More Of Clarisse

Point of Information. My Husband and I are traveling to Fresno today, for his 50th HS reunion.




This trip to New York, gave me my second time visiting my sister's new cat.

Clarisse is still very shy of people and even though I had success getting her on my lap for a few seconds, it totally freaked her out and she became even more shy for a few days. Oops...

This photo was taken in one of the areas where she hides out. Under the dining room table. The photo shows off her beautiful fur. A true contrast of ginger and black and white. I am surprised that she does not have 2 colored eyes, tan and green. If you remember when I introduced her, she has beautiful green eyes.

Hopefully, she will continue to adjust to life in my sister's house.

Citi Field - Home Of The Mets

Back in July, when my boss gave us tickets to a Dodger game, he mentioned that any Met fan who did not check out Citi Field, was seriously missing something unique. I decided that I would take him up on his advice and go to a ball game, when I booked flights to NY.

A bit of back story. My whole family were big Met fans in the 60's. It was the days when Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and the amazing Mets in 1969 happened. We had sat through the downs of that entire decade and thankfully, that season was definitely an UP! When I met my future Husband in North Hollywood, he mentioned that he grew up in Fresno. As a point of interest and not like I expected him to say anything, I said that the only person I knew from Fresno, was Tom Seaver. He then said that he went to school with him and when I finally did visit his apartment, he showed me photos in his year book. Very cool. :-)

So we share our interest in Tom. Due to this fact, he was all for going to Citi Field. I mentioned to my brother that I was going and he asked if he could come along with us. Sure, why not...

We get to the place where the old stadium was (which is now a parking lot) and we see this incredible building. Folks, it seems to have everything. Shops, restaurants, clubs, secret entrances for VIP's, it was all there. We took a look around the Met museum and saw some really cool stuff, like the two World Series trophies! That made my day.



We got to our seats and they ended up being handicapped accessible, which made them so easy to get in and out of. There were only two rows and then you could walk right to the refreshment stands behind us. They were high up, but there was the top section above us, so we were better then we could have been. We were on the third base side and could see the action clearly. It wasn't the primo seats that my boss gave us for the Dodger game, but they did well.

It was Star Wars night and so every inning, we were subjected to video clips and Darth and the gang walking around the stadium. Surreal, to say the least. :-)

I had the Met equivalent of a Dodger Dog and shared my soft serve ice cream, which came in a helmet, with my Hubby and I was a happy girl.

We lost 3-2, but we were in the game, right to the last out.

We could have had worse.

My boss gets major points for his good advice.

=============
Photos:

1. A very
happy me.

2. Hubby and
my brother in
our seats.

Donna Belle's Bake Shop

My husband is a BIG NCIS fan!

He didn't have many requests for this trip, but one of them was that if we managed to go to a play in NYC, that we stop by Pauley Perrette's bake shop, that is located on 49th street, in the Theater District.
Since this seemed like such a little thing to do, we made sure our subway stop brought us right to the area in question and we ended up walking about 10 steps, to Donna Belle's Bake Shop. You can read the Donna Belle's Story at their website.
The short version that I know, is that 3 friends decided to open a bake shop and use the recipes that Pauley's Mom used. That was a jumping off point and other things are added, as the spirit moves the bakers.


We ended up getting 2 desserts and figured we would split them, so that we both got a taste of them. One was a fudge brownie with oatmeal crust. I found this one better, if I separated the oatmeal from the fudge and ate them one at a time. My husband was just fine with it, as made.
The other one we bought was the lemon bar with shortbread crust. It was beyond excellent and I highly recommend it.

All in all, I wonderful place, though my one complaint is that I wished they had a real "sit down" area. All they have a a semi circle of built in benches in the 2 bay windows and that seemed just a little too weird for me.

Check it out, if you visit the City.

NYC Week: Take the "A" Train

The rest of this week will showcase some of the things my Husband and I experienced, during part of our vacation in NY. I don't promise that NY photos will end at my water post for next week, but most of what I hope to showcase, might make it. :-)

Let's start with the thing that got us to and from the city each day...the NYC Subway system.

