Alex’s Palo Alto Festival is in full swing right now, and while we’ll certainly have a bigger post to wrap it up, here is a little update.
We took Page to her first real cinema experience yesterday. The film was Adventures in Zambezia in 3D, an animation from South Africa with voices by Abigail Breslin and Samuel L Jackson. Alex introduced the film and hosted the Q&A and even managed to squeeze in a joke at my expense…
With the 3D came the 3D glasses –
Our resident hipster said “Wow!” about a hundred times in the 15 minutes that she watched before getting fidgety.
Did you know that owl’s have three eyelids? No? Page does.
One of the innovations at this year’s festival is a real time interactive quiz as a prelude to each of the films. It’s a great way to get the audience involved while they are waiting and I’m pretty sure you’ll see more of it. As for the owls, I had no idea of the answer to that question in the quiz, so I asked Page. Props!
Other highlights so far include one of the Oscar winners that Alex keeps in her back pocket making this for the 30th anniversary outdoor screening of ET (“Teapot” according to Page)
Baby #2 will arrive in late April (or so they say – my vote is for May 7th, Brendan’s is for May 12th). This is definitely a different baby. See the heartbeat here. Page was so mellow during pregnancy and this one is throwing me for a loop. Page is very excited about the baby in Mommy’s belly and likes to talk about the baby in her belly, too. One more week until the Festival I am hoping adrenaline carries me through the long weekend. The Festival is going so well, much less stress than last year. I am REALLY looking forward to the weekend after Festival when Brendan, Page and I will head up to Calistoga for a relaxing spa weekend.
When I moved to America, I tried catching public transport. That didn’t last long.
The cruel shouted jibes of “Communist!” and “Mexican!” wore me down. So I brought this car –
I spent my first weekend in the car up in Idaho. I drove rally style around the City of Rocks, skied at Pomerelle, and drove back from Sun Valley on Monday morning in time for work. I only got one ticket.
Owning an All Wheel Drive car in Park City made a lot of sense.
It made a lot of sense, but it wasn’t without its problems.
On a short break in Milwaukee I was watching Top Gear Season 12, Episode 2 and got inspired to take The Loneliest Road in America as a way to get from Park City to meet Craig in Laguna Seca for the Grand Prix. As was my way back then, I planned to camp outside en route.
After a thunderstorm on the first night, I drove off The Loneliest Road in America, and into … glue. So I continued until I was almost completely bogged, then turned around to get back onto the bitumen. I made it back, at the expense of my gear box.
Caught midway between Nowhere, and Well Beyond the Black Stump, I was still able to hitchhike 50 miles to the nearest town, make a phone call to get the car towed, and then got a ride with the local sheriff back to the car with seconds to spare before the tow truck driver left for good. Then I had the Audi towed 50 miles the other way to Ely, Nevada. A third world town with only a Casino and two brothels. After a few days of that, and even though I had the loan of a F250 from the car shop, I needed to be rescued.
Although the car still made sense when I moved over to California, keeping it on the road started to cost too much money. It was hard to keep the car on the road at the best of times, particularly when encountering elderly englishmen who liked to drive on the left.
When we moved into the Santa Cruz Mountains, it made sense to keep the car around as Yard Art. For nine months. Just to fit in.
I played Banjo music loudly as the truck towed the Audi away for the final time. I didn’t want to scare the neighbours.
So many adventures with the Audi, and I was emotional seeing it go.
To replace it, we now have a car that is so environmentally-friendly that we are sure to see dolphins gambolling in our creek sometime soon. A car that augurs well for plenty of adventures of its own. Watch this space.
