Violet's First Concert

 A couple of months ago, Violet mentioned she loves a folk band called The Oh Hellos, so I looked them up and saw that they had a tour coming up in the fall. We bought tickets, and on Saturday, Stace and I took her to her first real concert!

The venue was down in L.A., at a smaller club with a capacity of about 1,500. 

If you're curious about the numbers at the corner of this photo, and a few others below, these are photos I took off the Internet because they're better than the ones we took on our phones.

The whole concert was general admission, and standing, with a balcony ringing the perimeter. We were upstairs at the restaurant having pizza, and walked out and realized we'd have a pretty good view from right there. 

Violet took this photo on her phone.

This was from the outside patio - we were pretty close to downtown L.A. 

These next pics are from the band's Instagram page. We bought a few CDs in August and listened to them nonstop on our Sequoia trip, so we were familiar with the music. It's lively and fun, with a nine-member band on stage! Drums, guitars, banjos, fiddles - very high quality musicanship throughout. These are the two lead singers, sister and brother Maggie and Tyler Heath.

Violet had SUCH a good time; it was wonderful to watch her sing along, enjoying herself so much. And for a girl who can't stand busy cities, she loved the experience enough to mention she'd like to see other bands she enjoys, when they are on tour.

There's just nothing like live music!

Saturday Summer Fun

I met up with my lady friends at Marstons on Saturday - we could have talked all day!

Cheers! So much to catch up on - summer trips, kids going away to college...

On Saturday evening, Stace and I went to the Concert in the Park, because a Fleetwood Mac tribute band was playing.

It was absolutely packed. See the stage, far away on the right side?

Wall to wall!

The city has new lights on the exercise stairs, which we saw for the first time. 

People climb these stairs to nowhere, just to get exercise. It's crazy. And they love them. Huh.

Earlier on Saturday, Stace and I cleaned up the garage and found lots of things to donate and throw away. That felt good!

Cora went to D&D at Logan's house.

Week in Review

 Our last few days at home before our trip to England!

Violet and I went to Ojai on Monday, while Cora went to D&D (and came home early after feeling sick). 

Violet got the idea in her head that she wanted to explore Ojai properly. It's a great destination town, but all her previous trips were after camping for the weekend at Wheeler Gorge, when we're dirty and ready for a shower.

The town is full of galleries, food and drink, boutiques, and Spanish architecture. This building is the post office!

The Ojai Valley Museum here was closed - we'll have to go back on a day it's open. We also looked at the famous Bart's Books, a used book store that's mainly outdoors.

On Tuesday, I caught up with my college friend Melanie in Montrose. And on Wednesday, I visited Kelly's house to see their addition, and we went to the Hollywood Bowl to see a folk concert. Such an amazing venue! We enjoyed a picnic dinner prior, as most people do when they come here.

Just some kitty cuteness! I share pics of Seb with his friends here because it doesn't happen all that often. They all get along fine, but they don't sleep on each other frequently. 

Evie LOVES Violet's sheepskin. She'll lie on it, make biscuits, and lick it.

Just because we love them!

Spring Break

It's Spring Break week!

I was happy to have tea with Christina - with her working nearly full time, we don't see each other often enough. It was great catching up at a new tea room on Main Street in Newhall.

In the evening, I had dinner with Christina, Tiffany, Liz and Melissa.

Meanwhile, Stace has caught the cold that went around our family, and was sick enough to need to stay home! Very unusual.

Thankfully he recovered enough to be able to attend the Stereophonics show he and Jim had tickets for, also at the Wiltern.

We spent part of a day on a tour of New York Film Academy, an acting conservatory and college she's considering for the future.

It was a great afternoon, followed by some shopping in a part of Burbank with a lot of vintage stores - and Porto's! - an L.A. favorite Cuban bakery. I picked up goods for dinner and a nice coffee.

 NYFA had an amazing library with film scripts and movies - you can take out a script, and there were hundreds, and watch the film after reading through the script. Great way to see how things come together, and what changes are made.

Violet got a pair of pants she'll wear to Ren Faire at a thrift store in Burbank. The girls are spending this week getting their outfits ready - while watching shows, they're creating their own chain mail jewelry.

On Thursday, Colleen and I got together with the girls and went thrifting. We ended up going to a few stores, and also to San Fernando Coffee Co. 

Stace and I got out to see Cats, the Musical, at the Canyon Theatre Guild. Our friend Jill was one of the lead cats. 

We also went to the Cowboy Festival for a couple of hours, getting our favorite peach cobbler and watching a bit of music.

I also went through some of the stuff that had been under Violet's bed, and discovered my collection of cloth diapers. The ones that were in good shape, I was able to send to a mama who covered the shipping cost. Hopefully they can get some more use.

Stace got the cat treats out, and, surprise, found himself popular.

JT and Jim and the kids stopped by on their way home from Yosemite on their spring break. Callie had fun with Winston.

Snow Patrol

Stace and I had a fun and exciting Tuesday night, heading down to see Snow Patrol at a classic Los Angeles concert venue. 

