12 years hitched, 13 jumps

This year, the fountain was on! It's looking a bit bedraggled but the water was flowing and it was lovely. Hello old friend!

The ledge around the fountain is always a lot higher than I remember. It's just tall enough, I need a hand up as my legs are short and the stretch is complicated. Thank goodness for the mister who has a long stride and is always there to help me up when I need it.

Confession time folks....we a-go-gos have reached an age...er...maturity...that tells us that perhaps we are not as spry as we once were twelve years ago...so this year, while we did indeed jump, we did not jump OFF the fountain...we jumped in front of it. It still counts, right?

Good gravy, I adore this goofball. We may not jump as often as we used to but we still get around, get goofy, and just get each other. Swoon.

dropping the mister off...

The mister is going on an eight day hike on the John Muir trail. We headed down to L.A. two days before the send-off to enjoy friends and food. Our first stop was Ba Le Banh Mi, of course. Good golly I wish we had a good Vietnames eatery up here in SLO. Drooooool.

 It was a bit hot in L.A. so we headed to the home house of the mister's hiking buddy and old friend. The plan was to meet up with other people in the evening so until then...we napped.

The eatery idea was nixed and so we chowed down on doctored up frozen pizza at a dive bar in Altadena. I'm not much of a drinker and after trying to order cocktails with spirits only to find only beer and wine were served, I settled in with some bubbly. The pizza was really good, the company delightful. After awhile, the mister realized he performed here back in his band-playing days...he played bass guitar...one of their songs was even on a skate punk compilation. Hee-hee.

 The mister made himself a hiking kilt. He's become one of those nutty "make everything yourself" types...there's an actually acronym of some kind for his hiking archetype but I can't recall what it is. For some reason, all I can think of is MOPAR, but he's not a Valiant...

We spent two nights in the nifty basement apartment at the homestead. No matter how often we stay there, I always find something of interest to photograph..at least to me.

This is not the frozen pizza from the bar, but homemade pizza that our host made using tomatoes from his garden. We ate it for breakfast and it was delicious. I should have unburdened some of those tomatoes off of our host. Drats!

Of course we had Fosselman's. Summer time means peach ice cream. The mister and I will share a triple scoop. He picks a flavor (toasted almond or peach), I pick a flavor (always chocolate dipped strawberry), and then we go with either horchata or blueberry.

spending the day in l.a.

lolo-my brother's kitteh

Technically we were in L.A. for three days but we only hit up downtown on Saturday to check out one of my all time favorite bands performing one of my all time favorite albums.

brother-made garden shed

We drove down on Friday and it took double the time it usually takes. We ended up picking up our favorite banh mis for a late lunch and visit with my brother before hitting up a favorite Vietnamese eatery with another favorite person after which we surprised another old friend for a lazy visit (another, another, another...I need a thesaurus).

Saturday morning was a flurry of activity. First stop breakfast with this fabulous person (who is my favorite favoritest) where we consumed breakfast goods at an old haunt before hieing off to a park for "let's spoil jessica hour" as I opened up my traditional xmas/birthday gift which had me wishing I had my fancy pants camera to photograph its prettiness. So, so, so pretty.

The weather was STUNNING and I did a wee bit of nature crafting as we chit-chatted away before heading off to our next stop, The Soap Plant, for a refill of pikaki because this girl needs her pikaki.

And then it was time for a trek to South Pasadena to Old Focals to peruse the vintage wares for a new pair of old specs for my birthday. As always, the selection was astounding and there were far too many to choose from. The pair I picked out is a bit different but still quite me. I did not take any photos...yet...still gotta get 'em to the optician for the lenses.

It was only 3pm and we were pooped but it was time to drop goodies off at my brother's before we hit up the Gold Line for the trek to Downtown L.A. for the show. We were super early but wanted to wander L.A. or (dtla as the hipsters call it) so we transferred to the Red Line and exited at Pershing Square to wander.

After a burger from Umami (it was okay) and drinks at Pattern Bar (better than okay) it was showtime (only it wasn't as the show began an hour late which made us old a-go-gos cranky).

