Joining the Club

Hey friends. There's this new fun recipe website - from what I can tell it's like the myspace for foodies and in an effort to kick start their site, they're giving away $6000 for a kitchen makeover. You know you want in on that. Click HERE to join!

You didn't want to work...

...did you?

Mel begins her blockade of my desk

The Presence of Mange

So two things happened today, I wrote the first post for Presence (our movie) and I took Melba to the vet to get a shot and dipped for her mange. We think it's the minor localized kind that'll get wiped out by a couple of treatments. She's scared of the vet, but otherwise seems fine. I think it's more the rain that's making her mopey than anything else.

You can check out the Presence Post by clicking here.

The Real Vacation in Laguna Beach

A magnificent sunset

For Christmas, the Kramer's gave Bryan and me a night in a hotel in Laguna Beach. We took this much needed vacation Monday night. It was completely fabulous.

This is how Bryan enjoys his vacations

I think that Susan is on to us. First of all, she understands that we don't ever stop working. We both have day jobs (though mine are somewhat fluid) and then we have our film/writing work. I really truly take maybe a day or two off a month. Bryan's the same way. Susan tried once before to give us a weekend away. We used the money instead to buy an enlarger and set up a dark room. This time the gift came through a travel agency. Smart mom.

A room with a view

On Monday, after stopping at Fashion Island to see BREACH (which is good, but not as good as SHATTERED GLASS, which is awesome) we headed to the hotel. This was our view.

We stayed at the Beach and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach and it is literally on the sand.

Beneath my feet

We pretty much turned into jello as soon as we got there. We watched the sunset, had a drink and sat on our balcony.

Our beach from our balcony

I can't think of a better way to spend an evening than watching the tide roll in, ordering room service and watching movies on the TV (that may have been Bryan's favorite part). At night the hotel lit the surf so you could see it crash seemingly directly below your feet.

The next morning we had breakfast at their restaurant down just above the sand and went for a walk.

It's all about the sandcastle building.

Then it was back to the real world far too soon. Next time, we'll stay two nights.

Hi Bryan!

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere...

...and not a thing to pack.

Okay, so that's not actually very accurate. In fact there were thousands of things to pack. I have a new appreciation for the work David and Kevin (and once upon a time, Bryan) do. Packing up other people's things is hard work!

Basically what happened was that I spent Monday and Tuesday helping Kevin and his crew pack up this little garage behind a house in the Crenshaw area that was literally filled with the largest collection of black literature and cultural artifacts on the West Coast. That element of it was cool. The bummer was that the room we were packing looked like this:
And that was after we spent a day packing. Before we started you couldn't see past that pile in the middle. The first day they had a hard time even getting the door open.

It was actually really interesting because as I'd pack old newspapers and magazines I'd come across some incredible photographs or an original manuscript from a slave. Really incredible documents.

By the end of Day 2 the front room looked like this:

(in the background is the room from the upper picture). They still had at least two and maybe three more days to go. The deal was that they had recently acquired a space to house this collection in a permanent organized way. But because the mold and silverfish were so bad in this old space, all of the books and papers have to first be frozen to kill everything. So Kevin and his guys had to literally double plastic bag every individual box (and by the end we were figuring that it would be about 500 boxes).

This is me, Kevin and his crew at the end of a LONG day.

I think I'm going to stick with writing and producing and leave the moving to the people with stronger backs.

Much Better

Rain, Rain...

Mel doesn't like it when water falls from the sky. It makes her anxious, like someone wants to give her a bath.

As for me, I love it. It makes me actually want to stay indoors and do my work (yes, even on a Sunday). The call of the garden is not so great when it's cold and rainy outside. I might actually get some coverage written today, if I can keep myself from procrastinating by blogging.

I've started sending out my manuscript. So far the tally is 1 publisher, 2 agents and 2 agent query rejections. Not bad odds thus far. We'll see how it goes.

Lunchtime!

Today I glanced out the window and noticed these two little birds feasting on last season's figs. I'm glad someone is getting some use out of those old figs before I prune the tree. It makes me think my procrastination is really a form of bird-love. Maybe that's so.

Spring in February?

Today began simply with Bryan and I deciding to go out for breakfast. We haven't done this in a while because, well, it's just not that hard to make an omelet. But Eva had recently told us that Phillipe's (home of the French Dip sandwich that we can't eat) serves a mean breakfast and, even better, coffee that costs 9 cents. All it took was us discussing going out to breakfast for Melba to play opossum.

Mel Plays Dead

We eventually did make it out of the house and into a day that's turned out to be 87 degrees. What's up global warming!?!

So that led me out into the garden that I've been ignoring because it's been so cold.

And Weeded And Weeded...

Today I weeded. And weeded. And weeded.

Go Artichoke Baby! Go!

The good news is that the artichoke plant we planted last February is going strong. I think I need to feed it though, because I'm not seeing any flowers yet.

Tomorrow I'm going to plant some lettuce and spring veggies in my veggie patch. I have to say I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also going to start sending out my query letter to lit agents...so if any of you have a friend in the biz that's looking for teen mystery series...

I'll keep you posted on the garden.

If You Give A Guest a Chair...

...they're going to need another.

It's funny because it wasn't even his fault. All he did was sit down and the chair shattered underneath him. The unavoidable diet jokes were bandied about, but in truth he's a fairly slim guy. It could have happened to anyone. Now we're down to 5 of the 20 year old chairs I grew up with. Sigh. I don't know what I'm going to do the next time I have a dinner party for more than five people.

Thank goodness the food, at least, was good.