Today is Joe’s birthday. We celebrated yesterday because, well, generally it’s easier to celebrate on a weekend than a week day. Although yesterday, for us, was still filled with our usual long ‘to do’ list, we did fit in some birthday fun.
Part of my gift to Joe was framing these two photos of him. I knew he would never do it on his own, because, well, he’s just not the kind of guy who frames poster size photos of himself. So, I felt it was my duty to preserve them. They will make for a good story to tell the Grandkids some day. They were rolled up under his desk and I snuck them away for the week (I knew he wouldn’t notice).
If you are as unfamiliar with video games, as I was, let me explain. These photos are being used as the game cover, posters, billboards and marketing, all over the world, for the latest version (due out in November) of the popular video game ‘Call of Duty‘ including a French magazine cover shot. J’adore cela! Fun stuff, right?
It’s a shooter video game series with earlier versions taking place during World War II and later versions, such as this ‘Black Ops’, taking place in the cold war era. If I did play video games, I would definitely play this one. Yeah, that’s right. He’s a badass.
I don’t know how Stella does it, but she wraps herself up in blankets so elegantly. It’s like a doggie ball gown. With a train. Made of fleece.
Everything can be going just fine in one’s day. And then some guy comes along who gets everyone riled up. Well, he got me riled up. I was at one of those small corner parking lots, you know, the ones that should only be for 10 cars, but they’ve crammed in 20 spots because there’s 7 stores in the tiny strip mall and the owner promised each store more parking spaces than he could deliver.
And since it’s on a corner, there’s barely room to get in and out of the lot, let alone your parking space. Well, at this particular time, there were too many cars trying to maneuver around each other and the guy behind me starts yelling. AT ME! Calling me the B word and everything else he could think of at the moment.
Let me tell you right now. That doesn’t sit well with me.
Since this guy was behind me, he wasn’t going anywhere unless I did first. I put my car in park. Got out. Marched back to him and said “You can’t talk to me like that. And you shouldn’t talk to anyone like that!”
Luckily, he said “OK, OK. I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” He was like one of those dogs that bark and bark, but once you approach him, he whimpers and licks your feet. That, was this guy
If my mother reads this, she’ll call and say, “Oh Cathy!”
Yup, my family still calls me Cathy. Even though I started going by Kate when I was 19, they refuse to acknowledge it. If an operator ever asked my Mother if she would accept a collect call from Kate Clarke, I’m sure she would refuse, saying she didn’t know anyone by that name.
“Cathy, you shouldn’t have yelled at that man! What if he had a gun?” I mean, this is Los Angeles, she has a point. “You could have been killed. Murdered. Raped. Drugged. Kidnapped. Blindfolded and dragged to an unmarked white van. Sold into prostitution!”
But, I wasn’t. I made it through alive. And maybe, just maybe that guy will now think twice before calling people every name in the book whenever he feels like it. Nah, probably not.
We recently spent the weekend at Highland Springs Resort. It was a quick getaway – only about an hour and a half drive. Our room was big with views of their organic lavender fields. It also had an old console from circa 1930 with a record player that still worked! AND it had some old jazz LP’s in it too.
We put on “Surrender” by Woody Herman and his Orchestra and felt inspired to slow dance. I mean, isn’t that what they did back then? We also listened to Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. I guess everyone had an orchestra back then too. One said ‘Recorded on January 29, 1937 Irving Berlin’. Cool.
We found out that the resort was popular back in the 30’s and 40’s. Albert Einstein would stay there often. And in the 60’s, the Rat Pack went frequently.
It has around 1,000 acres with some of it used for growing organic lavender, some for organic vegetables they use in their restaurant, hiking trails and a pool. It also has several old buildings that are no longer being used. I don’t know why, but give me old or boarded up buildings and I’m happy exploring for hours. I guess it’s the stories I make up in my head of who used to stay there and all the things that have happened over the years. And I really, really loved the 1,100 year-old oak tree. Just imagine everything it has seen over the last thousand years.
We also found some things they were getting rid of so we stole… err, i mean asked, if we could take them. We now have a basket and an old oil lantern for memorabilia from our trip. I also wanted to take this table and seating with me for my backyard, but couldn’t figure out how to fit it in the car. This table went on forever. We could have had dinner parties for 100.
But I did take this gigantic pinecone home with me. It’s over 13″ tall – about the size of Pixie. I’d never seen one so big and I just had to add it to my pinecone collection. Yes, I have one.
Pixie is a talker. Mornings especially. On this day, I think she’s telling me about a crazy, wild dream. That, or she really has to pee. Usually I chat back, but for the video, I didn’t want to miss anything she had to say.
And I love how Stella bailed after a couple nips at the ear. That was enough of Pixie this early in the morning and she went back to bed.
