And So It Begins (Again)

Sometime last year, in the middle of the year, my friend Alison Lewis and I did the first interview for Volume 3 of The Lamplighters history. I kind of thought we would then start doing regular interviews until we had compiled enough material, but that didn't happen. There were work conflicts and time conflicts and communication mix-ups.

So several months passed with nothing happening on the book. I was getting frustrated and a month or so ago threatened to back out of the project entirely. But of course I wouldn't do that and today we had our second interview.

It was kind of an interesting morning. I knew that I had a dental appointment tomorrow but didn't realize that I had another dental appointment today. Today's was cleaning, tomorrow's was prep for a crown to fix the tooth that I broke on a piece of popcorn sometime before Thanksgiving.

My plan had been to leave for the interview at 9 a.m., and fortunately the dental appointment was at 8, so I figured I could do both without problem. I packed up so I could leave right from Cindy's office and head to San Francisco.

It was a good appointment. The results of my work on the newly purchased Sonicare toothbrush have made a noticeable improvement and the hygienist seemed pleased. But midway through the cleaning she was surprised when I suddenly jerked and let out a sound of surprise. She apologized for hurting me and I told her that wasn't it at all. I had been lying there thinking about the upcoming interview and suddenly realized that I'd left my tape recorder at home. Whew. Thank goodness for the dental appointment, or I might have been halfway to San Francisco before I remembered, if that.

I stopped back at the house, loaded the recorder with new batteries, and continued my voyage to San Francisco. We were meeting at Lamplighters World Headquarters.

The only problem is that parking is always a problem. There is no free parking in the area, and paid parking is ridiculously expensive. I parked in a lot where I got 3 hours for $10. The parking meters in front of the office would have cost about the same amount and involved keeping an eye on the clock.

But the interview was such fun, and brought back a lot of happy memories, as well as learning about stuff I didn't know. Like I didn't know that they learned about losing the theatre they'd performed in for decades while in the middle of a rehearsal for a show that we to open in two weeks. Some authority person interrupted rehearsal to ask what they were doing there. When assured that they were supposed to be there, he told them that NOBODY was supposed to be in the building and that they were tearing out walls and would be flooding the air with asbestos particles.

Within two weeks they had to find another theatre and notify all the people who had tickets to opening night at Presentation Theatre that they needed to find the new place. Another saga in the continuing story of how this theatre company has lasted for sixty years despite all sorts of really bizarre set-backs!

The interview renewed my enthusiasm for the project and I've already begun setting up new interviews for the next few months. It would be nice to get a lot done before Walt and I leave for China and Alison becomes a grandmother. Twice.

After the interview, Alison and I went to our usual spot, Denny's in Emeryville, for lunch and to talk over our plans for the coming weeks/months. We were seated by the waitress, who, with a flourish, proudly gave us a card with all of the specials, about four of them. One was a turkey and stuffing sandwich, which sounded very good. Another was a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

Alison and I both decided on the sandwich and ordered it. The waitress aid "Oh--we don't have any turkey." I asked her why she had given us the special menu without saying anything. "But we have the other things on the menu," she replied, not seeming to get my point, even though I brought it up twice.

We ended up with a steak burrito and lots of ideas for where we go from here with the book project.

Tomorrow it's back to the dentist again. But no interview afterwards.

Thursday Thirteen

Favorite Judy Garland Movies
1. A Star Is Born
2. I Could Go On Singing
3. Summer Stock
4. Meet Me In St. Louis
5. Presenting Lily Mars
6. A Child is Waiting
7. In the Good Old Summertime
8. Easter Parade
9. Me and My Gal
10. The Clock
11. The Harvey Girls
12. Babes in Arms
13. Wizard of Oz

My O.W.N.

I am assuming it was with great hoopla that the new Oprah Winfrey Network started at the first of the year, but I had been blissfully unaware of the approaching debut until it was actually a reality.

This is probably because I was never a huge Oprah fan. I watched her daily for a long time, but when Ellen started they were both on at the same time here, so I started watching Ellen.

Then I od'd on daytime talk shows completely.

A lot of Oprah's shows just didn't resonate with me. The fashion shows and the make-up or make-over shows didn't do much for me. The diet shows made me feel guilty. And the "My Favorite Things" shows were just excess to...well...excess. The "Oprah acts like a real person" shows (where she would do things like camping with friend Gail) showed the bad side of Ms. Oprah and made me uncomfortable. It was like watching Queen Elizabeth trying to shop at Covent Garden and not really knowing what should be in that purse she carries all the time.

