The fires rage on. If I seem to be focusing on the them a lot, excuse me. It's just that they are so bad this year. Over 100,000 acres gone, many homes destroyed, and 2 firefighters lost their lives today when their vehicle overturned on one of those mountain roads.
I took this picture a few minutes ago as I drove home from school. Everything is done, but we had a required set-up day today, so I had to go in. It was helpful, I am planned for the week, the copies are made, and I created a little presentation on the class rules and other things for the kids tomorrow. This is my first new group in 2 years since I looped from 4th to 5th last year, so I have to start from scratch now--establishing myself as the BIG ...MEAN... TEACHER. I'm kidding.
Strangely, I don't have the normal pre-first-day butterflies that I often get. Maybe I'm out of practice because I knew all of my kids last year. I have learned that those butterflies are unnecessary. If anything, the first day is when the kids behave their best! It's the second day and every day after that that's hard. Actually, I have a pretty good feeling about this year. And I'm happy to be teaching 4th grade again. It's a good age.
This is the scene at night these last few days. Horrible, isn't it? This picture was taken by a friend of mine up on a rooftop in Pasadena, about 10 minutes away from my house. Last night from my driveway I could see the smaller fires on the top right burning. The big area on the left was obstructed by trees.
This morning the air is heavy with smoke, the car is covered in ash, the sun looks red, and the smell is nasty. I can even smell it from inside my house with the doors and windows shut. We have fires every year, but nothing like this. I know that fire stations from surrounding cities have been working round the clock to get them under control, but are not having a lot of success just yet. Thousands of acres have burned, people have been evacuated, some houses have been lost. Very sad. I wouldn't doubt it if they eliminate the kids' recess on the first day of school because of the air quality.
This is an interesting break-down of the health insurance public option scenario. Perhaps slightly oversimplified, but it still drives home the basic message that things need to change:
Right now Southern CA is dealing with its yearly end-of-summer brush fires, but what I saw today made them more a reality than in any past years. Yes, the air smells like smoke and you don't want to take a lot of deep breaths. Yes, there are traces of ash on the cars that have been parked for a while. But today I saw the billows.
Coming home from the school where I work (after a productive 3 hours doing more setting up) I was heading west on the 10 freeway when I saw what looked like an enormous reddish cloud growing out of the ground at the foot of the mountains. It was almost glowing with the fire. There are several fires burning at the moment. The one I saw was probably the La Canada/Flintridge fire based on the location. With the day's temperature topping out at about 106 degrees, the smoky air, the smell, that billowing cloud, it was awful weather today.
But it wasn't all bad. After leaving work I decided to celebrate my readiness for the first day of school with some sushi and my mom wanted to join me. We went to the Todai buffet and had a great lunch. Today was the day my cleaning lady comes, so it was lovely to arrive home to a sparkling clean house. Shortly after doing so, I fell asleep for 2 hours. That was a GOOD nap. When I woke up, my mom called to say that my nephew was at her house and my brother would be there shortly, so we had a little visit. And at the end of that visit, a lady from church called to invite us to enjoy a 66 cent sundae at Twohey's and we ended up chatting for over 2 hours over ice cream and many glasses of ice water.
So it didn't turn out to be a 3-day weekend like I'd hoped, but I'll enjoy these remaining days a lot more knowing I accomplished a lot this morning in my classroom. The weather is *supposed* to "cool" down to the low 90's by Sunday. Yes, when the 90's feel cool, you know you're in trouble. All in all, a restful weekend seems to be ahead.
Despite my obvious lack of book reviews on my blog, I do read books (as evidenced by my "mon-tage...") The problem is that I am severely unmotivated to commit to books during the school year because I have a tendency not to finish them. Summer is my reading time, and I'm usually able to get through 2-3 in those 10 weeks.
This summer, however, not so much. There is no excuse, I just didn't. So I was determined to complete at least one book before the summer's end. My reading schedule was interrupted by an impromptu visit to Solvang last week, but today I finally finished my book, Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos.
If ever there was a "slice of life" book, this is it. With wonderful language and dialogue, it invites you into the lives of several people, individually at first, and then their lives slowly start to intertwine. When they do blend together, you have already been introduced to everyone separately and know them fully, so there is no confusion. When the biggest revelation is revealed towards the end, you wonder how you didn't see it coming much sooner. As someone who is often able to foresee what is going to happen, I was happily surprised. No one likes a story that's too predictable.
