Grandma blog and Blue Moon Gallery

Today's blog isn't about much except a way to share some pictures of Rina.
They came over a couple of days ago so Mike could use my printer, and of course Rina wanted to go out in the back yard so she could play in the fountain. Except, when she got out there, there were ripe tomatoes and they were at Rina height. There was one she was really interested in, but it wasn't ripe. I gave her another one off the other bush, and she ate it like other kids eat candy. Then she went over to the heirloom tomato bush, and wanted one of those. So she had a bigger one. Then she went back to the not quite ripe one and kept handling it, and finally just leaned over and bit it on the bush! I kept trying, but I couldn't actually get a picture of that.
Is this kid a real Italian, or what?

And one more thing: I now have a page on the Blue Moon Gallery website. Check it out here Thanks, Carol.

Two visits to the Impressionists - French and California

Last week Zoe, Billie, and I went to San Francisco to see the Impressionist Exhibit. This is a great exhibit that's going around the U.S. and probably other places as well, while the d'Orsay Museum in Paris undergoes a year-long renovation. There are actually two exhibits traveling around and San Francisco is the only place getting both of them.

John was supposed to go with us, but at the last minute, he was really too sick to go, so the three of us went anyway. Nobody ever accused me of being a nice guy. So we knew that the day we decided to go, July 1, was the day they were raising the bridge tolls, and while we had planned to go during rush hour to take advantage of the free carpool lane, all the rules had changed and that was now the most expensive option. We ended up going around the bay and across the Golden Gate bridge for one $6 toll.

The exhibit was great, though predictably crowded and had kind of the first half of the Impressionist period. No Van Gogh's for instance, but lots of really good stuff. It's now two weeks later and I can't remember a single name. We also went to the Legion of Honor for another show that's of posters, drawings and advertising flyers from the same era. They were also very interesting.

Then this Thursday, John, Zoe and I went to Stockton, where they have a wonderful exhibit of California Impressionists (which is probably my favorite school of art) from the Irvine Museum. John and I and Vera and Bill had tried to go to the Irvine Art museum several years ago with disastrous results. The place we ended up was some sort of an industial park and when we finally found the museum, it was a day it was closed. So this time we finally got to see the paintings.

We were astounded at what a good museum this little Haggin Museum in Stockton is. First of all, it's a nice building and a lovely park. The entrance is only $5 ($2.50 for seniors) and they had all these really great paintings on loan. Additionally, they had a very interesting show of posters by Leyendecker, an illustrator who was a contemporary of Parrish and Norman Rockwell, and did rather Rockwellian-type work, though he painted many of his in oils originally. The museum appears to have a smallish collection of its own paintings, but they are really quite good. The other special exhibit was of women's clothing from about 1860 to 1910 or so. As always, I looked at those tiny waists and could hardly breathe. And of course, since this museum is only in Stockton and only 45 miles from here and no bridge tolls, it was a pretty inexpensive trip. We even got to go to Sizzler with the rest of the senior citizens for lunch.

Last night Zoe had us over to dinner with Tim and Lynda. She made these great tri-tip sandwiches, some wonderful beans, and cole slaw from my food channel magazine. I got to find out how good that recipe was without going to the work of actually making it myself. She also made a great berry cobbler with ice cream. Frankly, none of this was good for my diet, but I've been pretty good for four whole days.

I have a harp gig tonight that's going to include hors d'oeuvres, which will probably be a problem, but perhaps I'll just confine myself to a bit of wine. It is finally getting easier for me to jog in the morning. Not that I like it any better, but my hips and knees aren't hurting so badly. I'm trying to decide if it's the calcium pill I've been taking for the week, or the fact that I've been trying to stay away from things I know are bad (read fat) and eat stuff with lots of anti-oxidants. I've been actually drinking milk (yuck) mixed with Alba -- which was kind of a staple of mine way back when I was in weight watchers. It's a really low cal way to make a milkshake out of skimmed milk and actually makes it possible for me to imbibe milk.


Finally, I scored big at a yard sale this morning. In two ways. First, I bought an old typewriter (the keys are very much in demand for jewelry and craft projects) and secondly, I got John to carry it home for me. The damn thing must have weight 25-30 pounds. It took me about an hour to get all the keys off, and I only ruined about three of them. Now I just have to figure out how to put something on them so I can string them or something.

Neighborhood Watch

Just as we had finished watching Hercule Peirot tonight I heard one quick beep of a siren pretty much right outside the door and of course went ou to check it out. Three cop cars there already, and a fourth and fifth came up while I was watching.

Seemed not too big a deal, but they got three people out of the car (all being pretty cooperative, it seemed -- two men and a woman) cuffed 'em, sat 'em down on the curb and then stood around forever. Didn't seem all that interesting, except that I noticed that all the cars that were pointing away from me were CHP, and I couldn't see the one that was pointed towards me, except for the headlights.

John came out and we sat there and watched for awhile, then I went in the house and got out the binoculars, because, like, you know, you don't want to miss anything. After they stood around for quite awhile (this started about 10:30 p.m. and I just came back in the house and it's midnight) they started going through the car. First I thought they were searching it, then it looked like they were just getting the people's (the perps'?) stuff out of it. But then they opened the back of the car and took out the tires and I think eventually took out a rifle of some kind, something that might have been some kind of automatic weapon. But I was trying to see this from across the street with two very large trees and some wimpy bushes somewhat obstructing my view. I can still hear the cop heliocopter flying around near Broadway somewhere, so I'm wondering if these people were suspects in something else that went down, rather than just a DUI or whatever. I don't think they usually arrest everybody in the car for DUI.

In addition to us, a bunch of guys from the half way house, who are no doubt not strangers to this scenario themselves, came down and watched for awhile, and a couple carrying a baby walked right over there and past the scene of the action, and when they had satisfied themselves, walked back. I don't think I'd be taking a baby right up to that, myself. But then again, most people wouldn't sit on their front porch with binoculars, either. I will probably pay for this with a bunch of new mosquito bites tomorrow.

We're finally going to get new windows in our back sunporch -- though I think it's a long ways away -- but we're trying to get all the crap out of there, which in my case seems to necessitate making a complete mess of the other bedroom while doing it. Last weekend Lynda and I had a yard sale. I spent most of my earnings at the bead show this weekend, though. I did get rid of a lot of stuff up there, but there's still a lot more there. We're mostly down to paper products like books of music -- a whole bookcase full -- paper of various kinds that I might someday use, but usually can't find when I want it. I believe that all of this can probably be put into the desk in the bedroom, but it's tedious process and of course involves throwing away junk that's in the desk. I think I'm also going to have to put the computer on that desk for the duration of the project, too. I already have one box of junk ready for the next yard sale, and may get another before I go to bed.

No more news that's fit to print this weekend.