Bird News

Parties don't happen if you don't invite anyone

I discovered that simple fact today. I sort of wanted to have a fourth of July party, but I didn't invite anyone. Funny how that works! I was invited to a few myself, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave the house today. Our current lack of toilet paper didn't even motivate me! Tomorrow I'll leave the house. Yeah. Tomorrow.

Despite the minimal number of homosapiens in our house, Steve and I managed to have a party here by ourselves. It has been great. We witnessed about 12 simultaneous fireworks displays from our balcony view. Many are still in progress. It has been especially interesting tonight because Los Angeles is foggy. We took a short walk in our neighborhood (I guess I did leave the house a little bit after all) and saw a pretty fantastic local display as well. We watched as the pyrotechnics were launched into the mist. A few seconds after the fireworks exploded we would start to see them descend through the fog. The visual lag almost neutralized the discrepancy between the speed of light and the speed of sound (but not quite.)

In other news, I have been singing in Petra Haden's a capella choir to help her promote her recent album, "Petra Haden Sings the Who Sellout." We had our first full length performance on Friday at the Ford Amphitheatre.

After one day of relaxation. (or, more accurately, zombieness) I undertook a "training" hike yesterday to the San Antonio Ski Hut on Mt Baldy. I am gearing up for a 3 day backpacking trip to Mt Whitney along with about 9 other women for a good friend's bachelorette party. Yesterday's hike included the schlepping of our backpacks up a 3 mile trail that gained 2200 feet in elevation. It is a really beautiful hike. The view is tremendous and the foliage seems other worldly to me; agave plants and other cacti mixed with pine trees and snow!