It's been a little slow getting started so I've been walking around the neighborhood. I found a beautiful little street, Dracena Ct., between Franklin and Finley. That's where the 6' tall blooming poinsettia bush stood.

Today I went see "Pan's Labyrinth" at the Vista Theater. It was a good escape but I wouldn't have gone to see it if I had known more about it. BUT! the theater itself is worth the visit.

After I got into town (an hour early on Amtrak), I asked Victor if I could ride with him to his next pick-up. He was happy to have the company so we went out Ventura Hwy to the San Fernando Valley and cut south at some point. I saw the Getty Museum and now have an understanding of what an outing that will be. Went into a Ralph's for the first time, very much like spiffy King Sooper's at home. On the way back, we dropped some people off in Pasadena and I saw something called 'Bungalow Row", a street that is cared about and preserved by the owners. We saw a cool bridge going into Pasadena that I'll have to investigate and we went by a park near the Rose Bowl which gave me the strongest deja vu I've had in a long time.

Ok, this is all fine, but this is funny to me:

We cut through Atwater Village and ended up on Franklin Avenue over the Shakespeare Bridge (I've wanted to see that for some time) and right after the bridge, we passed a dead skunk in the road. And this is all funny because I've learned about this area from reading "Franklin Avenue" and "Atwater Village Newbie" and the now defunct "Skunks of Los Feliz", blogs. You had to be there in my head - yes, the skunk wasn't on Los Feliz but so what.

And another funny thing is that the other passengers in the car going out and coming back were from Boulder. Small world, indeed.

He Kicked Him...

A little boy explains what he saw while watching a movie with his mom.

I was so looking forward to the opening of Twenty-Ninth Street but now that it's here, I only really use it for a handy cut-through from 30th to 28th Street. Riding by today, I noticed that our new movie theater walls are going up and that is good new since the marquee for the one on Arapahoe is gone.

The one place I have been to (twice now) is Pei Wei, both times just for the minced chicken wrapped in iceberg lettuce which is pretty tasty. Today we sat at the bar and watched the cooks slamming the food through the line. Lots of big flames and steam impressed me and took my mind off all this friggin' cold and snow.

From the local newspaper: "While Sunday brought only about 3 inches of snow to downtown Boulder, the storm marked the fifth week in a row that Boulder County and the Front Range have received measurable snowfall. Since the blizzard on Dec. 20-21, 63 inches of snow have fallen on Boulder, according to the National Weather Service."

And the Saints didn't win yesterday, but they did a great job of getting so far.

I have this son who is turning 22 tomorrow and with that, he is on the road to 30. This is the first year that I've not had the feeling, "If he's that old, I must be getting old." There's a disconnect. Yes, I know I made his body and raised him but he's over there and I'm over here now; from momandson to mom and son. I value his friendship and attention.

Oh, I forgot to crab about Flat Iron Subaru. I took our Outback in for a winterizing tuneup and ended up paying $1500 for all this necessary crap. Yes, brakes need fixing and the timing belt does shred after 105,000 miles, but you know, I could have used some better customer service. We took it in at 10am, found out at noon that the timing belt would need replacing ($400), called at 3:30 to find out that it would be ready at 5:45. At 5:30, I found out we needed the brakes and pump replaced and they hadn't done diddly squat. The service manager did give me a loaner after I ramped up into low level hysteria. All I'm saying is, when the bill is $1200 over what I expected and the work isn't even started by the time I come to pick it up, don't get defensive, ok? Since then, we found out that Pete Dinstuhl does Subaru so that's where we'll go next time.

The two main routes out of town to the south are closed because of ground blizzards with up to 100 mph gusts These chinooks are supposed to continue all day long.

Sweetie and a friend were going to hike up to the Arestua Hut, five miles in from the trailhead, in knee deep snow with two dogs but decided to wait till tomorrow. One good thing about having grown children is the vicarious pleasure in hearing about adventures without having to trudge up the mountain myself.