A visit to Bob Hope on Memorial Day

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day. 

We took the kids to Bob Hope Airport on Memorial Day. Bob Hope was a patriot and did so much for the troops in his day, it seemed to make a weird sort of sense to go pay "him" a visit. 

The airport (well any airport) is an unfriendly place for people these days. No one wants to go to the airport (even a small one like Bob Hope) unless they have to. Most people think of airplanes as buses with wings. 

The glamour and excitement of air travel is gone. 

There was no observation deck to take the kids to, so we drove up to the top level of the parking structure instead. For little while today, we watched our two young children as they watched the planes taxi down the runway and fly far away overhead. 

The Rose Garden

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Sneak peek pic. More to come

edited to add:

Here are a few more shots from The Rose Garden.

Frankly I sometimes find it hard to believe that place like this even exists in Los Angeles. While the area around USC has been an area to be avoided in the past, it's now being improved, with an extension to the NHM planed for 2013 and a new train line running right in front of both The Rose Garden and the NHM. Sure to  bring more tourists and more tourist dollars. It's nice that a grand old building like this won't be torn down like so much of Los Angeles already has.

Pavillon of Wings

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I'll post a few more shots of the butterflies later on but here a sneak peek.

edited to add:

Well I have a few more shots I've uploaded from the Pavilion of Wings. I must admit that going on a warm day is definitely the way to go. The butterflies were everywhere.

They even got up close and personal.

The Whale at NHM

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New at the NHM is the Fin whale.

edited to add:

As promised, here are a few more pics of the whale at NHM. I'm just fascinated by this new addition. I love its size and the way they have it displayed. Remarkable there were few people that came to see it, preferring the dinosaurs instead. That gave us an opportunity to get a few art shots.

Memorial Day Weekend plans

I am really looking forward to this weekend.

We are taking the kids to the Natural History Museum on Saturday. I think that you can tell your child's stage of development by what they're into at any given moment. Karl still loves his Thomas The Tank et al trains, however, he is now moving into dinosaurs, thanks to Ron and Terri Supancic for giving him a book called How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?. Karl loves it and it is currently his go to book for night night time. So that explains the trip to NHM.

While there, we will also take in the Pavillion of Wings and the Rose Garden so look for pics to be posted as they happen.

I wish you all a safe and relaxing Memorial Day weekend.

Cheers!
J

The Handbook

Since I have two small children, the time that I actually get to sit down and concentrate on a book is very limited. I when I do crack one open it can't exactly be Kafka. Nope, I'm keeping it light these days. Harry Potter or Dan Brown is about as heavy as I can get.

Some of you know that I am an follower of The Secret and Law of Attraction. Heck, I even have The Secret  iPhone app.Well one of the most common tenants in both books is the idea of thinking like a weathly person is better than thinking about being dead broke.

And to think like a wealthy person you have to know what weathly people think about. Which brings me to my current light reading. The Official Filthy Rich Handbook (You might remember something similar in the 80's called The Official Preppy Handbook.).

It's funny, tongue-in-cheek sort of thing, filled with some very useful information if you find yourself suddenly rich. Like the fact that Cannes really is pronounced CAN and not Con.

There are chapter headings like "The Plutocrat Primer", "Buying a Better You" and my favorite " Float Some and Jet Some" about yacht and private jet ownership.This chapter includes my favorite quote by our current Governer, Arnold Schwarzenegger...

"You have pilots at your throat about vacation, that their wife is pregnant, why can't they have New Year's Eve off? It's on and on and on."

Poor Arnie.

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Vanilla Vodka Making: The Final Product

Well after some extensive Quality Control testing, I bring you a pic of (what's left of) the Final Product in our Vanilla Vodka making experiment. 


As you can see the color becomes quite deep after just a few days. And the flavor was divine. 


Cheers!


J

A visit to Rolling Greens of Hollywood

Well, what started off as a day meant for traipsing around Main St of Santa Monica, ended up full stop at Rolling Greens in Hollywood instead. What a wonderful place to loose yourself. Think Anthro without all the clothes to get in the way and more plants and flowers. Here are a few pics of my favorite things. I was especially fond of the love seat,  made from a vintage crib. As you can see, my dear Simone found it quite relaxing spot as well.

Cheers!

J

Vanilla Vodka Making. A Sweet Success

A few months ago, my husband and I were having drinks at Morel's French Bistro at The Grove. It had been a busy weekend for them and consequently they ran out of Irish Whiskey and had none for our Irish Coffee request. The bartender recommended we try their very own home made vanilla vodka. We had tried vanilla vodka before of course, of various brands, and were less than impressed. But when he pulled out the bottle and we saw that lovely carmel color, we decided to give it a shot (pun-intended). And boy we were glad we did. We loved it. Hubby had his in his coffee and I had mine with a good, old-fashioned Coke Cola.

Armed with instructions from the bartender, we set off to make are own. Well it was even better, most likely because we don't have so many "costumers" and could let the vodka set up for a good long while before sampling.

As a matter of fact we were so successful we needed to move into a bigger bottle. So below are the pics and instructions for making your very own.

Cheers! J

You'll need a clean dry bottle with a tight fitting top.

Add whole vanilla beans.

We decided to stain out the old beans as they've given pretty much all they had to give.

To get even more vanilla flavor (and if you're in a hurry) you can scrap some of the vanilla out of the pod and drop it directly into the vodka.

Finish product!

It's pretty pale now, but give it a few days in our sunny window sill and it will turn a very fine color. Depending on where your pods are from will also have an effect on the flavor that's produced. These new beans have a slight tobabaco scent to them and lend this flavor to the vodka.

Until next time friends....A little imagination goes a long way. J