Vasquez Rocks

While driving up to the Antelope Valley area of Southern California, I drove past one of the most unusual natural formations of rock in the state. Vasquez Rocks are the result of living life near the San Andreas Fault. The layers of earth are pushed up sideways from all the earth's movements over millions of years. The result is a beautiful area that one never forgets about. If you are looking at this picture and wondering why it looks familiar, the reason is that it is used quite often in movie shoots. Star Trek, Wild Wild West and many others have used this property over the years. When my son was much younger, we would go to campfires at Vasquez Rocks and before the campfire would begin, we would allow him to climb the rocks. He loved it so much that and would then sit still during the entire evening of ghost stories, etc that would be said at the campfire. Most of them concerned Santa Clarita and it's history, including the bandit who the rocks are named after, Tiberico Vasquez. It was some of the nicest times we would spend as a family. A very peaceful and quiet evening, under the stars, with just us...and those rocks.

Fall Festival or Ceramics Are Us

It's Fall Festival time at Valyermo and I have not managed to go for the past few years. So this year I invited a Max Martini Board friend, since she lives in Victorville and we made plans to meet in the middle, at the Fall Festival. The Benedictine Monks at St. Andrew's Abbey have a festival each year, to raise funds for their home. Lots of food, crafts and booths to look at. My favorite booth at the fair is the hand made ceramics that the monks make on the property. Beautifully designed by Father Maur of Belgium, he comes to the Abbey each year to design new Saints and angels. The angels are shown doing different tasks or work occupations. I own many of them, including Blessed Serra, Blessed Kateri and Jesus on the cross. Each is unique and Father Maur graciously signs them all at his booth. It is always a highlight for me.


They have a beautiful lake on the property and a Chinese garden adjacent to it, that is serene and a wonderful place to stop and reflect. There are even Stations of the Cross around the lake, for any who care to do some solitary praying.
My husband turned me on to this place, many years ago, so you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy the experience.
Being one though doesn't hurt at all. :-)
If you think this is something you would like to do and you live in the Los Angeles area, figure on spending at least 2 hours at the Abbey.

It is worth the drive.

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Photo Credit
An oil painting of the chapel at St. Andrew's Abbey. I painted this version, from a postcard painted by Father Werner. He is one of the monks at the Abbey.

30 Seconds to Mars - First Album

I saved something like 13 dollars when I bought The Unit Season 2 DVD, so of course I had to spend the money anyway. Since I was in Electronics, I ended up purchasing 30 Seconds to Mars first CD, appropriately titled 30 Seconds to Mars. Who would have ever guessed...
Been spinning it since Tuesday and a few things come to me, right off the bat.
Their first CD is NOTHING like their second CD.
You can definitely feel the tie in between the 2 CD's, even in their differences.
I LOVE these guys!

What seriously gets me is I am so not into Metal music and yet I can see I have made an exception with this group. The songs on this first album are loud, the beat is unrelenting and the lyrics I have figured out, are seriously warped. Favorite cuts so far: Capricorn (Brand New Name), Buddha for Mary and Echelon. It's totally great!

Carry on...

The Unit - Season 3 Opener

When last seen, The Unit was left totally demolished in the final episode of Season 2. The members of The Unit are under investigation for crimes committed during previous missions, 2 of them are in the Brig, 2 of them are on the run and 1 bailed out, by accepting a CIA offer. It was not a good place to be, for any of them...or their wives. This episode is part 1 of a 2 parter and though there are rays of hope that things will get better, it is still quite a mess at the end of the show. Being My favorite actor from the show is in the brig, there is not much going on with him, except torture and more torture.

The things our own Country is capable of doing to its service members, sometimes floors me. They are not nice people, or so it seems.
But I KNOW that this team will make it out of the darkness. They made it through SERE (a school where you learn to survive torture) in Season 1, so I am confident of their abilities, their dedication and their loyalty. The fact that the stories are based on real experiences of a member of Delta Force, makes it all the more real to the viewer. This is not fun and games, this is the real deal and the actors feel a need to tell the story right, our service members deserve no less.

If you have never watched this show, you are missing something really unique. In the midst of all the new season stuff, you might want to check this out. The episode currently lives on CBS Innertube, for your viewing pleasure...or live dangerously, step into their world in part 2 (Tuesday at 9PM).

Once in...Never Out.

