A Dickensian Christmas

This picture was one of Riley's Christmas gifts to us.

Can you feel the chill in the air? The acting classes start early when you grow up in LA.

'Za!

Hungry yet? When the P3 want to celebrate a special occasion or just indulge ourselves, we make homemade pizza. I made this one for Riley and me last weekend. Chris made one too, but his was still cookin' when I snapped this pic.

I've been making pizza at home for at least 15 years. Over the years, it has evolved from a deep dish Chicago style to more of a New York thin crust style. I'm continually tweaking something with it. Now that I've finally mastered a crispy, crunchy crust (cut down on the oil in the recipe and pre-bake the crust before adding toppings), I'm working on reducing the amount of carbs in the crust while trying to retain good flavor. I substituted some of the white flour in our last few pizzas with whole wheat flour and soy flour. It's not quite right yet, but it's fun experimenting.

I'd also like to come up with my own sauce recipe. We currently use jarred pizza sauce enhanced with wine, italian seasoning, parmesan, and occasionally some hot pepper flakes, but I think something entirely from scratch might have a richer, robust flavor.

Mmmm. I think I know what I'm having for dinner tonight.

Merry Christmas From SoCal!

Christmas Eve At City Hall

Christmas Eve is typically a half-day at City Hall, and children frequently accompany their parents to the office. Riley is no exception. He loves to go to my "skyscraper" office.

Where's the train, Mama?

Here we go!

Pulling into Union Station, downtown Los Angeles

View from Traxx restaurant toward the main waiting room

Old ticketing hall, no longer used, except for private functions

Almost there!

First a train, now a bus. What fun!

Privileged access to City Hall!

(My office is located just above the very top row of windows, but underneath the pillars, on the opposite side of the building)

Gazing down one of the third floor halls to the rotunda

Christmas tree meets chandelier in the rotunda

Tearing up the Enforcement Division with Alex, an investigator's son

Trying to take apart Mama's office furniture

Working hard at Mama's computer

Rear entry to Union Station; time to go home!

Leaving Los Angeles, amidst skywriting

The Gold Line, Riley's favorite mode of transport

Exhausted on the train after a hard (half) day's work

Yo Ho Ho!

Building upon Riley's enjoyment of "Schoolhouse Rock!", I bought tickets to a holiday musical, "Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate's Christmas," performed at the Noho Arts Center, a small theatre in North Hollywood.

The story is this: A little girl goes to bed on Christmas Eve, wishing that Santa will bring her a much-longed for toy pirate ship. She then dreams that pirates land at the North Pole. The pirates' intended destination was Treasure Island, but they decide to see what can be plundered on Christmas Island instead. The little girl dreams that she is Eve Christmas, an elf child. Her parents work for Santa. Eve and her family--Happy, Murray, Holly, Ivy, and Noel Christmas--help Santa and Mrs. Claus defend the island from the pirates. It was the "Ho Ho Hos!" versus the "Yo Ho Hos!" Eventually they conquer the pirates and persuade them to aid Santa in delivering all of the toys from his workshop after reindeer problems ground Santa's sleigh.

This was a great musical for little kids. The pirates used ropes to swing down from the rafters and to cross a "whirlpool" between their ship (the audience seating area) and the island (the stage). From that point on, the performers regularly traversed the aisles and communicated with audience members. There was also a lot of general silliness: a pirate raised by goats (who therefore sounds like a goat), a Scottish pirate with an unintelligible brogue, and a pirate with a ventriloquist parrot that falls in love with Eve. (Riley got to pet the parrot after the musical.)

After the performance was over, Santa welcomed all of the children in the audience to come sit on his lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. For the first time, Riley actually wanted to go see Santa. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, Riley said, "A thing that is good and nice." (This is a common response whenever we ask Riley what he would like to do with us or what he would like to receive as a gift.)

Riley was tickled to find a pirate in the bathroom when we stopped to use the facilities before heading home. He learned that pirates have to go potty too and that some pirates are mommies who also have to take their children to the bathroom. He continued to chatter on about pirates in the car until he fell asleep.

(I love how Santa gets progressively wearier and disinterested in these photos.)

A Party For Every P

Saturday was holiday party day for the P3.

Riley began and ended his day with festivities. In the morning, he went to a kids' Christmas party at his friend Christopher's house. Christopher lives in a gated mountainside neighborhood in northern Pasadena. The adults enjoyed a beautiful sunny morning and gorgeous views from Christopher's backyard. I imagine, on a clear day, one could see all the way to Catalina. The children enjoyed a bounce house, pizza, and a visit from Santa (aka Christopher's dad).

