no gilmore girls for me this week

Garrett's school encourages us to participate in the annual "No TV Week". It is a great excuse for us to do some things we don't normally do. Last night we worked on a new paint by numbers (a cool rocketship picture). Garrett learned to blow a bubble with his gum! This is a huge feat for any kid - and he has been trying for awhile. He and I had a burping contest - he won but I came close. (Yes Mom, I told him that when you come to visit today that if we burp we have to just say 'excuse me'. No whooping & hollering, no victory dances). Another highlight was that he & I spent a ton of time taking turns reading poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends. That was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. In 2004 they published a 30th Anniversary edition (which I gave him for Christmas that year). It is really satisfying to sit with him & read these poems that meant so much to me when I was a kid. Most of the poems are pretty silly but a few are sad (remember the one with the kid who collects all sorts of things & people just call it junk). Then Garrett & I talked about how poems can be happy or sad, serious or silly or anything in between.


I am a realist & I know that completely giving up TV won't work (Garrett & I both like it too much) but not watching it this week is a good reminder to save time for the rest of things that go on in life. (And before you tisk tisk me, TV watching is limited on both how much & what shows Garrett can watch. We read together most every night. Do homework together & usually take a walk together each night besides bike riding, card playing, lego building, park exploring & the like). So there...
And even after Garrett goes to bed, I feel like I need to stick with the no TV plan as well. No Gilmore Girls or Dodger games for me this week. When Garrett goes to his Dad's this weekend all bets are off though. Bring on The Sopranos & Big Love. I do not have TiVo (I know, how do I survive?) so I am at the mercy of airdates.

parents never lie

Garrett lost another tooth! It was his first upper front tooth. I've been joking with him, saying that he has 'summer teeth'. Some are there and some are not. He doesn't always appreciate the depth of my hilariousness.


We put the tooth in a 'fancy velvet pouch' (a freebie I got with some fake pearls) to hide under his pillow & off to sleep he goes. I realize I don't have any dollar bills - just a roll of quarters - my laundry money. I count out $3.00 in quarters (the lower front teeth were worth $2.00 each but I figure that upper front teeth have to be worth more). I swap out the tooth for the money & replace the velvet pouch under the pillow. When I woke up the next morning Garrett was in my bed. He has learned that if he wakes me up when he tries to come into my room, he'll get sent back to his bed. He has honed his sneaky skills and is now quite stealth on his middle of the night missions. I woke him up and asked him if the tooth fairy came. He sleepily said 'no' then got this 'ah ha' look on his face & reached under his pillow (he brings his pillow on his stealth missions to my room) & brought out the velvet pouch. I thought it was so funny that he brought the pouch along on his mission, but didn't wake up enough to want to peak inside in the middle of the night. He made three piles of four quarters & told me he got three dollars! Later he found a stray quarter so now he thinks the tooth fairy brought him $3.25, but really, he got three bucks even.


So while he was getting dressed for school & I was brushing my teeth, Garrett was telling me how his friends at school were saying that the Tooth Fairy & Santa weren't real. I rinsed & spit, then asked him what he thought of that. He said "Mom, I told my friends that there was NO way your parents would lie to you. That is why the Tooth Fairy and Santa have to be real".

barry bonds booed at dodger stadium... again

A last minute invitation on Friday night offering free tickets to the game was a pleasant surprise. The rain wasn't a deterrent with the free ticket offer either - even if the Dodgers were playing the Giants. I usually try to avoid the big rivalry games because lame Dodger fans are just that much lamer when the Giants are in town. But free tickets (especially nice loge seats above the visitors dugout) are free tickets...


So after a nearly two hour rain delay, the field was uncovered & the players take the field to warm up. As soon as Bonds makes an appearance, I notice a guy sitting nearby, flipping Bonds the bird (both hands). Notice above in my Bonds photo, how far away he is from us in the Loge section? What was Mister Double Bird Flipper thinking? No class. And it made me relieved that my seven year old son wasn't there to witness the bad sportsmanship that seems to sum up a lot of the Dodger fan base. Look, I am not square & I have a mouth that can make a sailor blush, but I just think a baseball game isn't the place for it.

Believe me, I get it... all the recent scandal with Bonds & steroids. And really I hate to see Ruth's & Aaron's records busted by someone hopped on up steroids. But I think that this scandal is ever so convenient for the noisy & drunk Dodger fan who gets off on booing. Booing & chanting "Giants suck, Giants suck..." anytime they aren't off getting another beer or being distracted by the countless beach balls being tossed around. I really hate the beach ball scene. Though as much as I hate the beach balls, I will admit that when the folks in the left field pavilion were tossing around an inflatable pill bottle Friday night, I cracked-up. I do have a sense of humor along with my good sportsmanship leanings & my corny idea that you go to a game to watch the game & not watch beach balls.

