Happy Mother's Day

I've had a Happy Mother's Day today. Amanda baked me an awesome cake.

Minnie was delicious.

For about a nanosecond, it occured to me that it might be disrespectful to eat Minnie. But I got over that notion quickly.

Children are a gift from God. And then they grow up and bake you cakes! It just gets better and better.

Happy Mother's Day to Sarah, Steph, Jenny, Mona, Ruth and Eleanor!

Strange Laundry

Last night I watched as my cat Rex strolled leisurely across the top of my dresser. Then, suddenly, he disappeared from sight. Here's where he went:

Don had just finished sorting the laundry and the bag was empty. Then it became full of cat.

Rex is four years old and weighs about 17 lbs. He has three black dots on his nose in the shape of Mickey Mouse. He likes to hang out in my room, and this is the first time he has attempted a foray into the laundry bag.

After several attempts, he managed to work his way out.

Next we will teach him to sort the delicates from the permanent press.

ADLA

First of all - happy 22nd birthday, Tiffany!

Spencer's final competition with Full Force Percussion was last Sunday, April 27 at the ADLA competition in Corona. ADLA stands for American Drum Line Association. Full Force placed third out of seven other drumlines in the Independent World class.

Nice job, Spencer! Now, on to VK!

What makes you laugh?

When I was a little kid, Soupy Sales, Allan Sherman and The First Family comedy albums made me laugh. As a grown-up, I tend to still like the silly stuff. My kids can make me laugh. My husband knows what cracks me up. But I'd have to say that the person I can laugh with the most, the one who gets me laughing about stuff so hard that tears come to my eyes and my stomach hurts and I can't breathe, is my sister, Sarah. That's one of the things that hurts about living so far away from her and her family. Whenever we get together, it's as if I remember who I am. But that's another story.

So last night I got home from work and Amanda had something on the internet she wanted me to hear. So the three of us, Marc, Amanda and I, sat around the computer and listened to this broadcast from a local morning radio show. And I had one of those moments. I guess you have to be in just the right mood, or be with the people you love, or the people you have fun with the most, or both, in order for it to hit you just right. I must have really needed it, because it felt so good to laugh hysterically. It was a gloriously silly moment. So silly, in fact, that I sneakily listened to it again at work today, and spent the afternoon breaking out in fits of occasional giggles. Last night in the few minutes before I finally fell asleep in bed, I kept trying to stifle giggles with little success.

Oh dear, now I've probably oversold it before I've even told you what it is. It's a broadcast on a morning radio show (Kevin and Bean) where they have a (scripted) telephone conversation with (not really) Bob Dylan, based on the premise that no one can understand a word he says. Oh my, I'm giggling already. Here it is:

http://kroq.wmod.llnwd.net/a168/o1/kbaudio/bob_dylan_5707.asf

My dad was good at laughing. One of my memories of him is hearing him down the hallway in the den laughing at Johnny Carson long after I had gone to bed. If something was funny, he had a great laugh. And if something was really funny, his laugh pitch got higher and he had this great giggle. I can hear him now in my head. Laughing is good.

Spring Break - Sunday

Well, it's Spring Break Sunday, and we've managed to stretch our vacation to the very end! And, what better way to bring it to a close on the night before heading back to work, than at a Fab Four concert?

They performed at The Grove in Anaheim, which is one of our favorite places to see them.

And now - The Fab Four.

Here's one.

Here's two.

Here's three . . .

. . . and here's four. This one is my favorite.

Cool, huh?

The concert was all Beatles music in the first half, and Wings in the second half. It was amazing, and we always have a good time seeing our Fabbie friends.

Well, back to work tomorrow. Spring Break was fun while it lasted!

Spring Break - Saturday

On Saturday we went to see Spencer's drum line perform at a competition in Ontario. He's with a winter drum line called Full Force Percussion. Here they are in action:

The name of their routine is "Capture the Flag", and Spencer is (obviously) on the Red Team. They took first place in their category. Spencer wasn't too impressed, because there was only one other drum line competing in that category against them. However, he needs to allow his mother to think that it was pretty cool.

Spring Break - Friday

Today we spent the day with our friends Doug and Claudia, trying to see where we could go and what we could do on the Metro. (Again with the trains!) And - I think we did pretty well. Here's a sample:

We had lunch at Felippe's near Olvera Street. They are celebrating their 100th year in business. 100 years of YUM!

After lunch, we rode downtown to 7th and Figueroa and walked to the Fashion Institute of Design (FIDM) to see the travelling display of movie costumes in their museum. (Do we detect a pattern here?) Among others, Harry Potter costumes were on display.

The above costumes were worn by (from left to right): Professor Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), Tonks (Natalia Tina), Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in Order of the Phoenix. There were other costume displays there, from movies such as 300, Blades of Glory, Elizabeth: The Golden Years, Marie Antoinette, Across the Universe, 3:10 to Yuma, Beowolf, Hairspray, and Sweeney Todd. It was really cool.

Here's Doug and Don, waiting patiently on a park bench under an arbor at the beautiful park outside FIDM while Claudia and I were inside looking at costumes.

Here's me and the angel statue (for some reason she's wearing a cat mask - I'm wearing sunglasses) outside the museum.

This is the view of the El Capitan Theatre (where The Little Mermaid is currently playing) from above the courtyard at Grauman's Theatre. We went there again because Claudia hadn't seen the footprints before. Another beautiful day in the neighborhood . . .

Here's another handprint (and my camera strap) - this time from former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda - only we're not at the Chinese Theatre anymore. These are in front of the Dodgers store at Universal City Walk. The store is pretty extensive - just about everything Dodgers you could think of. These hand prints were the only thing I found photo-worthy while we were at City Walk. We took the Metro almost to the end to get there, and fortunately there's a shuttle to take you up the hill to the mall. There's also a square with Eric Gagne's handprints next to Tommy's, but the shuttle was leaving and I didn't have time to take a picture of them. I had my priorities straight, tho' . . .

We Metro'd all the way back to Pasadena (end of the line) and the four of us had dinner at Islands. Yaki tacos - yummy! There and back again, all for five bucks. (Except for food, and the ninety-nine cent ceramic chicken necklace I bought at Olvera Street . . . ) Another all-around good day.