Some of you may have had your fill of flower pix, but I have to explain. I never cared that much about them either until I bought a house with some flowers in the yard. They just pop up! At some point, boom there they are!
There are about a dozen mini roses in each of these little clumps.
This last shot is to give an idea of the scope of the plant. There are also a lot of shorter branches off to the left that haven't bloomed yet. They get more shade, I guess.
Never heard this term before, but it sure applied today. This morning it was fairly clear where I live, but then I dropped down into the fog.
Jeez, look at that skid mark. What do you suppose that jerk was doing?
Um. Taking photographs?
A real live person. Possibly an illegal immigrant. A human being who deserves to be treated decently on the job, which means simple things like being provided with water to drink, a place to take a break out of the sun, a reasonable workday length and toilet facilities.
It seems like documenting immigrant farm workers would make them less vulnerable to unscrupulous employers. We should be watching the employers and demanding that they treat workers in the way any of us would want our kids to be treated if they were hired.
The situation is what it is because we’ve allowed it to continue. I think it’s a good thing that we’re talking about finding solutions.
I have to say, though, that my Day Without an Immigrant involved significantly less traffic. An unitentional side effect.
Traffic was light this morning. What tha?
So I stopped at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf a few blocks from where I work to refresh my supply of their Chai and Carnival Mate.
The counter guy was very friendly. Impressed that I stopped there even though I work above Priscilla’s Coffee House and across from a Starbucks. CBTL has good loose leaf teas. Starbucks and Priscilla’s only carry Tazo in bags.
I did buy a rare cuppa Joe this morning. Mmm. Smooth rich slightly bitter dark roast.
Hmm… I took this for a weekly challenge (this week: photographing body parts), but I didn’t use this one. And it turned out to be the only other one I took yesterday!
I left work early and got home in time to write for about an hour. I really don’t ask a lot of my life, but time to write is really crucial.
Maybe this photo is of me asking for a little help from the universe in getting through this endless, sometimes soul crushing rewriting process. Writing is voluntary manic depression. You have these incredible highs and lows as faith in your story and your ability to tell it waxes and wanes.
Does that count as something I learned today? I didn’t know it yesterday.
I was invited to the Commander in Chief wrap party. Whoo hoo! D and I are going. It would be fun to see any of the major cast members. Whoo hoo!
Remember, I was born in a place called Bug Island.
I went to Papoo’s to write between work and my writing group. The waitress there is really great. She lets me (or me and MGS) sit in the closed section where it’s quieter.
That’s my car, POTUS, waiting for me to come out. She’s very patient.
According to the Urban Dictionary, an Emo Kid, is a kid who “rejects the ‘pop culture’ and joins the counter-culture realm.” Apparently this term has been around since the '80s. And it's derived from emo music which dates to the same era. I guess I just have to admit that there are some things I missed out on.
...was the only U.S. President who was not elected either vice president or president. He was appointed VP after Spiro Agnew left office and became president when Nixon resigned.
Huh.
Family gathered in celebration of the lovely Aunt M’s 95th birthday. Cousin S found this hat at Disneyland and, truly, it needed to be at this party.
My husband commented that he felt that his family was shrinking terribly when his only brother passed away this spring, but that it’s actually gotten bigger because we’re in better contact with his witty, smart cousins and their husbands. Another of life’s welcome surprises.
Now, this is NOT a criticism of my mom's cooking. She made great dinners and a most of it wasn't this fattening. And what did we know, anyway?
But on the other hand, here's my new recipe, inspired by Spoko, over on 43 Things, who mentioned having had a Greek soup with tomatoes and leeks in it. I had a leek and a chicken breast from a store-bought roasted chicken and a little time on my hands. The lemon is my nod to the Greek concept.
2 cans FF chicken broth
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
5-6 ounces cooked chicken breast, shredded into 1-inch lengths
3 Tbs lemon juice
oregano and parsely to taste
Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes. MMMM. I'll have these leftovers for lunch today.
in the Communications Workers of America union is a broadcast or print journalist. It covers a wider variety of professions than it sounds like it would.
(Hey I didn’t say every day’s learned thing would be a nugget of joy, just something I didn’t know before, okay?)
[Image from the Internet]
I didn’t know this. Went downtown to do some research and also bought some fruit. Wonderful!
Yay! I had to go to the LAPL Central Library yesterday to check some names in 1976 Philadelphia telephone directories (on microfiche!).
I grabbed a Subway lunch on the way down and had a little picnic in the courtyard. After checking the phone books, I spent part of my lunch in the Getty Gallery looking at old travel posters. Then visited the farmer’s market going on right there on 5th Street and came away with strawberries and oranges.
My camera battery went dead, so I didn’t have time to get any very creative photos. These words are written on the steps leading up to the main entrance.
This book changed my life. Not that it’s the only one that’s had a big effect, but seriously, it changed my life.
I think I’d graduated but was still working on campus when I read this book. It talked about having writing dates—getting together with another writer to write and talk about the writing. I invited a co-worker to go on a writing date, and she took me up on it!
We started having writing dates, and then she told me about a writing group she’d been in, and I joined that for a few years. She and I are still friends years later.
Writing dates are a big part of my writing life. I’ve had several long-term writer relationships that involved writing dates. It’s not exactly a writing partner situation, because we’re working on our own projects. But it’s good to meet, talk about how things are going, write for an hour or two, and maybe share the work.
I think part of why it works is that you are respecting what the other person is doing and they are respecting what you are doing.
