Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Tonight I went with the hiking group on yet another hike up Mt Hollywood. On the way up, I realized that I’d done this same Friday night hike this weekend last year. And that weekend turned out to be quite fun and memorable.

We took a rather steep route up, which was actually great fun. When we got to the top, we all pulled out wine and food, and we had a little party.

On the way down, I chatted with a woman in the group, and I told her my story about living in Texas, and how I decided that I don’t hate Texas any more.

It was a nice way to end the week..

This afternoon, Susan and I took Lucinda and her friend to the California Science Center IMAX theater to see “Under the Sea 3-D”. We’ve been fans of the 3-D IMAX movies since going to see “Sea Monsters” last year.

When we got there, Lucinda had to try lifting the truck at the lever demonstration exhibit in the parking lot. Today was the first time that she was big enough to be able to lift it.

The movie was good, although it was a bit odd, since it was narrated by Jim Carrey. I guess he’s trying to stretch his dramatic range a bit.

After the movie, we went into the museum. Lucinda and her friend wanted to try the rock climbing wall. Apparently, it’s harder than it looks, since they only made it about halfway up. We looked around the museum a bit more before they closed. Then we headed home, after the obligatory stop in the gift shop.

It was a nice afternoon, and marks the first time that Susan and I have taken Lucinda somewhere together.

Pictures are in her photo album.

I took Lucinda and her friend Claire to Disneyland today. I still think it’s a bit amazing that I’m willing to go to Disneyland, but in any event, we had a fun time. Most of the pictures are in Lucinda’s photo album.

We rode lots of rides, and it was actually a very fun day. And I got a big pickle.

This evening I met up with Susan and her father for dinner. He’s visiting her for the Super Bowl, and we all went out for dinner at The Bahooka in Rosemead. I’d seen this place every time I took the dogs to the kennel before trips last summer, and it looked like an interesting experience. And it was.

We had martinis at the bar before sitting down for dinner. While we were at the bar, we were all fascinated by the soft-shell turtle in one of the fish tanks below the bar. I never knew that a turtle could have such a long neck. When we sat for dinner we all had the ribs, which were quite good.

It was a fun evening.

Given all that’s going on in my life right now, could this new show be any more timely? A card came in the mail the other day for “Divorce! The Musical“.

On the web site, they say:

There’s a great saying: tragedy plus time equals comedy. If you’ve ever been divorced, then you know this is true.

DIVORCE! depicts a journey many of us have shared– a journey through sadness, bitterness, irony and above all, that miraculous ability we all have to heal, forgive and move on.

And the Playbill article linked from the site says:

According to production notes, “Set in present-day Los Angeles, Divorce! The Musical takes us on Penny and Rich’s journey, as their fairy-tale marriage unravels. Denial, deception, and raw outrage collide with greedy lawyers, dramatically inclined family members, mountains of paperwork and out-to-lunch therapists. Divorce! The Musical reminds us that laughing in the face of tragedy can sometimes be the best way to move on.”

Musical numbers include “Till Death Do Us Part,” “I’m Living In My Parents’ Basement And My Friends Forgot My Name” and “Half.”

This sounds like a hoot. Even though my divorce process is nowhere near finished, I’m ready to laugh about it.

Tonight, Susan and I went on the Museum of Neon Art’s Holiday Lights tour. Being that it’s December, and the tour was after dark, it was cold by L.A. standards. We dressed warmly and brought along a couple of blankets, since the whole tour is conducted from the upper deck of a double-decker sightseeing bus.

It was a tremendously entertaining tour, but sadly, it didn’t transfer into photographs well. To take good photos at night, the camera has to be on a rock-solid platform to hold it steady enough. And the upper deck of the bus just wasn’t a steady enough platform. So if you want to see the lights, you’ll just have to take the tour. But it was certainly Great Fun.

This evening, Susan and I were supposed to go out to her friend’s boat in Marina del Rey to watch the light show there, but she decided against it, since it was going to be cold and possibly raining when we got there. So instead, we had a little adventure in the city.

We went to the IMAX theater in Exposition Park to see “Wild Ocean 3D: Africa Meets the Sea”. We saw the “Sea Monsters – 3D” movie last spring, and it was great fun, so this new one was on our list. As always, the photography was impressive and sometimes vertigo-inducing. There were lots of good 3D effects of fish and dolphins and such swimming out of the screen. Good fun.

On the way home, we stopped off in Chinatown for dinner. We had a 1/2 Peking Duck, along with some Chinese broccoli and some soup. That was nice. We also walked around Chinatown for a bit to see the neon signs. We will probably be seeing them again next week on the Museum on Neon Art’s Neon Cruise.

Afterward, we went home, opened a bottle of wine, and watched Julia Sweeney’s “Letting Go of God“. It was a nice evening.

This morning, I saw that the egret is back at the pond at Caltech. I’ve seen it here in 2006 and 2005. I suppose it might not be the same bird, but it’s still fun to see it wading in the pond and snapping up the mosquito fish that live there.

Last night, I went to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Griffith Park Light Festival. I went with Juju, since we’d had originally planned on going on the Museum of Neon Art Neon Cruise, but it was canceled due to not having enough people sign up to rent the bus.

The first week of the festival is car-free, which is nice. We parked at the zoo, and just walked down and back and looked at the lights. The lights were almost all LED-based now, which is part of the DWP trying to ‘go green’ by reducing power consumption.

After that, we headed back to Silverlake and had dinner at Gingergrass, which was quite nice.

It was a nice evening out. And yes, it was a fun time.

Today I had a little adventure in the city. It was actually three somewhat-unrelated adventures, but each was fun in its own way.

In the afternoon, I met my friend Sherri at the Museum of Death. We had done the Dearly Departed Tour last spring, so this outing was just another foray into the world of death. We saw a collection of odd advertising objects for funeral homes, beds from the Heaven’s Gate house, Jayne Mansfield’s stuffed chihuahua, art by John Wayne Gacy, and other odd things. The owner also showed us a living conjoined turtle, complete with two heads, four front legs, and two back legs. It was a delightfully weird afternoon.

After my brush with Death, I headed down to Silverlake to meet up with an old online friend for dinner. We’ve known each other online for years, but never actually met in meatspace before. So, since we both had time, we decided to finally remedy that situation. We had a nice dinner at Lamill, followed by some wine at Silverlake Wine.

Finally, I headed up to North Hollywood to Yup, it’s that damn redacted text again party.

Overall, it was a fun day.