Recently we have had some strange weather in LA. First it was really hot, but now it is:
chilly and... (this is a bad picture, but I heve learned that with children and animals you shoot first and then adjust your camera parameters later. This little guy was up on that rock for a while, moving his (her?) head towards the sun, and then looking back at people. By the time I adjusted for high light, he was gone back to his little lamp heated bed.
...very, very dry. This is not an action shot. He actually stopped at this point, and as about to get up. But his hair?! Everybody around was laughing hard... his hair was standing up straight - even his curles were gone - from all the static electricity in the air!
These pictures were taken at the LA Zoo - the children playground is really fun for the kids, but they had notices leftover since the heatwave - the playground was aactually closed because the metal parts (basically everything!) was so hot it was causing burns. Hello? This is LA, and LA Zoo is in one of the hottest areas of LA, and they build a metal playground that heats up so much? It's not that the high temperatures were so high - we get high temperatures during summer months too... anyway...

I believe this is Grga's debut on this blog. He is a 7 year old English Springer Spaniel we rescued from ESRA almost 4 years ago. Now, don't let this picture fool you. He is not mellow at all; this was taken around misnight  last night, his usual sleep time. He is the most complicated dog ever, if he were human he would be one of those people who are ALWAYS worried about something. And he is not really well behaved, but we love him.

This is his usual spot on the sofa, but yesterday pillows were low (and we were sitting on the sofa) so he could not get into his spot. He kept pacing around, and I did not really now what was going on (as I said he freaks about anything and everything) until he jumped up all the way up on top of the pillows. When we moved, he slid down into the position you see on the picture, but he would not move, he claimed his spot. I could not stop laughing so I had to take the pictures. Does he look comfortable to you?

On nother note - two links for today:
    - another source of blanks for kids - Kiddy Kats
    - another crafts store (similar to etsy) - Cut+Paste

I have been inspired by many things recently and I wanted to blog about it, but I am so tired I have hard time writing even these lines. Luka is going through a phase (at least that's how we think about it) and every few days he wakes up at the middle of the night but then he does not go to sleep for hours. Last week, two days in a row he was up for four hours one night, and three hours the next. Just last night he woke up at midnight and was up until about 4:30am. He then woke up at 8am, cheerful as always. I am not so cheerful.
He has not been sleeping well since he was about 10 months old (he is 2 years and 3 months old now). That was the time he started with ear infections, so most of the time he would wake up because of pain. But even after he got the tubes in his ears, and the ear infections stopped, he continued to wake up, every night. I think we had maybe 20 nights since then that he did not wake up. Most of the time he wakes up once and goes back to sleep soon, but sometimes it could take an hour or so. And he does not wnt to be alone and I have a rule that he cannot go to sleep crying. So I stay with him. And to give him some credit, he does not cry, or fuss, or try to talk to me or play. For the most part he is down and is trying to go to sleep, but he just can't. I feel bad for him, but sometimes, like last night I get frustrated. Oh well...

So, I will rest a bit. UHD (Universal HD channel) is showing a rerun of Northern Exposure, the best TV show ever. I have tivo-ed the entire first season, 8 episoed in all. That's what I am going to do now. That makes me happy...

The little one and I have been struck by a stomach virus. He threw up all last night. The poor thing gets so upset and even though he is belching he does not want to let it out. It is so hard to watch him when there is really nothing I can do except try to tell him that it's going to be fine... eventually...

I was on a highway, driving home from a good shopping (fabric!) trip to Anaheim, and as I was browsing through radio stations (all I had in the car were children song CDs) when I happen to find a perfect song. Perfect for the moment, for the mood, for driving in the car: Somebody to Love from Queen. It's one of those songs, together with Bohemian Rapsody, that you have to listen to at high volume. Very high. And sing along. In the car. (The traffic was slow, there were many cars around me, but I don't want to think about this too much). I remember this happening once before. I was driving to work (I can visualize exactly where I was) and there was Yesterday, from Beatles playing on the radio. Perect for that moment. You can never produce the same effect by listening to CDs because you choose the music. It can only happen when browsing radio stations. I love when that happens.

I will take pictures of the fabric finds later today. I had to restrain myself and leave some behind. I don't like when that happens.