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Photo Credits:
Photo 1
Really hot screen capture
By Bashfulwun

Photo 2
Torture screen capture
By Red Head Mama

When Does Your Freedom Interfere With Mine, Or Hey, the Neighbors Are Outside Again

I took the day off today and decided to trim some of my trees out back. It's that time of year, summer just finished and fall is just beginning. The weather was beautiful, which made the chore a delight. So I trim the trees and then go to our trash containers. On the way there I glance at the house next door to me. A few years ago they built a 2 story extension out in their back yard that totally dominates my back yard. I hate it, but being I am not out there all that often, I have survived the past few years with minimal complaint. I mostly got upset while it went up. Now I am just resigned...
So, as I glance at it I notice a very little thing in one of the windows. It looks like an eyeball and it sits on the windowsill. Being the savvy modern computer literate person that I am, I immediately realize that it's a webcam.

Pointing out of their window INTO MY BACK YARD! I know they are actually trying to webcam the beautiful view of the valley we have from up here, but why am I convinced that every time I go out, I am on camera? I work in broadcasting and rule number one is: "The Camera is Always On".
We return to the house and log onto the computer and we go looking. Hubby finds the page with the webcam and we see that it doesn't seem to be on right now. Maybe it only goes on when they are home or when they want to shoot a sunset, who knows. Guess I might have to ask them what the air schedule is for the thing. To say the least I am majorly pissed off about this that I can't even be rational about it right now. We have been known to turn on the pond in our pj's upon occasion, usually in the early morning. Now I have to always assume the stupid thing is on and act accordingly.

In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna "It just goes to show you, it's always something."
Nuff said.

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Update: With a cooler head, I emailed the neighbors and the web cam is no more. What a relief. :-)

Pandemonium or Life in A Unit Obsessed Household

In Hubby's Walmart speak, today is streeting day for lots of things, including The Unit Season 2 DVD, Halo 3 and Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward. I have plans to stop by Walmart and get them this morning. The new season of The Unit airs this evening, so I am obsessed about that, too. Lots going on and my new floor is getting installed today. I decided to take the day off to deal with all this. What the heck, chaos doesn't happen every day and I deserve the chance to enjoy it.

It has been a hard couple of months without any contact with Max Martini, the actor who used to have a website and give us hints as to what they were shooting and what was going on with The Unit. The last contact I had with him, he was shooting his movie, Redbelt. At that time, he said that he did not need to speculate about how the new season was going to go, he KNEW how it was going to go down. I guess that means that he had the scripts in hand, all the way back in June. Tonight I get to see it all happen. Can't wait!

Update:
Floor didn't get installed, due to a miscommunication. So our living room still has this huge roll of linoleum in it.
On the purchasing front. I got them all and am totally stoked about it.
On The Unit's new season. All I can say is OMG!

I Know This Super Highway, This Bright Familiar Sun

Sunday brings flying and in this case that child of mine rolled the dice and won. The storm system that had spent 2 days cleaning up LA had moved out overnight and we woke up to an absolutely beautiful day. As we drove down to Van Nuys I commented that he was so lucky to be flying right after a storm, it should be beautiful from the air. We both mentioned that with the end of a storm, there will probably be some turbulence in the air though and he was ready to watch out for that. We got to the hanger and his teacher was already finished with his 6AM lesson. Yikes, I don't want that time slot. It was cold in the hanger, as it was. :-)
Then off they go. I had absolutely nothing to do but read and watch the planes and so that's exactly what I did. Lots of jets taking off and since I love jets, I was in heaven.


I also noticed that the 2 Super Scoopers were across the runway from me. They spend the summer and fall here in LA, after Canada's fire season winds down. I had seen them flying by work just the other day, along with an LA County fire helicopter and I had wondered where they were going. I was glad to see them not being used today.

The lesson goes as planned and as we drive home, my son reports that they just went over what he has learned so far. Getting a better handle on it all, out over the Simi practice area. I guess he did OK. Next week he and his instructor will be going over his written exam, so no flying is on the agenda.