Here's another example of lame Dodger fans: We LOVED Shawn Green - loved him. He gets traded to Arizona (he didn't even want to get traded). Now every time Green comes back with the Diamondbacks to Dodger stadium, he gets booed & heckled like you wouldn't believe. At that point I started hoping that Shawn gets hits just to upset the dimwitted Dodger fans.

Back to Bonds... For the record I was not rooting for him to get a hit & I did think he may have needed a cane out there in left field. But I wasn't going to make a scene about it.


Good sportsmanship: Vin Scully gets it. He can compliment an opposing teams great play. He can be a Dodger fan and still have class. All in all though, the rain & then the rain delay kept away a lot of the usual Dodger fan riff raff. It was fun to be at the stadium watching a game after midnight... Yeah, yeah, yeah, Dodgers lost.

dyeing brown eggs makes for some interesting and not so pastel colors

So, oh at just about 5:00pm on Tuesday evening I was finishing up at work & I realized that since Garrett will be at his Dad's on Easter weekend, that I better hop to it (pun intended) & get the egg dyeing underway. I figured out our schedule: Tuesday night - hard boil the eggs, Wednesday night - color the eggs. (G is with his Dad Thursday through Sunday). I made a quick grocery list for supplies needed: vinegar, food coloring (I have not attempted to use 'natural dyes' using beets & such - someday), eggs... No I just bought eggs last weekend so we're good on eggs.

I get Garrett off to bed Tuesday evening & get some water on the stove to boil. At about 10:00pm I take the eggs out of the fridge & suddenly remember 'The eggs are brown!' The organic, cage free eggs I have are BROWN & may not work so well if you are trying to make pastel colored eggs. After the involuntary 'Oh crap' I quickly move on to "Garrett will understand that we are going to call this dyeing brown egg thing, our 'Easter experiment 2006'". And thankfully Garrett rolled along with it. When I told him Wednesday morning about our egg 'situation', he was just gung ho to know that we'd be dyeing eggs later that night.

We got going on the dyeing & I think they turned out pretty cool. Definitely not your typical easter pastel, but some groovy colors. Oh & it was G's decision to not do anything tricky with the egg dyeing. He wanted to just simply dye them - one color. Sometimes simple is better.

thank you mr. terry zwigoff

Last night I was lucky enough to see the new Daniel Clowes/Terry Zwigoff movie: Art School Confidential. Really enjoyable - definitely recommend. I am somewhat newer to the comic world - unless you count my long time subscription to the East Village Inky - a zine that has some hilaaarious drawings throughout each issue. Anyhoo, besides the Daniel Clowes element, Terry Zwigoff directs. I really liked the three other Zwigoff flicks I've seen: Crumb, Ghost World & Bad Santa.

So the climax to the evening was a Q & A with Mr. Terry Zwigoff himself. Now I have been to other Q & A's before & the one thing you can always count on is that most of the people asking the questions have nothing to say - they just like getting to talk in front of a captive audience - schmucks! Before it starts, the emcee announces that the Q & A will be taped for the DVD release. I rolled my eyes & grabbed my friends arm & said "Lovely, now people will ask more inane questions". Mr. Zwigoff started off with this great story about a Q & A at Sundance & how people are indeed dumb in these circumstances. Then he said something like 'The smart people always keep quiet'. I thought it was brilliant & perhaps he was doing some verbal crowd control because for the most part people seemed to be on their best/smartest behavior with the questions/comments.

I had wanted to include a picture of the poster for the movie (the one with the Clowes illustration) - but couldn't find any... Apparently they aren't making them available - yet? Maybe when the movie opens in May.

Irrelevant side note: Today at work in the client parking lot was a convertible BMW with a license plate that read "BONG".

seven year old artist

Garrett's second grade class has been studying art. He brought home the picture shown above & I was pleased as punch. I told him I really dug it & asked if I could hang it up at work (he obliged). Then he deadpanned, "Mom, it is Abstract Expressionism". Another satisfying parental moment...

dear mr. jeff koons...

Garrett (my seven year old son) & I spent a recent afternoon at MOCA intending to see the Masters of American Comics exhibit. He wasn't as into the comic exhibit as I had expected (though I really dug getting to see all this original artwork from: Harvey Kurtzman, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman & Chris Ware among others). Garrett did however really like a lot of the contemporary art. It was a very satisfying parental moment - having a conversation with him about what he liked & didn't like & why. We both picked the same painting as 'our favorite of the day'. I wish I would have written down the artists name & the title of the painting. It was this lovely painting of a birds nest with three robin eggs - the perfect shade of blue. Leaning against the nest was a pair of brass knuckles. I'll get a hold of MOCA & find out who painted such a lovely picture. Note: kids under twelve are FREE - adults only eight bucks, though I really should purchase a membership...

