Puppy Breaktime - Wednesday 8/22/2007

This is the first thing I wrote the right date on all day and I sent out probably 10 reports today. I seriously needed a puppy break this week. Look how Eva's grown! Thirteen weeks and counting.



It's hard to get a shot of her because she is always on the move. Oops, was that a puppy?

Heirloom Tomato - Tuesday 8/21/2007

All food should taste this good. Like biting into sunshine.

Except, of course, your head doesn't explode.

Heeeeere Kidney Kidney Kidney! - Monday 8/20/2007

Yes, I'm looking up interesting facts about kidneys online. Why, you ask?

I had a sonogram a couple of weeks ago (stupid painful gallbladder) and they couldn't see my left kidney. So they kicked it upstairs to the CT man, and he seems to have confirmed that I have only one kidney!

That's a little startling, but much nicer than something massive in front of the kidney obscuring the view, for my money.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, this means I should give up contact sports, including "boxing, field hockey, football, ice hockey, Lacrosse, martial arts, rodeo, soccer and wrestling."

Dang, this is going to put a serious crimp in my exercise routine.

Okay. Honestly. Not so much.

But I'm really glad I didn't know this growing up because I have always considered myself pretty strong and healthy. And this doesn't mean I 'm not, as far as I can tell from my trusty Google searching.

But I probably wouldn't have ridden that electronic bull at that cowboy bar in celebration of my 21st birthday, and that is a memory I do treasure.

Apparently 1 in 750 people has only one kidney (though most singletons are men). I was telling Hydra this via cellphone while driving the 5 in rush hour traffic and he said, "There are probably that many people around you right now!"

And I said, "They should thank me!"

I've flirted with the idea of a tattoo now and again, but haven't really been motivated. This has gotten me thinking that one might really be advisable.

Perhaps a small diagram of a pair of kidneys with a red circle/bar in front of the left one.

Or better yet, a little note on my right side: Dear EMS Tech: There is only this one kidney. Please contact family members for replacement parts.

I am a secret organ Sneetch.



How many kidneys do you have?

Mele Kamikimaka... - Sunday 8/19/2007

...is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day. And unfortunately, it's the only Hawaiian I know. Taught to me by der Bingel and the Andrews sisters, of course.

We were invited to a potluck luau in Moorpark and encouraged to bring island themed food. What I don't know about Hawaiian food could fill a cookbook. They were providing pork and pineapple upside-down cake. When I went Googling around the Internet all I could find was fish recipes (okay for home, but not for a potluck) and sweet and sour dishes. Not my thing.

Then I remembered the macadamia nut. If anything sings Aloha, it's the macadamia nut. I found a recipe for crab balls rolled in macadamia nuts, but I could more easily lay hands on good shrimp than good crab, so I made up my own very simple recipe for macadamia nut encrusted shrimp balls, pictured above.

They turned out great, and several of the women oohed and ahhed and said, "Yes! Sundry brought them!" (or something to that effect). Success!



Someone's guitar having a rest. There was a lot of music, as usual.

You Get Extra Points - Saturday 8/18/2007

...if you can spot the coyote in this photograph. I didn't have my camera set for the highest resolution, or I might have been able to crop this more.

This year we've seen a lot more of the coyotes that live in our hills. Don't know if this is because they are coming nearer for water or because so much brush has burnt away that we're able to spot them easier. They really blend in well.

There were actually two of them scuttling across the hills, looking back to see if we were following them.


Our shadows. Almost as fascinating as shiny things!


We worked up a good appetite and went to our favorite sushi bar for lunch. Mmmm. Albacore, salmon. Tiger roll. Good.

Habits - Friday 8/17/2007

Apparently, we humans aren't as unique as we'd like to believe ourselves to be. I sat at a different table this morning at Bob's. (Damned interlopers! How dare they!?)

Anyway, I put my spoon down exactly in that worn out place on the counter. What's up with that? We aren't even all proportioned the same. How does this happen? I guess when the diner's been here since 1949, these things will happen.

Of course, I had to take a picture of it.

The nice police officer sitting in my regular booth peered over the frosted glass divider at me right after the shutter clicked.

Having made this astonishing discovery, I could no longer be disgruntled with him for taking my spot.

An Exercise in Immodesty - Friday 8/17/2007

Okay, Liz tagged me, and I like Liz a lot, and Liz did this on her always-fascinating blog, Los Angelista’s Guide to Happiness. So I’ll step up and play.

The first thing that comes to mind is the snarky lyrics from the opening of Bring It On. Fantasy sequence of snotty cheerleaders…. "I'm wanted. I'm hot. I'm everything you're not."

Yeah right.