Raindrops Are Falling On My Head

Amazingly, the forecast was correct and the rain came with a vengeance Friday night. My husband and son both were woken up by the rain and thunder around 11PM. I slept through it, probably for the better, because I am not a happy camper in electrical storms. I had to bring my husband to work at 6AM today and since in my rush to get out before the rain on Friday, I forgot 2 very important things at work. After dropping him off, I set out to drive to work, which is a 30 mile trip. It was drizzling, but nothing too spectacular. I expected to go through a few squall lines, especially in the Burbank/Glendale area (a bad spot, due to the San Gabriel Mountains being right there) and also in the Newhall Pass area. As predicted, I did indeed go through some heavy rain, unfortunately so did others and at the Newhall Pass I encounter the first of 6 major traffic accidents I will see on this drive. At the first one, the car was even sticking out into my lane and I had to try to get over as far as I could and slightly into the next lane. I could smell the gas from the wreck. Slightly shaken, I slowed down a bit and we did indeed hit a few squall lines, the second one, just as I expected, being a monsoon type rain at the Burbank/Glendale border. I managed to get through it OK (it only lasted a minute) and then exited the freeway. At the first traffic light there was another wreck being dealt with, thankfully in the clean up stage. Then over to another surface street about a mile from work and there is a third wreck that took out a traffic pole and the vehicle was still blocking most all of the road. Wow, three wrecks, I am thinking as I pull into work and being the sun is now up and it is almost 7AM, I figure this will be the worst of it. The rain has stopped and it's light. Wrong,. wrong, WRONG! I leave work about 5 minutes after getting there and head back the way I came. I get onto the freeway and wonder if that squall line is still over at Burbank/Glendale. Nope, it's gone, but in the 15 or 20 minutes I have been away a huge tanker trailer has jackknifed and overturned on my lanes. So once again I have to move over and get way too close for comfort to that tanker. I can smell gas again and have a passing thought that I hope the rescue workers would have stopped us if it was about to explode. I get by, again shaken up and I continue driving home. I pass a section of roadway where I had seen that there was standing water at the far right hand side and I see an accident happened after I went through, probably from the water. Just around the bend I see a car sitting on its side, with all sorts of police and fire vehicles dealing with it. I am making an assumption that the first accident, caused the 2nd one, but I am so glad I had gotten through the area before hitting all that. Well as all that is going on, I go through the area where the standing water was and I see that yes, there is even standing water IN MY LANE over on the other side of the freeway! Yikes! So I slow down a bit and one side of the car goes through and not the other. Thankfully, I manage to keep control and get through it OK. A quick prayer and I continue driving, uneventfully, to Santa Clarita. I really hate to think of what that drive would have been like in traffic. Sigh...

May You Be Inscribed in the Book of Life For Another Year

The end of the High Holy Days are here and Temple and a Breaking the Fast celebration are on the agenda for today. I have plans to make a Polish Apple Bread to bring to the meal that concludes the 10 days of renewal in the Jewish Faith. I am not Jewish, but I find the idea of reevaluating onself, asking forgiveness of sins, remembering from whence one came from and saying prayers to those who have passed on, as things I look forward to each year. I thank my husband for widening my world and I celebrate the end of another Yom Kippur, with him and his family.

Fall or Where Did All The Hot Weather Go?

Fall has arrived here in Southern California and I was having a real hard time at the JROTC meeting last night remembering that I was roasting in the humidity of a serious heat wave just 2 short weeks ago, at the California Speedway. Cool mornings and even possible rain in the forecast. We shall see if that comes true, but a WELCOME change for all of us.
One of my favorite things about this time of the year is that I can visit a farm stand just a few miles up the canyon from my house.

They decorate it for the kids with lots of pumpkins and things for them to do. Climbing, riding, scarecrow alley, animals, petting zoo, food, music. They have it all and it is a pleasure to visit. They have great produce, too and everything you would want to decorate your house for the fall, even corn stalks. I have visited and photographed the farm stand for years and fully intend to visit it this year. For today, the almost first day of fall, here are a few shots from Lombardi Ranch.

Hey, This Room Doesn't Smell Like Sweaty Socks Anymore

It was finally move in day for the Airforce JROTC, a project literally 2 1/2 years in the making. The keys to their new classroom and office space has been given over to The Captain and the accumulation of over a decade of stuff, was moved to the new room on Monday.
I was there the night the Captain approached the School Board, begging for a bigger space for his cadets. My son was a freshman and the entire Corp stood ringed around the meeting room, to give the board a feel for the dedication of these cadets and to show how many there really were. It was an unforgettable sight and the board did vote for a new room that evening. We routinely fit over 150 cadets in their classroom, for short periods of time and it is so beyond overcrowded, it's not funny. A threadbare gray carpet sits on the floor and the room ALWAYS smells of sweaty bodies that have done PT over those 10 or so years. It's so gross. We in the Booster Club hold some of our meetings there and it is never pleasant, but we do what has to be done, as do the cadets. I am glad that is now all in the past and am so looking forward to checking out the new digs for myself tonight.

They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot

I was watching a program today about Phoenix, Arizona that was an in-depth study of the urban sprawl in that city. It was quite a fascinating show and it highlighted many things I saw just last week, when I was visiting their town. One of the things that they have come up with is not to just bulldoze down all those beautiful cacti and native plants on the land, but to first pick out what parts they want to buy, to save for future generations. Then allow development on the remainder. They mentioned keeping streams in their natural condition, instead of cutting and filling the land. Basically the reverse of what happens normally.* I know to a certain extent this is what my City is trying to accomplish, but not in quite an organized fashion. We have bought large chunks of land around the Newhall Pass area, to preserve and enjoy, but I am not sure we are quite so proactive with the current developments. In our case, I know there is so much more involved then just what I have stated, so it is not the City's fault. But it was nice to see a show that had a positive spin on it for once and I hope this is the start of a trend.
Our environment and our people could use it.