A couple of hours later, Riley and I headed home to finish preparations for a holiday Tot Not dinner being held at our house that night.

Six of my friends and I enjoyed a scrumptious candlelit turkey dinner with all the trimmings (salad, rolls, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and potatoes), as well as plenty of wine and a choice of chocolate cake or chocolate pecan pie. Riley spent most of the evening watching movies in our bedroom. He came out to say hello at one point, spotted my friend Renee, and said "Who's that? I love her." (All of the kids love Renee!) By the end of the evening, Riley decided it was more fun to join us at the table than to watch any more TV. Coincidentally, that was also about the same time we ate dessert. He happily climbed up onto a chair at the opposite end of the table from me and chatted with Renee and Heather, while occasionally hopping down to visit my plate for a forkful of chocolate cake.

The party wrapped up around 11:30 pm, and I sent everyone home with homemade goodies. (By baking, I find myself less inclined to overindulge on the sweet stuff.)

While Riley partied the night away with the ladies, Chris attended a party thrown by one of his Beyond Our Control friends in Sherman Oaks. His friend Steve and Steve's wife Madeline host an annual Christmas party and mandatory white elephant gift exchange. Chris ended up with the kitschy item below which he gave to Riley.

Astute Observation

From Riley:

"When the sun burns out, this planet is doomed. Doomed, I tell you!"

Where does he get this stuff?

Holiday Bowl

Here's a snapshot from my office holiday bowling extravaganza. Is this what you imagine when you picture your everyday average government employees? I think we look like a pretty friendly, ordinary bunch of folks, albeit a little on the young side for civil servants.

The bowling party was actually a lot of fun. But, I have to say, I'm a rotten bowler. I had the 18th lowest score out of 25, and my team scored the lowest overall (it wasn't all my fault!).

This is my immediate boss, Deena, the City Ethics Commission's Director of Enforcement and Legal Affairs. She got the "High Style" trophy for best form, due to her hop, skip, and a jump technique.

Pictured below is the highest scoring team. Four out of five of them are my co-workers from the Enforcement Division (everyone except the man with the glasses -- that's Eric, head of the Audit Division.) From left to right, beginning with the man in the brown shirt are Nilon, Deena, Terra, and Artin.

Talk about a well-integrated team! Its members were Chinese, black, Egyptian, Italian, and Armenian. LA is such a great melting pot.

Busy Season

I think the majority of our holiday celebrations are taking place this week.

Riley and I began the holiday circuit last Saturday by buying a tree. We got it home and then immediately went to Jingle Bells storytime at the Monrovia library's temporary digs in the YMCA. Riley heard jokes, songs, and stories, including one read by Santa himself! He also got a holiday craft project and cookies to take home with him. I love these story sessions; they seem so well planned. BTW, what's green, has a red nose, and flies? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Pickle. As Riley would say, "Get it?"

On Sunday, we went to Riley's friend Xander's birthday party at My Gym. Riley's favorite part was riding the trolley at the end. Or maybe it was the red and green M&Ms. His friends Kaitlyn and Isabella enjoyed those too, turning them into a novel pizza topping.

On Monday, my division in the office had a holiday luncheon and gift exchange. Some of my co-workers chipped in to give me a gift in recognition of my supervisory role over some of the work our division does. That was a nice surprise. We always do it for our division head, but this was the first year I received similar treatment.

On Thursday, the whole office is having a holiday outing. We're going bowling. I'm not sure how that will go. We have some ultra competitive employees. More on that later, maybe.

On either Thursday or Friday night, we are going to our friend Youa's graduation show at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Youa's wife Sheryl was our babysitter when we moved to Pasadena. We grew quite fond of her and never found anyone we liked enough to replace her with when she got too busy to sit for us anymore. They were kind enough to come to our house warming party last year, so it's nice to be able to share this special event with them.

On Saturday morning, Riley is going to a kids' Christmas party hosted by one of his schoolmate's parents. I believe Santa will be making an appearance. On Saturday night, my friends are coming over for a holiday turkey dinner. Yum! Riley will hang out with the girls, while Chris travels across town to attend his friend Steve's annual holiday party and white elephant gift exchange.

Then on Sunday, Riley and I are going to a performance of Yo Ho Ho...A Pirate Christmas! at a theatre in North Hollywood. Everything should slow down after that, and maybe I'll find a picture or two to post on the blog.

