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Daniel was talking about how he can’t wait for winter, when the temps will come down out in the desert. He said, “I just want to go out to the desert with my chick. I’ll ride my dirt bike and she can take pictures of rocks.”

He was talking to our daughter, Catherine, age 18, who laughed her head off. One, because her dad called her mom his “chick,” and two, because she knows I do take pictures of rocks.

So I’ve had basically everything I need to set up a darkroom for a long time now. I just kept thinking that I don’t have space to do it in. Mainly because the trays I have for the chemicals are so large. But this weekend I dug everything out that I’ve got and realized I have some tiny trays that’ll fit 5x7s. I set it all up in the kids’ bathroom:

I had to ride my bike to the local photo store to get some paper and new chemicals (the stuff I already have is really expired). I had to ride my bike because our car is still being fixed, and Daniel was putting a new radiator in the truck. Good thing we live in southern Cali where anything you could possibly need is within bike-riding distance. Anyway, I didn’t get a darkroom light because I thought a lightbulb I already had would work, but it turns out it’s not darkroom safe. So I have to wait till next week when I can go get another light bulb.

Gonna be fun!

Awhile back Nathaniel and I were walking down the street in downtown LA on a Saturday and they were filming something for NCIS. I think I posted about it—the dark-haired girl was strutting down the street to the BeeGees. Well here it is:

Here’s the pic I took of the sidewalk they were filming on:

Kinda fun to see the finished product now!

I had some fun with the lensbaby macro and some Star Wars Pez dispensers we’ve had sitting around for a long time. I think Daniel’s sister gave them to us for Christmas.

I saw Ted Leo a couple weeks ago. I went with one of Daniel’s co-workers, she’s into going to shows and she doesn’t drink so she’s a fun show buddy for me. She’d never heard Ted Leo. He’s kind of hard to describe if you’ve never heard him. Sort of unique, although when you get familiar with him you can definitely hear Billy Bragg and Joe Jackson’s influence on him.

This was my fourth time seeing him. We got there kind of late, and they were still letting people into the venue. Somehow the venue was totally messed up in how they were letting people into the club and it took literally hours for them to get everyone in (if doors opened on time). When we were finally at the door, about to get in, the drummer for the band walked up, and security almost didn’t let him in. Ted was there trying to get some of his friends in on the guest list and security kept insisting they get in line like everyone else. Finally someone at the head of the line let Ted’s friends cut in front of them. It was ridiculous.

But I managed to snag a stage spot. I didn’t bring my digital camera because I wasn’t sure if the venue would allow it, and it’s heavy and if I didn’t get a stage spot, I didn’t want to have to carry it all night. I should have brought it. I did bring a little film camera but the pictures came out all bad. Here’s a couple.

I managed to snag a setlist after the show. Here it is:

He did a bunch of new stuff, which has a lot of stops and starts in it. And some of my favorite songs from Shake the Sheets—although not the title track, which is probably my very favorite. He did “Me and Mia,” though, another favorite. One thing I like about Ted is he writes stuff that is very supportive of women’s issues. “Me and Mia” is about eating disorders—”Mia” is slang for bulemia, “Ann” means anorexia.

Last night we were playing a Cranium game called Hoopla. If you’ve never played any of the Cranium games, I suggest you check them out. Hoopla is our favorite. It’s a guessing game where you give clues by various methods, like charades or drawing pictures. One reason we like it is there’s no winner—everyone is playing together against the clock. This is important for a family with more than one person who is a bad loser, and an even worse winner.

The game has various people, places or things on cards, and you draw cards. You have to give clues for everyone else to guess what is on your card. Everyone is allowed to know if the card is a who, what, or where.

Elijah had a where card and he had to draw clues for it. This is how his brain works. Ready for this? (Warning: potty humor ahead.)

He drew the curve of someone’s naked behind and a big piece of poop coming out of it. Then he drew arrows at the poop, big arrows, and said, “Only think about this!”

We were guessing: Poop, excrement, bowel movement, feces…you get the idea. Like any of those are a “where” or would be on a Hoopla card!

So finally we asked if could possibly draw another clue. He drew two people facing each other and one was saying, “I’m breaking up with you!”

Divorce? Break up?

No. No.

Finally I got it: “DUMPING!”

He turned the card over. The word was “Dump.”

We were literally falling over we laughed so hard. Elijah still doesn’t understand why we thought it was so funny. I said, “You couldn’t draw a garbage truck dumping garbage onto a big heap of trash?”

I still laugh out loud just thinking about it.

Guitarist Brad Shepherd from the Hoodoo Gurus recently had surgery to remove some cancer. Sending positive vibes his way…

I was going to post some Eurythmics videos but they have embedding disabled. Annie Lennox can give me goosebumps. This was always my favorite video of theirs:

Love Is A Stranger

I just love the wigs…Especially the dark one.