Okay, another big catch up post. It's been just over a week, but we've been a little busy, and exhausted and suffering from a couple varieties of barely manageable pain. But it hasn't been all bad. So, here goes...

I took the day off last Wednesday so there would be hope everything would get done. At the last minute Theron decided in addition to cake he wanted jello jigglers, so I spent the morning making 100 star-shaped jigglers (and now we have about 8 lbs of discard jello in 5 colors). Ashley actually got the afternoon off and met me at the school. The kids were just eating lunch and Miss Janet fed us, too.
It was a big hit and I think we're going to just pretend we never heard the word pinata.
After cake we all went home so Theron could open our presents. Then we rested. Then we ran to Santa Clarita to meet Alan and his mommy and daddy and sister, and Aunt Nita and Tara and Ron and their kids Alexis and Krista and of course, Grandma Mary and Grandpa Richard.

This place, Sky City Bounce House, has huge inflated slides and bouncy things and the kids had a blast. Ash and I think it would be good to go on the weekends to hang out in the air conditioning. We didn't tell Theron Alan was coming just in case his mommy couldn't manage it on a week night, so it was a huge happy surprise. Alan gave him a deluxe red light saber that telescopes open with the touch of a button, prompting the first new rule in his year 6, no opening the light saber in mommy's car.

After Sky City (it closed sooner than we thought it would!) we ran over to McDonalds so that he could dig into Grandma and Grandpa's stash. The best gift - the Spiderman 3 Webshooter with 3 extra cans of web. There are blue stringy things all over the house now - on the bathroom floor, on the bookcases, on the calendar. Thanks, Mom! Grandma says she's going to set up the spare room next time he goes over so that he can web it up to his heart's delight.

Saturday I had to work at the school for their annual Obon fundraiser till 3 then we ran to Santa Maria to see Grandpa Flip and Grandma Rita for MORE PRESENTS AND CAKE!

One of the highlights, two new installments of Captain Underpants. Then... we were off again, to Avila Beach since the school was closed Monday to clean up after Obon. Here's Theron in our cosy room with a full kitchen.

Anyway, I don't know what else to say - we had a fabulous time. Theron made a little friend named Jack, from Fresno. Daddy and I messed up on our sunscreen application - Theron was fine but Ash and I look like goofs. It looks like I have on red knee pads. And here's our big boy and his new discovery - Mad Magazine. It's my fault. I was looking at it in the store. The page was open to a Mad Look at Spiderman 3. I closed it as fast as a could but Theron said, "I saw that!". So here he is reading about Harry Plodder. Can you blame him? It's all about Harry. Theron tells me he loves school - he pretends it's Hogwarts, the kindergarden room is the Griffindor table, and he is always Harry.

Happy Birthday, Theron!

6 years! More and better pictures later. Now we must rest up to turn the kitchen into a rice crispy treat factory.

Aaaggghhh!!! Need more time!

Cake - check
Now he's asking for jello, too!
Harry Potter costume - not meant to be
Oven - no, but Miss Leslie says rice crispy treats are fine. 5 trays of them
Present wrapping - will commence shortly
Capes - need to be tidied up
Thursday - scheduled for 2 interns who need 100% of my time and another who needs to be talked off a ledge. Fortunately it is a good excuse to miss two whole meetings where I'm really not needed anyway.

Tonight Theron asked Ashley if he could have ice cream, and Ash said, "Well, I think since you stuck your tongue out at your teacher today you won't be having ice cream" and Theron said something like, "You said you 'think', that means you have doubt about it". I think, something like that. Also he and Ash were having a silly conversation this week and Theron says, "Do you want me to wear a DRESS??!! Because it would be my pleasure!" Ash can't remember where that came from.

