from my desktop...

the MITM has decided that he really does have work that MUST be done, so he's leaving the blogging to me (ok, for today anyway) again!

i'm not prepared!

i've been on hiatus!

i'm in new granny-haven't-been-out-to-lalaland-yet foggyland?

or i'm just (fill in the blank).


but enough about why i haven't been blogging! here's some miscellaneous flotsam and yes, more baby pictures and at the very end....a surprise!

this is now my new favorite birthday e-card



i wanted to post this card on fb, but someone said it would be mean and not very polite, but i thought since i wasn't mentioning that the person was now sixty it would be ok...

any thoughts? *snickering*

(ok, yeah, a bit catty on my part, but i am just sharing it with all y'all and not everybody, so that has to lower the catty/mean girl/ok, i'll say it, bitchiness quotient.)

and moving right along

it's picture time!

Moxie and the blue bath mats

Moxie has decided that even bath mats are far more comfortable than parquet wood floors.

confused Moxie

and the back of the sofa is even more comfortable! but, she's also decided that it really is going to be OK to have another pack member.

after the doc's birthday brunch at casa de matrix

cap'n chaos and the coconut krewe have sent a few photos since my last pictorial essay, so it's fabulous baby picture time!!

mr. matrix and baby boy chaos

"so, this is what a party looks like!"

Stretch and baby boy chaos at the best creole restaurant in town!

sleepy baby!

the best creole restaurant in los angeles? i know y'all are wondering, "OK, the baby is cute, but you can't just leave that out there without telling us, savannah!" so, i'm going to share an insider la secret: go to harold and belles next time you're out in lalaland! don't thank me now, just remember to raise a glass! seriously, outside of being in new orleans this is the best on the west coast!

back to pictures...

when i opened my email today there was a postcard from our best pal, daisyfae! i think we should all meet up in NYC one day!

YES!

remember earlier on i said there would be a surprise at the end?


(hold on, you didn't just scroll down here without looking at everything else, did you?)



(you did, didn't you?)



(waiting while you go back)








and here it is:

IT'S A GIRL!!!

super nana & mr matrix are going to have a GIRL in august! this will be the first girl for the coconut krewe and their cousins. so far, there are 4 boys, so this baby will be a first on so many levels! i KNOW, right? to say we're all excited is an understatement!

but yeah, everyone is happy.


what a year this is turning out to be!

Mixed Tapes

Our four year old daughter came into our bedroom, cute as a button, curly hair everywhere and brown as a nut from the summer sun. She jumped in the bed between us to make sure she woke us up. When she had our attention on that lovely summer day, she said with all earnestness - "Can we have some Vietnamese Liberation Toast?"

Before I explain VLT, I must tell you that she is now a beautiful woman, pregnant and due in August this year, one of the most intelligent people I know, and a gifted innovative educator. She was the baby of the family. Her three brothers - now fine men to a man - are equally as intelligent. Our oldest son has just had his first child. And in retrospect, I like to think, VLT had something to do with all of this.

Savannah Marsh Mama and I came up in L.A. - more specifically, South Central L.A. - at a time when revolutionary politics and great cultural upheavals were redefining how we saw ourselves, our community and our country. We traveled in political and artistic circles that assumed, of course, that everyone read Franz Fanon, knew the name of Regis Debray, listened to Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichel, and the Last Poets. The soundtrack to our lives consisted of Motown, R&B, Funk, Jazz from Armstrong to Avant Garde, Blues from Bessie Smith to Buddy Guy, Rock from the British Isles to Hendrix, classical composers, and operas. Eclectic to say the least. We never even gave it a second thought. It all just was. And so was our approach to educating the children. We did things as a matter of course - like change the name of French Toast to Vietnamese Liberation Toast, tell the children that Columbus wasn't the first to discover America and that his discovery had negative effects because 1-several others had already discovered it for the Vikings and the Africans, 2-the concept of discovery fueled by religion and greed is never a good thing. We were the kind of young parents who would have a moment of silence for dead Native Americans on Thanksgiving. Suffice it to say that years of struggle, activism, travel, trials and tribulations have made us into the pragmatist we are today.

My questioning today centers on what effect does music, cultural nuances, political bents, etc. have on the psyche of a child? I don't really know. I know that our children as adults are all the kind of people I would want as a friend. Maybe that's all there is to it. There is no real answer. Each person takes what he needs from his early childhood and makes do as needed. (Savannah says - fucking ask their therapists!) They traveled with us around the country, through the Middle East and Europe. They all have, I'm sure, many fond memories and many times where they say - "What the hell were they thinking".

We used to make mixed music tapes to play in the car when taking the kids to school, crossing L.A. streets and freeways. These were as eclectic as our lives and our taste. The children, at an early age, had many lyrics and styles floating through their reality. What happens when you start off with Bessie Smith, flip to Crosstown Traffic by Hendrix, into an aria from La Boheme, land on the Jazz Crusaders, and finish with Phoebe Snow? Who knows? Anyway, here are a few tracks from that long ago summer. Coconut Krewe - feel free to enjoy or turn it off with a vengeance.





And finally - and I'm sure Cap'n Chaos is covering his ears - the dreaded Phoebe Snow

Spring has Sprung

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

There is new life all around us. These are the days when nature tempers my cynicism with glorious explosions of color. Some shots around our Savannah neighborhood as we approach St. Patrick's Day.

today our sweet angel baby is 39!

in the captain's den

i know! how did that happen, right? we remember when he was born, his first words, the first time he told captain chaos NO (and then proceeded to hit him with a tonka truck, but that's another story...), how he questioned why his uncle chuy didn't know his name because he  kept calling him jack! (ok, you have to know my brother-in-law the attorney to get that one) (from the MITM: as in film noir style, Hey, Jack!) we have all these stories and memories of that little boy who is now a marvelous man, a great husband, a generous brother, the perfect uncle and a good friend to those who know him...but to us, no matter how old he is, he'll always have the same little boy grin when something goes well...

"yeah, i shot that duck!"

happy birthday, doc!

saturday shakeup or this is what is on my desktop or things i've been wondering about...

yep, i don't post for a couple of days and suddenly, there are a ton o'things i need to share, a question to ask and if i'm lucky, maybe, one of y'all will have an answer for me!

so?
where to start?

how about fabulous baby pictures?

first, he found his hand

and then he put himself to sleep

Stretch called this pic "tiny sleeper"

he's too cute, right?


some of you on facebook have seen info about the dancing lady and classes she's teaching out in lalaland, so here she is

supernana & mr matrix sent this

and then there was the chameleon

so now to my question:

 i've been trying to remove some long gone blogs from the sidebar and for some reason blogger won't let me save my changes!! (who knew that blogger doesn't always cooperate, right?) any suggestions?

and finally,

did i tell all y'all that the MITM sent me a file of his "approved for posting" photos? yep, he did, but this is one i took of him sitting across our partner's desk!

i told you he wasn't the boss of me!

there's other funny stuff, but i'll save those for the next time i can't put a sentence together, much less write a post!

march 8, 1969

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!