Leap Day Recipe

Take one M, add one P, mix well on February 29, 1992, simmer for 16 years, add cheese. Makes: the P3.

"cheese"

We don't typically celebrate our anniversary--perhaps because it comes around only every four years. However, this time, the P3 are making the weekend special. Look for photos soon.

Mr. Winkle

For the past two weeks, I've been dragging myself from one day to the next--nothing serious, just a bad, lingering cold. (I'm going to the doctor on Monday, Mom.) Still, it has curtailed Riley's extracurricular activities. Today, he and I went to the RedCat International Children's Film Festival. It was the festival's third year and our second year attending. Riley was definitely more interested in watching the films this year than he was last year.

No more pictures, Mama!

We saw the "Best Friends Forever" program, a series of seven short films, culminating in a screening of Mr. Winkle's Circus. Here is a picture of Mr. Winkle:


Mr. Winkle was rescued from the street as a puppy; his exact parentage is unknown. That tongue never does go all the way inside his mouth--he's too little and the tongue is too long. Press for the festival states that he is now retired and living in Altadena. We're practically neighbors!

Mr. Winkle is very cute (and we did get a free 2008 calendar after the show), but his film was a bit too long. Riley enjoyed Rindin the Puffer (narrated by Wallace Shawn?) and The Little Shooting Star (a German film) more.


Personally, I thought Rindin borrowed too much from Finding Nemo, but I liked Pound, which was a silly look at greetings between male friends on the street. It may also have been the shortest of the seven films. Perhaps that's why I liked it?

When my parents were visiting, I mentioned that I strive to find activities around town that will entertain Riley for less than $20. (Yeah, I'm an attorney, but I've got a government salary, not one of those nice private practice compensation packages.) Anyway, the film festival met the bill. Tickets were $5 each, parking was $8. If you subtract the calendar we received (a $13.95 value), net cost for the event was $4.05.

3 Ms

Last Thursday, 3 Ms (Kirsten's parents, Howard and Susan, and her sister, Kate) came to visit the P3.

They took the Flyaway bus from LAX to Union Station. Riley and I met them there, and then we all rode back to Pasadena together on the Gold Line. After they checked into a Holiday Inn Express near the Sierra Madre Villa station (our house sleeps 4 at most), I brought them over to the house for a home-cooked meal. We gave them the 15-second grand tour and enjoyed a leisurely meal before ferrying the weary travelers back to their room for the night.

On Friday, Riley and I hung out poolside at the hotel with the 3Ms before taking them to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center.

In the evening, we walked to dinner at Chang Thai Bistro in Old Town Monrovia. Chris walked from his office across the street and met us there. On the way home, Riley got to stop into his favorite shop (The Dollmakers), where they have a train table. Kattywompus, the "house" band was playing outside, as they do every Friday night.

On Saturday, my parents went to a ceramic show in Pasadena, while Riley, Kate and I went to the zoo. We took the tram to the back of the zoo and worked our way forwards. I grew up going to a small town zoo, and I continue to find the size of the LA Zoo daunting.

I've never managed to see the whole thing in one visit. After two hours in the sun, we headed back to the hotel for lunch and an afternoon swim.

We had great weather during the 3Ms visit! It was sunny and near 80 degrees almost every day. Riley got to go swimming 3 days in a row.

Dinner on Saturday was Mexican food, followed by a brief visit to the Pomona Art Walk. The American Museum of Ceramic Art was featuring an exhibit by George Ohr, "the Mad Potter of Biloxi." Seeing that exhibit was the primary purpose of our trip there, so we stopped into that gallery first. Since we got a late start, we only had time for one more gallery after that, where my mother happened to ask a gallery aide how she might someday go about disposing of a small collection of ceramic art. When my mother mentioned one potter's name, that innocent question led to a quick call to the gallery owner, who then came out and whisked my mother away into a back room to talk about her collection. Apparently, he had a particular interest in that artist. It was all very strange.

