We NEVER go out for Valentine’s Day. (Long story.) Except yesterday a good friend & coworker let me know that she had tickets for a play for tonight and something had come up so they couldn’t go…
SURE! We would love to go!
It’s my first visit to the Pasadena Playhouse, and we’re seeing Sondheim’s “Sunday In The Park With George.”
It’s going to be great!
Filed under Uncategorized
Happy Monday!
Another winter storm moving in.
The high is only going to be in the mid 40’s for the next few days.
We might get some showers, but it won’t be much.
Snow is predicted on the Grapevine, but we won’t be going up there.
Instead I’ll just look at the clouds.
Filed under Photography, Weather
It was a GREAT game, very evenly matched, very tight, comebacks by both theams, could easily have gone either way. In the end, my beloved Chiefs prevailed for their second Super Bowl win in the three Super Bowl appearances in the last four years, and the franchise’s third Super Bowl win overall.
(From The Kansas City Chiefs)
The party here was a ton of fun, a good time was had by all! Tons of snacks, both ours and those brought by friends and guests.
There was much to eat and drink, desserts, all highlighted by BBQ up the ying-yang from world-famous Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City.
In the end, I was grateful to once again pop the champagne.
And now? Sleep. Much needed sleep…
It was a great day!
Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports
If you’ve read this site for very long, you know that I’m a passionate fan of the Kansas City Chiefs football team. (Kansas City is one of the places I grew up, the grade school years.) If you’e American and haven’t been under a rock for the past two weeks, you know that the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl tomorrow against the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s their third trip to the Super Bowl in four years, having won three years ago and lost two years ago.
Tomorrow we’ll be throwing our “traditional” Super Bowl party for family, friends, and coworkers. We’re ready to rock & roll!
We’ve played Tetris with the fridge to get everything in.
The “spare” fridge out on the back porch is responsible for holding all of the cold beer, water, and soft drinks.
The champagne is ready for cooling, the margaritas for mixing, and the red wine for those who swing that way. (We don’t have a ton of the “proper” glassware, but we’re not going to lose a single second of sleep over that. If push comes to shove, we have an industrial sized package of “Chiefs’ Red” Solo cups.
We ordered in an emergency package from Joe’s Kansas City BBQ, a legendary hallmark BBQ site from a city legendary for its BBQ.
Of course we have desserts – I’ve heard a lot about this new cookie place taking the world by storm and they opened one nearby… Why not?!
While I’m obviously hoping for and expecting a Chiefs win, I’m also expecting a legendary Super Bowl between two great teams that are very evenly matched.
We should have invited a cardiologist!
Enjoy the game, y’all!
Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports
In addition to the big tree in the back yard that’s lost about 99% of its leaves (and in my possibly flawed memory is usually like maybe 70% to 75%), there’s a bougainvillea bush there that’s also lost about 99% of its leaves this year, when I don’t remember that happening in any of the four previous winters we’ve been here.
My first concern was that there might be some sort of disease in common or contaminant in the soil that might be killing both, but after a moment’s thought I think that a much better explanation might be the lack of water this year as we went through significant watering restrictions due to the drought.
That’s the BIG change between the previous four years and this one. While we had a significant amount of rain in December and January, the six months prior to that were hot and very dry, with only about a third of the irrigation watering allowed. I can see how that would leave these plants suffering and showing the effects now that they’re having trouble hanging onto their leaves when it gets cooler and windy and stormy. Let’s hope the recent rain lets them come back now that the days are getting longer again.
At least if it dies, the bougainvillea is unlikely to tip over in a Santa Ana wind event and crush the house!
Filed under Climate Change, Photography, Weather
There’s a big, huge tree that’s the central element of our back yard landscaping.
Unlike most deciduous trees in less arid & desert-like environs, this one never has truly lost all of its leaves in the fall and winter.
Some leaves, maybe some years even most of its leaves, even 3/4 of its leaves – no nowhere near all.
Until this year. It was hanging on as normal until the last two or three weeks of rains and strong, almost constant winds. Now, it’s barren.
Probably 98%+ of its leaves are gone and it’s a stark contrast to previous years’ behavior.
I’m hoping that there’s nothing wrong with it, that statistically this is just an outlier of a year. This tree is home to squirrels and a LOT of birds. More importantly, it’s near the house, the winds continue to blow like a demon, and if the tree is diseased or weakened it could easily topple over onto the house. Then we would have to find another place to live and deal with moving, which would no doubt piss me off something fierce.
In the meantime, there’s a certain stark, winter beauty to it outlined against a deep, blue sky on a cloudless day.
At least it’s still 50ºF instead of 15ºF! Otherwise I could be in Ohio or Michigan!
Filed under Photography
If you’re a pilot, you love to hear that the weather is “clear and a million.” That’s good visibility!
But tonight as the Sun set, it wasn’t just clear and a million. It was clear and 832,517,397 kilometers, all the way to Jupiter. (The bright spot visible at the top left.)
It was also 219,199,744 km to Venus, the bright spot in the lower center.
Not bad for your standard Mark I eyeball! Of course, 30 minutes after this it was dark enough to start seeing the stars, which are much farther away. And if we had dark skies (I’m in LA – we don’t) we could see the Andromeda Galaxy…
It’s a big Universe. Go take a look!
Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Sunsets
I’ve mentioned before (here) that WordPress gives you an “atta boy!” notification any time you post more than five or six days in a row. And, as a reminder, I’m easily amused, so it becomes a thing to keep the streak going.
With me, that can go on quite a while! I was at 420 days on June 4, 2021 when I missed the midnight posting deadline by a few seconds and re-started the streak. I was at 245 days in a row on February 5, 2022 when again, I missed the deadline by a minute or so – and started over.
I haven’t missed since.
If not for those two missed deadlines (and to be clear, I did post on those days, just not by midnight local time) it would be 1,032 days in a row. But I’ll take the 365.
Remember getting “perfect attendance” awards at school? Yeah, I was that kid.
And yes, I got beat up for it. *shrug*
One contrail, passing from horizon to horizon.
I didn’t see the plane, but looking at what was overhead on the FlightRadar24 app, it probably came from the south…
…and headed north. Probably a Southwest flight out of San Diego to Sacramento that passed by at 40,000 feet.
The twisty remains of an older contrail? Much more character, much more photogenic. It aged well.
Filed under Flying, Photography, Sunsets, Travel
Again today, a LOT of ravens.
They were filling the sky when I was getting home with groceries.
In an interesting follow up to yesterday’s post, the red-tailed hawks were out as well. (This may again have something to do with why the ravens were carrying on.) I couldn’t see the hawks, but I could hear them – that cry that you hear in the soundtrack of every movie ever made showing the American West. Then, about 30 seconds after this video was finshed, I heard one again, much closer, and spotted one of them diving out of the sun. The cloud of ravens had shifted off a half-block or so down into the canyon, but there were one or two stragglers off by themselves…
*BOOM* Just a cloud of black feathers where the raven and hawk’s paths had intersected.
I don’t know if it was the hawk that had been injured yesterday by the mobbing of the raven pack, and it almost certainly wasn’t the raven who did it (I’m assuming), but the Wheel of Life took another turn right there!
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We Love The Stars Too Fondly 