In I-can't-believe-this-is-happening news: After two previous attempts to grow my favorite food of all time, I actually have strawberries growing and about to turn red. AND the squirrels haven't gotten to them yet! (So shhhhhhh!)
I'm going to assume the squirrels haven't gotten to the strawberries yet because they are preoccupied with the bird seed at the other end of the yard. While my feeder is supposedly squirrel-proof (it's called Squirrel X), they still like hanging out around it as every bird in my neighborhood picks seeds out of it and drops a lot on the ground. In fact, this week, it took those birds all of four days to descend on my yard and turn this...
...into this.
They better learn to eat more slowly. I'm only going to fill that thing up once a week IF they're lucky. (If I can ration my Marks & Spencer Scottish Shortbread cookies, these birds can ration their wildbird seed mix!)
Finally, my new mint plant is getting bigger and is so far bug free. And the rosemary and lavender that I'm propagating is still alive.. the lavender is even budding a bit. Yay! I want that especially to root so I can plant it in a sunny spot, hardly ever water it and watch it get ginormous like the lavendar in my front garden :)
I don't know how many times I've seen U2 in concert over the years, but I do know that they just get better and better every time I do experience them live. Saturday night at the LA Forum (which I hate) was no exception (despite its location).
I knew going in I was about to see a visually stunning, technologically amazing show. And I'd heard that what I'd hear was also going to be amazing thanks to a new sound system the band has installed around the arena, instead of just blaring from the stage. (That was well documented in the reviews of earlier stops on the still-young tour.) But as amazing as all that was, the "innocence+experience tour" is still -- at its core -- about four guys from the North side of Dublin who write beautiful music and make every one of the 20,000 people crammed into the arena feel like every note is meant just for them.
Their latest album "Songs of Innocence" is now one of my all-time favorites, and it features one of my new all-time favorite songs, "Song for Someone." That was the first song on the album that struck a chord with me. And that was one song I truly wanted to hear live... just for me, and, well...
love.
I was happy...and I didn't even have to wait that long :)
Here are the 22 other songs Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry also played during the two(ish) hour set....
They started out rocking on the main stage, near my awesome seats. (Paying $40 a year to be a member of U2.com has its privileges!) Then Bono, followed by The Edge and eventually Adam and Larry made their way down the ramp to the small stage at the other end of the arena. There truly wasn't a bad seat in the house.
They also made their way into the massive projection screen that is the centerpiece of the "visually stunning, technologically amazing" part of the show. Here are some of the coolest and/or funniest shots I took (imho):
Edge inside the screen, and Bono being filmed on the small stage.
(After squirting him down, Bono held Edge in the palm of his hand ;)
The whole band inside the screen
I loved the whole show. And I am so happy it actually happened. I bought the tickets back in December and it's taken forever to arrive. And just as it did, bad things started happening. I kind of fear this tour is cursed. First, the whole start of the tour was postponed by Bono's catastrophic bicycle accident in Central Park back in November. Then a few nights before the first show in Vancouver, Larry's father passed away. Then on opening night in Vancouver, Edge walked right off the edge of the stage and luckily wasn't hurt. Then this past Wednesday, the band's tour manager Dennis Sheehan was found dead in his hotel room.
That loss is still very raw. Bono spoke of him while discussing friendship, and the sanctity of it. And how friends can fight and speak their minds and still be okay.... and how that's so important to do. He said he regrets not saying things to Dennis. And he also regrets not saying things to Michael Hutchence, which lead into the song he wrote after Hutchence died... and it too was beautiful, with Edge on piano and backing vocals.
I've leave you stuck in that moment, sung with words of experience after the innocence has gone... enjoy:
Had an impromptu night at the theatre tonight when a friend had to work late and I got to be his seat filler for Murder for Two, now in previews at the Geffen Playhouse.
Going in, I knew nothing about this musical comedy, starring just two actors, Brett Ryback (who plays a wanna-be police detective) and Jeff Blumenkratz (who plays "The Suspects"... aka every other role in the show!) We ended up with front row seats, which were scary close (and by that I mean on the edge of the stage, where I was praying not to get sprayed with spit as the actors over-enunciated, or with the sweat dripping off Blumenkratz as he seamlessly shifted -- via voice and body language only -- between six [at least] characters under the hot lights).
