I braced myself early for the coming onslaught of holiday happenings and I think I did fairly well all things considered. I made a goal to finish the brickwork for the patio by Thanksgiving. And I did accomplish that, although mixing and throwing mortar the morning I am also preparing for a feast was probably not so wise. Let me put it this way, I was so busy scrambling around before and during Thanksgiving I actually lost several pounds.
I started working on Cindy's show on the 19th which made for an interesting juggling event, trying to do a good job and homeschool Skye and deal with the Thanksgiving (I will go into more detail in a separate blog), very interesting indeed. I created several lessons out of visits to prop houses and research on Afghanistan.
We had 16 people over on Thanksgiving Day. It was potluck so I didn't have to prepare everything, mostly just the turkey and its fixings. It was a wonderful success although it almost killed me.
The following week put Skye and myself on location in Victorville a few nights with a monumental amount driving. We had lots of long discussions along the way, carschooling. Don't laugh I actually have a book with that very title and CD to go along with it. I shouldn't really read while I drive now should I?
On Monday night I recieved an e-mail telling me that a Danish girl who I'd arranged a house-swap with was indeed arriving. Now don't get me wrong, while it was a surprise, it shouldn't have been, I mean, that was the plan and what was discussed. I think I was in denial and was hoping for Cindy to be my voice of reason, but she too was in denial. So because I was coming back to LA so that Skye could make it to her Flute lesson and to Taekwondo and I could shop for the set, it worked out that I could make it back to house in the evening in time to welcome our guest.
Skye started taking Taekwondo at the same studio where I practice Juijitsu.
A very dear friend of ours from Florida was going to be in town this week as well. I was going to be back and forth to Victorville, and then it rained on Friday and I had to work on Saturday, as did Cindy. And oh yeah I had signed up for one of my crazy races, again teaming up with Kip Haynes. Realize, along with all this madness, are all of the events that just start coming up, a few birthday parties, Kip's band, Beautiful Criminal had its first show in LA, Terrell Moore's art opening and, Skye's park dates, lessons, soccer, of course the slew of reality shows I'm addicted to.
The Great Urban Race
I had planned on training and getting into racing shape. I did sign up for the LA marathon, so I had to start training anyway. I squeezed in one day of running, but I was feeling good the day of the race. Ok the photo is a little weird, but it was one of the dares and we took second place and more importantly had a fun time. We took second place.
While waiting to receive our prize at 5pm, guests were arriving at my house for a pizza party. Had we come in 4th or realized what the prize was(a $20 gift certificate at the restaurant we spent $40 on drinks and bar food while waiting to collect our prize) we would've been home by 2:30, plenty of time. I raced through traffic, snuck to the pizza oven to get the fire started and was hosting by 5:30. It was another wonderful party with our Floridian friend, our new Dannish housemate, Kip and his family, including his wife's Theresa's brother, Tim who whipped together not only an amazing pizza but a wonderful dessert out of what he was able to find in the refrigerator and pantry. And then off to the desert, leaving at 5 the next morning.
Skye chillin' out on the road to Victorville.