*A quote from the show itself:
"If I had a magic wand. . .that would be an entire region with an open-space network that was designed, designed as carefully as the sewer system, or the street system, or any building. It would be a connective tissue. It wouldn't just be that we bought this chunk, or we bought that chunk, or somebody hadn't used this piece of land. We would design it."
--Vern Swaback, Architect

The Black Dagger Brotherhood

As I have mentioned before, I hang out occasionally at Suzanne Brockmann's website. One of the things I have learned over the year or so I have read the posts there, is that Suzanne and her readers are not shy about mentioning other authors and books. One that got extensive hype was J.R. Ward's 4th installment of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Lover Revealed. I ignored them and didn't think anything of it. Then an April trip to Walmart in Las Vegas brought me face to face with the book. I looked at it and took the leap...and what a leap it was. Vampires, Scribe Virgins, Lessers and The Omega all turn up in the book. A new world totally made up by author J.R. Ward (Jessica Bird). I was coming in on the 4th book, which wasn't the place to pick up the story, but I persevered and enjoyed the book. Now most people would immediately go out and get the other three, but NOOOOO...I didn't for some unknown reason. Several months have passed and the next book is due to come out on the 25th of this month and the hype begins again. Well this time I said to myself, I had better get myself in gear and read those first three books, cause you KNOW I am going to read this new one, when it appears in bookstores. So I picked up the first one and just finished it. The series makes much more sense to me now and I am extremely glad I bought the books. J.R. Ward is an exciting author who writes a spellbinding tale with plenty of erotic moments to keep this romance reader quite entertained. I recommend them highly. You do need to suspend belief a bit, as you would do reading a Harry Potter book, but it is so worth the trip.

In order:
Dark Lover - Wrath's Story
Lover Eternal - Rhage's Story
Lover Awakened - Zsadist's Story
Lover Revealed - Butch's Story
Lover Unbound - Vishous' Story

To Land or Not To Land...That Is The Question

A Saturday class today, due to my son working the parking lot at the Malibu Triathilon this Sunday. So it is late, 2PM, when we get there and this is the 4th lesson the teacher has taught today. He looks just a tiny bit tired of flying, but he braves on. Off they go to do their thing and I am, as usual, left doing work. I finish my work early, for the 2nd week in a row (yay me) and head out of the hanger to see what's happening. Watch stuff going on for about 10 minutes. Then a jet takes off from runway 16 right, no biggie and I believe I even took a picture of his take off, cause they are totally so cool. Well happening right next to him on runway 16 left is a plane that was coming in for a landing and gets close, but does not actually land. Not what I am accustomed to seeing and I even took a picture of the 2 planes leaving the airport area, cause it was so unusual. My thought was, "Why is this plane not landing, it has its wheels always down, I just don't understand". As it does pass me by, I see by the tail number that it is my son and his teacher. The plane looks ok so I go back to walking around and taking pictures. Next go round they come in and land normally. When they get to me, I ask, "So what was going on with that last pass?" The teacher then explains that they got waved off by Van Nuys Tower, because they can't have a landing and take off at the exact same time. They don't use as much fuel as the jet does, so they got the wave off. The upshoot of the entire thing is I had to pay more money for the lesson, but my son learned something new, so I guess it's OK.

When Yours are JUST Not Big Enough...

I have the unlucky position in life of living across the street from a vehicle that has a set of these hanging off the back of the truck. I was going to go on and on about this, but I have decided that just a quick comment stating that I truly consider these eye pollution and a total gross out, is sufficient. These people across the street are very good friends and their children have been born and raised with my son. In his younger days they have even played over our house, attended birthday parties, etc. The boy is just a year older then my son, but they are no longer friends. I think I can figure out why.

On a wider scale and not just ragging on the neighbors...don't even get me going on vehicles that have the entire family named on the back of the window or a tribute to a dead person also on the back window of a vehicle, to constantly remind someone of a major loss in their life. It all just seems a little extreme and in the case of the names of the people, potentially dangerous.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I just wish those things hung somewhere else, besides in my front yard.
Whatever...

