The Promise of Easter

OK, maybe we should start with when and how I conjured up my beautiful idea for an alternative Easter surprise. I was driving out to the valley to find a dwarf Kaffir lime tree so that I could have Kaffir lime leaves for recipes because they are impossible to find otherwise. So already you have a pure example of the odd lengths I'll go to for a variety of reasons.

A while ago I promised Skye a Koi pond, but living on a hillside, I really couldn't find the right place for it. But still a promise is a promise, and I realized that I could actually place the Koi pond in the front of the house and it would serve as a security measure as well as fulfilling my promise to Skye. And Koi are colorful, like swimming Easter eggs, how cool would that be. But it only gets more complicated, convoluted and nutty from there.




Not so keen on the bushes, never have been and a pond in front of the window would make it more difficult to intrude, or at least there goes the theory.




Oops pipes, no room for the Koi pond.

I had already purchased a prefab pond, but I thought I might be able to find one the could fit. I didn't which then landed me with to Koi ponds and no where for them to go. So I started some creative thinking, intent to fulfill my Easter dream.



I could put it in the garden. There's room there, sort of.

Now at this point I've already dug up in front of the house. It's Saturday and I'm in charge of getting Easter stuff and then making a challenging Easter egg hunt, and make it less candy-charged than in previous years, for all our sakes.

So on Saturday after some ridiculous digging and re planning, etc, I find myself heading into Hollywood and then through the Valley and then to the Westside, to try and find a stone bridge for the new location of the Koi pond. Needless to say I was running out of time.





Said bridge. How I will get it out of my car and then down the spiral stair case.....? Oh I'll just do it.

I realized that I really wouldn't be able to have the pond up and running, so I bought "stand-in" koi, you know, basically Koi coupons for when the pond is ready.




This is where I was at the night before Easter. It turned out to be more complicated than planned. Doesn't it always?!!




Wow! That's pretty pathetic.

Luckily, I did really well with the Easter hiding and baskets.




See, she could car less about the Koi pond and my fractured promises. No, really, she looked at the mess around my "great idea" as just another home improvement project of Dad's. It's relation to Easter never stuck, even after the plastic fish and explanations, although she was very sweet about the whole matter.




Later that day after I succeeded in setting in the pond the Koi didn't look much better. In fact they looked dead.

I didn't actually get it right the first time and had to empty out the pool and re-dig an re-level the dang thing. Which turned out to be a huge pain, one of many.




Cici could've cared less.




But there was still the mater of the front.

I needed to shift the position of the sculpture or at least I felt I needed to. In the process, I managed to drop it on its side and then determined it would be easier to deal with the sculpture as to pieces rather than one. It was a good idea, in spite of the other sorts of problems.

I wrestled with it for hours and was eventually quite happy with the final outcome.





Much better I think. I will be adding a little green with some Elven Thyme around the sculptures.

The back project is actually coming along well. But we had a lot going on obviously. Real quick, way too quick, but I'm falling asleep(really).

Went to the Haynes rocking church for a late afternoon Easter service and then an amazing Thai dinner in Thai town of all places.

Must go, sleep in eyes.

March Madness

Last weekend was Skye's basketball team's last game. We made it into the playoffs, granted there were only 4 teams, so we all made it into the playoffs. Then we made it into the championship and came very close to winning(lost by three points) Ironically or not so ironically we ended up losing to the team who after the first game of the season acquired our best player. But most importantly our team played really hard and had a lot of fun. They laughed and joked throughout the season and it was almost always impossible to know if they won or lost by their expressions. We really were the Bad News Bears of the league. They were a handful to coach but so much fun.




One of the only times I was able to get them to sit still the entire season. And check out the very appropriate name that I tried unsuccessfully to dissuaded them from choosing.




The team in action.




The end of the season pizza/pool party.




Let the celebration and pizza making begin.




A moment of serenity captured. However, if you look closely you'll note the flat of unplanted herbs. The never ending job of home owning/gardening.




Fun in the pool




If it's too hot in the kitchen, move it outdoors.




Everyone getting in on the action.




And reaping the rewards.




A well deserved glass of wine after a wonderful party and a great season. Way to go team. Thanks for the memories and a thanks to all the photos to Theresa.

Home schooling is fun

It's funny people are sometimes concerned that Skye will not have enough socialization or learning opportunities with being home schooled. It's the opposite. There are way too many things to do. Figuring out what will be best or most fun is the issue. This week Skye studied the Chumash Indians with an intensive, yet very fun and cool all day learning field trip with amazing Rob Remedi.



This was me day dreaming while waiting for Skye.




Her comes the tribe.




Check out our very green and accurate structure. It's dome shape does better with earthquakes.

And the next day, in preparation for the upcoming Super Duper Art Show we hit the Getty, which is so cool and amazing.




Wow




The colors were amazing




Nija and Skye amongst the tulips




That's LA on a hazy day, still pretty wonderful



Attitude coming at you.

The Haynes/Carr-Danniells weekend and The Great Urban Race

Quick note: You can click on the highlighted words and they'll take you to various links. Oh and I love responses, too

This was a full immersion Haynes/Carr-Danniells weekend, starting with Theresa Haynes taking her kids, River and Micah and Skye to the play High School Musical and then whisking Skye and Micah over to Girl Scouts where I picked them up before dropping them back off at the Haynes household with a baby sitter so that Cindy and I along with Theresa could carpool over to the Roxy to see husband, Kip Haynes play with his band, Beautiful Criminal. (It may seem redundant but I’m trying to keep all the names and the way they relate to one another straight)

After hooking up with more friends and checking out the cool show we collected Kip and Theresa’s brother, Tim and headed to Canter’s for some late night noshing. The following morning Cindy got the girls to their YWCA basketball which they lost just barely (Newly acquired assistant coach Rebecca stood in for me) while Theresa and I headed off to race in The Great Urban Race and Kip got stationed to be our support crew. Originally Kip was my running mate. We took second in the last Great Urban Race, but his ankle was acting up so Theresa agreed to step in for him. Bravo Theresa. Also thanks and shout out to Theresa’s parents who also helped hugely with questions and clues.

