Tripping up to Mammoth and bits and pieces

I finished working on "Wild Child" Friday. Skye reminds me that I promised to take her camping in Mammoth. When it rained here, it snowed there, so I realized time was running out. On Sunday after getting beat up at Jujitsu, I decide we should go up on Monday so we can get back by Wednesday night to make it to the screening of "The Heartbreak Kid", the movie Cindy worked on and Skye can make it to the Talent show at the home school park day, her talent being hula hooping. Yes it sounds a bit crazy but we had a lot of fun.


I bought this tent like two years ago along with a couple of sleeping bags, part of a e-bay crazed shopping spree, finally they get a taste of the great outdoors. I'm very glad I bought a couple of good sleeping bags, cause it was 26 degrees at night.

One of objectives of the trip, beyond living up to the promise I made was to strengthen Skye's bicycling skills because we're racing in the Urban Assault Race this Sunday. We made some pretty long rides. Skye was a trooper even when I miscalculated the length and steepness of a hill that we ended up pushing our bikes up for the better part of an hour. But we got some amazing views and a fun downhill ride.


That little patch of green in the middle of the photo above was where we started our ride.

It was a great little escape.

Upon return, just before heading out for Cindy's screening I try to check my e-mail only to find out our computer has crashed, total meltdown, the computer is dead. I'm writing this on a new computer, just about the most basic model available seeing as how these machines seem to become cheaper to buy than to fix after a few years and they seem to inevitably crash after a couple of years or even if they are working become obsolete by the time you get them home. Oh the madness.

Also on the horizon, Oct. 6 I'm running or rather climbing in YMCA's Stair Climb to the Top, 1500 steps up the US Bank Tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Check out my official race webpage to help raise money for the Y.

Skye news

Skye is back in soccer. She is now a proud Green Lizard.





Meeting Emma Roberts aka Nancy Drew, Claire from Aquamarine and now she's the "Wild Child". Skye had a lot of fun on the set and was a big hit with the crew. We caught up on a lot of her history lessons with a great CD set, History of the World. Call it carschooling. We started hitting the books in earnest this Thursday.

Week in Review

Actually, this is the week before last, week in review.

As the summer winds down and a new school year is upon us, Cindy and I started working on the L.A. portion of a movie starring Emma Roberts, "Wild Child". Which is great, cause we needed to work. But then Cindy gets another, longer, bigger, better job,(in L.A. thank goodness) Anyway it's been a bunch of juggling, with Skye in day camp and me trying to prepare for home school and house guests coming in town. And top it off with a weird heat wave that coincided with my drip-irrigation system going on the fritz. I know it sounds convoluted and not making much sense, but it was that squared.

So working in LA. Culture shock!!!! I forgot how much driving we do as Set Decorators. My carbon footprint just got a couple sizes bigger. And how much traffic there is and how nonsensical its patterns are, crazy!!!

House guests--Lovely couple, Susanne and Fady. Documentary film makers, she from Barcelona, he from Iraq. Both so gracious, warm and wonderful. Back story long and not uninteresting, just, as usual I am behind schedule, with too much to do, so main thread is Fady was one of the producers on Hometown Baghdad . Amazing online web series about life in Baghdad. Must check it out. Just click on above link and off you'll go. So Cindy's longtime friend, Laurie Meadoff founded Chat the Planet, and there is the link to Fady. Unfortunately, we were very busy, they were busy so we didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. Susanne returned to Spain and Fady, well he's studying here at U.S.C. graduate film school so hopefully we'll be seeing more of him.

But their visit was a perfect excuse to host another pizza making party. Throw in some kids, a heat wave and the last days of summer and it becomes a pool party as well. Great fun, but man it gets hot in front of that pizza oven, around 1000 F, with heat from the grill coming at you from the other direction. I got cooked pretty good. But it was all worth it.

Stop, pause, and quick rewind, to one more gardening project I'm embarking on and very excited about, heirloom tomatoes. Picked up some fall-winter varieties from Laurel's Heirloom Tomatoes. It might sound silly, but I'm very excited, yummy, yummy.



What's up Kaya?


Wonderfully eclectic group.














And night descends......



Susanne and Fady




Ping ping was part of the second wave of guests







Good night. Thanks for sharing.