Dame Edna as the first night out

Saturday the 20th will be the first time Sarah and I are going out for the afternoon / evening together and having a babysitter. Oh La La is going to take care of little Claire while we go to the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles to see Dame Edna. It should be hilarious, she is a riot, and will will possibly learn about Australian culture also :)

I included a clip below here to familiarize those less familiar with Dame Edna's art.

A Kindle, Claire & a Pony

I got a Kindle 2 a couple months ago, partly because i wanted a new toy to play around with and partly because i've always thought something like this would be great for reading the newspaper. I think i am one of a dieing breed; i have a daily subscription to a newspaper (the LA Times currently, San Jose Mercury News before that) and i read it every day, pretty much cover to cover. The Calendar or entertainment section is a trashy, gossipy waste of time, but i digress. I read the paper because TV news is the worst crap available, a slide show of the sensational garbage of the day; nothing more. Watch Good Day LA sometime and let me know what you have learned of the state of the world afterward.

The website versions of newspapers have never really been the same experience as reading it in paper. They always had so much other 'crap' on them, lots of navigation elements, ads in weird places and they never lead you from one story to another very well. So i will read a breaking story online, but anything else i will read on the Kindle.

So at the end of every week there is a foot high stack of papers, i always figured that an electronic delivery of this would be more convenient and would; 1) reduce the amount of paper used 2) reduce the expense of delivery & not have to rely on newspaper delivery folks who are late or throw the paper into the sprinklers, etc.

The cost is about the same, and I have gotten accustomed to it. Originally i had always thought that i would only want to get some sort electronic reader if it's size was similar to a newspaper. The kindle is far smaller, and i always thought i would only want something which would display articles in a couple columns.


One of the unexpected benefits I have found though is that reading a 'normal' paper kind of requires 2 hands and can be a little noisy with the rustling of the paper, etc. The Kindle only requires 1 hand hand basically makes no noise. Therefore it is a great way to get a little reading done when you have to hold an infant. So i can still get my news, and Claire is all soothed, everyone is happy.

When the kindle gets tired and needs a pick-me-up of the plug-in variety, it rides our pony in the living room. :)

Has the Bougainvillea recovered?

We got a Bougainvillea plant when we lived in San Jose. It seemed to do really well there for us. Then we moved to LA. From that point on, the plant seems to be in a state of suspended animation. All of its' leaves will fall off and it will appear to have completely died, then a couple leaves will come back, it will bloom... on and on. But it never appears fully healthy.

Now it has a bunch of leaves on it. Is this the the re-dawning of the bougainvillea? Will it now surge into a thriving plant?

The part of this which drives us crazy is that bougainvillea grows like a weed in LA. It grows by the side of the freeways into bushes that appear more like trees. I keep threatening to transplant ours into the median on our street, where i'm sure it will triple in size within 6 months.