Pickering Ward Babies

                                                                Lately we've had a few Pickering Ward activities where I've been able to steal some pictures of a few of our Ward family babies. Here is Alecia Lai with Parker.  He's the cutie wootiest.  This was at the Relief Society evening a couple of weeks ago.

This is Levi Peary.  He got caught red-handed, or perhaps I should say chocolate-mouthed... at the Linger Longer Luncheon a couple of Sundays ago.

This is Lauren Hall looking a bit surprised at that weird lady flashing lights in her face.  Lauren is going to grow up to be a super model.  I just know it. Look at those big baby blues! She just needs to work a little on her camera presence.

This is Meredith Terranova with her nephew, the youngest Brother Barney.  If I could remember Brother Barney's given name, which may or may not be Spencer, I'd be a lot happier.  It's like taking a botany class and being able to name genus and phylum, but not the common name...  My excuse is that I don't work in Primary or in the Nursery and there are lots of these little ones running around at the moment.  Which is great, by the way.  Don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't be running around myself taking pictures of these little cuties if I didn't think so.

The New Office

Here is my new office. 

 Okay, I have had that stupid picture of Los
Angeles (hanging there on the wall on the right) in storage in the hall closet for years - about 23 years to be exact.  My brother gave it to me after I moved to Los Angeles - as a joke because he has an odd sense of humor!  It's now a bit of an oddity.  We are the Los Angeles office, after all, and we do transportation and traffic planning & engineering.  But the photo is so out of date, it looks like a 20+ year-old postcard and elicits humorous comments from the engineers.

Here is my office with the file cabinets standing guard.  They've measured the window for blinds, but they haven't been installed yet.

 Here is my messy desk.  Brian said it was comforting to see my old beat up "visitor's" chair after the move.  With all the changes I had to agree.

The best part of the move is that Barbara's office is now in my line of sight, as opposed to being next door.  We get to wave at each other and giggle when the sensor suddenly turns out my lights in the middle of the day while I'm sitting at my desk typing away and being awesome. 

This ends our tour.  It's still not perfect.  I have some art to hang still.  But it's getting there!

Dancing with los muertos

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Whittier Night Life

Saturday night was the first show of our 2010-2011 season tickets with the Whittier Community Theatre.  We've had varying size groups attending through the years, but this year so many folks have baled for one reason or another (I don't care if you've moved to Arizona, Vicki!  You should have been there!) we're reduced to three: myself, Peggy and David.  To start off this season we took a chance on dining at a little bistro around the corner from my house, Crepes and Grapes. 

Now, I need to explain that David and I tried this place when it first opened a few years ago and were sadly disappointed.  They totally ruined our meals by putting the wrong sauces on the crepes we had ordered, the crepes were thick and pale and not very appetizing, and to cap the entire event, the service was awful.  We'd been on our way to the theatre that night as well and vowed never to return.

Since then, the place has gone through some changes.  For one thing, the menu has changed for the better.  There is now a good variety of fresh food and there's no longer any chance of putting the wrong sauce on the wrong crepe! They must have taken the advice of Chef Gordon Ramsay.  Ha.  I chose a grilled vegetable crepe which was lovely.  The simple accompaniment was a delicious scalloped potato dish - just the right bit of creamy goodness that set off the other grilled veggies nicely.

Here is Peggy.  She got a turkey crepe that was topped with crumbled Feta.  It looked yummy, too.  The interior of this place is slightly French with a lovely mural (see above) featuring Whittier's Uptown Village area.  This time, we all enjoyed our meals and got out in plenty of time to enjoy the theatre.

WCT's first show is always a musical.  This year they performed A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum.  Amazingly, I had never seen this show before.  I've read about it through the years, but never managed to see either the stage version or the movie.

It was fun to see lots of my former cast mates from It's a Wonderful Life-Radio Show onstage and in the audience. 

