Today was the day.  After waiting several weeks, I was finally able to go in and have my scheduled “training” to insert my new sclera contact lenses.  These babies are big. I mean bucket-big, not English pea big.  But….I can see like a champ.  Better than I’ve seen in years.  Yep.  20/20 vision for long…

We are now in Holy Week, which is, for those who do not know, the countdown to Easter Sunday, the highest of the High Holy Days in the Christian church.  As an acolyte, I will be serving almost every day this week with the exception of the Saturday night Easter Vigil mass.  That’s because I…

Ray and I have just returned from Ojai, where we’ve been since Saturday afternoon.  Today, I worked with Liz helping tidy up building materials as well as having a bit of an overall Spring cleanup on the land. The day was beautiful with bright blue skies and a temperature of around 65 degrees.  The orange…

We are up in Ojai this weekend to enjoy the orange grove with Luna’s godmother, Heather, who is visiting from Texas. Heather has been close to our family since she and Sarah were little kids. We are happy she came for a visit. Here are a few photos.

Ray and I went with our friend David Bode tonight to see Isle of Dogs at the Arclight Hollywood.  This stop-motion animated movie chronicles a propaganda campaign against dogs in the future in Japan. All dogs are banished to the Isle of Dogs. The voices of the dogs in the film include Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill…

I am sitting in a quiet room, having just said goodnight to my student, after spending many hours today on the telephone with her researching and writing about two Cuban poets, Heberto Padilla and Nicolas Guillan. We share a google doc as we develop a term paper on these two men who were famous for…

I have been working with one of my college students on a paper on Cuban poets from the 1960s.  The one who we’ve researched today is Heberto Padilla.  He was initially pro-Castro then became a counterrevolutionary after Castro started demanding that poets write poetry that supported the Revolution. Here is a portion of one of his…

Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t already seen this series. Ray and I are definitely behind the times.  We just finished binge-watching the television series, Breaking Bad.  I will admit to staying up until 3 am on Sunday morning so we could see the finale.  Yes, and it was worth it.  Walter White will go…

Low-key.  Family-filled.  Perfect.  We had a great day at Sarah and Gregorio’s place, celebrating Ray’s 60th birthday.  Lots of laughter, great food and loads of love.  Hard to beat.  Gregorio and Sarah made the soup, vegatables and rice, Liz made the salad and Rachael baked two honey-sweetened desserts. Ray and I just sat and enjoyed…

Liz, Ray and I went today to the Getty for Ray’s birthday, which is tomorrow.  The big 60th for Ray on March 18th.  Tomorrow, we will celebrate by joining the whole family out at Sarah and Gregorio’s for lunch and a day together.  I am so looking forward to seeing everyone and just hanging out….