I have installed FCKeditor plugin and it's fine, better than the original mt editor. However, I would like to set it up so that every new entry comes up with some code already in there. I had that working with the previous version of mt, where I added code to the new entry template (like this), but this plugin uses something else and it does not work any more. I could dig through the code, but I don't have time. So I am probably just going to be creating posts somewhere else, and than copy and past them into mt. Any other suggestions?

So, the upgrade went well, and relatively smooth. I had just one glitch, which turned out to be my mistake setting up the mt-congfig file. I changed the design as well, used one of the templates from The Style Contest; I just need to find some time to customize it.

But first, I need to find a better editor, because this default thing is just a pain in the you know what. I just tried ecto, but it crashed on me twice, so that gone. Next, I will try this FCKeditor plugin. It seems that there are a few steps to get it work, but from the screenshots it looks like it could be all I need.

OK, I know that blonde jokes are so '90s, so over. And I have not heard one in a while... but this one is pretty funny....
I do wonder if this is a real pencil or just photoshop work?

Right in front of my house! I don't think so!
About a year ago, maybe a little more, my husband and I came back from a trip, on an early Monday morning. The cab stopped across the street from our house because there was a guy washing a car right in front of it. I did not think much of it, I was tired, hungry and in a hurry to get to work.
Many months later, as I was getting bigger and more uncomfortable I stayed and worked from home on the worst days. As I was sitting in my bedroom that faces the street, all of a sudden I heard a very loud noise - there was that same guy, washing another car. And in front of our house, again! When he finished that car, he left. Again I did not think about it much, until it happened once again. Is this guy running a car wash business in front of my house (I actually saw him once more on our block; I think there was somebody parked in front of our house)? Is this legal? It's not only noisy, he leaves a mess and all the chemicals he is using for washing and polishing, together with the dirty water go directly into the ocean! But who can I call?
I started with a phone number off of my utility bill, and after a few transfers I ended up talking with somebody at the Illegal Dumping Hotline. They were not really clear whether this is legal or not (?) but they said they would investigate. I gave them a phone number off the truck as well as the business name and that was it. I have not heard from them again, and the guy never showed up again. I thought that was it.
Not really. Last Friday as I came back from a walk a different truck was in front of our house, washing another car. I did not react immediately, but when I saw they were on their third car and talking to another lady about doing a fourth one I had enough. And this time I also had a baby trying to sleep in the other bedroom, also facing the street. I went out and, very much annoyed, asked the guy wether he need to do this here! He did not protest, he just said he was sorry and that he would move the car. And he did, right away. Two houses down.
But I got really angry. I just could not believe that this is legal. How could someone just set up shop on a residential street. It is annoying, dirty and noisy. I don't care if it's convenient to some people so that they don't have to go three blocks east and have their car washed on Lincoln Ave. It is probably cheaper too. But why does it have to be in front of my house, on my street; in front of anybody's house for that matter!
So I called again, the same number. This time they told me that this is definitely illegal (by the way, I tried calling the first company but I could never get pass voicemail, and nobody ever called me back).
No one can have any kind of business in front of somebody's house, unless it is non-profit and then they would have to have a special permit. I don't think that a car-wash is a non-profit!
But that's not the end of the story. This Monday the first guy appeared again. Where - in front of my house! Oh, this time I was beyond pissed. I got out again and told them to leave. This guy moved his truck too, but he complained! He said - "But I always wash cars here!" Excuse me???!!! He picked our house probably because, before I was pregnant, both me and my husband were both at work during the day, so there was no one to complain. And we have a huge pine tree in front, under which our neighbors don't like to park because of sap. So, not only did he have an empty spot, he also had a shade.
So, I called again, and I am waiting to see what happens. But this time I will follow up with the inspectors!
I still cannot believe this, and I get so pissed everytime I think about it!

Today, some baby news. One friend of ours has become a foster parent. Even though she is in a foster-to-adopt program, she will keep this baby only for a couple of months. She thinks that it will not break her heart to give her away, because she is going into it knowing she will not keep her. It's going to be hard...
Another friend of ours just told us they are expecting their third child. Is it going to be another girl?

All in all, a good day!

