Thursday, June 18, 2009

June Gloom & Jazz Fest

June Gloom

1. I've never seen the clouds stay so low for so long out here in sunny CA. Last year, at the Boy's graduation, I almost melted from the heat! This year it's been cool, cool, cool.

Meanwhile, we're supposed to have a party in 2 days. Supposedly it's going to warm up for that day - I sure hope it does!

I've been really busy with end-of-the-6th-grade activities I'd volunteered for. Thursday we knocked out these Memory pages we'd made the kids. Friday I went with them on their 6th Grade Trip to go ice-skating and bowling. Whew! I had fun talking with the other Moms (OK, except one), but it tired me out!

It's also been gloomy because some of my favorite bloggers seem to have stopped blogging. I've tried to find others I like, but so far not much luck. Also, it seems to be re-run season on the talk shows, and there's been lots of reliving Thanksgiving and such. Yawn...


Best Day Ever.

2. Last Saturday we had another Best Day Ever. It started out with a nice, relaxing, romantic morning. The Girl's game wasn't until noon, so we all got to sleep in.

She was in kindof a bad mood, so I think it was good that the other team scored right away with a ridiculous mixup by our defense. That put us immediately behind and they played really hard the whole game. They had to win this game to have a hope for getting into the playoffs, so the coach was on them to be serious and play their best.

No one else scored in the first half. The second half, their goalie touched the ball outside the box, and since he was the last defender, he got an automatic red card. We scored with a penalty kick that was just under the pole. Then they got on a roll and scored 2 more times! Yay!

Then, near the end of the game, the Girl (who is sweeper) went for the ball but missed and hit the player on the other team, got an automatic red card because she was the last defender. At first she didn't even know, and the Ref had to tell her to get off the field! So her team had to play short, but the joke was on them because she can't make the next few games anyway. Ha!

We were still up 3-1, but the other team scored on the penalty kick resulting from the Girl's red card. Her team was still up by one, but went ahead and scored again for good measure.

For us it was a good win, a good game, and the Girl was laughing about her red card. Now she says she's gotten every color card.

Then we went home and got ready to go the the Playboy Jazz festival. I'd gone to Trader Joes and loaded up on hummus, chips, flatbread and pita bread. I made some ham and arugula wraps and some drinks, and then we hit the road. We were a little more prepared than last year, taking lots of food, jackets, umbrella, etc.

Like last year, we took the shuttle from the LA Zoo and it was great. It dropped us off right there, and we picked up our tickets and hiked our way to our seats. Our good friend Schlow was there, visiting from Philly. We saw the gang from last year, and it was fun.

This year we were sitting in the middle, so we had a great view of the Hollywood sign beyond the Bowl. After awhile we took a walk, and I discovered a path that leads to a picnic area that has a great view of the Observatory! Too bad I didn't take my camera on that walk.

The bands were great. Each band that came out seemed better than the last, although truthfully I enjoyed them all. When the Pete Escovedo Orchestra came on, his daughter Sheila E. was with them, and she played a little bit of her hit song (Glamorous Life).

People were throwing mardi-gras beads - I guess the Bowl sponsored that, because there were sure a lot of them. I never did need to put on my jacket. Near the end of the evening some guy gave me a glow-in-the-dark stick. I played percussion for awhile with it, but finally stuck it in my hair.

The last band was the Neville Brothers, and they really jammed out to songs like "Fire on the Bayou." It was so fun - good music, good food, good friends.

What more could you ask for?

Friday, June 05, 2009

Hot Dog Soup

The other day I accidentally made hot dog soup. Usually I pride myself in being a good cook, but this soup was ill-advised. I had purchased what claimed to be "Hot Sausage" , and thought I'd use it to make a soup like the sausage-potato soup they serve at Olive Garden. Then I discovered that our potatoes were no longer edible, and K suggested I use the rest of our uneaten mashed potatoes in the refrigerator. Anyway, I think the soup turned out ok except for the meat, which turned out to taste like spicy hot dogs! There was no getting around it - good soup, but hot dogs. I won't be making that again!

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1-800-Dentist

Commercials keep running for 1-800-dentist, quite a few during the daytime. I sometimes suspect my own dentist of being more interested in my pocketbook than my teeth, so one day I called to see if they had a dentist we could use. The guy on the phone (advisor) was extremely nice and asked a few questions about my preferences, location, etc.

"Well, good news!" he enthused, "I found a few in your area!"

"Great!" I answered, "Where are they?"

"One is in Beverly Hills," he said, "and the other is downtown Los Angeles."

Well, neither one of those are anywere near where I live! Who wants to drive 35 miles to visit the dentist? Or even 25 miles when I know there are probably 10 on the nearest big street alone! He claimed that there are only a few dentists who can meet the strict criteria of 1-800-dentist. (I'm thinking that means "dentists who are willing to pay the fee.")

But only 2 in the whole Los Angeles area?! Why even bother to run commercials all the time if there are only 2 dentists in all of Los Angeles? How can they afford to do that?

What about a smaller city or town? How far would they have to drive?

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Reality TV

I got a chance to be part of a Reality show today! They had asked for volunteers to comment on something in the show, and it was pretty fun. I had to be there at 7:30 am, which is WAY early for me, but I woke up excited to go.

It was interesting, it was fun. I can't tell you anything else about it or I could get in really big trouble. But if you see me on TV, let me know!

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Across the Universe

This movie was recommended to me by more than one person. I mentioned that we saw "LOVE" in Las Vegas, and one of my best friends lent me the movie to watch. We've actually had it a long time, so last weekend we sat down to watch it.

What the...? Parts of it actually made my eyeballs hurt! It was a really strange movie. Looking back on it, it may have stimulated my imagination somehow, but it wasn't an enjoyable process.

I've asked around, and people seem to really love it or hate it.

Decide for yourself, at your own risk.


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Lakers vs. Nuggets

My son walked out of the house wearing a Nuggets jersey today. Carmelo Anthony. I told him he's only asking for trouble, but he thinks it's funny I guess. I hope he makes it home OK.