Red Leather Pants

I have always thought Smokey Robinson has the voice of an angel so when I heard that he was playing one of my favorite venues, the Hollywood Bowl, with one of my favorite artists, Lizz Wright, I secured our seats. We try to make it to the iconic Hollywood landmark at least once during the summer and take in it's gorgeous hillside views under the starry, moonlit sky. Like everyone else we bring a picnic basket full of food and wine.

We located our seats and spread out our picnic where we had a perfect sight line of Lizz Wright as she soothed the crowd with some of my favorite songs. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough but at least Smokey didn't keep us waiting like so many prima donnas do. He has to be methuselah by now but he came out on stage in a shiny black suit adorned on either side by young, sexy go-go dancers. Frankly, they were a cheesy and distracting addition to the performance but I guess a guy has to do what he can to hold onto his youth and reputation as a ladies man. His voice is virtually unchanged from his hayday even bringing me to tears during his heartfelt performance of "Ooo Baby, Baby".

Being the legend he is I would expect nothing else from Smokey than a costume change during the show. Quel surpris, however, when that costume turned out to be RED LEATHER PANTS!!! The only thing worse than go-go sluts accompaniment is a 75 year old dude shuffling across the stage donning red leather pants and a flouncy white blouse, (unless you're Tom Jones of course). An image not to leave my unfortunately vivid mind any time soon. Good thing he can still croon or it surly would have been disastrous.

Cancer sucks

My beautiful boy dog has been living with cancer for over a year now. He romps around like a puppy and lives for belly rubs, sniffing his friends butts, and eating as much as we'll allow. Over the weekend we noticed that Jackson was having quite a lot of trouble defecating. My greatest fear was realized when we learned that he has a large tumor in the colon preventing proper elimination. We will not be putting him through another surgery especially since the doctor said that given the location of the mass it would be a very difficult surgery and an even more difficult recovery, if at all. We will not tolerate one second of suffering for our sweet lovebug so I just pray that I understand the right moment to send him over the rainbow. For now, you would never know he has a terminal illness. Our hope is that the medication he's on will move everything through his system "like butta" and he'll live comfortably and normally for as long as possible or at least until God decides it's his turn to have all the joy and love and life that we have enjoyed with my furry little friend.

Keeping America Working

It's been awhile since I've put pen to paper as it were. We've lived in our house 9 years now (9!) and are finally getting around to adding that desperately needed 2nd bathroom. Oh how I've longed for having just few steps to toddle in the middle of the night or the privacy a queen deserves as she contemplates her throne. Over a year ago we secured our funding, hired an architect and started hashing out design plans for a master suite equipped with an en suite bath and walk-in closet. Rather quickly we determined that we weren't going to be able to build how we had always envisioned so the challenge was upon us to get creative. The placement of our new space was Damon's idea and, although the architect presented some interesting plans, I ultimately designed the room myself. With city approval and stamped permits I gave to the go ahead to heave hoe and demolish the bedroom wall that we were building out to gain the extra square footage we need to accommodate the bath. So Damon rounded up neighborhood friends to help out and when I returned home that evening ALL the walls were busted out, not just the ONE we're expanding. I thought Damon had lost his mind so I consulted with our neighbor/contractor/framer/craftsman and he assured me that it was part of the plan. I clearly had no idea how involved this project was going to be. Something to do with a shear wall and steel beams. We aren't even adding a second story and we had to put so much steel in this thing it's solid as a bomb shelter.

Here are a few pictures of our progress. We've been at it since June 14th and I have no idea when we'll finish, assuming we have the money to finish, but it is starting to take shape to the point where we have a sense of the spacial arrangement and a general feeling of what it will be like. We have purchased or at least decided on the finish materials we'll be using, which is supposed to be the fun part but, in all honesty, it's been really difficult (at least for me) to visualize how it will all come together. I'm just hoping that my vision translates as well in reality.

Before: Comfortably living like the Cleavers



Demolition Derby: In and out



I hope the neighbors like the view!



If only Haiti had our building code. Look at all that steel!



Starting to take shape: bedroom in the foreground, bathroom at left rear, closet on the right



What it looks like today



Is Jimmy Hoffa under there?
RIP our savings account. What a nice touch from the concrete guys.