Men And Their Cells

There they are, reading the headlines on their cell phones.
I find it amazing how many of them there are and how few women.
We, for the most part, stick with our books.

Men, it's always about what's new and what's cool.

Me...I just shake my head.

Michael's Star

We spent the weekend in the area of Hollywood and Highland.

We knew that Michael Jackson's star was somewhere out front of the Chinese Theater, because on the day he died, it was covered by the Red Carpet that was set out for the premiere of Bruno.
So we took a quick walk over. It didn't take long to find the crowd. Maybe 5 seconds. :-)
So this intrepid reporter, decided to force her way into the crowd surrounding the star and I did manage to get my camera into the charmed circle, to take a picture of his star. You couldn't get close to it, otherwise. So seeing this image is the first time I have seen the star.

What I was sorry to see was that some of the flowers that were there had been out just a bit too long. Like DAYS too long. Someone should be putting out fresh ones each morning...but what do I know.


Shinning Star for you to see, what your life can truly be.

Children Playing In A Fountain

My Water Post For Today.


Hollywood and Highland.

You expect lots of crowds and you get that...and then there is this serene place right there in the middle.
Most of the adults won't venture into this area. Heaven forbid they get wet...so for the most part, it's the realm of the Childen.

I enjoyed watching them. I hope you do too.

Anniversary Weekend 2009

Happy Anniversary...to me and to you. :-)


It's that time of the year again. I was unable to get a few days off to celebrate my Husband and my 29th Anniversary and so I asked him to take the weekend off.
As it ended up, the date on the weekend is exactly where our first wedding occurred...July 12th.

To celebrate this day, we booked a hotel at The Magic Castle. It is centrally located in Hollywood and it will allow us to attend a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. No problem parking...we are right there and we can walk up the hill. My magic "Other" son #2 heard where we were staying and gave us passes to get into the Magic Castle for dinner. Hopefully that will occur. They say you reap what you sow and I really feel that the dinner passes are my payback for being so nice a mother to my "Other" son. It makes me so proud that he brought the subject up himself. We did not ask him.

Not much on our agenda, but Hollywood Highland is right down the street and the 101 Coffee Shop is right there, too.

It should be a nice weekend.

Things That Make Me Go Hmmmm

I pass this hotel like building whenever I drive to work. It's on Franklyn Ave, near several "Old" Hollywood apartments that speak of the early days of the Film Industry. This particular one is owned by the Church of Scientology. The sign out front says it's the Scientology Celebrity Centre...they need a special place for their celebrities?

I guess so.







Who knows what goes on behind those walls.


I shutter just thinking about it.

The Analog Turn Off Here At My Station

For posterity sake, here was our analog turn off.

12:08AM PDT on June 12, 2009

Note the monitor on the far left.)

Scenes At The Dealer

Unfortunately for me, I have spent a bit more time this week at the dealer, then expected. Not for a mechanical problem...but for a gas tank that doesn't like me. But that is not what this post is about.




This is my dealer.








I own 3 Saturn's, so I know this place fairly well. I find it incredibly interesting, a 3 story structure. The lower level contains hundreds of cars, then there is the showroom, with little cubies for the sales staff and a few glass enclosed offices for the bigger wigs. Then there is the upstairs area. It includes a meeting room that , when the are not using it, they rent out to organizations. From the lower level, I can see that there are other offices for, what I assume are the even bigger wigs...I guess. :-)

Being this is located in Santa Clarita, we have many Saturn commercials shot here at this Saturn dealer. If you are lucky, you might catch one someday...if Saturn's new owner, Penske, spends some money making commercials.

I don't know what other dealers look like, but I know many of the older ones, are one story structures. This one always was just a little different...

Of course there was the infamous Saturn difference... the room where they used to bring your new car and sing to you, as they gave you the keys, is still there, too. Thankfully for us, we managed to miss this experience. We usually close car deals late at night and no one is around to sing. :-)

Penzey's Spices

I had to drive to Santa Monica a few weeks ago. One of the things that I have been wanting to check out was a new Penzey's Spice store about 3 blocks from the beach. I am not a Santa Monica visitor, so being we were early getting to the store, I found a parking space on the street, which is a miracle and we had a few minutes to walk around the area.
When the store opened at 10AM, we walked in and were totally immersed in all sorts of spices. Penzey's has apothecary jars out for you to open and smell each spice before choosing it. They have blends, boxes filled with several spices and even a salt display, with among others, sea salt.
It's a well done store and it is such a change from just shopping via their catalog. I have been a customer (via that catalog) for almost 15 years. Getting to smell and feel spices is a priceless experience for me. They began in Milwaukee, WI, so their roots are totally Mid America. For this Angelino, it's a welcome change.

If you are interested, check them out. Penzey's.

