Category Archives: Life

Bookish Talk, Life

The Sunday Salon: Father’s Day 2014

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The Fam

It’s been a great weekend so far. Due to the fact that none of us enjoy crowds, we celebrated Father’s Day on Saturday by visiting the George C. Page Museum and the La Brea Tar pits. A few years ago, when they added the underground parking structure, they found not only fossils but a near complete mammoth skeleton. Can you believe it? Had they not developed that one section, they never would have known about it. Part of it was on display. I should say, parts of it were all over the museum. They haven’t had the chance to put him back together again.

After the tooling around the museum we hit The Grove for some window shopping and a nice lunch at Maggiano’s. UCLA graduated yesterday too but we managed to slip lunch in before the crowds hit. Our timing could not have been better because when we left, that place was packed.

Today, we relaxed with coffee and then hit church. The Hub was not feeling it but when he got there, he volunteered to sing a song (Take Me Out to the Ball Game) and won an all day retreat package from the church! Breakfast, music, teaching and then a VIP bus ride to Dodger stadium which includes the all-you-can-eat pavilion! He’s pretty happy right now.

Now, we are all back home and just doing our own thing.

The Girl still has two more days of school and summer school starts for The Teen tomorrow. Mid-week, summer day camp begins for The Girl. She’s excited.

Sunday Salon

What am I reading?

I am reading Mr. Mercedes and a little over half way done. I am really enjoying it and don’t want to rush through it too fast, but I am way behind on my book club book, The Goldfinch so I may have to pick up the pace.

What am I cooking?

Tonight? I am not sure. We just had a big lunch and I have stuff to make spaghetti tonight but I am not sure anyone is in the mood for it.

What am I watching?

It was a free HBO weekend for us so I recorded some movies, Moonrise Kingdom and Oblivion. I am thinking we will be in the mood to see Oblivion later. I am not a Cruise fan but he makes some pretty good action flicks.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and to you single moms…happy day to you as well!

Bookish Talk, Life

The Sunday Salon: Not Exactly As Planned

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Sunday Salon

On Friday, the regular school year ended for The Teen. I say “regular” because his sign-language class begins at the community college on June 16th and health and P.E. (yes, P.E. since he dropped the last quarter of track) begins on July 1st. It’s been a rough, rough year for a lot of reasons and the very end of the semester caused me a lot of grief. As a parent, you can’t help but be concerned when things don’t go as planned. I really hope that some lessons can be learned from this past year because if we have another year like this last one, I will lose my mind.

As for The Girl, her last day is June 17th. Her track/award picnic has been rescheduled three times and now it conflicts with The Teen’s baptism! Not sure how we are going to fit it all in. Plus, I am all emotional over the baptism since it is being done at a church different from our own. I am open-minded and all that but I can’t help but feel a little divided over this decision and one made at such a young age. I’ll leave it at that.

As usual, the weekend flew by. After chores and church and the dreaded market, I have maybe an hour or so to read later. Maybe. The Tony Awards might affect that. With all the theater productions these kids have done it’s hard to not watch that one. The Girl will have to watch it tomorrow though because it comes on so late here.

What am I reading?

I have to finish All Day and a Night for a book tour. I think it’s pretty good so far and I am a little over halfway done. Of course, I am also reading Mr. Mercedes. I ran right out and got it on release day but have read maybe twenty pages. I just haven’t had the time this weekend but it’s sitting on the shelf staring at me and it’s killing me that I cannot get to it until later.

What am I cooking?

I am baking some BBQ chicken (to keep it moist) and made a potato-cheese casserole that we’ll have with salad and baked beans. I also made a gluten-free cake with chocolate icing.

What am I watching?

We watched Frozen for the first time yesterday and just watched it again. It was that good. I had no desire to see it at all but after just ten minutes of watching it, I knew I was going to watch the entire thing. We also watched Loser, which is a sweet, funny comedy that I like to watch every now and then. Later, the Tony Awards.

I hope you all had a nice weekend. I have been off of Facebook and Feedly so I haven’t had a chance to see how you are all doing but I am thinking of you all.