In 1905, the end of the island that Miami Beach is located on was cut through in order to make access to the port of Miami easier.
Wonder if they would have done that if they’d known how much the land itself would some day be worth!
Vincas and poppies are blooming outside my front door! Yay spring!
No, the tag on his ear doesn’t mean he’s being tracked by Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler.
This is a little extreme, don’t you agree? I was hanging out in the Cafe area of the Barnes & Noble in Palmdale when I saw this guy.
Not only does he have a stack of magazines and books he’s looking at before deciding what to buy, but he’s wearing a pair of those magnifying eyeglasses they sell!
Bag ‘im and tag ‘im, Jim.
Paving the way for equal funding for girls’ sports in public schools.
I thought it was later than that, because it certainly wasn’t the case when I was in high school. They had to unlock the weight room for us. Whoo hoo.
I competed in track and volleyball when I was in middle school (held the girls high jump record for 2 years!), but opted for drama and academic clubs in high school.
For a cool article on the benefits for women of involvement in sports, check out:
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/issues/geena/record.html?record=862
[Photo from the Internet: Amy Acuff]
We drove through the Cajon Pass on our way down for an early Easter dinner. I always get excited in places like this. It’s a major and historic pass through the mountains. Many lives funnel through here on any given day and have for a long time.
A toll road was built through this pass in 1961. Old Route 66 went through here. It’s still the shortest way to get from San Diego to Las Vegas (15.) Dozens of trains move through the pass every day. And it’s another impressive part of the San Andreas Fault system.
These bright carnations were on cousin V's coffee table when we arrived there. Cheery!
What I learned yesterday was that the Department of Homeland Security wants script approval on any projects that mention it. There’s no legal requirement that a production has to comply, thank goodness.
I feel creepy about posting this, and considered not doing it.
But just the fact that it makes me feel creepy means that it’s important to at least say out loud. Really, most big agencies would like to exercise some spin control regarding how they are portrayed, it’s just that the DHS is spookier than most, to me.
I plan not to learn anything today, as I’m taking the day off.
I love this sign. It’s outside the Halfway House Cafe on Sierra Highway. This cafe has been used in a lot of TV shows and movies for a lot of years, and it still operates as a little roadside diner.
A couple of years ago I made a date with my husband to meet me here for fries and a Coke on the way home from work (it’s on his way, and on mine if I get off the freeway). Just wanted to see what it was like inside. The next night we were watching an old episode of Starsky & Hutch—personal research to find out just how much of a dork I was for having a huge crush on PMG in my teenhood—and they were in the Halfway House Cafe!!
It’s been remodeled since then, but not really improved. It needs to maintain a certain flavor.
There’s an old gas station next door that sometimes shows up on fim, too.
Of course, there’s a version of this photo in which I completely cut out the ugly industrial yard at the bottom. But really, what’s interesting about this is that they went to the trouble to put a pretty gorgeous fake palm tree (aka cell phone tower) in such a miserable place.
I’m guessing that there’s some sort of city ordinance in Burbank that led to this juxtiposition. It’s a good impulse.
If you went to DePaul University, that is. Unlike most schools, DePaul will not confirm or deny the names of its alumni. Just like the CIA!
I just joined Postcrossing. It’s a free website where you can go and find people to send postcards to. When you send one, you get in line to receive one!
This the first one I sent out. It’s a post card showing the rock deformation along the San Andreas Fault outside of Palmdale. This is about 8 miles from my house. Every time I go to town on the weekend to buy groceries, I cross over from the Pacific to the North American tectonic plate.
This card is going to Australia!
...when Harry S. Truman issued an executive order to this effect.
I learned this because I was trying to find a source for the following quote:
“One of the surest ways to break down the morale of the Army and to destroy it’s efficiency” [is to integrate the races.]. Which shows up in a few places on the Internet and is attributed to a presumably former New York Times editor.
It usually shows up in comparison with this quote, regarding allowing gay servicement to serve openly: “I cannot think of a better way to destroy fighting spirit and gut U.S. combat effectiveness,” which is attributed to David Hackworth.
Verrry interesting.
I’m not sure if either of these attributions is correct, because there’s so little info on them, but they were compiled by David Ari Bianco in his “Echoes of Prejudice.”
Photo from the Internet: Vietnam War Memorial
Alice Paul (1885-1977), who was instrumental in the passage of the 19th Amendment—which gave women the right to vote in the U.S.—introduced the Equal Rights Amendment to Congress in 1923.
Hmm. Maybe I knew this at some point, but I think of it as a 1970s sort of battle. It was ratified by 35 of the 38 necessary states, but has not been passed to this day.
It was called the Lucretia Mott Amendment and it very simply reads:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
Pretty scary stuff.
There’s a little chick nestled in the hen’s feathers.
(This one’s for Frannie Girl.)
Yes, this line is, as you may have suspected, from the first draft of the John Denver song. Just goes to show you how important the rewriting process is.
This dieffenbachia is nice looking. I rescued it a few years ago when the office across from ours at work moved to a different building. It wasn’t doing well.
But it’s gotten big enough now, that it’s become tempting to Dodger and Rocky. Rocky landed in it a few weeks ago, and I caught Dodger trying to nip at it yesterday. That’s it. It’s known to be toxic to pet birds. It’s outta here.
We’ve found a good way to get rid of things is to set them next to the road with a sign, especially on a Saturday. By the time we got back from running our errands, our little problem tree was off to another home. Whew.