As the famous song says...Take The A Train.

Our hotel room included a free shuttle to JFK Airport. Any terminal stop got us onto the Air Train, which got us either to Howard Beach (The "A" Train) or to Jamaica Station (Subways J, Z, E).

The first day we were there, we went with what we thought was the shortest and easiest one, the A. One day of commuting taught us that this train is very popular. It goes through Queens, Brooklyn and then from the bottom of Manhattan, to the top. Not too bad during the morning, but that train home during rush hour, was a killer. So we looked for another way.

The second day we decide to try the J train in Jamaica. We were coming from Long Island and so it was no big deal to get off and take a subway...or so we thought. The J train wound its way through Queens, Brooklyn and then in a kind of cool thing, crossed the Williamsburg Bridge. The best moment of an elevated, extremely old, long and rickety ride. We tried again.

The third day we had noticed something called the E train, which was one level up from the J train. So I check out its route and find it is just through Queens and has maybe 12 or so stops to Manhattan. It goes through the Theater District and since that was our destination, we decided to take it. I can not tell you how wonderful the E train is. The cars are brand new, they wisk you through Queens (maybe 9 stops in all) and then you are in Manhattan. They have an electronic sign that tells you the next 15 stops and so you can see how many more you have to ride, without counting them. :-)

I now know that if I have occasion to ride again, take the E train, not the A train.

Many things make riding the train in NY bad and one of those things is that there are rarely elevators or escalators for older riders. It is truly a young man's world out there. It is also not cheap and those Metro passes are a total pain to swipe. I never got it right and so I held up the line every time. Washington's Metro is MUCH superior.

We enjoyed the connectedness though. You can get anywhere on the subway. Truly. It is one of a kind, warts and all.

==============
Photo:
Taken in the E Train.
It is a portion of a
Charlie's Angel ad.

Red And White & Blue And Gold

My Water Post For Today.

So we are back in the San Francisco Bay, because I really can't get enough of it.

One of the things that every tourist wonders about is the Red and White tour boats and the Blue and Gold tour boats. What is the difference? Why are there two?

I honestly don't know but the rivalry goes way back and the colors are Stanford (Red and White) and Cal Berkeley (Blue and Gold).

You can read a bit on both tours below.

Red and White

Blue and Gold

Enjoy the photo of the bay, with both boats plying the water, as they have done for over 100 years. Bringing tourists to the highlights of the beautiful City of San Francisco.

The Feast Of San Gennaro

We don't do ethnic in L.A., at least not Italian Ethnic.

Well, minus St. Joseph's Table, that my family and I used to go to at a local church in Santa Clarita, it's pretty much a wasteland. That changed a few years ago, with the Feast of San Gennaro. Hollywood types like Jimmy Kimmel, were the Hosts and Precious Cheese sponsored it. I never attended it...until this year.
Amazingly, this is their 10th year, going at it. It is tiny, just a block of booths and some rides for the kids, but the spirit of Italy is there and I enjoyed feeling those feelings that I used to have, going to feasts in New York. Thankfully, there were not the crowds I used to deal with when my family took us to Little Italy in NYC. For this Long Island girl, it was the most people I had ever seen crowded onto a street. Very frightening to the child that I was, back then.


When I passed through the gate at the start of the fair, I realized that I was starving. I came for the zeppoli, but maybe I would get something else to eat, first. I saw cannolis being sold right at the beginning and when the girl tried to sell me one, I told her that I would catch up with her later and order three, on my way back. :-)

I then found a pizza place and a pasta place and sausage and meatball heroes, all which looked good to me. I went all the way to the end of the block and then began to make my purchases.
Vito's Pizza, looked just amazing to me. The cheese was what called my name. It looked just like NY style pizza and yes, it was. Thin crust, hardly any sauce and cheese to die for. Just how I like it.



As I was chowing down on the pizza, I picked up my zeppoli. They came with six large zeppoli in a bag filled with powdered sugar and as soon as that pizza was finished, I got my first taste of zeppoli in at least 30 years. Yum, yum, yum!

