Ash Covered Car

Layer of ash on the windshield monday morning.

Smokey Sunlight

The light is deep orange, casting an almost salmon pink light.

Can't smell anything like smoke, but the air is still and hot. Squirrels are fighting in the palm tree. There aren't any birds in the air either.

It's earthquake weather, as they say. You heard it here first.

Trojan March

USC vs. Cal

A Profound Moment

Courage and Hope!

Autumn Morning

It actually looks and feels like a Fall morning. It rained early this morning, and at the polling place a tree is turning red and losing leaves (such a rarity in L.A.).

A beautiful mix of Americans of all creeds and colors. Old ladies smiling at babies, a guy in a stars and stripes ball cap, a woman talking to a friend about how challenging she finds it to speak Hebrew, and not one word overheard about having to wait in line to vote.

Lines at the Polls

Long lines at the polling station down our street. They moved pretty fast. There were three precincts voting at this location.

Family Off to Polls

Heading out to our neighborhood polling station. Caro was dropping off her mail-in ballot. I needed to stand in line to vote. It was a beautiful morning and Henry was in a good mood, until he realized that he had to wait in line next to me while standing outside a playground. He went crazy wanting to play in the wet sand.

New Recycle Bins on L.A. Streets

New bins in Venice popped up over the weekend. My first reaction is that people are still clueless and will just use it as a trash can. My second thought was that it might not matter since so much street trash is probably recyclable anyway, or that the city has done the research to know that citizens are generally good about recycling awareness and self policing. Let's just say I have faith in most people; less faith, though, in the junkies in Venice who will tear this apart to get the aluminum cans.

Holy sh*t. The L.A. Bureau of Sanitation needs some serious help with their websites, especially this one they created for kids.

I can't find any coverage anywhere on the launch of this program.

Shark Balloon at Logan's 2nd Birthday

He's making out with a shark balloon. Actually, the balloon guy was pretty cool. The only funny part was that the Sharpie on the balloon hadn't dried before the make out session. So Henry has permanent shark teeth outlines on his face. He's trying to simultaneously force a piece of Carvel ice cream into his mouth while kissing the shark.

He used too much teeth and shortly after this photo was taken, the shark ended up missing the lower jaw. Still, he became so attached to it that he wanted to take it to bed with him. Yeah, that sounds a little weird.

Thanks to our friends, Todd and Lisa Waks, for hosting a killer 2-year-old party for their son, Logan.

Twitter Killed the Blogger Star

Okay, that was a bad reference to a bad 80's song. I've been a little behind in my blogging these days as I've been over-reliant on Twitter. Especially easy to use is the Twitterberry application that I have on my Blackberry Curve.

I've noticed that my lack of blogging also seems to coincide with the financial turmoil. So like everyone else, I'll blame "the Man" for my lack of activity on Left on Red. I've also been working a lot and haven't been spending any office time updating the blog.

I guess I've been conspicuously lax in my political posting (not that I was ever really that active of a political blogger, frankly), but after all these months I'm not only decided, I'm ready to get the whole damn thing over with.

Yeah, I'm also a bad father since I've somehow managed to not post any Halloween pictures. I forgot my Blackberry at home on Halloween night, so I didn't get the quick mobile-blogging photos I usually post. I think we snapped some with the camera, so if I ever get around to downloading those into iPhoto today, I'll post something. Hmmm . . . I think there might be some office photos on the agency's shared folder.

Dodgers - Championship Series Game

Phillies take it. A friend of Caro's (yes, she is the hookup queen - I swear my wife knows at least one person in every organization who has anything to do with fun events) at Major League Baseball hooked me and Wensman up with tickets to the Dodgers. They got creamed by Philadelphia, but being able to attend a League Championship game was amazing. It was actually the only Dodgers game I caught all season. Scott remembered to remind me to always eat the grilled Dodger Dog, not the regular boiled, I supposed, Dodger Dog.