Oh, Snap! - Friday 8/24/2007

This is a snapshot I have been working up the nerve to take for at least six months, maybe even a year. This medallion is embedded in the tar in the crosswalk on the south side of Riverside Drive where it intersects with Pass Avenue.

I've wondered exactly what it is for months and months. Today as I trekked to the ATM to deposit my check I used a fellow walker as an unwitting shield and finally did it! It took less time than I thought to click off this photo and move on, but I would have felt like it took forever in the middle of this busy street if I hadn't had her pace to compare mine with.

This is how I get my kicks. You have your secret embarrassing ways, too, I'm sure.



Ha! Look at that! A quick check of the Internet confirms it: it's a Saint Christopher medal!

Upon returning to the office, I learned that Weens has also been trying to figure out what the heck this was. You really don't have much time to get across with the walk light here. She and I have crossed this thoroughfare together many times, neither of us admitting to our curious obsession. Now we know.

Also, we know that Weens has a nicer world view than I do. It didn't take much pressure to get her to confess her theory. "I think whoever paved that street put it there to protect the people crossing."

Now my take on this is that it's pretty amusing that this medal of all medals should be embedded in a street. I thought it was quite possible that it was knocked off some poor traveler as s/he traversed the byways of Toluca Lake.

I try to see this as a tendency toward a darkly humorous irony rather than crass morbidness.

Poor St. Chris. I remember hearing that he was taken off the Catholic calendar a couple of years ago. Went looking for confirmation and found that although I heard he was no longer an official saint recently, he was disbarred in 1969!

Now, that's impressive to remain probably the most famous and depended upon saint nearly 40 years after your church has dumped you.

I'm not religious and have never been Catholic, but I hope they don't ditch Saint Anthony or I will never be able to find anything.

The Luddites at the Door - Thursday 8/23/2007

Used to be, there would be stacks of envelopes like these in the lobby of my office building every morning...scripts that had winged their way to us overnight from various studios. This one lonely package caught my eye because it's no longer the norm.

Most of our work comes to us via e-mail, and never gets to see the cluttered interior of a production assistant's car. I wonder if this is a blessing or a curse to the harried P.A. If it was kind of nice to get out and run around rather than always be on the lot or in an office building.

Probably there's a whole new generation of P.A.s who wouldn't know the difference.

There's at least one person in the office who definitely prefers that paper copies be delivered. I guess I prefer the e-versions, mostly because you can search electronic documents if you need to. Really, it's created more work and expense on our end because we have to print out dozens of scripts in this office every day, and we no longer have piles of free paper we can print on the back of. The other drawback is that we don't get all the pretty colored paper...each draft comes in a different color.

Which, reminds me of a story. It's okay, it's brief.

When the recycling bug first bit UCLA, they put two big bins in Ackerman Union with signs on them that read "White Paper" and "Colored Paper."

Within a few hours a hand written sign had replaced the second one. It read "Paper of Color."

When the "Colored Paper" sign was restored the next day, there was a small note that read, "That's not funny."

Oh, I beg to differ.

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.