The book begins with Cornelia Sandoval and her husband, Dr. Mateo ("Teo") Sandoval. They are new to town, childless, and trying to settle into their surroundings. Cornelia's chapters are always told in the first person, the only ones that are that way. Cornelia meets others in the town: Lake Tremain, the waitress at Vincente's Italian Restaurant, and her son, Dev, who is brilliant and fatherless. Lake and Dev are new to town too. Long-time residents Piper and Kyle Truitt are also introduced. Piper is immediately unlikable, almost bordering on a Stepford wife, but as you get to know her you find there is more than meets the eye. Piper's best friend is Elizabeth Donohue, who is dying of cancer and is married to Tom. Piper and Elizabeth each have 2 children, and are almost more married to each other than to their husbands.
The story is interesting, the characters are very well-developed, and the writing is excellent. I don't want to go into too much detail with the plot, but everyone's lives do get turned upside down by the time the book ends, and not necessarily in a bad way. You are reminded of many things while reading: not to judge someone by a first impression, forgiveness and love are choices you make, and change you thought you feared can actually turn out to be the best thing for you.
I recommend it, and I'm curious about the author's other works. Happy reading!
My classroom is done. 5 hours yesterday and 3 today and it is done. If I hadn't had such a great helper it would've taken a lot longer. Now all that is left is the planning for the first week of school, some copies, and some things that need to be done on my computer at home.
Here are some before and after shots. I like a colorful room, can you tell? Actually, it will be a lot more interesting once it is filled with 32 little 4th graders!
Click to see full-sized. I do love my room. It is so spacious. And it has been great not having to switch rooms now for 4 years in a row. That is unprecedented for me as I enter my--gulp!--13th year of teaching. WOW.
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER P.S. I got my class list today. 30 kids, 15 boys and 15 girls. I have some kids with some very unusual names! My helper, Alta, and I burst out laughing (I'm sleep-deprived, you understand) when I read some of them. I kid you not. I have an Itzel, a Jitzel, a Jizzell, and an Itzraely. I think the 2 middle ones are pronounced "Giselle," but I'm not sure. Clearly we have some creative parents!
Today I went back to work and started setting up my classroom. The good news is that I have a fantastic helper who is so efficient, she is like having 5 helpers. (Altagracia, my mom's former aide.) The bad news is that I had a terrible night's sleep where I was tossing and turning until 2am and then still had a fitful sleep between 2am and 7:30am.
Despite the fact that the classroom looked relatively the same (and bare) when I arrived this morning, what felt like a victory at the end of June felt like a daunting task today. Luckily, Alta works like a little tornado, and we had the furniture in place and she got the bulletin boards up in a few hours. I ran to the teacher supply store for some borders, a new calender, and some new posters while she kept plugging along. That was probably the most productive thing I was able to accomplish. And yes, all of those cute decorations in classrooms were bought by the teacher, not provided by the school.
By 1pm I was going in circles and my head was all fuzzy. I thought it was from hunger, but after a quick burger I realized it was tiredness. So we called it a day, happy with the progress so far, and will try again tomorrow. I've got to sleep better tonight.
Seriously, if a genie appeared and offered me 3 wishes, I think I would use one of them to wish to be a really good sleeper.
8:45pm and I'm showered and in jammies, ready to try this again. Off to bed. Wish me luck!
This little 3 day/ 2 night trip to Solvang is exactly what I needed before going back to school. And we've done so much walking today! We left out hotel this morning around 10am and returned at about 8:45pm tonight. Most places close around 5:30pm, but a few places stay open until 7, 8, or 9pm.
We did find the GEM of places here, which has eaten up most of our shopping time (and money.) The Solvang Antiques Center. Oh...my....gosh. That place is gorgeous, and the employees are so nice and generous with their time. They specialize in clocks--mostly grandfather clocks--and music boxes. The music boxes are mostly cylinder music boxes, and they are beautiful. But there are also plenty of other things, everyday things that function in the home like tables and chairs, bureaus, mirrors, and cabinets.
The owners are retiring after 30-some years in business, and nearly everything is reduced. I found a chair there for my living room. I've been needing a chair to replace this rickety little rattan straight-back chair that I've had with a hole in bottom. The hole is covered with a cushion, but it isn't very comfortable.
This is what I found: 1870's, American, walnut. Very comfortable, which means functional, which is what I wanted. It will be one of the first things you see when you come in the front door, and it's upholstered back adds to the loveliness. I would much rather have something unique and special than something mass-produced. I'm happy to welcome this chair into my house. We're picking it up tomorrow afternoon on our way out of town.
