A Scene Unfolds

As Pepper was trying his best to nab an afternoon nap on the Chippendale under the bay window, Ranger decided he needed some company and a little playtime. Pepper snoozed through most of Ranger's attempts at play but as Ranger became increasingly raucous, Pepper's tail began to rise and slap down against the sofa with a thwack.Ranger bonked and sniffed and rolled over onto Pepper and at some point gave Pepper a doggy-kiss on the head. She never bites but she does slobber. Then finally looking my way with her floppish brown ears and innocent face, leaving Pepper to nap once again.

Glowing in Neon

I've been wanting to take the Museum of Neon Art's Neon Tour for a long time. One of those things in my To-Do folder that I have now done. My husband made the arrangements for us and even with the threatening rain we were up for it. It was a windless night though a bit damp, and through the open topped double decker bus ride through downtown to Hollywood we never got rained on. With wine, cheese and crackers at the museum, as well as wonderful stops at Philippe's and Cantor's, sporting their own neonage, I snuggled with my husband, a cup a joe on my hands, as we shared a classic Black n' White cookie from Cantor's.

All along the way our host and his megaphone pointed out neon, lit and unlit, some I was familiar with and some I had never noticed before. He peppered this with Los Angeles history and anecdotes, keeping it lively and very interesting. He was prone to spontaneous chats with various pedestrians, and people leaning out of their apartment windows waving as we rolled by.We took an unexpected turn down a side street in Hancock Park where, from our elevated seats, we were treated with grand glimpses beyond the ivy covered walls that I usually see driving by in my Honda, into the park-like yards and lighted windows of these beautiful old homes. In addition to the neon our host also pointed out the vintage street lamps and all-over-the-map architecture of this fair city.It was a very enjoyable event. I'm so glad we got to do this and the dampness in the air with the skybeams hitting the bottom of big billowy clouds added an extra element of uniqueness to it.

There's a Bridge that Leads to Nowhere

Will's been telling me about this hike for some time so when he got an invite to go with some Flickr photog pals he responded in the affirmative. We were up at about 5:30 this morning, coffee brewing, animals being situated for the day, Green Chili Pork Stew slow cookin' in the Crock Pot. And we were off with our packs and our hiking sticks to meet up at Scott and Mary's house just down the boulevard where we waited for a few others to show up, and rendezvoused with a few more along the way, ending up with a small caravan of vehicles filled with people and dogs heading up to the East fork of the San Gabriel River.The trail is beautiful as it follows the river up to the Narrows.The weather conditions were perfect with cloud cover for most of the trek breaking open to let the sun shine occasionaly, then the clouds would roll in keeping it from getting too hot. Several creek crossings and very rough terrain get you to a beautiful bridge built in 1936. Unfortunately the great floods of March 1938 washed the road away and it was never completed. But the bridge stands in unbeleivably good shape on its gracefully curving support piers.While the others went on around the bend to the Narrows, Will and I rested and then took a scramble down to the river's edge. On the way back we saw a couple of Big Horn Sheep up on the side of the hill. I noticed some dark droppings along the trial on the way up and wondered what they were and thought maybe dear or rabbit. But they must have been sheep.At about a half mile away from the vehicles, big fat drops started falling and soon it was raining pretty good. I took in several deap breaths, glad to be off the rough trail and breathed the smell of damp earth as I stretched and got a big hug from my baby. See I took a spill on one of the river crossings, landing solid on both knees while attempting a leap that was too much of a stretch for me when I should have just waded across. It didn't bother me much at the time, but further down the trail my emotions bubbled up and on the way back I felt the right knee giving me some trouble. But after 10.4 miles and about 8 hours on the mountain we headed home where we were greeted by our animals and settled in with some Ibuprofin and Green Chili Pork Stew.

A Big Girl Now

Ranger took a little trip to Pet Co today. She's getting so big. Too big for my lap so we shared the seat. She got her dog tag, a new collar, a lead, and some treats and toys. There was a lot of activity at the store which caused a lot of tugging on the leash. But she handled it very well. Lot's of other animals there to greet with a little sniff, and maybe a snarl. She got plenty of pats on the head from staff and customers.

New pictures of her:

Patrolling the back yard.Cute little rump.

Sprawled on the kitchen floor.

At the front door with a couple of toys at her feet.

