A Final Goodbye To A Window

This is the day I have been waiting for.

My new bay window is coming to my home tomorrow. It is going to be a bit more challenging for the installer, because he has to put a roof on top of it and new stucco that will gently slant from the bottom of the window, to the established stucco on the house. We also had some plumbing work done back there on Tuesday, so that we can clean out our drains easier and that stucco project is part of this. I am not sure how it is going to all come together, but I am sure my Husband and the window installer will make it happen tomorrow.

While I was standing at the window checking out the work my Husband had done to prepare it for tomorrow, I glanced outside and saw a beautiful sunset happening. I immediately ran for my camera.



After shooting a sunset through the window, I ran outside.
When I got to the front yard, I saw that the sunset was even more awesome then it was from the back side of the house.

I hope you enjoy it.

In The Middle Of A Graffiti Incident

I have spent a lot of years seeing the results of people writing graffiti on walls and bridges, river channels, etc. I hate it and I especially feel bad for our local businesses, who seem to get hit hard. I was going to take some photos in our local area, due to the fact that the buildings have just repainted and some of them are...well I think "Interesting" applies...but that will have to wait for another day.

I left work on Monday and there were 3 men coming down the other way. One away from the other two. That should have given me a clue, but I was still on our property, so I did not give that another thought...though it probably should have.
The one who was alone pulled out a spray can and began writing on El Chavo's wall, while the other two paced him on the street side. Trying to protect him, from being seen, I assume. I walked right between the three of them, on my way to the corner and kept staring at the one doing the painting, trying to see if I can use my failing memory to remember him, for any police line up that might be in my future.
I was not happy at all, to say the least and wished I had my cell phone in my pocket. All I had was my TAP card for the subway...some help that was.
I did have a winter glove and I was so tempted to smear the guys work (that's how close I was!!!!!) Thankfully, for my safety, I did not.

To say the least, I am incredibly mad!

OH NO! We Blew Up The Schedule

The President decided to speak yesterday, at 4:30PM PDT.

It happens and immediately my life and my bosses life, are not our own. My boss had some other things on top of this, so I began making the changes we had to make, for our Program Log for the afternoon. As I finished what I could do for that moment, I realized that I had to let our New Media Department upload the changes. So since I still didn't have all the pieces and it was still 3 hours til the speech, I fixed the log "New Media" style and gave them the go ahead to download the information into our online schedule. That done, he lets me know that something is wrong with the Tuesday Schedule. Doc Martin at 10:30PM was shown starting at 10PM, which shifted the schedule by a half hour and left a big 30 minute hole at the end of the evening. So I check that out on my end and see that we had the program (due to it being a pledge night) starting 2 minutes early. That was enough to shift the program in the online grid by 30 min. Grrrr...
So I moved it over and he uploaded the information again. I go into the grid to check to see that it is all fixed and instead I find that all there is are gray bars with times at the top and the times on the bottom. Everything else is totally absolutely GONE!!!!!

I go running into New Media and he is already dealing with the disappearing schedule and apologizes for possibly hitting the wrong key that second time. The third time is a charm and we finally get the President's Speech in AND the correct times for Doc Martin for Tuesday. To say the least, there was much rejoicing in the realm. :-)

That was it, or so I thought...until I was recounting my wonderful day and mentioned the trouble with the schedule. My Husband immediately tells me that he came this close to calling me, because he was trying to see what time the speech was and instead just saw those time bars and no shows.

Oh no! We were caught! :-)

=================
Photo is of the
grid with Doc Martin
correctly starting
at 10:30PM.

Drip Fountain At The Getty

My Water Post For Today.

We are once again back at the Getty.

This is the last of the fountains and the most unusual. Unfortunately, it is hard to give you the feel of this fountain, without you being there.

It is a drip fountain, with water coming down from the hole way up above. It falls gently down and settles in the pond at the bottom.