We have become comfortable acquaintances with the wife, Julie, who is one of the current owners, and she has been so wonderful about explaining things and being very generous with her time.
Tonight we went in and heard this amazing violin and piano music. It was coming from this UNBELIEVABLE music box that had a real violin in it and the workings of a piano. It was gorgeous to see and to hear. Just a mere $65,000 on sale, in case you're interested!
Julie, the owner, and the "virtuouso" music box with both piano and violin. See the violin? Click to see full-sized.
If you're noticing a pattern of Arboretum pictures, it is because that is a favorite place of my family's to visit. My mom used to take us there when we were kids (and when it was free) and it is a part of my childhood that I'll always cherish. When she is babysitting my nephew, and I'm visiting, we enjoy taking him places, and the Arboretum continues to be one of our top choices. Now we are annual members.
Today Xander's big accomplishment was that he climbed the steps all the up to the top of the waterfall by himself! I held his hand to steady him, but he did the rest. What a powerful feat!
Some pictures from today:
Above is the "victory" picture. Xander walking around the pond at the top of the waterfall after a very determined climb up approximately 30 steps...
You can't take pictures of the Arboretum without including at least one of Queen Anne's Cottage...
...and a peacock!
And...we were trying to take a movie of Xander climbing headfirst into his stroller, which he did numerous times during the day, and instead we ended up with this "squealing symphony." Oh well! Still funny!
I like those words. They symbolize accomplishment, which is how I'm feeling.
Today was a productive day in some unusual ways, including the fact that I haven't left the house at all. Yet a lot has gotten done. And the TV hasn't even flickered on at all.
First of all, I am deeply immersed in the book I bought yesterday: Belong to Me. I told myself I would read 65 pages a day to be done by Saturday and I'm on page 131. I like it, it is very readable, but I also like it because the author writes as if her audience is intelligent. I respect that. Books like the Twilight series, yeah, they're fun, but they don't treat the reader as intelligent. And forget about Nicholas Sparks. He treats his reader like she is a sentimental airhead.
The book I'm reading is about suburbia. I guess it could be any middle-class suburb, but this one is a Philadelphia suburb. It focuses on the lives of 4 different families, and how they come together at times and what they go through in the privacy of their own homes. Basically it proves a theory I have operated with for years, which is: No matter how much you think you know people, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is a simple fact that even the most genuine people have a public persona and a private one.
Other accomplishments today stemmed from an "appointment" that my mom and I made with each other this morning. There were things that we needed to do together that were getting brushed aside, and would continue to be so if we didn't focus.
1. Discuss the design and poem that is going on the headstone for the family plot that we recently purchased for my grandparents and 10 other--as yet to be determined--family members. I have the honor of writing the poem, but, as I explained to my mom and she understands, creativity and inspiration are not made-to-order. So we talked about some ideas and I'm going to hope that the Spirit moves me--soon. And of course there is the added pressure that THIS poem will be immortalized forever on the back of a very large headstone, whereas 90% of the others I've written are neatly tucked away in notebooks.
2. We also picked a place to go for a last-minute end-of-summer trip. We're going to Solvang, a little Danish-inspired town about 135 miles north of Los Angeles. We found a really cute B&B a few minutes walk from the center of town.
And this will be our room: The Rose Haven Room. I like it when the rooms have names. Looks cozy! Lots of places to sit and continue with my book...
Of course, going away means having to find a housesitter. Our regular housesitter is in the middle of finals right now and had to decline. So we hired the kid next door to me--a recent college grad to take care of my house and my mom's house. I hope my dog doesn't go nuts. He doesn't do well when I'm away. It's only for 2 nights, though. He'll survive.
And, last but not least, I got a hold of my official "Classroom set-up helper," Altagracia, the older sister of one of my mom's former students. We're going on Monday to begin the task. Some teachers are already at school this week (we don't get paid until next Wednesday,) but Alta is such a fantastic helper that things get done very fast. We work as a great team. Besides, I'm not quite ready for summer vacation to be over just yet.
So, everything seems to be in place for these next few days. A nice feeling.
The "dreaded letter" came today. That's the letter from the school district that says when we have to be back to work: Wed, Aug. 26th. Ugh. We're having an in-service that day. I kid you not, it is going to be a meeting about how to have meetings. If you figure that one out, let me know.
(Inside my head I just have to keep saying to myself, "I'm grateful to have a job, I'm grateful to have a job....)
Like last week, there isn't much on tap for these last few days of my vacation. I wanted to go away for a couple of days to someplace local, like Santa Barbara or someplace, but it just didn't pan out. So I'll just have to create my own activities. That is one of the downsides of being a single person who lives alone.
