Coconut, I do understand about people being especially busy this time of year - it's sort of like trying to get the most out of the last part of the summer. I've noticed that I have to do my barbeques earlier in the day now, but I do plan to keep barbequing throughout the year, now that the back yard is more accessible. Scott, I was planning to go to the Abbot Kinney Street Fair this year, but it will be strange since I lived on Abbot Kinney for 15 years and now am no longer there! We are also planning on going to the African Marketplace Faire on August 23 or so. I've always found great things to buy there. The Target store that I like is at the corner of La Cienega and Rodeo, just slightly SE of Culver City. I rarely go to Target, but if I do, that would be the one I would visit. Mitch, I'm glad you appreciate the effort we put into and the results. It's still now over, however, and I especially appreciate your comment that it looks like we've been there a while. It was important to make the house ours, especially since we actually did meet the previous owners, which made it a bit strange. Plus we are getting some of their mail! Ellen, maybe you will be able to visit my house at some point in the future. I'm still about half way between you and the South Bay girls, although I'm a bit closer to them now. I have to say that I now live in a boring neighborhood, however, at least compared to Venice! Kevin seems to like the quiet - I think the beach traffic was beginning to get to him. I don't miss the bike trails and all the accidents that I had there. Thanks for the comments! Lars

Linda, I also prefer the portable sewing machines. I have a Husqvarna machine, made in Sweden, which I've had for over 15 years, and I also have an overlock machine, which is even older. I bought the Husqvarna because it had the most stitches suitable for knits and the fewest stitches that I would never use. I don't know what machines are like today, but I didn't like the computerized machine that I used to have. Once the program stopped working, it would have cost more to fix the machine that it was worth, and that's when I replaced it. The manual portable machines have fewer problems and are easier to fix when they do. I also like Mitch's idea of inserting a glass container for flowers, but I doubt I will ever use it for flowers. Because the opening is very small (considering the overall width), I would not be able to get a very large container inside. I could make an acrylic liner, however, as I have worked with acrylic before and have the tools for making the seams. Lars

So many good answers already. I'll just second one of the earliest replies that pointed out the diversity in yards is much much greater than what we have in our native habitat. I spend a fair amount of time in some mountain locations here. 4 species of trees for miles around: two oaks, a fir and a cedar. My little HOA, which I walk extensively with my dog, has that beat with its coral, carrotwood, ficus benjamina, rubber tree, brush cherry, juniper, podocarpus (several species), silk floss, queen palm, pepper tree (two species), canary island palm, fan palms, hong kong orchid, trumpet tree (brugmansia?), jacaranda, eucalyptus (2 or 3 species), bottle brush, bradford pear, sycamore, liquid amber, 3 or 4 different pines, bronze loquat, catalina cherry and a couple I haven't ID'd. And that's just the front yards in a fairly boring area. I love driving around older neighborhoods where there's been time for the owners to replace things and you see twice or three times the tree species and a lot more fruit trees. Its also worth pointing out that some of the common landscape plants have some decent grafting potential: hawthorn, pear, bronze loquat.

There are months and months of attractions in SoCal. Even living there for 30 years it seemed to take that long to see most of it. We lived in Riverside but my grandfather lived in Wilshire for 20 years and liked to take us around (1950s and early 60s). Back then we thought traffic and parking was bad, but it's nothing like today. The Disney stuff is quite a distance away from everything else you mentioned. I would suggest making Orange County a different visit. Disneyland is easily worth 2 days. Unfortunately the reason for that is the lines can take hours. Figure out their fast pass system and use that. Knott's Berry Farm is second rate to Disney, but that still puts it pretty high in quality. You can do Knott's in one day. I agree with what has been said about the beaches. Laguna, Newport, Corona del Mar, and Little Corona are all in Orange County. My preference was Little Corona, but parking in the neighborhoods above it was a problem. Laguna is flat out gorgeous - very picturesque. As for the Hollywood walk, you might want to drive through first and then decide if you feel safe enough to get out of the car. It's a mass of people dressed like super heroes and panhandlers (sort of the same thing) mixed among the tourists. You'll see that at Venice, but it doesn't seem nearly so crowded with the wide open beach. Warner Bros studio has a very informative tour. It's off the beaten track, which is nice. I got a lot more from that tour than I did Universal Studios tour. Watching TV get made is not all it's cracked up to be. Lots of waiting in line and then waiting in the studio and then waiting for all that goes with making professional TV. Maybe they have entertainment during the waiting, but back in the day they did not. You have to eat somewhere. In-n-Out is excellent for lunch. Eat there early in your stay because you might want to eat there again. For dinner try the killer shrimp at Killer Shrimp. Don't snack first. Many people don't think about art museums. The Getty is an art museum. So is the Huntington Library in Pasadena. Huntington Library is also a nice garden with acres of unique landscaping. For more of that there's Descanso Gardens nearby the Huntington. If you have an interest in horses, Arabian horses, Cal Poly University in Pomona puts on a horse show on selected Sundays throughout the year. That won't work for your July visit, but who knows who might be reading this. You should not need air conditioning within 10 miles of the beach. There are a handful of days per year that it gets into the high 80s or 90s.