I still watch an Oprah or an Ellen now and then when it looks interesting, but mostly my afternoon background television is either one of the Law & Order marathons, NCIS or Criminal Minds. (I tried House marathons and much as I love the program, a whole afternoon of Gregory House is just a little too much negativity for me).

I knew that Oprah was in the middle of her last season, but I hadn't heard about her starting her own network. (I am remember Chris Rock at the Kennedy Center honors joking about how "the most powerful person in the world" was sitting next to Barrack Obama...probably more true than most people realize!)

To be able to view the OWN you first have to have an extended cable connection. Fortunately we do, so I was able to check out some of the offerings. I have to admit that I will probably watch some of them sometime.

I enjoyed the "behind the scenes at Oprah's 25th season," though it gave a picture of a powerful woman with a short fuse and a need for perfection. Her staff obviously loves her; I think I would feel very uncomfortable working in the inner circle. However, how can I stop watching when the next show will go behind the scenes with guest star Liza Minnelli.

I might tune on once or twice on Enough is Enough, where Peter Walsh helps families get rid of clutter. But when I'm sitting in a room that actually has floor space in it it lessens the urgency of de-cluttering for me.

In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman looks like it should shock everybody with her frank advice to couples having "intimacy issues," though in the comment section of the network web page, someone posted a comment (deleted by the time I went back to find it) complaining that very graphic language was used to promo the show while her children were around. (The particular show was about a woman who could only climax against a plastic laundry basket...which certainly adds a new dimension to doing the laundry!)

There are other shows which look like fun, including "Master Class," which sounds like it would be more a one-on-one interview between Oprah and a famous name. I might watch some of those.

But the one show that I watched all of was a show called Anna and Kristina's Grocery Bag which seems to be two friends checking out cookbooks by making things from the book on camera. In the episode I watched, they had decided to make a French dinner from Julia Child's "The Art of French Cooking." They obviously bit off more than they could chew (just as I would have). The main course was to be a stuffed duck in a pastry crust. They had invited a French chef to come and critique their menu.

The show reminded me of something Char and I might have done when we were younger.

When the dinner was all ready, the French chef got a glass of wine and cut himself a piece of duck. When they asked him if it tasted right, he got the giggles and all he could do was shake his head, drink his wine and keep laughing "no...no..."

I loved it. I will watch to see what else this duo is going to try.

So it looks like O.W.N. is off to a good start. It will be interesting to see if this becomes as successful as everything else she has touched in the last 25 years

Walking to China

Now I don't want anybody to get excited or to expect that I was establishing a precedent or anything, but I started cleaning house today.

We removed the puppy fence the day the puppies left and last night Walt took down the "upstairs apartment" (the smaller cage that sat on top of the large cage). All that empty space was an inspiration and I started folding towels so I could clear out the playpen and fold it up.

I tried fitting the playpen into our little closet in the family room, but was having a hard time, so Walt took over, removed most things from the closet and managed to get all the tubs of towels and the folded up playpen all into the closet, which left this wonderful space.

I also removed all the barriers that we had put up to keep puppies from peeing on the treadmill.

When I finally finished this is what happened.

Yes, I actually got up on the treadmill and turned it on. I didn't exactly set any speed records or distance records, but I did put in about 10-15 minutes walking and that certain seems to be a decent start on, as Jeri puts it, "walking to China."

Our friend Suellyn (from the Russia trip) asked if I was getting in shape to climb the Great Wall.

Walking on the treadmill, or outside somewhere, to quote W.S. Gilbert, "revolts me, but I do it." I wish I liked exercise but at the very least I can work on tolerating it to make life easier for me when we go to China. I suspect there will be more walking on this trip than we had in Russia.

Incidentally, I started reading a book called "Listening to Van Gogh," which is a poorly written book, but is a good one to read before this trip because it's about some retired people who take a boat trip down the river in Southern France. It's our Russia trip meets our France trip. I'm finding the activity on the boat remarkably similar and when they start doing side trips into river cities I suspect I will have lots of nice memories of the France portion of our trip two years ago as well (and should bring back enough unpleasant memories that it should keep me on the treadmill as well).

If I can just get past the rotten dialog. This book is a good example of why I don't write fiction...this is the kind of dialog I would probably write!

