Global Warming

Maureen sent me this photo today of Venice...still crazy weather in Europe.

Oscar in the sun

Introducing Binky...

Ian now has a cat he got from the SPCA. Seems she was in a cage for 6 months there so she's happy to have a home I'm sure. Quite a beauty!

He's baaack!

Our old friend, Oscar, turned up this morning! Were we ever glad to see him. Another surprise...hail on the ground. A touch of the desert in one photo...my cactus survived the winter.

Tree trunk in LA

I thought this was rather amazing to see in the midst of downtown LA.

Walt Disney Music Center

We hadn't visited this before and were really glad we did this time. Of course, I love Frank Gehry architecture. It was a neat part of LA to visit and they offer free self-guided audio tours so a good deal. Disney's widow, Dorothy, donated 50 million towards it and apparently wanted it to look like a little brick church with vines. Gehry took this to mean an intimate and friendly space and took artistic licence...obviously! She didn't live to see the finished product.





This is a photo I got off the internet as mine had traffic lights in it. Guess they photoshopped them out.

Great weather at home!

Well, we certainly came home to some great weather...warm and sunny and everything in the gardens are about 3 weeks early. These cherry blossom trees across the street are beginning to fade and many around the city have already had their blooming time. Daffodils and crocus out in my garden and an azelea is beginning early than normal.

1:20 pm...just finished having lunch outside. Must be about 70 F on our deck at the moment. Now, out for a drive along the ocean in the convertible with the top down. We do live in a great place.

Always great to be home!

Arrived home to this fabulous sunshine and weather..wow! And our plane from San Francisco was a half an hour early. And even more importantly our plane from LA was early by about 20min. We kind of needed that since I realized we only had half an our to make our connection. How lucky can you get. A pretty easy travelling day after all. You just never know what you might face these days flying but things went smoothly.

Santa Monica

A view scenes from Santa Monica and the pier...dogs, parrots, and pelicans.

A few scenes in Westwood, LA

I'm having trouble uploading the photos so more later. Westwood Village is such a perfect place to be in LA. I love the buildings and atmosphere and of course all the restaurants. This vintage FOX theatre is probably the most iconic of them all. We went and saw Shutter Island there last night. Pretty good movie. I see there's a big Trader Joe's in the Village since we were last here. And of course Whole Foods is a great place to browse.

Off to Santa Monica today.

Yamato Restaurant

Yamato Restaurant

For dinner last night we went to this very cool Japanese Restaurant. We began with various sushi like tempura salmon, baked lobster (fabulous) , spicy tuna (too spicy for me and although the tuna was wonderful Jim had to eat most of it), and then I saw tempura calamari on the menu so we had to try that. It was great and was served with two dipping sauces. Then we split a combo dinner (good thing because the portions were large) of teriyaki chicken and sukiyaki beef...excellent. As is typical Jim commented that he couldn't really finish all the rice since he "wasn't really that hungry"...not surprising at this point! All washed down with lots of great saki. They had loads of different varieties.






Baked lobster sushi in front.

Goodbye Palm Springs...Hello LA

We left PS yesterday for LA and are settled in now until Friday when we leave for home.
We filled up the car with gas at our faithful ACRO gas station (cheapest always...somehow the US manages to avoid price fixing with their gas) and said goodbye to our Mazda 5 that we have really enjoyed driving.

We had dropped off our luggage at the hotel before dropping off the car so had the taxi driver drop us off in Westwood Village so we could have a late lunch. There was a movie being shot right where we were and that began the big city buzz which felt kind of good after laid back PS. We went into the California Pizza Kitchen since it was right there and we know it. We started with Buffalo wings then shared a fabulous pear and gorgonzola pizza...really garlicky taste and the salad on top was great too.

P.S. If my blog goes dark you'll know it's because I'm having some weird blank out thing going on. Glad I have Applecare...

P.P.S. Now blogger isn't uploading so have to wait on the rest of the photos...hope it posts what I have.

Movie Colony Hotel

We had fun looking at this funky hotel.

Congratulations Canada!

Wow...olympic gold for hockey!



I can imagine the scene in Vancouver right now. Richard is downtown in a pub somewhere. Enjoy the moment (are you wearing the red mittens we put in your stocking?)!

Fans in Robson Square, Vancouver.



From the Washington Post later on:

"And the Canadians? They celebrated into the night and the morning that followed, content in the knowledge that they beat the United States in gold medals, hockey and top eight finishes. Oh, and health care. Well done, Canada. Now turn out the light."

Right on!

The Movie Colony Neighborhood Organization - History & Description

The Movie Colony is a neighbourhood in Palm Springs named after the many famous movie stars who owned homes between the 1930's and 1960's. Some movie stars who had a home in TMC are Cary Grant, Dinah Shore, Jack Benny, Marilyn Monroe and Al Jolson.


The Movie Colony Neighborhood Organization - History & Description

We went wandering around and I took some photos...of course!










I love the cactus mailbox.

Our first Red Robin experience

We had a fun evening and a good meal at Red Robin last night with Erna and Marvin. Excellent tortilla soup and great burgers!

Last golf at Tahquitz

Jim played his last round at Tahquitz yesterday and we started with the two free beer. It's really been great to be on this course and we've enjoyed watching the golfers while sipping a drink. Jim bought a used Calloway driver...one of the big headed ones for $20. He's really liking it.