We sent Ethan off for his first day of middle school today. He's going to Manhattan Beach Middle School, which is about a mile from home.

Maybe a little out of focus (aren't we all), but I wanted to show that Beth Szymanski came to visit us in LA. It turns out that LA draws a lot of visitors! We went to the Getty, in spite of Ethan's protests that he'd 'been there before.'

Hotel Green-Ward hosted an excellent visit from the Parkers, including trips to Dodger Stadium, Universal City, Venice and Manhattan beach. Here they all are lined up for departure.

Falcon-1 Flight 003 launch, and the place to be was the command van, where data streamed through from Kwaj. Here's propulsion expert Tom Muller studying the screens.

Our cats have fleas...so we're trying to clean up their acts. Here's Tekiah getting a bath. Too bad there's no audio; she makes a lovely noise.

Tekiah getting her bath.

080704 Kralls' Visit to LA

The Edmumonds-Krall clan came to visit L.A. and we got together on the beach for the 4th of July.

Last Friday marked the end of Ethan's first week of Rock Kamp, and the boy rocked out with his buddies performing 'Killing in the Name' by Rage Against the Machine. You Tube video to follow!

080621 Gunion Run

Saturday night was hot, and the full moon had passed, so we decided it was time to go see the California Grunion running. We took Ethan and his friend Clayton and drove about 15 miles down to San Pedro, where the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium runs a Grunion Greeting program. The first sign that this was going to be something other than a few naturalists looking at fish was when we encountered the line of cars getting into the parking lot. The whole thing was very well run, and we spent the evening in the aquarium, where we checked out the regular exhibits, watched a (40-year old) film about Grunion, and got a chance to hatch Grunion fry by agitating eggs in jars of sea water. Then we duly marched down to the beach and waited...and waited...and waited. Eventually I believe I saw a couple of grunion, but they were easily outnumbered 100:1 by spectators. We tried to be quiet and not spook them, but it is difficult for several hundred people ranging from 3 to 80 years old to move quietly around a beach in the dark. Maybe next year we'll find a secluded beach in Baja to try again.

Ethan's class has been studying the American Revolution, and yesterday they had a multi-media experience called 'Walk Through the Revolution' which is one of the high points of the year (so they say). Ethan played Rochambeau.

Ethan fed the Lorikeets at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach today. Slideshow.

Our Pesach table was nearly full, with 4 Frankpitts (who had been visiting for 10 days from Devon), 4 Marcos and the three of us.

Tracy, Marcus, Georgina and Edward visited us in April and enjoyed our sunny spring as well as the arrival of Passover.

Seriously, our friends Glenn and Andrea got married on a baseball diamond, and had a reception with hot dogs and pretzels.

080329 Palos Verdes Del Cerro Park

We wanted a walk, but although it was sunny down at sea level, Palos Verdes was misted in.

Purim of the Caribbean. This be our final word on Purim for 5768. Arrrr Men.

Karen bought me an Indo Board balance trainer for my birthday, so now I can surf in the comfort of our computer room.

Purim is here again. I think that today was the first day in six months that Ethan has left the house without his Faux Hawk hairdo. Not that this is too much better.

Today we celebrated 'Michael Mitzvah Day' by going out into the neighborhood and doing good things. Our team picked up pine cones in the local park, to make the walking easier under foot. Torrential overnight rains turned into a sunny day -- as is the way of So Cal.

And Dave 'the pirate' spent part of an LAX lay-over enjoying an exquisite spring day in the South Bay with us.