I did, however, come up with a really great reason to live alone (besides total control of the remote, that's a given.) When you live alone there is no reason to have piles of clothes laying around the house. Why? I'm glad you asked. Because, if you don't feel like folding them, you just leave them in the washer or dryer. There's no one waiting for the machines, so there you go. No piles.
Kidding, I'm kidding. I don't do that. OK, mostly I don't do that.
I realized that this morning while doing laundry and thinking about how to spend the day. I decided to go and see The Proposal, with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. I'm not going to do a big review on it, because it was a predictable romantic comedy. Better than some, not as good as others, but cute to see once. A cute date movie or chick flick. While waiting for the movie to start, I went into Border bookstore and browsed around. I'm ashamed of the lack of reading I have done this summer. Usually summer is my reading time and I get through 2-3 books, but this summer I haven't done any. So I bought a book called Belong to Me, that looked pretty good and I'm going set myself a reading schedule so that I'm done by this Saturday. Then I'll have read at least one book this summer. That's my goal. 390 pages divided by 6 days equals 65 pages a day. I can do that. Like I said--not a lot on tap this week.
After the movie I stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home. Two guys had set up a booth protesting Obama's health care proposal. In front of their stand was a big picture of Obama with a little square mustache to make him look like Adolf, the big baddie. I didn't think that was cool. And this morning one of my friends posted on Facebook that someone defaced the Obama sticker she has on her car. Again, not cool. I don't know enough about the new health care proposal to judge, but I do know that it is probably too early to do so. So I will save an opinion until I know more. I do know that health care would not have improved with McCain, so, regardless, I still wouldn't have changed my vote. Everything is too new, and Bush left behind a bucket of problems for Obama to mop up. I'm going to be patient.
Inside Trader Joe's I found some lovely sunflowers that I couldn't resist buying and putting on my kitchen table. They were potted, but I cut them and put them into a vase. Sunflowers and daisies--you can't look at them and not feel a little brighter. Here are 2 pictures--one regular and one after I was playing around with the camera settings. So pretty!
OK, those are my musings. I guess I better get to reading my 65 pages for today!
6:10pm **UPDATE** I'm going on a trip! Thursday to Saturday. Yay! I need another little getaway. Don't know where I'm going yet, though. TBA...
Right now I'm thankful for 3 things: 1. wireless laptop connections (so I can sit in bed and write on a lazy Sunday morning like today) 2. blogs (because I enjoy writing, and it is great to have an easy outlet to write and share) 3. and the last, which segues into this post's topic...I'm grateful for filmmakers who produce high-quality films
As my Mexican-born grandma used to say, "Ay, these times and days!"
That's how I feel when I see the garbage--GARBAGE--that is out there on TV and in the movie theaters. It's a shame, really, because I love movies. I'm always on the look-out for new films to watch. But what I don't like is wasting my time and being disappointed. I'm discerning and happy to be so, and I always like to know a little about the film before I watch it. It lets me know if the film is worth my time and also makes me appreciate it more.
Yesterday, after some time on the computer and an errand, I went to my Instant Viewing queue on Netflix.
I have a ROKU player. A little $100 black box that sits on my TV and wirelessly and instantly streams movies from my Netflix queue to the TV. I don't have cable, I don't want cable, and I think this is the best alternative. The movies available aren't always the newest or the most popular, but there are still really great ones that are there if you look.
Happily, I found 2 GREAT films. Here are my reviews: A Good Woman, is based on an Oscar Wilde story called "Lady Windemere's Fan." It stars Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson, and takes place on Italy's Amalfi coast in 1930.
Visually, this movie is beautiful. The scenery, the buildings, the costumes are just stunning. When I read the Netflix user reviews, this seemed to be the one thing that people could agree on. The reviews were very mixed, but I decided to give it a try anyway.
Because of things people said, I expected to be bored or disappointed. I was neither. The story was riveting and there were twists and turns all the way up to the last scene.
Helen Hunt plays a tainted woman named Stella Erlynne, who, in her own words is "infamous and poor." She circles through high society having affairs with married men, and letting them support her financially. If she can't charge something to one man's account, she'll use another's, and is always on the lookout for more.
Enter newlywed Robert Windemere. He's incredibly rich, devoted to his wife, and very naive. Stella has been luring men for years and has it down to an art form. He's no match for her and can't resist. And it isn't because she is a beautiful woman, but because she has a way of catching people off guard, which she does throughout the film.