The Great Urban Race is an urban adventure. Teams of two solve clues and complete challenges while navigating city streets, using public transit. The clues are ridiculously obscure so you really need someone by a phone and computer to help out.

I knew that racing with Theresa was going to be different than with Kip when initially one of the main questions was what our matching outfits would be. “Black t-shirts, I guess” was my response. Fortunately Theresa won out(really no fight, she was Ok with whatever) but I did end up getting some cool Plaid shorts which Cindy really liked,( I liked them too, ok.)

This time the race was a bit more complex involving both the Metro Rail and the bus system. Last time Kip and I ran we managed to run the entire race and never take any Mass transit, but we never left Santa Monica. This time we went from Hollywood to downtown up into Echo Park and Silver Lake and then back to Hollywood.

The race started off a little bumpy for us. We went to FAX the clue sheets at a place near the start that I had actually went to the day to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem and sure enough day of the race it wasn’t working . So we ended up racing the other direction to an alternative FAX. After making sure Kip received the FAX we jumped onto the Metro Rail and headed downtown on a hunch and now we were cut off from communications because well we were underground on the Metro (funny how on 24 their cell phones work just about everywhere including underground bunkers like their head quarters, hmmm?) So when we came up we found out that we had overshot the first destination and we were back in the Metro again.

At this first clue one of us (me) had to do a handstand. Which I did, problem is I just kept going and practically flipped over.






OOOPS!!!!



There we go. Like I said we were off to a rough start.




Like when I bit Theresa's finger at the next clue that required us to have a photo of one team member feeding a slice of pizza to the other.




Good thing she got her hand out of the way and has a good sense of humor




Looking a little sweaty




A bit more relaxed or had we collapsed in exhaustion at this point




Near the end back in the Metro




Almost done




These are our pathetic caricature's. A mandatory stop that took forever because of the long line of racer's waiting to be drawn. I saw him make a lot of cool drawings, but literally two racers before us and he realized he needed to speed up and scale it down a bit. Hey at least I got a skated board.

I don't know exactly what place we came in, they haven't posted the results yet, but we had a great time. Thanks again to Theresa and congratulations on finishing your first race.

Post race celebration up at the house and good byes and good nights were said but no the Haynes/Carr-Danniells immersion weekend was not quite over.

Skye and Cindy and Micah and Theresa still had a few hours of selling Girl Scout cookies at our troops booth.

WOW!!! What a combined family weekend.

We'll see you guys tomorrow at the park.

Marathon Madness

Hurray I finished. It took almost 5 hours to complete the 26.2 miles, and believe me you feel that .2, but finish it I did.

Preface
I was training this year and had actually built up a nice base and then BAM!! I got the flu, like a month ago and I can still feel it lingering in my chest, and then BAM!!, I sprain my toe in Jui jitsu, a minor sprain but I sprained my toe before I got sick and its still swollen. I know they're kind of excuses, but I was seriously considering not racing, for fear of causing permanent damage in my foot or going into relapse, yuck. Plus having only ran four times in the last month, I really had no idea how this race was going to go.

The Marathon to the Marathon
The last time I ran the LA Marathon, in 2005 it was a loop course, you show up and park, the race starts and ends in the same place. This year and apparently last year as well, they've made it point to point. It started at Universal Studios and ended downtown. So I ended up parking downtown and taking the Red Line(it was free for runners). Of course with all the street closings finding parking and then the Metro entrance was a pain especially at 6 in the morning. And by the way, yesterday it was overcast and perfect running weather all day. Today on my way in the sun was already blinding on my way in. Anyway, getting to the race location and the bathroom with one bottleneck after another was ridiculous, to the point where I didn't even realize the race had started I ended up so far back. Luckily with the new technology, you have a computer chip or something like that, that starts your time when you actually cross the starting line. It took me around 8 minutes just to get to the start.

The Race-Very briefly
A marathon is a trip. Of course you have to be in some kind of shape to finish it, but it really is a psychological trip as well. The first mile is all about avoiding crashing in to walkers, kids, groups. It is so frustrating and since it was down hill, dangerous. My first mile took I think 13 minutes. Mile 2 a little better, but not much. After that I was pretty much averaging 10's until mile 16 or 17.


That's me at Mile 9, still feeling pretty good. Picture by Awesome Friend Kip, who with family in tow came out to cheer me on. Big shout out to Kip, Theresa, Micah, and River. It gave me a needed boost.

Miles 15 to 19 really sucked cause you realize you're just barely half through it and you hurt like hell and you're in this industrial kind of area, with not a lot of crowd support.

Miles 20 to 23 I was feeling like this might be my best time yet, in spite of the set backs.

Miles 23 to end. I hit the wall. It was mostly uphill. My right hip started acting up. Every step felt like a knife jab, again that question of "Am I really hurting myself?" And then the left toe, the already sprained one started killing. So it was an incredibly awkward and silly looking run/shuffle/limp/walk.




Who am I? Where am I? Oh hi Skye, beautiful daughter.



Let me out of this cruelest of bottlenecks.


Yeah it's over. Can't wait till next year