Dinner at Speranza in Silver Lake

Had a wonderful dinner last night in the Silver Lake, with the Logelins and Internet Sensation Lauren Farmer! The food and company were delightful, as was the wine provided by Miss Lauren (this restaurant lets you brown-bag it -- lacking a liquor license maybe? I dunno...) Thanks again, guys!

The Boy *lurrrves* seeing Miss Maddy! (Heck... who DOESN'T?!) Plus, he got to imbibe a REAL Coca-Cola in the GLASS BOTTLE. What a treat!

Please enjoy this photographic documentation.

My boys at Moonstone Beach

I just found this on my fone-cam and thought it was a nice picture... the boys on the boardwalk at Moonstone Beach in Cambria.

Become a fan!

Miss Kelsey is on Facebook! Become a fan!

(Anyone can be her fan, even if they're not friends with me.)

Huntington Dog Beach

Yesterday, we decided to take Kelsey to a dog beach Brian had read about. It's in Huntington Beach, and is called, oddly enough, Huntington Dog Beach.

It was AMAZING. Off-leash dogs, running around like maniacs, taking flying leaps into the water... and our Kelsey was among them. She was BESIDE herself. This was a far cry from the Kelsey who was petrified of the ocean when she was a baby! This time she flung herself in and we all discovered that she can SWIM, just like the good Lab that she is.

In some of these pix, she's wearing her gentle leader nose harness, because Mommy has trouble controlling her while Dad is gone (which he was for a time, getting all our stuff from the van). She spent most of the time off-leash, in the water with her big brother.

A great time was had by all!

House painting!

We often have trouble getting work done on our house. But having it painted is EASY! We already had a contractor we liked (Carpintieri Painting of Granada Hills), so it was just a matter of ringin' 'em up and having them come do it! Ahhh... If only all home improvement stuff was THIS easy...

I'll have "after" photos soon!!!

More results from the photoshoot!

O, Sweet Gina Lee... that I had the talent in my baby feener that you have in your FABU little bod... Thank you again! You too, Miss Jenny!

PCC Flea Market

We went to the flea market today at Pasadena City College.

This has long been our favorite flea market; it just has great vendors, the prices are pretty fair (unlike at the Rose Bowl flea), and it's big without being unmanageable. Plus, they have a gnarly record section that Mr. Siegel *adores*.

We give The Boy his own spending money, and he always finds some cool tchotchke to purchase.

I myself got 3 skeins of yarn for $ .75 each, some butterfly earrings for a buck, and a red/white/blue rhinestone American flag ring for $2.50 (I'm gonna rock that bling on 4th of July)!

If you scroll down to the last photo here, you'll see Mr. Siegel eyeing what turned out to be his big purchase of the day...

15 Years at CSUN

My actual 15-year anniversary at work is not until December. But they celebrate everyone's anniversaries (on the 5-year marks) in June.

I like working here. It's nice. The people are really lovely, and it provides great flexibility for a mom! It's also been cool learning the ins-and-outs of library work.

The best part of all is probably the fact that I get to listen to music all day if I want!

I feel SUPER lucky.

Thanks go to longtime peep Margaret, for telling me, back in '94, "you should apply for this job in the Library!" and to Donna, for hiring my lame ass. :-) xoxoxoxo

(More) Slip-slidin' away...

It's really amazing to me, the difference a great camera makes.

This one was taken with Bri's digital Rebel XTi.

More to see over on Flickr!

Slip-slidin' away...

This isn't actually a Slip n'Slide. It's a Banzai Water Slide. But it worked out pretty well just the same!

Bri's pix are WAY better than these, but I was too eager to share to wait for the offload from the big camera. :-)

Celeb sightings

So, last weekend when we were out with our photogs (see previous post), we ran into Miley Cyrus. This got me to thinking about how we used to run into celebs ALL. THE. TIME. So often that we had an annual column in our Holiday newsletter detailing the encounters!

We've kept a running list -- a list that is now like 15 years old -- on an old piece of notebook paper on our fridge. I thought you might get a kick out of seeing who's on it.

