notes to the neighborhood

(Los C--- edition) <-- i feel all nineteenth-century doing that.

Dear coffee-brown two-story house,



I admire your decor, with the stonework on the front matching the stone wall around the front yard, and the flowers just outside the wall are wonderful. Most of all, I covet your left-side bougainvillea, the one whose flowers are cream-white with pink tips. I've never seen one like that; it is gorgeous.




Dear pair of adobe-style houses,



I admire what you've done on lots that are half the size of most of the other lots. Did the others used to be your size and everyone else combined them, or did someone split a regular-size lot and build two houses on it? In any case, you left-side house in particular have done a really nice job with the front courtyard with the little fountain, and the bougainvillea (regular bright color flowers) that adds just the right amount of color to the setting. Anyway, good going on your architecture (what I can see of it, anyway).

[edit 2010 Apr 16: they both have neat fountains. the other one is in a slightly different spot, and I hadn't noticed it before writing this/taking the pictures.]


Dear brick-front house with the gable second-floor windows in the dark-shingled roof,



You remind me of a common look for houses in the Philadelphia suburbs where my husband's family lives. It's a good thing; it means you remind me of vacationing every time I walk past. Though, in general, I feel that the effect of a facing on the front of the house, such as brick or stone, is dissipated somewhat when it doesn't continue around the sides. But I still like you.


Dear little house with the covered porch running the width of the front,



I admire the neatness of your front yard. Your porch looks nice and cozy and is the sort of thing I wish we had on the front of our house, with a few design differences (ours would be above ground-level and wooden railings instead of brick floor/pillars). Thus you inspire me to thoughts of home design every time I walk past, which I enjoy.

-----

Hm. I should perhaps have pictures with this. Maybe I'll manage that soon.

[Edited, finally, on 2010 Apr 16 to add the pictures. I took them only a day or two after writing this entry, but.]

of a feather

The Players: Two kindergarten-age girls, four slightly older boys.
The Setting: upstairs on the play equipment at Walteria Park.

Girl #1 possesses a large black feather that is way too big and fluffy to be from any local bird. It probably fell off someone's hat.

The following is transcribed to the best of my recollection.

Girl #1: Look at my feather! (Goes over and waves feather at group of boys, who are clambering about the connecting chain-net-ladder-thing like a group of little Spidermen.) Isn't it awesome?

Boy #1: The feather is boring.

Boy #2: How old are you?

Girl #2: I'm in kindergarten.

Boy #3: Well, we're in the grades, so there.

Girl #1: The feather is awesome!

Boy #x (possibly more than one): The feather is stupid.

Girl #1 (to Girl #2): Come on. (They go to the other covered portion of the equipment.)

Girl #1: They are stupid and they LIE.

first tooth

Right lower front. Emerged last weekend, seen here on Tuesday in a lucky photo. It's becoming more and more visible above the gum now. Bother, I think this means I have to start brushing it soon.

iconic

the travails of mr. penguin

o, the fickleness of young girl's heart:

four months

of CUTENESS. Not that I'm biased or anything.

since the eagles weren't in it

We all wore Steeler yellow on Sunday, although hers took the form of teeny yellow flowers, which I suspect is slightly atypical as Steeler fan-wear goes.



It is now a trend that when a new generation is born into my husband's family, the Steelers will win the following Super Bowl. It happened with him, and now with our daughter. Steeler Nation: you're welcome.