame him.

I fear for Fillmore, CA. We've been going up there for about 7 years, I guess, and for most of this time it's seemed like there wasn't a big disparity in income amongst the residents. But the times they are a'changin'.

The have-mores have moved in on the east side of town. There's a gigantic subdivision going in called The Bridges at Heritage Valley. Pretentious much?

While it's nice to see the buildings in the small downtown with their turn of the 19th-century architecture begin to fill up with businesses again, it's a little sad for the people already there. I grew up in a rural community where the few people who had money certainly didn't flaunt it. It would be hard to take some of the changes in the air, to feel that you don't really belong in a community your family has called home for generations.

Even the once-humble Von's supermarket has been overhauled. It's like shopping in a Whole Foods Market. Not that everyone shouldn't have a nice shopping environment, but you almost feel like you should dress up before you drop in for a pint of milk.

One of the common themes you hear from people who were kids during The Depression of the 1930s is that everyone was in the same boat, so they never knew they were hard up. I think people in Fillmore are going to become increasingly aware of their economic standing.

Sigh.

Living the Americone Dream - Saturday 7/21/2007

At last we scored some Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream! We've been looking for this stuff ever since we saw it debut on The Colbert Report. At last, at the Von's in Fillmore. (And yes, we have a freezer in our camper trailer.)

We bought the Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler, too.



Stephen and Willie in the same bowl! A taste-off!

The Americone Dream was actually better than I expected. I usually find that the ones that have a lot of chunky stuff in them are more about the stuff than the ice cream. This is really good... but given a choice, I'd probably go with the lighter tasting Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler.

Is anyone in Toronto jealous, I wonder? [rubs it in]


And just to throw a little gander in the direction of American excess.... We shared the campground with another group this weekend. There were about 10 of these behemoth RVs in the top section. They filled up the campsites completely with little space to be outside. These things are about 40 feet long and probably cost upwards of $125,000 each.

Yikes! It was a little intimidating walking down through them. "Walk of the Giants," as one friend put it.

Morning Shadows - Friday 7/20/2007

Yeah, I know. Most people's idea of going camping doesn't include Starbucks. But at home, it's a longer drive to get to one so Hydra usually goes to the one in Fillmore at least one morning. I went with him.

Most of the people we're camping with won't arrive until this evening, so there's not much of a crowd around the coffee urn at the campground on Fridays.


Life doesn't get much better. Except maybe later in the weekend when we'll sit outside our camper for hours with the birds in their cages on the picnic table, reading, writing and talking to friends who stop by to chat.


An old church in Fillmore. I think it may be used as a home now.

Produce Country - Thursday 7/19/2007

This produce stand sits at the corner where we turn off of 126 to go camping.


Part of their garden against the backdrop of the mountains. The campground is approximately behind this garden and to the right, about 2 miles maybe.

Had to work very hard (at home, thank goodness) to be able to leave for a weekend of camping with Songmakers.