It’s been a busy few weeks at The Hotel Careyfornia. Lots of visitors…lots of great meals and very little sleep. If you’re thinking of visiting Southern California, make your reservations soon; as we’re getting quite full for the summer, LOL! I’m getting great use out of my new camera. Here are some shots from the past two weeks:

B & L brought the kids up to Hollywood and we had a blast! Click here for more photos

The next weekend, B & L had us over for an oceanfront barbecue in Santa Barbara. Click here for more photos


Beautiful Santa Barbara, CA. Click here for more photos


The kids had a great Easter! Click here for more photos


Jennifer cooked a great Easter dinner! Click here for more photos

Hugo arrived from NYC last Wednesday and between that and the Royal Wedding, I haven’t slept since then! Click here for more photos

Of course Claudio hosted a Brazilian barbecue! Click here for more photos

Hooray for Hugowood! Click here for more photos

More satisfied guests! Click here for more photos

My neighbor’s new puppy…she’s a Chiweenie (Dachshund and Chihuahua mix!)

I managed to squeeze in dinner with Owen last week. Click here for more photos

Our traditional Thursday family dinner. Click here for more photos

No, I WILL NOT fix your computer! LOL Click above for video

We were driving home from the Hollywood Sign last night when the Twitterverse exploded with the news.
I was with these guys on 9/11 and the year after in NYC. We all watched the President’s speech together last night.
Now THAT’S what I call “mission accomplished” GW!

While much of America digs out from record snowfall from a storm that originated as 6 days of rare rain here in California; we ended up having a pretty beautiful Christmas Day.  I am very glad that I did not fly anywhere for the holidays.  The rain we had most of last week was complete with mudslides, hail and the now obligatory double rainbow.  The week of crazy weather didn’t phase Santa however, and the kids in our family (including me) had a wonderful Christmas.  It was certainly better than last Christmas, when 2 of us ended up in the emergency room and 9 of us came down with the stomach flu!  Here are some images and videos from the week, including my favorite Christmas present:

If you’d like to know the story behind this, click here!  Thanks Lisa & Joel!

What does it mean??

December 22 was a crazy weather day!  More photos here.

Video of the rainbow from my roof

 
T’was the Night Before Christmas…

Andy, excited for Santa’s arrival.  Much more so than last Christmas:

What a difference a year makes!!


It was a very dino Christmas as Andy opened his stocking Christmas morning

I rest my case!

My how they’re growing!  Look at them just two years ago!

Tressa, Cody & Andy

An epic family Christmas picture!

A dinosaur snuggie!

Lisa loved her presents from her boys!

My gift to Andy was a hit, despite its questionable packaging!

We missed Grandma this year!

Even Sadie & Roxy were in the Christmas spirit!


Best of the rest…click here
Happy New Year!

Lisa, Joel and the boys moved into their new house over the weekend and our family gathered to celebrate.  The house is in Dove Canyon, but it might as well be called Hummingbird Canyon.  There were about 20 of the little buzzers lined up at the feeders to drink (as evidenced by this photo that Lisa sent last night).  They were really aggressive too, and didn’t seem to be scared of people at all.  They were no doubt celebrating the long overdue demise of the ridiculously gas guzzling Hummer.  (I had no idea how culpable Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the destruction of our planet.  What a hummer bummer!  Fascinating read though!)  I got pretty close to take these photos.  I’m still learning how to use my new little camera, but I’m pleased with the results thus far:

There are actually four hummingbirds in this photo!

Did you know that:

