An update and some observations on our weekend (to date).
Come as You Are Shabbat
Our weekend started Friday evening with a Come as You Are Shabbat at Temple Beth Hillel. This started with munchies followed by a service in the round. As we’ve said before, we like the place. The service was led by Rabbi Sarah. During the service, the little todder was wandering all around, and the Rabbi just kept picking her up, putting her on her lap, and playing with her. Later, of course, we learned it was the Rabbi’s daughter. Just a lovely, informal evening. Afterwords, we picked up dinner from Zankou Chicken (which has the best garlic sauce in the world, yum).
Southern California Games Day
During the day Saturday, I went to the Southern California Games Day (gf_guruilla went to the Internet Graduation of a friend [yea Nina!] and shopped for buttons). Got to play a batch of games: 10 Days in Africa × 2; 10 Days in the USA × 2; Coloretto; High Society; Speed Circuit (Monte Carlo’s Monaco Expansion Track); Ticket to Ride; Ace of Aces; There’s A Moose In The House (after all, we were at the Moose lodge!); and Burn Rate. I also picked up a copy of Girl Genius: The Works. Lots of fun, marred only by an annoying either cluster or rebound headache.
110 In The Shade
gf_guruilla picked me up at the Moose Lodge, and we went off to the Pasadena Playhouse to see 110 In The Shade, a musical from the same folks that wrote The Fantastiks and I Do! I Do!. The playhouse did a wonderful job with the musical—great actors, great orchestra—and we thoroughly enjoyed ourself. They really should put on I Do! I Do!: it is simple to stage (two actors, one bed, that’s it) and delighful.
An Eeeery Sight
We drove home to a scary sight, bringing up memories of last year. We live in North Hills California, which really has one hill, and is all urban. However, it borders on communities that border on the foothills (such as Granada Hills and Sylmar). Evidently, around noon Saturday, a fire broke out near the I-5/Route 14 junction. We drove home to the sight of an orange glow cresting the top of the hills. This morning, the skies are filled with smoke (great for our allergies), and the sun is an angry orange (as it was in the play). I haven’t yet turned on the news to get a report of the fire, but I sure hope this isn’t a repeat of the Simi Fire last year, where we had to evacuate my wife’s folks as the fire neared Chatsworth, and we saw the glow as the fire approached Northridge over Porter Ranch.
To those that smoke: please, please, please never throw anything out of your car. We don’t need these damn fires!
And now it is off to do the TBT Newsletter, perhaps my last (or next to last) issue as editor.
