Cables, cables, everywhere

How is it in our "wireless" society, I've managed to accumulate more wires than I could have ever imagined? And what are they all for? I tend to "Quick start" whatever latest gadget I've had to have and thrown the rest of the stuff into a box. And as I wonder after building something from Ikea, "Why do I have all these extra parts?" I wonder, "Why do I have all these extra cable?" Well Skye and I took on the task of gathering all of the cables from drawers and boxes and organizing them.





At first it seemed quite manageable......




And then we started to unearth how many cables we'd collected over the years.




Skye, putting on a good game face.




But we perservered and in the end managed to gain control of the situation.

Organization at last.

I still am wondering why we have all these cables.

Cindy's Return; What a difference a week makes

I decided to make good use of my time while Skye and Cindy were gone for the weekend. So I worked on the Koi Pond which lead to needing to organize the garage. Along the way I thought to really surprise Cindy by updating the TV room. I also found a great bargain on some dumbells to improve on the home gym so that once the back-breaking/building landscape project was done I'd still be able to get my exercise.

I was also going to expand the worm farm operation.

So Skye's home school included construction, electrical, masonry and organizing. Actually I did a bulk of this work at night or before she got up in the morning. We still made it to park days and things like Jui jitsu, Flute, Tae kwon do, etc. And the worm farm became part of her upcoming Super Duper show and tell.

It was a hectic week and a half.

The Koi Pond



Surrounding it with cement so I could lay a brick border.




The never ending concrete pour.





Cutting all of the brick just so was a chore, especially when it happened to be at the height of the heat wave. Brick dust at 90 degrees, yuk.




Figuring out how to get the stone bridge secured and just right.




Even though the slab was more than two inches thick and the guy at the stone place said it could make the span I added a steel support underneath. If it did crack it would be a huge disaster. So better safe than sorry.




Hurray!!!! One project complete. The pond is up and running, a filtration system, lighting, plants, and of course Koi along with some other fun fish and tadpoles.

I still have to finish the pathways with my pebble mosaic project, but that will be for latter.

The Garage

Before:

What a mess and a hell of a lot of stuff.












This is what one ton of pebbles look like. I bought it probably a year ago for an amazing mosaic I was going to do. I still haven't gotten to that project yet. I will, but for now I need to consolidate the pebbles over to the side so we can actually use the garage.

After







It's not perfect. There still a lot of organization but now we can use 2 out of the 3 doors and Cindy can fit her car in, although just barely.




The worm farms beginning to work their magic.

The TV room

I decided to make some room by replacing the hulking 65" TV with a projection. I got a little Epson Movie Mate. It was remarkably simple to set-up and adjust and very clear. And the image is HUGE!




This is where the old TV was an the new projector with the lights on.




Lights off and check it out. Good thing the Lakers are winning.

Go Lakers!!!!!!

Kobe MVP!!!!!!




I added to our humble little home gym with the rack and dumbells. Still need to move the TV. I left it there in case Cindy rejected the whole thing and wanted life back to the way it was.




The TV actually doesn't overwhelm the room as much as I thought it would. Although it takes an over-the-top Master Suite further over the edge.

Along the way the DVR stopped functioning, it was on it's last leg. I also looked into bundling our communication/entertainment services. So currently we are waiting for the dust to clear. But look forward to some upcoming Laker nights and movie nights, maybe even some Karaoke.

That all for now must catch up with everything else in life I pushed to the side to surprise Cindy on her return.

BTW, she was very surprised. It took a few days for her to fully accept what had happened.

The Girls Left Me

Where Has The Time Gone!?

It seemed like only yesterday when I drove Cindy to the airport for her to go celebrate her sister's birthday and then head up and spend some time with her parents and family. The same day(last Friday) I dropped Skye off in the afternoon for a Girl Scout weekend camping extravaganza. It's called the Triple B and the girls do various camping and girl scout skills throughout the weekend. Tests are involved and a lot "Girl Scout" stuff goes on. I don't really have a clue. I myself got kicked out of Boy Scouts and although I've helped Skye out with badges and the like I have not gotten into the Girl Scouts, it's more of Cindy's terrain. But both the girls are gone. Time to get to work. But many of my projects are going to be a surprise for Cindy, so I'm going dark on most matters until she returns this Saturday. Major stuff happening in the meantime.

