I am sitting with Elena. This is our first official session in our writing “group,” meaning the two of us. That’s just fine. I enjoy our time together. We both might feel resentful if another person joined us. We might look at them and think, “No, that’s not how we spend our time here. It’s…
Category: Los Angeles
College Essays, Online Classes and A New Car for Liz
I am grateful to have the work, but I am tired. I have been working straight since noon (it’s 8:30) with students on college essays, law school essays, and letters for special scholars programs. My back is aching from being bent over the computer and my mind is less that clear. I’m glad there isn’t…
Flash Fiction, The Gift
I wrote this a few years back, but found it today and wanted to share it. This is somewhat reminiscent of my own beloved music teacher though an intervention of this type never occurred. I expect she might have appreciated it if it had. Len There were 17 cats in Dr. Fredericks’s basement and it…
Honey-Sweetened Pumpkin Muffin Recipe – Perfect for Fall
My daughter Liz shared this recipe with me a few days back. I have not tried it, but can already tell it’s going to be good. Pumpkin adds such a great flavor and I’m sure this is a perfect “fall” muffin. I am including the recipe below. I feel certain I’ll be baking this up…
Doing What Needs To Be Done
I have been organizing all my bills and billing today. A satisfying process. I decided I needed to make a list of all of our bills and include all the passwords to the websites so that if Ray ever needed to handle this stuff, he wouldn’t be completely lost. I do all the paying of…
The Nightmare of Car Shopping
Yesterday and today, we have been out car shopping with Liz since her car was totaled in an accident last week. Ugh. No, we do not have a new car sitting in the garage at Liz’s apartment tonight. We wish we had a new car there, we want to have a new car there, but,…
Peter’s House: Repainted, Staged and Ready to Sell
Here are the pictures of my friend Peter’s house, which we’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks. Our work has included clearing out the rooms of personal items, repainting several rooms, bringing in additional furniture and art that would highlight the features of the house, and landscaping the exterior to create a clean…
Honey-Sweetened Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
This is a great recipe that is tried and true. I made it the other day and the cake was scarfed up in no time. You can substitute sugar for the 1 1/3 cups of mild honey, but keep the 2/3 cup of honey at the beginning of the directions for sure. Delicious. Let me…
Car Wreck in Downtown LA
I am very grateful that my daughter Elizabeth is alive and well today after being involved in an auto accident yesterday in downtown LA. A young woman came out of a side street (with a stop sign) as Liz was driving down the road and wham! That was it. Luckily, the young woman is okay,…
Driving through Hollywood Tonight
Here are a few pictures of Hollywood tonight. This is the strip on Hollywood Blvd. where they have the Academy Awards every year. Here we go: Just before Hollywood and Highland, the Epicenter. Hollywood and Highland: Shops and Restaurants Right across from the Dolby Theater. This is the El Capitan Theater, which is beautifully restored…
20 Minutes a Day 