Makenna On My Bed

A new Makenna photo.

She was on her favorite spot on my bed. It's below my feet and she seems to love it there. We see her there holding court for most of the day.
Sleeping and allowing petting of her royal body.
My guys usually give her a pet, when they pass through the area.

I hope you enjoy.

The Fountain At Knott's Berry Farm

My Water Post For Today.

We visited Knott's Berry Farm on the Friday after Thanksgiving. As soon as we came into the park, we saw this lovely fountain which so asked me to photograph it for my water post. It was making lots of lovely splashing water noises. Something that is always appreciated by the patrons of the park and of course, me.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Last Time It Snowed

I have been going through some of my photos this past weekend, for a family friend.

When we came across this one, my husband asked if I was going to do a water post, with it. I didn't think it was worthy, but this one is pretty special to us, so here it is.
It was taken out front of my house, the last time it snowed in Santa Clarita. This was February 9th, 1989...21 years ago. They tell us that we get snow, on average of every 11 years. Well, in this case, we are way overdue.

Pretty cool to go back in time and see what a snowfall can do to my street. :-)

In case you are wondering, my house is the brown one over on the left side. I got rid of that color, as soon as we painted the house.

Puppy Today, Guide Dog Tomorrow

I am not allowed to say anything about the location of this photo. :-)

I asked a friend if he had any photos of a new puppy that has arrived to be trained as a guide dog. The person did and called this one up. Number one, what an incredibly cute puppy and what a cute collar she has!!!!!

Number two, some lucky person is going to get a beautiful guide dog in a year or so, from Guide Dogs of America.

Abbey Road Crossing

My friend and his Significant Other are over in England and France this week. One of the really cool things they managed to visit, was the crosswalk out front of Abbey Road Studios. Here they are, in the crosswalk, posing for a photo.

There is a camera that operates 24/7 and by knowing when someone visited the crosswalk, you can see them doing the still frame photo like the 4 Beatles did on their Abbey Road album. The infamous photo that fueled the "Paul is Dead" hysteria.

By the way, is it me, or is that a very dangerous crossing? My other question is, why the crooked lines in the road?

Thanksgiving Eve At Union Station

It's the day before Thanksgiving and all through the Southland, everyone is rushing to get to their family or friends. :-)

Not exactly the Christmas rush, but busy as all heck. I decided not to take the bus and instead I took the subway to Union Station. I hadn't been there in quite a bit and amazingly, lots had changed since my last visit.
I got off the subway and the smell of pretzels greeted me.
My first thought...I am not at North Hollywood Station, that's for sure. Yum!
I get up to the top of the escalator and there is this huge Wetzel's Pretzels booth, right where we used to walk to get to the tunnel to the trains. As you can see, there was quite a lineup for pretzels. I was impressed.



Then I see that off in the distance (it is on the far wall of the first photo), is a Famima store, selling all kinds of things for the busy traveler.
Fresh food and goodies, batteries, magazines, hot coffee and other drinks etc. Perfect for the Amtrak traveler.

Again, it was busy as all heck.

Good job Union Station.

A Major Accident

I have mentioned before that my Husband has a younger brother. What I may not have mentioned is that his brother has had a girlfriend for the past 10 years. My brother in law's girlfriend has 4 children and 3 grandchildren. I truly can't keep up with it all sometimes. Especially since I have never met any of them yet.
One of her children, I believe the youngest, moved down here and has been living with them for the past month or so.
The other day we got a call from them. They would not be able to come up and see us because her son was in a major accident, that very morning. You can read the newspaper account of the incident HERE.

To say the least, I am very sad to hear about this and feel so sad that I really don't know the man. My brother in law came to visit us last weekend and commented to me that he misses having him living at their place. He also said that his "stepson" was negative on the drug test they gave him. That I was definitely glad to hear. He has enough trouble with his injuries, lack of work, applying to colleges, etc...without a drug caused accident.

In good news for him. He has returned to their home and may, if things work out, come up to the house for Thanksgiving.