But even with a little pain in my craned up neck, I loved this show! The whodunit story is good, but it's the performances that seal the experience. Both actors originated their roles in the New York production, so they have perfected the comedic and musical high notes. You'll laugh out loud... a lot! This show is really, really fun. And if you don't trust me, trust comedic legend Jo Anne Worley, who was in our audience and was raving about it in the lobby after the show to "Wicked" Composer Stephen Schwartz, the father of the show's director, Scott Schwartz. I think the two of them could write a book on musical comedy... if they haven't already ;)
I discovered this fabulous smelling body wash at the Naya Fresh Spa, which is a small, very personalized spa in Chatsworth. You get to sample all the products in the shower and this smelled soooo good I bought a bottle right there. Then I asked for more for Christmas and got the giant litre pump size, which I've been using every day. Squirting it into my loofah and smelling the minty fresh lather with a hint of rosemary makes me happy :)
Being as today was a national holiday and all, I had big plans to sit outside on my patio to be lazy and attempt to make a dent in this ginormous magazine pile....
However, I woke up all motivated... and Home Depot was calling my name... for the third time in nine days. So back I went.
I picked up eggplant / dark purple Behr paint swatches to debate as the potential new color of my soon-to-be-new front door. I'm thinking something less purple than "Exotic Eggplant" and more purple than "Curtain Call." Or a little less lavender than the top one. (This is so stressful!) Thoughts??
I also bought a new can of dark brown wood stain for two projects that have been on my to-do list for years that I am going to get to by the end of June.
I also bought a pretty wildflower blue can of spray paint for another project that's been on the list since I bought my house.
I bought more mouse traps for the attic. (These are just for mice... no rats. Pretty please.)
I bought a cool new yard tool I'll be writing about after I use it next weekend.
I bought chicken manure to fertilize my orange tree that I fear is still in shock after getting trimmed back in January. It had flowered and there are little green wanna-be-big-oranges on it, but a lot were blown off when it was super windy a few weeks ago. And I've yet to see any of them turning orange. Here's hoping the chicken manure (and the massive soaking I gave it... shhh!) make it happy and fruity.
I also bought three more bags of my go-to Scott's brown mulch and finished laying mulch in the big rose garden and neighboring flower garden. Also fed the roses again for spring and tilled the soil around their roots so they stay as hydrated as possible under current watering restrictions. (See, I'm a good citizen. The grass in my backyard is practically dead to prove it.)
Then I got to work on the patio. In my herb garden, I planted a new rosemary plant and thyme I got at Trader Joe's last night
I also planted a pot of lemon balm, after reading that it repels mosquitoes (who love me). It's that green leafy plant behind the candle, behind the wine on my patio table this lovely evening... :)
Since lavender also repels mosquitoes, I took some cuttings off my giant lavender bush in the front yard and am propagating that (along with some rosemary too) to hopefully keep potted on the back patio after it roots. I was inspired to try "propagating" by this article on Pinterest this morning (That's it! That's what derailed my lazy day... damn you Pinterest! oh well!)
Finally, while at Home Depot, I walked past these cute white-washed planter crates from The Hip Gardener and decided to see if Mexican Heather will survive on my newly-painted window ledges in front of my house (ie: in direct sunlight most of the day). The planters are super-cute.. you can write on one side of them -- the side I have facing the house because I haven't decided what to write yet. (Maybe my house address?? What do you think?) I put terracotta pots inside them to hold the heather, and weighted them down with river rock pebbles so they don't blow away. I think I might need a third one.. we'll see :)
This weekend continued more of what I started and/or discovered last weekend... but I got it done in half the time :)
First, after trimming the out-of-control rosemary and lavender bushes last weekend, this morning I sanded down the chipped paint on the planter ledges (that I've yet to put planters on) in front of my two front windows and repainted those in the same exterior Behr paint I used for the garage trim.
Then I dumped and spread out four bags of Scott's Earthgro Color Advantage brown mulch in the front garden and in two of the four gardens in the back yard. I need to go back for at least two more bags to recover the main rose garden.