It was a lot of fun, too, to see this production.  I'm not overly fond of Sondheim, and I know there are folks who worship him, so I apologize for admitting that.  However, this was a fun show, a solid production with good casting and excellent voices.  Whittier theatre is sensitive to the community they serve and they had toned down the bawdy nature of the piece and played up the sweet silliness. It made the whole very enjoyable.  The scenery was nicely done, as were the costumes. The 2nd act, with its screwball comedy mayhem, comings and goings and running through the audience, was perfectly executed.  The pace was fast and furious and I found myself laughing out loud. 

I like laughing out loud while watching a comedy.  We all enjoyed the show immensely.

Later, after the show, we went over to the Rocky Cola for ice cream.  They have a varied menu for late night.  When Rocky Cola opened, some 20 years ago, it was superb.  It went downhill a bit in the last decade.  Although it's gotten better, I still feel like it needs a facelift.  It just doesn't draw crowds anymore, either.  But we all ordered different things and everyone enjoyed what they ordered.

Nice night on the town.  I love my little part of the world. 

Note: "Forum" runs for one more weekend, so you still have time to see it. Tickets are available at the door or on Gold-Star and are beyond reasonable.  The next production is "12 Angry Jurors", in November.  You can still get season tickets.  For the low price of $35, it's the best theatre deal in Southern California.

Jack Update

My Jack is seen here contemplating his cat carrier.  He had a another date with the Vet this weekend.  He got his 3rd set of shots on Saturday. 



Jack is doing so well!  He has a magnificent set of whiskers.  His fur is shiny and healthy.  He weighed in at 4.5 pounds.  That's up from 3.6 three weeks ago, and 2.8 three weeks before that. He's just growing and growing.  He was so good.  He popped easily into his carrier and didn't give me any fuss.  It wasn't a stress.  He was as good as can be for the Vet, too.  Today he's a little sleepy, but that's understandable.  We're getting along great.  Jack has discovered that kissing me on the nose makes me giggle, so he isn't adverse to doing that as I'm falling asleep. 

On Friday night I stopped by the grocery store on the way home from work.  I bought tons of cat food.  Jack has a prodigious appetite and eats a lot.  How he maintains his slim physique is beyond me.  He has little body fat.  Anyway, I'd been coming home late all week (we were swamped at work) and I was apologetic as I walked in the door around 7:30p.  "Sorry, I'm late, my dear," I announced as I walked in the door with tons of grocery bags.  "I was buying lots and lots of food for you."

Jack had been watching me carefully during this pronouncement.  Then he lay his little head on my feet.  The message was unmistakeable:  "Thank you!"

You are so welcome, little cuddle bunny.

NO PAPARAZZI, OKAY?!

KOA's New Offices

Here is the lobby of our new offices in Monterey Park.  You can just see Hilary peeking over the railing.  'The new office is right across the street from our current offices.  Our current building was recently purchased by East L.A. College, so all the current occupants are relocating.

Hallway in the new office space.  The whole office is quite spacious, but lacks the charm of our current offices.  I'm not wild about the oatmeal color throughout, either.  I have no idea why we can't have some bright colors, but then I painted my living room rose pink...

Hilary, Brian and Ivy (I think) checking out the new cubicles.

My new office!  I have no exterior windows, but it's bigger than my current office, which will be nice.,

Sabrina and Danika checking out the new Corporate digs.

Hanging out by the new Corporate cubicles.  They'll have lots more room, which is nice.  Here is Sabrina looking sassy (as usual) and making us laugh.  The company president's office will be down the hall that swings to the right behind Danika.

We're scheduled to move on October 1st.  I'm not looking forward to the actual moving part, but it should be fun to have a change of scenery!

Lunch with friends

Jana and Vicki are two women I love that I don't see enough of.  We manage to squeeze in a luncheon every now and then.  I think doing lunch is one of my favorite things.  How can you beat good food, good friends and good conversation?  Sadly, Vicki is leaving us soon for the wilds of the upper Sonoran desert.  Since I've 'been there, done that' my enthusiasm is, er, curbed on that subject.  But, I'm glad she's doing something positive. Change can be good. 

Here is my friend Deonne nursing an ice-cold root beer.  We rarely get a chance to really talk, either, even though we usually see each other at least once a week at church.  Deonne has a wonderful mind.  I enjoy her company.  So, doing lunch is a good way to catch up.