It's a wonderful place to shop and you learn as you read their Catalog. If you are lucky to have a retail store in your area, try to work in a visit.

You will not regret it.

Fire Time Already?

A preview of things to come, perhaps?

I was down in the San Fernando Valley on Sunday afternoon. I had a lunch date with a friend and when I turned the car onto the Freeway to start my journey home, there off in the distance was a huge cloud of smoke climbing high into the sky. It's one of 3 fires that were burning (according to the radio report I heard) and this one is in Little Tijunga Canyon, off of the 210 Freeway. If you remember correctly, we had a couple out that way last year and one of them roared through Sylmar and burned a Mobile Home Park to the ground.
They said that the wind wasn't bad today and this one isn't a danger at this time. Hopefully by the time this posts, the fire department will have it knocked down.

Sad to see one so early in the year.

Santa Monica Pier Early Morning

My Water Post For Today.

I know you can't see much water, but hey.

Santa Monica has probably the most elaborate pier in the Southland. Restaurants, rides and of course, that carousel, spinning. It must be quite a trip, riding up in the air and over the water. Food, fun, sun and water and to top it all off, it will be celebrating it's 100th Birthday this September. How cool is that?

I hope you enjoy a day at the pier.

Retirement: Television Style

Here we all are...at a retirement party for one of our engineers. He was the engineer who manned Master Control on June 12th and turned off our Analog Transmitter for the last time. Ending the era of Analog Broadcast.
He delayed his retirement until this date, so that he could be there for the event and we finally had a party for him on the last weekend in June.

As with all things having to do with TV, there was the video of staff saying goodbye. We never get past the fact that we are a very visual community in Broadcasting. Of course the fact that we have camera operators and sound techs and editors in house and available...doesn't hurt. :-)




Oh and the food...did I mention the food. OMG!

Catered by Porto's Bakery we had a large selection of appetizers and this beautiful cake. You can't get better food.


Goodbye Demon...I am going to miss you. :-)

4th Of July 2009

Happy 4th of July to America!


The experiment has going on now 233 years and counting.

Are we perfect? No, far from it.

Do we keep trying to make it better here in the US? Yeah, I believe we do.

I keep hoping that things like Universal Health Care make it this time around. I know I would definitely like to get that off my employers desk and over into my own life.

The war in Iraq, yeah, I would like to see us leave and keep hoping that occurs soon.

Where ever you are, I hope you have a day of family, fun and fireworks.

Always a good thing.



And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me
And I gladly stand up
next to you and defend her still today
Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA

============
Photo:
Tablecloth was made
by me, from $1.50 a yard
material.
I like it. :-)

Grapes On The Vine

This is my bumper crop of grapes.

Last year I had to cut back the vines, so that we could replace the lattice that holds up the grapes and so we ended up with absolutely no grapes. Most fruit comes from branches that are a year old.

This year, is totally different. I have grapes and grapes and grapes. They just don't quit. As you can see, I have Red Flame and I have Thompson Seedless. Not like I get to eat any...the birds and the critters get almost all of it. If they don't then the ants do.





If you look at the Thompson's they are substantially smaller then normal. I keep hoping they would eventually get bigger, but it's been over a decade and nothings changed.



Oh well...they are interesting to see growing and I guess that's something.

New York Drivers...They Drive Me Crazy!

NYC Drivers drive me crazy.

I have spent more time over on the East Coast, then I have since I left over 30 years ago. One of the things that NY Drivers have picked up is that when a light changes, the person across from me, in the turn lane, makes the turn right in front of me. We in LA, wait for our time to go, which is usually at the end of the cycle, before the other direction gets the light. You definitely have to anticipate that the driver is going to make this move. So I do not step on the gas, until I see whether or not the person is going to beat the green. If you don't, you may end up hitting them.
Another thing I have noticed, is that when I transition to another Parkway or Expressway, the person in the far right lane, will not help you by slowing down, speeding up or moving over a lane, to give you a place to easily merge into the traffic. Instead, you end up almost crashing into bridges and such, as you try, in a little amount of time, to find a space to merge. It's a royal pain in the neck. Bad enough they don't have enough roadway on their acceleration lanes (which is a known issue), but they have to make it worse by hogging the road.

Where I live now, in Los Angeles, we are not perfect by any means, but we look like the most courteous drivers, in comparison to NY drivers.

Oh well, it's only a visit...

I Dreamed I Could Fly

Civic Center Station, of the Metro Red Line Subway.

Each station has artwork of its own. This one has people flying high above the station. I always love the look of them and the other day I had 5 minutes between trains to take their picture. This station is one of the first ones, so it's going on 16 years old. Those flying people have been hanging around for the same amount of time. Greeting passengers and bringing goodwill to people going through the daily grind.

I love them.