Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Happiest Season

No snow in LA but lots of color and spirit
Christmas tree pinata

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Richard. Legos were had. Then we drove to Santa Maria to see Grandpa Flip and Grandma Rita. More Legos. Oh my. I actually can't even say how many more Lego sets. Theron hit the jackpot for sure.
Next, up to Morro Bay to see Joan and her family. We ate a Thai buffet extravaganza made by Joan's step-mother, Rose. Theron played Wii.
The next day we took Oli for his first trip to the beach, both at Morro Bay and Montana de Oro. Oli says, Thumbs Way Up!!!
Their feet barely touch the ground. When I think "Happy" now, I will probably picture this. We hit Morro Bay first, then Montana de Oro.





Where all the puddles were jumped into
All the seaweed was tasted

All the waves were chased





And all the waves were dodged

















Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Happy Holidays!

Plastic bag holders/dispensers for the school Hollydaze boutique.
Interesting ladies from the Southwest

The year winds down and we feel pretty lucky. Theron's doing much better at school and we have a sweetie pup. Theron was concerned he might be on the naughty list because he's had kind of a hard year. So Santa wrote him a letter telling him he knew he was trying, so that wouldn't be the case. He was really touched and asked how Santa could know he was worried about that. Theron had been trying to compose a letter explaining how he is different, and that he has problems, but he was trying. So that Santa understood this without even being told meant a lot to him.
Theron asked me if I'd ever had a letter from Santa. I told him that sometimes Santa would leave a letter thanking us for the cookies we left out. Theron thought about this. Then he said, "Compared to my letter, your letter is poop".



Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The Last Two Weeks

Oops, it's been awhile. We've been buuuuussssyyyyy. Look and we've been cold, too, that's ice in the birdbath. Wasn't it 90 degrees last week? Thanksgiving we went to Santa Maria with Oli in tow to meet family. He and Theron napped on the way.
Oli also met Mia. Mia, who is 19 now, had spent 2 days in front of the oven waiting for turkey and she wasn't going to let any whippersnapper dog elbow in on her meat. Oli got his face smacked quite a few times.

Here's Oli saying that's okay, it was worth it! He had a good time being spoiled. The only part of the visit he didn't like was riding the elevator at the hotel.


This is the Phoebe of the Porch Light. The phoebe has come for the second year in a row to hang out on the light.
Then it was back to work. Here are a couple things I came across:
taxidermy quail head
And a silk sample
Unfortunately it was folded up and the dyes bled.

But it's still pretty amazing.

Look at the gossamer threads making feathers and veins in the lily pads.


I also worked on crafts for Theron's school's holiday bazaar. I made a bunch of animal iron-ons

I think they're all cute, myself, but I'm kinda partial to the chickens

I also repeated last years contribution by making more pocket tissue holders

And that's not all... Ashley wished the sewing machine had a muffler.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Done!


Ash and I survived another workshop. I thought, oh great, I have my presentation from last year I can just build on and ha, ha, it was gone! Not totally gone, of course, but just a shell of what the final became so I basically had to rebuild. The day before we were to go to San Francisco I realized I left my camera at work with pictures I needed to place in my Power Point. So, the next morning I left the house at 6:30, got it, and came back to insert the pictures - into the presentation I saved the day before - and left - with my notes - at work.

That means I only forgot 2 things - that's good, right???

So it was back to work, on the way to the airport.

But we did it, and because of our small world we got to see some old friends, and it was really great. Yay!

San Francisco is sooooo nice. Where else can you see Homeless Santa eating Jack In The Box? Well, these days, probably everywhere. But people are so fashionable. Nicely dressed man telling his roommate about a job interview and then choosing this moment to also remind the guy to "STOP STEALING MY POT!" "STOP STEALING MY POT!" For real, he's unemployed, give him a break!!!
George waves goodbye


You know what's fun? Flying Virgin. Love them. You can watch movies and play games and order drinks by swiping your card. Lovely and civilized. I played Mahjongg the whole way both trips.

The day before we left I noticed that the frog had been "sleeping" in the same place for a REALLY LONG TIME. And his skin was white. I flipped out. I killed him! But with only hours till our trip we didn't know what to do. 1) Replace with newer model or 2) have the toilet bowl funeral? He's in the freezer awaiting a decision. Poor George!!!

Grandpa Richard generously donated his time to watch the boys. When we got home they came out of the bedroom and both Theron and Oli danced around in circles. We craved more time in San Francisco but it's good to be home!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Another Busman's Holiday

Sophie, Ozge and I went to visit Naomi at work. She showed us the Damian Hirst piano that Lady Gaga played at their Gala last weekend. Quite a different collection than the one we're used to. We had to keep asking, is this Art?
Art? Yes.

Art? I think so. Pretty sure it is, yes. I can't really remember.

Friday, November 13, 2009

And you can't wish for more wishes

Theron: Mom, have you ever really, really wished for something?

Me: Yes. I wish you could be quiet for 15 minutes.

T: A divine wish! But it will never come true.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Random Discoveries

This last week our enormous basketry show went up at Griffith Park and it is fantastic! Locals should definitely go look, - we all love it. Ten Native basket weavers from across the country curated the show from our collection of nearly 14,000 cataloged baskets. It is the largest collection of its type in the world. A few of the weavers came for a visit the following Monday to see our collection in situ for the first time, as they did all their work for the show from photos. A few of the visitors noticed the little collection of seal gut items that Ozge re-shaped. This bag was sitting with these things. The white pieces inside are piece of foam covered with teflon that Ozge used to help the bag keep its shape after the humidification. The visitors told us that this Northern Athabaskan bag is actually the membrane from a caribou heart. I guess we thought it was maybe a bladder of some sort, but when you look at the shape it becomes clear. There was no information in the database save several question marks.

Then today I opened a box for processing and found this tiny metal container.
What could this be, I wondered. So I opened it...

And it turned out to be a teeny tiny gun, a teeny tiny ramrod, and a capsule of teeny tiny blanks.



Actually there were a bunch of teeny tiny blanks in a little shaving kit container. This was donated by a Col. George Ball. He was on a business trip in Mexico and was held up. President Porfirio Diaz read about this in the paper and, being a friend of Ball's, sent him this pistol set and told him to carry it with him for protection! Ceci and I went crazy looking it over, peering down the barrel wondering if it fires. Upon further web research we discovered it does indeed fire and thankfully we didn't find out the hard way. Imagine that worker's comp claim. We found a video on Youtube of someone loading one and firing it.
I get home and can't wait to show Ash - Look! Look at the tiny pistol!!! Ash just looks and says - Oh yeah, when I was a kid I had a tie clip tiny pistol and it had the exact same blanks, and yes it does indeed fire and it's much louder than you would expect. He thinks it's probably still in his family's home somewhere. Next visit - find that gun!


Monday, November 02, 2009

Busy Weekend

Alan turned 8 and the boys celebrated by choking and ridiculing each otherBatman gave orders to Batdog

Then he went out collecting treats. He wanted Batdad to make it so that he could hang from people's roofs by his grappling hook then lower himself down when they answered the door. Batdad said maybe next year.

Sunday Theron and I went to a Japanese wood carving class. There were no injuries. Theron made a corn cob blank and I made a cigar.

We ate DELICIOUS pizza. I couldn't believe we found salad pizza in California! Of course they don't use avocado in NY - it was a scrumptious addition.


Ollie outgrew his baby collar and moved up to a medium. The fish tank moved to the living room so we can all enjoy!