 

 

The show was fantastic and we were able to hit all the trains home before they stopped running...though we were fading fast. I can't do late nights anymore. I feel old. In the morning we hit up Lucky Boy with my brother for the best and largest breakfast burritos on town and then Rockler for  wood for the mister's ukes-to-be before the long, long drive home where we hit traffic from Pasadena to Santa Barbara. At least the view is mostly pretty once you hit Venture. Ya gotta love the Pacific.

the {tunic} dream!

 

 

 

It's been a year of waiting but my most excellent gift of the perfect tunic has finally arrived and I couldn't be happier. My favorite caffeine fiend ordered up one for herself and one for me for Christmas last year but the shop got a little confused and sent up a size medium instead of a custom order. Due to my location being hours away and my refusal to settle for another spiffy spring collection dress I decided to wait until Fall. It arrived just yesterday morning and I put it on immediately (good thing I plan on layering it up). I may need to call up the shop and see if they can make me one in another color as well now that they have my measurements! If yer in L.A. check out Matrushka in Silverlake. There is oodles to look at and try on and if they have the fabric in the shop...custom made! Thank you bestest lady in the world! Top is from Kohl's (M) believe it or not, leggings are from Target (XL), and the boots are my newest Alegria obsession.

such a loverly weekend

a lovely vintage bed

the smile inducing kitchen

out and about in k-town

 

colorku is a favorite

The mister and I spent five days in L.A. this past weekend visiting with favorite peoples, eating favorite foods and generally just a lollagagging about. I got to spend the weekend with the ever lovely caffeine fiend where along with multiple games of spit, a multitude of coffee consumption, and of course a dash or two out shopping, I finally sat down to watch both Frozen and Tangled. I was pleasantly surprised and thought Tangled was better than Frozen. These pics are just from one day...more to come. Ah...memories.

scenes from the weekend: after we jumped

 

After we jumped, we all hit up a favorite breakfast spot for some yummy eats and conversation. French toast was served, monkey bread was discovered and coffee was consumed. 

When it was time for the girl-o to hit gymnastics, we hugged and smooched and smooched and hugged and bid adieu until next time which is never soon enough. 

mr. a-go-go and I then swooped in on a favorite person to take the maway for banh mi and ice cream and perhaps a thrift store or two. Before we headed out, I sneaky sneaky took some photos as our favorite people tend to have lovely aesthetics. Then the mister scolded me and asked me if I asked pernission and so I then aked and snapped some more photos a little less sneakily.

We hit up three thrift stores and it seems only I scored though the mister did find some nifty neckties for  his cookie tin ukes. I found a vintage sheet with matching pillowcase, a handful of tunics, one sadly too-small skirt, a dress and a pair of cropped pants that maybe can be described as jeggings only they really are not. They aren't!

When it was time for food, we hightailed it to our favorite banh mi place for a trio of sandwiches and had a picnic in the park. Yay for thrifted sheets that stand in as picnic blankets! After the picnic (the sandwiches were SO GOOD!) we enjoyed a couple of scoops from Fosselman's and then called it a day. 

scenes from the weekend: at my brother's house

How I love my brother's house. Every book and cranny has something to look at and no matter how often I have alreay seen it, I need to gawk and wonder all over again. 

It has been a year since he was in the hospital and we were uncertain if he would pull through. I am most ecstatic to say that he has and then some! 

This family rarely lacks in the creativity department. Or our fondness for color and um...things.

I suppose I should stop shaking my head at my friends who like to wander and gawk at the colorful bits of the tiny casa. I think I know how they feel.

And please don't ask how we dust...

Other than running around capturing my favorite things about my brother's house, Stacey and I had our waaaaay after the holidays holiday meet up where we unwrapped happy gifts (a rubber chicken purse! pikaki oil! Pretty wooden utensils! Skully scarf!) and cooed over each other. After the gift exchange we hit up The Little Flower Candy Co. for a breakfast nosh that included coffee, fizzy citrus drinks, and a few shared sweets (seriously, not all that many). We were so very, very stuffed that neither one of us ate again that day and we were finished with noshing before noon even! After the nosh did a smidge-o shopping and then it was time for her to pick up the kiddos and for me to hit up Europane to meet my oldest and dearest. It was 3pm and I was still so very, very stuffed that I actually passed up the chocolate salted macorn that I crave up here in SLO. I settled for more fizzy lemonade and an iced berry tea. How nice it was to squeeze favorite people! You all need to visit me up north!