Then over to the cannoli girl. My husband had seen a story on KTLA Friday morning. They mentioned the Feast and the fact that there would be cannolis there. He requested that I try to get some. Otherwise, since I was already in for the zeppoli, I would have probably passed them by. Because of him, I bought three of them for dessert later.

To say the least, my family was happy...and I was happy.

Oh, in case you are wondering, I did check out other things besides food, like shirts, bumper stickers for the car and a whole booth on genealogy. There was a stage with performers, too.

Too bad I was all alone though. So after getting all my purchases, I headed back to Hollywood Highland, where I parked my car and drove home to my family.

A nice Italian evening. Maybe Hubby and I will go next year.

Steely Dan At The Beacon Theater 9/17/11

I wanted to get back East before the bad weather came for another year. I knew that Steely Dan was touring and had a large amount of concerts at the Beacon, one of which I was interested in attending. I started checking out flights and saw the price was not too bad. When I asked my husband if it was OK to book the flights, I got caught up in the airlines raising the price, due to the expiration of some federal law. That was just not acceptable to me and so I had to wait a few days, before it all settled down. We finally made the booking happen and got tickets to the Steely Dan Rarities and Unreleased show, on Saturday September 17th. The tickets were not cheap..but they were right by the soundboard (a perfect place to be seated, in my humble opinion).
The pre-concert meet up was at the Amsterdam Ale House, around the corner from the Beacon. We got there in plenty of time, but the place was absolutely packed. After saying hi to many of my Dan friends (Ed, LWO, Danfiend, Pete, Shari and Hoops), we walked a block and had dinner at Big Nick's Pizza...which is right across the street from the theater. We had been there in the past and liked the food.


After dinner, we walked into the Beacon and checked out the scene. The place is stunning! A real lovely restoration and I was glad I got to see it. Roseland (where I saw Steely Dan in 2003), was a mess and minus the wonderful time I had at that concert, the setting itself was drab and old and detracted from the evening, just a little.

Just before 9PM, the band came in and started with the first tune. We were sizzling...

Set List

Dizzy's Bidness
Your Gold Teeth
Aja
Black Friday
Hey 19
You Got The Bear
Time Out Of Mind.
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Jack of Speed 1996 Version (Walter Sings)
Show Biz Kids
Pearl of the Quarter
Bodhisattva
Second Arrangement
Dr Wu
Papa Don't Take No Mess / Band Intros
American Lovers
Josie
Peg
My Old School
Reelin in the Years
Encore: This Mobile Home

The first 4 tunes were part of a normal concert, though Black Friday has been played much less then the other tunes, so I guess you could say it was a rarity. I had seen the other 3 in Santa Barbara. Your Gold Teeth is quite a wonderful arrangement and I enjoyed it a second time.
Finally Donald introduces the next tune as one that was written for Aja...but not used. They break into the opening of the song The Bear. Wild applause ensues.
I had heard part of the song before on You Tube, since it was played on the opening night of the tour, but the end was new to me and I enjoyed it.
Then into Time Out Of Mind, which again I heard in Santa Barbara. It has become a standard of their set list.
Next up, a song that was a big hit for the band, but then they didn't like it anymore...at least according to Donald. Rikki was then played. I loved hearing it in 2009 and totally enjoyed it tonight, too. :-)
The next song was introduced as the original 96 Version of Jack of Speed, sung by Walter Becker. All I can say about this song is that it had some problems, but they made it through. I heard later on that some of the band members were getting confused with the recorded version and so different parts of the band were in different places, at the same time. It was what it was...a chance for Donald to get a rest for a few minutes.
Showbiz Kids was next and I saw them perform it in Santa Barbara. Great tune.

Pearl On The Quarter played next and I was in love. It's a quiet tune and such a difference from what Steely Dan normally plays. It had been played a few days earlier, for the Dawn of the Dan evening. I was so glad they did it again, for us.

On to Bodhisattva, which is a standard tune, but I love it! The thing was, no one got up to dance to it. What was the problem with this audience? I always dance to this tune!

