Thursday Thought

I, like many of us, have listened to a good bit of coverage of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  Fifty years!  Words spoken that were so, and continue to be today, inspiring.

I was reading an excellent article in the paper this morning that exposed an interesting fact about the speech.  It was extemporaneous.

Totally spoken from the heart.

When Dr. King began to make his speech, Mahalia Jackson, a well known gospel singer, shouted out to him. "What about the dream Dr. King, tell them about the dream!"

And from that one of the most impassioned and famous speeches in history flowed.

I follow a wonderful blog by a talented woman who lives in England.

Mrs. Black
Photo courtesy of Minerva from her blog.


 She grew up in California and will often "pop" by my blog to get her California memory fix, she tells me.  On Wednesday she had the most wonderful post up about her recollections of the time surrounding Dr. King's speech and the times that followed.

She is kind enough to let me share it here;

Click here to enjoy Minerva's perspective of a very unique time in the history of the world.

The Week That Was

Also known as The Good, The Bad, The Ugly...

The move is complete! 

Meaning we have moved our stuff from one place to another somewhat successfully. 

It does not mean it is unpacked, organized or that I know where everything is.

Today I finally found my razor, so now my legs are smooth and I can go out in public without shame.

The installation of the The Bumby is done.  She arrived this Friday, a bundle of feline nerves, spent the first day and night in a closet, but now is stalking around like she owns the place.  So, yes, things are somewhat normal.

Loaders couldn't load everything into moving truck. Well.... they COULD have, but really they didn't know how to load properly so we were left with this (and several more items) to move on our own the next day.

Even Panda was dejected.

Which in turn threw off my cleaning schedule of the old house.  

Methinks the kittehs have too many mices...

Good thing I was so picky and thorough about cleaning the house.  Mr. Tennis thought I was going a little overboard, but he soon learned why I was being so nit-picky when the owner arrived for "THE inspection".

Two hours folks. She looked at everything for two hours, marking on a sheet and conferring with the dazed and confused real estate agent who kept rolling her eyes at me. It's hard to converse through gritted teeth for two hours, I have found.

We passed! Took our deposit money she refunded right to the bank and got outta dodge!

So, the adventure continues as we settle in and unpack and try to find things.  One thing we found that we are very happy about:  Our big green couch fits in the living room. 

WOOT!!

TBL signing out for now, from California Street in The OC, The New Boston Manor!

We Interrupt This Blog...

.... to say, we will be taking several days break while we move our life from one place to the next.  Since there is no exciting road trip to chronicle this time, I figured I would spare you the tedious details such as cleaning the old house, wringing my hands while the movers are here and the expected exhaustion, elation, hysteria, but eventual happiness at the other end of the move.

 My new pet I found at the new place.  

So.

Carry on my friends and I will be checking in on you, but I will maintain radio silence for a little bit.

Don't go away!!!

Would Someone Explain to Me Why This is Happening Again?

Hey peeeeeple!

Sadie here.

TBL is busy playing around with some boxes in the other room so I thought I'd jump on the keyboard and see if any of you have any idea what is going on.

TBL and Mr. Tennis have been acting really crazy the last few weekends.  They keep putting stuff in Mr. T's car and then disappearing for hours and then return all tired and cranky and sometimes don't even take us for a walk!

This past weekend they loaded the Chiminea up, two suitcases full of stuff SHE pulled out of the closet where OUR bedsheets are kept and a bunch of boxes of those dumb blue bottles she is obsessed with.  AND THEN, they put us in a very small space in the car and drove us to an Orange place.

Orange, orange, orange.  That's all they talked about.  What's with their obsession with the color orange.

They unloaded us when we arrived at the orange place and hustled us into a place with a wooden floor, lots of plants and something familiar. TBL's birdcage that she likes to put stuff in. So this is where they've been taking OUR stuff.

They let us in a door and lo and behold we were in a kitchen!  Upon further exploration, we discovered where OUR futon had gone!

 Into a closet!  Is this woman losing her marbles? 

Panda and I did a search of the entire place and discovered more things from our home.  What the heck is going on???

Panda discovered where we will be pulling guard duty in the future.

And I just kind of roamed around in a fuzzy daze.

