Alex and Alice in Wonderland

Sunday, February 11th, Frank and I took Alex to see a puppet stage show called DLUX Puppets' Alice in Wonderland. It was a true delight, less than an hour long, and Alex seemed to like it. There were only two actors, Alice and the puppeteer. The puppeteer Derek Lux designed, operated, and voiced all the creatively elaborate puppets: the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the Caterpillar, and the Queen of Hearts. The presentation was very innovative using a digitally projected live virtual set that allowed Alice to fall down the rabbit hole, shrink and grow, and walk through the gardens of Wonderland.

Alex grinned and smiled and nodded his head as he sat in his seat before the show began.

The accompanying program was simple, a graphic of the Mad Hatter on the front and bios of the two performers within, husband and wife team Derek and Laura Lux. I was impressed with the range of singing and voices of the highly-talented puppeteer Derek Lux. His acting credits include playing the role of Donald Trump in San Francisco's famed Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in live theater history.

As Alex sat patiently awaiting the start of the show we reminded him of the Alice videos he watched over and over again! He has long been a fan of the TV series Adventures In Wonderland that ran from 1992 until 1994. We have watched these videos so many times I was surprised to learn that there were only three seasons' worth.

Appropriately Alex is wearing his shirt with the image of the White Rabbit on it. It was a Christmas present from us this year that arrived after Christmas. Whoops.

  

I think he caught on what the show was about as soon as the first puppet made its appearance. It was the White Rabbit, of course!

The parodies of popular music that accompanied the show were a real hoot:

• Alice down the rabbit hole sings to I Get Around (by the Beach Boys)
  down, down, falling down, she's falling down
• Tweedle Dum / Tweedle Dee sang Happy Together (by the Turtles)
  I think about you all the time, so we can rhyme
• Alice sang to What's New Pussy Cat (by Tom Jones)
  what's up Cheshire Cat? Whoa-o-oh-o-oh-oh
• The Queen of Hearts sang Dancing Queen (by Abba)
  I am the dancing queen, only slightly mean, pushing 70 

According to my internet research "Alice In Wonderland is said to be the most quoted book in print, second only to the Bible". If a fact is on the web, it must be true, right? Be that as it may, be sure to check out the YouTube video to DLUX Puppets' Alice in Wonderland. The show is home based in the Los Angeles area but it came north to the San Francisco Bay area and we were fortunate to get tickets. Watch for it. It is worth seeing. We had a blast!

Ponder Post: Right Where We Belong

Right Where We Belong is the fourth novel in the Silver Springs series by Brenda Novak. I have read and posted reviews about the first three (not necessarily having read them in series order) and enjoyed them all. There is enough cross referencing of characters in the other books that reading them has the comfort of family, but no required information is missed if the books are read out of order.

                  ©2017    Until You Loved Me (3rd)   (reviewed in 11/02/17 post)   
                  ©2017    No One But You (2nd)        (reviewed in 11/10/17 post)       
                  ©2017    Finding Our Forever (1st)   (reviewed in 12/04/17 post)

   

In Brenda Novak's book the set up is usually a bit contrived but still believable. In this instance the heroine, Savanna Gray, has left her husband, who much to her absolute surprise and unawareness, has attacked and raped three women. The violence and hostility of the husband's action are not the focus of the book, only the circumstances from which to examine the impact on a family when one of its members is accused of a heinous crime. Savanna is shunned and despised in her town and her two children are taunted and bullied at school, so she sets out for a new start in a different state. She plans to live in an old, abandoned, very rundown, fixer upper farmhouse left to her by her grandparents.

Her next door neighbor, Gavin Turner, is striving for a career in music, but also works as a handyman at the New Horizons Boys Ranch. He himself was a graduate of that school for troubled teens, having been abandoned by his biological parents and growing up within the foster child system. They meet the day Savanna drives up in a rented moving truck. He recognizes that she is at a low point in her life and he offers to help her with what she needs.

Angst accrued from personal life experiences, such as trust on Savanna's part and abandonment on Gavin's, hinder them from getting together. But, throw in a bit of sensual chemistry and the story line becomes somewhat predictable. Every good book needs conflict and a struggle on the journey, right? The obstacles are unique to these characters; their struggles to do the right thing reveals the innate goodness in the soul of each.

Why do I like this author's books, other than a common setting and loosely related characters? The hero in each comes from a troubled background and overcomes it to become an empathetic,  responsible, desirable, dependable, kind man. I dislike romance novels were the guy is an a**hole but the girl falls for him because he is a "bad boy" or a macho man with a great physique. Also in each of the books in this series the woman has a child or children to consider and the man is supportive of kids. Also, the kids and the hero mutually like each other. Brenda Novak's stories plausibly illustrate that romance prevails and can coexist with kids, even in the real world beyond fiction!