This is in somewhat chronological order, starting around 1990, and coming to a virtual standstill when we moved from Burbank to Northridge. ;-)

Hal Holbrook -- Brand Library
Shari Belafonte -- Ventura Blvd.
Daniel J. Travanti -- Norton-Simon Museum
Dustin Hoffman -- Monica 4-plex theater
Corbin Bernsen -- Rose Bowl Flea Market
Bo Derek -- Sebastian International headquarters
Ian Buchanan -- Rose Bowl Flea Market
Paul Dandridge*
Ernest Borgnine -- 101 fwy, in a mercedes with the plates BORG9
Jay Leno -- several times, on freeways in various vehicles
Kelly Lange*
Bob Hope -- several times around Burbank & Toluca Lake
Judith Light -- 3rd St. Promenade
Rick Chambers*
Fritz Coleman*
Curtis Armstrong -- bookstore at the old Golden Mall in Burbank
Gary Coleman -- Islands, Burbank
Doug Savant -- can't remember where!
Maureen McCormick -- Virgin Megastore Sunset
Hal Fishman -- Virgin Megastore Sunset
Will Smith -- in a San Diego elevator
Bree Walker & Jim Lampley -- Longs Drugs Burbank
Rob Morrow -- LA County Museum of Art
Mark Thompson of radio's "Mark & Brian" -- Northridge Mall
Dr. George Fishbeck* -- 101 fwy; licence plate said KABC7
Richard Simmons -- in white Corvette, plate said YRUFAT
John Goodman -- Burbank Airport
Robin Christopher (soap actress) -- Burbank Vons
Shelly Duvall -- near Studio City DuPar's
Carla Aragon* -- Burbank gas station
Joe Rico* -- Pavilions Burbank
Avery Schreiber -- at a restaurant in Santa Barbara
Grant Schaud -- Burbank Vons
Grant Show -- Burbank Vons
Stu Nahan -- Solley's Sherman Oaks
Ellen Cleghorne -- Burbank Vons
Rosalind Chao -- LAX
Ira Reiner (local politician) -- Toluca Lake Bob's
Louis Farakhan -- O'Hare Airport
Barbie Benton -- The Music Center
Billy Crystal -- at Penn & Teller show
Daniel Petrocelli (celeb attorney of sorts) -- Starbucks Northridge
Ron Howard & parents -- Mo's Burbank
Marta Waller* -- Hollywood Bowl bus
Barry Gordon -- can't remember where
Dylan McDermott -- Toluca Lake Starbucks
Lisa Welchel -- Starbucks Valencia
Reese Witherspoon -- Storyopolis Beverly Hills
Roddy McDowall -- BookStar in Studio city
Dan Schneider -- Ventura Blvd. in his Miata
Eric Spillman* -- Starbucks Northridge
John Sununu -- Sheraton Torrey Pines
Laurie Metcalf -- Vons Burbank
Merrill Markoe -- AMC Santa Monica
Lou Diamond Phillips -- at Ev's old preschool
Jodie Foster -- Griffith Park carousel
Marcia Clark (notable attorney) -- Bloomingdale's Sherman Oaks
Frank Sinatra Jr. -- Nate & Al's deli in Beverly Hills
David Clennon -- Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks
Ron Rifkin -- The Music Center
Penny Marshall -- Rutles concert
Peter Bonerz -- Rutles concert
Miley Cyrus -- Old Pasadena

* denotes local news personality

I may hafta revise this later, cuz we KNOW there are people we're forgetting...

Photoshoot teaser...

As many of you know, who have followed my histrionics on Facebook and elsewhere, we had a photoshoot on Saturday. LOL

From the looks of this sample, I would guess we're gonna have some BEAUTIES.

This photo was taken by an awesome young lady named Jenny, who clearly has a long and lucrative career ahead of her. She currently works with the spectacular Gina Lee, whose work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in People Magazine, as well as newspapers across the nation. ;-)

Can't WAIT to share the rest!

First time for everything...

Y'all aren't gonna believe this... but tonight, for the first time EVAR, me & Mr. Siegel HAD MARGARITAS TOGETHER. I KNOW! How bizarre that we never had, after 20 freakin' years together! It hadn't even occurred to me til today!

Not only were these awesome margaritas, but this Los Toros place in Chatsworth is an INCREDIBLE find! It's been there since 1967. The food is FANTASTIC. ¡Muy bien! ¡Yo recommendo mucho!

Boys and their Toys!

The Ev's lucrative online video-game selling business (well, okay -- Dad helps a little!) has afforded him enough mad money to buy this little beauty:

To say that this young man is excited IS. AN. UNDERSTATEMENT.

And now... TO iTUNES!!!

Disney's California Adventure

Today, we went to California Adventure.

I dunno what to say about it, other than: "Good thing it was 'free'."

__________________
UPDATE: 5/18:

SHEESH! Note to self: Do not blog when depressed. It wasn't THAT bad! Just kinda crowded and annoying for the last couple hours of our visit. Pardon my drama.