Those Football Parking Blues

Football season is here and with the coming of the season, the cadets provide parking help around the Football Stadium at the high school. The cadets keep the fans from parking in the parking lots of the local businesses and help direct the fans, etc. It sounds like an easy piece of business, but the kids relate that this year is like every year in that some of the fans drive through the traffic cones, come close to running down the cadets and leave the area, with words to our kids. Of course the final reward is that the cadets call for a tow and that fan will have to get their car out of hock, after the game. Behavior I do not expect to see at a local event in this quiet part of LA.

The cadets also tell of being propositioned by women trying to get a parking space in one of these parking lots. Do these women realize that they are committing a federal offense that they can go to jail for? This kids are not just underage, they are WAY underage! At their youngest, they are 13 or 14 years old! It just boggles my mind. The kids seem to take it way better then I do, mentioning that the women are also underage, though a few years older. My thought is and this absolves them of the responsibility of their actions? I don't think so, but then again I am the adult and they are the kids and I guess I have been around the block a few times more then them.

Go team?

A Bit of Housekeeping

My son finally sent me some pictures from NASCAR and they are posted in my blog entry for that date.

I Got My Steely Dan (Down Under) Tee Shirt

Several weeks ago I posted about having to convert U.S. money to Australian money in order to buy a tee shirt from a friend in Australia. Well, as promised by him, the shirt arrived today. My Steely Dan Chumash shirt is a wonderful thing that gets quite a few compliments and when I heard that Denise from Hinktown had designed this one too, I was in. The front has a very small Steely Dan Down Under Danfests 2007 on the front, where a pocket would be. Understated, yet very nice. The back is the main graphic and it is truly beautiful. I don't know if the photo does it justice, but I will wear it tomorrow with pride. Thanks to Alan in Australia and of course, to Denise. Great job and a truly unique tee.
Now if only I could have visited their wonderful country to get it in person...

Happy New Year 5768

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year arrived last night at sunset. Half of this house is Jewish and so we ushered in the new year with a traditional Jewish dinner. I made the chicken soup and Hubby (with 3 calls to me, during the day) managed to make funny looking but good Matzoh Balls. Gefilte Fish, Steak, Chicken breast and thanks to a friend at work, a traditional spiral New Year Challah with honey, rounded out the meal. We have been so busy this week, that I did not get a chance to buy one at the Jewish Deli over the weekend, so the Challah was a welcome addition and we thank her so very much for it.
Yom Kippur will be a week from Saturday and we will break the fast with my husband's family. Another nice tradition.

L'Shanah Tovah

Back to School Night

Last night was essentially the final "Back to School Night" for our son. I guess this year will be full of last time type moments, but it really hit me today as I sat there watching the Cheerleaders and Choir do their thing. It has been wonderful to see the different performers over the years and I will miss the rah-rah attitude and love of High School that permeates these things. After we watched the performances, we were sent to our children's classrooms to see their teachers. My son seems to have a good bunch of instructors who can see his strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully it will be a productive year for him.
As I walked around the rest of the campus, I could finally see how different and improved it is now, compared to what we had just three short years ago. I think any parent will agree that it was tax money well spent. A good thing.

A Beautiful Lie

My 30 Seconds To Mars CD arrived on Saturday and it got it's first spin today. I heard them playing back at NASCAR and from what I could hear at the top of the grandstand, they sounded a lot like U2 and the lead singer, Jared Leto, seemed to be channeling Jim Morrison at times. I happen to like both groups and decided to give this group a listen. Well, first spin brings me a to a cut called "Was it a Dream?" that starts with thunder and rain sounds. I am sure this is a nod to The Doors song "Riders on the Storm". It's a great song and I can't spin the thing enough. Another cut that I came to, I immediately knew so I think that means that I must have heard it at the concert and remember it. It's called "The Story" and it's another killer cut. I can't wait to have more time with the CD, but I do recommend checking these guys out if you like rock.

--

Updated to add that the CD is not able to be ripped, burned, or copied and you can't move the songs onto your IPOD or MP3 player.
I read this on a few Amazon.com reviews.

Update 2: There are 2 bonus tracks on the end of the CD
"Battle of One" and "Hunter" and a hidden track at 12:38
into the final song called "Praying for a Riot".

Gila Indian Reservation

One of the few things we planned to do in Phoenix was visit the Arts and Crafts Center at the Gila River Indian Reservation. It's located about 25 miles south of Phoenix, on the road to Tucson. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love Southwest and Native American works and enjoy shopping for them. Well, we drove down to the Reservation and found that the place was closed. This was a surprise to our friends and to us, since we had visited it just this past January. We think that this might be a relocating of the facility to a closer in area, near their casino. We hope so, but still feel incredibly sad to lose something that we have consistently visited for decades. The off shoot of this aborted visit is that we didn't get our allotment of Indian Fry Bread either. Not an authentic piece of Indian culture, but delicious to eat and very much missed by this family. Maybe next time.

