Catching Up Part 4 – Laundry Day - 31 December 2012

This post is about .some of the less eventful, every day doings Coccinelle and I have been sharing.

Time to go to the laundromat time (past time, actually).  Because it can be a month, sometimes more, between visits, I always have several loads to do and use the larger machines:

While we were waiting for the wash to be done, Coccinelle’s eye was caught by the various vending machines which dispense food, laundry soap, candy, and little toys.  She was particularly interested in this one, so we spent a few extra quarters and were very excited when she got not only a green martian, but then a purple one, two – her favorite color!

Finally everything has been washed and dried, and is hung up or folded and ready to be put back into baskets and taken home:

(Yes, I agree, that's a lot of laundry for just one person...but it's bedding and towels and furniture covers for the dogs, too....)

On the way home, Coccinelle helped me pump gas for the car:

Catching Up Part 3 – Movie Magic Part 2 -- 3 & 7 December 2012

For the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to work from time on time on an excellent TV series, and fortunately have had several days on the show while Coccinelle’s been with me.  The pictures in this post are from her initial visit to the soundstages where the show shoots most of its interior scenes.

Here she is at video village (the area where I sit along with the director, usually the cinematographer, often the writer, sometimes a producer) which has been set up right by where we'll be shooting the first scene of the day.  On the left is a motor home which is actually a set for the show (that is, it, um “plays” the motor home/headquarters of one of the recurring characters):

 .…and this is pretty much the same view, just as we’re getting about to shoot the scene; the actors are inside the motor home (along with a lot of crew who are just outside the view of the cameras -- it gets pretty tight in there):

Here we are on another stage; to the left are the backs of flats, the other sides sides of which are the inside "walls" of different various sets:

Here, the wall on the left is there to be seen through the window of an office set where it appears to be a the bottom floor of a building “next door”:

Coccinelle visits movie jail...

Also shooting at the same studio is the new show “Vegas” which is takes place during the early days and development of Las Vegas:

 

Catching Up Part 2 – Thanksgiving 2012

This year we had Thanksgiving at my friend Joy’s house, where she hosted about 18 people for dinner, both family and friends.  I was asked to bring appetizers, which Coccinelle was helped to prepare.  First we made cheese crisps – very easy to do and oh, so delicious to eat: shred some cheese (these were parmesan and cheddar), make little circles on parchment paper, put ‘em in the oven until the cheese melts and starts to bubble, let cool, and eat:

The we added dill to cream cheese which was destined for endive “spoons” -- half topped with a slice of heart of palm, half mixed with smoked salmon and topped with capers:

 

Dinner was turkey with all the trimmings, plenty of wonderful side dishes, and non-meat entrees for the vegetarians, including a really delicious kale salad.  The table was long, stretching from the dining room into the living room, and I’m afraid this was the best shot I got of everyone toasting the holiday (and didn't notice that Coccinelle is on the other side of the silver salad bowl):

Catching Up Part 1 – Neighborhood Farmers Market – 11 November 2012

I am SO-O-O behind in posting to Coccinelle's blog!  We have been out and about and lots of pictures have been taken, but rather than doing one enormous post with everything, I'm going to do it as if I've been doing it all along...just getting it all online in the course of a day or two.  So here we go....

Over the last several years, weekly “farmers markets” have flourished all around the Los Angeles area.  The markets vary in size, vendors, and day of the week, but the common denominator is that the fresh produce suppliers are (or at least are assumed to be) smaller, often family owned and run, farmers who come from within a few hundred miles of the LA.  Many of them grow organically (without chemical fertilizers or pesticides), with limited and more natural pest controls, or are transitioning from chemical to organic.

We have one every Sunday in my neighborhood.  It’s relatively small, but there are still plenty of stalls selling fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, freshly prepared food, as well as some non-food items like jewelry, art prints, scarves etc.  The main part of the market is set up in a parking lot where there are a few dozen or so stalls, with maybe another eight or ten set up along the sidewalk.

There are two or three where I regularly shop for veggies.  These leafy greens come from a family farm, and the stall is run by the mom and her kids:

 

Here are carrots from a farm that has on-the-farm activities such as hayrides and pick-your-own-pumpkins in the fall, and pick your own fruit in the summer:

The Nicholas Family Farm stall is where I get my fruit.  This time of year it’s a variety of apples, citrus, and grapes, as well pomegranates, persimmons, juices, etc.  That’s mom Penny Nicholas posing with Coccinelle:

 

 Oh, and some months back while coming up from the parking garage across the street from where the market is held, I spotted what appears to be an alien instruction message posted on a small electrical junction box next to the stairwell; sure wish I knew what it said….