It's Time For Frost

After a weekend of on again off again rain and cooler temperatures, I wake up on Monday morning to find I not only have to put on shoes to get the paper, I need a coat, too. Well, actually I took my fleece blanket and wrapped it around me.

When I got outside, I saw that there was frost on the grass and of course, frost on my roof. Quite the feeling of Christmas.

What a pleasant surprise, for this Angeleno. :-)




This is the last day I had my fall leaves on my welcome sign.

Last night I changed it to a Thanksgiving horn of plenty.
I think of all the cute little cut outs that came with the sign, I like the leaves the best.

My sister in law gave it to me and I so appreciate it.

A final thought.
Since things get crazy, this week, a Happy Thanksgiving to those traveling this holiday.

I was originally going to, but was asked to delay my travel til the week between Christmas and the New Year, so that's when my family will be visiting our friends.

Make Memories.

Sunset On The Water

My Water Post For Today.

Posted by a friend on Facebook, this incredible sunset was taken by photographer, Kevin Obregon and won Second Prize in a contest.

I love the purple color of the photo and the dramatic sunset reflecting on the still water in the pond.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

The Martini Shot

For the Max Martini fans.

I saw this the other day.
There is a page was explaining what different film jobs and terms mean. When I saw there is a term called Martini, I just had to find out, what it was.

Basically, it refers to the final shot of the day, as you see in the photo. A little more information can be found HERE.

It's Martini time. :-)

Freeway Ramp

We were totally stopped in traffic the other day.

I had woken up once before when we were directly under the 118 Freeway and I liked the look of the two ramps crossing above me. So since it was happening again, I took out the camera and waited...and waited some more.
It must have been a traffic stop, because after what seemed like 5 minutes,, we finally moved again and I got this shot.

Let me know...was it worth the wait?

Do you like it?

Heinz 57 - Or The New KCET

My desk at work yesterday.

I did a count and I had to dub 57 different shows into our server system.
Actually that top tape is one that came back to my house and is getting recycled, to be dubbed onto again, so there are 58 tapes in the photo.

This was the worst day so far, in the war to bring a new channel to life in approximately 2 months time. Not a day goes by that the mailman doesn't bring me something to dub. Adding to this, I just booked more on Wednesday and more will follow soon, when I have a free moment to look at the grid again and decide what else we don't have in house right now.

6 weeks to go, with Pledge and the Holidays coming up. To say its a zoo is an understatement.

In an interesting development, KCET has hired a new person to help us engage our audience, as we move forward. He formerly worked for the Internet weblog called LAist. I met him yesterday and he seems very nice. You can read about him HERE. Welcome Zach!

Max On Hawaii Five-0

I had heard that Max Martini got a bit of a vacation this past August. He and at least part of his family spent some time in Hawaii shooting the remake of Hawaii Five-0 and a photo of him and his son in a hotel pool, made it to the Internet. I was not privileged to see this photo, but a friend did. I thought that was nice that he brought the family along.

Show night finally arrives on Monday.

When he first made his appearance, I was sure this was a similar plot line to the Season 1 episode of Numb3rs called "Manhunt" where it looked like a set up for a reoccurring character. I thought that would be just great for the show and for Max.
Unfortunately for Max's character, things went downhill from my dream reoccurring role and he didn't make it to the credit roll at the end...another bad guy.

Psssssst, Max, next time turn down the 5 million. :-)

The NY Jets And Me

I am not much of a Football fan. My Dad was very into football, the Giants in particular. He was not adverse to watching the Jets (or any other game that was being televised). So I know quite a bit about the game, even though I don't watch or follow it at all. Hey, I live in LA, where Football died like a decade or two ago, when the Rams left and the Raiders gave up on us...but I digress.

