MOVING AHEAD IN APRIL

For all my paucity of posts, I got a real live comment the other day!  So someone is reading.... So at the very least, I can keep the photos coming.... 

April 19:

So now I'm sort of cheating.  Because when we're writing, there's just nothing to take pictures of.  My computer screen?  Fast food bags?....  Yeah, you get the idea.  So some of this week's photos aren't quite synced up with their dates.  Oh well....  Here's Sabrina, happy after her successful choral competition, and about to head to Disneyland for the rest of the day.  What's not to smile about?



April 20:

For 4/20, I could have taken a picture of the panel discussion I attended at school on the problems of teenage drinking and drugs.  ("They're holding that on 4/20?!" many were heard to exclaim.)  But this was not just any 4/20.  This was 4/20/2011.... the day that SkyNet becomes self-aware and launches its attack against humanity.  So we were very reassured to find ourselves driving alongside a truck of liquid nitrogen.  Best to be prepared, I always say.



April 21: 

One of the nice things about finishing a script is that feeling of freedom.  You can do things you normally wouldn't take the time for.  And because you're about to be paid, you can afford them.  Like going out to a decadent breakfast.  Perhaps a decadent breakfast of cinnamon French toast with sautéed bananas, candied pecans, and ooey-gooey cinnamon sauce.



April 22:

Another thing you can do when you've finished a script is say to your daughter, "Hey, would you like to go buy an Easter dress?"



April 23:

I'm not sure where the kids' cute little Easter baskets are.  You know, the little green wicker ones with the stuffed lambs peeking over the edge.  Oh well.  Lee was in charge of buying Easter candy this year, and he never would have fit everything he bought into those tiny baskets.  I have a friend who, to her credit, puts books in her kids' Easter baskets.  For us, it's all Sees and Cadbury.



April 24:

Our church started celebrating Easter at the Hollywood Bowl a few years back, when we were under construction....  And now we're the only Easter service there (the sunrise service having sputtered out a couple of years ago due to lack of funding).  I absolutely love it.  I love it that there's no pressure to get dressed up -- I wore jeans this year.  There are still people in some amazing outfits with the huge hats, and that's fine, too.  I love getting there early to get a box seat, and sitting there eating bagels and lox as the morning starts to warm up.  I love seeing dozens and dozens of people I know on a festive occasion, and seeing them in a location where I would normally not expect to see a single person I know....  I just love the whole thing.



I'll be squeezing in a few more Easter pics this week!

MORE APRIL

I've felt as if posting my 365 photos here was redundant -- after all, the 365 Project posts them everyday on Facebook.  Or they did.  For some reason, Facebook has deleted the 365 app with no warning and no reason.  So suddenly these posts here matter somehow....

April 12:

On Sabrina's day off skiing last week, she wanted to go to the Mammoth outlet stores.  We ended up at the Coach store, taking advantage of the 75% sales.  The cute brown/gold/red bag is Sabrina's.  The sensible grey one is mine.  But I get to borrow hers!



April 13:

When Lee was a little boy, his mom would put him on the train in San Diego during the summers to go visit his dad in Thousand Oaks.  He always had a stop at the Fullerton train station.... and when we stopped for lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory there, he recognized the building.  Eerie!



April 14:

Cory got to play a murderer in the one act he was cast in for the HW Playwrights' Festival.  Please don't say "typecasting."



April 15:

Sabrina's school choir when to a big competition/music festival down in Orange County.... and won every prize they could possibly win.  Pretty impressive for a middle school competing in a high school competition!.... To top it all off, they got invited to perform at Carnegie Hall!...  Somebody remind again why the public schools are cutting music out of their curriculum?



April 16:

Nothing says Palm Sunday like cute kids waving palm fronds.  Somewhere in this gang are Emma, Emily, Katie and other kids we love.  And just outside the frame are a whole lot of parents warning that a palm frond is not a weapon.



April 17:

Okay, fine, so he's a murderer, but at least he has some remorse.  Here's Cory in his last performance at the Playwrights Festival, agonizing...



More to come!

WHERE DID APRIL GO??

We delivered our script and headed to the mountains.  And I wanted to blog, but I was (a) deeply engrossed on a pair of books and (b) fighting a massive headache the whole time (I think I was allergic to something in our condo).  So, well, I just didn't.

And when we got back, we dove into yet another rewrite on this script (which I should be able to talk about in a month or so).  I want to talk about the books I read, and I will, as soon as we deliver the *next* draft of the script next week....

Meanwhile, here's some more pics!

March 29:

Cats fit in the windowsill, children fit in the snow....  Here is our Leia.  I am so happy she is nestled at the windowsill, because it means she isn't draped across my legs as I work, pinning me down so I don't dare get up.



March 30:

A sad little tree in Santa Monica.  There are days I feel like this.



March 31:

This is the restroom behind the Chipotle in Studio City.  Nice of them to let us know.



April 1:

This is the day we delivered our script, at 1:30 a.m., after a 19-hour straight writing binge.  So no wonder I was questioning my eyes when I walked past this....



April 2:

There's a little stretch in Studio City that has the real potential to become a "burger district."  Since there was a line at the new Umami Burger there, we walked down the block to The Counter.  My burger wasn't quite so photogenic (all grilled onions and dried cranberries), but here's Lee's.



April 3:

We got to Mammoth and checked in to our condo, only to find that the snow was higher than our 2nd floor windows on one side of the building!  This is the view from our bedroom window.  And as it turned out, one of our bedroom windows was broken.  So we got the chance to learn that an igloo really can be quite warm and toasty.



April 4: 

Lee and Sabrina at the top of the mountain... With the top-of-the-mountain sign close to buried under the 30' base of snow!



April 5:

From the top of the mountain to the top of California.  Mammoth is the 2nd highest mountain in CA.... and from the top, one can see Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain.



April 6:

A little Bananagrams on a spring break evening.  I guess I didn't keep my columns as straight as I should have.  But seriously, what is wrong with the words "zipqua" and "renterdrip"?  We decided "renterdrip" is what happens when a renter breaks the plumbing and doesn't let the landlord know.  And Cory spent the rest of the week muttering things like, "For the love of zipqua!"



April 7:

I love it when the world goes black-and-white.  We got almost a foot of snow one night, and opened our balcony door to see this sight.



April 8: 

Our friends Eve and Jefferson on the top of the mountain with Sabrina.



April 9:

For Christmas, all the moms in our mother-daughter book group gave our daughters "Prudent Advice," a book of random advice a mom wrote to her newborn daughter.  And we all wrote our own comments throughout.  When we got together in April, our girls took turns reading our comments to each other.  Fun!



April 10:

My small group is sad to see Cheryl leave for a few months -- but happy for the reason:  She's getting married, then heading straight to the set of her movie being filmed.  Here's good-bye for the next few months.



April 11:

We had to power through the last draft of our script in two weeks.  Then we're told they need another draft, and could we have it in one week.  Oh my.  Lee immediately went out to buy donuts, which as everyone knows, is at the top of the list of approved writer fuel.  Notice that my donut is sitting right on my computer keyboard, as if to add a little extra power and zest to the script.



...And now I am ashamed to admit that I have missed a few days of photos.  Too much writing.  But I will post more, and I will finish this script, and I will have more to say....