Furman Trip

I am remiss!

I've just realized that I never posted pictures from my October trip to Furman. Fellow alum Tiffany Bordelon and I were invited to come for a long weekend and visit the drama department. We gave a talk for general audiences about goal setting and our careers, and taught 2 acting classes. We worked with students on on-camera audition techniques, talked about graduate school auditions, how to transition from school to professional work, headshots, resumes, the works.

Bonus: Mom, Dad, and the roomies came to visit! Of course I got to spend time with Christina, too. One of my favorite things we did was go to the library together. We both had some work to do so we packed our bags and did some studying. It was a little fantasy exercise of what it would have been like if we went to Furman at the same time. I love imagining all of the trouble we would have gotten into!

I also got to spend a lovely morning with Vonda and Max. It was raining, so we took to the library for musical jamboree. Vonda was on top of everything, and you can see here in this photo that I was just keeping up, coffee in hand. Don't know how you mamas do it!

More pics on our Forest of Photos pictures site!

The Case of the Disappearing Parsley

Little baby Ewok packs it away.

Tales from Lala Land

About two months ago I started part-time work as a personal assistant to an actress. She actually went to UCI several years before me and is a great lady and a tremendous performer. I really like working for her, and a few weeks ago she sent me on an adventure to a Mexican grocery store. I was unprepared for what was *literally* in store....

The bakery was festive. Very bright cookies. 

There was a bar kind of like a salad bar, but it had all fruit and jello. The produce looked good, and was guarded by all manner of plastic animals.

I was sent there to get a pork leg. "I'm not sure what they'll have, so call me when you get there," were my instructions. I found the meat counter. Boy, did I. 

Ok, we all know I'm a vegetarian and I don't shop for meat anymore, but I walk past meat all the time in stores and don't think much about it. I suppose because it looks like...meat. You know, like cuts of meat. But I was not looking at meat. I was looking at body parts. 

Beef tongue, anyone?

How about some feet?

I was so grossed out that I got a little giddy and had to take photos. I bravely approached the counter. I didn't see pork leg. 

"Hi, I'm looking for pork leg?"

"Let me show you." 

Man goes away. Man returns. With a pork. Leg. It turns out that pork leg is the size of a pork leg. A leg and a haunch. It's about the size of a two year old and I can see where the bone has been sawed through. 

"Oh, okay. How much does it weigh?"

"Thirty-two pounds."

"Whoa. Ok, let me make a quick phone call."

I left the store with 2 lbs. of pork leg. Now I know. 

The adventure continues...

bunnyundertree

As requested by Beckers...

The bunnies are in love with the tree. I improvised a lovely tree skirt with some extra fabric, and buns have been digging and pushing it all over the place. It is quite a mess now, but they are so industrious about it that it's worth it to have less than flattering tree skirt in return for happy and active buns. They love to nap under there, as you can see by Henry's sleepy eye. 

He has a voice

Bed buns

Nerds of the First Order, Reporting for Duty

It's hard to read our little stickers in these photos, but we're...

Gray's Anatomy!

A Few Good Chairs

Last year I bought some chairs. From an actual store. And they've been horrible. Zach broke one within the first week by leaning back in it. Bad chair. 

New chairs to the rescue! I picked up this ragtag bunch this morning, and had a nice afternoon fixing them up. Work time for all 5 chairs was less than for the 1 devilish chair I showed in an earlier post. I'm gettin' better at pickin' 'em.

Before

After

These will also be great when we want extra outdoor seating!

The Yuts

We had such a good time celebrating our anniversary at Treebones in Big Sur last year we were really looking forward to returning this year. Zach had a terrible allergy attack on the day we left, and it's not an exaggeration to say that he sneezed over 100 times on the 5 1/2 hour drive up there! I drove, and was so engaged in our audiobook that I missed a turn and we ended up taking a slight detour (oops!). But we did see some deer and several tarantulas (that Zach wanted to get out the of the car and poke with sticks). We later learned that the road we took is one of the great scenic drives in the area. Hooray for happy accidents!

The yurts, or yuts as we now call them, were just as we remembered. We spent almost the entire first day on site. We did take a brief venture around the property and made a little trek to a coastal trail where we tried to spot the sea lions who woke us up the night before (no luck).

It rained in the afternoon, and we were happy to spend time snugged in the yut with books and naps.

We proved more adventurous the second day, and we took a drive up the coast to Big Sur proper. We stopped for lunch at the popular restaurant Nepenthe, and walked a trail in one of the national parks. 

This trip was a powerful reminder that it's good for us to pack up and get out of LA sometimes. I think some camping items shall be on our wish lists this year...we're looking forward to getting out more often!

