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?