Today was indeed a miraculous day.

Because, you see, we purchased new furniture.

We almost NEVER purchase new furniture.

This is our new reclining sofa & chair! These will replace our 19-year-old This End Up sofa, which I purchased in early 1990 and which we have been dragging around ever since.

We procured these fine items at a new shop in Topanga Plaza called Power of Home. They had SO MANY great things, we had trouble choosing!

I seriously may PLOTZ.

Back to the Scene of the Crime!

We just returned from a couple days in Vegas! Couldn't resist stopping in at the chapel where we were wed, all those years ago... Please enjoy these "before" and "after" pix!

Kelsey Visits the Work Peeps!

Today, me and The Boy took Kelsey Ginger Boof (yes, that IS her real name) to CSUN to visit with my work peeps. It was GREAT to see my friends (even tho I've only been gone from work for like 3 days -- LOL). And of course, seeing Kelsey is ALWAYS a treat for all who behold her.

SHE. IS. PROSH.!

Thanks for tearing yourselves away from the office, Gang! xoxoxooxo

The Boy's 11-year Checkup

The Ev just had his checkup!

Thought I'd provide y'all with his vitals, which I haven't done since he was a young'un.

So, let's see... He weighed in at a strapping 74 lbs. His height is just a smidge under 5 ft. His hearing is perfect; his vision is 20/20. The doc was pleased to hear that he had straight A's in school and only missed 2 days of class.

Yup, he's healthy as a horse. Kenahora.

I continue to haz BIG-TIME proudz of my boy. :-)

Oh, and for those of you who may have missed this newsflash: he is not going to the local public middle school this year. We're keeping him with Pinecrest for at least one more year; he's just moving to a different campus.

I shall update y'all on his progress thru middle school, natch!

(Photo by Gina Lee)

This Week's Celebrity Twit-peeps!

So, as y'all know, I'm a bit of a celeb-magnet on Twitter. A couple weeks ago, Bill Corbett, star of stage & screen, tweeted at me. Then, The Lost Skeleton started following me, as did His Creator, the multi-talented Larry Blamire.

This week, more celebs. First, I had a big rap session (okay, it was like 2 tweets) with long-time L.A. Times music critic Robert Hilburn, in which he broke my heart by telling me that Alan Parsons is unlikely to make it into the Rock Hall of Fame. Then, the pièce de résistance: a direct message (DM, in twitter-speak) from the beautiful & talented Mr. Crosby Loggins. Due to the way my DMs are set up, I first saw this tweet on my cellfone, enabling me to pretend that Crosby could resist my charms no longer and had txt'd my fone. Hahhahahahhhaha. Fun stuff.



I'm quite sure that one day soon, there will be far too many people on Twitter for fun stuff like this to occur, so I'm getting a kick out of it now, while I can.

Thank you, Mr. Hilburn! Thanks, Crosby! Fellas like you make Twitter more fun for a mild-mannered library worker such as myself.

Celebrity Graving on Furlough Friday!

Those of you who've known me for a long time know that I was bitten by the "celebrity graving bug" a good 25 years ago. I'm telling you -- scoff if you must, but stand in front of Cecil B. DeMille's tomb (or Marilyn Monroe's, or Walt Disney's) and tell me it isn't the COOLEST. THING. EVAR.

So anyhoo, I wrangled a few of my peeps to go on an outing with me as an activity for our first Furlough Friday. Here, Kenna & Gin say ::likes this:: as they ride in the back of my Land Yacht!



Our first stop was Hillside Memorial Park, the Jewish cemetery off the 405 & Howard Hughes Pkwy -- the one where you can see the waterfall from the freeway. This is an absolutely GORGEOUS cemetery, full of fabulous luminaries (including Al Jolson, whose crypt beneath the dome at the top of the waterfall is the centerpiece of the cemetery). But our main purpose in coming down here was so that my Bonanza-fan peep Donna could visit Ben & Little Joe Cartwright, both of whom are laid to rest here!

Please enjoy these awesome snaps from our visit there.

Next, we moved on to Holy Cross Cemetery, the big Catholic cemetery in Culver City. There are 9-kajillion famous people here. I must've been gettin' tired cuz I didn't hardly photograph any of 'em. But here are a few snaps... including John Candy, who is located just 2 crypts above Fred MacMurray.

Gerry Rafferty/Stealers Wheel

So, a week or so ago, I learned that Gerry Rafferty was not only in the '70s band Stealers Wheel... but he was the lead-singer on their well-known hit, "Stuck in the Middle with You".

For some reason, this info has completely flipped my proverbial gasket.

Being a big-time music buff, a huge fan of 1970s pop music, AND a fan of both Gerry Rafferty and Stealers Wheel, I cannot imagine how a tidbit like this has managed to escape my notice for all these years.

This is precisely how I felt when I learned that Steve Winwood was in Traffic.

Oh well!

::dances off and awaits the next music-trivia bombshell::

Laserium!

To those of us who grew up in L.A., Laserium was a staple of the teen years. Long housed at the Griffith Observatory, it was a fun place to go on a date. Listen to cool music... watch the lasers dance... what could be better on a summer night?

I hadn't been to Laserium since I was about 17, at which time the shows were done at the Griffith Observatory. Laserium lost that long-time home when the venue closed for a major remodel several years ago. So when we heard that Laserium had a new home in Hollywood, we were eager to check it out. We took The Boy to the Beatles show on Sunday afternoon.

It was a fun & different thing to do... and VERY kid-friendly! Check it out if you can!

Read here for more background.