Scarlett Johansson is Robert's wife, Meg. She's only 20, never had a mother, and holds herself and others to an impossibly high standard of decorum and propriety.
Around these 3 key players is a nest of gossipy, rich men and women played by great supporting actors. They add the fluff and fun to an intriguing story that keeps you guessing and interested every minute. It reminded me a lot of another film, An Ideal Husband, with Cate Blanchett and Jeremy Northam--also based on a story by Oscar Wilde. But I think I actually liked yesterday's film even better.
Despite the torrid story, it is very good, very sharply written, and worth seeing. A nice surprise! Here's the best trailer I could find. You can watch it full screen too.
The 2nd film I saw was a documentary that I turned on late last night as I was falling asleep. It was great...one of the best documentaries I've seen, mainly because the filmmaker does what every filmmaker should do, which is to make the audience care about who they're watching. This film is called STOLEN, and it documents the attempted recovery of 13 paintings that were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. The most famous of the paintings is one of only 34 Vermeers in the world, entitled The Concert, pictured above.
Even though it is a documentary, there is a cast, and they are fascinating. There is Harold Smith, the art crime detective--75 years old, and slightly shocking to look at because he has advanced skin cancer. There is the newpaper reporter who was secretively taken to view the paintings AFTER they were stolen, and would love to be able to retrace his steps and lead the authorities to them. There is the British police informant, nicknamed "Turbocharger," because of his high-energy demeanor. There is the gallery attendant, who gets weepy thinking about his first experience in the museum as a 13 year old boy, who felt such a connection to it at a young age, that he knew that he was destined to spend his life there. And there is William Youngworth, the unbelievably arrogant art dealer/former con who says he knows how to recover what was stolen, as Harold Smith listens, trying to hide his annoyance and frustration. Then there are the authors--mostly Vermeer biographers, who ache at the thought that there is one less painting by this revered artist available to the general public.
There are also the 2 ghostly voices of the past--those who conceived the idea of having a gallery of beautiful art in Boston in the early 1900's-- a time when no such thing existed there. Isabella Stewart Gardner (below left) and her art agent, Bernard Berenson, voiced by Blythe Danner and Campbell Scott. Letters between these two are read back and forth and you understand the love and care (not to mention the money) that was put into making this collection wonderful and special for all to enjoy. Learning that makes the theft even more offensive, especially because in her will, Mrs. Gardner specified that no paintings should be added or subtracted from the collection. She put it together as a unit that should stay that way after her death. In keeping with her wishes, this means that in place of the stolen paintings hang only empty frames--a constant reminder of the crime.
With a $5 million dollar reward, there are certainly a lot of leads, and Harold Smith needs to sift through them and decide which are worth pursuing. This pursuit starts to involve more and more people, ranging from the IRA to Boston's top mob boss. As the viewer, I felt myself very involved and invested in solving the case too. And you feel the sadness and the loss that these beautiful things were taken, especially when you see the expressions and emotions of those who love them most. They look at prints of the stolen art like they're missing family members, children who cannot cry out on their own behalf.
Do they turn up at the end? I'm not going to tell. But whether they do or not, the journey is incredibly interesting. (You can always go to the museum's website and find out, along with seeing what was taken.) *wink* One of them was this turbulent Rembrandt (I love his work,) thought to be his only seascape. It's gorgeous. You can almost see the boat fighting against the storm, the thunder pounding around it.:
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633
When pieces like this are taken, how can you not care? This film not only makes you feel that way, but also reminds you of the importance and role of masterpieces like these. A great documentary. And, yay! It took some hunting, but I found the trailer...
P.S. An interesting thing--if your name is "Isabella," you are allowed free entry to the museum for your entire life.
What an interesting day! LOTS of time of the computer--probably too much! LOL But the house is clean and the yard is looking great and it was a day to relax and be creative. Maybe I'll make some more blog headers in the next couple of days.
And tonight I did one fun song over on MySpace Karaoke. I wish they had more of these great old songs to record!
Tomorrow I need to get out of the house more. The next door neighbors are having a yard sale and my bedroom window faces their driveway. And across the street my mom is hosting a retirement party for a former colleague. And me? I've asked tons of people if they were available to do something tomorrow and no one was free. *sigh* So I guess I'm on my own tomorrow. I'll head to Montrose in the morning to exchange the toy I bought for my nephew (the one I bought had a crack in the wood) and then, if I'm feeling really ambitious, I might drive out to Long Beach and visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. I love looking at fish--it must be the Pisces in me!
