i'm famous!

http://www.slate.com/id/2260826

Yes! That's me! Debra in Los Angeles!

I submitted that question to My Goodness at Slate because it seemed to be very similar to the kind of questions they post on that column. I find it hilarious that N became the issue when he really had barely anything to do with it at all.

Here's my original worded email to them, if you are curious:

Hello,

I've donated in the past to various charities, and I must be on some mailing list of some kind because I constantly receive letters in the mail asking for donations (from organizations I've never heard of) and they include a sheet of personally printed return labels with them using my address. Since I am just uninterested in some of these group's causes, I use the return labels for my personal mail and toss out the rest of the letter without donating. My boyfriend jokingly pokes fun of me because of this, but I'm pretty sure he'd rather have me not use the labels and just throw them in the garbage. No one else can use them since they have my address on them. Sometimes the labels have the name of the organization on them, and then I think I am just perpetuating a lie since the recipient of the mail may assume I have supported the organization. It's a small but everyday kind of problem. What should I do?

Thanks.

stewie and ocean

here's a pretty boring video of N and Stewie on Carmel Beach:

cherry pickin'

I heard there's U-pick cherry farms around LA awhile ago and I've been waiting for the season to start ever since. We finally drove up north to Leona Valley (where there's several cherry farms) to go picking this past Saturday, about an hour north of where we live in Hollywood. Cherry season is usually only the first two weeks of June, but this year the season extended all the way to July so we lucked out! The rainier cherries were pretty much all gone, but there were a ton of bing cherries left for picking.

Here's N on top of a ladder picking some bings:


Here's some heart-shaped cherries N gathered for me:


I've never been cherry picking before, and it was pretty fun...especially having to climb up ladders and getting to stick your head straight up into the trees where you're surrounded by cherries. They were super ripe, so they came off their stems very easily (and the weather was PERFECT). The farm we went to didn't use any pesticides and somehow the fruit was pristine. And SO sweet.

On the drive back, we passed a sign that said "The Falls" so we pulled over. There was a little hidden waterfall among the trees. The neighborhood fire department was there with their truck handing out slap bracelets to kids and thanking people for being fire-safe (as in...not having any live fires going).

wedding photo booth

The photo booth at my brother's wedding was fun since they had a chest full of wacky hats/jewelry/glasses/costume-y type things to use as props for your photos.