The fountain itself looks like a Egyptian Sarcophagus, which adds to the weirdness factor that you feel, as you gaze at it.

I did like it enough to try to capture it and I hope that you enjoy it.

Dramatic North Hollywood Station

I was waiting for the bus on Friday night and I wanted to take a photo of it, as it pulled up. So I was not where I normally stand. The bus took its sweet time getting there and I got bored and happened to turn around. This photo is what I saw and I really liked it...a lot.
I don't know if they will go for it, but I feel like sending this one to the Metro website as an entry for their Art of Transit feature.

I will let you know if they accept it. :-)

Riding The Bus: Year Two

Well, it looks like I made it through the winter once again. The North Hollywood bus stop is always at its worst, when I have to wait in the dark. That is a small price to pay, to use this fairly reliable and much more inexpensive transportation to get to work.
I blogged about this line back in September of 2009, shortly after it was added to the City of Santa Clarita's schedule. They originally had just a few commuter buses and some city buses in use that year and the reliability was spotty. It is still not perfect, but with GPS tracking, it is much better then it was. They also added a tracking feature for your phone or computer and that more than anything else has helped, especially when choosing what bus stop to head for in the morning. I actually have a choice of 3 stops in the City Center area (Cinema Drive, Valencia Blvd at City Hall and then the MacBean Transfer Center). Knowing how far away the bus is, makes the choice much easier.
I can't say what the fare will be after August, but for right now, the price I pay round trip to North Hollywood Station is just $6.35 a day. That includes my transfer to the Metro Red Line Subway. Gas at this point in time would probably run me somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 right now. Of course that does not count, insurance, maintenance etc...
The best part, I get a chance to rest in the bus. Much appreciated both in the morning and late at night.
Thanks again City of Santa Clarita. It's a winner!

The Many Faces Of Max

I admit that I made this the other day and wanted to put it somewhere. :-)

Max Martini was in his latest project sporting long curly hair. When you look at these many photos of him, you can see how he uses his hair to give him different looks. In the fourth year of The Unit, he shaved his hair very short, as a more extreme "rogue" look. Later on, he gave us the other extreme, mountain man with bushy beard.
We asked him once what his favorite look was...and he surprised us by saying that Mountain Man is his absolute favorite. He loves just letting it all grow out.

No matter what look he uses, he always looks great.

Queen Of All She Surveys

Makenna in her new favorite place.

As if staying at the foot of my side of the bed wasn't enough, now days she sleeps on my pillow. Queen of all she surveys.

I know she loves me and all that, but really...my pillow?

Oh, she was at the vet the other day and we have been told to cut back her food amount a bit. I can't tell you how much fun that is...NOT!

I have to follow orders, because she goes back for a weigh in next month. Poor cat.

Raining Cats And Dogs

This was Sunday afternoon.

The rain was falling down hard, all day. Usually our rain goes back and forth. Hard one minute and then drizzle or nothing, the next. Not on Sunday.
They said we got about 7 1/2 inches during the day and I am not surprised. It was definitely raining the same, all day long. Thankfully, we didn't get too flooded out in the back yard. In good news for us, this rain total brings us past the normal for the year. So we have no drought this year. Of course the water wizards will say we are still low and must continue to conserve and rightly so. But it's good to be above normal. :-)

A Little Treat On St. Joseph's Day

Saturday was St. Joseph's Day.

I normally don't cook anything special for the day, but since I had some of the dough from my St. Lucia Bread adventure a few weeks ago, I decided to use it.

I took it out of my freezer and defrosted it. I heated the oven for a few minutes and then left the dough out on the stove get it to start to rise again. Like the South, it did indeed do so and then I shaped the dough into crosses.
I didn't want to use the raisins again and so I used sprinkles on them and called them little St. Joseph's Day breads. I ended up with 4 little crosses (two of which have already been eaten).

It was a nice change...and yummy.

The Fountain In The Middle Of The Getty

My Water Post For Today.

