Oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die?

Frrrrrraaaaaaacccccckkkk.......

We're Number 75

Wood is number 75 of most common surnames (I would have guessed higher, actually)...but up 3 from 1990, interestingly. Try your name here. This is why I hyphenate. Well, that, and I CAN, because I am not chattel. Thank you.

Save These Dolphins (Hayden Rawks)

Anyone notice I have gone a little YouTube crazy?

So they announced yesterday that Hayden Panettiere (the cheerleader of "save the.." fame from NBC's Heroes) has a warrant out for her arrest in Japan for trying to stop a dolphin hunt last month. In this day and age, where so many young celebs' only noteworthy actions are crotch flashes and trips to rehab, I really have to admire her.

So, here's the video (graphic & sad, be WARNED):


And, NOW:

Write to the Japanese Embassy and urge them to stop the yearly slaughter of thousands of dolphins!

We can put pressure on Japan and help bring a stop to this cruel tradition, it just takes a second:
http://takeaction.oceana.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=17309

Those Subversive Long-Hairs

Today's offering: "Pleasant Valley Sunday", The Monkees

The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
Seranade the weekend squire, who just came out to mow his lawn

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care

See Mrs. Gray she's proud today because her roses are in bloom
Mr. Green he's so serene, He's got a t.v. in every room

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away
I need a change of scenery

Ta Ta Ta...

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...


See? Even then, they knew the 'burbs sucked.

The Best Bags

Obviously now everyone knows the correct answer to "Paper or plastic?" is "Neither." I have had the same string grocery bags since 1995 and I love those, don't get me wrong, but I don't know how many times I have been caught without them (too many). So that is why I am CRAZY about are these bags I got at Claire's, the accessory store at the mall, of all places. They were $1 with any purchase and they are fantastic! They're made out of umbrella-material nylon and they pack away into a teeny tiny tote bag. I just saw them recently and they were about $6 now, still in a bin by the register. They have a variety of colors if rainbow polka dots are to chicky for you. I keep them in my purse and I am never, ever without a bag anymore.

A Little Perspective, Please

Actual video of "Earthrise" and "Earthset" from the moon. Very cool!

Go See This Guy

OK, kinda late now, but a week ago we saw this guy who does a one-man show of all three original Star Wars movies (yeah, 4-6, WHATEVER!! 1 to 3, you are DEAD to me). The whole show is one hour and FUNNY. We scored discount tix at showup.com. What I don't get is that Greg and I bought before Jamie and his friend and yet they were two rows in FRONT of us? WTF? Oh well, small theater, it was actually the top half of the former IMAX at the Scottsdale Galleria. That place didn't get anything right, eh?

The show plays until the 11th and after that he travels, look for him at a theater not far, far away.

Good News for Oregon

When we first visited Oregon in November of 2004, they had just passed measure 37 which was what is commonly referred to as 'takings legislation' which heavily restricts the ability of government to regulate property by zoning. Most people, when you talk to them about it, like zoning, as they don't want a factory or motel built in that nice empty lot across from their house. But on the surface, Americans, a freedom-loving bunch, viscerally connect with the notion that people should be able to do what they want with their land, and with ballot measures, a lot of times it's the visceral that wins out.

Which brings us to the present day. Yesterday Oregon voters overwhelmingly approved measure 49 which strictly curtails the effects of 37 and will hopefully keep the worst consequences of the former measure from taking place. A lot of that will depend on the courts. The story says this was an expensive and vicious fight, so it's nice to see that the good guys won. Yay, Oregon!

Jamie's photos from the party last weekend

Here's Jamie's version of the Pirates of the Carribean ride skeleton (rags blowing, wheel turning - nice effect):

Our host Random Jedi Jamie and his gal Dawn of Gryffindor:


The annual and each year more elaborate Pirate Bar hosted by Greg:

Such cuties - Amelie, Eleanor, and Eileen:

Alex, me (pirate/coctail waitress), Greg (pirate/bartender), Connie, Irene, and Vik:

Fun party. Grownups are so silly.

Joss is back!

FINALLY Joss Whedon is doing a new show! Joss is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity. He's teaming up with Eliza Dushku (Faith on Buffy) for a show due next fall by the name of "Dollhouse". Let's hope that it lands on a network that will give it a chance before dropping it (Fox - looking at you). For lots of discussion on all things Whedon, try Whedonesque.com.

And while I am on the topic of TV news, The Amazing Race is back on Sunday (against the Simpson's Treehouse of Horror - boo!) and at least some of the teams espouse the hippies' race phil-osophy, so let's hope it's a good one.

Hard Sun

On the soundtrack of Sean Penn's new move "Into the Wild", Eddie Vedder covers (yes, covers) a 1989 tune by the name of "Hard Sun" from the band Indio of Toronto. It took some digging to find it. If you were listening to alternative radio in the late 80's as we were lucky enough to have here with KUKQ, you may have heard it, too. Some wonderful person has posted it here. Listen!

Oh, and on a side note, in another one of those god-I-feel-old moments last month, my nephew Kiefer (18) and I were listening to his Fall Out Boy cd and they covered "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. And I had to explain who Joy Division was...and who New Order was (is?). Ugh!

