November Moments

Election Day. Another 16 years and the franchise is all yours, kid!

The month of November is passing us by just as fast as Liam's second year. We kicked off the month with Liam's second birthday and his official two-year check-up with his doctor. Since May he has only gained a little over a pound, but he has grown two inches! For a kid who eats like he has two hallow legs, you would think he would have no trouble putting on weight, but he is almost never still during waking hours and is on the tall side, so I'm not worried. The day after his birthday was Election Day, of course. I took Liam to the polling place and gave him his first civics lesson. He even got an honorary "I Voted" sticker from the elderly lady handing them out at the polling place. Apparently retired ladies of a certain age are suckers for chatty two-year-old boys.

Thankfully this month has finally offered the break in the heat I've been waiting for so long. Our walks are much more pleasant and less sweaty now that the cool fall beach weather has returned. We have even had a few rainy days, which I always enjoy. I know it sounds unfair to complain about sunshine, but I miss weather and don't mind cold rainy days at all. I see them as a great excuse to stay in and get cozy at home.

Rainy day.

 Last week Eric gave a lecture for the American Research Center in Egypt at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. They asked him to speak on King Tut and dogs as part of a series of lectures celebrating the 90th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Liam is hardly one for lectures, so he and I wandered the museum while Eric gave his talk. Based on the reactions of people I spoke to at the reception afterward, they all enjoyed his lecture very much. Many ARCE members are retired folks, so Liam was also a hit with them. It was a long day, and Liam and I had to make an early exit when he started to lose steam.

In the car on the ride home after Daddy's lecture.

After Eric's lecture at the Bowers Museum.
Liam isn't much for family pictures these days, can you tell?

As you can see from the picture above, Liam has no patience for family pictures right now. The last family photo we had taken was when Liam was just one month old. (Eric isn't much for family pictures, either.) However, I managed to get both of them in the studio two weeks ago for a 2012 family portrait session. I considered that achievement alone a victory, and it turns out it was the only victory I was destined for that day. Kudos to Eric for his patience, but Liam was obstinate and wanted nothing to do with getting his picture taken with us or by himself. Our family/two-year portraits session turned into an hour and a half long chore. There were no snacks, gadgets, or toys that could persuade Liam to submit to pictures. We limped away from our portrait session with only one or two decent family shots and only one or two good shots of Liam. It was a valiant effort, but it just wasn't meant to be. ...Ah, well. We tried!

Rainy Days & Earthquakes

That long line of lights disappearing off into the distance is a southbound view of the 405 I captured while at the Getty Center this week. Fortunately the 405 isn't a part of my commute, so I didn't have to join that string of lights on my way home. From time to time I end up at the Center for meetings, and as you can see the view from the top of that travertine tower is pretty spectacular. It's been a rainy week. I enjoy rainy days at the Villa. We have so few of them, they feel more like a novelty than an inconvenience. Because ancient Roman villas were designed as summer homes, rain really effects our operations at the museum. When it rains school groups can't have lunch at the picnic tables, so they have to crowd back onto the buses to eat, and walking across the marble becomes treacherous. The Getty kindly provides umbrellas (mostly used for shielding visitors from the California sunshine), so that helps people keep dry in the gardens. As you can see from the images below, I spent some time walking around in the rain.

The school group lunch area was abandoned because of the rain.

I've heard from some of the local natives that changes in weather often happen before earthquakes. I have no idea if there's any truth to that idea, but we did have an earthquake Friday night--the second in a matter of weeks. In my time out here I've felt different kinds of earthquakes, but Friday night's event was different. When it first happened, I honestly thought the building had taken some kind of direct hit. Neither Eric nor I were completely sure of what we had felt until I consulted the website on recent earthquakes in Los Angeles (a website I'm visiting way too often these days). According to the USGS, it was a 3.4 earthquake centered in Marina del Rey, which is the closest we've been to an epicenter in the last couple of earthquakes. Disturbingly, several of my friends out here who remember the 1994 Northridge earthquake have commented that they don't remember having so many quakes this close together since that time.

I guess my time is up. Going on seven years now I've lived in southern California and not had any real experiences or concern with earthquakes. This week's quake makes the third significant one I've felt since last June. Maybe it will help if I stop sitting on my couch. Each time it's happened, I've been reclining on the couch, watching t.v. At this point I'm beginning to think of my couch as a kind of Richter scale. It's an older couch and the legs are a bit loosened on it, so any kind of movement sets it shuffling and swaying--sometimes I feel the shaking before Eric does, because my couch is more sensitive than his. Three times now I've felt nice and relaxed, resting on the couch after a busy day at work, when the earth has started to shake. You'd think one event would have knocked the sense of complacency in my safety right out of me, but no. We're not nearly as prepared as we should be for such an emergency. But I'll tell you what: The third time around you start to pay attention. As a former girl scout, I think it's time to implement the old motto, "Be prepared."