Caricatures

It doesn't look much like me - especially the body parts, but I think it's a very good likeness of Lee. Thanks to Dave at Ali's bat mitzvah!

Not Pan Am...

BETTER than Pan Am - a vintage Air France bag from the 60's. Next time I go to Paris - this baby is coming! Maybe I'll wear a Jackie Kennedy sort of suit, pointy shoes, and pretty gloves.  And I'll sip a martini, too.

Queen of Hearts

Lee found this card at Vignettes in Ocean Beach. It was the "Queen for a Day" Valentines party and I dragged the poor man along for an afternoon of browsing antiques.

Self Portrait

Deb's birthday/Oscar party self portrait...I never seem to get it right! But it did turn out to be my favorite picture!

Leg Pop

Not the best picture, but it captures the moment with Dianne at the Nussbaum bat mitzvah.

Friday Morning

Friday morning  and by the afternoon, it was 3 cents more. I guess I'll be riding my bike to the store.

To the Pointe

Beatrice, Julie, Celine and I have all taken the plunge and strapped on pointe shoes. Our feet are killing us, but we don't care - we're ballerinas!

Perimeter

17 second graders with tape measures and one ga-ga pit in the shape of an octagon. I'm pretty sure they'll remember how to measure perimeter when were done.

Wanna Trade?

We're starting to think about the summer home exchange and taking a few photos to put on the site. 

Anyone know someone in Tel Aviv who wants to stay in Cardiff in July?

New Kind of Convertible

Yes, that's a car seat on TOP of the car. Maybe the parents forgot to read the instructions. Or maybe they know the baby loves the feel of the wind in his hair. Or perhaps the SUV isn't quite big enough for the newest addition to the family.

Shoodle

 

Are they shoes or poodles? 

No wonder they're on clearance...

Holy Guacamole!

Happy Hour on Friday with Jeanne, Christiana and Anne at Casa de Bandini. We decided against the bird bath margarita this time, but this little bird made us feel better.

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Tangerine?

Photography Challenge - take a picture of fruit. We happen to love tangerines.

Best Crazy Hair. Ever.

I fuzzed out her face since she's one of my students.  T has great, thick, curly hair and her nanny hid a water bottle inside and decorated with hair paint..  I love the creativity of crazy hair day!

Too Late

This is new - a handy seat attached to the wall to hold a small child captive while mommy...well, mommy does what she needs to do on occasion.  I can just imagine toddler William - he would have LOVED this! Now it just makes a great place to put my purse.

Waiting for Rain

I wanted cute rain boots for a long time, but couldn't find any in drought infested Southern California.  If one wants rain boots, go to a place where it rains. When we visited Drew and Janet on Whidbey Island in Washington, I found these. And, yay! It's raining!

Thanks, Joni

One of the ideas for the 30 day photography challenge was to take a picture of clouds.  This can be hard sometimes in San Diego - we have cloud cover and fog on occasion, but the majority of days are cloudless.  We don't even have cloud illusions.

Chair Dance Reunion

Union Tribune Expo on Aging Successfully and Chair Dancing with the beautiful Jodi Stolove.  We have a wonderful tale of chance and coincidence and I'm so grateful to be part of the story.
5 years ago, a chance remark by Jodi made us both pause for a moment. She told me a wonderful volunteer at SCORE had given her some terrific small business advice 20 years before. I casually told her my dad used to give advice at SCORE and did she remember the name of the volunteer. Imagine both our surprise when Jodi told me my own father's name.  I don't use the name Guzik, otherwise we'd have made the connection from the beginning.  She and my dad re-connected through emails and after my dad passed away, she asked me to be in her latest video - and dedicated it all to him.  I'm always so happy to be part of her endeavor and wish her all the luck and success in the world.

Mustache Girl

My sweet little "Kitler" of a kitty and usually girls don't look so great with a mustache.

Let's Feast!

 

It's the 100th day of school AND Hat Day, too. We celebrated by eating 10 of ten different things - M&M's, dried cranberries, almonds, Fruit Loops, pretzel sticks, yogurt raisins, banana chips, marshmallows, and popcorn.  My motto? Sugar them up and send them home. Sorry moms and dads.

Day One

I found a 30 day photography challenge on Pinterest.  I think the 30 days are supposed in be in order, but I'm not committing to the order - I might find something else more interesting. Day one - self portrait.

Fleeting Moment

Here's the girl's version of the basket...until Darby sets eyes on it and butts her out of the way. Better enjoy it while you can, Madeline!

Camera Bloop

I wore out my old camera and now I have a CoolPix by Nikon. It's a fine little point and shoot with lots of features, including a very sensitive touch screen.  This causes a LOT of inadvertent photo opportunities - bloops, if you will. 

Puppy Bowl

Super Bowl?  Darby got football fever and spent half an hour glued to the Puppy Bowl. Maybe he was hoping for better commercials...

Not Another Trophy Wife

What do you get when you  cross Whine and Wine with Extreme Bowling? Valentine socks, silly rules for each frame, plastic clappy hands necklaces, disco balls, Jackson 5 music, and a lot of fun.  Kim and Jim took old bowling pins and lovingly transformed them into silly trophies. Thanks to Lee, we have the high scoring man, but only until the next round of bowling fun.

6 More Weeks of Cookies

The groundhog saw his shadow and what does that mean? It means we have a party!

Just Another Commute

Sometimes I LOVE my commute! I have the option of going home by freeway or the "beach way". I pick the latter most days...wouldn't you?

Hat's Off to Mom!

Beanies?
It's a long story...
2 completely random students were diagnosed with 2 completely random forms of cancer.  In a seriously  unfortunate coincidence, both students happened to be: 1. In the same grade. 2. Same class. 3. Sitting next to each other. After the initial shock, we wanted felt we needed to do something. Cancer, especially when it hits little kids, is evil and the feeling of helplessness and anger needed to be addressed. Our students were worried their friends would feel embarrassed by a lack of hair and as teachers, we wanted to cultivate a feeling of unity and solidarity.  So Jan and I got busy.  She knitted and I crocheted lots and lots of little hats for sweet little heads. Every last second grader has a beanie and they wear them proudly. During my visit to Kansas in December, I told my mother this same story and she got busy crocheting, too.
By the way - both kids have 95% survival rates and that's a reason to take off your hat.

Memories

(still January).  A few of the vintage ashtrays in our home.  Some are relics from childhood (both mine and Lee's) and some we found along the way. My memories were filled with cigarette butts and ashes, but I promise these are all clean!

Always Watching

Yep, that's Will's face. He arrived inside the tiki head after his bar mitzvah - we didn't know what to do with the big photo of his head and stuck it there to get it out of the way. That was 6 years ago, but I refuse to take it down.