Impressionable Youth

Last night as I was putting Riley's shoes on at my gym's "Kid's Club", Riley looked around the room and said something to the effect of: "Those darn security cameras. They're always trying to screw us."

Surprised, I told Riley that was not a nice thing for little boys to say and asked him where he heard it. I wasn't so surprised to learn that it came from viewing The Simpsons with his father.

Editor's Note: The Simpsons episode referenced by Riley was Homer's Enemy.

Below, excerpt from the script...

Homer has invited himself into new employee Frank Grimes's office.

Homer:
Hey, you seem like a great guy, so I'll give you a little tip. If you turn that security camera around, you can sleep and no one will ever know.

Grimes:
Uh, I don't think we're being paid to sleep.

Homer:
Oh yeah. They're always trying to screw ya.

Homer leaves. Grimes shudders.

Schoolhouse Rock!

The P3 went to the theatre this weekend. No, not the cinema...the "theatre", as in a stage performance.

Chris and I took Riley to a live performance of Schoolhouse Rock! at the Greenway Court Theater. We both fondly remember the animated musical math, science and American history lessons from the 70's (51 in total). The original program has been referenced in movies and spoofed on TV sitcoms. A Chicago company called Theatre BAM created the stage version of the show “Schoolhouse Rock Live!” in 1993 and took it off-Broadway in 1995, where it ran successfully for 11 months. The new 2007 L.A. production at the Greenway Court Theater in the Fairfax/Melrose neighborhood marks the show’s professional Los Angeles premiere. It started this weekend and continues through February 2008. Our Indiana family members might also be interested to know that the production manager at Greenway Court got his BA in Acting at IUSB.

As backstory, Chris and Riley have a ritual of buying a new DVD to watch on nights when I go out with my friends. One evening this past summer, Riley chose Schoolhouse Rock! He loves the songs and listens to it (rather than watches it) on a regular basis. When I saw that a local theatre company was doing a musical version of the program, I was sure that Riley would love it.

The live performance features 20 of the original Schoolhouse Rock! songs and characters. The stage production revolves aroung Tom, a young teacher who is nervously anticipating his first class. The musical numbers are performed with five characters who represent different aspects of Tom's personality, who have emerged to help him ready himself for the big day.


It took Riley a little bit of time to embrace the different format, but by the end of the show he was singing along, clapping his hands, and waving his index fingers back and forth to the beat. We heard all of his favorites: "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly," "Unpack Your Adjectives," and "The Tale of Mr. Morton," among others. He amused the folks sitting in front of us by loudly singing each chorus of "Interjections." I still have the joyous "Elbow Room" and "Interplanet Janet" echoing in my head. Even Chris, whom as I've mentioned earlier does not enjoy musicals, had fun sharing the experience with Riley.


The P3 ended our family outing with Mexican food at The Original Peppers, across from the Santa Anita racetrack. This was our second meal at Peppers, and we were treated like regulars. Sunday's meal wasn't as good as the first, but parking is plentiful, the portions are large (including a grande burrito big enough to feed four people), the service is pleasant, and the whole restaurant is family friendly. The place also has a lot of sports memorabilia, maybe because of its location near the horse track. Last night, when Chris asked me where the men's restroom was, I told him to go back past the hostess stand and "turn left at the big shoe." Turns out that was Shaq's shoe.

Self-portrait?

What sort of strange things do you find when you clean the house? I found this little guy over the weekend:


When Riley saw it on the blog, he said it was a picture he drew of his "best boy" Chris. Somehow, I don't think Riley was the artist.

Bunny Lovin'

You've met Snake; now, meet Bunny!


Melissa, my best friend from college, Chris's former roommate, and the mother of twins, gifted Riley with this Ty bunny when he was an infant. Her twins Ben and Erin had similar toys and adored them. Clearly, Melissa knows her stuff. As you can see above, Riley loves his bunny. It is the only stuffed animal he still sleeps with. It travels with him too. Bunny has been to Indiana, Hawaii, and Michigan. Sometimes he goes on shorter trips too, like to school or the grocery store.

Lions, Tigers And Bears... Oh My!

Another wildlife attack occurred this week in the foothills near our home. This time it was a mountain lion. The mountain lion attacked two German Shepherds on Cedarwood Avenue in Duarte, killing and partially eating one and injuring the other. Experts estimate the lion weighs about 200 pounds. Because mountain lions are known to have large territories, authorities are warning residents of Duarte and the neighboring foothill communities not to allow small pets or children to be outside unsupervised.

