The Weather Service: Big Fat Lying Liars - Friday 1/4/2008

"Friday: Wind driven rain showers this morning with a steady, soaking rain during the afternoon hours. High 48F. Winds S at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch."

We're waiting. We're waiting...

Clouds blow in. Clouds blow out. I write, I clean, have lunch, take a walk, drop off the HOA fees, pick up the mail, and update my blog.

It's 3:46. Still no rain.



Bunny Alert!!

Dodger notified me (by tapping his beak against the glass rhythmically) that although there was still no precipitation, the bunny was on the deck again. What a watchbird.

Meanwhile, I am loving being home so much I can hardly believe it. I've cleaned, and donated things, and thrown things away. I've read. I've cooked.

But best of all, I have written between 2 and 5 hours a day for the past week at least!

I really don't understand how people get bored! There's so much to be interested in.

Roadside Memorial, Southbound Sierra Highway - Thursday1/3/2008

This memorial has been up for quite some time. I think it was there in some form before the fire that blackened the inside of this tree.


The arch is of some sort of masonry.



A favorite CD.




Messages from friends and family.

I was on my way down to It's A Grind coffee house in Canyon Country when I finally stopped to photograph this. Usually I pass it in the dark or going the other way.

Nick's IN! - Wednesday 1/2/2008

After posting notices in the area, running a Found ad in the local paper for three weeks and crossing our fingers, we've decided Nick's a part of the flock. We found a very good deal on a good sized cage and he seems really happy with us.


Here's the new line-up. Gus, Rocky and Nick.

Nick has integrated amazingly well. In fact, there seems to be less squabbling in general now that he's here. Rocky and Gus, to be honest, spent a lot of their time stepping on each other's tails before Nick arrived. (This is a no-no in budgiedom.)

Nick's a puzzle. We're still surprised someone didn't claim him, because he has obviously spent time with people and is finger tame. He's learning to accept being kissed on the belly (Rocky echoed my kiss noise this morning!), which is just one of the costs of living here.

He seems to really appreciate the fresh lettuce or parsley they get every night along with cooked grains, veggies and fruits. Keeps looking at the other birds and us like, "Oh, you don't know how good you've had it."

(Thanks for asking, Deb in FW!)

I Am What I Am, and I Always Have Been - Tuesday 1/1/2008

I have been an animal lover since at least Christmas Day, 1962. This is me and Kitty Fritz. I turned two a few weeks later.

We were going through things yesterday looking for pictures of Hydra's family, and I found a packet of photographs my mom sent me years ago and which I thought I had accidentally thrown away. I mean, I tore apart every box in our garage and in my studio closet over the course of a couple of days a while back and couldn't find them.

Where were they? In a box in the pantry marked "Photos."

It always takes me by surprise when my sporadic attempts to become organized actually work.

Anyway, in looking through these photos, it struck me that there are all sorts of hints of the person I was to become...


I have enjoyed camping since I was 2 1/2. This is Daddy and me at Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana in 1963. That's our converted school bus/camper, "The Ramblin' Wreck" in the background. That was so cool!


Although I don't have any photos of myself writing or reading, the arts have always been a big part of my life. My sister Pegerty and I try out my new paint book on my 3rd birthday. She's almost 12.

I think this is one of those books that you just brush water over and the color pops up. I'm not saying I was a prodigy.


I have been a tree-hugger all my life. (This is when I was barely three years old. There's an even earlier photo expressing my affinity for the tree.)



I have always had a flare for the dramatic.

According to the notes on the back of this snapshot, I am showing off my missing teeth. But it looks like I am launching into the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet.

"June 1967, 6 years, 5 months."



I've always had an appreciation for nature. Mom took some really fun shots when we went walking in the woods on a day in May. I had forgotten about my "pet worm" but I remember this day so well. Just me and Mom, and her telling me things and answering my questions.




I like to travel. I get a kick out of big cities. I like to hang out with stylish people.

This was taken in front of our hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I think our camper had broken down and so we went to the city for a few days. May 10th or 11th, 1969. Me (8), Mom, Brains (16) and Pegerty (17.)

I love Pegerty's sporty stance in this shot!! She subscribed to Ingenue magazine, don't you know!



I understand the value of friendship. Diver and I had been friends for almost 2 1/2 years by the time this photo was taken at my house in December of 1968. We met in kindergarten and we are still in touch today, even though we started going to different schools in 4th grade, and we live on opposite coasts now.

It was terrific to have a best friend from another school all through middle school and high school, especially. Kept us from feeling like our individual schools were the whole universe. And we had some life-building experiences together.


