[sic]

This Sunday is the next CicLAvia, in which a route through the city is closed off to motor vehicular traffic and open only to the wide variety of self-propellers: cyclists, walkers, joggers, skateboarders, skaters, and the like.

I’m looking forward to this one in particular because of a couple firsts. The first first is that the course is brand new, spanning between downtown and the beach mostly via Venice Boulevard (click the graphic below for the bigger picture).

The second first is that contrary to every one of the past five CicLAvias I’ve participated in, I actually don’t have the day to myself and instead have someplace to be. Fortunately that place is down South Bay way and thus I’m relieved that I can avoid missing my first CicLAvia by incorporating it part of my overall roundabout outbound commute.

Specifically, I have to be in Hawthorne by 1 p.m. ready to participate in an spcaLA-offered beginner dog training class. So my plan is to roll downtown around 9 a.m., and just get meandering west until I arrive at Venice and then make my way around the marina and across Ballona Creek onto the bike path that winds its way alongside the sand out of Dockweiler State Beach. From there I’ll bail inland and back onto the streets via Imperial Highway, working my way onward via a staircase of eastbound/southbound/eastbound/southbound streets until I arrive at my destination, like so:

Depending how I’m feeling about pedaling the entire distance home afterward, I may head up Crenshaw to Leimert Park and roll back home across the basin, or I’ll just ride the rails back into downtown by intersecting with a Green Line train to the Blue Line (perhaps working in a stop at Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers since I’ll be in that area).

I hadn’t yet been to a Dodger game this year, and frankly might not have made it out to see one this season had the good folks at Mr. Pink Ginseng Drink not invited me and Susan to their media event this evening– which just so happened to also be Kirk Gibson Bobblehead  (with Fist Pump Action!) Night.

We got a VIP tour of the place — including a visit onto the hallowed field during batting practice — before adjourning to a suite to enjoy the game. Sure, it didn’t end well… the Arizona Diamondbacks ended up winning 8-2. But whether the Dodgers are victorious or not, a summer’s late afternoon and evening at Dodger Stadium will always be one of my favorite places in Los Angeles and on the planet. Thanks, Mr. Pink!

Buster got some exercise/explore time out of the tortoise hutch and around the backyard this morning:

(click it for the bigger picture)

Thursday’s LA Times brought to my attention the 8th-Annual Ojai Valley Lavender Festival, and it didn’t take much convincing to get Susan on board for a daytrip out that gorgeous way.

The festival itself took place in Ojai’s Libbey Park and featured scores and scores of vendors selling just about anything and everything lavender-related. Afterward we explored the shops within the arcade across the street and had lunch before paying  a visit to New Oak Ranch where for $5 they set Susan and me up with pairs of clippers and let us wade out into a fragrant breeze-blown sea of the stuff clipping our own bunches of fresh lavender.

Susan’s wanderings brought her into contact with a rabbit and some quail. The only thing I got close to were the many busy bees, and it was somewhere in the midst of my cutting that I put down the clippers and got the above close-up of that hardworker.

Afterwards we came back through the village and out the other side, stopping briefly to check-out Lake Casitas before venturing to Highway 33 and the 101 south back home.

A Flickr set of other pix from the excursion can be viewed here.

click it for the bigger picture

Over the last three days on lunch breaks and several times when my computer’s crashed and it was either A) Beat my head against the desk, or B) Walk away, I’ve performed that rite of fall and commenced spookitating the frontyard like the whacked-out Halloween-loving manboy I am. There are still some ghosts to hang and fog machines to place and test and lighting to arrange… plus if the winds kick up between now and Sunday I’ll have to pick up most everything seen above and reinstall it, but most of the big ticket ghoulification is complete!

Kneeling down to hoist up my loaded-up backpack from the club chair ottoman is usually the second to last thing I do before leaving for work in the mornings (the last thing being give the dogs a jerky treat before the bike and I head out the door).

This morning, as I bent over to get the pack I was confronted with this substantial slice of sweetness from our Ranger:

(click for the bigger picture)

What makes it all the more awwwwwwwwww-some is that the only thing keeping her seemingly gravity-defying ball from dropping to the floor is that it’s perfectly tucked in like a pillow between her oh-so-sleepy head and the blanket.

I managed to quietly extract my cam from my backpack and capture this preciousness without disturbing the scene. Then I whispered her name and she looked up me with those sleepy eyes and the ball fell with a thud to the hardwood. She didn’t even blink and went back to her nap, but I interrupted it further, helpless to prevent myself from smothering her with hugs and kisses.