The Last Few Days

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity... And guess what?? My camera won't talk to my computer... but it will talk to Sarah's! Hooray...

Friday, Fabric District: Sarah and I spent almost the entire day in the fabric district of LA. She had a conference call in the middle of the day that she went back to her car and partook in leaving me to wander and enjoy myself... We hit the $2/pound loft of Michael Levine's and I bought quite a few yards of polar fleece for some projects at home. I also bought material for bumble bee costumes for Tater and Winston (I figure this will probably be the last Halloween that they get too much attention!)... And some batting to make dog beds to hopefully transition the dogs to the floor and off of our bed (well... I can try!)

Saturday, Sea World: This was by far our fullest day. We drove down to Sea World San Diego in the morning. We watched the Shamu show (Raley was mildly impressed... apparently she doesn't think training killer whales is all that difficult).

Then one of Sarah's associates showed us around some of the backstage/rehab areas... this was by far the most amazing part of the day! We bottle fed a baby sea lion who had been with them since he was just a couple of days old (picked up as an orphan).

Then we got to feed and pet a 400 lb! dolphin (their largest in captivity).

I think he's posed for a few pictures... what do you think?

Then we fed some fish to the general seal/sea lion population... and we rounded it off by meeting their three manatees up close and personally!

Isn't that incredible?? They feel a lot like the hide of an elephant (their closest relative) and despite having tiny eyes apparently their vision is quite good.

After our close encounters we had some lunch (at about 3pm!), went to the "Pet Show" (a performance by dogs, cats, pigs and ducks... Raley found all of these a little more impressive than Shamu... of course our sitting closer also helped considerably) and then took turns touring the arctic exhibit while Raley took a nap in her stroller... the belugas were my favorites!

We finished the day off in Raley's favorite area, the bouncy toddler block zone. Frankly, I think we could have skipped the animals and come stright here and Raley would have been happy. But Dan and I though the manatees were pretty amazing!

She was in hard core delivery mode for most of her time, bringing us block after block...

Then Sunday was swim class... Sarah, Dan and Raley are enrolled in a parents/child swim class each Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure that Raley loves it, but it is definitely exciting for her.

Splashing is good...

The whole family... "come on mom, splash!"

"Wait? You want me to jump in?"

On Friday, while in the fabric district, I got a call from Second City... apparently there weren't enough people enrolled in my class for this week and so they cancelled it! Yeah, good thing I didn't buy a plane ticket/reserve a hotel room for this thing hunh? I was not pleased. However, it did mean that I am getting to have a "leisurely" week this week. So yesterday, I went to the Samuel French Bookstore in downtown Hollywood... amazing!! I could have spent HOURS in there and much more money than I have but I was good and limited myself to a hand full of scripts and a reference book for one of my classes. And luckily all of the books are tax write-offs because I use them in my profession!

Then last night I drove back to downtown Hollywood and went to an improv performance at the iO Theatre. I figured if I can't be in a workshop this week I'll at least see as much improv as I can which should really fuel me into my improv class this fall. Last night was very funny... and I'm looking forward to either another night at the same theatre this evening or an evening at Second City. Either way it is sure to be funny!

And that is a wrap on my last few days.