On a more public note; the Lakers are kicking some serious butt these days. My money's on them for the championship and for Kobe the MVP. GO LAKERS!!!!!!!!



I'd say that is a good amount of gear for a weekend.




Micah and Skye eating alien food.




See you later kid.



Dude who's got the tent stakes?



"It's really hot in Chino. I mean like it's April not August. F**k this global warming s**t" Ooops did I say that out loud.

Off to the Races

The Haynes-Danniells Track Club

On April 5th the Haynes family joined us at the Sanita Anita Race track not to watch and bet on horses but to run. We all woke up bright and early to run in the Santa Anita Derby Day 5k . I ran the Master's division, that's based on age not ability by the way. It's also the earliest which is why I ended up driving out by myself and there are no pictures of me in the race but really I did run.





Skye and Micah in the heat of things. This was Micah's first race ever and she did awesome. It was Skye's longest run to date. The girls ran all the way around the horse track, 3/4 of a mile.



Theresa in her first 5k.



Micah in the home stretch.



And here comes Skye, caught in mid-air.



Skye, Micah and River celebrating. River also had his first race in the Kid's Dash.




Proud papa and Skye



Cindy and Kip both had to sit this one out due to injuries. All in all a fantastic time.

Go Green or Die Trying

Warning to Reader

OK, bear with me because the funniness of these stories lies in their roots and the bizarre twists they take because of my bizarre outlooks and reactions. I know I'm often long-winded and convoluted so hang onto your seats for this one.

The last day of shooting, I head up at the end of day to join in on the celebration of Sean completing shooting. Well this goes on a bit and even though I know we are leaving the next morning for Mammoth and I haven't packed and I have a bunch of other things to do before we leave, I don't shove off until a little after mid-night, or at least try to shove off. My Explorer doesn't start. We try jumping it, call the AAA and no-dice. So I leave it there and get a ride home, it's like 2 am at this point. We end up taking the Prius and of course end up using and burning a lot less gasoline. Chalk one up for going green. Granted we drove five hours each way to ski, which is obviously a luxury, so take two carbon footprints backward. Being green can be tough and boring.

I decide to knock off a flock of birds with one stone. I will bicycle to my car to get towed or whatever is required. That would be my exercise. It was a ten mile ride, down from Baldwin Hills and straight up La Brea, to the Hollywood Hills. I would not inconvenience Cindy with having to deal with my nonsenses or at least this one. I would investigate the practicality of getting around Los Angeles on my bike, which would save me money on gas and help the planet by taking one SUV off the highway, at least every once and a while.

As soon as I get on La Brea, I realize the idiocy of my scheme on every level, except maybe for inconveniencing Cindy although my getting hit by a car and either the ensuing hospitalization or funeral wouldn't be so convenient. There is not enough room on the road for cars much less bicycles, so your forced all the way to the side of the road where all of the debris, glass and crap are. Also the conditions of the roads are deplorable. I've known this for ages from driving but nothing drives it home(ha a pun) like bicycling over these bumps, quite a jarring experience. As far as health benefits, while it was a good work out for my legs and heart, I'm fairly sure that those pluses got canceled out sucking down the fumes of hundreds of cars and trucks. But it gave me a lot of time to thing about things.




This sign came out of nowhere while I was in the middle of thinking how carbon trading is akin to alms for the poor, pretty much a bad idea for all involved.

It's supposed to be some kind of wind-driven contraption that salutes Hollywood's power to inspire. And in its patheticness I thing it sums up Hollywood's hypocrisy and contribution to the green movement. I mean if Hollywood celebrities can afford to go green can't everyone. I include myself in that hypocrisy. I think about being eco-friendly a lot more than I actually am eco-friendly. I'm a set decorator. I shop for a living and am willing to go to crazy extents and expense to buy or rent the perfect stuff for set's that will be up and down before I've driven all over LA finding the perfect stuff for the next home that will never be lived in, for a movie or TV show that probably won't be that good. Believe me I understand the huge hypocrisy and contradictions involved in being me.

