Over-the Hill Gang

We stayed last night at the Sportsmen's Lodge Hotel in Studio city. The walls are covered with pictures of movie stars, fishermen, movie stars fishing, and fish. Only in Hollywood. We found the Peet's nearby and read the plaques of TV series and movies set into the ground--One Day at a Time, The Addams Family and Just shoot Me to name a few. We also passed a large pseudo Russian building with gold onion domes that housed a Chinese restaurant. Coffee in hand we got to Kristin's house where Rick, Meg and Kristin were already hard at work.

it's interesting how on the second day everyone had found their task--OilMan finished building the boxes, Rick laid out the irrigation pipes, Meg and I took turns getting down on our hands and knees in the dirt and picking out the roots, rocks, old pieces of tile, crockery, marbles and even a headless toy soldier, from the dug up lawn that Kristin had worked on before we arrived. There were sandwiches and three trips to the Home Depot to be made. Kristin always was just where she needed to be with a tool somebody was looking for, a positive word. She carried pipes and bags of soil, Ozzie moved from one pile of dirt to another following the sun or getting out of it when he got hot.

We were all entertained by reports on a series of calls from Kate, Rick and Meg's daughter who is beginning to make it as an actor in New York. She was awaiting her call time (5:45pm) to play the part of a pregnant woman outside a Pakistani market. for a TV show called Bluebloods. she called back today to report on her experience. Wrap time was 3:45am. It took ten hours to film a segment that will last less than five minutes. She said it was a blast.

NowKristin's boxes are done. They are built, and filled with soil (from bags as opposed to the kind we had been crawling around in all day), and the pipes are laid. There have been a few geysers from the newly laid irrigation pipes, but everything seems to be under control now, as things wind down. Kristin has kept us well supplied with food, sunscreen, gloves, cold water and Advil. I am contemplating sweeping the patio where we will be eating dinner--if I can stand up....