My grandmother (Oma in Dutch) passed away yesterday at my parents home, where she had been living the past 6 years. She was 91 years old and lived a long, eventful life.
While it was definitely sad yesterday, there were also times of bittersweet hapiness as we looked over Oma's photo albums, choosing pictures for her memorial. My dad and his sister reminisced over the pictures, trying to remember names and places in the photos. Here are just a few of the photos I scanned yesterday:
Oma on the right, at 16, in Indonesia
Oma in her 20s, sometime in the 1930s, in a sarong in Indonesia.
In celebration of the Lunar New Year, I took a bunch of inspirational pictures and posted some old ones I took around the same time a few years ago. I visited Bolsa last week on my day off and took pictures among the exotic orchids being sold at an open-air market.
The Asian Garden Mall in Bolsa, Westminster.
Gigantic potted orchids were displayed inside the jewelry stores.
This small arrangement was so gorgeous!
David, hint...hint...Valentine's is a couple of weeks away.
Red lanterns inside Green Farm Market.
I just love the colors of these gelatins from Green. I wonder if it tastes as good as it looks?
I made Vietnamese spring rolls for dinner for the first time (with chicken instead of shrimp or pork). Doesn't it look delish? e-mail me for the recipe.
An unusual yellow lantern with tassels hangs above a flower shop. The Lunar New Year was eye candy amidst the gray clouds that lingered. I hope your year will be as colorful!
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. --Dr. Seuss Thanks to my cuz Justine for recommending this library! A large aquarium at the entrance. Our future astronaut checks out his ship. A T-rex keeps you company inside the children's library. Glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly above the entrance of the main library. A floral sculpture garden and fountains near the parking lot.
The entrance to the Cerritos Sculpture Garden stands next to the library.
For our 100th post, we present Visual Acoustics, a documentary film about Julius Shulman, famed photographer of modern architecture. Many of the famous images of modern architecture in Los Angeles and across the world were photographed by him. Here is the trailer:
Monday, February 19 was an exception. Because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday, the Nix family had nice day off and a chance to exercise our freedom to choose. First we had planned on going to the free family event at LACMA in LA, however, after a minor change of plans we headed south to San Clemente to have a picnic at the park and walk on the shore next to the pier.
A park on Linda Lane with a view of the waves and trains heading south. Alex loves having Mommy & Daddy all to himself.
Won't you come and join us on our adventures?
The loves of my life..."It's a beautiful day...don't let it get away."
Old timers catching a wave with their kayaks. Ready...set...wet! It's a good thing we brought extra clothes. On the way home we stopped by the SC Art Supply Store. It's a house, a store and a classroom all in roof.
Got some new markers to use for my fashion illustration class I am taking at Art Institute of CA. Yes! I am back to college to finish what I started. I am also taking a fashion manufacturing class and starting my first sportswear collection - better late than never! (blog to follow soon).
Small main streets have become more like ghost towns because of the economy. We love them for their ambience, uniqueness and hometown charm. One of my favorites is Main Street Garden Grove, CA. Apparently there is a Save Historic Main Street GG group that is trying to revive this area.
Our favorite gourmet market is here - Zlakets. It's been there since 1927 (off of Euclid & GG Blvd.) - that's 82 years folks! Pay attention big business - this company is doing something right! By the way, Zlakets has a small cafe with delicious deli products and sells old-fashioned, glass bottled, soda pops. I think I'm gonna buy some Crush soda for Valentine gifts.
Main Street Cafe is a fifties style restaurant also on Main Street. We hear there will be a new seafood joint opening up next door in a few weeks. My parents, aunt and uncles after some grub at the cafe. Zlaket's is closed on Sundays ; ( Alex and my niece Jasmine enjoy spinning on the vintage bar stools.
Every third weekend on Saturday and Sunday, The Orange County Model Engineers provide children with free train rides from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The OCME trains run on several tracks on Goat Hill Junction at Faiview Park in Costa Mesa on Placetia Street (near Estancia High School). The miniature locomotives are an 1/8 of the size of the real thing.
One of our favorite shows was an old 60s British series called The Prisoner. "Favorite" may be not the correct word, as the series could be frustrating and sometimes downright confusing, but always intriguing and made you want to see what happens next. It is one of the tv series that influenced "Lost."
The series is centered on a man known only as "Number 6." He is a spy who suddenly decides to resign and is subsequently drugged and kidnapped. He wakes up in a mysterious town known as The Village, which is controlled by some sort of organization bent on discovering why Number 6 resigned. Are his kidnappers his ex-employers or the enemy? The Village is also populated by other Prisoners, who also have numbers assigned to them. All of these people want to escape this Village, but escape seems impossible, as no one can figure out where on Earth the Village is and there are mysterious things preventing their escape, like a mysterious white balloon (Lost Black Smoke Monster, anyone?). And everyone is suspect, as people constantly betray each other for the chance to be allowed to escape. The person in charge of the Village is Number 2 who claims to answer to a Number 1, who we are never shown and sometimes doubt exists (Lost Jacob and Ben).
Anyway, it's a very 60s series with psychedelic imagery. It's not for everyone, but it's worth a try.
The reason I wrote this post is that I found out the star and creator of the series, Patrick McGoohan, just passed away this week. I was hoping he would be alive for the new Prisoner mini-series, which will tentatively air in the fall on AMC.
Here are the extraordinarily long (by today's standards at least) opening credits:
The Office is one of our favorite shows. Here is the never-before-seen Japanese version that inspired it--warning: you have to know the show to get this clip, otherwise it makes no sense:
TRUST ME is a new cable show staring Eric McCormack ( Will & Grace ) and Tom Cavanagh ( Ed ) return to series television in TNT's TRUST ME , a sharp, witty drama series that centers on two best friends working as creative partners at a top-ranked Chicago ad agency. It will be on this Monday, Jan 19 on TNT primetime.
I am so psyched to see this. I worked for an ad agency for over five years and I miss the excitement of the creative development, quirky graphic designers and art directors (I'm married to one), and yes believe it or not, the clients!
David and I have been catching up on Mad Men on Netflix. I am simply Mad about Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper and I'm sure David's got the hots for January (no-D.), Christina (you'd think, but no-D.), or Peyton (didn't even remember her, but thanks for reminding me honey-D.). We're also watching reruns of Bewitched on KOCE. I think Darren Stephens is responsible for getting me into the ad business.
The Newport Beach Public Library had a family concert over the weekend featuring the OC Youth Ensemble String Quartet of the OC Symphony Youth Orchestra. The teens are between the ages of 13-16. I can't wait for Alex to start taking music lessons! His Auntie Lougene is a Suzuki trained viloinist! Alex plays some games on SesameStreet.org at the childrens section of the NBPL before the concert. The Quartet called themselves iSTRINGS and we loved the solo performance of the celloist - Philip Sheegog. He played Julie-O by Mark Summer. It was amazing. Bravo!
For the New Year, the Ancheta's made a decision to do a monthly family fun night for 2009. So to inaugurate this occasion we decided to go bowling. It was the first time my Dad (Cesar) had ever bowled, scoring 4 strikes. Sorry to say that I had really low scores. None the less, we all had a great time! The winners with the highest score was Uncle Joe and Auntie Lita and for this "Boys Against Girls" tournament - the boys took top honor.
It was Alex's first time bowling at Fountain Bowl. He chose an orange ball (a color preferred by the Dutch) which got him one strike.
The Dutch word “nix” literally means “nothing” in English. Nix also happens to be our last name. So something from us would kind of be like...oh never mind.