Mid January SoCal Visit

Here is it, the middle of February already and I have been remiss in posting about our mid-January trip to Southern California. This trip was divided between a quilt show the first half of the four day trip and family visit the second half.  We flew down on Wednesday, January 17th and stayed three nights at the Ontario Airport Inn. It was a moderately priced motel style, not hotel style, accommodation where the door to the room opens directly to the outside, not to an inner hallway. Any place whose shuttle van and billboard ads proudly claim 40" HDTVs in every room and memory foam mattresses on every bed is probably not a 5 star retreat.  But it was clean and neat and the staff was extremely polite and friendly and helpful. We would be spending all day at the show or at dinner so we just needed a place to crash for sleep each night.  The free continental breakfast was not very imaginative but it was better than Dan's description of the minimum requirements for a free continental breakfast. He quipped that technically all that is needed to qualify as a continental breakfast is "a juice box and a Nutri-grain bar".

We picked The Ontario Airport because of its proximity to the convention center where the Road to California quilt show was being held. Also, a lot of the hotels in the immediate area were fully booked due to the popularity of the quilt show, the largest on the west coast and second largest in the United States. The Ontario Convention Center was actually within walking distance. Getting to the show would be no problem but the return, laden with fabric purchases and tired after a long day of exploring the show, would be stretching our energy levels. Luckily the courtesy van would shuttle us back and forth with just a quick phone call and short wait. We were not planning to rent a car until Saturday.

Our first night there, though was a bit adventurous. We had just settled in and collapsed after our sumptuous dinner at a Denny's, merely a relaxing strolling distance down the road. I heard a helicopter overhead. Frank and I went out our door and looked up at the sky from the walkway outside our second floor room. Sure enough, there was a helicopter circling around the area directly above us. I said to Frank maybe we better go back inside and lock our door. I called down to the front desk to ask what was going on. I wanted to know, "Are the police looking for a lost geriatric person or is this a criminal search?" The answer I got was that they were looking for a man but I was not to worry. They'd gotten him and we were safe. "Geriatric or criminal?" I asked again. "The police did not tell us details", they replied. The helicopter continued to circle long after midnight, at least two hours after "they'd gotten him and we were safe". Frank and I were skeptical. They'd gotten him? Really?

Thursday morning, January 18th, the first day of the show, we took the shuttle and got to the palm tree surrounded Ontario Convention Center about 30 minutes before opening. The line to get in was huge! Once 9:00 arrived though it moved fairly quickly and, had we arrived at 9:00, the entry line would have been even longer.

The lobby was impressive with quilts hung from the rafters. They were only to add to the ambience and were not show entries. There were over 300 official show entries.

Here are Frank and me with that collections of quilts behind us.

Hallways led to more quilts and to vendors selling fabric and other quilting and crafting paraphernalia.

We stopped to take a selfie under this digitally printed Skylines fabric by Hoffman. Rather than being dyed the traditional way on a frame, the fabric is printed digitally. It is state of the art in specialty printing. The 108" wide fabric was hung with that dimension running vertically. The resolution and imagery is really rather striking.

For a sense of scale, you can see Frank's 6'4" tall frame with the top of his head at the tip of  the Chrysler Building like skyscraper. 

Another point of interest was this entire wall of red and white quilts.

We came home from the show Thursday before its 6:00 pm closing. The previous night of little sleep had cut into our endurance levels a bit. Our evening shuttle driver was a little more talkative about the helicopter events of the preceding night. Apparently an escape prisoner, wanted for theft not some more violent crime – I think – was trying to avoid the search beam of the helicopter as it scoured the neighboring apartment complex. To do so he checked into a room in our very motel to wait out the cops. Thursday morning he had been apprehended and his cache of stolen items confiscated.

Thursday evening was quieter. We walked to a highly recommended upscale Italian restaurant only to find the wait for dinner would be 75-90 minutes. Instead Frank enjoyed his sandwich and I enjoyed my soup and salad at an adjacent Subway Shop.

Friday we got to the show about an hour after opening and stayed until about a half hour before closing. For a while Frank chilled in the lobby. He was wearing his Harry Potter print shirt that our daughter Robin had made for him. A quilter seated next to him went crazy over the fabric. Fortunately we were able to text Robin and she responded soon enough that we could give that quilter that information on where to buy the Harry Potter fabric online. Quilters support quilters, whatever it takes!

For more details about the show and pictures of other quilts and purchases check out my January 25, 2018 entry to my blog DianeLoves2Quilt. Friday night we ordered dinner in. We had delivered to our room upscale warm Italian sandwiches which were the best tasting we have had in a long time, on travel or at home! We then relaxed and packed up, readying for our 50 minute drive south to visit Dan, Carrie, Vivian, and Lillian for the weekend.

Saturday morning, January 20th, the shuttle dropped us off at the car rental facility at the Ontario Airport. Still in quilt mindfulness I could not hep but notice that the flooring in the car rental facility would make a great quilt pattern. I took several photos and show one sample here.

Our car was a fantastic shade of blue. It too would go great in a quilt.