Let There be (Beautiful) Light

Yesterday we installed the new porch lamps. It's was a little bit challenging because of the narrow space on the left of the door. Thankfully the back plate fit perfectly, and snugly.
When I bought the house there was only one fixture on the left so I had another one installed on the right, but rather than tear open the walls, which wasn't in my budget at the time, I had them run the conduit on the outside up and over the top of the door. When painted it blends in well enough. But the electrical box protrudes from the siding so we had to figure out how to deal with that. I think the back plate covers it pretty well and the fixture is so pretty you really don't notice the rigged up mechanicals.

Here are a couple of pictures.
Before

After

Pintura de la Casa Completa

Or, The House Painting is Complete! It took 4 weeks, but it's done. When we did the final walk around yesterday to see if anything needed attention before they called it a day, I saw only one corner spot on the siding that needed touching up and before I could even say anything Victor was there with a brush in his hand painting the spot.

Jesus' guys really did an excellent, if somewhat slow, job. Really thorough. And that's as it should be. I knew Jesus would take care of the details and not short cut the process.

Here are some before and afters. We'll start at the back. BeforeduringAfterThe garden side beforeand after.The front before

and afterI also used a piece of wood salvaged from my old falling-apart potting bench, cut it down to size and painted it, then put the new house numbers up. We have new porch lamps arriving this week with the same arts and crafts detail. It will look very pretty. It's wonderful how transforming a new coat of paint can be. And I love love love the knee braces. They came out perfect.

Arches NP, Moab, UT 07/09/06 - 07/11/06

On our road trip this summer I found Arches NP wonderful. This was one of the places I was really interested in seeing, and drove 12 hours straight from Yellow Stone to get there. We stayed at the Kokopelli Lodge, which is really an old rundown-ish motel just off the main street of Moab. Comfortable enough once we got the a/c figured out.

Driving in to Arches is surreal as we encountered a lanscape so different from the dense forrests we had been through for most of the trip so far. This lanscape of low brush, red earth, endless views across the horizon is a spectacular environment of natural formations of arches, spires and fins. There are over 2,000 arches in the park, the greatist density of natural arches in the world. And it's amazing to be in the midst of this wonder with the realization that it is ever changing and shifting over time. Particularly Landscape Arch which is only 6 feet thick at its narrowest point, and since 1991 three huge slabs have fallen away from the arch causing park rangers to close the trail that once passed under it. It seems apparent that in due time this arch will no longer be there for visitors to see.

After driving through Park Avenue and then Courthouse Towers we headed up to Devils Garden. It was very hot but not overly crowded out on the trails. The Devils Garden trail is fairly easy and well marked up to Lanscape Arch, then it turns in to a rustic trail wich is marked by cairns. Most people seemed to walk out on the well maintained trail as far as Landscape Arch then turn around and go back. But beyond Landscape are more Arches, including Partition Arch, and at a point along the backbone of a large, high, fin it gets a little unclear as to the way to go. There were a few of us on the fin discussing the possibilities, and soon we located the cairn and picked up the trial again. We ran in to a very friendly couple with with Netherland-ish accents and talked with them a bit of our road trip travels and thier travles in the U.S. Nice, friendly, like-minded people.
Our plan was to drive out of the park during the hottest time of the afternoon, stop at the Vistors Center, then drive along the Colorado River when we saw a thunder storm rolling along and stopped to catch images of the lightening. It reached the park before we got out and pools began to form on top of the buttes creating spontanous waterfalls. As we wound our way down the road to the park entrance we were greeted by park rangers who had everyone turn around and led us back up the road to higher ground. We were told that between us and the park entrance, through a switchbacked portion of the road, there were several washouts and that the road to Moab had washed out.

The temperature must have dropped about 20 degrees as the storm blew through and everyone waited patiently for it to move on. They eventually led us down and as we pulled into the Visitors Center the entire parking lot was covered in a wash of red mud, but otherwise everyone was safe and unnaffected.

Instead of the drive along the Colorado River we went back in to the park with the intent of hiking out to Delicate Arch, but the weather was still a little unpredictable and the daylight wouldn't last too much longer so we opted for a shorter hike around the Windows section that had a nice grouping of arches to see, including Balanced Rock, Double Arch and Turret Arch.We reached the road to Moab and it had quite a smear of red mud across it as well, but the road was open and passable. Once back at the Kokopelli we made use of the their restaurant guide and walked the few blocks to get pizza and a couple of beers at Isabella's Pizzaria, the best pizza ever. The next day on the road to the Vermilion cliffs we side tracked to Natural Bridges National Monument then on to that fated stretch of highway outside of Mexican Hat in Monument Valley where we found our 4 little pups.