Shots from the Lip

 Sunday morning - I was out of the house by 10:30 in the morning and in a casual walk to 26 Street/Bergamot station (25 minutes) plus approximately a half hour travel to DTLA, I switched to the Red Line that goes through Hollywood towards the San Fernando Valley and noticeably saw the lower standard of maintenance for this line compared to the E Line....ah well...7 stops later we were at Hollywood and Vine and a stunning Metro station - when the pictures finally get to the computer from the phone I will subsequently include them........but the Pantages is directly opposite the station entrance and door-to-door, from home to the Pantages is 90 minutes - a 1pm matinee is feasible!!!!! Not now but at some point I will write about the Taft Building at Hollywood and Vine, across the street from the Pantages - my first office as a sole practitioner CPA! These two pictures:  Waterstone's webpage promo for Good-Bye and Thank-You! and similar for a Korean bookstore.  How nice to s...

 Good-Bye and Thank-You! was written for the US market.  Only later did I find that Americans no longer read - unless it is off their cell phone.  How did the public library of Salina, Kansas 'discover' me and publicize my book?  Damned if I know! What is more amazing to me is that the book has been picked up out of the US and is being promoted and sold - what a wonderful thing to discover - if only the royalties were correct!   Waterstone's in the UK is promoting Good-Bye and Thank-You!  I remember being in Edinburgh with Katherine and Joanna at Waterstone's.  I used Joanna's school awarded Waterstone gift coupons to purchase a book there. There is a bookstore chain in Australia that is promoting......and a leading Korean group is also involved, and a german bookstore, too!!!..........my quirky phone/computer system does not pick up pictures taken today until a few days from now so if you do not see pictures added to this blog, come back in a few...

 Let us assume that I pressed the wrong button causing an unanticipated event for a user of Kraken.  What happens next? Well, in my case, the whole system converted to the Portuguese language and would not let me change back to English.  Add to this my complete inability to load my California State ID by the computer for 2FA but subsequently being able to do this with my phone - only to find out, today, that the same company's phone and computer apps are not totally coordinated and that the directions being written to me on the computer wouldn't work on the phone.....whew! This afternoon - I think - I was finally able to conclude my interactions with Kraken.  Will I find a deposit back to the account from whence it came?   Good question! In November, 2017, Joanna and I were in Boston and went to a Dead & Company concert at the TD Garden.  That show's video is on Nugs.net which gave me 60 days trial because I purchased the 3 August San Francisco Dea...

 The temperature got as high as 30 C today.  After all those Bangkok years, 30 was not bad at all - I could have worn shorts today - but did not.  We took the 720 Metro bus from 26th St and Wilshire in Santa Monica to Peck and Wilshire in Beverly Hills. We went to Rodeo Drive - and I'd include pictures here but my quirky phone to computer system which shows up to date google photos on the phone but is 4 days behind when it comes to getting it off the computer to the blog program precludes my doing so - such is life...... We brought one of our watches for maintenance to Patek Philippe - we're still awaiting a new watch band from them........ Then to Cartier where Katherine got referrals from Cartier regarding jewelry she wants some adjustments to - we'll be off to Century City for this early next week.  And after, a pleasant stroll along Rodeo Drive, heading to Santa Monica Blvd and the #4 bus to Sawtelle for Maragume Udon lunch.  Then to Daiso and Nijia Market a...

Yesterday morning after a sun drenched, mild temperature bike ride along the beach, I parked my bike outside of Sam's on Montana and sipped a pleasant cup of coffee. Yesterday evening I did my second Sweet Dreams through the medical-surgical patient floor at St John's Hospital.  A few of the rooms had patients interested in talking - one of them was Joe Morgenstern who, for decades, was the Wall Street Journal movie reviewer.  We had a great evening chat!  

 It is 11:32 on the 6th day of the 8th month of 2025.  My Apple watch (Series 10) shows that it is already 25 degrees C in Santa Monica.  Of course it does not feel this warm outside - it never feels as warm as the temperature showing on the watch.  Yet it definitely is indicates a degree of warmth we simply have not felt all year, thus far. I had nothing scheduled for this morning so I took advantage of a sunny day, already, at 7am and went for a bike ride followed by coffee at a small coffee shop on the sunny side of Montana Avenue.  Later, after the ride, I went to both Whole Food and Trader Joe's, where at the latter, as I was checking avocado ripeness, a woman asked me to help her choose a ripe one......that's what happens after going shopping for produce on a regular basis!

 It is 5:30 on a balmy Santa Monica Sunday afternoon.  I was out walking again - as usual - and find that there truly is a peaceful, easy feeling, casually walking around here - at home, after 3 plus decades as world travelers and 22 months of learning to adjust (sometimes, quite painfully) to both a brand new culture and each other, now that our working past is no more. Ten years ago, the end of June, 2015, we flew, separately to San Francisco for the final Grateful Dead (configuration) with Trey Anastasio coming in for the Jerry Garcia role.  It was as memorable as it gets - while I am not sure how those five days in San Francisco impacted Katherine, I knew then that I would have fond remembrances all my life. 299,000+ joined me in Golden Gate Park in 1991 for the concert/wake in memory of Bill Graham, who died in a helicopter crash........along with the 'death' of my China veterinary pharmaceutical venture.   The thought of another three days of concerts in t...

 Sweet Dreams has started for me. There are 48 rooms on the 2d floor of St Johns Hospital.  On Thursday night, 39 of those rooms had patients. Approximately 1/3 of the patients, early evening, are sleeping or should not be 'bothered'.  Another third are receptive to a volunteer's coming in and offering eye masks (for sleeping), ear plugs, pencils&note pads, chap stick.  And the remaining third?  They would like to talk.    Thus, an evening visit to 26 rooms - I was satisfied that I did something good.......I do this again this coming Wednesday....... Last night I started watching The Pajama Game, a 1957 movie based on the hit Broadway musical.  I never saw it before.  Stanley Donen, who directed Singing in the Rain also directed The Pajama Game. I saw the play on Broadway prior to moving to California.  I enjoyed the first half of the film and will watch the second half tonight. Still undecided:  Do I subscribe to the Dead &...

A weird start to a Saturday morning.....  I will go downtown to Chase so we can wire transfer to make an investment.  Katherine will go to look at an apartment nearby that is for sale.  And at lunch time we will have a pan-fried, butter marinated NY strip steak that was 42% discounted earlier this week at Ralph's. I am wearing my new iWatch that replaces the 'destroyed' series 8 watch that I so faithfully wore on my left wrist for the past two years with a series 10, slightly larger and with a jewelry band rather than a fabric one.........next in line - a new Mac computer with a 24" screen?????

 The Wheelhouse in Venice had a 420 40% off sale.  40% off of what?  They raised their prices for this day's sale......fraud if ever there was......and that was the last I ever went to Wheelhouse. Two weeks ago, Katherine and I passed by ERBA on Sawtelle as we were going to the #7 bus to return home.  There was a sign - end of month sale - 30% off on last day of month.  Yesterday was the 31srt of July.  I went to ERBA Sawtelle.  I was told they 'replaced' that 30% off with an even better deal.  Their better deal price was $157.   The 30% off price was $95.   Obviously they could not explain to me how there new deal was a better one.  Bait and switch.....presumably, most fell for this yesterday at ERBA......that's the last time I will go there.......how sad.........