Unbelievable! This gun (Photo: CBS), a .50 caliber military rifle is available for purchase in 49 states, to anyone with a clean record over 18 years (you can't tell this from the picture, but this thing is over 5 feet long!!!)! California is the only state where it has been banned, recently, by the Governor (one good thing he has done since the recall; how he does overall is still up for debate...). It has been designed for military use by Ronnie Barrett, 22 years ago and it is used by military in 35 countries. But, most of the sales barrett makes are to civilians - that's what keeps his company going! It qualifies as just another hunting rifle, but can pierce a steel plate from 3-football fields away! Read the whole story at the 60 minutes site.

This is the first post of the New Year and the first post on the new domain - googee.org. I know, it lookes awfully like google, but no, it has nothing to do with it (actually googee.com is owned by google; I guess it helps with all those typos...). goo and gee are the first sounds our son has made, and is still making when talking to his animals and his hands, on occasion.

This year I counted down to the new year together with my parents. So why is this special, you ask? Because my parents live 9 (nine) time zones away. Thinking about the time zones always makes me sad because it reminds me of how far away we live. When I want to call my mom to tell her that her (only) grnadson has learned how to grab things with both his hands, I realize that it's the middle of the night there, because they are 9 hours ahead of us. But this time it was actually nice. I called them from the beach at 10 minutes before midnight their time, and I actually could get through and we counted down together. Over the phone, but I still felt close to them...

Happy New Year everybody. And lets hope for no earthquakes, big waves, fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural (and other, not so natural) disasters...

1..2..3.. testing...

Some time ago my husband and I were discussing what we would do if the elections did not turn out the way we wanted... Half jokingly, we said we would move up to Canada.

After the elections, when we did end up on the losing side, we discussed (again half jokingly) where in Canada we would move, and decided on Vancouver... What can we do, we like the left coast and we (mostly I) do not like snow... And the other day, I found a dream house, just 26 miles outside of Vancouver, with a view of the mountains and 5 acres of land... All I need now - is to win the lottery and we are gone...

But this is not the end to the Canada story... just two days before the elections, we were talking to our friends, who (also half jokingly) said they discussed moving to Canada too, in case... At that time I thought this was just a coincidence, however, this is what New York TImes reported yesterday:

One might only guess that a few of the 58 million people that voted for President Bush were motivated by a love-it-or-leave-it view of the country. But it is statistically demostrable that after John Kerry's defeat, some Democratic supporters gave that statement some real thought, too.

Canada's ministry of immigration and citizenship reported a record-shattering jump in the number of visits to it's website - www.cic.gc.ca - on the day after last week's election. The average number of visitors to the site on any given day hovers around 65,000, according to Maria Iadinardi, a spokeswomen for the ministry. About 20,000 of those daily visits come from the United States.

But last Wednesday, the number of visists to the site more than doubled, to around 179,000, with 115,000 hits coming from Canada's neighbor to the south, although Ms. Iadinardi added that she has yet to detect any corresponding uptick in actual applications for asylum. "That will take between four and six months to measure", she said. (written by Tom Zeller Jr.)

And, there is even more: in case you want to marry a canadian...

Finally, let me finish this post with a picture, a map actually that a friend (married to a Canadian) sent to me...

 

Apparently there is a guy in India who is rolling (across India, a continent, the world - I don't know all the details) for peace. He rolls at a pace of 8 miles a day. Pretty impressive, but quite uncomfortable... Anyway, he ran into a little problem when he tried to cross over to Pakistan - the border patrol did not want to let him through because he did not have a passport. I guess you need your documents even if your mode of transportation is rolling over...

On a completely unrelated note - today (at a random store) I met another pregnant woman with the same due date as I (10/05). She has a friend with a due date 10/06. Apparently these are very common birth dates for babies (10/05 being the most 'popular' as she put it) in the US. About 40 weeks after the holidays and all...

Today our doctor predicted that our baby will be born on 10/09. He just looked at me when we were leaving his office and said that. I guess that's experience! 10/09 is the birthday of our friends' first baby, and that would be fine - easier to remember all the birthdays. It would also be fine if he were to be born on 09/29 which is my sister's second girl's birthday (she was born last year). This would keep the 'tradition' going since my husband's brother's baby girl was born this year on 06/03 which is my husband's birthday... But who knows...