We made the drive in less than an hour, went out to lunch at a food court near Dan and Carrie, chilled while the girls went down for afternoon naps, and then set out to a nearby neighborhood park. Vivian got a bicycle for Christmas and boy, could she go on it! She is not quite skilled yet at braking, but steering and pedaling? Get out of her way! She does not turn four until April, three days before her baby brother is due.

Lillian is quite the climber at 20 months. She turns two the month after her baby brother is born. Here she is playing around on the climbing structure in her favorite pink boots.

Dan and Carrie went out to dinner Saturday night after getting the girls ready for bed. Grandpa and Vivian are raptly engaged in watching an episode of My Little Pony as a pre-bedtime wind-down treat.

On Sunday Dan, Frank, and I took the girls on an outing to Bubble Playground in Buena Park.

 It is a newly opened large one-room facility housed within a shopping mall.

Bubbles are everywhere and it really is a unique experience.

I believe the star bubble entertainer was Harry Jung

The use of dry ice creates opaque bubbles.

Beside demonstrations to watch there were lots of interactive stations. Vivian created some opaque bubbles of her own.

At another station, Vivian was tossing balls trying to pop bubbles that were streaming by. Look at the far wall. There are netted basketball type hoops attached there to add a challenge. Also shown is a diagonal support I-beam.

Dan, Lillian, and Frank joined in the act. Dan managed to toss a ball behind that diagonal support beam and into a basket. Yay!

At another station a large ring was hoisted from a platform upward to encase those willing to be so entrapped. Here are Dan, Vivian, and Lillian inside a big bubble.

Next in line was Frank.

Finally it was my turn.

There were even instructions on the walls – in two languages – on how to make better bubbles .

Sunday night before we left, Frank read to the girls at bedtime.

We left our hotel Monday morning to drive back north to the Ontario Airport for our mid-day flight home.

I was realizing that although Robin had gone to Harvey Mudd College for four years and had flown in and out of this airport often, I had never been in it. 

Frank had been in the Ontario terminal, because occasionally he would fly down south, drive up and back with her, and then fly up north home. With this arrangement he could share the 370 mile drive with her and she could have her car here for the longer college breaks. A fair amount of father /daughter bonding can happen in a 5+ hour trip.

Robin graduated in 2002. I bet that terminal had seen many changes since then. Frank did not recognize a lot.

Flight 403 took us safely home with an on time take off and landing. 

In the reflection of the monitor there is a glimpse of the hills to the north of the college and airport basin. We had driven through mountains to the south to get from Dan's to the airport.

It was an activity packed trip. I got to be immersed in my hobby and immersed in my granddaughters. Glad we went. Glad to be home to recover.

Ponder Post: Pupcakes

Pupcakes by Annie England Noblin was a fun, quick read. There are only a handful of human characters to keep track of: Brydie, the heroine; her best friend, Elliott; Allan, the unfaithful and divorce-pending husband of Brydie; Mrs Neumann, owner of the house where Brydie lives; and Dr. Nathan Ried, physician at Mrs. Neumann's nursing home. The canine characters are numerous but other than the main feature Teddie Roosevelt, an eccentric but lovable pug, the reader does not need to keep track of these distinct personalities by name. Teddie has many acquaintances but these quirky dogs act more as the setting and provide the ambience. Perhaps the only notable exception to the cast of dog characters in a supporting role is the huge, rambunctious Irish Wolfhound named Sasha, who becomes Teddie's best friend and just coincidentally belongs to the handsome Dr. Nathan Reid. Hmmm... Any idea where this plot and romance is going?

The storyline is that Brydie co-owns a bakery with her husband Allan and caught him being unfaithful with a mutual acquaintance. Broken hearted and penniless, Brydie leaves the town and her spouse to begin again a new life on her own. Initially crashing at Elliott's home, the realtor-friend finds a deal for Brydie where she can live rent free in a gorgeous home in exchange for caring for the pug dog of the owner Mrs. Neumann. Mrs. Neumann needed to move to a special care facility due to her failing health but sorely misses doting on her precious Teddie and he is depressed since he too misses his elderly owner. Brydie is engaged to take Teddie on weekly visits to Mrs. Neumann. 

In order to encourage the sad and lonely Teddie to eat – something other than the upturned garbage can with the resulting digestive consequences and accompanying outputs – Brydie begins investigating making dog treats. She misses baking, so her research and involvement in this activity fills a void. Oddly enough baking for dogs is not that uncommon. I found an interesting side read in the link http://www.petproductnews.com/January-2010/Boutique-Gift-Marketplace-Start-A-Feeding-Frenzy/.

If you want to learn how to do any of the following – mend from a divorce, start your own business, meet a handsome eligible bachelor doctor, develop a heartwarming relationship with a wise elderly person, have your heart stolen by a dog – this is the book for you. It is a lot of fun but clearly it is not a deep, thought-provoking cultural experience. Still it merits 4 stars in my opinion for the laughs and bemusement it conjures up. There are even some recipes for dog treats at the very end.