Another Mother's Day prezzie...

Late in the day on Mother's Day, The Ev let me open the present he'd made for me at school:

SOOOOOO beautiful! Thank you so much, my baby. I absolutely adore it. xoxoxo

Mother's Day Fun, 2009

I had a lovely Mother's Day!

After a breakfast of hamentaschen and tea, we went out into the backyard, where my present was bestowed upon me:

Next, we took my new camera and the dog to the lovely Simi Valley Dog Park:

I spent the rest of the day Facebookin', watchin' baseball, and generally chillaxin.

Then Bri made me a beautiful dinner.

Thanks so much for a great day, boys. I ::heart:: you. :-)

Pre-Mom's Day visit with Grandma

We went to Grandma's today to take her out to lunch for Mother's Day. After lunch, we enjoyed Grandma's pool! It was a lovely day!

Dinner was had at Wendy's in Monrovia, where we could sit outside with the puppeh.

Now, I shall make plans for MY Mother's Day tomorrow... Hmmm... What to do...

Blogger's Choice Awards, 2009

I have several blogger peeps I would like to recommend for this year's Blogger's Choice awards.



First of all, there's Matt Logelin. I like him in the category "Hottest Daddy Blogger," just cuz I know how much he'd hate that. BWHAHAHHHHAHAHHAHAA! If you prefer, you can vote for him in another category.









Then, there's the beautiful & talented Lauren Farmer. I nominated her for "Best Photography Blog," because she is ::awesomesauce::.

And finally, I nominated my buddy Sean, who has a fun music blog that I want everyone to check out. Strangely, there was no "music" category (WTF?), so I stuck him in pop culture.

Let the voting begin!

Ev's orangutan art

Look at the rad orangutan drawing Ev did in art class! I like his little cartoon-character people in the background, too.

I ::heart:: Sbux... AND my Sbux peeps!

I believe everyone knows by now how much I *lurrrve* my morning Starbucks. But what you may not know is that I also love having fellowship with my rad Sbux peeps every morning. Megan & crew at the store next to my campus are sooooo, so awesome, with their warmth and humor, always offering to make me a 27-shot mocha... I don't wanna start my day without them!

Sometimes they even write somethin' zany on my cup... or my husband's, when I'm buying for him...

Thank you, awesome Sbux peeps!!!

New Simi Valley Dog Park!

After several weeks of threatening to do so, we finally got around to checking out the new Simi Valley dog park today! (No thanks to Google Maps... when you input the dog park address, you get a location which is very much NOT the dog park, thankyouverymuch! So, it took us half an hour longer than it should have, but we did eventually find it.)

The park is in a lovely location on the north end of the valley, and somewhat hilly, making it a little more interesting than the LA-city dog parks we frequent. Plus, it's new, so all the benches are pretty and clean. Our only quibble with it is that there is only one watering station; everytime Bri tried to give Kelsey water there, 5 dogs ran up for a drink. Timid pups like our Kelsey just back off when there are other dogs around, so it was a challenge to get her to drink. Other than that, tho, a good time was had by all... even The Boy, who does NOT like dog parks. ("They're BORING!" sez he.)

Thursday night repast...

I feel bad I'm doing another wine-related post, since I just did one.

Oh well!

This evening's fine repast consisted of one delectable Big Mac, one large order of The Best Fries Made By Man, and a lovely glass of white wine. "WHICH white wine, Katerz?!" Well, since you asked, this is a little something I picked up (yes, virtually STOLE) at World Market today. It was like $5 and change. Columbia Crest Two Vines "Vineyard 10" White Wine -- a VERY nice blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Semillon grapes. This wine proved a delightful accompaniment to the burger, with its melty cheese, crunchy pickle, and sesame-seed bun.

I highly recommend this meal to all you stressed-out moms out there... or anyone who just likes yummy stuff. ;-)

Wine for a lazy, warm Sunday afternoon

I went out to BevMo a little bit ago, feeling like I wanted a nice crisp white to sip in the backyard. It was so pretty outside today, and Mr. Siegel was making grilled burgers! So off I went. I found one of my favorite sauvignon blancs from long ago -- Raymond Reserve. This is a wonderful Napa sauvie, crisp and clean, with lots of minerally, grassy flavors. It was as nice as I remembered. I heartily recommend it!

More International Visitors!

Bienvenidos and bienvenue to my latest visitors, from Venezuela & France!