You’re invited!

I’m one of the artists, but the whole show is going to be fun. If you’re in the LA area, I’d love to see you at the opening! It’s also a great place to shop, if you’re still buying holiday goodies.

Busy weekend

Outdoor floor, Getty Villa, originally uploaded by pennylrichardsca.

It’s fun having relatives visit–because we hit the Los Angeles attractions we never quite get around to seeing on our own. This weekend, we went up to the newly restored Griffith Observatory on the 4th of July, and yesterday to the (also newly restored) Getty Villa in Malibu. The floor above is in one of the smaller outdoor courtyards at the Villa. We went to Pompeii last year, so I think Nell understood the idea, that this was a lavish recreation (with many original items) of a Roman villa like those buried under the ash of Vesuvius.

Because it was Sunday, there were children’s activities in the covered walkway of the Outer Peristyle, so Nell and I made elaborate paper helmets with various Roman motifs. Mine is very, uh, collagy; Nell did more marker drawings on hers. We both chose Owl medallions for the forehead piece. And we wore them around the museum for the rest of the day.

We also enjoyed the Villa’s herb garden. We went on a brief children’s tour, and they let the kids pick herbs for a bouquet garni (gave out strings for tying). We got some marjoram and basil, some tarragon and bay leaves, some chamomile and mint, and some costmary. What’s costmary? I wondered too. It’s got a lovely scent!

The Observatory and the Getty Villa both have free admission.  If you come to Los Angeles with kids, instead of blowing their college fund on Disney and the other theme parks, try these (and the California Science Center, for a third free place that’s great for the whole family).

And thanks to the family in the green Camry, too

So I was heading to the airport at lunchtime today to pick up my in-laws from the international terminal, on their way back from a grandson’s graduation in Hong Kong. A trip that usually takes 15-20 minutes turned into a two-hour ordeal, because a bomb threat at the airport halted all traffic. I was in the Sepulveda Blvd. tunnel for more than 30 minutes–and soon realized that there was NO way I’d be able to get home for Jake’s bus. I also realized that I didn’t have my cellphone. Shoot. Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot.

I had to take a chance.

I rolled down the passenger window, and asked the folks in the car next to me if they had a phone. The men in the front seat looked leery. The teenaged girl in the backseat asked “Why?” I explained, I just needed them to call Peter and tell him to go home and pick up Jake’s bus. “What’s the number?” She was already dialing. Then traffic shifted, and they weren’t next to me anymore.

About 30 minutes later, I caught up to the Camry again. “Did you get him?” “YES!” The girl was all smiles and thumbs up. The woman next to her waved to Nell. “Thank you! You rock!” I shouted, as traffic shifted again. Another 30 minutes passed before I got to my in-laws at Bradley terminal. They had talked to Peter, he did go home, he did get Jake off the bus, and all was well.

The girl in the green Camry saved the day. I don’t know her name, and she never knew mine: She just called Peter’s office and explained that “a woman in a van under the airport” said he should go home for the schoolbus. (It tells you something that this call from a strange teenager with a non-US accent telling him to go home struck Peter as a plausible message from me.)