And pigs flew

Snow in Los Angeles!  Last Saturday afternoon. It actually got whiter but both of our cameras had dead batteries, very inconvenient. Theron and Oli were THRILLED.  Theron has no memory of being a little kid in Brooklyn, helping daddy shovel and spread salt.    All the kids on the block were outside and everyone was laughing.  Amazing

Work Neighborhood

This palm with the bougenvilla is visible from all over the neighborhood. It is so out of control lovely.
Coming down the hill into Highland Park these balloons look like musical notes, the soundtrack to rolling down the slope.

Street Art

Around my work neighborhood

Party supplies and, I don't know, dish soap? Hello Kitty got a mustache, too.

What's in the bottom left corner. Pipe?

This is my FAVORITE. I love how the artist chose a palette that blends nicely with the building. Clearly he was going for the impression of speed but looks like this mural is heading for a paint-over.

A river runs through her.

A Few Good Things

We're still waiting for Ash to have some good luck, but Theron and I got a few good ones in this week.
Theron had two, I said TWO, 100% good behavior/work completed days at school. It's pretty much unprecedented. He's now the proud owner of an Eon Boy costume. I don't know who that is, but he was stoked. It's fun to see him so proud of himself.
For me, the luck was winning the bag raffle at Trader Joe's. When you bring in your own shopping bags they give you a raffle ticket and every week someone wins $25 in groceries. You can't buy alcohol or vitamins, but you can buy everything you were going to buy anyway and splurge on a bottle of the good stuff.
This week Ozge and I took a shopping trip downtown in the fabric district to get Inherent Vice Squad supplies. Meters are now $3 an hour so I had a wallet full of quarters. We found the perfect spot and as I started pulling into it some homeless guy started to pummel my meter. I couldn't watch him and drive at the same time, all I could think was NOW what!? but Ozge said he was shoving an open paper clip in the slot and hitting it. When we got out there was an hour on the meter. He said if we gave him $2 he would put more time on it if we went over an hour. So we did. Now Ozge wants to try this trick herself, but I don't think I want to be there when she does.
We found some little treasure houses of supplies among the many duds. Ozge is a natural in the market place. She bargains and makes demands. I just ask the price and give it to them, but when they tried to charge me $6.99 for something I paid $5 for on Saturday I complained and got the better price without even really trying. We came away with an armful of supplies and a bunch of swatches. Now we just have to do the work.
We ordered some products with our logo on them - silver tape measures for giving away at the conference, and aluminum water bottles and retractable ear buds for sale at the booth. So things are moving along...

Local Art and Beauty

This is the hillside on my way to work.

This is a view from work's parking lot.

These are my beautiful little friends, the house finches. I couldn't get closer without scaring them.

The parking lot at El Huarache

The rainbow Theron and I saw early, early Monday morning near Gorman. We also saw a car on fire but I couldn't get Theron to take a picture.

Multi-tasking Crash

This was a VERY busy week.

Let's see, Monday Sophie helped me get on the road to making one hundred bean bags to give away at a workshop on art and artifact handling on Friday. I was going to do them on my own time, at home, but the whole thing spiraled out of control and by Thursday nearly everyone around me was put to work. But Monday was the craziest day. Sophie downed an eggnog latte before work that gave her a headache, then we stuffed ourselves at India Sweet and Spice for lunch. We had our own little sweat shop going, I didn't let her stop for a minute: cut that, fill those, iron those, go to my car, etc. By the end of the day I could barely lift my arms. "I'm so tired, are you tired?", I asked her.

"Yeah, and I think I'm gonna barf".

Polypropylene pellet bean bag ready to have the tag sewn in.

Labels we made using twill tape and iron-on transfer paper. My helpers and I cut and ironed down 100 sets, and they came out so nice. It was totally worth it.

We had researchers in to photograph petroglyphs, that was interesting.

Ozge greets the researchers.

Anyway, the workshop Friday went very well and both Ash and I were relieved it was over. He was having sympathy stress so we were both ready to skip away. Everyone loved the beanbags and oh, yes, the presentation was fine, too.


We filled the weekend with soccer, a trip to the Observatory, and the yearly shopping trip at Felt Club where we saw the Gem Sweater lady, Leslie Hall, in person, selling spandex pants and cds. I went up with the plan to touch her but then I decided not to act like a weirdo. I guess I'm a little sad about it now.

Theron with the Hollywood sign in the background

On the Observatory stairs

We're also sad because Theron and Alan were supposed to meet for a movie this weekend but the fires closed the roads between us. Safety first. Madagascar 2 will still be there another day.