That set us for the a song, that Donald started explaining, got erased back in the 70's. I knew immediately what it was and started screaming, to let the band know I REALLY wanted to hear this tune. The 2nd Arrangement was played and half way through the song, I found myself crying with joy. Hearing the song with Donald's voice...it was something I never thought I would ever hear. My night was made...but it got much better. :-)

Dr. Wu was next up. Probably my favorite Dan song. I had heard it in 2009 and never thought I would ever hear it again. Well, I was wrong. They played it tonight. I was in heaven. Good thing because then came the slight downers, the band intros and a song that was recorded by Thomas Jefferson Kaye called American Lovers. Catherine Russell sang that song, again to give Donald some off time. It was lovely, but I did not know it at all. Oh well.

We were at the part of the concert that I call, kicking it into overdrive.

Josie, Peg, My Old School were played and it took us a bit, but we finally got the audience up and dancing on the third tune. Seriously, this crowd was not into dancing...

Reelin In the Years was next and at that point I was tired of my seat. I knew it was the end of the concert and I ran up to the front and danced with some Dan fans. Alan from Australia and Joe (South of Hollywood) were up there with me, and others. I didn't have my camera or anything, so I just danced and watched the band. It was great.
Donald then says that they are going to end this concert the way they want to! They then broke into a song they played on their 1974 tour: This All Too Mobile Home. What makes it so cool as a closer, is that each band member leaves one at a time, until nothing but the drum is left. Well we didn't get that far this time, the guitar and bass were up there with the drum, but it was still as cool as all heck and a totally unexpected end to a great evening.

Do I wish I had more? Probably. Do I feel I got what I had paid for? Absolutely.

Thanks to my many Dan friends who shared this evening and of course, thanks to the guys, once again. You pulled it off, with style and grace.

Here are my you tube videos of the concert, all in one place.

The Bear

Pearl on the Quarter

2nd Arrangement

American Lovers

This is not mine, but you can see me sometimes boppin', during the encore. Yeah, a total weirdo. :-)

This All Too Mobile Home

Welcome To Fall 2011

Happy first day of Fall.

It came late this year, but arrive it did, this morning.

You can feel the sun coming up later and going down earlier. Just in the 10 days I was gone from LA, the summer season has left, though it still warms up during the day.

I was a little early for the leaves changing in New York, so I have no photos from this year. Instead, I thought I would go back to 2009, when my Husband and I visited Washington, DC in October and were there for the height of the fall color.

Enjoy some lovely trees, in Crystal City, VA.

Me In The City

There is so much to talk about, I just don't know where to begin...

Of all the photos we took of me, I kind of like this one the best. It is a self portrait of me. I am standing in a really cool pocket park in the financial district and there is a reflection of me in the shiny circular object. The surrounding rectangular object gives this photo all sorts of depth.

I did a search to learn more and finally found out that it is a sculpture by artist YuYu Yang and is called Untitled (1969). It is at the corner of Water Street and Pine Street.
I also found out in my travels on the Internet, that many people pose in front of it...what a surprise. ;-)

The best part of the photo, is that it shows me how I pose, when shooting a photo. I was totally unaware of doing it, until I saw the photo.

There is a waterfall in the pocket park and you will see that in a future water post.

Enjoy.

The 2nd Arrangement

I will review the Steely Dan Beacon show in its entirity, at a later date...but for now, here is the (for me) ultimate highlight of a concert that had many highlights.


There is a story to be told about this song.

Many years ago, Donald and Walter were recording a song. It was to be the opening track of their newest masterwork, Gaucho. Titled The 2nd Arrangement, it featured among other things Victor Feldman (the man who gave you the vibe break in Black Cow). His son, Jake remembers his Dad flying out to New York to work on the cut and then after he had returned, receiving the phone call. What happened you say? It seems the almost completed 24 track was cued up incorrectly and everything but the first (or last, according to this video) 14 seconds of the song remained. Everything else was gone. Donald and Walter tried again, but the new version was not as good as the old and they abandoned it part way in and instead did a modification of a tune from an earlier time. The song was called, Were You Blind That Day. They added a Larry Carlton solo to it, reworked the lyrics and thus the song became Third World Man.
The 2nd Arrangement existed in the hearts and minds of the loyal Dandom, sometimes played by cover bands (most notably The Steely Damned)...but not in reality.