A Mash-Up

With the advent of social media, and especially smart phones which allow you to let all 1000 of your friends know where you are at any given time (I think there's even an app for the iPhone which automatically keeps track of your whereabouts and publishes it to your friends in case, you know, you never ever want to be private again in your entire life), people started having things called mash-ups. They may be called something else, but I remember mash-ups.

A mash-up is where you let all 1000 of your closest friends know that you're going to be at Joe's pizza (or, perhaps, are already there), and you invite everybody to come and meet you there, if they are in the neighborhood. Presumably people in other states or countries ignore these kinds of notifications.

It matters not whether you actually KNOW the people you've invited. Presumably when someone enters Joe's pizza with a smart phone in his/her hand and begins looking around the room, you will find each other.

It all sounds like a lot of fun (unless, of course, you remember that there are bad guys on the net who now know that you are not at home and that you are a person with electronic gear so you probably are a good target for a home invasion robbery. But let that pass.)

To my great surprise today, I created a small local mash-up.

I suggested to Walt that we go and see The King's Speech which was finally playing in Davis. Last year, you may recall, we saw a whopping three movies all year and I thought that if we saw one in the first couple of days of January, we might actuall see more movies in 2011...like maybe four or...gasp...even five.

Anyway, we went down to the theatre but the garage seemed to be full and we found a line of people waiting to buy tickets.

OK, so it's a wimpy line and you probably stood behind more people in your supermarket, but it was a line. True, True Grit, The Fighter and Little Fockers, all current blockbusters were also playing but this being Davis, and given the age of the crowd, I was betting this crowd wasn't there to see True Grit. I stood at the head of the line and eavesdropped and learned that the theatre wasn't completely sold out and that there were still some seats near the front.

I did that. Once. Sat in the front row of a movie theatre. It was for The Empire Strikes Back back in the 1980s and the kids wanted to see it. But I vowed I'd never do it again.

I suggested to Walt that we buy tickets for the 4:30 showing, and we did. This gave us the opportunity to go to the store, and then relax at home for an hour and a half. I posted a Facebook status report that we had tried to see the movie but had bought tickets for a later showing.

Not wanting to risk not getting a seat the second time, we went very early and I got my favorite seats in the house and sat there, watching the theatre fill up. It was lucky that we went early because the line for the later show extended to the corner.

Shortly before they started showing previews, my friends Evelyn and Anne came in. Apparently Evelyn had read my status report, had called to make sure there were still seats available, called Anne to ask if she wanted to join her and they were able to sit next to us for the film. What fun! My first mash-up.

As for the movie, it left me speechless and teary-eyed. What a fabulous movie. Even grumpy old Derrick (former boss, current movie reviewer) gave it 5 stars and he rarely does that. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are just amazing. I can't gush enough about the film.

After dinner, we went next door to the Thai restaurant for dinner, so I didn't even have to cook. All things considered a real winner of a day!

And now everybody, go see The King's Speech. I probably won't be there, but create your own mash-up.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

New Year's Day is the day when traditionally people veg out in front of the television and gorge on either football or NCIS marathons. I had the NCIS marathon going in my office while Walt had football in the family room. I decided to read a book, climbed into my recliner with a blanket and a chihuahua and started to veg out. I made it through not one, but two football games without seeing much of either. I woke up from my first nap long enough to realize that it had really tired me out and what I needed was another nap. I woke up from my second nap shortly before the end of the Rose Bowl and it took an hour to come to life enough for me to cook dinner.

I had no nachos or other traditional football day fare, but I definitely was a couch potato.

I'm not sure why I was so tired. It's not like I'd partied hearty last night. We went to a friend's house, as we do each year. There are maybe a dozen or a few more there. We have fabulous homemade soup and sit around talking. I learn lots about theatre, movies and televison each year, and it's always so much fun to play "the name game," where we all put names of famous people (real or fictitious), divide into teams, and then sit around trying to give clues to our team members so they can guess them. Like charades, but you can talk...in fact must talk.

We played the game for about an hour and a half, using up all the leftover names from last year, and then it was 5 minutes to midnight. We gathered around the TV and watched Ryan Seacrest prop up Dick Clark for another year, toasted each other and 2011 (I didn't even have champagne, but toasted with a large glass of ice water) and we were home by 12:15.

