{ Surgery Tomorrow }

I am preparing for surgery tomorrow. I will shop and make sure I have all the grocerys I need for the next week, at least. I will clean house and finish laundry. I'm feeling nervous because, really, I don't like to have pain, but this surgery will help me tremendously and it's a long time coming, having fought the HMO for five years, and lost. I was scheduled for this surgery almost six years ago, but had to cancel because we moved out of state. The doctor has assured me that the surgery is so much easier than it was five years ago and I should be up and around in no time at all. The official procedures to be performed are: bilateral endoscopic total ethmoidectomy, bilateral endoscopic frontal sunusotomy, maxillary antrostomy, sphenoidectomy, bilateral turbinate reduction, septoplasty, instatrak. Please keep me in your prayers on June 30th at 4:00 PST. It will be nice to have my head unclogged and draining properly!

{ Immortalized Forever in 3D }

Alright, folks, I did it. Be prepared for me to begin the 3D photo torture. I converted these images into 3D using this tutorial. In order to acheive this effect, you need your subjects to remain perfectly still while you take one picture looking through the veiwfinder with one eye, then, while keeping everything the same, switch eyes and take a second picture. My son on the left is the most 3D because the branch he is on is oriented perpedicular to the plane of the camera lens. The other two kids' planes were fairly parallel, so the effect is less. I should have had them hold out their arms/legs or something. This was fun! That is all.

{ Prehistory in the City }

We just love the Page Museum at La Brea tar pits. It's a very small museum just packed full of ice-aged artifacts. All of the specimens there were collected from the tar pits which formed after the dinosaurs were extinct. It's funny to be in this little park surrounded by highrises in the middle of LA. Having a future paleontologist in the family, this is a great place for him to learn and explore. We were excited to show it off.

{ Hooray for Hollywood - Disney Style }

We went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D at the El Capitan in Hollywood. We absolutely loved it! My son even insisted on digging his Buzz out of the giveaway bag in the garage. That was a close one! I absolutely love the Pixar movies and this was as good as any of them. I just loved the Day & Night short at the beginning, too. Very clever. After the movie, we got to play at the Toy Story Fun Land. It was cute and the kids loved it! Here's another really cool perspective based on this movie, just thought I'd throw it in since I agree.

When we first arrived in Hollywood, we checked out the squares at the chinese theater and had ice cream at the Disney Soda Fountain. For the record, I do believe we will skip the soda fountain from now on. It's pricey and the service is absolutely terrible. I don't remember our first time eating there, so I'm sure it's always mediocre. I'm sorry to our visitors for dragging them there. Oops. One hour from the time we checked in with the concierge/hostess/table busser until we got three sundays and a milk shake. I think not. The hostess was doing all the work. The waiter was absolutely clueless. Someone metioned Newberries (?) down the road. I might check that out in the future. Even though I was unimpressed with the dining, it was a fabulous afternoon in Hollywood and I highly recommend the Toy Story 3 movie, in 3D please!

{ Happy Father's Day! }

The kids whipped up this blueberry pie with the berries they picked yesterday, especially for father's day. It was delicious. Here's how they made it:

Defrost two pie crusts.

Mix together:
1/2 cups sugar
7 TBS corn starch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
4 cups blueberries

ETA- use 3 TBS flour instead of the corn starch and add 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. Delicious.

Put into a crust and top with butter slices. Since the second crust was cracked, we formed it into a ball, rolled it out, and cut strips to make the lattice top. We didn't really have enough dough to cover the entire top, so it was a loose lattice. We brushed that with melted butter and sprinkled sugar on top to give it some sparkle. Into a 375 degree oven for 50 minutes. Served a la mode, yummy.

{ Pennypickles }

We went to eat lunch at Rosa's Cantina, so we thought we'd stop by the Imagination Workshop. The kids had fun in the time machine room and the glow in the dark fireplace maze. They loved the bernoulli ball and hot air balloon. We had a nice afternoon in old town today!