The Line Up - Friday 5/9/2008

One of these chickens does not belong on top of the toaster oven.

Correctly guess which one, and receive a free 5x7 print of any of the photos on this blog, all expenses paid, delivered to your home.

The first 5 correct respondents will receive the prize. Offer expires 24 hours from now--10 am 5/10/2008--so enter soon.

Please enter via a comment on the blog, rather than an email.

See what trouble we get up to when I work from home?

The Official Ice Cream of Any Given Sundry - Thursday 5/8/2008

Into every life a little bliss must fall.

Enter Trader Joe's French Vanilla Ice Cream : Super Premium, stage left.

Mmmm. This stuff just showed up in the freezer case and I suspect that it's made by Double Rainbow, which TJ's has stocked for the past year or so. The DR disappeared and this was found in its frosty imprint. (This is how TJ's often works!)

It's dense and creamy, and best of all it's satisfying in the recommended dosage of 1/2 cup.

Today I had some with fresh strawberries sliced on it. I'm looking forward to introducing it to my favorite fruit later this summer : blueberries.

Do you have a favorite fruit?

Cool Thing: The Daily Plate : Helping You Eat Smarter. Since I just encouraged you to indulge in ice cream, I'll also share a great site for tracking what you're eating and how much exercise you're getting. It's free, it's easy to use, and it gives you a nutritional breakdown of what you're eating.

Succulent Blooms - Wednesday 5/7/2008

From cuttings Braveheart gave me about a year ago.


I'm bringing her yard to my house bit by bit.

Daylight - Tuesday 5/6/2008

I set my alarm for 6:00 a.m. (heaven on a weekday for the likes of me) but woke up at 5:40 and went ahead and got ready. It was already light by the time I left Braveheart's house.




Braveheart roses.



Yeah, okay, I walked around the front yard a bit on my way out.

Crossroads of the World and Junk Journalism - Monday 5/5/2008

I was back in Hollywood to visit the gym on my way to Braveheart's. We used to meet in the Valley so I'd hang around over there between work and the writing group. It's really interesting to travel through neighborhoods that I used to know very well when we lived on the east side of Hollywood.

According to Kayte Deioma on About.com, "Crossroads of the World was constructed in 1936 in the shape of a cruise ship with a rotating globe on top. It was the city's first shopping mall. It was built by the widow of crime boss Charlie Crawford after she demolished the original building on the site where her husband was shot and killed. It is currently an office complex."

There was a Thai restaurant here for a while and that Hydra and I ate in it at least once. I remember thinking it was a really ambitious restaurant to build such an interesting structure. (Der.)



I don't know what this is about. Googling it didn't make it clear to me.

Anyone?

That's the very cool new & used music store Amoeba Music in the background.

What a Difference a Week Makes - Sunday 5/4/2008

Wow, it was just a week ago that I planted sunflower and herb seeds in this little terrarium style planter.

It's almost creepy how quickly they've taken off.


We went to see Iron Man. Wow, what fun. [Check out my review on my movie and book review site, Curioscopy.]

Point Mugu - Saturday 5/3/2008

We drove out to Point Magu to hang out with some Songmakers friends who were camping up there for the weekend. We didn't camp because of various other things we wanted to do on Friday and Sunday, but it was a great day to go up there!

This is the way to the beach, passing under Pacific Coast Highway from the Sycamore Canyon campground.



There weren't as many people with guitars there as we'd expected. I took my bagel with me to the beach and ate it for lunch while sitting on this very large piece of driftwood.




My foot at the beach. As you can see, my original Crocs are holding up nicely.


Hydra joined me and we walked down the beach. Cool kite!



Can you see the Easter Island-like face at the tip of the outcropping of rock?

This area is one of the first my brother Joe brought us to when we moved out here. We came back here pretty often.

There's a place near here where the water undermined Pacific Coast Highway and it was rebuilt a little further inland. It is forever known as The Place Where Sundry Tried to Kill a Seagull.

Not that I actually intended to kill a seagull.

We'd only been out here a few months (from Indiana) and were not yet wise to the ways of the gull. We took a bucket of KFC out to the beach for a picnic. I tossed a chicken drumstick bone toward some gulls, thinking they'd pick it clean and I'd go pick it up.

It was not to be.

One of the gulls grabbed the bone, tilted its head back, and proceed to swallow it whole! We were horrified! I fully expected the bird, who didn't look like it could accommodate a bone of that size, to keel over in front of us.

Instead, it shook it's snowy head, fluffed its wings contentedly and blithely winged its way up the beach.

Yow. Never again. Even if they can handle it, I don't want to see that again!



The bridge from the other side.



Swallows nesting in the roof of the bath house.


Our friend's campsite and the place we hung out and talked and played a little music. It was a good day. We returned home with that feeling you get from being at the beach...tired in a very satisfying way.

Potus Hits the Brazillion Mile Mark! - Friday 5/2/2008

Well, honestly, only 100,000 miles. But sometimes it feels like I've traveled a brazillion miles since we brought our brand new Toyota Echo home in September 2003. She still gets 36-40 mpg, so we think we'll keep her.



The odometer hit 999999 right in front of Le Chene Restaurant on Sierra Highway. (It was Joe's Cafe in Steven Spielberg's Duel (1972.)


We knew that we'd hit this milestone today. Hydra was going to use Potus for an errand earlier in the day, but turned around and brought her back so I could drive her out of the warranty. Nice.


So. 100,000 miles later, and we're driving down Sierra Highway on our way to share music with our friends at a hoot in Northridge.


Have to show you these magnificent hibiscus flowers that grace the entryway to our friend's house, where the hoot was held.