My Magic Missouri Visit!

What fun! I flew to visit with Amanda for her birthday in the beautiful land of Missouri. We adventured all around the city, scoping out the gorgeous old architecture downtown, the public library, Union Station, she gave me a lovely tour of Hallmark and her work area, and we relaxed her in cleverly designed apartment. It was wonderful to be careening around in her car listening to good music and soaking up a new environment. I learned what 20º feels like on your face and hands, and have a new appreciation for our warm winters.









I'll post more pics on my facebook!

I'm off to a land where the temperature is 30º and Hallmark glimmers commemoratively on the horizon. So long, LA, with your torrents of warm winter sunshine and recent scattered rain. I'm off to celebrate Amanda's birthday, and maybe eat at a little diner where your food is brought to you by a little electronic train in a mechanized basket.

It has just been pouring some rain down on us for the past 2 days. I saw so many accidents on La Cienega it scared me - people cannot handle it in this city!

I am getting ready to skip town for a long weekend starting Thursday morning at 6 am when my flight leaves for KC, MO and I get to spend Amanda's birthday with her. I'm really looking forward to it, we have so much fun together and it's just been years since we had some nice crazy face alone time.

I kind of want to bring my ukulele on the plane, and just play Twinkle Twinkle over and over and over again so I can be the annoying jerk passenger for once. Maybe if I am that person, I wont have to be the annoyed!

Tartlets

Laurel and the girls popped in this morning on their way to Palm Springs. We had a delightful sunny breakfast at M Cafe - Laurel and I had cranberry French toast, and the girls each had a berry tart. Mmmmmmmmm!

Ukulele Me!

What a glorious surprise!
A couple weeks ago I'd got it in my head that I would like to try and learn to play the ukulele. It seems like one of those instruments that is easy to learn a few simple chords that can go a long way if you sing over them, and with time, you can get better and better at it. Also, it's quite small (shall I say Tiny?) and is easier for my wee fingers to press the chords than on something large and difficult as a regular sized guitar.
Add to that, last night we went to see a Valentine's special of Mortified, which was opened by the adorable duo Garfunkel and Oats. Ok, Mortified is a stage show of adult people reading their teenage diaries to a crowd, it's hilarious and awesome, and I cried I was laughing so hard. Garfunkel and Oats are 2 really cute girls who sing over their respective guitar/ukulele. They were so adorable in fact, I began to look into getting me some lessons.
So, today, when David came home, he'd ordered me a little ukulele plus starter kit in the mail, with instruction books and CDs and a tuner and little felty picks, and I am so so so excited! I spent my evening trying to toggle between C, G and F chords and strum out some very halting, broken Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The Best Thing I've Ever Seen Online

This reminds me so much of Tiny and I, playing with our Kitten's Annual Magazine, that it made me cry and laugh spit a little bit. Oh my god, it's wonderful.

Haven't been feeling too well this week, fighting off a cold that seems bound to get me. Went to bed really early last night. This one keeps me company though.

Honeyman

This last weekend was spent in Lompoc to attend my Grandpa Dennie's memorial service. It was a very loving warm family put on gathering, and made me wish he was here still with us. My dad made the most beautiful floral arrangement out of one of the bee hives with yellow roses spilling out like honey. He also gathered some of the beekeeping tools, and honey gloves to rest on the table around it. It was a lovely tribute to our honeyman.