If you click on this link, you can see where the attack occurred in relation to where we live on Foothill Blvd, east of Myrtle Avenue. For our readers who are unfamiliar with the area, all of the undeveloped gray space at the top of the map is the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

I don't think we are close enough to the mountains to be in any real danger from bears or mountain lions, but Riley and I did have to wait for a skunk to crawl out from under my car before we could go to the gym last night.

Parent-Teacher Conference

I had my first ever parent-teacher conference on Tuesday. Riley failed skipping.

Seriously though, he received "Age Appropriate" marks for 41 aspects and "Developing" marks for another 18 aspects of Attitude & Social Development, Work Habits, Group Skills, Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills, Classification, Language Development, Numbers/Mathematics, and Arts Skills. He seems to be doing quite well with his language and counting skills, but he is still working on his coping skills, textural aversions, and social interactions.

In general, his teacher says he is a well-behaved, sweet child. He's starting to open up more and is gaining confidence, but he's still pretty shy and reserved in group environments--like his mom.

Oh, and only one kid in his class can actually skip.

Holiday Accomplishments

So, what did you do with your long weekend?

I sense a theme developing with my own extended weekends: knock at least one task off my household "to do" list and take Riley to the park.

Over the three-day Veteran's Day weekend earlier this month, I made arrangements to have our trees trimmed in December, bought a new comforter for Riley's room, and took Riley to the park.

Over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, I weatherproofed all of the doors in the house, bought a full-length mirror to insure against backsliding in the weight loss program I began over the long Labor Day weekend, stored all of our Halloween decorations and costumes, and took Riley to the park.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007!

We would like to wish a very happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends.

The Pickenpaugh 3 have much to be thankful for. As is our tradition, because we are far from our immediate families, we will celebrate with friends later today.

We wish you and yours a bountiful table and hope that you are surrounded by those you love.

Helicopters, Trains, and Limousines

Richard Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in this farmhouse built by his father on a small citrus ranch in Yorba Linda, California, a small Quaker community of about 200 people. He spent his first nine years there. He later became the 37th president of the United States and the first native Californian to hold that office.

As a boy, Richard loved trains and dreamed of someday becoming an engineer. In his memoirs, he recalled one of the earliest memories of his Yorba Linda childhood, "In the daytime, I could see the smoke from the steam engines. Sometimes at night I was awakened by the whistle of train, and then I dreamed of the far-off places I wanted to visit someday."

Trains have a special place in my memories too. My best friend in high school lived directly in front of a train track. Trains came through on a regular basis and made quite a racket. We used the sound to cover our escape from the house in the middle of the night whenever I slept over.

Riley and I traveled to the Nixon presidential museum to see the Holiday Festival of Trains, one of the largest train collections ever assembled. The Mountain of Trains has ten trains on main lines and one train and two trolleys on point to point lines. Trains weave in and out from every direction. The exhibit has small town and big city scenes. Each season of the year is represented, and there are wonderful details to be found wherever you look.

Small towns and big cities...

Winter, complete with moving sledders and Santa and his reindeer....


Halloween town with haunted house and ghostly graveyard...

The Hogwart's Express and the Weasleys' flying car...


Roadside conveniences...


Trolleys and the Golden Gate bridge...

Rescue missions...


Around the exterior walls of the exhibit room were shelves and shelves of collectible trains.

My brother's Erector set never looked like this!


One of the few things that drew Riley's attention, albeit briefly, from the activity at the center of the room, was the pushcart collection....

Trains are not just for little boys. Girls can enjoy the beckoning call of the rail as well, as exhibited by this 1957 pastel model just for the gals...

Besides the special train exhibit, the museum has an interesting permanent collection from Nixon's White House years. Of particular interest to us was the presidential limousine, used by Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter.

This is a 1967 Lincoln Continental. The rear bumper could fold down to provide a platform for Secret Service agents. The 1977 Guiness World Book of Records called it the most expensive car ever built. The cost for research, development, and manufacturing was half a million dollars. The limo intrigued Riley mostly because one of the back seats faced the "wrong way."


A presidential helicopter is also housed on site.

Like the limousine, this helicopter also served four presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford), from 1961 to 1976. It seats 16, including a seat for the military attache who carried the "football", a suitcase containing the nation's nuclear launch codes.


I'm a terrible American history scholar, but information at the museum states that Nixon made significant advances in international diplomacy by ending our involvement in the Vietnam War, opening lines of communication with China and the Soviet Union, and initiating the Middle East peace process. The permanent exhibit hall contains a sizable piece of the Berlin Wall.


We came for the trains but found much more.