Catherine's night out

So, midweek Catherine asks if I will buy tickets for her and two friends to go see four bands on Saturday night at somewhere called In the Venue. Since none of them has a credit card, I wrested their precious dollars from them and bought the tickets. The show started at 6pm and I realized that by that point we would be deep into the sushi with Ted and Lani (see previous post) and that I would not, therefore, be able to collect the tickets from 'will call' with my id and the credit card used for purchase. So, I thought, I'll just pop by the evening before and pick them up. The place is right by the homeless shelters so I think you can picture the ambience. That evening's entertainment was very loud and made me feel about a hundred years old. the large bouncer and ditzy woman on the door had no idea what i was talking about. "Will call", what's that? No, you cannot pick tickets up the day before; no, there is no box office. So i call Smithstix the next morning and ask them exactly what their 'convenience fee' is for. They assure me that with a copy of all my relevant documents, Catherine can pick up the tickets. Which she does. I text her at around 7 to see how it is, and here is her reply:

"There's a 40 year old man with a pot belly by me jumping. He's wearing a superman shirt and knows all the lyrics to the unknown band opening band. Pretty sketchy."

She had her fancy new camera with her so took lots of photos (even one of Mr. Sketchy) and videos and spent this afternoon making seamless compilations with i-movie.

Friends getting married

Our friends, Ted and Lani, got married last month and yesterday held a celebration for those of us (everyone pretty much) who couldn't join them in San Diego for the actual ceremony. There was a re-ceremony, sushi galore and speeches by friends and family at a local Japanese restaurant and then we repaired to our place where Smokin' Id played and people celebrated some more. Today was a bit of a slow day... I did get more plants in and was relieved to see that the birds have hatched and seem to be doing fine. The mother was flying about very busily gathering bits for them to eat.

I don't want to know

what the square root of 2x squared is. I really don't. But Sam has hit a glitch in math homework and that is it. And I don't know, never knew and don't want to know. Katie, the fab math tutor, is away in Dallas for three weeks....

Finally Spring

It rained part of every day last week and the temperatures were unseasonably chilly. So today was a treat. The sun shone and it was t-shirt and shorts weather. I put in a few hours in the garden. I am a little worried about the owner of the bird's nest that I inadvertently exposed with all my pruning. I kept hacking (ha ha) off suckers from a tree and bits of a bush that grows through from the neighbor's and some of the dead parts of our rose trees and all of a sudden I heard chirping and flapping and realized that I had removed much of the protective covering for a bird's nest built on a piece of our dilapidated wooden fence. I stopped immediately, but there isn't much shade left. I then moved on to the vinca which has taken over the path from back garage door along the side of the house. I am sure there used to be a path there, and with continued efforts tomorrow I hope to find it.

I am also really enjoying the super new heart monitor that I got for my birthday. I rode my (ok, Catherine's) bike part way up Mill Creek Canyon and got technical feedback that yes, I was indeed exceeding desirable maximum heart rate. I didn't really need the monitor to tell me that. The slight nausea and panting were probably indicative. But it is fun to see that you burned 604 calories. Bring on the tortilla chips.

My birthday

Here is what Craig did with my birthday presents.
They were all bagged and laid out with a number attached.



I rolled the dice till I got one of the numbers.



Then I opened what was there. In these case -- hangers.

germaphobia gone mad

Just went to the bathroom at a coffee shop and saw something new. It is equipped with "clean escape". What is this you ask? Well it is a metal plate at the bottom of the door that you can hook your foot under to open the door so you don't have to, heaven forbid, touch the handle....

Before and After

Craig took the dogs to be groomed today. I guess he said 'short' for Sadie and the lady heard 'shorn'. This is what she looked like the other day:

And this is what she looks like now: