Grasshopper at the Getty

Tonight was so relaxing. I made some blackened salmon, put together a salad and we took it all to the Getty around 5 PM. We got there in time for sunset and met a really great grasshopper along the way. The bus was really chill, no major mishaps. For LA, that's good. Free picnic dinners rule! (Hot tub when we got home was cool too!)

The interview goes to the birds...Joe paints

Today I showed up at the LA school building for my interview. It was 17 stories high! Afterward, I decided I'd better go get some pictures of birds since I was up so high in the building, ha ha. I got a picture of a few animals on the UCLA campus. My first real try at this stuff. I'll keep you posted about jobs, still unsure about everything. Here's to the birds! In news unrelated to birds...Joe bought some new paints this weekend and started using them tonight. Una, always the adventurer, dipped her paw in the yellow paint. UNNNNAA!!

Pasadena, etc.

Today Joe and I went to check out some paintings by one of his favorite artists. It was really close to old town Pasadena, which is a really cool area. It reminded me of a mix between Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.

When there's something strange in your neigborhood...

Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS. Friday night Joe and I went to the midnight showing of Ghostbusters, from 1984! It doesn't seem that long ago...The theatre also shows classics like Tombstone, Dirty Dancing, Footloose, Alfred Hitchcock classics, etc. We can't wait to go see movies at Hollywood Cemetary when they start up in Spring!!!! Joe has worked insane hours this week and we had a nice dinner at home Saturday night. And I made him some Chex mix - extra BUTTER, extra SALT. Ha ha ha. Tomorrow we're going to see some paintings of a guy who does movie posters. Joe's "idol" in a way.

**PS - I also made spritz cookies with Joe's mom's cookie maker!!! Unfortunately, we chose the "dog" mold instead of the more seasonally appropriate shamrock. The "dog" cookies were more like, "bearded dragon" and "frog" cookies in appearance, hence the lack of photo.

Stay tuned.

Trees

I have been studying trees for the past few days....Joe's been thinking of chipmunks.

Can you guess where each photo was taken?

What a busy weekend. The Getty, The Zoo, Griffith Park, the Downtown LA walking tour and the Huntington. Friends came and chilled with us at home Monday night and I found a new soccer league to play in. Wow, I'm tired. Need to find work so I can rest up... ; ) That's ll be tomorrow - hopefully. Keep ya posted.

Valentines Day Pics

Today ran the gamut from taking pictures at 1/160 of a second of lions at the LA Zoo to trying new things with the camera where the shutter was open for up to 30 seconds. Here are examples of each. Fun! Happy Valentine's Day to all.

The cats learn about the magnifying glass

We had a romantic Valentine's Day: We went to the Getty, had a picnic dinner and then strolled around. We purchased a magnifying glass in the museum shop. Once we got home, the girls were entranced with its ability to bend light. Oh, we've been enjoying the fireplace too, it's been cold here.

Photo time for PG!

So I'm working on trying some new things with my photos. Here are 3 images:
From the bottom going up:
Bottom one: The original image of a flower I bought at Trader Joe's today.
Middle shot: The picture after I changed it to the basic sepia tone.
Top shot: The picture after I individualized the sepia tone.
I would call this project, "It was raining today. Here's what I did."
Joe sent me the cool link to PhotoShop help. So many tutorials - love it. Well, I love him too. OF COURSE! ; )

The Huntington Library and Museum, near Pasadena

Today I visited the Huntington. They were highlighting a new Abraham Lincoln exhibit, but did not allow photos. In the exhibit, they had all kinds of photos of Abe, handwritten letters from him, casts of his face/hands and political paraphernalia of all kind. It made me think of a photo I'd seen someone take in a bakery with tons of cakes decorated with Obama's face. It's weird to think but we are living history all the time. Anyway, I really enjoyed the gardens at this place and couldn't stop looking at the orchids & bonsai collection.

Preview of the Movie Joe's Working On...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/nightatthemuseumbattleofthesmithsonian/med/natmMed.html

See if you can copy and paste this into your web browser. If not, and you want to see a preview of Night at the Museum 2, go to Google, type "Apple Trailers." When you get results from that, type "Night at the Museum 2," or some type of combination of these ideas - you'll find it if you want to find it!

XO

Very Good for my Mental Health

They call this place, "City of Angels." Angel, as defined by Dictionaire on my iPhone means: a spiritual being attendant upon God. Well, okay then. I guess it does feel a little like a city full of angels. At least when I'm at the Getty is does. This museum is just 1.4 miles from our apartment, and is totally free to visit any day of the week (closed Mondays, though). The bus ride is 4 minutes and costs just $1.25 each way. You can see why I go here all the time, especially with Joe working 8 AM- 8PM. Today the visibility was amazing (7 miles according to the Weather Channel, you can even see Catalina Island), and I love to sit on one of the patios and watch plane after plane depart from LAX. Another awe-inspiring factor at the Getty is that from several of the lookouts, you look left and see snow capped mountains, and look right and there's the Pacific - just get lost in its blue. Taking the bus there and back adds to the unique urban setting. So yeah, I'll go ahead and say yes to the city of angels, Los Angeles. And I'm grateful. (CLICK on the photos, they're freakishly BIG). And if you don't believe any of that, well, there's a picture of the angels hands and me! PROOF.

Our Weekend at the Getty

We joke that the Getty is our home as much as our home is our home! In a way it's better: it's free, we never have to clean it up, AND the views and art are unlimited. Truthfully, though, I head out to see the views while Joe checks out the art collection. This weekend we were at the Getty both days.

Saturday we debated about taking the bus to the show. Yeah, it's only $6 parking, but the bus is $1.25 and it's a 4 minute drive. We settled on the bus. On the ride to the show, we heard so many different languages: Russian, Spanish, German, who knows what else. Everyone on the bus was happy and nice. Afterward the show, we were greeted by REALLY GOOD opera singers waiting at our bus stop (2 young ladies with amazing voices!), it seemed like taking the bus was the right choice. Once we got dropped off at home, we crossed the street headed to the 17th floor of the Hotel Angeleno for a drink (doorman, "Hello Sir, hello Madam, welcome") . Sitting on top of the world, that's what it felt like. We had our own table overlooking all of LA - the people looked like ants and the cars like tiny light shuttles. No pics of the bar - I think it's called West - but lots of pics from the Getty. CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE. THEY ARE FREAKISHLY BIG!!!!