From Sky Harbor, to Bob Hope to Van Nuys

Here we are, back in the angel house...tired, but happy.
We watched the sun rise at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix this morning.
I always like visiting Sky Harbor because they have some very wonderful Native American and Southwestern shops. If I had the money and the room in my luggage, my house would be full of purchases made here. Unfortunately for me, we were there so early, that the shops were not open yet. Probably a good thing for my bank account, though. Our flight was uneventful, except that for the second time in two trips, I forgot packing rule number one and put the travel kit into the carry on luggage. So this time I just went back to the front and checked the bag. It only delayed me about 10 minutes. No big deal, thank goodness. When I got to our gate, kidlet had connected his new laptop to their wireless internet and was quite happy. I even got to check our email. A first for me on a trip...I think I love this laptop.
When we boarded our flight we found out it only had about 20 people on it, so we moved around just prior to the plane making its descent and got to see our area of the world, from the air.

Unlike an LAX flight, Burbank flights go right over Santa Clarita, but due to many factors, we rarely fly to Burbank. A great airport, by the way. Compared to LAX, it is just so compact and easy to deal with. I guess when they renamed it Bob Hope Airport, they did an upgrade, too. It looks real nice and seems to be southwest mission style in spots. On today's trip, if we spent 10 minutes total at the airport, it was a lot. Very prompt service, we were pleased.
Then with a quick trip up to Santa Clarita to drop Hubby off at work, we were back at Van Nuys for Kidlet's flying lesson. He got to tell his instructor about the many things he noticed on the commercial flights he had taken and he had stuff explained to him. Then it was up in the air for more pattern work, touch and goes and stuff.

He did say missing last weeks lesson (due to NASCAR) hurt him, but hopefully that won't be the norm.
All in all it was a good trip, but I think I have seen enough of planes today.

Back to the grind, tomorrow.

Stuck In The Middle With You

Reporting live from Phoenix, Arizona.

It's hot and muggy here, but after last week, this is truly a walk in the park...or is that a walk in the zoo?
The happy couple are now husband and wife and a more beautiful ceremony you couldn't imagine. Birds flying over the couple as they said their vows, the sun setting just at wedding time. It was a wonderful thing.
Their first dance was to a song called "Stuck In the Middle With You" and as the song began to play, their almost 1 year old daughter began to cry...so there she was, literally held by both her parents as they danced to this song.


It was a unique and beautiful moment. The daughter was dressed just like her Mom and was the hit and highlight of the reception. Thankfully, she only had that one meltdown and otherwise performed as well as could be expected. The stuffed zoo animals on the tables and the real zoo animals being brought around the room (I saw a snake and owl in attendence) made for another cool thing. More later, when we are back in LA and, of course, a picture or two.

I've Been Around the World and I've Been To the Washington Zoo

This is a line from a Steely Dan song called Show Biz Kids, so I want to state up front that I have never actually, been been to the Washington Zoo, but I have been to the Phoenix Zoo. If all goes as planned, I will return again today for the wedding of the youngest child and only daughter of the Best Man at our Weddings. Hubby and the Father of the Bride were Army buddies during the Vietnam era and have maintained a close friendship all these years later. With a bit of luck, we see each other at least once a year and have spent countless hours at theme parks, zoos, aquariums, Santa Barbara, Vegas, etc... Keeping our kids happy, as we catch up with each other. This wedding will bring things full circle, in a way. The daughter was born exactly 9 months after our original wedding. The mother decided to wait until after our wedding, to have her second child and I have always felt that, if not for us, she would not be on this planet. She has always loved marine mammals and I was sure she would end up going to school in San Diego, by Sea World. Unfortunately, reality got in her way and she ended up getting a business degree instead. Today, on her wedding day, she brings our thoughts back to those long ago days and unrealized dreams, by holding her wedding at The Phoenix Zoo.

I asked if she was to be married by the dolphins (her favorite animals) but I was told it was going to just be a lovely ceremony by a lake. I guess pretty scenery won over the animals.
I have my tiger stripe dress completed and I am ready to roll.

Luciano Pavarotti

My husband is a classical music fan. It gives diversity to the angel house, since I am totally a rock kind of girl. So anything with classical music, usually ends up being shown in our house. Many have starred Luciano Pavarotti. I remember as if it were yesterday, watching the original Three Tenors show, done in some beautiful Italian ruins. The lighting, the music, Cararras, Domingo and Pavarotti singing and laughing as they would try to top each other on "O Solo Mio". It was the friendship that you could see between them, the love of each other and what they were doing, that got to me. I have never forgotten. He died yesterday and I am saddened to hear he will no longer sing Nussen Dorma for the world again. Arrivederci pisan.

