Wizard!!!

As Bokonon might say, we were "busy, busy, busy," this weekend. Em's cousin Sebastian was in town with his friend Sade (not sure about the spelling, sorry!) Sebastian is super-cool and was in town getting stuff for a coffee shop that he is opening in Toquerville Utah. We enjoyed their company a lot, and headed to Venice Beach for a nice afternoon, with perfect sunny weather and many freaks.

In other weekend news, Finn helped a wizard at a birthday party. His friend Henry turned six, and the party was off the hook; boucy house, pinata, wizard, etc. I am so disappointed that I didn't get a picture of Finn's face when the different size ropes all turned into one long rope - everybody laughed at his utter astonishment, and slow Dad missed another perfect picture moment. It was fun though.

Finally, at the end of the weekend, our band got invited to play Topanga Days!! This is a huge hippie festival on Memorial day weekend that we (or at least I) have been wanting to play for years now. I'll post pictures in a few months. Hope everyone's spring is going well so far.

Altered Images - Happy Birthday (1981)

Happy unmentionable birthday to one of my favorite fellow ranters. We love you Eric!!!

For The Video Below!!!

This is for the video below about the guy with the tiny house. For some reason, YouTube won't post a video if I have text along with it...blah blah blah.

Anyway, I thought that Dad would appreciate this one. Dad & Molly designed and built a beautiful and amazing house in Oregon, and although it's incredibly comfortable, they wisely decided to make it not too big. However - less than 100 square feet?Also, happy birthday to Molly in Chicago!!!

Jay's Tiny House Tour!!!

(Some) People Are Idiots!!!

Update - changed the overly negative title.

I'm sorry, but I'm indulging in negativity today because these together made me grumpy and because Em might think it's funny. If this doesn't make any sense, all apologies.

Check here:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/03/which_david_will_save_hbo.html

And here:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/03/leaked_new_peter_bjorn_and_joh.html

Now I feel better. Lost tonight - Yay!!!

More Art!!!

We all went to the Pasadena Art Walk this past Friday night. Aparently Pasadena has this teriffic free event twice a year. This was our first time and it was great fun!

We discovered a lot of new things in Pasadena, like the California History Museum. We also got to go on a bus that has woodworking benches and tools for kids inside, saw some folk dancing, and heard a really nice accordion ensemble. The best part though, was getting on the buses that take you to the various sites. I loved it because we never had any idea where we were going! It all felt like an adventure, and was a great way to start the weekend.

Art!!!

Alia Penner is a neat artist that I especially thought Amy might appreciate. You can see more here:

http://aliapenner.com/art-illustration

Waving!!!

Finn took the big plunge this weekend! It was actually pretty weird - he just jumped in to the deep(er) end of the pool all of the sudden & realized that he'd have to do something to stay afloat. I swam quickly over to help him, but he was already keeping his head above water by himself! It wasn't pretty, but he was doing it, and since then, in just a couple of days, he's been getting so much better!

It was sooo exciting for both of us. I realized that there really aren't that many times when your child can't do something...and then they can. I guess that walking is the big one, but this was amazing also - our family has always been pretty aquatic.

Here are some pictures & film from the big event (it's actually the day after the first day - at first I couldn't be away from him long enough for pictures). I know it looks like he's drowning, but I assure you that he was having fun!

Not On Task!!!

Okay, I'm supposed to be lesson planning & I just found a site that I could spend the rest of my life looking at...and I'm blogging it:

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

Update: Holy *%$$#*#, they're in Los Angeles!!!

Update #2: Holy freakin' *&*&^*&^%^%$$&^^&* They're in Silver Lake. Ha ha ha!!

Balcony of Dreams!!!

Well, Spring is in the air, and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of mulch. Although there are many advantages to our new place (I believe I've mentioned to dishwasher already), the major disadvantage is the lack of a yard. It's true that we have a great balcony with a beautiful view of Griffith Park, but it's not exactly the same thing, and we've really wanted to grow some stuff lately, so we've been doing our best to move dirt into pots and make our balcony approximate a garden as much as possible.

Apparently the term for this sort of thing is "edge gardening", which is pretty slick. It makes it sound like we are some some of cyber-gardeners, cooly tending our exotic computer/plant hybrids in a post-apocalyptic wasteland instead of trying to get mint to grow next to a golf course. There are definitely drawbacks to this kind of gardening (i.e. no ground), but on the other hand, there are some good things as well. For one, you don't have to get that many plants. I remember, when I was renting a house in Highland Park, that I would go out and spend a fortune (for me) on plants, get home and plant them, and it would only cover about 1% of the available space. It's pretty easy to fill up a balcony. Actually, that's the only advantage I can think of, but it's still fun to plan it out and make it happen.

So far, we've planted three jasmine vines that will hopefully cover the less attractive lower part of our view. We've also got a nice leafy ficus, rosemary, spearmint, thyme, and a rose bush that immediately lost its roses, but seems otherwise OK. I think that it could use a little more, but it's a pretty good start & looks nice already. By the way, it's a west-facing balcony that gets lots of sun, so if anyone has any suggestions, they would be appreciated.

Of course, the big problem with any gardening is that it takes patience. With some luck, it should look pretty good in a few months, but it's hard not to go out there every hour to see if the plants are any bigger. The Internet has been a big help with planning and planting. I especially like this site (it's where I heard about "edge gardening"), which is nicely done & is run by an Australian who is strangely obsessive about balcony gardens:

http://balconyofdreams.blogspot.com/

So here are some pictures of the first stages. Hopefully in a few days it will be a jungle paradise : )