Friday, September 22, 2006

We're Getting a Little Punchy Around Here - Friday 9/22/2006


It’s Friday. It’s been a loooong busy week. Everyone in my office is either completely stressed out or a little punchy at the mere notion that we will have two days in a row off.

I am not as punchy as Queen LaFoam here.

I suspect that this may be a tribute to Steve Irwin.

Or a dance of gratitude to the office supply gods, who so seldom deliver anything large enough to require foam inserts to hold them in place.

Hummer Attack - Thursday 9/21/2006


Big Hummer in my rear view mirror as I waited for a light in Burbank.

I bet it used more gas waiting for the green than I did on my whole drive home.

"Grrrr," to you, too.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Birthday Cake! - Wednesday 9/20/2006



Happy birthday, dear Hydra,
Happy birthday to you!

I made a lemon cake with homemade buttercream lemon frosting. To get the cake cool enough to have for dessert, after letting it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, I put it on a rack in the freezer for 15 minutes. Presto! Cool enough to ice!

My Best Friend, K - Tuesday 9/19/2006


Yeah, my best friend all day Tuesday was my box of Kleenex. Bad head cold. I stayed home… ended up working from home for four hours, but sleeping a lot, too.

Hydra brought home Tom Yum Koong (Thai hot and sour shrimp soup). It’s the best for making you feel better when sick. It worked. I was feeling much better by the next morning.

Outside My Bedroom Window - Monday 9/18/2006


Because I went to bed so early. Getting a cold. That’s a porcelain duck, not a real one.

I had pet ducks when I was a kid. Georgie and Baby (named by my mom and sister) where white domestic ducks. Wolfie was my mallard male. He was gold and yellow when he was a duckling, the colors of Wolf Lake High School and Elementary School. Where everyone but my mom went before consolidation.

Wolfie was a headstrong duck. He followed me out to the school bus a couple of times and stood in the middle of the road quacking up defiantly at the big yellow and chrome grill till I got off and tossed him back into the yard.

Good prep for parrothood.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Past and Future - Sunday 9/17/2006


As part of cleaning up my studio, which had gotten pretty messy and uninviting, I made shelf space for my stash of as-yet-unused bound notebooks.

A few months ago a good stationary store told me that the company that makes these wonderful notebooks had been sold to a bigger company and they were no longer making them. I made some calls and found them at the UCLA LuValle bookstore where I have bought them since 1990. With Hydra’s encouragement I went and bought 10 of them, which should get me through several years. These are 300+ page hardbound notebooks with wonderful heavy paper and numbered pages. They’re called legal notebooks for whatever reason.

So I thought, hmm, I’ll take a photo of this. My future in writing is right here, irregardless of my publishing future. And then I realized that my past is right there, too. Photos of my mother and my father, taken before they met each other. Surrounded by stones I found on the beach near Hedgebrook (writing retreat) and little animal figures given to me by my writer friends.

How to Entertain Your Parrot - Sunday 9/17/2006


Turn a shallow box upside down on the kitchen counter. Put a piece of uncooked pasta and a Lorna Doone cookie underneath.

This is a good way to distract him while you write. Otherwise, he's apt to walk over your keyboard or ask "Wanna cuddle?" if you try to ignore him.

Penitentiary High - Saturday 9/16/2006



I remember reading somewhere that someone around the turn of the 19th/20th Century said that schools should be designed to look like workplaces. They looked like brick factories for a long time. My high school, which opened in 1969, looked like an office building.

I think this one looks like a prison.

Remains of the Meal - Friday 9/15/2006


Okay, I’m not proud of this one, but it’s the only photo from the day that came out! Hydra and I went to a matinee of Hollywoodland and then out for sushi. For some reason I was compelled to take this photo before we left.

I also tried to take one inside the theater, but it didn’t come out.

Hollywoodland : loved Ben Affleck. Could have cut all the Adrian Brody story. Click here if you want to see my full review.

Vino Mio - Thursday 9/15/2006



Glass of wine at the end of a long day. I liked the way the light was working on this one.