I have always liked spending time alone. Well, but animals are always welcome. (I'm ten in this one.)

There are lots of photos of me with my dog Ginger. If you know what it's like to grow up with a dog as a best friend, you'll know how much I still miss her.


I have always liked rocks. I carried this one home from the gravel pit at least a half a mile away just because I liked it. It was pinkish. I used it as a doorstop. I think it might still be somewhere in my mom's house. (She still lives where I grew up.)

Mom said that I could keep it if I brought it home myself but that she wouldn't help me carry it. I think there was a good lesson nestled in that afternoon, about working for something that you really desire. I am almost 11 in this shot.



I have always had impeccable fashion sense.

Hey. Kaftan's were very cool in 1972. (My 11th birthday.)

Is it my imagination, or does Ginger look embarrassed for me?


I have had a distorted body image since high school, probably since I heard Bob Mackie say on some talk show that Cher had perfect armpits.

I thought I was fat in this photo taken when I was 20, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.


(My body-type role model. Yeah, the one on the left.)

[Photo by Ulvis Alberts.]




I love my family. This is us in 1971 and 1981. In the first one, Joe had just come back from Vietnam. I was completely happy and completely oblivious.

Oh, and as you can see from these shots, I'm willing to make a fool of myself.

But you probably already knew that from reading this blog.

This is, coincidentally, my 1,000th blog post, and a satisfying way to spend New Year's Day (for me, anyway.)

Thanks Mom, for sending me the photos in the first place and for your wonderful captions on the back of them!

Getting Our Priorities Straight - Monday 12/31/2007

Okay, right after you call 911, call the Media.

I noticed this handy guide at Walmart and thought we all might do well to memorize the color codes. Jeez!

Back at the homestead we don't need any signs posted to tell us how to proceed. We had our friends History and Cowgirl up for a New Year's Eve dinner and over-night. I think we've been doing this for five or six years.

This year I got smart and opened the champagne at the beginning of dinner. After a glass of wine with dinner, we're usually not up for opening the champagne, in spite of the festive occasion.

We had a nice Veuve Clicquot that had been loitering around the back of our fridge for a while.

I enjoyed putting together a veggie feast to end the year with: portobello mushroom caps stuffed with goat cheese, pine nuts and basil served on a bed of homemade tomato/olive sauce, caprese salad, TJ's garlic eggplant spread on filo dough, and bread dipped in the fabulous olive oil that Tomasina gave me for Christmas. Finished up with another apple pie, topped with ice cream.

No pictures. We were kind of into eating it all.

Didn't quite make it to Zero Hour, but that's okay. Good company and good conversation made for a good ushering out of 2007.

Photoshopped and Ready to Roll - Sunday 12/30/2007

Realizing that she needs to take a photograph every day, she snaps a shot of herself leaving for a hike around the fireroad at dusk. It takes a lot of bundling to face sub-fifty-degree weather in Southern California!

Scarf was a gift from Peaches for Christmas this year. Jacket was a gift from me to Hydra a couple of years ago. Turns out I wear it more. I'm such a lumberjack.

Tamale Day 2007 - Saturday 12/29/2007

If this cow shows up on our Christmas card next year, will you remember that it was on the outskirts of Palmdale? I think not.



We have not had a tamale day since February 2006! But yay, we were invited to help Cuz-P, her mom and Cuz-V make pork and turkey tamales. Due to a bit of misunderstanding and a bit of an inability to do simple math, we arrived pretty late and I only helped assemble the sweet tamales. (So easy!)



Gracie kept watch over Hydra, who was worn out just thinking about making tamales. He missed the tamale feast.


Beautiful sunset along Highway 138 between Mormon Rocks and Palmdale.

Live from Downtown Acton - Friday 12/28/2007

I like this lady's bumper stickers. I also like the three dogs in the cab.

This truck was parked outside the Acton Post Office when we went down to mail a package to Truman in Michigan. No, not a late Christmas present, or even a late birthday present. I think these gifts have been riding around in the truck of my car since early 2007!

Toot! Toot! - Friday 12/28/2007

Yes, that's the familiar "toot" of my own horn you're hearing.

I wasn't sure if this was actually going to happen this year, but I received my contributor's copies of Weber: the Contemporary West in the mail yesterday!

Yes, you read that right. Contributor's copies! My personal essay "It Ain't Las Vegas," about life, nature and development in my area, and four or five of my photographs appear in the Fall 2007 (24:1) issue. You can get a copy through their submission page. I think they lag by about 1 issue in putting the content online, which makes sense.