That changed on Saturday night. The song we lost, was played for the first time by the men who created it. I am not ashamed to admit that I was crying as I shot this video.

Thirty odd years later, here is...The 2nd Arrangement. Enjoy.

Yes, the person screaming at the beginning, is indeed me. Sorry. ;-)

Home At Last

I am back in LA and quite happy to be here. After treking around NYC for the past 4 days, I am very happy to not have to walk everywhere anymore. ;-)

I had a wonderful time and will get into it, when I am not so incredibly tired, but I will leave you with a hint of what I saw on Saturday night at the Beacon Theater. Performing are Steely Dan. This was the rarities and unreleased show. Here they are doing one of their rarities.


Enjoy a little trip down to New Orleans.

Pearl on the Quarter.

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

After over a week in the NYC area, I am flying back to LA. More experiences from our latest journey, at a later date. Just lets say a good time was had by many.



My Water Post For Today.


I felt that being Fall is coming later on this week, I would post a fall photo from Mystic Connecticut. A beautiful place in the New England area.

Obviously, it is two photos put together, but I like the panorama view. Blogger doesn't have the stitch together program, like I see my friend from Hawaii use for his panorama photos, so we will have to deal with two different colors on the images.

Mystic is on a body of water, just inland from Long Island Sound. That is why the water is calm and that there is land on the other side, instead of miles of water.

As to the photo itself, I love the 3 boats on the far left side of the photo. Yet, if I had only had that side, most all the water would have disappeared. So that is why I used the two of them.

I hope you enjoy this vintage "analog" look at Mystic Seaport.

Albondigas Soup

I have had Albondigas Soup twice in the past 3 weeks. Our local Mexican restaurant makes an authentic version that I love. It is not too salty and that is always a win in my book. So I wanted to try to make it myself.

Mi Nanas Albondigas was the name of the recipe and of all the many Albondigas Soup recipes on the Internet, that ended up being the one I chose to make on Labor Day.

It ended up being quite simple. I cooked the meatballs in a pot of water and then placed them into the finished soup, at the end. That is the same way I make Matzoh Ball Soup.

Instead of buying carrots and celery, I bought one of those packages that a person going to a party would buy. It was half carrot sticks and half celery sticks and that way, it actually was just the right amount for the soup.

The soup takes about an hour to cook, the meatballs, about half an hour.

If anyone noticed, I did add 2 ears of corn that I had hanging around. That added to the flavor.

It was GREAT!

Sunset Vermont Station

I don't know how I managed to miss this. Unless I did not mention the word Sunset Vermont in the post, I have never shown you, dear readers, my subway station.

This is Sunset Vermont Station and one of the jewels of the Metro System, in my humble opinion. It takes the surrounding neighborhood and puts some of its best parts into the station. Art Deco abounds, as does a celestial theme of planets and orbits (Griffith Observatory) Medical photos are etched into the terrazzo floor, in the shapes of planets (due to the three hospitals right at the corner). You can see a circle of blood, a circle with sperm and other things that I just don't recognize. The images are as you would see them, if you were looking at them in a microscope.



The front has an almost Stonehenge like structure that you enter to buy your tickets. It is absolutely lovely. It again is in a circular shape.

The top photo shows off a mural of planets, which are an incredible and complex, work of art.

This is my world and I am so going to miss it, when we move to The Pointe next April.

A Night At The Tiki

Last Thursday was a busy time. Not only did we get a tour of our new digs at The Pointe, later that evening, my Husband and I met 3 friends at the Tiki Ti bar.
This day had been planned for months and I was glad that in spite of me going on vacation the day after my friends landed in LA, we managed to make it work.

When you walk into the tiny space, there is a huge bar...and many, many, many, things dedicated to tiki.
License plates with different sayings that mean something to the tiki customers who frequent the place.
Names of the regulars and even this cool fountain, in the very back corner.