I heard this John Mayer song on the radio for the first time the other day and just fell in love with it. As a daughter who never really had much of a father, it struck a chord with me. But it's more than that. The lyrics talk about how love trickles down through the generations.
This is a truly beautiful song.
I encourage you to read through the lyrics and then scroll down to the video below. Enjoy.
LYRICS: I know a girl She puts the color inside of my world But she's just like a maze Where all of the walls all continually change And I've done all I can To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands Now I'm starting to see Maybe it's got nothing to do with me
Fathers, be good to your daughters Daughters will love like you do Girls become lovers who turn into mothers So mothers, be good to your daughters too
Oh, you see that skin? It's the same she's been standing in Since the day she saw him walking away Now she's left Cleaning up the mess he made
So fathers, be good to your daughters Daughters will love like you do Girls become lovers who turn into mothers So mothers, be good to your daughters too
Boys, you can break You'll find out how much they can take Boys will be strong And boys soldier on But boys would be gone without the warmth from A womans good, good heart
On behalf of every man Looking out for every girl You are the god and the weight of her world
So fathers, be good to your daughters Daughters will love like you do Girls become lovers who turn into mothers So mothers, be good to your daughters too
I get bored with the same blog background after a very short time, so it was time for a facelift (on the blog...not me!) I know that a lot of people who stop by here have blogs of their own, so let me tell you about the sites I use.
ONE CUTE BLOG (great backgrounds, but a lot are not made for widescreen monitors)
There are others, of course. The ones I listed often have links to others.
And those headers I make are all done at this COOL online scrapbooking site called SCRAPBLOG.COM.
Scrapblog is FREE and very, very user-friendly. You set up a free account (no personal info required) and can start creating using one of their templates or a blank sheet. Then you save it and publish it. I use the "print screen" feature on my keyboard to save it into a file on my laptop and then I resize it to the "web--large" size, otherwise it doesn't upload well.
Super easy. And very fun for the creative or "wants-to-be creative" person...
Some headers I've made: If you have a blog and want to make a header, and need some help on Scrap Blog, let me know and I'll walk you through the process. You feel so great when they're all done!
Beware of saying, "I need adventure." You just never know what the universe will throw your way.
Today's real adventure came in the form of hoards (hoards!) of ants trailing all around my mom's gazebo. Seriously, they were everywhere: building condos, bearing offspring, visiting family--everywhere. Together we sprayed them with Raid, sprayed the beams and pillars and perimeter of the gazebo, and hosed down the foundation and some of the garden furniture. They may be small, but they can be pretty hearty little creatures!
A late start and an hour-long delay of ant-zapping called for some creativity of where to go today. I needed to get out and have a change of scenery, perhaps feeling the weight of the summer's end. Lying around the house is just plain depressing. This is Los Angeles, after all! There are hundreds of things to do and places to go.
Because of time we decided to keep it simple and go to Montrose, a less-trendy, but cleaner and smaller version of Old Town Pasadena about 10-12 miles away. While there I got some new pajamas and a fabulous little toy for my nephew, (he turns 18 months old today.) It is a toy that my brother and I had as kids--a little mallet pushes colored pegs into a board and then you turn the board over and start all over again.
We also had dinner at the Star Cafe'. Man, that place is good! I had only been there once before and it was in the morning. Tonight I had chicken carbonara on penne pasta and Mom had the Chicken Caesar with grilled salmon. And, since I take my camera everywhere I go now, we took some pictures. Because... "I know you care!" Yeah, right.
As of today, my house is totally, completely, and 100% finished on the outside. The only things that had prevented it from being so before were the rain gutters. The brick guy left behind a problem that Sonny--my heroic painter (!)--took it upon himself to solve. Problem: how to reinstall the old rain gutters now that the brick was in the way?
I'm telling you, I wish every painter, brick guy, contractor, etc. could have a work ethic like Sonny. After some experimenting, he used a hack saw to cut the gutters and reposition them around the brick. Two of the gutters even needed to be moved to one side, which he also did.
When that was done, he painted them the color of the house. ALWAYS paint your gutters the color of the HOUSE, not the accent color. They're gutters, after all. They don't need that much attention.
And, because cutting them also meant eliminating some of the length, he bought some pieces to add to the bottom. Part of the dilemma is that these are the older style of gutters, which don't have all of those bendable parts like the new ones. And, yay! They're all done.
The finished product
This one had to be moved over a few inches to the right. The original spout was exactly where the bricks are down the corners of the house. That meant cutting a new hole and patching up the old one.
