Pictures include my house, my Mom’s house, Twin Peaks, Skyline in Oakland (including the Mormon Temple), Castro, Chinatown, Civic Center, Golden Gate Bridge, San Gregorio (or Pescadero), Montera, etc.:
Sonoma Coastline during Max’s Visit
Golden Gate Bridge with Max
Yorkies on Sheepskin on Ottoman…but is it art, sweetie?
When I make my bed, this is where my lazy dogs have to resort to lounging if they want to keep comfortable in the meantime, since lush doggie beds are beneath them, I guess…
Moving Furniture Around
The largest Coast Guard base in the world was on Goveror’s Island, right off the tip of Manhattan. We lived there for 3.5 years when my Dad got transferred back to the States from Catalonia, Spain.
We lived on the top floor of the largest building, which had two story apartments without paying rent with a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Twin Towers RENT FREE.
I had a friend in the same building who I would visit once in a while and I noticed that their identically designed apartment looked different every time I went over. While OCD was not yet coined, it appeared his mother had a compulsion to move furniture around to make her feel like she had new living arrangements, I have often thought in hindsight.
Once in a while I get inspired to do some things around my own home, but I try to make it functional and easy to maintain. I think there is something to be said for the best arrangement of furniture for the space one is allotted, which includes outdoor furniture.
The two major projects that I’ve undertaken recently was a new gazebo for the backyard that is like Fort Knox compared to the covers I had over my hot tub area, and putting a futon in my home office to give me a true guest room accommodation for two people potentially.
The futon I got from my daughter’s boyfriend has multiple purposes. Besides having a completely private bedroom for guests, if I wish to take a break upstairs, without going to the main living area to lay down and nap, I can now do so in my home office without messing up my bedroom. I can comfortably recline and watch “TV” on one of my computers in there (because cable is so Decade Zero). It also provides a comfortable place for my Yorkies to nap and still be near me while I’m working at my desk, and yet somehow it’s not overcrowding the office as I had suspected a queen size mattress would, especially when it is inclined like a couch.
The Gazebo took a lot of work and isn’t completely finished to my satisfaction but thanks to the help of several friends it’s sturdy and not going anywhere soon. I love the color and I’m so glad to have found it marked down significantly after admiring it in the store for a few years thinking it was overkill and perhaps a little too large for my strangely-shaped backyard
It turns out it fits beautifully and while there was some frustration and extreme fatigue over the course of six days to get it up, the features and security of having it, makes it worth it, especially since it can be seen from various parts of the neighborhood and it truly feels like a comfortable outdoor room/lanai, which is what I was going for.
For the first time I watched Whitney’s “Bodyguard” movie.
I was really impressed, especially with her emotion. The writing wasn’t always spot on, but it was a good watch and had some unpredictable surprises. The most poignant moment for me was the way they weaved the Dolly Parton song in as a country song first. Having it reworked the way it was to express something so different in such a different genre shows the universality of good music. I’ve always loved Dolly’s writing and I still think she’s underrated for the genius she is.
I really enjoyed the colorblind casting as well. This was the first big hit of a movie I believe to do that, but it was in Whitney’s other favorite movie of mine (made for TV) which contained nothing but Rogers & Hammerstein songs that was truly colorblind. In Cinderella with Brandy as the princess (casting suggested by Whitney herself when she had decided she was too old to play the role herself and instead played a young fairy godmother), Whoopi Goldberg and a white man had an Asian son, for example. The entire medieval town had people of all shades, especially within families.
I hope people enjoy this picture I include of Whitney which I had never seen until after she died and I found it from what I believe was a European magazine spread.
I cried when she died because like Michael Jackson, she was definitely part of my life’s soundtrack.
Wherefore Art Thou, Capulet?
After Bobby came home through the garage (where the dogs generally come and greet us), for what seemed like an eternity, we couldn’t find Capulet (Cappy). I checked in her usual hiding places, like under my bed, and was horrified to see that she wasn’t there. The other day she had inadvertently been locked into the garage for an hour or two, and one time Monte had snuck into the car overnight and very contently remained awaiting me finding him in the driver’s seat the next morning, even though that too scared the hell out of me at first.
So tonight Bobby immediately helped me call for her outside in the rain while I watched cars speed by on our busy street and looked for her in desperation. It was a nightmare, but then I thought to check the nooks and crannies of the house to see if somehow she had been locked into a room by accident, which would have been the most logical explanation. One time at a party she had snuck out to the front porch and just layed down by the screen waiting for someone to come get her. I was so glad to see she wasn’t so curious that she had to run, but that was before she started heat. Now that she has been fixed, I think this will be less of a concern, but she had started heat when she got spayed.
So in the end she apparently had slipped around the babygate to the basement and was sitting on the steps silently waiting for me to see her wagging her tail there in the dark. Needless to say, my heart was speeding, but Bobby was just as concerned and immediately dropped his cooking dinner to rush outside and help me look for her. On top of the rain and the speeding cars, there are also big raccoons that wander our neighborhood.
Anyway, she’s home safe and sound and never really went anywhere, thankfully. Sometimes I wish she was more than five and half pounds!
January 2012 General
SoCal Trip – end of 2011, beginning of 2012
First I went to Los Angeles (just before the rash of car bombings ). I mostly hung out with my friend Cody:
Next was Palm Springs (where I am pictured in my friend’s salon):
Lastly (for New Year’s) was San Diego where my host, Craig, took me on some great drives, including to Mount Helix:
