senoritafish | (no subject)

Two days of welcome rain, and now a Santa Ana. For those of you who don't live around here, this is a weather condition where the wind reverses direction, and instead of the prevailing wind off the ocean, it comes in from the desert. In early fall, they are roaring, hot, dry winds - the coastal scrub that covers much of the undeveloped hills in southern OC and north of Los Angeles often catches fire, and often a lot of expensive homes go up in flames with it. Other than being hot, though, I rather like them - they blow away all the smog. Today was only a mild one though, and after the rain clearing the air, the mountains were nice and clear - no snow on them yet, still a bit too early. If you stop in a tourist shop and look at the postcards, you'll usually find one of downtown Los Angeles, looking as if it is situated at the base of the Sierras in the middle of winter. Snow covered mountains behind the buildings and crystal clear air. A day like that comes along about once in a decade; usually you can't even see the mountains!

So my birthday was mostly uneventful, although there was the emergency data analysis requested at 2:30 for something required on Tuesday morning and Monday being a holiday. John and the kids gave me a small rectangular vase filled with riverstones and crocus bulbs. And yes, I did act properly surprised. It would be nice to force them in December, but I think they're already sprouting. My brother Doug came by and took John and I out to dinner - we were going to go to the Crab Cooker in Newport Beach, but he didn't arrive until 10 pm - we went to the Shore House in Seal Beach instead. Just as good, although they serve you enough food for two people! It was great to sit and talk without every other sentence being child chastisement. My brother is so damned creative - his newest project is making these lovely knit evening bags with handles made of freshwater pearls, glass beads or semi-precious stones. Some have beading and some are made with what he calls "eyelash" yarn, so it looks like the whole bag is covered with fringe. He's a dental hygenist in West Hollywood, so a few of his patients are celebrities. He's given a few to some of them in the hopes that he can then sell them to boutiques. They really are gorgeous - he offered me one, but I really would have no occasion to use it. I could hang it on the wall as a piece of artwork I suppose. I told him to send me some picures of them I could post. This is the same brother who has the Renaissance recorder music group.

The next day John's mom took Gareth to the Aquarium of the Pacific for his birthday. He liked the lobsters, but not when they started fighting. She gave him a talking SpongeBob Squarepants, who is cute, but being light yellow, I think is going to get very grubby very quickly from stick little paws squeezing his hand nose and upper lip. He also got a stuffed killer whale immediatley christened, of course, "Whalie." When she brought him back home, we sat on the patio with the heater one and has some fried chicken (John's request) and birthday cake. He had fun blowing out the candles although it took several tries.

Monday I actually got out of the house and raked up the leaves that have been sitting there since Halloween. Gareth and Angus started squabbling about who could use the little kid-sized rake to help. I filled up two trashcans and there is probably an equal amount still sitting there. I'd really like to start up the compost pile again - I feel guilty putting all these leaves in the trash along with the coffe grounds and other rottable stuff. But since Angus was born I rarely remember we even have a backyard.