1) I can bring the funny. There are probably a lot of deep psychological reasons why this is a bad thing, a symptom of something lacking in my personality that drives me to entertain. I think I developed the funny in order to get the attention of my siblings, who were enough older than me that they seemed glamorous with their worldly abilities like reading and riding bikes and eventually driving and dating and moving out of the house. I enjoy a good laugh probably more than anything else in life. And good humor breeds intimacy. I feel closer to people I’ve laughed with.

2) I am accepting. I don’t really take any credit for this. My parents set a good example, and I was an absorbent kid. One friend waited until she could visit me from more than 2,000 miles away so I could be the first person she came out to. “I knew you’d react this way!” she said, hugging me. It’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever had.

3) I’m adventuresome. Driving down a country road I’ve never been on before gives me a weird thrill. I’ll try new cuisines, explore old buildings, whatever.

4) I am comfortable in public places. This probably really isn't anything to be proud of, but I do like it in myself because it brings me a lot of pleasure to hang out in coffee houses and diners.

5) I like finding out as much as already knowing. I hope that this helps keep me from being pedantic. It’s part of the reason I like my job. I actually enjoyed reading about the personal tragedies that hounded Super Bowl XXVI (1992) Quarterback & MVP Mark Ripian and that Super Bowl XXIX (1995) Quarterback & MVP Steve Young is the great-great-great-great grandson of Brigham Young as part of my research job yesterday. It’s nice to be easily pleased.

6) I care deeply about my biological and chosen families. I’m not sure they always know it, but I do. I’m not always the greatest about calling, but when we do talk or see each other again, it’s usually like picking up right where we left off.

7) I am usually enthusiastic. I love hearing about and supporting my friends’ and family’s endeavors. Although the crankies sometimes overtake me and slow the process, usually if I commit to doing something, even if I’m not gung ho about it, I will try to take the attitude that I will enjoy it more than I expect to.

8) I try to network. Although I am surely as competitive as the next person, I have this idea that we’ll all get what we need if we go for it. If my friends do well, I do well on some level. I maintain an informal mailing list and when I find interesting looking markets for creative writing (usually when I am trying to place something myself) I pass them along. If you tell me you’re working on something and I know someone who can help, I will let you know.

9) I take a great deal of pleasure from the arts. I enjoy witnessing and participating in a lot of different art forms. I believe that the arts, whether they are literary, graphic, musical, etc., enhance our ability to connect with each other across cultural or arbitrary boundaries. And it just makes me feel good to spend some time creating something or exploring someone else’s creation.

10) I am trying to be a better person. Cause you know that for every one of these items, there is a tiny abyss of self-doubt waiting for my errant footstep. I want to be a better friend, spouse, sister, daughter, writer, photographer, worker. Even though I’m reluctant to seek professional help, mine is not an unconsidered life.

Now it's my turn to tag! I'm tapping the following:

1) The American at An American In Toronto.
2) Fingers to the Bone over at The Last Bedroom.
3) Danny Beans at Lefty Writes
4) Always Megan at Lyrical Whispers
5) KimN at Yay! Blog!

Jeep Art - Thursday 8/16/2007

See the cool bird etched onto the side of this Jeep? Saw this when we drove into Palmdale last night in search of food.

Couldn't get into our favorite sushi place even after waiting almost an hour. Sigh.

Fame - Wednesday 8/15/2007

Driving past Hollywood and Highland in the morning, I had to wonder what it would feel like to have your photograph covering a quarter of a building. I'll bet he sees his bumps.

C for Effort? - Tuesday 8/14/2007

I was trying to get a shot of the swirl of the chair arm translated inside the wine glass at the Elegant E's place on Tuesday. It didn't really work.

Yes, this is what I disrupted the meeting for, ladies.

Wild Child - Monday 8/13/2007

I've been reading this book The Four Day Win by Martha Beck, PhD. It's about changing the way you think about food and, actually, a lot of other things.

Decided to draw what Martha describes as my Wild Child... the part of me that gets all defiant about eating whatever she dang well wants. She'd be scruffier if I had the patience to draw in all the sticks and straws she gets into while scrounging for treats.

Sweet Memory Sky Flower - Sunday 8/12/2007

Bought this vining flower to plant in the yard, but didn't get around to it yet. It's called Sweet Memory Sky Flower, which I've never heard of before. Found out on the web that it's only cold hardy to 25 degrees, which doesn't bode well for its long term survival, but we'll do what we can with mulch, etc. this winter.



Also bought these annuals, some Mexican heather and some Blue Salvia. None of it is in the ground yet, but they're lined up along the porch looking nice.

Did anyone get a good view of the Perseids on Sunday night? A friend came up for dinner, a little music, and then lying in the back yard looking up. We saw three very impressive meteors before calling it quits a while before midnight. Worth it, but not really the light show we were hoping for.

Cool Thing: a schedule of upcoming meteor showers.

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.