To Do List

Order cake - asap
Wrap presents - before Wed am
Find a Harry Potter costume???!!! before Wed!!!???
Take back library books - today!
Finish sewing new capes for Theron and his two birthday guests - asap
Get stove fixed- by Thursday
Bake 10 dozen cookies for Theron's school fundraiser - Thursday night
Take cookies in Friday morning
Work at school fundraiser Saturday
Plan for a pinata Theron told me he wanted today, but that Miss Leslie says would be better done next week.

In between: Have a nice glass of wine, finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Catching Up

Sorry for the lag in posts. It's been very busy around here, but in fine ways. Here we are last Friday night at the Edendale for Lalena's birthday. That's Theron's light saber on the table. It was a big hit though other people were disappointed they didn't know ahead of time that they could bring their light sabers, too.
This is last Saturday night at Echo Park, 3 blocks away. Fireworks at the park for the Lotus Festival. Low stress and so fun. Earlier in the day we saw the new Harry Potter movie!!! Theron and I are reading 3, Prisoner of Azkahban now and, of course, the new one we pre-ordered BETTER be here Saturday!!!

Sunday Rebecca and I went to the Felt Club craft fair. Here's another one of those chicky murals that was across the street. We went early because we heard that the first 250 would get a gift bag and we wanted that bag. When we got there the line was around the block. We figured we missed out.
But we were wrong! Here's only some of the free stuff we got. There were also lots of stickers, and buttons and a pattern, and lime popsicle lipgloss. Oh, boy, were we happy. Then we went to the lab so Rebecca could get caught up on a treatment and I could work on the group quilt we made for Terri's going away present.
Here is the finished product. The party was today and I finished it this morning.
Here's a detail that shows the totem pole backing fabric, which everyone seemed to love as much as the front. I'll post details on Flickr - there were some really fun contributions. I actually can't believe it ever came together. This was the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. For some reason I could not get the math function in my brain to work so it is sheer dumb luck that I had enough fabric to pull it of. The purple fabric - I only had tiny scraps left over. I had to eye it. I kept trying to do the calculations, or drawing with graph paper, etc, but in the end I had to guess and just believe. Also, there is no where in our house I can lay out a queen sized blanket except for our bed so poor Ashley had to remake the bed every night to go to sleep (and hopefully neither of us will run into any stray pins but if there are some I hope they're on my side!). I haven't done anything this big in a about 5 years so I was also seriously undercalculating the time needed to finish. When Rebecca and I went to the lab I figured three hours and I would be done. Instead I came home with an armful of fabric pieces and at least 4 more full days of work. Ashley nodded patiently and said "You never learn, do you?". No I don't. However by the last day I accurately predicted 6 more hours to finish and I was right, almost on the dot.
And really it was worth it because Terri was overwhelmed with joy. Her mother was a quilter and I know of all people she will appreciate it forever. And we love her truly. Working on the quilt and stressing out over it everyday has been good stress displacement because I couldn't stop to think about the great loss. But now I can. Tomorrow is her last day and there is no replacement yet (as if) and things are just going to be very hard for awhile because she did so much, not to mention that she has been one of my most dearest friends. But she is off to Texas, to a fabulous new job and a piece of land her Randy is going to build a house on for her. So we have to be happy for her.

The Circle of Life or Something

Well, the possibility that Alan can join us for festivities the night of Theron's birthday looks really good. It is a Wednesday, but Alan's mommy suggested a location near their house that will make it easier for them and Ash and I would drive anywhere to see those two together. One more suggestion for a gift would be the video called James and the Giant Peach. We checked it out of the library this weekend and he is just falling all over himself - he acts out the scenes, it's so funny.