Some of the plates are easy for me to figure out.
Ray is the original owner and he turns up often on the plates.

Tiki and Tiki Ti also turn up, as does Blood and Sand (one of the 80 drinks that they make).

Hula girls, lei's, coconuts, Tiki icons. You name it, it is there.





Here is the crew (minus my Husband, who took the photo).

By then we were quite the happy bunch. :-)


Thanks my friends for a good time.

A Tour Of The Pointe

Last week we had a tour of our new digs, at The Pointe. The President gave us vouchers for lunch and the management gave us tasty ice cream sundaes. Yum. :-)

We got a tour of our floor, which is still totally empty of anything but the central core structure. Bathrooms and elevators are the only things that are in at this time.

The windows are (of course) all there and we could see the majestic view of the Media District in Burbank, from at least 3 sides of the building. Forest Lawn takes up the south side.



Our Vice President of Engineering, who is the man who is in charge of putting this all together, walked us around the empty space. He gave us maps and showed us where different departments were going to be. It was interesting to see.

The bathrooms, or lack thereof, where the major issue. We don't think we can change anything, but we could really use a few more of them.


Move in date is still projected to be in late April of next year.

We really need to hustle, to make that date.

=============
Photos:

Photo #1 is the
outside of The Pointe.

Photo #2 is my future view.

Photo #3 is the tour and
central core.

Riding The Bus: Year Three

Earlier this month was the beginning of my third year riding the bus to work. Each year the trip gets better and better. The bus drivers are almost always on time. The break downs seem to be getting less and less and the drivers are better at getting around the bottlenecks that so often happen on the LA Freeway system. I have seen back roads in Pacoima, Arleta and North Hollywood itself. I am sure the residents of these neighborhoods wonder why this huge commuter bus is driving by. lol

The money I have saved each month has been incredible. If I spend $80 a month, it is a lot. That compares to $224 that I used to pay on Metrolink. I swear, the little inconvenience I deal with in North Hollywood is so worth that kind of savings. My best guess is that my family has saved somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 thousand dollars. Really, really, nice.

Thanks so much, Santa Clarita!


============
Photo is of the
bus coming around
the back road,
before entering
the North Hollywood
bus drop off.

The Proud Family And The New Baby

My Husband and I were invited to visit the home of the new parents.
If you remember, their baby came just a few hours before Hurricane Irene slammed into New York City, at the end of August. Baby Ainslie and her Mom were both just fine, thankfully.
We, especially the Dad, were less so. :-)

If you missed the post, you can read it, HERE.

As you can see, they are indeed a family. It was wonderful to see the baby, the parents and one set of Grandparents (on the mother's side)...oh and the two dogs.

We had a very nice visit.



Unfortunately for them, their dog of 11 years, passed on later that night, while sleeping.

A peaceful way to go, but so sad for the family. They knew it was coming, but we had just talked about the fact that the dog seemed to be holding his own and doing OK, even suffering with congestive heart failure for the past year.

Here is a photo of the two dogs, with their owner. Poco is the one who is mostly white. He had such soft fur, it was a pleasure to pet him.

Rest in peace little furry one.

Geese In A Pond

My Water Post For Today.

I am out here on Long Island and one of the cute things in the immediate area, is this housing development. It has a beautiful pond that sits on a corner, on Veteran's Hwy near Sunrise Hwy. I didn't get to stop on my last visit, but I was determined to do so, this time.
The geese who are sitting on the pond, hardly move. It is almost like they let the breeze move them.

It is so peaceful. It is great that they have a path for the residents to walk around the lake and benches to sit on. They are truly lucky.

I hope you enjoy it.

September 11th - 10 Years Later

Compared to New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Los Angeles had no major problems on 9/11. There was a point where there was a missing plane in the air and its destination was to be LA, but thankfully, that did not occur.

I remember the day well, from the first message I saw on a Steely Dan Board at 6:30AM, to the endless day. First the commute into Downtown, with everyone in those high rises running home, to get away from that possible missing plane. Then running CNN most of the day and my President coming into our office and saying that he knew how hard this was to accomplish, but we had to do it...and we did.