I also planted a big pink Hydrangea I broke down and spent way too much money on at Home Depot yesterday. It better not die like the last one did. I'm hoping this new spot along the back wall will provide a better mix of morning sun and afternoon shade. I also planted it right in front of a sprinkler, just to be safe ;)
Then in this weekend's outdoor critter update, Part 1, I decided to be nice and give free food to the three families of birds that have nested in one of my trees, my jasmine vine and under the eaves of my house in a mud nest. This is my supposedly-squirrel resistant feeder... last year they learned how to pry the top off, so this year it's tied shut with wire ties. We'll see how long it takes them to figure that out...
And in critter update, Part 2, I decided to see if I can deal with whatever is under my house on my own before paying people. First, I closed up the grate on my patio that I'd discovered something had pushed open during the winter. Second, I bought a plastic pre-baited rat/mouse trap and put it the crawlspace under the house. (I've decided that it's something small because I heard something in the wall behind my bar Thursday. Eek!) In a week, my dad gets to come and pull the trap out from under the house and let me know if there is something in it or not. If not, then I'll call for an inspection.
Although... I had a somewhat more pleasant thought as I drove home tonight and the neighbor's one-eyed cat (who has taken up a second residence on my back patio) ran across my driveway. Maybe poor Susy (who lives outside because the neighbor's now-ex wife was allergic) got cold this winter and she's the one who pushed the grate in. And maybe she actually caught and ate the mice under there. Or maybe there were no mice and I was just having a psychosomatic hearing episode.
Either way, here's hoping I don't hear anything else in the walls ever and that grate stays put.
2) it's amazing there are so many vintage, original, independent restaurants left in LA's land of corporate franchises
and
3) I can't believe I've actually been to A LOT of these restaurants (41 to be exact!)... the best ones on the list being Casa Vega (that I used to live around the corner from) and Little Toni's (that I used to work down the street from).
But for those of you that like to debate who invented the French Dip first, Philippes and Cole's are both on here.
As is El Coyote, which I have wanted to go to forEVER but have still never been too.
So is Heart's Coffee Shop up Balboa Blvd. from my house... I should go there for breakfast one day. That's an easy hit for 42 :)
Today I slept in until 10:30. It was awesome. Then I got up, threw on an old t-shirt and went outside to work on projects. I came back inside at 8:30pm. I rocked my home improvement to-do list! Therefore, today shall be deemed "Get Sh*t Done Sunday." Here's what I got done:
1) Sanded and painted my garage door trim that's been peeling since at least Thanksgiving when I put up my Christmas lights. Every time I pull up to the garage in daylight hours I see it and think, "I really need to repaint that." Today I did, and my across-the-street neighbor Juan, who does paint and drywall for a living, complimented my work and informed me it's been at least 7-8 years since it was last painted... and noted that he paints his trim every two years. I guess that's a helpful hint. ;)
2) Cleaned out my front gardens, cut back a ton of out-of-control rosemary and lavender, planted some new baby cactus' in the garden and on the porch, sprayed for bugs, fixed my wayward sprinkler that was watering the driveway, and fertilized the front and back lawns. Oh, and I cleaned about four years of smog and soot off my white mailbox using this awesome Earth Brite cleaner my mom found on HSN in the middle of the night (which I borrowed a while ago and haven't given back yet. Oops!). It cleans EVERYTHING. Next weekend I'm going to use it to clean my white fence that also has four years of smog and soot on it. :)
3) It's been four months since I trimmed and fed all my back gardens and planted spring flowers. Some of those flowers have died, and weeds have grown. So I went and got some new "full sun" flowers that do better with less water. I also trimmed the roses again. Next weekend, I will lay mulch. I ran out of daylight today :(
4) The vine on my trellis was also out-of-control, growing up into the rain gutter and over the fence, and a lot of the under-growth was dead and spider-infested. So I cut it all back ... and discovered a hornets nest under the eaves of the house in the process. The hornets are now dead. The vine is cut back and bug spray abounds. I also discovered that one of the grates on my patio that's supposed to keep creatures out from under my house is missing. So I now will be calling an exterminator to make sure the opossum I saw last summer isn't living under there and to repair the grate. Ugh.
5) While all that was going on outside, I also did a load each of laundry and dishes. Now I'm going to sleep. Hopefully, I'll be able to move tomorrow....