I slept fairly well, all things considered, and was up around 7:30. And then spent the whole day sleeping. Obviously I'm doing some sort of catch up. I started writing this around 9:30 p.m. but then took a break for another short nap before finishing it. Of course as I sit here writing, I'm not feeling all that well, so it's either some bad Omaha Steak hamburger or maybe all this sleeping means I'm getting sick. I hope it's the former.

During my brief moments of awake time this afternoon, I was aware that Walt was talking with his sister on the telephone, and later with his mother. The three Sykes kids have always been close, but I've watched them draw closer to each other during these past few years, dealing with the problems of their aging mother.

I got the pang that I get, not often, but occasionally. It's one thing to be an only child; it's another to have a sibling and then lose her.

Peach is fond of reminding me how lucky I am because I still have a mother, while she and Kathy do not. I never mention that both of my cousins have sisters (and Kathy also has a brother) and I haven't had a sibling for forty years.

Karen and I were never close, and she was murdered when she was 24 years old, but who knew what might have happened if we could have grown older together. We did share many interests, which sometimes was the cause of our differences, but maybe as we got older we would have shared experiences rather than tried to hide them.

It's difficult to imagine her as 63 years old. That's Peggy's age. It's difficult to imagine Karen being Peggy's age. But sometimes it would be nice to have someone to share the closeness that Walt and his siblings have together, especially as we approach whatever is going to come as my mother's memory problems worsen.

I'm going to have to end this entry. I am either going to have to go back to sleep, or lose my dinner. Or perhaps both.

Sorry for being so graphic!

Dogs of 2010

I did this recap for the last couple of years and thought I'd do it again...a year-end list of all the dogs who were with us in 2010.

	Polly was the first foster to arrive in 2010, on January 1. On January 1, 2011 she is still here. I think every single day about adopting her. When she is good, she is very, very good. Unfortunately, when she is annoying, she is very, very annoying.
	Spencer arrived just 2 weeks later. The two dogs became great friends, but just got into too much trouble together, so Spencer was finally moved
	I gave them names: Star, Ozzie and Red. They were at the shelter, and their bodies were cold when I picked them up, no more than 2 days old. I tried to warm them up and get food into them, but they were just too little to survive and all 3 died within a day. Red (whom I named because his mouth was bright red) was the last to die, and died lying on my chest, under a blanket. At least he was warm, and could feel my heart beat. That makes it easier for me to remember, though it's never easy to lose one of these little guys.
	Xena arrived with her two puppies, Itsy and Bitsy at the end of April. She was a great Mom, but fiercely protective of the puppies and didn't like being around all these other dogs, so we eventually moved her and the pups. The pups came back later for a few weeks.
	Emmy arrived May 7. She was a demodex dog, who looked kind of moth-eaten when she arrived, but she responded well the medicine and was looking good in no time. She was a sweetie.
	Itsy and Bitsy returned at the end of May, after they had weaned. It was fun having the puppies around, and without Mom here, they enjoyed playing with the other dogs.
	Basil was a 6 week old pit bull puppy, who came just the day before we left for Russia (but Ashley was dog-sitting, so that was OK). I called him Basil because we were going to be at St. Basil's church soon. He was gone by the time we returned from Russia.
	Capuccino was another sweet little chihuahua, who arrived in July and who got along well with Polly, but her coloring made her desirable for adoption and she wasn't here long. She found a great forever home!
	Shiloh arrived August 7, at about 6 mos of age, with a broken leg, and became BFF with Polly. He was here long enough to become part of the family and long enough that when he was finally adopted we could feel the difference it made in the house...much calmer! He was really a sweetheart, but the longer he was here, the more oats he began to feel and had become a real handful
	Bella was really a beautiful Boston Bull Terrier (possibly purebred), who came in late August with her puppy, Buttercup. Mom wasn't here all that long and was adopted quickly. Buttercup stayed behind for awhile.
	We're not sure where Buttercup came from, since she looked NOTHING like her mother. But she was a real sweetie. She was with us until October.
	And then, of course, there were the Andrews puppies, left to right Laverne, Patty and Max. They've been gone 2 days, as of this writing...and yes, I miss them!

I said I was going to take a little break from fostering...except for Polly, of course. We'll see how long that resolve lasts!

And btw, if you're curious about PostCrossing, I've put up a blog about the cards I've received so far. (Just because I don't have enough blogs already!)