Loud

My mother-in-law must think I deserve punishment. Proof: she bought Ira a vuvuzela. To be reasonable, she probably doesn't hold anything at all against me. I think she just saw it and thought that Ira would love it. Guess what? She was right.


We spent a recent Saturday afternoon in Davis. It was pleasant. We rode our bikes around a bit and walked a little bit more. Ira had fun running all around the Arboretum. Here he is above with some gingko leaves. Ira dropped them one by one in the water and we watched the leaf-boats float away. We kept seeing these earthworm stickers/tags/folk art everywhere. I tried to convince Ira that they were warning signs for a giant earthworm on the loose. He didn't fall for it. That kid's too smart!


Mood board practice continues...

So I learned how to make a slightly more advanced mood board using that fancy design software. I know, big news. It's been fun trying to refresh my creative/technical skills and learning that I haven't totally lost it yet. Also, I have some bright pants in fun colors and I was brainstorming some outfit ideas.



But, wait! That's not all. I also learned how to do this to pictures. I'll try it out next time I post a recipe, which I haven't done in about a million months. A million! I also haven't done any Alhambra Boulevard news in a while. A lot is going on around our little triangle: a new Korean taco shop, frozen yogurt rumors and a lover's quarrel! More soon.

Invisible mom

When someone tries to take my picture, I turn into the dorkiest stiff that ever posed. Ick! I look at the few photos of me in our photo library and cringe. Sorry, Ira. When I'm dead and gone, you'll only have a handful of shitty pictures to remember me by. If I've learned anything from Top Model, is that Tyra will keep you around if she thinks you have potential and are willing to work on "learning your angles." Maybe I can fix this with some practice.

Heylove is a professional model and she was happy to show me some common mistakes.

Here's before:

See? The jaw is not relaxed, she's really not showing you the ears, which are her best features.


Here's the after:

Jaw is relaxed and defined, ears are up. I like how this one looks candid. She's not mugging at all.

This dog makes it look so easy!

The one about dogs

Yesterday this dog escaped our home and went missing for about fifteen minutes. Like outside missing, gone without a trace missing, who let the dogs out missing!! Luckily she was found in a neighbor's fenced yard and all is right and well in Casa de Neon.

A good thing, too because imagining my life without this precious pup was making me panic in a major way. She is the only one I live with who will do what I say most of the time. Being taken seriously is apparently something I value highly.

You know who is not a naughty dog? Cousin Roxy, who we dogsat a couple of weeks ago:

I mean, she's not too terribly naughty. She only responds when you call her about 50% of the time, but open the front door and this dog won't run away with the circus. I can live with these odds. Plus she's about two pounds of bump on a log cuteness and loves to be curled around your neck like a chihuahua-skin stole.

Who knows where Heylove would have ended up on her oddysey had we not found her. Tell you what. First place I was going to look was Del Taco. She's got a thing for nachos.

It's art, dad

The kid loves to draw. He often comes home from school with an armful of art. We have him tell us about each one and then we very slyly recycle most of them. The secret is out! Of course, we keep the ones that are remarkable for whatever reason, be it likeness for the original object, humor, or achieving some kind of artistic milestone. Here are a couple of my favorites from the last month or two.


"Tacnayn (evil Nyancat)." Not bad!



"LEGO Ninjago Guys." I don't know if he copied this from another picture or what, but I love that it's all kind of in perspective, with the red guy in the center being the biggest and the guys on the side being smaller and in the background.



"Mega Chief Louie Louie!" This one just cracks me up. The face and the hands! It was inspired by a tiki decoration at his school.

Being the recipient of awesome kid art is probably one of my favorite parenting perks.