I met this adorable little Dachshund puppy in front of the Indigo hotel in the Gaslamp quarter of San Diego (which, by the way, is extremely dog friendly). I’m bummed, because I can’t find the owner’s email address, and I told him I would email him the link to this photo!

This is a random group of U.C. Davis college students I met at Eagle Falls. I asked if they wanted me to take a group photo of them, and then I would email it to them. I just found the little slip of paper with one of their email addresses, so I’ll bet they will be surprised to get this six months later!

5 May 2011

Love in the Circus performing “Takes the Edge Off” at The Hotel Cafe at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, California on October 29, 2011

There is also a KICK-A SAX SOLO in this song!  That’s the GOOD NEWS. The BAD NEWS is Leanna Rachel’s gorgeous vocals did not come through very well in this video recording. I apologize for the vocal on this video to Leanna and everyone who watches this! I’m learning…I’m learning… I was literally right up front and center and the speaker was above me and shot right over my head. Watching & listening to this on my desktop computer, which has pretty good stereo speakers, it sounds fine, but on my phone and laptop Leanna’s voice is difficult to hear. Lower quality speakers (such as on a cell phone or laptop computer) barely pick up her voice, yet the rest of the instruments came through. This experience just reinforces what I already know: that I really need to start making separate audio tracks that I sync with my videos. Where I need to be standing to shoot my videos is usually a different location from where I need to record the music! Regardless, this video will give you a taste of what was an exciting live performance of an excellent song.

Check out the studio version of this song on:

The Love in The Circus web site: loveinthecircus.com/​

Love in the Circus on ReverbNation: reverbnation.com/​loveinthecircus

Love in the Circus on YouTube: youtu.be/​m_3UvpMIV4k

We were staying in downtown Los Angeles because my husband was attending the Urban Land Institute Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. As is usual on my husband’s business trips, I accompanied him. My job is to make his business fun by planning social engagements, activities and interesting culinary adventures as a break between his many business obligations.

The first evening I decided it was a perfect opportunity to use the gift certificate we had obtained by using our American Express Membership Rewards points at the acclaimed fine dining establishment, Patina, located within the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. I was just a little concerned, because a few weeks before I had read on my FB feed that someone had less than a stellar experience at Patina. I already had the gift certificate, however, and so I decided we may as well use it and form our own opinion of the restaurant. As I often do, I made my reservation through OpenTable.com (more points earned!) and called ahead to see if it was okay if we brought our own bottle of wine. We were in luck; normally they charge a corkage fee of $30.00 (the highest I’ve ever encountered), but Tuesday evening there was no corkage fee whatsoever! Things were going in the right direction already.

I won’t go into greater detail here ~ I’ll let the photos tell the story ~ but our dining experience there was top notch. We received courteous, attentive, competent, yet unobtrusive service. Everything we ate was creative, artistically presented, absolutely fresh and delicious. Kudos to executive chef Tony Esnault and general manager Christian Philippo. Mr. Philippo came to our table several times throughout the meal to make sure everything was perfect…and it was!

Los Angeles, California ~ 25 October 2011

This set of photos was taken on October 9, 2011, at the horse training facility of Krista Koenig and Dave Kneller in Paso Robles. They have a business called From Start to Foundation. They do all kinds of horse training which you can read about on their web site. I met Dave just a few weeks earlier at The Sanitarium Music Nights in San Luis Obispo, except he was not called Dave there. Dave is not only a horse trainer, but is also a very entertaining singer-songwriter with a unique style, and he was playing that September night, going by the stage name Cody Pendant. You can see a few photos of “Cody” on my photo set from that night; he’s the one with the cowboy hat & boots! I also recorded 3 videos of him singin’n strummin’ that night. You can see them on my Vimeo channel, SLO Music! (Again, he’s the one with the cowboy hat.)

Back to our October 9th ranch visit: well, we spent about an hour just walking around checking out where everything is. There’s a stable, some different areas for training and riding, some pens as well as some open spaces, trails and even a dry river bed next to a picturesque, oak covered escarpment. Then Dave took a couple of his clients out on a trail ride on their property. I took a bunch of photos of Dave riding a formerly wild mustang named Moon. One of the things that Krista & Dave do is train wild mustangs that have been rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management (B.L.M.). You can tell which ones those are because they have a freeze brand on their neck, which Dave pointed out to me. After they’ve been trained they are available for people to purchase.

After the trail ride Dave saddled up a palomino quarter horse named Pockets, and he gave my 21 year old son, Addison, his first ever riding lesson. Dave was very clear and thorough about explaining everything Addy needed to know for his first lesson. Dave rode Pockets first, explaining and physically demonstrating the basics of riding. Then it was Addy’s turn to ride, and I think he rode pretty well for his first time. Addy was thrilled! The only other time he had ridden a horse was on a tourist trail ride in Kauai (gorgeous scenery, but didn’t really learn much about riding a horse properly). I could tell Dave is a really good teacher; he communicated effectively and calmly with both the horse and my son, and everything about the lesson progressed very smoothly. So that was our first, but hopefully not our last visit to Krista & Dave’s horse training facility. Fun times!

I usually avoid donut shops like the plague (because I love them), but I make an exception for my favorite donut & coffee shop whenever I’m in the City. They make the most interesting varieties and flavor combinations. Enjoy the photos…they’re calorie-free!

Charles, a friend from college, came up for a visit. We started out with an excellent dinner at Trattoria Grappolo’s in Santa Ynez, a favorite among locals. Next came the Tears for Fears concert at Chumash casino, right down the street from Grappolo’s. The next morning we ate breakfast at Lido inside the Dolphin Bay resort in Shell beach. While we were dining we noticed that their seemed to be a lot of birds flying by in one direction. Our curiosity was piqued, and after breakfast we ventured out to the oceanside bluff to check out the action. There seemed to be a gazillion birds flying around, we’re guessing that they were feeding. This time they were flying in the opposite direction from when we were eating. After we were done checking out the birds we went over to pay a visit to our friend Alex’ place of employment. She manages a really nice horse farm in Arroyo Grande. Charles had not ridden a horse since childhood, and Alex was kind enough to arrange the OK with her employer for Charles to go riding, and she gave him a lesson herself.

Here is our “Fat ex-beauty queen.” We call her that with much love… In 2004 she was AKC ranked #2 female Pug dog and #7 overall (among male & female Pug dogs). Back in the day she was quite the active Pug, traveling near & far with her handler. Nowadays she spends most of her time lounging around the house being beautiful and sweet as can be, although a bit more rotund.

Via Flickr:
CH Clarcelest’s Lil’Gnocchi

Catching up on making photo sets…this one’s from a hike last spring:

Via Flickr:
The Balconies Cave – Balconies Cliffs Loop is a relatively easy 2.4 mile hike with an elevation gain of about 100′ (although I’m a bit skeptical of that published number; it seemed like we climbed a little more than that). The talus caves (spaces between boulders) require some scrambling on rocks and crawling in tight spaces, and flashlights or head lamps are mandatory as some parts of the caves are in near complete darkness. Although the trail is fairly short, there are a lot of interesting things to see: fantastic rocks and rock formations, native wildflowers, streams inside and outside the caves, and of course exploring the caves is a highlight.