I had friends in the area of the buildings, but thankfully, not family. All of mine were safe, but I am sure they carry their own baggage around, from that day.

10 years.

It feels like yesterday.


=============
Photo:
Is our local show,
airing on KCET beginning
on 9/7 and through today.
I thought the graphic
came out pretty well.

Palms In Bloom?

This is a photo I took at North Hollywood station last week. We won't be flying out of Burbank Airport, but if all goes well, we will be landing in JFK, just as this posts. Wish us luck.

This is a palm tree, one of many, that call North Hollywood Station home. The palms have been blooming for the past few weeks and I have never seen them look quite like this. Yellow flowers? Really?

They have been interesting to watch. Of course I won't be happy anymore when the wind picks up and the pieces start flying off onto the commuters...but for now, they are pretty cool.

Other Views Of The House

I took many photos of the house with its coat of new paint and thought I would post a few more, here on my blog.

First up, the back side with the two sliding glass doors and the removed door that used to be in the space between them. This was the first thing we did to the house, after the roof work. It all looks so much better then the old way. The chairs and table will be replaced next spring, why bother right now. :-)
If you read the thermometer, it was over 100 degrees, when I took this photo.










Another photo of the bay window (the last thing done) and a bit of the far west side of the house.
















Here is a better shot of the west side.

You can see the bump out that is in our dining room, from this angle and also the fireplace.













Here is my son's room and the bathroom windows, that are on the east side of the house.

He had several cracks that had once again appeared in the corners of his windows, but they are now gone...at least for the short term.

I think it looks great.











The same side, looking toward the backyard. You can see the palm tree out back and the pond. The palm will be leaving (maybe next year when I have a bit more money).


That's it. Another little picture show, filling in some of the missing pieces.

Wayne Thiebaud And A Belated Happy Birthday To LA

It hangs on my wall and has for the past 30 years.

I don't think about it so much, but when I turn away from my computer, I sometimes contemplate those freeways with their on and off ramps and think again that I really love this work. I had no idea who did the work...until now.

230 years ago on the 4th of September, the city of Los Angeles was created. Happy Birthday to us!

For our 200th birthday in 1981, there were several posters of life in LA created.
I fell in love with the freeways one and even went to the effort of getting it professionally framed. It cost me a lot more money then I had back in those days...but it was very important to me, that I treat it well. That was, in retrospect, I good idea, because the poster looks much better then this photo that I found on the Internet.

The artist, is Wayne Thiebaud and when I Googled him, I found out that he is well known in the "Pop" Art genre, on par with Warhol. He is known for his realism and you can see that in this freeway poster. The detail is amazing.

If you would like to check him out, there is, of course, a wealth of information out there. HERE is Wikipedia.

End Of Summer Sunset

They were both spectacular and I couldn't choose between them. So you get them both.

Labor Day Weekend is the traditional end of the summer season and the beginning of the fall season. I don't know if that is why these clouds moved in...but they did and they did not only bring an interesting sunset, it gave us a cloudy day the next morning.




One of the best things about where my house is, is that we have a decent view out toward the west, where the sun sets.

I call it, My thousand dollar view. :-)

Scarborough Fair Bread

Are you going to Scarbough Fair...Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme...remember me to one who lives there...she once was a true love of mine.

Last weekend I was doing something totally random on the computer and the thought hit me that somewhere on the Internet must be a bread called Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme. I have my spices organized on the carousel in my kitchen, that way and it must have been what brought that to my mind. It took a while, but I finally found the bread under the title of the song. Scarborough Fair Bread.

I had some time on Saturday evening and decided to try it.

It was ridiculously easy to make and needed absolutely NO kneading. A major win in my book. I did not have to cover the bread, it took its sweet lovable time browning. So you might want to skip that step, if the bread is too pale on top.

I halved the recipe and only made one loaf. That is easier to stir, if you have trouble stirring a bread dough.

For those who care, it mostly ends up tasting like Rosemary (the strongest of the herbs) but I like Rosemary Bread, especially the ones I used to get at Monty's in Tempe.

