Evacuation orders have been lifted for most neighborhoods in my area, with only 2 streets still under them.  According to the city web, which has done a bang up job of keep us updated, the command for the fire will shift back to the Emergency Operations Center at City Hall this morning.

Where I sit right now there is no visible flames or smoke, with luck the hot spots will be done with and containment will happen sooner.

Isn’t this an early start to the “fire season”?

A fire broke out this morning on Avacado Place in Monrovia near the “M” that is visibile from the 210 Freeway.  It was started by a gardener accidentally.  (Contrary to popular rumor it was not a 420 celebration).

Snarks aside this is a serious matter being made worse by lookie loos.  As of 4PM it was over 90 acres and a 3 alarm fire.  The lookie loos are so bad and thick it is getting hard for the fire fighters and law enforcement to get up to the fire.  Please stay away from the fire zone and use the parking lots at Santa Anita Mall, strip malls along Foothill and Huntington in Monrovia if you have to come see the smoke and flames.  Thats a good vantage point to watch and not interefere with evacuees leaving or those of us in the affected area from getting in and out of our homes.

As I blogged a while back during another brush fire, the hills above Monrovia and Duarte haven’t burned since the early 60′s and that is nearly 50+years of fuel to feed a fire.

More as this story develops.

click to embiggen, there are 2 whales in this picture

The whales are making their migration north from Mexico.  We are rapidly approaching the zenith of their numbers.  The fam and I made the trek to Dana Point to take advantage of the season as we “heard” that area tends to have the best whale watching.  We were not disappointed.  Our 2 hour cruise left us with memories that will last a life time.

We used the services of the Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching and rode out on the “Dana Pride” at noon yesterday.  We saw many sights as we cruised out past the sea lions on the break water and out to sea.  There were several pods of dolphins feeding out at sea.  What was really amazing was watching them follow our boat and play in the wake as we moved around them.

The captains on the boat are real experts at whale watching.  The offer up a narrative of what to look for as well as what you are watching.  They stay in touch with other Whale Watching boats to expedite the finding of whales by sharing information via radio where they can be found.  (Spoiler alert…we saw something that is rarely witnessed by us land dwellers and you need to make the jump to read about it).  Read the rest of this entry →

Yup, it was such a success last time around at Santa Anita Park they are returning this summer.  If you made it to the Pasadena locations last year you were probably put off by the density of the crowds and difficulties with parking and stuff.  The move to Santa Anita Park alleviated those obstacles and made the event really fun.  Of course, if you made the ones after the move to Santa Anita you are well aware of how much fun the place was.

The folks at 626 Night Market are so happy with the change of venue they are looking to increase their crowds.  They are having a contest on facebook and are giving away 5 passes to each of the 10 winners.  To enter all you gotta do is like their page and share it with your friends.

626 Night Market is also looking for artists, food trucks and other vendors to pack the place with and add to the fun and enjoyment.  If you are interested visit their web page HERE.  Yes, the prices seem steep, but it includes your canopy, lights, outlets and most importantly your permits.

I’ll post more on the dates as we get closer to the event.  If you want more deets visit the main 626 Night Market site when you have time.

Just got the press release.  Congrats to the 4 local marching bands that made it into the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade.

They are:
Glendora Tartan Band and Pageantry, Glendora
Los Angeles Unified School District All District High School Honor Band, Los Angeles
Pasadena City College Tournament of Roses Honor Band & Herald Trumpets, Pasadena
The Salvation Army Tournament of Roses Band

Its New Years Eve here in L.A. and I read a startling statistic that there are nationally 25 deaths a day caused by drunk drivers over holiday weekends.  July 4th weekend here in L.A for example had 1,000 DUI arrests.   Please don’t be a stat tonight, rather have a great night and take public transportation.   You can even ride the trains for FREE from 9PM tonight until 2AM tomorrow (New Years Day).

If you drive and find yourself too tanked to drive call AAA if you are a member or not,  you can take advantage of their “Tipsy Tow“.  All you have to do is call them at 1-800-400-4222 and they will pick you AND your car up and tow you up to 7 miles.  Great service that can save you a DUI ticket or worse an accident.

