Happy Birthday, Mr. Siegel!

Daddy decided he wanted to spend his b-day morning in Santa Monica. They have a lovely Farmer's Market, plus it was a nice day to stroll along the coast and look at the ocean! I could not believe what a pretty day it turned out to be.

Below is the view from the bridge that goes over Pacific Coast Highway.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you... The 5th Grade Spelling Bee Champ!!!

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again!

One of my favorite movies EVAR is a little number called "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra." I had the pleasure of seeing this movie on the big screen during its brief theatrical release several years ago. I took my little boy and we *screamed* with laughter. When the DVD came out, I bought it, then proceeded to make all my friends watch it!

"But Katerz," you ask. "What is this 'Lost Skeleton'? Tell us more." Okay, okay. Settle down! What 'Lost Skeleton' is is a LOVE LETTER -- a valentine, if you will -- to every schlock horror film of the '50s and '60s you've ever seen. It's a real labor of love on the part of the filmmakers and crew, and I hope you'll take a minute to read more about it here (then go buy it!).

Being such a huge fan of this flick, you can imagine my surprise when I learned that a SEQUEL had been made, and SCREENED here in my very TOWN in November! Ohhhhh -- the horror! I can't believe I missed it. ::weeps:: I hope it comes around again so I can see it, but I will certainly buy it when it becomes available on DVD. At least I have these awesome trailers available for viewing on my home computer!

Larry Blamire & Co.: I salute you.

Guess I'll be keepin' all my marrow.

The City of Hope has rejected my request to be a bone-marrow donor. They don't like that I've had boo-boo spine in the past.

I haz a sad. :-(

Yabs & Katerz' "Vegas Or Bust" Tour '09

Me and my peep Yabs decided we'd up and go to Vegas. So, we rented that awesome Chevy Malibu you see there, and off we went.

We were staying at the Luxor -- one of my fave hotels in the LV, mainly cuz they offer an awesome, gigantic suite with an in-room HOTTUB! w00t!

The Luxor also offers guests 3 Starbucks from which to choose. Here is one!

Vegas is soooo pretty at night. This is a view of New York, New York.

And here are Yabs and I, enjoying a beautiful lunch at the Rainforest Café inside the MGM Grand. It was LOVELY! We had the best seat in the house.

After lunch, we checked out this rad exhibit -- I've never been so close to a lion!

Thanks for bein' my partner in crime, Miss Yabs! I had a GREAT time. (((hugs)))

Vegas, Baby!

Hope to have a nice weekend update for y'all come Sunday night. In the meantime... send good travel mojo!

w00t!

Laurel Canyon dog park

We've been getting kind of tired of our usual dog park, so we decided to try out a new one. There's one off Mulholland, near Laurel Canyon; seemed like that might be an interesting one to try.

First of all, it's quirky because of its location in the hills that separate Studio City and Hollywood. You know you're gonna get an interesting crowd, and we did. There was a fair amount of "industry chatter" going on around us, as well as interesting-looking dog owners. There was a guy there fingerpainting dog portraits, some of which were hung all around the park. This stuff alone made it feel more fun than our usual park in Reseda.

One interesting thing we noticed is that there was ALOT more dog poo in this park. I mean, stunningly so. It was downright gross in places. Not sure why this would be the case in Hollywood, and not in Reseda. We've heard the same is true in Runyon Canyon, which is also in the Hollywood Hills. (Undaunted, we'll try that one next.)

Still, Laurel Canyon park is a nice park, and we'll go back. There was even a little play area for kids!

Kelsey loves the new van!

There's lots of room for her 85 lb. body, and a big giant window for her puppeh noggin!

The Siegels have a new minivan!

I am now the proud owner of a 2009 Toyota Sienna! (All my Facebook peeps are saying, "No kidding!" BWHAHHAHHAHAHAHA. This is all they've heard about all day.)

Can I tell you how much I love this thing?! It is freakin' awesome! So spacious, so pretty, so clean, so many bells n' whistles. I can't believe it's mine!







Thanks, Honey, for "arranging the financing" for this little baby! Thanks, Telesis, for providing a good portion of the funding (truly, banking you just can't get at your bank! LOL); and thank you Autoland for finding the car and making the whole transaction absolutely smooth and painless.

I am a happy customer.

Revised thoughts on the diet:

No, I'm not giving up already.

But I will have to modify my original plan.

I feel as though I inadvertently set myself up to fail. And my mental health can't handle another ounce of failure.

So, I will not look at January 5th as a day when everything magically changed, and instead try to tackle this thing bit by bit.

First step: getting myself to use the new exercise bike! And trying to eat healthier in general.

Thinking I could completely change my eating habits overnight was nuts.

The Diet. ::sigh::

Between March (see Grand Canyon pic below) and October (see punkin patch photo), I managed to put on 20 lbs. Starting tomorrow, and utilizing the contraption in the previous post, I shall endeavour to lose some of those pounds. Even though the extra poundage has provided me with an awesome rack.

We shall see. I don't believe in depriving myself of stuff that brings me joy (i.e., wine, cheese, butter, ice cream, candy, McDonalds), sooo... I'm dubious. But I want to try.

New exer-cycle!

We just bought this rad exercise bike! I've never had a piece of exercise equipment before -- pretty exciting. Seems like a nice bike! Mr. Siegel and I are both hoping to get a little healthier this year and drop a few pounds... We'll see how it goes. Hopefully this thing doesn't turn into a very expensive toy/paper weight/dust collector.

Car shoppin'

We went for a test-drive today.

Looks like Mama's gonna get her some sweet new wheels!

I get a new car; the economy gets a shot in the arm; Ev gets his own A/C vents. Everybody's happy.

New Year's Day walk in Aliso Canyon

Today was such a beautiful day, we just HAD to get out into it... so we took Miss Pupps for a walk in Aliso Canyon. This is part of the burn area from the Sesnon Fire in October, and it's looking really beautiful with the blackened trees and new plant growth on the hillsides.

Aliso Canyon was once part of James Cagney's ranch here in the San Fernando Valley.

Drinking-hat Prototypes

Ev has spent a considerable amount of time over the past 2 days working on prototypes for a drinking hat. Here are just 2 of his finished designs. (They're a little leaky, but he remains undaunted, like any good engineer/scientist/comedian.)