Saturday I actually left the house by myself to go to a concert with the intern extraordinaire, Rebecca. The headliner was the Decemberists with the LA Phil, playing with Band of Horses and Andrew Bird. We went to see Andrew Bird, but the rest of the show was great, too. It was at the Bowl so both of us went to the Bowl two times in one week. We bought the cheapest seats and we were in the LAST row, but it was really fun. We brought a bottle of wine and the night was beautiful. Also Rebecca is really funny and inspiring. Lately she's been re-doing all her clothes, either tailoring them or dyeing them. She has a cauldron-sized pot. Last week she did indigo. I love Rebecca because I have a lot of ideas but they're not fleshed out. Rebecca can take a good idea and run with it. She's actually helping me work on a project I've had on the backburner for years. Anyway... There were a bunch of 16 year old girls next to us, obviously the Decemberists biggest fans. They must have stopped at Trader Joe's on the way. The had two bottles of sparkling water sodas, a bag of chips, a whole angel food cake they were eating out of the container and a large jar of what looked to be spaghetti sauce, though I'm sure it was salsa, it was funnier to imagine it was sauce. They were dancing on the bench in their high heels and singing along. Like the old and practical person I guess I am now, I said we had to leave when the encore started to ensure an easy exit and the girls were very sweet about letting us by. It gives me hope, there are good kids out there.

Sunday we found a baby bird that had fallen out of a nest. At first I thought it was dead, then it sat up and shook its head like a miniature marionette. While I was on hold waiting to talk to someone at animal control I touched the baby with the antennae of the portable phone. I did this because I (MISTAKENLY I now know) thought if you touch a baby bird with your hands the moms will reject them. This turns out not to be true, touching the bird is not bad for them, but it might be bad for you. The instant I touched him about 100 teeny, tiny mites swarmed over the phone. So I hung up. The phone is now in a plastic bag to make sure I actually got them all. In the meantime we went inside to see about making a little nest out of a butter container and some paper towels, but he didn't make it. Fortunately we were able to keep Theron out of the whole thing. We wondered if maybe the fact that the baby was crawling with mites had something to do with why he ended up on the ground or that he didn't survive it for long. But it was still sad.

Fireworks
Lucky us, we got free tickets from my work for the Hollywood Bowl to see a tribute to John Wayne and Gene, along with a fireworks spectacular. We packed a nice little dinner: fried chicken, cheese and crackers, angel food cake and strawberries, a bottle of Prosecco and a thermos of beer. It was a beautiful night. It was easy getting there using the shuttle from the zoo, we brought cushions and jackets. In the picture Theron is sitting there watching cartoons on the Ipod to get us through the last 20 minutes before the show started. The bad part was leaving. Poor Theron in that sea of people that seemed endless. It was about 11 when we finally got home and he petitioned for a condensed bedtime routine that included book reading, but not toothbrushing. Request denied. It didn't matter anyway because he basically put on his pajamas and closed his eyes, fini.

This last week I looked into getting Theron signed up for soccer. We finally got word that space was available and we could register him. We thought we'd better ask Theron to be sure we weren't imagining that he would like it, and he told Ashley "I can hardly wait!".

Busman's Holiday

Friday was so great! A few of us took a field trip to visit Kate at the Hammer. Here's an action shot of her showing us this awesome ceramic car.

The new show Eden's Edge is AMAZING. The only thing I hated about the art is that I didn't think of it first. I also hated that we didn't have more time, but I'll go back. I told Ashley he HAS TO GO, too - it is very inspirational.

Anyway we all went to lunch at a Persian restaurant and shared a variety of dishes. The table was so full of food Terri had the bowl of pita in her lap. When it was all over the total per person with tip was only $9! Oh, and did I mention it was DIVINE???

The rest of the weekend was full of household tasks and quality of life improvement. Theron and Ashley got the kiddy pool set up today. Ahhh... But hey, how did it get to be July? Do I say this every month? Oh, here are a few things Theron would like for his birthday:
- he likes tank tops, but he only has 1 - he is a perfect 4T. Also he needs shorts and pants, and he prefers them to be pull-on.
- extras would be gummy candies, especially assortments from those places that sell by the pound.
- sunglasses
- summer hat, not a baseball cap.
- He says "anything Spiderman, or Superman, or Batman, or Fantastic Four, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or anything else interesting".
- a subscription to a Nickelodeon magazine, or a children's magazine called Spider.
- probably impossible, but if anyone can find good kid's sheets in Queen, he would like that. I've never seen Spiderman bigger than a Twin.
I'll think of more...