And this next thing has nothing to do with gutters, but it is still really cool. This afternoon I was getting cabin fever and offered to chauffeur my mom around town on some errands. She's having an old O.W. Lee table restored and powder-coated and we had to stop at San Marino Tile and Pool to pay the bill before it is delivered tomorrow. Cool store! And very nice employees. Inside I saw 2 things I have been needing for my backyard: an outdoor clock (mine died months ago,) and a light for my umbrella.
The umbrella light is SO cool!! I've never seen anything like this before. I don't know why they aren't available everywhere patio furniture is sold. It is like a donut that opens up and then clamps around the umbrella. It has 6 LED lights and a rechargeable battery + the charger. I love it! And that concludes the adventures of my exciting day.
My goodness, yesterday went fast. It wasn't as sluggy-slug as I thought it would be, but it was still a quiet day mostly at home.
A little laundry, a little watering, a quick errand, and a little miracle with some big relief.
Some friendship mending took place, something I wasn't sure would ever happen. But it did, and this part of me that has been frozen in time for the past 5 weeks finally feels like it can start to heal. Awkward, yes. Regrettable, no. Baby steps, slowly but surely, but it's something. "Something" sure feels a lot better than nothing. Communication is an amazing thing.
I feel so much better.
And today I'm celebrating my friend, Bobby's, birthday with him by heading back to Disneyland this afternoon. Dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou, baby! That place is so cool, and I haven't been there in ages.
And now it feels like I'm celebrating 2 things, Bobby's birthday and the reconnection with a dear friend. Both very good things.
With only 2 weeks of freedom left before I have to go back to work, if I don't slow down the pace I've been keeping for the past week, I will burn out before I have to set up my classroom, which is very intense.
So today I have dubbed as "Slug Day." No outings, no housework except watering the flowers and maybe a little bit of laundry. This is "lay around-read-nap-blog-sing-veg-shirt/shorts day."
So far so good...I've blogged, I've sung (la, la, la, and la,) and have done plenty of laying around. (Each "la" is a link.) My philosophy? When you know you've earned them, never feel guilty about days like this.
Three cheers for "Slug Day!" Slugs Unite!
***UPDATE*** 1:45pm Slug Day continues with no guilt. I did decide to drag myself into the shower, just so I wouldn't offend myself. Then I put in a little quality time in Farm Town. There are no more levels to reach for, but it's still fun "maintaining the farm." Click the pic to see full-sized. You know you want to... :-)
In the tradition of this entire week, yesterday was another very full day. I went to Disneyland for the 5th time this summer, meeting my friend, Tracey, at 9am, which means leaving the house at 7:30am, which means getting up at about 6am. I always plan 90 minutes between driving, parking, tram to the park, getting through the entrance, and walking to the meeting place (the Walt and Mickey statue.)
As a Disneyland Premium Pass owner, I can go any day of the year (which is awesome,) get "free" parking (again, awesome, so you're not paying $12 before you're even in the park,) and I get discounts on all food and merchandise. Seriously, if you live in So. CA and enjoy Disneyland like I do (close--about 30 miles, clean, safe, and fun) it really does pay to have a pass.
We went early because I had a family party to attend in the evening.
As soon as we met, Tracey had the idea to go on Splash Mountain, a log ride which has very high water that has a habit of spilling into the log and onto you. The inside of the ride uses the characters from the old America Sings attraction (which I still miss a lot--that Innoventions thing is ridiculous...) After a few wet drops through the ride and seeing the Song of the South characters, you climb this very tall slope and plunge down a STEEP hill about 80 feet high into the "briar patch." Somewhere in that plunge you see a flash off to the side as you get your picture taken, immortalizing your silly reaction.
I don't know if it was because we were sitting in the front of the log (I made Tracey sit in front of me, to block the water a *little,* since it was her idea,) of because it was first thing in the morning and the water was extra high--but we got SOAKED. Absolutely soaked. I was drenched from my mid-section to my feet. My sandals made a nice squelching sound as I walked for the next 2 hours. Tracey got splashed in the face and hair and soaked her denim shorts. Yes, walking through the park you can always tell who has just been on Splash Mountain. Definitely more a summer than a winter ride!
If you want to "experience" it, I found this very good POV video on YouTube that someone shot. I didn't realize the ride was almost 8 minutes long! And don't let those little drops fool you, that is where you end up the wettest!
