Princess has a foot fetish

Dad's shoe or my flip flop?  Which does princess love more?

Princess in a Shoe

There once was a princess who slept in a shoe

It had so many aromas, she didn't know what to do!

So she snuzzled her nose & lowered her head

Took a big whiff - and now she is dead.

Just kidding. . . .

Bad Dad, the Good Dad

Carole has a TV in her bedroom.  Unfortunately it is only hooked up to play DVD's, it doesn't get cable.  She had told Dad how neat she thought it would be if she could get cable on this TV.  The next thing I knew, early two Saturday's ago, I went into to Carole's room to see disembodied legs flailing about.  When we remodeled they put a furnace in the ceiling area with the access from Carole's room.  Dad thought he could bring a cable wire in through there.  He worked on it all day long, legs flailing everywhere.  It couldn't be done.  After a days worth of extreme effort, we were left with a no cable imperative and a beleaguered Dad who had made a valiant effort to spoil his darling daughter.  I certainly wouldn't call this a failure.  Maybe a flailure.  What do you think?

Lawry's Beverly Hills

It was sunny and warm in Los Angeles.  Dad made a reservation for us at the original first location of Lawry's Prime Rib.  Scott stayed in classes all day.  Dad and I played hookey long enough to go to afternoon sacrament meeting in a Ward just behind the LA Temple.  It was a homecoming for a missionary returning from Russia.  The first speaker talked about visiting the J Paul Getty Center and looking at Monet's artwork.  I was just there yesterday!  The missionary was older.  He had stayed home for a few years to care for his dying mother.  After her passing he had gone in as one of the oldest elders there.  The Ward was giving him a homecoming celebration right after the meeting.  We zoomed back to pick up Scott and drove out to Beverly Hills.  We were early for our dinner reservation so we literally "headed for the Hills".  We drove around some pretty glamorous homes but all of them are close together on the hillside.  Lawry's was lots of dark wood and a "clubby" atmosphere.  It was very busy but we didn't have m uch of a wait and we were well taken care of.  The food was very good, but I'm afraid I've ruined myself for Lawry's.  We had their salad which I made last Sunday.  We had their creamed corn but I like mine better.  Their prime rib is wonderful - they can cook several roasts to get it rare, medium and well-done.  I can't do that.  We finished with a hot fudge sundae.  Not bad for a Sunday dinner.  Dad drove us into downtown LA to see the Walt Disney Concert Hall - and its incredible architecture.  It looked like it did in "Get Smart"!

California Here We Come!

At Scott's invitation, Dad and I have come to Los Angeles for a "Wealth Structuring Institute".  If you have to structure wealth to have it, then I'm all in favor.  It was just a hop, skip and jump from the airport to the airport Hilton, which is huge!  We found Scott awaiting our arrival in our room and the three of us headed downstairs to dinner.  There are three restaurants here and you can order anything off the menu of any the restaurants no matter where you are dining.  Why would this be?  Because all the food here is insanely expensive.  Our breakfast for three cost $70!  We spent the day listening to an attorney educate use about trusts.  I felt like Brian Reagan when they gave him a list of the things that cause heartburn - "I know this stuff! I know how to get heartburn . . ."  Dad let me sign up for hotel internet at only $13 a day so I could play online during the hours of lecture.  After all day Friday at the stateboard meeting I feel like Gary Larsen's cartoon where the little guy with the tiny head tells his teacher, "May I be excused, my brain is full."  At 5pm we took off and surprise, surprise, Dad headed us straigth to the Los Angeles temple grounds.  It was surprisingly lovely.  The landscaping was spectacular I thought.  As we began to walk around the temple, there was a large flock of crows screaming and flapping around.  Our initial reaction was that we may have been in a remake of "The Birds", but then Dad spotted a raptor in one of the trees.  It had a crow in its claws and the other crows were harassing it.  It flew from place to place hounded by the flock all the way.  I felt sorry for the raptor just trying to get some dinner (I too, was very hungry at the time) until I heard wails of the captured crow in its talons.  Then I just felt conflicted.  

We left the temple grounds and drove up through Santa Monica to the J Paul Getty Center.  We saw what one of the richest men in the world could do with his trust.  He has taken basically an entire mountain and utilized it to house his art treasures and research center.  You park at the base of the mountain.  The only charge associated with the center is a $10 parking fee.  There is a fancy enclosed tram you take through the hillside up to the top where the fabulous travertine marble complex is located.  I don't think I've ever seen so much marble.  The place is breathtaking.  We hurried to the restaurant because we were starving by this time - we had a very light lunch since we'd blown our budget for breakfast.  The restaurant was fabulous both in terms of atmosphere and food.  See Dad and Scott standing in front of it with bare but artistic trees.  It was dark, but still the views were wonderful.  It left was with just a little time to visit the museums.  I headed right to the West building to see Van Gogh's Iris.  Pictures of pictures just don't do them justice.  I also photographed one of Monet's paintings of his water lily pond at Giverney.  It is a testament to Monet's brilliance that in my photographs his painting seems like a photograph.  And I looked at Renoir's portrait of a gentleman and thought how I'd kill to have a complexion that looks that good.  Renoir's fleshtones are only equaled by those of his contemporary Mary Cassat - to get to see this is truly spectacular!

Birthday Bashes

Little Carole turned 26 lovely years old on February 18th.  She took the opportunity to get Dad on the slopes with his new skiis.  She even got Nicole to come, and they all went night skiing at Solitude.  I, of course, was holding down the fort at home with Barkley and was told that they would finish up around 7:30pm and then we'd go to dinner.  Fie! Fie!  Those crazy folks stayed and skied till 9:00pm, having so much fun they couldn't tear themselves off the hill.  So it was a late, late dinner when we rolled in the Cheesecake Factory.  So late that nobody ordered dessert.  Instead we went home and set an ice cream cake afire with 26 brightly burning candles which Care extinguished with one mighty blow.

Fast forward exactly one week and it was time to celebrate Rick's 48th birthday!  What an old baby brother!  But Rick is ever-ready for a celebration.  The day before, we went down to Mapleton and took Norma to lunch at Magleby's.  She looks great, is doing well, and sends her love to all with an ardent invitation to visit her.  When the actual day arrived, Rick had already been booked for dinner with his fishing buddies, so it was out with the lunch bunch.  We went to the DoDo re-monikered the Jo-Do, since Joe serving there inspired Rick's restaurant choice.

Rustin (sporting his medical boot), Nicole, Amanda (who came late), Clark, Janet; all came to join Rick at birthday lunch.  Joe was our waiter and made sure that Rick finished up with their ultra-fabulous dessert, chocolate almond mousse cake.  Have you ever seen a happier Rick face?  That stuff makes you happy!  Afterwards Mandy, Rick and I went to see a great animated movie, "Bolt".  But the partying wasn't over yet.  On Friday night we all turned out at Olympus lanes for bowling with Rick.  It was the girls against the guys.  The girls beat the guys convincingly in the first game, only to fall to defeat in the second.  I figured we ended up about even, as my score wasn't helping anyone win anything.  I fixed Rick his favorite entree, pepper steak, for Sunday dinner and he was showered with gifts.  Among his favorite was the giant red model truck that Mandy found for him.