I for one this year will be spending a quiet evening of family game night.  What are your plans?

Happy 2013 in advance.

Love this video, just wish it had a sound track.  Love the old stock footage from 1940′s Los Angeles where they really went out of their way to decorate for Christmas in Hollywood.

Merry Christmas all…

Its been going on for as long as my kids were little and I have lived in Monrovia.  Its a great little tradition where MPD and MFD escort Santa and his carolers through the streets of town hitting EVERY neighborhood during the course of 4 nights the week before Christmas.  The Holidays wouldn’t be the same without this wonderful tradition, especially for those with little ones afoot still.

What sort of traditions exist in your pocket of L.A?  Share them in the comments with links to any video or pics you have.

During the course of college football seasons I’m inevitably greeted with several variations on the WTF theme when it’s discovered that this Los Angeles native’s lifelong, rabid and deathless team allegiance isn’t to the Trojans of USC or the Bruins of UCLA, but rather the Crimson Tide of the University of Alabama.

The short answer is that my mother’s an alum. The longer answer is that whilst I was growing up she pretty much worshiped Bama’s legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant and thus by familial fanmosis, did I as well. So much so that my dream during high school was to attend Alabama and play for Bryant, but that all fell apart when he retired during my senior year and then died not more than a couple months later.

Since then, through thick and thin I’ve been content to be the Tide’s self-appointed West Coast representative, so to speak. It’s a lonely job. I was pretty much the only one in town cheering them on when they capped their undefeated 1992 season with the National Championship over Miami. I was in the stands at the Rose Bowl in 2000 when they came for a visit and UCLA spanked them but hard. And these last few years I’ve reveled in the glories they’ve achieved under Coach Nick Saban. If you don’t believe I take this shit too seriously just drive by my house during any televised Bama game on Saturdays and I guarantee you won’t have to linger too long until I rumble out an ultra-loud “Rooooolll Tiiiiiiide!” My wife’ll tell you. The neighbors, too.

You’ve probably been wondering  over the last couple paragraphs what does all that have to do with? And the bridge to that answer is after the jump.

The thing is, as a contributor to Blogging.la coming up on almost 10 years now, I’ve ended up on a variety of PR lists. One of the most recent pitches I found in my inbox was for the Dog-E-Glow (Facebook / Twitter) line of LED- embedded pet collars and leashes. More specifically, the email pointed out the company’s brand new licensed College Collection, one of which was — you guessed it: Alabama.

So of course I wrote back a lengthy reply that basically boiled down to “Gimme! Gimme! Roll Tide! Want!” And in exchange for them sending me a Bama collar and leash combo (pictured at right, biggable if clicked), I promised I’d pimp my beloved Ranger by making her game-day ready for the Tide’s season opener this evening (5 p.m., ABC) against Michigan, show her off here (like so below), and spread a little love about the company and the product in case you want one for your pooch.

Lights Off (left). Lights On (right). Good girl, Ranger!

Fort Lauderdale, Fla-based Dog-E-Glow was founded by dog and outdoors lovers who above all wanted to keep their pets and others’ safe while looking their very best. The collars and leashes come in 12 fashion designs and 48 (and growing) college brands, and feature a flexible LED tube sewn into each ballistic nylon product whose lights are bright, long-lasting and visible for up to 1,000 feet at night. The collars and leashes are weather resistant, fully adjustable, and have two settings: steady and blinking. At the Dog-E-Glow website, the collars sell for $25.99, the leashes $29.99.

Oh and: Roll Tide!

After dancing around and debating about going or not I broke down and went this weekend. Why I was putting it off I don’t know.  It was actually a lot of fun, something one needs to do at least once in their life.  There is a lot of period confusion among the fair goers, its not all pure Medieval Renaissance times with some fun in the form of trolls, ogres and fairies tossed in for good measure.  But its all in good fun.

