Up 'Til Now, Everything's Been Fine

Boz lobbies for the things he wants. He sometimes wants a thing badly until he gets it, then he doesn't want it any more. But he clings to his moments on the porch. He'll stay there as long as he can, whether it's chilly or hot. He must keep watch.

What he sees he keeps to himself. Boz rarely barks. I've heard his formidable bark about five times in the seven years he's lived with us, and at those times I give his declarations great respect: "What is it, Boz? Good boy, Boz!" Usually it's nothing--a passing pug, an insistent crow, a breeze.

I could be wrong about this, though. He might be joining the Twilight Bark.

(The video I've linked you to is 10 minutes long. The Twilight Bark begins about three minutes in. The whole thing is worth watching.)

Parc San Marino

Virginia Jones has two (count 'em, two) daily photo blogs: Birmingham, Alabama Daily Photo, where she posts explorations of her home town, and Paris Through My Lens, where she posts her photographic visions of Paris, a town she and I have both dreamed of living in.

I think Virginia and I both love our home towns or we wouldn't blog about them every day. But we like to dream about Paris. I've never met anyone who's been there who didn't yearn to go back, even if they've been there many times.

Virginia's been there many more times than I have, and she's taken lots of pictures. Her photo of the gate at Paris' Parc Monceau inspired me to post a picture of this often-overlooked gate at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. Karin Bugge also posted a photo of this gate in one of my favorite Altadena Hiker posts. All three of us managed to photograph our gates under moody skies. Maybe we're all daydreamers.

My vision of living in Paris involves exploring the ancient streets, gardens and history until I've discovered every inch of the city. This fantasy includes having unlimited funds despite not having a job. I imagine one reason Paris seems so dreamy to those of us who've visited as tourists is precisely because we're on vacation and we're allowing ourselves the leisure to explore.

I'm lucky: blogging about Pasadena gives me not only the opportunity but the motivation to explore Pasadena, and to find hidden treasures like this gate. Next time you're at the Huntington, seek it out.

In Defense of Poetry

photo inspired by John Sandel

April is National Poetry Month and in honor of this great occasion I am not going to post a poem I have written.

Instead, I recommend you mark your calendar for this coming Saturday, April 10th at 5PM and meet me at Vroman's to celebrate. Five poets (real ones), including Altadena's own Linda Dove (In Defense of Objects), will read from their works. Be there or be conventional.

Wait.

Be there or be bourgeois? No. Be there or be...I'm sure there's a better way to say this.

iPhone Wednesday #6 - iDrool

iTook this photo with John's iPhone on a visit to the Apple Store on Colorado Blvd. A mere two days after the release of the iPad, people were waiting in line just to hold it.

John has always used a Mac. I'm a recent convert. Since leaving my PC behind last summer I have had not one virus, blue screen, inexplicable melt-down or caesura in the use of my computer. I'm in Mac love.

My desktop computer is a Mac Mini, my laptop is a reliable old PowerBook G4 and my phone is an iPhone. My wallet, however, is the old-fashioned kind, meaning it has its limits, and there's no app for that. I can do without an iPad right now.

But John has his needs. He's in the crowd in that photo somewhere, lovingly fondling an iPad for the first time.

Needless to say, we're feeding our iPiggy bank with high hopes.

Patterns

I have created another of those weeks with too much to do and too little time in which to do it. It's not like I didn't see it coming.

The previous weeks have been just as full so my prep time gets crammed into little places, usually referred to as "last minutes."

To change this would mean saying "no" much more often. I could, but I'm not sure I want to. I may be freaked out, but I am rarely bored.

Zen Monday: #90

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. Unless I absolutely must say something I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion (because when I get in there everything goes down hill).

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.

The Dignity of the Canine Form

Sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

Boz at the Jardin de la Maison d'Ebtre.

Sweet Old Ride

No, you're not seeing Glimpses of South Pasadena. But that's not a bad idea.

When I lived in Illinois I rarely saw cars like this. Harsh winters make them so impractical as to render them impossible. But here in southern California we see them all the time.

I'm no car expert and I don't know what make or model this one is. Do you?

Pardon Me, My Dander is Showing

So where are they planning to put the soccer fields?

This might be a good spot. A nice little forest stood here in Hahamongna before the January flood when I took these photos. There's still water flowing more than three months later and the area's been pretty well leveled. Hey! Flat enough for a soccer field!