After checking out the museum, we head to the museum shop. I was stunned to find a Jeff Koons 'Balloon Dog' for sale. No, not the original perfectly massive, room-sized version, but a miniature $600.00 limited number, Balloon Dog (blue). I sort of lost my breath for a moment...


See 'Rabbit' is actually my favorite Jeff Koons piece. I was lucky enough to catch the "Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collection" at LACMA back when Garrett was around three years of age. This was his first trip to an art museum. Seeing the massive scale of 'Balloon Dog' right in front of me that day, made me feel relieved. Relieved because I knew that I would never have a space in any home I would ever live in that would have enough room for 'Balloon Dog'. As if the size alone (nevermind the price - ha) would keep me from this piece of art. Relief came from knowing I could just cross that piece of art off of my "need to have" list. And then I saw 'Rabbit'...



'Rabbit' is obtainable - size wise anyway. It stands about three feet tall. Do-able. Wouldn't fit in with my ikea/pottery barn "decor" but size-wise it would fit. I left feeling quite sad that I would never have a 'Rabbit' of my own. And I have thought ever since that Mr. Jeff Koons should make miniature versions of these pieces. They would both fit in a regular home & be affordable (cough).

So there I am in the MOCA giftshop staring at what I had dreamt of all these years... And I started thinking... What could I hock so that I could buy my own 'Balloon Dog'. Me, a normally rational & tight purse stringed single Mom trying to figure out some way to take this baby home - now - today! Wrap it up in your schmancy MOCA gift bag & hand it over. It took me a day or so to get over it. And just to help get it out of my system, I did watch a couple of auctions on eBay for the same limited edition 'Balloon Dog'. All going for mid fives to six hundred. Oh, any sugar daddies out there reading this: You now know the way to my heart. It is not diamonds or gold - it is a pretty little stainless steel piece of perfection.

Addendum: since the dust has settled after my not impulsive but wanted to be impulsive time in the MOCA gift store... I have decided that $600.00 'Balloon Dog' no longer tempts me. I am on the look out for a miniature version of 'Rabbit'. Oh please oh please Mr. Koons - won't you tempt me & my budget?

dodger blue turns hospital scrub green

I made some cookies in honor of the Dodgers home opener & ran out of blue food coloring while making the frosting. Shifted my efforts to a turquoise color, instead ended up with a "scrubs" green. The pukey green color did not affect the taste though. My cream cheese frosting has been perfected after a few tries.

Confessional: I went & saw the movie "Stoned" about former Rolling Stones member Brian Jones (RIP). I liked it okay. Though I really could have done without the White Stripes song in the middle of the flick. I mean the movie took place in the sixties! (I know - White Stripes were covering a song from the era but still - couldn't they just play the original?). And am I the only one who is tired of the everywhere you turn White Stripes? But back to my confessional: Movie ends, credits start rolling & the man a few rows in front of me decides to stand for all of the credits. I know I am a bit of a weirdo - wanting to watch/read the credits - but c'mon, this is Los Angeles - a lot of folks read the credits. I didn't want to make a scene in the theater so I just sat there seething. When I left the theater, 'stand up during credits man' held the door for me. I should have let it go - traded my anger at his being inconsiderate & accepted his chivalry. I should have. I didn't. Instead I said something like 'it was very inconsiderate of you to stand up during the end credits'. Which made 'block my view guy' a wee bit defensive. He countered with 'you could have moved over a few seats'. Followed by me saying that "I shouldn't have to". Our conversation ended on Santa Monica Blvd. with us both not so nicely telling eachother to 'have a nice night'! So here's the deal... I feel bad for speaking up. I mean, it was inconsiderate of him, but I dunno; it isn't my job to help this fellow become a better person. I mean, I have a seven year old kid. And it is my job to help my son be a considerate person. I didn't flip out or scream at 'block my view guy'. Things remained calm, but still. Perhaps biting my tongue would have been better.

New news: I am flying to Indiana next month to see George Jones again. After missing out so narrowly on seeing Buck Owens again last week, I figured I'd better get going to see George Jones again. OH $^%#! Look what a friend just emailed me:

Jones Hospitalized in Nashville
Fri. March 31.2006 11:12 AM EST

George Jones was hospitalized on Thursday afternoon (March 30) at Baptist Hospital in Nashville for pneumonia. He is resting comfortably and is expected to make a full recovery, and his doctors wanted to take all necessary precautions, according to a statement from his publicist. The singer's weekend performances scheduled for Albany, Ga, Panama City, Fla., and Chattanooga, Tenn., are being rescheduled.


Thinking about George Jones reminds me of this Johnny Cash interview. Mr. Cash was asked who his favorite country singer was & he answered 'You mean besides George Jones'? Genius!

Sending good thoughts to Mr. Jones. Good, healing, speedy recovery, thoughts.