Finally, The Pan had to rest on one of the fluffy things TBL puts on the bed. 

 The mental stress was just enormous!  

I finally said, "Pan.... come sit outside and listen to this water thing, it's kinda soothing".

And then we both lay down and looked around a bit and noticed all the nice plants we can go dig up in our spare time.

Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

This Orange place.

One week until we make our move The City of Orange in Orange County, CA!  We've been making great progress in moving a few of the more fragile items on Saturdays and our Craigslist refrigerator was also delivered while we were there.  Movers arrive next Monday to load and unload.

So within one year we will have moved from Orange County, FL to Orange County, CA! With a stop in LA County just for good measure. Looking forward to getting to know another place in the great state of California!  TBL

Thursday Thought

I've been receiving a lot of funny, uplifting, cute, informative, thought-provoking forwards from my brother Mr. Connor.  Someone forwards them to him, you all know the drill.

Well, I received one today that made me smile and I just thought I'd share it with you, my friends.

Click here to see: So, God Made a Dog.

Panda says, "Make sure you have your sound on!"

"I Never Met A Man I Didn't Like"

Anyone know who spoke this famous quote? 

Most of us were probably born long after he was already gone, but he left a great legacy.

Mr. Tennis and I visited his beautiful ranch just outside of Hollywood this weekend and I thought I would share a few pictures of this pastoral setting, just minutes from the city.

Let me give you a few hints:

1.  He was really good with a lasso.

Original small, rustic cabin is the first level of this part of the house.  Ceiling was raised to accommodate his lasso spinning.

Addition added later.  No photos allowed inside, but mine wouldn't have done it justice.

2.  He had a wonderful sense of humor that he displayed on stage, on film, on the radio and through his newspaper column.

Courtyard/outdoor dining patio.  He liked to cook his favorite cowboy food right in this fireplace, Beans and franks.

He planted this vine himself!  Love the way it goes up the chimney.

This one too for the arbor!

3.  He loved to poke fun at politicians and was a great source of comfort to Americans during the Great Depression through his weekly radio broadcasts.

4.  He was one of the last people to see the Lindbergh baby the night he was kidnapped, and was a suspect initially because he asked the little boy if he wanted to come back to California with him.

Lots of stables and corrals throughout the park.

5.  He bought land off of what now is Sunset Blvd. (a dirt road at the time) in 1924 and turned it into a ranch, a polo field and a weekend getaway from Hollywood for his family.

Polo field is on the other side of those cars. The Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, which is just down the road,  is so-named because he and his pals would go there after their matches on this field.

Lessons, stables and horse trails all over the acreage.

6.  He regularly hosted weekend polo matches with friends riding the ponies.  Friends such as, Walt Disney, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, William Randolph Hearst and Howard Hughes.

"The stable built with jokes"

He had the roof lowered by ten feet on the rotunda when one of his buddies said it was grander than the main house.

7.  He was an avid believer and supporter of commercial air travel and tragically died in a private plane crash in Alaska. Because they ran out of gas.

Empty, but beautiful.

8.  He always chewed gum on and off stage and signed a $6M lifetime agreement with Wrigley.

Lots of vintage goodness in this stable. I know some of you love these doors.

9.  His daughter, Mary, started and ended her acting career in New York on the day he died. In a play in which she played a young woman whose father dies in a plane crash because it ran out of gas. Humphrey Bogart, who was in the play with her was the one who broke the news to her the morning after opening night.

10.  His weekend retreat, which began as a single story "cabin in the sticks" became a sprawling ranch house, which in turn became their permanent home after their Beverly Hills mansion had to be torn down due to a termite infestation.

Mystery of the day:  these seeds/nuts all over the place from trees like the one pictured below.

Anyone know what this is?  I haven't looked it up yet.

Have you guessed?

A beautiful day spent exploring the grounds, stable and homestead at Will Rogers State Park.  Okay, now who's coming to visit so I can take you there?

Thanks to everyone's good wishes for a successful return to work for The Maven.  She has slipped back into her routine and met us for lunch today before we headed to the state park.  Although tired, she is happy to be back and to be rid of the headaches, nausea and dizziness that plagued her before the surgery. We are very blessed.