• Hummingbirds are part of the Trochilidae family found only in the Americas. They are unknown in the Eastern Hemisphere. With 343 species, hummingbirds make up the Western Hemisphere’s second largest family of birds.
• The most astonishing quality of hummingbirds is their ability to broadcast color. Hummingbirds radiate like hot coals in the sun. The color that reaches your eye is created by pigment, which absorbs some colors and rejects others. Like soap bubbles, hummingbird’s color comes from iridescence, not pigment. It winks on and off, depending on the light source and the angle of the viewer. This allows hummingbirds to flash colors or hide them which is useful for males who want to impress females or threaten other males.
• Hummingbirds are built for power and dazzle, hummingbirds are little more than flight muscles covered with feathers. 30% of a hummingbird’s weight consists of flight muscles.
• Hummingbirds require lots of energy. They have the fastest wing beats of any bird and their hearts beat up to 1,260 beats per minute.
• A Hummingbird’s flight speed can average 25-30 mph, and can dive up to 60 mph.
• In their non stop quest for fuel, Hummingbirds may visit 1,000 flower per day. For protein, hummingbirds eat spiders and strain gnats from mid-air. They will pull insects out of spiderwebs including the spider itself. Sapsucker holes are a double treat, netting both insects and sap!
• The hummingbird’s tiny brain, 4.2% of its body weight, is proportionately the largest in the bird kingdom.
• Many species that migrate to the U.S. travel impressive distances. Many ruby-throats make a 2,000 mile journey between Canada and Panama. The trip includes a non-stop, 500 mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico.
• Hummingbirds are very territorial and will aggressively protect nectar sources especially when migrating. It is important to have several feeders, out of sight of each other, to prevent one hummingbird from dominating your feeders.
• Hummingbirds have a unique way of keeping warm or conserving their energy – at night, or any time they cannot get enough food to fuel themselves – they go into torpor – a state in which their metabolic rate is only one-fifteenth that of normal sleep.
• A hummingbird can rotate each of its wings in a circle, allowing them to be the only bird which can fly forwards, backwards, up, down, sideways or sit in sheer space. To hover, hummingbirds move their wings forward and backward in a repeated figure eight, much like the arms of a swimmer treading water. Hummingbirds can move instantaneously in any direction, start from its perch at full speed, and doesn’t necessarily slow up to land. Hummingbirds can even fly short distances upside down, a trick rollover they employ when being attacked by another bird.
• Hummingbirds have weak feet and are more at ease using their wings even to shift in the nest or on a perch.
• Hummingbirds do not mate for life – the female raises the young on her own. The male hummingbird is not involved with raising the young. The female does all the work of raising her young alone! Females will lay a clutch of only two white eggs and will produce only one brood per season. The hatchlings will remain in the nest for three weeks.
• Hummingbirds can live a decade or more in the wild.

I’m still out of town and very busy this week, but here are the rest of the weekend photos:

Sunset from my office

The Spectrum

A gorgeous morning in Irvine

Great Grandma & Andy, note the hummingbird

Favorite Cousins

Tommy got a merit badge this weekend!

Sandy Andy

Best of the rest…

It was a busy weekend at The Hotel Careyfornia.  Since Ryan and Chazz are out of town, Claudio and I decided to spend some “quality time” together.  It rained all day Saturday though, and the traffic was a nightmare.  No one knows what to do in L.A. when it rains, as witnessed by this truck that got stuck in my driveway yesterday morning.  So we just ordered Chinese food and watched movies all night.  It was nice.  Today was beautiful, and after an alleged Lady Gaga sighting, we walked to Tender Greens for lunch and then I drove down to my aunt’s for our pre-Christmas spaghetti dinner.  ‘Tis the season!

Lunch on Santa Monica Blvd.

I sent this to Wendy Williams, as she likes pink Christmas trees.  Maybe she’ll show it on TV tomorrow?

Bah Humbug!  The patented Claudio sneer

Ho Ho Ho

Get your kicks, on Route 66

Sunset from my sunroof…I took this going down the 101 highway at 65 mph (104 kmh)

Another shot from my sunroof while driving

 
Favorite cousins!

 
Great Grandma made her famous spaghetti

Look familiar?

Our first Christmas without Grandpa

Tressa also wants her front teeth from Santa this year

Bad Andy – Don’t imitate Sarah Palin!

Cody & Andy

 
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Best of the rest…

Darcy The Dragon – Roger Whitt…

Five years ago this very second I was in the hospital in Mission Viejo filming the first video below of a crying baby boy who would come to call me “Ca-wee”.  Five years later, little Andy is the light of all of our lives.  In ten years I’m going to show him the second video and wonder if he still has his soap and ketchup bottle collection?  Let’s hope so!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!! xoxo

For his birthday, Lisa hired “The Lizard Wizard” and Andy’s dream of holding an alligator came true.  He even liked the tarantula and the cockroach (unlike some of the kids…and adults)!  What a brave little boy!

Happy Birthday Andy Bear!

Even Mommy got in on the action!

A princess and three handsome princes??

 

Direct from Madagascar came this cockroach!

The expressions on this little boy’s face were priceless!

The Burmese Python was a hit!

Even Aunty LuLu touched it!

Andy loves alligators and crocodiles!

Andy and his “Gweat Gwandma” LuLu

Click for best of the rest…

And finally, from the mouths of babes, this is how Andy remembered his Great Grandpa at the memorial on Friday:

I’m pleased to inform you that the reports of the Easter Bunny’s death, have been greatly exaggerated:

Sorry…my camera is missing about 5 screws (just like the middle of this photo), and light is leaking in!  I’m getting it repaired this week!