Though we enjoy their music, we haven't seen them often - the most memorable time was when we were newlyweds, and Snow Patrol was looking to break the States. 

They were playing at the venerable Amoeba Records in Hollywood, and because one of Stace's friends from back home had sent us a CD, we knew of them and went to watch. 

Tiny stage, not too many there, and a meet and greet after where they all signed Final Straw and Gary Lightbody asked Stace about how he liked living in California. 

 

Then they hit, REAL big, and got very expensive to watch. But, 20 years later, they were at the Art Deco Wiltern, and we met up with JT and Jim for our night out. 

The Wiltern is in Koreatown, and Stace and I got there early enough for dinner, so we hit up a Korean/Mexican fusion place that was delicious, and affordable. You know, the kind of place where your dinner bill is less than the parking at the theater...

They performed all the hits we love, and a few off their newer CDs, too. Stace has their latest two, though there's a few in the middle we don't have. 

Anyway, it was a brilliant night out!

Week in Review

We went to an escape room for Grandma's birthday, by the Northridge mall. (We have basically run out of escape room options in SClarita, because Cora has done nearly all of them!) 

It was a newer place, but a large chain, so very well organized and rooms with cool themes and props. We did a pirate-themed room, and managed to escape (with a few clues)!

On Friday I had an appointment that took me near a new coffee place I'd been wanting to try, in Canyon Country. San Fernando Coffee Company did not disappoint! I had a vanilla cold brew with horchata cold foam and it was yummy.

Later Friday, I treated myself and Violet to lunch at a newly reopened Indian restaurant in Castaic. It's owned by the same people who own Royal Tandoor, a local favorite. We got two lunch bowls, which were delicious and big enough to feed the whole family over the weekend! We'll definitely be back. 

On Saturday evening, Stace and I went to College of the Canyons' Performing Arts Center, where Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was playing. They've been rocking the big band/swing world for over 30 years, and are so awesome live. There's something special about seeing really excellent musicians playing live; and one of the trumpeters is a local boy, a Hart High grad! Loved our 5-minute drive home, too.

Earlier Saturday, Stace worked on the Tiny House and then on a project at home, fixing our swinging bench. Violet and I went to Colleen and Rigo's for a late lunch with another family we're all friendly with, after taking a nature walk and getting fabric and a pattern at Joann's.

On Sunday, Nick, Melanie and Eloise came over for a few hours. Ellie and I made pumpkin muffins, and I gave her a special job: putting chocolate chips on top! Yes, I'm a good auntie.

I loved seeing her wear the apron we kept from when our girls were small.

Stace and Nick installed a new bumper on their Subaru, as they lost their prior bumper on their drive home from Vegas when they picked up Poppy from the breeder. Strange but true story! Thankfully, the job went smoothly. We all enjoyed a lasagna dinner together after (except for Cora, who was playing D&D).
 

Final Week of Summer

 I tried a new French bread recipe the other day that came out beautifully - using store-bought flour.

The girl are now registered for school. Here's Violet on Tuesday at Hart, where she'll take two classes. She also went to registration at LPA, where she'll take the rest of her classes, on the online/at-home platform. 

Cora got registered for her senior year Monday, but I forgot to take photos since I didn't go in with her. She'll have a weird schedule, taking a full three classes every other day, and only one class on the opposite day. Her school uses a block schedule, with three longer classes each day instead of 6 shorter ones. She'll also take an online class at the college.

Also on Tuesday, Nick came over to watch the latest Ghostbusters film with us during the day, continuing our tradition.

Stace and I went over to Central Park to watch the Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band entertain the Concerts in the Park crowd Saturday night.

After Cora's registration, we had dentist appointments, and then went to Liz's house for a summer's end pool party.

The seniors!! Cora and Chris, in the green, were kindergarten classmates and now are graduating! And all four were at the same elementary school from first grade on, when Cami came to the school.

And these were the little siblings, now high school freshmen.

It was a fun time reconnecting with everyone and eating well!

Violet went to her friend's house, and when I went to pick her up all the lights came on and the car wouldn't restart. Stace later determined it's the alternator. 

He bought a new one and sought to replace it, and in so doing, part of the brittle plastic radiator disintegrated. So I ended up getting a new radiator from Stacey's House of Mazdas. It was a frustrating job, because the radiator he initially bought leaked from a bad seam, and he had to do the whole job over again, in the heat. Eventually, he got it all done.

I took my parents to the airport, and Dad made it clear I could use his car, while mine was out of commission as Stace worked on it. So I drove Cora to Logan's house for D&D and got rear-ended as I exited the freeway. It wasn't bad, and the guy stopped and we exchanged information, so all will be fine in the end. But it did bring back a lot of emotion, being the first situation like this since my big accident. Cora was amazing in helping calm me down.

Also this week, JT and her kids came by, and finally met the kittens! And we had Colleen, Rigo, Lucas and Liana over for dinner and some pool time, on our final night of summer break.