This post would not be complete unless I mentioned that we did indeed see an otter on our last day. Did I mention that there is a campground near an otter preserve in Big Sur?!? First stop with tent. 

Many, many more pictures can be found here. 

My Sweet Misery

Zach worked on this film a few years ago in South Carolina and it is finally being released. And it's getting great reviews! It will be playing at Carmike Cinemas in the following cities:

OCTOBER 16, 17, 20 & 22 (2 SHOWS PER DAY)

Carmike 10 – Panama City, FL
Royal Palm 20 – Brandenton, FL
Carmike 10 – Asheville, NC
Wynnsong 15 – Durham, NC
Carmike 12 – Greenville, NC
Carmike 14 – Hickory, NC
Carmike 16 – Wilmington, NC
Wynnsong 12 – Winston-Salem, NC
Chapel Hills 15 – Colorado Springs, CO
Carmike 14 – Fort Smith, AR
Broadway 16 – Myrtle Beach, SC
Carmike 9 – Minot, ND
Carmike 12 – Kennewick, WA
Oakwood Mall 12 – Eau Claire, WI
Carmike 15 – Apple Valley, MN
Wynnsong 15 – Mounds View, MN
Horizon 10 – Traverse City, MI

NOVEMBER 6,7,10 & 12

Carmike 14 – Columbia, SC
Crossroads 16 – Conyers, GA (just outside of Atlanta)

NOVEMBER 6

Orlando Film Festival – Orlando, FL

Enjoy the trailer, and visit the website for more details.

Lake Shrine

Yesterday I checked out a place I had read about in our AAA magazine. It's called Lake Shrine, and it's a multi-denominational spiritual center in the Pacific Palisades. There as a wedding there yesterday, so I couldn't explore everything, but the grounds are beautiful. They hold Sunday services, but the rest of the week the property is open to the public. There's a little chapel in the windmill, and a temple in a section I couldn't get to.

More pics here.

Projects

I love old things, and I love making things. The new house has been the source of many opportunities to make something new out of something old. I also love to scavenge and treasure hunt, and as a result most of our furniture is second hand. I like thinking that our stuff had a life before it got to us, and that I get to rehabilitate much of it. Here are some projects I've been working on the last few months...

Got this bookcase for free on craigslist. Pitiful looking.

Shabby chic-ified! Books now cover the hole.

Old window pane with fabric. I found a great fabric store with lots of terrific remnants. I may have started a fabric habit.

I'm very proud of this next one because it almost defeated me. 

$7 thrift store chair. 

Sand. Paint. Remove fabric. Recover with fabric remnant. Curse. Keep recovering. 

Handsome chair! I even used upholstery nails on this one. 

More fabric.  

Found this on the side of the road (told you I scavenge). It was stained and covered in spiders. 

Sanded. Painted. Love it. 

Found this at a thrift store. Liked the frame, hated the painting in it, so I repainted with lyrics from a song in our wedding. 

The ad for this place advertised it as a "creative guest house." I now know they choose the word "creative" because it's so weird inside you have to be creative to make it work! For example, we have no drawers in the kitchen. Zero. What to do with the silverware? I got these wire containers (actually tea light lanterns), and after we wash the silverware (no dishwasher either), it goes straight in the baskets where it can dry and we don't have to first put it on a drying rack and then put it away. It's also very easy to take silverware outside when we're eating on the porch or have a group over; we just put the wire baskets on a tray and take them out. Other kitchen utensils live in a flower pot.

More to come. I'm currently tackling some more chairs (why do I do this to myself?) and I've bartered with a friend who is making me some curtains in exchange for a website. The fun continues!

Sunday

Just a couple pics from our Sunday afternoon. Smoothies and a walk in Santa Monica.

Hot Cross Buns

Roomie Reunion

One of my favorite parts of the year is whenever the roomies are able to get together. It's been more difficult the last few years with babies, jobs, and pesky California being so far away, and that made this visit even more special. Three whole days, part of 2 days, no babies (as wonderful as they are, I still love their mamas most), and a beach house to play in.

Day 1: Zach calls. 

Z: So what have you all been doing?

L: Oh, talking, watching DVDs. We walked on the beach. We talked. 

Day 2:

Z: What did you do today?

L: We talked, went to the pool. Went out for dinner. We stayed up late talking. 

Day 3:

Z: What are you guys doing for the rest of the day?

L: I think we're gonna go to the pool. Maybe take some magazines. And talk. 

Z: What could you possible still have to talk about?

And that's just the thing. We'll never run out of stuff to talk about! Looking forward to spending my golden years at the Furman retirement home with you, roomies!