NASCAR - 30 Seconds to Mars

I feel it is totally unfair to the California Speedway experience, to say that I had a terrible time. It wasn't the event itself, it was the unrelenting heat. One of the good things that came from the experience was the chance to see some groups perform right below my position at the top of the Grandstand. I am a music fan and enjoy listening to decent music. I am not sure who performed on Saturday, but on Sunday we got one kick ass performance from a group called 30 Seconds to Mars. I know nothing about them, but they had the area around the stage packed and I found that they were enjoyable to listen to. The lead singer. Jarad Leto, seemed to have a Jim Morrison thing going on for a bit and as a matter of fact, at one point he climbed the rigging almost to where the lights would have been hanging, if this stage had lights. So there he is hanging like King Kong on the side of the Empire State Building and singing one of their songs (edited to add that the song was "The Kill). At the conclusion, he climbs down while the drummer keeps time and then they break into the remainder of the song, when he hits the ground. He struts the stage and has the Rock God thing going on. I found out later, that he is a professional actor, on top of being the lead of a group and it shows. I wish I could have been closer to the action, but I did enjoy what I could see and hear. I broke down today and picked up a CD of their music and I will see if they hold up in a normal listening experience.

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Entry updated on 9/15/07 to add new information.

Did a little You Tubing yesterday and found many clips from their performance at NASCAR. (search NASCAR or California Speedway, or 9/2/07 or Sharp Aquos, with the groups name and multiple crappy cell phone and digital videos come up for your viewing pleasure).
Little things I have learned from watching that climb is that he sticks the mike down the front of his jeans to make the climb. :-)
Here's a good Video angle on the climb.

Songs that they performed at the Concert, best I can figure out, are all from their second album, "A Beautiful Lie". Here's a list, in no order.

A Beautiful Lie
The Kill
The Fantasy
The Story
Battle of One (Bonus Track)

NASCAR - Oh My God, People Pay To Do This?

Reflecting on the train wreck that was day one, I can't believe people actually pay huge amounts of money to bake themselves almost to death. Stick a fork in me, I am totally done...here at the California Speedway.*

Lets start at the beginning, shall we...

Friday Pre Day One
I get out of work at 3:50PM and by some miracle, I manage to catch the 4:40P train out of LA Union Station. We are under a weather restriction and the train can't run higher then 60 MPH, so I get to Fontana at almost 6PM. Our base team person is out at the market picking up dinner, so she swings over to get me and off we go to our trailer and tent village for workers, right in the middle of the oval of the track. It's a really interesting place to be, we are within feet of the water tower that is in the middle. When you see a shot of the California Speedway, it is probably the most visible landmark and they have it do all sorts of fancy lights and such. A cool thing.


We have some dinner and then a few of the guys help me pitch the tent. I go take a shower and sit around a bit. The kids were actually done at a decent hour this night, so things are rowdy with them. They still have some energy. This will not be the case by the end of the weekend, trust me... Bed is about 10:30P It's warm in the tent, but I sleep well.

Day 1 We have bagels, muffins, danish and fruit for breakfast, some coffee and water...lots of water...this water will become our best friend over the next two days. It is blistering hot already at 7AM and it will only get much, much worse. The kids start later then us, so at 10:30AM we are taken to the grand stand for training. We are hoping to get under the overhang, so that we are in the shade and with some fancy footwork by some of the parents, we have success! Two points for our team. Trust me though even under the overhang, it is hades in spades. Every piece of metal is burning hot to touch. The people though are too hot to get into too much trouble. Our supervisor, who I dub "Magnum" from Magnum PI, tells us that we will have lunch at 1:30P, 2:30P or 3:30P. OK, I have snack food with me, nuts and crackers, I can make it through to the far lunch, if I have to. Well, 3:30P comes and goes and finally in a revolt, several of us take a break to find out where the food is. That bagel from early this morning is looking mighty lonely in my tummy. No luck, so I go back up to the top with a Dove bar. Not exactly what I consider lunch and my body agrees, but it's cold and I talk myself into it being healthy, due to the protein, (yeah, right). So around 4:30P my tiny hot dog finally comes and I eat it. The other stuff is a red delicious apple, which I eat a few bites of and throw out. The oatmeal cookies I save for later. Get back upstairs and continue to bake. Finally at 7PM the Camping World 300 begins. It was a great race. It has finally cooled down a little and I really enjoy watching number 29, Jeff Burton, keep coming back from behind and eventually win the race. There was a spectacular crash at one point and they had to close the track for almost 25 minutes and that really held things up. We are finally released 12 hours after we began at 10:30P. The kids are not so lucky, they get back around 1:30AM. Dinner is at the campsite, but I can't deal with it. I grab a meatball on my way to the shower and then fall into bed.