Maybe they're thinking of putting soccer fields here. Nice view, huh?

This, too, could work, once the flood debris has been removed.

Of course we'll have to rebuild our soccer fields every few years, depending on how often the watershed basin floods--which I grant you is unpredictable. But I ask you: where else can we possibly put soccer fields?

Anywhere.

We can put soccer fields just about anywhere.

Hahamongna is a rare gem. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Soccer fields are fine. But they don't have to be built in an environmentally sensitive watershed. (What part of "watershed" does Pasadena Staff not understand?)

I'm surprised we have to keep fighting for this place, but we do. And we're not fighting other citizens. We're not fighting the Hahamongna Advisory Committee. We're not even fighting City Council.

We're fighting "Pasadena Staff."

Who are these people? To whom do they report? Why do they keep resurfacing, like a hungry monster that won't go away, and attempting to devour Hahamongna? What is their agenda?

Please go to SaveHahamongna.org and read the survey that shows what a teeny, tiny minority of Pasadena citizens feels a pressing need for more soccer fields. Then click on "Sign the Petition" to read more reasons to save Hahamongna. As of this writing there are 25 pages of signatures, including some interesting names.

Then please sign the petition. Future generations will thank us.

Theme Day: Red

You would think "red" would be easy, but as soon as that theme was declared I began to see only the most mundane of red things: a car, a faded shirt, a candy wrapper (but the candy was good).

I was relieved when I saw this wheelbarrow because I didn't want to take a picture of just any old red thing.

But a wheelbarrow IS just any old red thing, you say.

Not when it's standing on a 100-year-old path in the Desert Garden at the Huntington Library and Gardens, I say, and especially not when that quiet path isn't open to the public.

There are nearly 1200 City Daily Photo Blogs across the globe. Click here to see how others have participated in today's theme.

Last Day, March 2010

Every time I take one of these Last Day photos I think, "This project was a crazy idea. The view is the same every time." Then I compare the shot to the others and I'm amazed how a place that supposedly has no seasons can change so much in so little time.

Johnson Field is looking a bit shaggy. I love that.

Click the Last Day Project tag below to see them all and compare.

Busy, Work

Forgive me if I'm short on copy for the next couple of days or if my photos bear scant relation to my words. I'm busy busy busy sprucing up my presentation for this Thursday, April 1st, and setting a bad example for myself.

If I haven't already bugged--uh, mentioned it to you, I'm leading a salon at the Pasadena Women's City Club called "Blogging for Your Business: Ten Tips for Putting Your Best Cyberfoot Forward." I hope you'll be there.

If you plan to come, be sure and make a reservation so the Club knows which room to put us in and the kitchen knows to prepare enough appetizers. I want to be damn sure we have enough appetizers.

I think this truck bed makes for an interesting photo but I'm not sure a blog is what this guy needs.

Reservations: (626) 796-0560 or wccpas@sbcglobal.net.
The Women's City Club is at the edge of the Fuller Theological Seminary campus, 160 N. Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. There's free parking in the rear. Enter the second driveway south of Walnut on Madison on the west side of the street. Dress is business casual. Men are welcome. $6 charge includes those appetizers. Come as early as 6pm for cash bar and networking. Salon begins at 7pm.

Zen Monday: #89

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. Unless I absolutely must say something I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion (because when I get in there everything goes down hill).

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.

Sunday Plans

Sometimes the best plans are no plans at all.

What are your plans for today?

The Market Itself

My old Nissan, fondly nicknamed "the Snot Comet" (don't ask), finally took a nose dive. I am between cars. This temporarily makes me and John a one-car family, which wouldn't be difficult anywhere but here in soCal.

I enjoy a good walk for local errands. We have the ARTS bus for getting around town if I need to go further afield. The Gold Line will be getting us to and from Azusa within a mere four years. (Of course most of my driving takes me in the other direction and public transportation takes a tad less than four years to get me where I need to go, but only a tad.)

John and I have been taking turns with the car. It's working out. (Good thing it's temporary.)

But

One thing I keep having to miss, schedule-wise, is the Saturday Farmer's Market. This is a horrible, terrible, dire problem. Grocery store fruits and vegetables are not the same. I don't care what store you get them from, they're not as good. We've managed without them, but we suffer. I am not managing, however, without granola from The Sconeage. Lionel's company makes such superb granola that I've become addicted to it. I am miserable without it.