You get a good smattering of crafts, free wine tasting courtesy San Antonio winery, beer huts, music, free shows…minstrel, comedy/variety, magic and wenches all tossed in with some pretty good food too.

This isn’t a free event. Tickets at the door are $25 head, you can purchase slightly discounted tickets at select Walgreen stores enumerated HERE.  Parking at the Santa Fe dam will also set you back $10 bones for a dirt lot.  Map to location here near the junction of the 210/605 Freeways.  Better hurry as next weekend is the last weekend it will run this year.

I’m a sucker for a fuller-than-usual moon and couldn’t wait for tonight’s so-called Super Moon to rise high enough to be visible from ground-level in my backyard. So, shortly after it rose tonight, I scrambled up to the tippy-top of my steeply pitched roof in Silver Lake and at 8:54 p.m., put my point-and-shoot camera up to the eyepiece of tripod-mounted 60x spotting scope and shot this frame (click it to biggify):

Monrovia does things a little different.  In this case we turn Cinco de Mayo into a big street fair that is family friendly and hold it before the actual day.  We’ll be doing it Sunday April 29th to be precise.  The event is full of activities for kids, music and art featuring local artists.  It will even include a food drive for the Foothill Unity Center so bring a non perishable canned goods you can donate while you are there.

Details: Sunday April 29, Noon-9PM, Coloradao and Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia CA WEB SITE  MAP HERE

I’ll admit it: Even after making the 90-minute drive up to Navitat Canopy Adventures in Wrightwood, and even when I was being strapped into the 12 pounds of harness gear, and eeeeeven when I stared down the length of that first zipline while breathing air so clean it hurt my lungs, there was a part of me that was ready to wuss out.

Fact is, I am pretty much terra firma’s bitch — exxxxtra-terrestrial, so to speak, in that my life-long crush on my physical, foot-planted connection to our earth is practically boundless. Suffice it to say the ground and me, we’re close. Really close. As such it is not often but always with trepidation whenever I intentionally leave its embrace –  but certainly not to seek various thrills such as diving into the sky out of a perfectly good airplane, or bungee jumping off a perfectly good bridge. Ziplining though? Hmmmm, now that was something I didn’t immediately have so adamant an adverse reaction to and therefore might be open to consider doing. At least in theory. Some day.

Ready to roll at zipline No. 1. Did Will stay or did he go now?

Which turned out to be March 24 when, despite my doubts about turning that theory into action, I took Navitat up on its gracious invitation and went up into that wild forested yonder in the San Gabriel Mountains about 75-miles northeast of Los Angeles and about 7,000 or so feet above sea level. Upon my arrival I was warmly welcomed by Caley Bowman, Navitat’s marketing manager, and soon after signed the requisite waiver absolving her company of all responsibility should I break a nail or a neck.

Soon after, among an assembled group of five other fellow blogger invitees (Andrea, Christine, Debi, Nicole and Bob), we were all harnessed and helmeted and venturing via 4×4 van up a steep and winding and narrow old logging road to eventually stand before that first zipline, where I wasn’t surprised at all to find that earth-bound part of me still looking for the chicken exit. But did I make like a tree and leave? Did I “bough” out ungracefully? Oh hell no. Me and my inner adrenaline junkie clipped in and went up, up and away for the ziplining rides of my life.

Read the rest of this entry →

I swear I wasn’t going to post another dang hummingbird video, but I hope you don’t mind since that oath was affirmed before yesterday morning when I set up my cam in front of my tabletop fountain and it ended up recording this rare and candid capture of a our backyard momma hummingbird first chasing off a thirsty yellow-rumped warbler so she could then take a break from her ever-demanding babies to get all up in the adorable with a bath:

If ever this time of year comes and goes without a hummingbird nest in our backyard I’ll know the world is coming to an end. So as you can see in the clip below, we’re safe for 2012 no matter what the Mayans said.

But as regular as the tiny birds may be around my place, they still never fail to make me go wide-eyed with wonder — especially when I see stuff such as this momma feeding her chick, hatched about a week (give or take a couple days) ago from an egg little bigger than a black-eyed pea: