If I had to list all the things I love about blogging, “community” would be very high on the list. I’ve found several communities that feel a bit like home, but the book-blogging community is extra-special to me, and not just in its virtual form; I appreciate that I’ve been able to get to know some of my fellow Southern California book bloggers in so-called “real life” too. But I know there are a lot […]
Tag: So Cal
Can’t stand the heat (Weekend Assignment #275)
It’s the middle of July, and if you live north of the equator, you’re probably experiencing summer weather right about now. That’s inspired Karen‘s question for this Weekend Assignment: Weekend Assignment: #275: What’s your favorite way to stay cool in the summer? Is this even an issue where you live? Extra Credit: Was climate a significant factor in deciding to live where you do? The Southern California dream: the endless summer. Bright, comfortably warm days […]
A summer snapshot, starring my town (Weekend Assignments #271/272)
I didn’t intend to blow off last week’s Weekend Assignment from Professor Karen at Outpost Mâvarin, but I did have some trouble getting a handle on it…until now. It’s being worked into this week’s Assignment. I hope that it will be accepted as my make-up exam! Weekend Assignment #271: No matter where you live, the daily sights you take for granted are bound to seem exotic to someone who lives in very different surroundings. Describe […]
Book Festivals and zombie chickens!
One of the highlights of my year is happening this weekend: it’s time again for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA, and not even a Zombie Chicken attack can stop it! (Celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar) My trip to the Festival is going to be a bit different this year. I first attended in 2006, accompanied by my then-fiancé Tall Paul. The highlights that year were the giant […]
A minor league gal in a Major League town
Baseball’s back, baby! Play ball! I was raised on baseball. It’s a sport I can actually follow. Everyone takes his turn, and everyone has a specific job responsibility on the field. I can make sense out of it. I was raised on New York Yankees baseball, actually. My dad spent many hours of his youth and young adulthood in Yankee Stadium, where he saw many of the legends play with his own eyes, and at […]
Accidents will happen…
…especially on rainy roads in normally dry Southern California. Sometimes they involve a lot of cars. If you’re truly unfortunate, one of those cars is yours. Guess who was truly unfortunate on Monday afternoon? My family spent the President’s Day weekend at my mother-in-law’s, and started the drive home after lunch on Monday. The weather was iffy, so we wanted to allow extra time for traffic tie-ups. Even so, we weren’t doing too badly time-wise […]
From The I-Don’t-Get-It Files: Eight is more than enough
Last week, a Southern California woman gave birth to octuplets. Early news reports focused on the medical accomplishment – all of the babies were delivered healthy and seemed to be thriving, including the “surprise” eighth one (the doctors were prepared for seven) – and didn’t divulge too much personal information about the family. But people are curious, and before long details began to leak out. At this point, there’s still a fair amount of rumor […]
What’s that sound on my radio?
If you’ve seen any of my iPod Random Ten posts, you know that my musical preferences are a bit hard to classify, and I like it that way – which is one reason I tend to find radio so frustrating. I’m old enough to remember when radio stations weren’t locked into as specific formats as they are now. Granted, the “Top 40” stations frequently did play the same songs every few hours, but there were […]
Weekend Assignment #234: It’s a good thing
This week, Karen poses a pretty simple question – perhaps deceptively simple: Weekend Assignment #234: Tell me one good thing about the area where you live (city, town, or whatever). It doesn’t have to be the best thing, just something that’s in the plus column for you. Extra Credit: How could that good thing be even better? It’s easiest to tell people I live in “Southern California” or “the LA area” without being overly specific. […]
Traffic complaint of the week
I had the day off from work on Monday for President’s Day – and if I had any sense, I would have asked for the next week and a half off too. Unfortunately, we have auditors coming in next week so the request would have been denied. In any case, I thought I’d share what’s going on in my office’s neighborhood for the next several days, just so you might give me a little sympathy. […]
What’s great about the Golden State
Busy Mom lost a wager with Matthew at Child’s Play x2 (which I’m adding to my “dad blogs” subscriptions) over the Tennessee Titans/San Diego Chargers playoff game last week, and her payment was a post in praise of California. I think she did pretty well at hitting the high points for someone who claims to have spent less than 48 hours of her entire life in the state, so here’s her list, with comments added […]
Not much love for Los Angeles
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. Its environs are home to a couple million people, and more arrive every year. It creates its own mythology and image, and, as the capital of film and television production – often featuring stories based on or in the city – spreads that image to the world. (Although that’s on hold for the moment, and was already a topic for another post.) But, as reported in the LAist […]