It has been a few weeks since I had a Getty Fountain water post and honestly, I have kind of missed it.

So I return to the main courtyard between the buildings, for a look at the long fountain that dominates the space.

There are seating areas around it and I am sure it is a wonderful place to sit and enjoy, on a hot summer day. All those willow type trees over on the right side that softly rustle as the air stirs and the gentle sound of the water. You couldn't ask for a better place to take a minute to sit and watch.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Pendleton Crew

Besides my Marine "Son" who is stationed at Camp Pendleton, I have 2 other Navy boys who are training as Marine Medics. They are over there right now taking some big deal Marine training stuff for the past 8 weeks. They both finished up on Friday and minus some clean up stuff they need to do before moving on to their duty stations for the next 2 years, they are done with training.

Of course I get no notice on anything. The first one showed up at our house on Friday Night at about 8:30PM and he was a mess. We immediately made our shower available for him to clean up the dirt from his final day of hiking. He was truly grateful.



I told him to take the bedroom and when the other one, my Shoe Polish "Son" came in after we went to bed, my son said to him that he had to share the room with the other, and he did. When I woke up, there were two cars out front of my house and that is always the first sign that I have both of them here, sleeping in the back room.

One of them got up fairly early, maybe 9AM or so, but the other one was sleeping until something like 1PM. They were both driven hard those last few days, one day hiking with 125 lbs of gear on their backs. Stress fractures abound, as you can see on my Shoe Polish "Son".



After their out processing one of them will be posted in Twentynine Palms, CA. The other one (who is the soon to be brother in law of my number one "Son") is going to Naval Air Station: Fallon, NV. He lives in Modesto and so he will not be too far from his family there. Both lucked out on base location and will be able to visit their families upon occasion. Not like the ones who end up spending years in Pensacola, Florida.

My best to them both.

They are serving this Country well.

Anne, Japan And The Earthquake

As I have mentioned before, my Husband's cousin is Anne Akiko Meyers.
She had a 2 1/2 week trip to Japan and Asia on her schedule, which would combine her work as a violinist along with some down time to see her family in Japan. We keep track of her after a fashion via her presence on Facebook. On last Thursday she posted that she was on her way to Osaka, Japan and just boarding a flight at 9:01AM Pacific Time. By 10:45PM there was an incredible earthquake and our first thought was, "Oh no, was Anne there?"
As we watched the tsunami's wash up onto the shore, I started tracking planes and figured out that she was probably still in the air at the time of the quake. That turned out to be correct, as we saw her post the next morning about circling for an hour before being allowed to land at Osaka. We were glad she arrived safe, but knew this was not the time for her to be in Japan. Before the Nuclear reactors started being a problem, I felt in my heart that she needed to leave. It took her 3 days or so to finally come to the same conclusion. You can read her account of the whole mess, HERE at her blog.

I am so sorry that her plans to visit her family were dashed, but I am glad she got her and her family out.

He Loves Me

Max Martini stars with Heather Locklear in this bizarre Lifetime Television Movie called He Loves Me. It got quite a bit of press and in an interview (which I can't find again) they asked Heather about what it was like costaring with Max, she just sighed.

That a girl, Heather!

I will tell you that the movie is one that keeps you on edge all the time. The music the way it is shot, etc. All for that kind of effect.

In good things, LOTS OF PRIME MAX MARTINI MINUTES! Lot's of sex, too, so be warned!

It is currently online until 3/30/11.

Check it out, if you can.

Some Daffodils On St. Patrick's Day

It's St. Patrick's Day and in honor of the day, I give you some green along with some yellow. :-)


Here they are again, the first sign of waking up after their long winters sleep.

The Daffodils are out and have been for a week or so, but I finally got a shot of them that I liked enough to post.

As I look outside today, the trees are all showing signs of life, once again, too.

Another winter bites the dust and that makes me happy.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, make a toast to the Spring!



If you are into Irish Soda Bread, here is the recipe I use to make it.