 

Best of the rest…

Unfortunately though, reports of another hare brained mass breeder’s career death are also premature:

Don’t worry.  I’ll keep doing my small part, even though I know it annoys some of you, who wish we could all just get along…like this:

Tony (generasianx) was nice enough to invite Albert (owbert) and me to a showing of “The Secret Life of Bees” on Sunday night.  After the movie, there was a panel discussion with the director, Gina Prince Bythewood, and one of the stars of the movie, Dakota Fanning.  (They were also joined by Dr. Barbara Rico, an English professor from Loyola Marymount who discussed some of the central literary & multicultural themes in the movie.)  Dakota Fanning, who’s not even 15 yet, blew us all away.  She is a remarkably poised young woman, seemingly unaffected by the spotlight and the falseness that permeates this town.  Her performance in the movie was riveting.  She kept pace with her fellow actresses Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson.  Quite frankly, I’m surprised the movie didn’t get more buzz (pun intended).  Roger Ebert writes:

I have some video of the panel discussion if anyone’s interested, I’ll post it on YouTube.  If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s worth watching.  If you don’t like it, I’ll pay you double.

BFF’s!, Carey & Dakota.   She reminds me a lot of Jodie Foster

The Three Xangateers:  Carey, Albert & Tony

I think Tony wants to cast Dakota in his next movie!  Brokeback Bounty II??

14 going on 15…but she acts like she’s in her 20′s


Rev. Kim Dorr, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Dakota Fanning & Dr. Barbara Roche Rico

Outside the church in Bel Air where the movie was screened

The San Fernando Valley on a rainy evening in Bel Air.  More pics here…

Before the movie, we celebrated my Uncle’s 81st birthday and my cousin Cody’s 17th birthday.  The whole family turned out and a good time was had by all:

Best of the rest…

It’s been a busy week at the Hotel Careyfornia, (bandwidth alert) and it’s going to get busier.  Margie flew in Monday from Kentucky and she brought her little dog, Daisy.  Since she’s working down in Orange County all month and staying in a hotel, I’m going to be watching Daisy.  Tuesday, as already blogged, I hung out with my Iraqi friend Haider.  Last night, Lora was nice enough to invite me over for dinner at their new loft downtown, right across from the Staples Center and the Nokia Theater and LA Live.  We watched Idol and dished all night.  It was a lot of fun.  Tonight I brought Pei Wei over to Lisa & Joel’s and visited with the kids for a while.  Tomorrow, Claudio & Ryan are coming with Chazz.  Sunday is my Uncle’s 81st birthday party, and that evening I’m going to try to catch the screening of The Secret Life of Bees with Tony, as Dakota Fanning is going to be there discussing the movie.  Let me know if any of you are going!  Have a good weekend!

The view from Frank & Lora’s balcony

Idol buddies!

Pucker up Frank!

This is the city…

LA Live in the background

These were Lora & Frank’s wedding centerpieces.  Beautiful!

We had to climb over railings to get back to my car…so urban.  LOL

The Grammy’s will be in this complex this weekend

Best of the rest…

Last weekend while I was at Michele’s party, Lisa sent a picture to my phone of Cole snuggled up in one of those “blankets with arms” you see advertised on T.V. all the time.  They’re called “Snuggies” and they look ridiculous.  Then a few days later, I got this picture of Andy in one of them.  So tonight when I was there, of course I had to try it:

 
 

Ridiculous right?  Kind of makes you wanna say, WTF??? 

“I can’t believe a black man’s president…”

On the way to work this morning I took these photos out of the sun roof driving 70 mph

Best of the rest…

I snapped these shots of Daisy tonight.  I think she was sleeping and dreaming when she started doing this, then she woke herself up.  LOL

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“The ratings for this year’s Academy Awards are expected to be very low because hardly anyone has seen the best-picture nominees. Also not helping — the prospect of seeing Mickey Rourke in high-definition.” — Conan O’Brien

I had to go to San Diego for a meeting yesterday.  Got to see a bunch of old friends & colleagues, and it was a picture perfect day.  Parvesh and I had lunch at the Del Coronado, and it was just as gorgeous as when Vivek and I were there last summer.  Such a pretty place!  Afterwards, I drove up to meet my cousins for dinner. 

Boo yah!

Chocolate chip faced Andy

It was a long day, but a good one!  Certainly better than any day in an Oprah-less world!