My stash had run out. Last week I was craving my granola and lo and behold! Friend Bellis called from the Farmer's Market and offered to pick up four containers to tide me over! Bless her!

I still owe her five bucks.

Now that I've found The Sconeage website I realize I can order online, but that is beside the point.

Superfluous Detail: The Singer Building

When I need a dose of superfluity all I have to do is check out the almost unnoticed Singer Building on the southeast corner of Colorado Blvd. and Oakland Avenue.

Everett Phipps Babcock designed the Spanish Colonial Revival structure for the Singer Sewing Company. It was built in 1926 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The current main tenant is the Pasadena branch of Sofa U Love, which may not seem dignified at first glance but it's better than an empty landmark. Another furniture store that occupied the building went out of business not long ago, so I'm glad to see the sofa place there.

Colorful tiles line the street below the windows. Iron filigree decorates above. Then you have these "somewhat ornate" columns outside the front door. I even like the cracks and rust. It's gems like this that make Pasadena charming.

We do have ugly office buildings. I just don't often photograph them!

UPDATE 3/27: Further information thanks to Laurie Barlow, AIA: The Singer Corporation made/makes more than sewing machines. In the early days of the company, corporation presidents made lots of money and built incredible homes. Laurie says "On Saturday [today] there is a public sale of arts and antiques at the house [see "incredible homes" link]. In case anyone wants to go over and see the house and browse the arts and antiques."

Pasadena Architectural Salvage

I love my house. Someday, however, I want to replace the front door. When I do that I won't want just any old door. I'll want an old door from Pasadena Architectural Salvage.

Every time I visit there's something new to be delighted by. I picture a wrought iron gate re-imagined as wall sculpture. I envision a pair of reclaimed columns in my garden with vines trailing down along their peeling paint. I wonder if those antique light fixtures would work in our kitchen or if the glass drawer pulls would spruce up our built-ins.

When I perused the website I discovered this sentence on the home page: "We welcome children and pets!" Boz likes architectural salvage. We have an outing planned.

The store will soon be moving to a new location. I got myself on the mailing list so I can let you know about it. When you visit, proprietor Gayle Stoner will answer your questions, but don't let her fool you. Kitty is in charge.

561

Yesterday's birthday didn't turn out like I thought it would. We picnicked at Vasquez Rocks Monday because I thought John had to work on Tuesday. I figured, on my actual birthday I'd do a little writing, have a nice walk with Boz and clean up the pile on my desk (forget it, that'll never happen).

Surprise! John took Tuesday off. I got a two-day birthday and the second day was entirely serendipitous. We had no idea where it would lead us but we started out hungry, so we headed to Green Street because I knew we'd find something there.

Restaurant 561. Of course. I've driven by many times and always wanted to try it. What a revelation. I don't know of anywhere else--anywhere else--where you can find this kind of dining for this kind of price. Everything was fabulous from soup to nuts--or in this case, from the amuse-bouche (compressed watermelon with...I think it was basil sauce with garlic chips but whatever it was, mmmmmm!) to the "roasted pine nut dust" on the chocolate mousse--and we got out of there for about thirty bucks with tip--which goes to a scholarship fund.

Restaurant 561, at 561 E. Green Street, is the teaching restaurant of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Los Angeles which has campuses in Hollywood and Pasadena. Click on the links to learn more.

As a patron I couldn't have been happier in any restaurant, teaching or not. This was delicious food, beautifully presented and served. Even the coffee was tops; John kept exclaiming about it.

Update:
I'm adding a photo because Susan C asked about the entrees.
Plus, why not?

Tomorrow I'll show you another place we visited on my birthday: one of Pasadena's most eclectic shops.

It Takes Years to Make One of These

Sometimes I need to let my lungs expand into wider spaces than city streets can hold, let my eyes rest on something other than what they see day in and day out, and give my ears some alone time.

Vasquez Rocks is named for Tiburcio Vasquez, a nineteenth-century outlaw who used the rocks as a hideout and even reportedly passed through Pasadena. The park was a good place for eyes and lungs and legs to go do something different yesterday.

John and I ate a picnic among the rocks, climbed into the wind and wore ourselves out.

Today's my birthday. I'm living the life I love. What good fortune I have to be grateful for!

Zen Monday: #88

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And unless I absolutely must say something I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion, because when I get in there everything goes downhill.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.