After Splash Mountain we pretty much stayed in Frontierland and New Orleans Square, which are my favorite areas for the rides and the atmosphere. Is it crazy that a 38 year-old enjoys Disneyland so much? I really do. The sights, sounds, smells, all transform me into a 10 year-old kid. I feel it every time I get off the tram. And guess what? I'm going again tomorrow. My friend, Bobby, has a birthday, got the day off, and we're going to spend it at the Magic Kingdom. We even got great dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant that opens into Pirates of the Caribbean.)
Because Splash Mountain is on the end of the park, we were in the Winnie the Pooh area, which gave me a chance to go into the candy shop and take a picture of the honey machine that my Uncle Ruben built in his garage (my mom's brother and the family's super-talented artist-in-residence.) Sorry for the quality...cell phone camera... We also had lunch at the Cafe' Orleans. I had some wonderful French Onion soup and chicken gumbo crepes. Those things were spicy! Good, but spicy. I was holding back the tears by the end of the meal: One of the best things about the Cafe' Orleans is the view, because you're right next to the walking areas between Pirates and the Haunted Mansion and across from Tom Sawyer's Island and the Rivers of America where the steamship Mark Twain and the Columbia go by. Here's our view at lunch. The park stayed pretty empty for the first 2 hours we were there and we got to do a lot. By noon there were a lot of people. The weather was great, though, so it was a good day to go.
I was getting pretty tired by about 2:30pm after this past non-stop week and getting up early. We left at 3:15 and I got home at about 4:30. We had a great little impromptu family party at my mom's house, BBQing hamburgers and hot dogs in the back yard, laughing with my aunts and uncles and sharing everyone's current goings on, eventually moving to the family room to watch a DVD slide show of my cousin Robby's flight training ceremony at an Air Force Base in Mississippi.
I really enjoy the family get-togethers, and this one was no different, even though it was a small group and we were missing a few cousins.
After days of errands and gardening, I was due for a break. Today I met a friend at the mall and we went and saw the new movie, Julie & Julia, together. Amy Adams (Enchanted) plays unfulfilled cubicle worker Julie Powell, who decides to cook and blog her way through 500+ recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Meryl Streep plays the iconic TV chef who paved the way for all the Nigella Lawsons and Rachel Rays who followed.
Although the 2 women never meet, they lead somewhat parallel lives decades apart. Both former government workers, both happily married but childless, both using cooking as a way to fill life's voids.
The main differences are that Julie has Julia's cookbook to use as a tool and doesn't come off quite as likable as Julia. That lack of likability really isn't Amy Adam's fault as an actress. I just felt that the audience was never given a reason to invest in her character. OK, her job kind of bit, but other than that, I didn't understand why she was so unhappy. Instead of counting her blessings, she focused on everything that was wrong with her life. I guess she should be heralded for finally being proactive about doing something fulfilling, but she whines her way through the journey so much, that by the time things start looking up, you just don't care.
Meryl Streep was probably the best choice to play Julia Child, not only for her looks, but for her ability to adapt a character's voice and mannerisms. And, boy, Julia Child's voice is unforgettable. The character comes across slightly over the top because Julia Child was somewhat over the top in real life. Also, because Child was 6 feet tall, there were obvious adjustments that were made to create that height in Meryl Streep, like low ceilings, shorter supporting characters, and even the proportions of things in her kitchens. At times she looked positively Amazonic, and it was like watching Hagrid the giant's mother (from Harry Potter) cooking dinner.
So how did the director want us to feel about these two women? I'm not sure. I found myself slightly annoyed with both of them by the end of the movie. Although things were probably intensified for entertainment's sake, their culinary journeys come across as narcissistic at best. They don't feel heroic or interested in anything or anyone but their ultimate goals: for Julia, writing a book about French cooking for Americans, and Julie, cooking her way through the book. And the more whiny Julie gets, the more you try to tap all the likability out of Julia, who, unfortunately, disappoints the audience towards the end of the movie.
Thank goodness for the 2 supportive and saintly husbands--Stanley Tucci as Paul Child (he and Meryl Streep seemed oddly mismatched after she played his controlling boss in The Devil Wears Prada) and Chris Messina as Eric Powell (how he put up with his wife's constant meltdowns I'll never know.) But again, when the most likable characters are the supporting characters, there is something wrong.
Overall, it was "cute," but not something I need to see again or own. I'd be curious to hear what other people think.
The fires rage on. If I seem to be focusing on the them a lot, excuse me. It's just that they are so bad this year. Over 100,000 acres gone, many homes destroyed, and 2 firefighters lost their lives today when their vehicle overturned on one of those mountain roads.