If you try it, come back and let me know if you liked it.

I will eventually see the post over in my Yahoo email and can comment.




Scarborough Fair Bread

6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water ( 120 to 130F)
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1/4-1/2 teaspoon finely chopped sage
1/4-1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1/4-1/2 teaspoon finely chopped thyme
1 tablespoon melted butter

Directions

Grease two 9-x-5-inch loaf pans.
Combine 4 cups flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and 2½ cups warm water in a large bowl. Add herbs and stir until well blended. Stir in remaining flour until smooth. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Stir dough for 25 strokes. Divide between pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F
Bake loaves 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake 15 minutes longer, or until bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cover loosely with foil during the last 10 minutes of baking time to prevent over-browning. Remove from pans immediately and brush with melted butter.
Cool on a wire rack.
Cut, Butter and enjoy.

(Recipe found on Food Dot Com.)

Catalina And The Casino

Happy Labor Day! In honor of the three day weekend, let's take a boat trip...



My Water Post For Today.

It is only 26 miles away from the mainland United States, but a world apart. This is the Casino on Catalina Island. A beautiful structure, built by the Wrigley family. It is used now days for movies and special events, but back in the day, it was a get away for the rich and famous. Gambling and Las Vegas style shows were normal occurrences here.

Enjoy Avalon harbor and the casino of Catalina.

Feeding Time At The Angel House

My husband is probably going to kill me, if he ever sees this...so don't tell him. :-)

You can see what I am referring to, HERE

Ever since we started feeding Makenna wet food, this is how our evenings go. We open the can and she hears us...no matter where she is. She comes running and then begin the meows...and more meows...and even MORE meows. :-)

It is really quite funny. It is probably the most my husband interacts with the cat on a daily basis...but I am glad to see it and it makes me laugh every time.

Enjoy and again, DON'T TELL THE HUBBY. lol

Blue Skies And No Heat...Yay!

I heard a rumor that the hot weather will be returning over this weekend, but for now, the past 3 days have been just fabulous.

Cool breezes and the feeling that fall is just around the corner.

As I walked to Sunset and Vermont this past Thursday, I took a photo of Griffith Observatory (sitting up on the mountain) and Barnsdell Art Park, on the left on top of the little hill behind the shopping area. It just amazes me how much cool stuff is just a short walk from work and I enjoyed it so much this day.

Bring on the Fall!

Green And Gold Day

Today is Green and Gold Day in Oswego, New York.

So to keep it real with My Old School, here I am, wearing my Oswego State Shirt.

Unfortunately, I did not have the shirt in time for this event last year, so this year will be my first.

Gonna rock that school on the lake. WOOT! :-)



FYI, for those who know what's going on at work, all "PBS" objects have been taken down and taken home, these past few months. Sigh...

Robin Ellis

Back in the mid to late 70's, there was a series that aired on Masterpiece Theatre called Poldark. I came in during the 2nd series, but I was hooked. Watching the show on Thursday night, alone, in the back TV room. A tiny black and white TV and a less then wonderful signal on station WLIW, Garden City, New York. :-)

Just weeks before I left New York for good, WNET, as part of their March Pledge Drive offered a book as the premium for supporting the station. It was called "Making Poldark" and as soon as I saw it, I wanted it. I think they wanted a $25 pledge for it. My sister told me I was crazy and stupidly, I agreed with her. Thus, all these years later, I have never read the little book...though I see it is on Amazon.com for almost that same price. :-)

Don't ask me how I found him, but about a year ago, I "Liked" Robin Ellis on Facebook. I have gotten much joy from his posts on life in France, his trips to the US and the upcoming US release of his cookbook, Delicious Dishes for Diabetics.
Many days he will post a recipe from the book, or just discuss something he made for his wife and him. It is always of interest and sometimes, he will even answer questions, if you comment on his post.

Wow, 2 way communication with a famous actor. :-)

If you are interested, check out his website HERE...or like him yourself, on Facebook.


If I do buy the book, I will review it in another post in late November.