To get to the point of this story. When I flew Jet Blue last month, I saw this store with Football shirts and the one right in front was a nice Jet shirt that looks like 2 shirts. A tee shirt and a waffle shirt, but in reality, it is only one. So you save lots of shirt weight, by wearing this hybrid design. I was immediately attracted to it and told my Husband I was going to get it. He looked at me like, uh, OK. I am sure he was wondering when his wife became a Jet fan.
I wore it on our way back to LA, which is when this photo was taken. Look at my eyes, they show off the lack of sleep I was dealing with that weekend.
So ever since I got home, I have been wearing the shirt (It is VERY comfortable) and since I don't want to be totally embarrassed, I have been keeping track of the Jets record this season. It seems that they are actually doing quite well, so far, a 7-2 win/loss record.
I blame it on me and my shirt. :-)

Go Jets!

Stupidity In Action At North Hollywood Station

This was last Thursday Night in North Hollywood.

In the middle of an area that has at least 5 different kinds of police patrolling the station and hundreds of commuters coming out all the time, this person with no brains, was skateboarding in a no skateboarding area. He would go off to begin his run, get a good amount of speed going and then he would hit the planter that we commuters sit on, while we wait for a bus. Always 1 mistake away from splattering himself on the concrete.

I admit that I couldn't resist taking a photo of him.

Pond At The Ambassador

My Water Post For Today.

I showed off the interior water of the Ambassador Auditorium, but I didn't ever show off the building itself or the reflecting pool on the side of the structure. My apologies for that oversight. Here is the pool which you see as you enter the area that contains the auditorium. It is adjacent to the parking structure. The serenity is amazing, and most of that can be attributed to the water and the trees surrounding the structure. Beauty is obviously a big part of the complex. Take a look at those evergreens reflected in the water. They sit right next to the palms that line the side, talk about things that don't normally go together. :-)

I hope you enjoy the reflecting pool.

Fall In The House

The Living Room this Fall.

I collected a bunch of Fall type things in time for my son's Halloween Party. Some of them didn't make it past the day of the party, but the rest are still around, in a nice harvest display on my coffee table.
I just found some really nice battery operated candles at Costco on Saturday and I added that to the display. Inexpensive and I don't have to worry about the cat catching fire. :-)

I don't know how long the battery will last, but I have 3 going in the evening and they give a definite nice winter time feel to the room.

As I said the other day, I love the Fall!

Elsmere Canyon

At the top of the Newhall Pass, there is a canyon called Elsmere. For decades, the City of Los Angeles wanted to put another dump on the land. That would make two dumps in the pass. Sunshine Canyon (which is the green grass on the far side of the freeway, in the photo) has been receiving trash for decades, but as with all dumps, they are always looking for more places to put the trash. So they turned their heads to the right and decided that Elsmere Canyon was perfect for the task. Not caring that there is a beautiful waterfall there and pristine land. We, the City of Santa Clarita, have fought to keep the trash out of the canyon for decades and finally, yesterday, our battle was won. We purchased the land and created an open space area to save the land for future generations. My Husband went to the dedication ceremony high above the I-5 and 14 Interchange. They took almost 100 people up there, with 4 wheel drive vehicles. He said the fire road they were on was one lane and it was winding through the canyon before getting to a plateau where the ceremony was held.
Speaking of the ceremony, I found a website with a photo of the waterfall at Elsmere Canyon and when I scrolled down, there was a photo of the dedication and my husband is in the photo (he is on the left with a gray jacket and baseball cap). You can see it HERE.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

It was a cold day in LA.

Well, a cold for Los Angeles day.
I realize that it was a nice warm day to the rest of the Country, but hey... :-)

I passed Children's Hospital and saw their new building (that still isn't occupied yet) with this huge plume of smoke right next to it. I thought it was the men working on the building and maybe that is the case, because I have looked for it since that day and it has never appeared. Only time will tell.

If it is an outlet from something like the McDonald's or their cafeteria, the people who occupy those wonderful rooms on the side of the new Inpatient Tower are going to be a bit upset. :-)

Isn't it looking just stunning, by the way. I would love to check out the view in those two sided window offices.

An older post with a different view of those offices is HERE.

Happy Veteran's Day 2010

Happy Veteran's Day!

My Marine Son had his Marine Corps Birthday Ball the other day, so I stole the photo of the two of them, just because it's so cute. :-)

I have many in the service and one who is in Afghanistan right now. I salute them all and I salute my Husband, who served.