More on the World Without Us

I was just checking out their web site, and it's really cool. The multimedia art on NYC is neat, and this week's journal post is of an exchange of the author with the formal local Sierra Club staffer, Raena Honan (now of Flagstaff), regarding population and the club's policies. Nice.

Plastic Blows

I'm in the middle of reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman and I just finished the part about our plastics. There is a continent-sized island of plastic in the middle of the Pacific and we don't know if it will EVER go away. There's an article about the plastic graveyard from the SF Chronicle today here. I'm only midway through the book but I highly recommend it. I can also loan it out once I am through so let me know if you are interested. I just need to find it, I left it at the beach place somewhere....

Matching Donations at UNICEF

Double your donation right now at UNICEF. Also, don't forget about Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, you can pick up your boxes at your local Hallmark Gold Crown store or Pier 1.

On Death, Cats, Dr. King, and Hollywood

Saturday morning we were watching Elizabethtown, a Cameron Crowe film starring Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, and Susan Sarandon (who my dad says he had a date with in middle school, but he had no idea she was "that girl" until maybe 5 years ago). Anyway, towards the end of the film Bloom's character drives across America scattering his dad's ashes in various places. Amelie was watching with us and first we had to explain cremation. We related it to our dearly departed cat, Mookie, who sits, cremated, on a shelf in our house, and has for um, 4 years now. We discussed scattering those ashes, but that would just make the house (more) dusty with cat cremains so we offered a funeral. So she cried, briefly, over missing Mookie. Then, there was a scene where he visits the scene of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in Memphis. Amelie was very upset to learn that Dr. King was assassinated (and what that even meant). When I considered the appropriateness of our viewing choices that morning, I wasn't really considering the consequences of having to discuss these life issues with a just-turned-5-year-old. So, she cried about that, too, briefly (and I am really not sure how sincerely, she is sooo dramatic sometimes, honestly), and for the next four hours we were fielding questions on the mechanics of the assasination (I had to quickly google to get James Earl Ray's name on my phone at lunch, I admit, but I am LOUSY with names).

Lunch was in NoHo, L.A.-speak for North Hollywood. We trekked up there to check out North Hollywood Scooters, one of the better scooter shops in the country, as the industry mags report it. Nice people, low-key operation. Then, we drove around for a few blocks, saw the liquor store where Cher was mugged in Clueless (NoHo is actually in the Valley), and stopped at Pit Fired Pizza, which was decent.

After that, we toured back into Hollywood and decided to cruise a bit of the famous Mulholland Drive. In retrospect, I was wishing I had a $6 star map, it would have added to the interest a bit. We drove the non-Beverly Hills section (Laurel Cyn to the 101), so it was a bit less intensely populated with the homes of the famous. We did get a nice view of the Hollywood sign which was across the 101 and up another hill from where we were at.

Since we were doing the whole tourist thing that day, we headed to Universal CityWalk, which is like the Universal Studios version of Downtown Disney. At least at DD you can park for 3 hours free and then validate after that. Here it was $10 to park, at a MALL, and the only validation was if you were there for a movie. So lame. We ate at Wolfgang Puck's (it sounds so fancy - it's not, really). Then got ourselves back to the relative quiet of the South Bay.

Do I even need to mention how traffic sucked? By L.A. standards it surely could have been worse - they had the I-5 closed down that weekend, I read about a family that had to wait that out near Anaheim, and the accident was in Santa Clarita by Magic Mountain. If you have ever been there you know these two places are in separate counties. They were parked on the freeway for 5 hours, in the middle of the night. Good god. Living in this place is so not for me.

Blog Action Day

It's the day for everyone to blog for Planet Earth, so first off I want to congratulate Al Gore on his Nobel Peace Prize for his work in raising climate change awareness. Awesome!!

More in a bit.

Mickey's Halloween Treat

We also did the Disneyland Halloween party for Amelie's birthday.

Done! Now time to paint.

They finished and it's nice! Plus, somehow that storm went just to the east of us and missed us by BLOCKS. So now the wood must be painted before the sun kills it. So I set off on a google quest for ecologically-friendly exterior paints (much harder to find than interior), and lo and behold, a nicely priced company, Ecological Paint, is based in Tucson! Here is their site. They say that they can match any color. Cool! Now, to pick some pretty colors....

Just My Luck

NATURALLY, for the first time all month (all summer, practically) that the weather is this:

The one day that my roof looks like this:

Perfect.

Pizza Hut Back on the List

Well, a while back I posted that Pizza Hut's sauce was non-vegetarian. Today our office is ordering in pizza, and of COURSE, it's PH. SO I thought I would get an update as I always hate to turn down free, meatless food! And the good news is, they reformulated, and the sauce is now OK. They don't say where their cheese enzymes come from, but honestly, I usually cross my fingers and hope for the best on that. But anyway, for anyone interested, here's a good resource. I'm thinking about cutting back on my dairy, just to avoid the methane from those dairy cows. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I still doubt we'll be regular patrons, too much good local pizza around, but when we're at an airport or on the run, it's good to know we have options.

Incidentally, I am really surprised at the lack of quality pizza in Redondo Beach. You would think that no Italians ever moved to L.A. The pier pizza is O.K. The funniest yet is when we ordered a fresh mozzarella/basil pizza from a place in Torrance and they put that on TOP of the regular cheese. You have GOT to be kidding me!