This is a really nice way to end the year.

I decided to start sending out my photos at the beginning of 2007 and I placed them in 4 of the 5 publications I sent them to (Agua Dulce/Acton Country Journal, The Houston Literary Review, Raving Dove, and now Weber.)

It feels just wonderful to end the year with some credits under my belt!

And I thought Wednesday was a frabjous day!

No Pix of Pasadena, Redux - Thursday 12/27/2007

I seem to have some sort of mental block about taking my camera with me to Pasadena. This happened last time I was there, too. In lieu of shots of Vroman's and Tomasina's house, here are some photos taken at my house after I got home.

This is my current writing notebook--in which I write fiction, creative nonfiction and your basic self-involved journal entries--against a backdrop of the breathtakingly lovely vintage hand-stitched tablecloth (and matching napkins) that Braveheart gave me for Christmas (along with other treats.)

Since we were all off work, my writing group (now just Braveheart, Tomasina and I) met at Tomasina's house in Pasadena. The day was planned to last from 10-3, but we ended up being there till six! It was nice to just move from one thing to another and do all the things we wanted to do.

We talked about our writing since the last time we met; lunched on Tomasina's delish turkey chili (I WANT that recipe, T!) and lots of leftovers, cookies and candies; read to each other from our current projects; opened presents; took Tomasina's dogs for a walk; wrote together for 40 minutes; read that to each other, and then set the date for our next meeting and made commitments for the work we'll do by then.




I am known for having the fastest jammies in the West. I can get into my pajamas within mere seconds of coming through the front door.

Hence the pantlegs in this shot of the amazing bottle of olive oil Tomasina gave me for Christmas (along with other treats.) It will remain to be seen if we can hold off till we have guests to share this with before we crack this open and try it.

Great day.

Somebody please remind me to ask Tomasina how to get to the 210 West from her house next time. I lucked out with the inter-holiday light traffic, but I don't expect that'll always hold true.

O Frabjous Day! - Wednesday 12/26/2007

Callooh! Callay! She chortled in her joy.

One of the happy outcomes of my gallbladder surgery earlier this year is that I can now drink coffee again whenever I want!

I will never throw over my beloved teas, but it's wonderful to be able to say "yes!" when Hydra asks if I'd like a cuppa joe, java, mud, devil's brew.

I mean, coffee houses have been an important part of my life since I first found The Blue Mountain Coffee Company in Fort Wayne, IN during my first year of college. Hydra and I started sharing a table and the rest is history. I even worked there for four years. Coffee houses and diners are my second home, anywhere in the world.

As perfect as a pot of tea is as a writing companion, it's just wrong to sink a Hershey's Mint Truffle Kiss into an estate grown Assam or a winey Keemun.

But it is damn fine in Starbuck's Christmas Blend.

Christmas Day 2007

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!

You can't really see them in this light, but we switched to lower-energy-use LED lights on the tree this year.

We had a great Christmas. Hydra woke up at 3:15 and there was no more sleep to be had. We opened packages that had arrived from people in other states, and a couple from each other. Did a little prep for dinner, set the table, etc. Most of the prep was done the day before.

The cousins arrived from Orange and Riverside counties around 11:00 and we broke out the Mimosas and the-- Let's call them Pimosas. Champagne and peach juice cocktails, for a change. Appetizers: homemade shrimp spread, cheeses, crackers, TJ's Sun dried tomato/pesto torta, kalamata olives, nuts.

Opened gifties from one another. Lots of goodies!

Dinner was pork tenderloin roasted with garlic, rosemary and sage; P's killer mashed potatoes, V's delish spinach pear and Gorgonzola salad, apple-sage stuffing, shaved Brussels sprouts with bacon.



Now the birdhouses I painted (but did not build) can be revealed. I had a lot of fun with these. Ended up doing two more. Green and another pink/lavender in another shape.



After dinner we drove over to Shambala for the traditional viewing of the lions. Okay, it's not a tradition yet, but it may be... It's only about 7 miles from us. This guy was in an enclosure near the road.


This big fellah huffed and puffed for us from down in the canyon. We just stopped along the road to look in.

Back to the house for apple pie and mincemeat pie, and tea. Everyone stayed till about dusk.

We felt really good about the day. And I have to admit, it was nice not to have to drive anywhere!

An Avian Christmas Eve - Sunday 12/24/2007

I have had this pie bird for years and finally used it!

It's an old-fashioned tool to vent the steam from the crust (which this didn't really need, because there is a hole in the crust that is kind of gaping.)