Day 2 begins just as Day 1 did. The tent gets incredibly hot when the sun appears at 7AM, so I get up. I slept well, which shocks me, but I decide to buy a sandwich at the Stater Brothers Market they have a few rows away in the oval. Get a very nice turkey and cheese for $4.99. It came with salad and chips. I buy an iced tea and keep adding a little of it into my water, which I continue to chug as if there is no tomorrow. So, food wise, I am set. By a miracle we get to the track at Noon and they say to go to the supervisor you had yesterday. So we all gladly go back to "Magnum" and end up under the overhang again. He promises they will feed us in a timely fashion and they do keep their promise. I have more bottles with me today so I spend less time going for water and just direct people to their seats reminding them to keep hydrated. It is even worse today and there are many more people here for the race. I lose my chair, to customers and spend lots of time on my feet. In good news for me, at my request, my son and his friend come visit me and that makes me happy.

I have a huge grin on my face, when they appear. They are actually there when the race begins and we watch the skydivers, the stealth bombers and helicopters fly by. All very cool stuff. The pomp and circumstance of the race is pretty neat and we enjoyed it. This race is the Sharp Aquos 500 and the top contenders are all in, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. Lots of his fans are in the stands, but he is so destined not to win this race. That distinction goes to Jimmie Johnson.

My new best friend and racer, Jeff Burton comes in 4th, which saddened me at the end of the evening. We are out and back at the tent by 10:30PM and I grab a hot dog and go shower. I chug 2 bottles of water and call it a night, knowing the kids are still out there working those stands, cleaning them. My son said it could take upwards of 6 hours for them to finish. I was very upset about that, but my body had to get some downtime. Unfortunately my body had obviously had enough abuse, because it was misbehaving all over the place. Rapid heartbeat, a bathroom break at 4AM, has me worrying about why I feel so terribly bad, but at least I saw the kids were all sleeping and that made me feel a little better. My son said they got back around 1:30AM, due to one of the supervisors finally telling the other track supervisors that the kids had done enough. He's my son's friend for life.

Day 3 or Post Day 2
Once again, it doesn't matter what time my body wants to sleep til, that sun is still going to make my life a human misery at 7AM, so I get up at 6:30AM and immediately get dressed so I can get the tarp off of the tent. This helps keep it a bit cooler as I begin to disassemble my tent life. My packing goes on, as people start waking up. We are scheduled to be out and on the road by 9AM, with a trip to Denny's for breakfast. So there is no coffee or hot water (minus the obvious hot bottles sitting out around the campsite). I get to the end of my packing and start to disassemble the tent and find that my fears about those stakes are about to be realized. Even though I poured a bit of water in each hole, those stakes are not moving, for the most part. So I go and get the hammer and suddenly several cadets come over and start doing what they can. I am again, so relieved that I got this done and we roll up the tent and pack it up. I bring my stuff to the kid's tent to wait for the bus. A few minutes later, the bus and driver turn up and he informs us that Denny's is so not on his agenda. He has to roll immediately to Las Vegas. So I grab a half a left over muffin and so do others. Better then nothing and again some of us begin to hydrate again. I decide to take a quick trip to the porta john right next to the bus and while inside, I see they have a mirror on the door. I get a glimpse of myself and I am red as a beet and I decide that that's it for me. I go sit in the air conditioned heaven that is the bus and the kids pack up the last few things. They get on the bus and then 55 smelly cadets, 3 adults and the driver head for the freeway. Most everyone falls asleep and we are up in our area of the world at 11AM. One of the parents gives me a ride over to where my husband's car is parked. I walk into his Walmart just long enough to kiss him, say hi and grab another bottle of water. Then I go off to get our stuff, get the kids and I something to eat, and then drive us all home. My son and I kick back and crash for the remainder of the day.
I really had a great time and if it had not been so incredibly hot out, I would have said I would return and do it again, but I think that this is it for me. California in the middle of the summer is no place to be staying outside for incredible periods of time, being abused by others, who don't care about what they are doing to you health wise. Guess I have become a softie...so be it.

*Note: this first paragraph was written in the back seat of the truck, after Day two.

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Photo Credits:
Pictures 1 and 3 are mine.
Picture 2 was taken by my son.
Picture 4, from the pit, was taken by another cadet, Tommy.