It was another busy Saturday and I was inspired to write, however after the length of last weekend's post, I thought I would include these inspirations under "Random Thoughts" since that's what most of them are anyways. I have been addicted to taking pictures with my crappy iphone camera (it's so easy), so most of this post is in pictures, albeit not very good ones...

• I met some friends in Pasadena yesterday morning. We went to Dick Blick, one of my favorite stores and then the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.
  
  

  

  On the way back to the car we walked past Mrs. Beasly's bakery and spotted some cupcakes. Cupcakes are all the rage right now, but these are not your ordinary cupcakes.
  
  My friend's son said, "I don't think I'd like those very much." Ha, ha! I agree.
  
• My wonderful dog Koho has some hot spots on her paws. She got them many years ago, and there is no medical reason why. She has them again and she licks them raw. There is nothing I can do to keep her away from them other than an e-collar, a.k.a. a cone collar. I don't like the regular, plastic collars because they are uncomfortable and hard. She runs into and scratches walls, couches, tables, and me because she can't judge the size of her cone-shaped head. Yesterday I bought her a padded, nylon one that is supposed to be more comfortable. I think Koho would beg to differ.
  
  
  How funny looking is this. I feel so bad, and I can't even look at her because it makes me feel bad. She stands in the middle of the room without moving. She's so sweet though and wags her tail the entire time. I took it off of her for a little while this morning to give her a break. She slept the entire time, probably so exhausted from having it on. I keep telling myself it will just be a couple of weeks and once the hot spots are healed, she won't have to worry about it, but I still feel bad.


• Last night I went to the Van Morrison concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl is probably my most favorite place to see a concert - it's outside and the sound is great. I love Van Morrison and was so excited to hear him do so many of the hits that I grew up with. However, last night did not meet my expectations. The music and his voice are great, but he only sang four, count them, four songs that I knew (and I have 3 or 4 albums that I regularly listen to) and those four were sung so differently than the album versions that we weren't able to sing along. It was a disappointing show.
• After the concert we walked down Highlands to Hollywood Blvd to jump on the subway. It was a quiet walk back to the station until we got to Hollywood and Highland. All of a sudden, we were in the middle of a Prop. 8 protest. The protesters were on two corners, chanting, and not really bothering anyone. The police dotted the street, there to keep order if needed.
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  We stood across the street and watched with other lookey-loos for awhile. As we watched, the protesters got louder and then walked into the crosswalk and stood, blocking Highland. The police ran around a little bit and then a police truck drove past us with police in riot gear hanging off the sides. The "audience" gasped. The police lined the intersection. We were told to either go across the street and join the protesters or leave. The subway station was right behind us so we slowly walked towards it. Before taking the escalator down to the station, a large group of protesters poured onto the streets from the station. We stood and watched for awhile and then a police officer looked at us and said, "Go, now." We quickly turned and hopped on the escalator. On the ride down, I had two thoughts. First, I wondered why the police armed up so quickly. The protesters were chanting, but being very civil. No one was being disrespectful or dangerous. My second thought was about the two 15ish year old girls riding down the escalator in front of us, who then turned around and rode it back up behind the protesters. Tell me, how is it that these "little" girls are out, in Hollywood, at 11:00 PM on a Saturday night with no parents around, and gay marriage is being blamed for the crumbling of family values. Just wondering.