Happy Birthday, Michael! Welcome to 40!

Countdown to 6



Theron is well aware that his birthday is one month away and he makes his requests at every turn. When I get a minute I will update the sidebar of this page to list what's been purchased and what's been requested. Briefly, we got him the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle van, a Spiderman thermos, some Spiderman figurines, - but I need to go check which ones. I think Grandma got a web shooter. He would probably like some Fantastic 4 gear, especially the Silver Surfer. (we finally saw the movie this weekend with ALAN and they had so much fun and were so good except for a small popcorn fight and Theron cried because he lost his sunglasses and Skittles). Oh, and he just asked for a Spiderman 3 toy that comes with the black ooze - which I'm sure will end up under his bed with hair on it.

Post Graduate Blues

Theron is having a bit of a hard week, but we're not going to talk about that. He's surely on the right track, he's just had some hard lessons to learn. Anyway... Here's my mannequin - the show opens tomorrow. Naomi did the paper hair.
Here's Naomi and Nick's horse mannequin. It looks even more impressive with no clothes. Nick's partner who is a photographer did a slide show of their work in progress. It's not wearing a hat because the nice old guy who blocks the hats for us couldn't come in until today. Even after 3 years at a western museum I had no idea that hats needed to be blocked or that people have their own signature block style. It makes sense but I did not know this. This guy did this for Gene when he was alive, too, and he loves it and he volunteers his time to do it.

Well, the weekend was very magical - we went to the Huntington Library and spent ALL DAY walking in the gardens.

Graduate Weekend We started the weekend in Santa Maria where Theron was excited to have belated birthday cake for me and Grandpa Flip. In spite of his generous servings there was actually some cake left over which we brought home. Sunday morning I was getting dressed for his graduation and I found the pink cake box in my closet. Which Theron told me is actually his closet since it's in his room. When I asked him why the cake was in the closet he said, "Mama - to save it for later". Then he omitted the implied eye-rolling that went along with that answer.

All the kids looked very cute. The ceremony was held inside the temple.

The big boys. 1st grade is going to be so sad without Alan.

Oh, no, it's June Very tiring week for everyone. Theron had two solid days of attitude adjustment but we think for the time being we are all on the same page. Today, Sunday, was actually very nice. Last weekend I took Theron to the nursery to pick out a new plant for the porch. This weekend he re-potted it.

Theron's been talking lately about being Toby Maguire. He thinks he can grow up to be him and he really wants to meet him. He understands very well how people play different roles on tv and in movies. He correctly identified Larry the Cable Guy as the voice of the tow truck in Cars. Tony Blair was being interviewed on NPR last week and Theron identified him as the Geico Lizard. And he thinks Grandpa Flip looks like Tom Selleck circa Magnum P.I.

Work Stuff

This is probably boring, but here is a work project I'm involved in. I've been working on an Annie Oakley (early television version) mannequin. My colleague, Naomi, is a master mannequin artiste. She can make our slab-of-foam forms look like real people. She has been my mentor. Here's my finished body laying on the table.
After padding out the form with batting and ethafoam to mimic muscle groups and bone features we cover the form with bathing suit spandex. I made my lady stirrup tights and a thong leotard. Then I made her do leg lifts and sing Let's Get Physical.
I'm most proud of the legs because I carved the knee myself without asking Naomi how to do it.
Here's the back, I love her calves.

Holiday Weekend

Saturday our friend Terri invited us over for dinner. Theron had fun playing with the dogs and he made Terri write down their names on a Post-it so that he could remember: Black - Korr, Brown - Bea. Here is Theron squeezing oranges that he and Terri chose from her tree - they are so extra juicy and sweet.