I made this from an apple pie kit that Dana's boss and his wife gave us for Christmas. Forgot to even try to make a decorative edging on the crust, but I did cut little leaves out of extra dough and put those on.





Okay, sad to say, although Dodger had vowed to remain uncute on the Internet for the duration of the WGA strike, he couldn't help himself. He committed this random act of cuteness and I...well, I accidentally videotaped it. And then I tripped while carrying my laptop, and it ended up on YouTube. Sorry, WGA.

His original YouTube appearance, not being cute in response to the video Sorry, Internet, has been viewed 1,339 times since it was posted three weeks ago!

Wrapping Up Christmas - Sunday 12/23/2007

Our tree-topping Santa. We like him.


I picked up these reusable totes at Target for less than the cost of a lot of the gift bags they sell. Perfect for oddly sized gifts, and good for the environment, too!

Peachwood - Saturday 12/22/2007

We went to Blum Ranch, which we can see from our place across the valley, to pick up a quarter cord of firewood for Cousin M. Isn't this house great?

With the help of one of the family (Ray Billet himself??) we unloaded one of these bins into the back of our Tahoe. It was a great day for it, cool enough that it was nice to have the activity warm us up. We joked as we stacked wood.

We chose the cleaner peach wood limbs rather than the split logs from trees that had partly burned in the fire of 2004. $40 for a quarter cord. This is a really good deal. Other places around here are charging $205-250 for a cord. (Do the math; it's good for you.)



Close up of the water tower. I would love to roam around here taking pictures one day.



Back at our own little homestead, we moved things around in the garage and stacked the peach wood under the window. This pile is about 4x4x2.

I called and left a message with Cousin M, telling him that our fee for moving this wood two--no, that'll be three--times (eventually into the back of his Explorer) is an armload of wood.

Mr. Billet said that it smells good when it burns and I'm more than curious.

Fruitful Friday - 12/21/2007

Whoo! Festive, huh?

Why don't I ever think to take a "before" picture?

Maybe because they tend to be kind of humiliating.

I am forced to admit that I might have a slight compulsion about saving paper and plastic bags and glass jars. It was like ankle deep in here when I started. Naively, I thought it would take about 2 hours to clean up.

Har dee har har har. Six--count 'em--six hours later, viola! No jars that have no lids, no lids that have no jars. No boxes full of bags. Just a renewed conviction to not mindlessly accept the paper and plastic our friends the cashiers want to give us.



Outside the pantry door things are a little more jolly. If we've received your card, it's here! Thanks so much for helping us decorate.

My cousin Bells, reminded me that our grandma put cards up on the inside of her front door. My mom did this too. I guess I've always done it. Except that we have a big leaded glass window in the front door, so I wrap the pantry door with gold paper and tape the cards on that.

I had a very productive day. Wrote just a tiny bit in the early a.m., completed two more hand made gifts, and started two more. Yay!

Christmas/Birthday Tea - Thursday 12/20/2007

Yeah, it would have been nice if I'd thought to take a photograph of this before I and my coworkers descended upon it like hyenas on voles.

Wow, was the food at The T Room in Montrose great! Most of us ordered the traditional tea and you could substitute other sandwiches from the menu. Mmm. The Lingonberry Chicken was surprisingly good. Watercress & cucumber may have been my favorite, with the Olivade coming in a close second.

Big pots of tea--we ordered the Noel blend and the Russian blend--on the table. Happiness. We celebrated Christmas and Momalisa's birthday. Food was wonderful, service was slow for our party of eight. It took about 20 minutes before they even brought us the tea, which came when the sandwiches and scones were ready.

My only food complaint was the fruitcake style candied fruit in the scones. I mean, yuck.

Everyone rose above the ominous fact that this is our last meal together for the foreseeable future. We will be working on kind of an on-call basis in January, a day or two a week maybe. I don't want to write about it.



The top of the Christmas tree, which everyone encouraged me to get a shot of... Scarily over-decorated for my taste.


Weens exhibits the classic tea room decorum one would expect of a lady. We're so proud!

[Hey, she reads this blog. She knew the risk she was taking!]




Looking up Honolulu Avenue from outside the T Room. Didn't get any good pix of the outside of the T Room. It's not terribly photogenic.


Weens pointed out this angel down the street, in front of an art gallery.

We went back to the office and opened our Secret Santa gifts from each other, and our gifts from the owners. Lovely cashmere scarves, all different colors. So soft and lovely.

I'm sleeping in mine.