Sunday proved to be a day of relaxation. I made brunch at the house. My father read the paper; my mother weeded some of our garden; and Kate picked and ate her very own orange off our tree. We went back to the hotel for another swim and later took a self-guided driving architectural tour near the Gamble House and the lower Arroyo Seco. We dined that evening amongst twinkling lights and hookah pipes at the Mediterranean Garden Grill in Monrovia.

On Monday, Riley and I took my mother and my sister to the Los Angeles County Arboretum. We walked all the way around the park, looking at the flora and fauna--roughly a two-mile jaunt.

(Sorry, Riley just wouldn't pose for this photo, but my mom and my sister both look nice in it.)

Kate loved seeing all of the peacocks everywhere, but the highlight of the arboretum for her was probably the guesthouse from Fantasy Island. That house was "Lucky" Baldwin's family's home, and the arboretum is on the site of his Santa Anita Ranch. Baldwin was one of this area's original settlers and the founder of the Santa Anita racetrack. It's hard to imagine anyone ever living in that home. The setting is one of a kind. It was also interesting to note that the house had no kitchen. All of the family's meals were prepared in a two-room adobe house a short distance away.



We spent the afternoon swimming, yet again, and then window shopped on Myrtle in Old Town (including another stop at Dollmakers) before heading to the store for pizza fixings.

It was a glorious few days. Riley adored spending so much time with his grandparents and his aunt, and I had fun showing them our new stomping grounds.

Happy Valentine's Day

This orchid was a Valentine's Day gift from my parents.

Bubble Boy

The P3 walked to the polls this evening. Make that the P3, plus Bunny. Riley couldn't explain why Bunny wanted to accompany us tonight. He said he knows that Bunny can't vote until he's 18. That's the least of Bunny's voting obstacles, I'd say. After our brisk evening walk, Riley enjoyed a warm bath.

It's been a slow couple of weeks for us due to rain and cold weather, so there hasn't been much to post. But we'll be out and about this weekend, so I expect to have some new stuff up soon.

Comments Revived

There were some difficulties with posting comments. They have been alleviated. Carry on.

Pop Quiz

Does anyone (besides Chris) know what this is?


Since the comment feature is disabled right now, here's the answer: It's the rear atrium at Union Station, near the bus plaza.

Lawnmower (Wo)man

This is our new lawnmower. We've decided to go against the LA-area grain and take care of our own lawn. Let me explain...

Gardeners are a dime a dozen around here. Almost everybody has one. In fact, one came with our house when we bought it. He worked for the former owners and approached us shortly after we moved in to see if we would like to hire him too. We did, and all was well and good for a while. But then he began missing a week here and there, and the quality of his work started declining. Still, it seemed easier to keep using him than to search for another gardener.

In a twist of irony, he quit last November. He gave me some flimsy story about how he was too busy to do our yard anymore and that he was having to get up too early to get all of his jobs done. The backstory is that he offered to trim our trees for $450 (an amount equal to almost 6 months of his weekly yard service but not an unreasonable fee for tree trimming). I initially accepted his offer, but later declined it, after some investigation, in favor of hiring a licensed contractor. I explained to the gardener that I need to be conscious of insurance requirements, as well as municipal requirements, when it comes to tree trimming because of my attorney status. He said he understood and that it was not a problem, but a week later he was suddenly too busy to cut our little yard (although he continues to handle our next door neighbor's yard).

Long story short, I'm cutting the grass myself every three weeks or so. It looks better now than it did when we had a gardener. Another bonus is not having to hear that blasted gasoline powered blower on the front porch every Tuesday morning.

Sorry, Mom, no pictures of me pushing the mower around, but I'm sure you can remember well enough what that looked like when I was a teenager.

Cooking Sabbatical

I'm taking a break this week from trying new recipes, because my parents and my sister are coming for a visit. I'll still do some cooking, but I won't make them my culinary guinea pigs.