Saturday we got to visit with Kate and Pete and Liam and all the neighborhood kids came to play. Theron was amazed that Liam can talk now. Dragging him away was no picnic. He insisted on a drink before leaving and then all the kids wanted a drink so Kate, who is used to this, poured cups of milk and water for everyone. She also had out a beautiful plate of fruit and all those happy little faces had berry stains and milk moustaches. Theron griped all the way home about having to leave and declared that he would cry in his room when we got home.

40. Oh, well.

Lunch with Michael

Dinner with the boys

Theron's favorite drink - a Shirley Temple with extra cherries

Blythe joined us for cocktails (new dress by RJC)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Flip (Sunday) and Grandma Mary (today Monday)!

Grandma, We're sorry we keep missing you by phone!

Congratulations, Michael and Erik for 20 years. We went to their home Saturday for a celebration. Theron made lots of new friends, especially the pretty little girl who played chase with him. Look at these beautiful little faces.

Sunday Theron got to have yet another exciting excursion with Alan. We all went to Shrek the Third!

Ashley teaches his packing class for the Getty/UCLA Conservation students tomorrow and then the household can return to what passes for normal. He'll be great!

Back from Chicago

Ash is staying one extra day. We had a great time - saw a lot of old friends, got some good information, but we really missed the boy. Our hotel room was conveniently located to many things - 2 blocks away from the Art Institute, but other conveniences, not so much. We had to stand in the closet to get a cell phone signal (it was $1.25 just to pick up the phone, even for a collect call), and we were never able to get internet service. The hotel said they offered it for $7.50 a day, but only from the lobby. It was nice to be in a city, but we didn't feel like we loved it terribly. Anyway, above is me at the Field Museum. Terri and I spent an afternoon walking our legs off. The next day Ash and I got a behind the scenes tour of the conservation labs at the Art Institute by a friend of my boss's.
Theron and I got back from Bakersfield this afternoon and had Mike and Erik over for pizza. We miss Daddy. Get home safe.

Spiderman battles his foe, America's Next Top Mature Male Model.

All the Spideys are sad Natasha didn't win Model.

Most weekends we would be lounging around the house at 9 am looking for food, but yesterday we were at the Grove for the first showing of the day of Spiderman 3. Luckily we went early and got good seats because the theater was pretty much full for the 9:30 a.m. show. We were not disappointed. The critics can say what they will - we thought it was super fun and worth the wait! Theron thought the funniest part of the movie was when you see Spiderman's feet as he dumps out his boots after fighting Sandman. And because we're suckers, the next stop was Target to get Black Spiderman clothing. Theron's friend at school was wearing a t-shirt and pants Friday that he told him were purchased at Target and he even gave him directions, "you go in the store, turn right, and go to aisle 6". I could not find these clothes. However, we did find him a new suit (is this the 3rd one now?) that is reversible - normal Spiderman and black Spiderman. While an inside-out sock brings the morning goals of getting out of the house on time to a screeching halt, he had that suit entirely turned around to black and under his street clothes in record time. He tried to go out of the house like this today and I had to send him back in because it was going to be 80 degrees.

We all went to Griffith Park today to meet his friend Alan for pony and train rides. They had a blast and I kind of couldn't believe it because Theron doesn't even like to sit in those machines outside of groceries stores shaped like rockets, etc., if they're moving. Their favorite part of the whole event was when the horses they were on peed.

A Spidey Weekend

Well, Theron is completely out of his mind with excitement over the opening of Spiderman 3. I was hoping we could trick him into waiting a week for the crowds to die down a bit, but he's smarter than that. He even thought none of his friends would be at school today because they would be at the theater. So, anyway, we are going tomorrow morning for a 9:30 show at the Grove. Then, as if that weren't excitement enough we are meeting his little friend Alan at Griffith Park Sunday morning to ride the ponies and the train.