I know, I know....I owe you pictures. There is some guilt around that and I will try to download images from my camera and give you some Live from LA pictures. Problem with MiniMe (the Acer teeny computer) is that one, its not a mac with all the easy picture stuff, two--its not a mac loaded with photoshop etc so as to be able to crop and crank up the contrast and sharpen and three, its not a mac. You get the idea. But, there are work arounds and I just need to get on the ball and do that. So, plan (don't set your calendars though) on some photos in the near future.
Today is Saturday. I am looking out our window at the purple hills, the peachy sky, the almost turquoise water and the grey beach. Whoever had to squint to see what the impressionists would not have to see the color Remington, Russell, Bierstadt saw in these western morning palettes. There are the runners, the dogs, the walkers all at it...since the sun promised to come up around a quarter to six. We are planning on Pasadena today--for the Huntington Botanical Gardens (and galleries if the team permits), and the Green and Green designed Gamble House. We will be leaving the Hermosa Beach House (which has been just right for us...taking the pressure off the go go go and close to Gloria so we arent driving all day to do ordinary things).
Yesterday, K and A were up early with Gloria to go to the barn to take care of horse business with Just in Time (known as Justin). Justin is a huge white horse who I like to think of as a destrier or those wonderful war horses who at bonded with their warrior riders and worked as teams.Those wonderful horses that would charge into groups of people, striking with their sharpened hooves, or those ceremonial horses that would carry its rider higher than most to their destination. Justin is a big sweet, silly boy who, as many of the horses at the Palos Verdes Equestrian Center, loves little nature snacks, sweet pink peppercorns that grow in glistening bunches from the pepper trees that grow abundantly in that area. Not one or two, mind you, but handfuls of sweet, juicy pepperypink pop! that we presented to him. R and I tried one too...and you know, if you dried them, they are absolutely the same thing as the gourmet pink pepper one buys at Dean and Deluca. Imagine having a pepper tree, a lemon tree, a rosemary bush in your yard. What bliss! So, the barn chores went on for a while while R and I hung out and I worked on some pretty witless drawings....nonetheless, the process was good. I am also doing a bunch of thumbnails to get myself back on track with the Eden project which is good...charging me up.
We met Gloria, K and A and had lunch. Gloria was flagging, so off she went to put her head down with the hopes we would meet up later. We grabbed the team and scooted off for research and review at IKEA in Carson. R has a brand new gadget/software on his blackberry/ crackberry--which is a gps system. Talkin' Tina, the Travelpro (my name for the insistant voice that guides us and is often exasperated by our inability to follow her directions to a "t") us via a very interesting route to Carson--eliminating all need for highways and byways that often LA drving is all about. If you have a blackberry, it is a great add as it has changed our driving, taken the fear and sting out of "where do we go", my nearsighted map reading etc. Liberation thanks to technology! And, as R is quick to point out, it really does accurately project the time to get to your destination due to the satellite stuff knowing traffic etc. So, IKEA was great as usual. We scoped the kitchens/ bathrooms out with mental notetaking per our projects. The traditional Cassetti IKEA kitchen solution (I think we have done 6 of them) may not work for the historic house...but the ideas were there in layout, fit and finish, scale and relationships. Plus, for us, going to IKEA is always a homecoming as we lived 10 minutes from the first one in Philadelphia and pretty much made it a second home at that point in our lives.
I bought black and white striped candles and bright paper napkins to take to Gloria ...but when we arrived at her apartment, the lights were off and we gathered she was still in dreamland. She was, and so a rendezvous became something that was not going to happen, at least for last night. We had dinner and a walk through the little village of Hermosa Beach with all the bars and nightclubs ramping up for a wild Friday night. It was cold so we hustled back to our snuggly room, watched some trashy TV (with A guffawing over Maxwell Smart and Hogans Heros).
Onward to today.