Thank you all, for keeping us free.

Harvest Angels

My latest angels.

I found them at my Church's gift store and as with anything angel, I had a real problem leaving them behind. So they are my newest acquisitions. They weren't too expensive, thankfully. There were bigger ones that were way outside an impulse purchase price and they stayed in the store, waiting for their forever home. My home was just not the place for them.
I am sure my Husband is relieved.

I managed to justify the purchase by realizing that they were just in time for the fall harvest season and I really don't have much to decorate the house. :-)

For now, I placed them up on my fireplace, but come Thanksgiving, I think they may be part of the table decorations.

You never have enough angels watching over the place.

Happy Anniversary To My Sister

Happy 30th Anniversary to my Sister and her Husband.

It was a beautiful fall day on Long Island, NY.
They were married in the Interfaith Chapel at CW Post College. It was a wonderful wedding in a stunning setting and the two of them deserved their day.

As my sister reminded me just the other day, they had dated almost 6 years before their wedding. Thus, they have been together for 36 years. Yikes, that just puts me to shame. LOL

Yes, I did bake pumpkin bread for her (see the post a few days ago for her request to me). Hopefully it will arrive in some sort of eating condition and they both will enjoy my little gift to them. It was the least I could do on the big day...though the four of us went and celebrated our mutual anniversaries back in May, when we visited with each other.

I love you both!

Happy Anniversary.

Two Bridges - A Continent Apart

My Water Post For Today.

My husband needed a photo of The Brooklyn Bridge the other day and so I found it in our photo album from the year 2000. It was a rainy week and the day we went by the South Street Seaport, it was still a nasty gray day. The bridge gets much of it's atmosphere, from that kind of weather.



He also needed one of our photos of The Golden Gate Bridge.
This photo is one of many that I have where the mist is surrounding the bridge and giving it it's wonderful feel. I have photos of the bridge in the sun...but it is always best in the fog.

I hope you enjoy two bridges and the water that they call home.

Ugg Boots: Take Two

Rainy season is just around the corner and so for the past few weeks, as the weather got a bit cooler and a little rain began to fall, my mind turned to my Ugg Boots. The pair I got last rainy season are not made for really rainy weather. You can see them, here.
I have another pair that serves me during storms. When I checked them out, I found that they are wearing out and have a hole in the heel. They are cheap boots but they have served me fairly well these past years.
Being that last year I waited til after Christmas to start looking for the Ugg boots that I eventually got, there were no black colored ones left. So I decided to start right now and see if I could get a pair that fit, in Black.
I ordered a lovely pair with beautiful Indian style trim. They are black boots with impressive black and white trim. You can see them here. They came the other day and they were way too small for my feet and even my calf. That was the deal breaker, so I had to return them. I noticed that across the street from my bus stop, there is a shoe store with Ugg Boots. So yesterday I decided to check the place out. What could I lose, 5 minutes of my time? :-)
I walk in and the place is just full of Ugg Boots! I was so incredibly happy to get to see some of them and feel them. Ugg Boots feel like no other. Really. The sales lady and I had a pow wow and between the two of us, I ended up with these boots, called Classic Short. They are men's boots (which means they are wider width, but otherwise identical to the women's boots).
Most important...they are black!!!!!!!
Yay team!
The lady explained to me that she never gives black boots to anyone but regular customers. I think she gave me a pair, because they were men's boots and those don't sell as fast as women's.

They are so comfortable and they were over $50 cheaper then the ones I ordered a week ago. I bought spray to waterproof them and a cute keychain, so the price came out close to what I would have spent...but being these are my Christmas and Birthday gift, that is just fine.


Do I have to wait til Christmas to wear them? ;-)

After A Storm

This was last Saturday Morning.

We had a storm pass through the area and the aftermath brought us these impressive clouds in the sky. No further rain fell, but it always felt like we might get some at any time.

Pretty impressive. Oh and look! My dead grass it slowly coming back to life, due to the recent rain. Cool!