A great little short about our consumption, please if you click on any link check this one out it is a must. The Story of Stuff




OK enough of the preaching and all. After more thoughts about the green movement, like is leasing a Prius and putting yourself in a new car every couple of years really ecologically sound, etc, etc. and sucking in massive amounts of carbon and toxic crap, I got back up to my Explorer and waited for the tow truck driver who astutely informed me that I simply didn't have enough gas. You see with my crazy truck if you are parked on an decline, the gas tank and where the gas needs to go are improperly aligned so even though I had what I thought was an adequate amount of fuel, I didn't.



My fuel gauge on the flats.

The Worm Factory

I have always wanted to compost, but it seemed like it just took forever. I can't stand all the junk mail I get. So you can imagine my glee when I could get rid of my junk mail and speed up my composting all in one ecologically friendly swoop.

Upon researching compost devices, I happened onto worming and how it can hugely speed up the composting process. I of course had to have one and if I was going to do it right, I needed the big one, the Worm Factory.

Unfortunately I am running way behind. I am cooking for a potluck brunch, going to pick out and pick up a bunch of Heirloom tomato plants, yummy, continuing on the Koi pond and cleaning and straightening up for dinner guests this evening, different than the brunch we're attending noon-time.

But I do want to tell more about the miracle that are worms, but we'll have to wait. But here are some pics or if the saying is correct 3000 words.




1 tier in 4 more to go.




Go little guys, go.

An artful Super Duper, a short film, Skiing and Bears in Mammoth

Ok Skye, What happens next?




Good answer.

So we continued to find hidden Easter eggs(the plastic ones with goodies inside) for the next few days and I continued to work on the Koi pond



however I was also helping out an old friend, Sean Hood with a short film he was shooting. By old, I don't mean his age, I mean I've know him for like forever. We worked on the first season of Twin Peaks together, as well as the second and we worked on a ton of other things until he got smart and got out of set dressing and into writing and directing. Anyhow, I was "production designing" for his short which he was doing with Filmmakers Alliance, a great organization I should have joined years ago, basically a co-op for filmmakers to get independent films made. I don't do it justice, better yet click on the link to check it out.



Skye chilling while head to Home Depot to return the pond that didn't fit and then off to the film set.

But wait also we were getting ready for the monthly Super Duper Show and Tell, which is part of the Santa Monica Homeschooling group. The Super Dupers are always a lot of fun and they give me a good topic to form lessons around. This month was art so we did some art history, checked out the Getty and the L.A. County Museum of Art, in fact joined LACMA.

Cindy and I couldn't believe how long it had been since we'd been to the museum. Yet another example of either taking local things for granted or figuring you can see it any time and then......

We played around with a lot of ideas for her art project and ended up with a surreal sculpture/photo display. Pretty cool actually.




Skye getting ready to discuss her piece, titled, "My Strange Neighborhood"




"My Strange Neighborhood"


Her piece was a big hit as were my contributions to the pot luck, "french fried polenta" and "cauliflower pocorn" from an delightful cookbook "Surreal Gourmet Bites" , appropriate I thought. They didn't turn out quite right visually but they were quite tasty and nothing was left, always a good sign. Although the mess I made in the kitchen, well, let's just say I am lucky that Cindy is who she is.


Look out Bears in the Village at Mammoth. Run for your lives




A mother bear and her cub created quite the stir by strolling along the shopping area. Skye got close enough to almost pet them. They really liked the ice cream cone she gave the cub.




April Fool's !!!!

Ok so it's April fourth but I took the picture on April 1. The bears are a statue if you hadn't already realized.


We tripped up to Mammoth for some Spring skiing cause we'd only been once this year and only for a day on the way back from Oregon and without Cindy. So we were due. It was amazingly warm and as always beautiful and what a lovely escape.




Skye and Cinders outside of our hotel.




Long before this restaurant was opened, back when the village was first being built I've always taken a picture of Skye at this location. I'll have to do a series soon.




We're not quite as clumsy as we look....
OK we are.




Like usual I'm trying to catch up to Skye.

Hey so I've included a lot of links, just click and take a look.