permalinkNot Guilty!
June 26, 2009
Back in January, I received a red light camera traffic ticket from Culver City. A visiting friend had gotten a little over-eager on a left hander when borrowing my car, and here was their face on my traffic ticket. The ticket listed several options:
- I could give up the driver, which required gathering personal information about them I didn't have. (What if they weren't a good friend and wouldn't give it up?)
- I could plead guilty, with our without traffic school
- I could fight it
I decided to fight it. The picture obviously wasn't me, and I don't think it's my job to track down the driver for police. I wanted to do my part to make them more diligent when handing these tickets out. I took the option of "trial by declaration". This just involved filling out a form, and writing a statement explaining my not guilty plea, which mostly consisted of the picture of the driver and my driver's license picture. I mailed it in and waited, and waited, and waited, until today I finally got the verdict back - not guilty! The clerk is going to mail back the bail, and hopefully the police will look a little closer next time before blindly issuing tickets.
Vince
permalinkThings Devin Likes
June 16, 2009
Thought I'd give a quick snapshot of what Devin's up to, especially the things he loves.
- Water. Any form. Bathing, swimming, drinking, washing his hands. He rarely comes home dry.
- Trains (choo-choo). Carefully driving his trains around the tracks. Riding on trains.
- TV. Elmo, Barney and Thomas. Now that we're back home in LA, it's much easier to limit this.
- Flirting. Especially with young, single women. He's very good at this. He specifically picks out his target, smiles and points, and then tries to act shy when they acknowledge him. He's available for rental. Email me for availability and rates.
- Scooters and any other outdoor toys he can ride. It's LA, why would he walk?
- Music, especially live music. His favorite time at day care (that we can tell) is when the musician stops by to play songs for the group. He doesn't like dad's xylophone playing as much, though.
- Plants. Devin loves touching them, playing in them, rolling around in them. He can hardly walk down the sidewalk without stopping to hug a tree or pet some plants.
permalinkGoing Green
June 12, 2009
No, we haven't switched to electric cars or installed a solar panel on the roof, but the work on our lawn is moving along well. When we left for New York, April's work on the stone wall was done and the sprinklers were almost working. By the time we got back, our dirt lawn was replaced with lush green grass. Devin loves playing in it! Now we just need some more plants for decoration, or so I'm told...Vince
permalinkBack Home
May 31, 2009
Our two month adventure is over, as this morning we had an extremely easy (in terms of having a 2 year old) flight back to LA. We're very jet lagged, and will probably wake up at 5AM tomorrow.In our second month in New York, we kept a busy schedule. Including
- Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge
- Visiting Coney Island, the Aquarium, and eating at Nathan's Hot Dogs
- South Street Seaport
- A memorial day visit with JoJo, Grandpa, and the whole Morris crew in Seabrook, NH
- A boat ride all the way around Manhattan
- A taping of "The Daily Show"
- Caught up with a lot more people (I'm too exhausted to even try to list everybody, but be assured we loved seeing you all).
Overall, we had a fantastic trip! Things really worked out as well as we had imagined. Jonalyn was able to work while Devin & I toured all around the city (as you can see), hitting up all 5 boroughs. I was also able to find enough time for myself to brush up on the new hotness in the technology world. I highly recommend trying something like this to anybody who gets a chance. The experience of starting to feel like a native New Yorker was priceless.
Our two month trip was just about the perfect time frame. I could have done with a slightly shorter trip, but if I was working more, I'm sure I would have wanted to stay longer. I hope we can do something like this again in the future. Maybe even Europe next time?
Tomorrow, it's back to reality. Devin will go back to daycare, and I'll go back to work. I'm not sure who'll take that transition better.
Vince
permalinkNew York Celeb Sightings
May 29, 2009
We've seen more celebrities in New York in our two months than we'll normally see in a year back in LA. You may have seen some of our tweets or Facebook updates. Here's a a full list of our run-ins in case you missed some.
Samantha Bee - At our local playground, 70th & Broadway
Jason Jones (married to Sam Bee) - Our local supermarket (they must live near us, the studio is just a few blocks away)
Kevin Bacon - Walking from LaGuardia High School (on our block) to the John Lennon Experience bus parked outside.
k.d. lang - Babbo
Anne Hathaway - Public
Dave Matthews - AMNH
Andie MacDowell - Central Park
Kelly Rippa - Sat next to Jonalyn at nail salon
Richard Thomas - Whole Foods
Cynthia Nixon - Walking down West End Ave, working on the crossword puzzle
permalinkOne month in the city
May 01, 2009
permalinkChoo-choo
April 17, 2009
permalinkWhat a City!
April 12, 2009