Baking Raisins

When my Husband and I took a trip to Fresno back in September, we stopped at the Sun-Maid Raisin Visitor Center. One of the things they had on sale were Baking Raisins. I had never heard of them, so I bought 2 packages, to try them out. I made Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread with them and found the package to be so convenient to use. Just open it, flour the raisins and dump them into the batter. How easy is that!
I don't know what they are packed in, but they are plump, juicy, delicious raisins.

When I used that first package, I decided to find out where I could purchase a few more packages. That is when I found out they are not sold in stores at all. I did find an online seller. Unfortunately, they are sold in boxes of a dozen. No big deal, I will use them, but not convenient for people just wanting to try them out for the first time. If you are interested here is the link to the Baking Raisins.

Excellent product and not a bad price.

Oh in case you care the Pumpkin Bread came out excellent. I highly recommend it. :-)

Taking A Walk On The Wild Side

I had a bit of time before my bus was to arrive and so I took a short walk down Lankershim Blvd, into the heart of NOHO Arts District. I knew there was a Panera Bread right at the corner, but I had never ventured further...mostly because it's North Hollywood, it is at night and I am a woman alone.
I found some exciting things like a Panda Express, a Daphnes Greek Cafe and something called Big Wangs (I will leave it to you to figure out what they served in that restaurant). lol
When I got to the next corner, there was this incredible sculpture at the Art Institute of California. It had colors that changed, but I loved the blue the best. Shortly after I took these photos, I had to turn around and walk back. As it ended up, my bus had already arrived to drop off people, so I was back just in time.

I hope you enjoyed a walk down Lankershim Blvd, with me.

Katy Perry

We had some unusual costumes, but the one that turned out the wildest was California Gurls "Katy Perry", portrayed by my Marine Son's girlfriend.

If you think these photos are racy...check out the video HERE.

My Magic Son came in his BDU's with his Vietnam patch on it. I referred to him as her security detail. :-)

My real son helped her with the costume. I found that truly hilarious, as they cut and hot glued the cupcakes together. They were later pinned onto her bikini top. From what I heard, they had a fight over how big to make them. :-)




What surprised me was that when they went out shopping, they found that Lady GaGa was all the rage this year.
In comparison, Katy was basically ignored. How soon they forget that she had been dumped from Sesame Street, just last month (due to her costume being too low cut for the young viewers).

This thought is only 3 days late...I should have found my Elmo, to give to our "Katy", for a prop. :-)


California Gurls

California gurls, we're unforgettable
Daisy dukes, bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin, so hot, will melt your popsicle
(Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh)
(Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh)
California gurls, we're undeniable
Fine, fresh, fierce, we got it on lock
West Coast represent, now put your hands up
(Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh)
(Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh)

Birthday Party Photos AKA Juan The Parking Attendant

We had a good time putting on my son's 20th Birthday Party on Sunday.

We ended up with around 10 people who attended, including my Husband's Brother and his Girlfriend.

His friends were all in costume, which added to the celebration. Unfortunately, we don't seem to be on the Trick Or Treat route anymore, so we had about 8 children come to get candy.
Anyone need any? :-)

The cake is from Phoenix Bakery in Chinatown. It was delicious. :-)



My son grew his hair out. It is the longest it has been since he turned 13 and joined the JROTC. He also grew a mustache for his Halloween costume.

He went as Juan, the Parking Attendant.

I especially love the moused hair on him. Thanks to his friends, it came out pretty good.

All in all a good time was had by all.

Now I have to pay the bills I didn't get to this weekend...the story of my life. :-)

Chinatown Fountain

My Water Post For Today, courtesy of my Marine Son.

This is the lucky fountain at Chinatown Central Plaza.

As we looked at it, my Marine Son asked me if I had ever featured this fountain on my water posts.
I told him honestly that I did not think I had. I did a Buddha fountain in the same plaza, but not this one.

So he asked me to take a photo of it.

Since I can deny this child nothing, here it is.




They tried to get their coins and candy to go into the different dishes, especially the love one.

He and his girl are stupid in love, so that is the way their minds work. :-)

I hope you enjoy.