Tag Archives: Valencia

Cloudy with a Chance of Crazy

Aug
23

Posted by: Josh

Cheap thrills last Saturday when we saw a movie in the park. The cost? Zipple. Unless you also bought a house while you were there, which is what they were selling, and which we did not (unless Maggie snuck off while I was chasing Eleanor around, but she looked pretty comfortable on the picnic blanket so I’m going to doubt that there are any mortgages I’m unaware of). The movie, which is one of Eleanor’s favorites (also mine!), was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. If you haven’t seen it, see it. If you have seen it, unsee it. Just kidding. That’s physically impossible, and also very not advisable, because this movie is hilarious, and has a LOT of sardine references.

Bonus: Valencia shelled out for free kettle corn AND drinks. Sugary drinks, not drinky drinks, but still pretty good. Thanks Awesometown! That was awfully awesome of you, he said with a straight face. We brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed the popcorn, and I took a lot of pictures with Maggie’s “old” camera. If you’re a regular reader, you can guess that I also spent a good amount of time chasing Eleanor around the park, at least until the movie started. Then, believe it or not, she sat down and watched about two-thirds of it before losing her mind and running around in the dark babbling hysterically (as she is wont to do). All in all, a lovely evening!

Here’s Eleanor, really considering a Lennar box. In the end, she decided on racing around the grass trailing a big bag of popcorn behind her instead.

As part of the good times, Awesometown handed out bubbles to all the kids! Naturally, Maggie snatched them all up and proceeded to blow 24 bottles of bubbles into the air.

Sometimes, just for kicks, Eleanor runs at top speed with her eyes closed. Not her problem, right?

The movie didn’t start until it got dark, so we were out past bedtime! Living it up in Awesometown!

Eleanor tried to fit two handfuls of popcorn into her mouth at the same time. Success!

Then Maggie ate her face. Success!

Since Maggie claims to have seen the movie like a bah-jillion times already, she brought her own entertainment. Yup, nothing like reading about post-apocalyptic death marches to brighten up the evening.

Comments: 1
Categories: Eleanor Stories, Josh, Maggie
Tags: cloudy with a chance of meatballs, movies, park, popcorn, the road, Valencia

Bye Bye TV

Sep
21

Posted by: Maggie

I may have mentioned it a few million times before, but we are broke. So so so broke. I haven’t received a paycheck in about 18 months and Josh just does not make enough to support us independently. So over the last 18 months we have done everything we can to try to cut our monthly expenses to a minimum. We very rarely eat out, we are on the cheapest cell phone plan, we don’t have a land line, we got our car insurance rates reduced, Josh takes the bus to work rather than driving, we don’t buy gifts for ourselves or anyone else, we moved to Valencia for the lower rent, etc.

We held out as long as we could, but finally had to give up paying for cable tv about nine months ago. Although, as it turns out, we didn’t really have to give it up entirely. We bought some rabbit ears and got a digital converter box and we were able to get all of the basic channels perfectly clear. And FOR FREE! It was such an exciting revelation that I could still watch most of the shows I wanted and not have to pay for them. So that worked out really well until we moved to the fourth circle of hell that is Valencia, where THERE ARE NO DIGITAL SIGNALS! NONE! We can’t get a single channel!

At first, it seemed like a mini-tragedy! What will I do if I can’t watch my nightly news while I cook dinner?! What about my evening vegging time?! What about my Sunday mornings with David Gregory on Meet the Press?! Well, Josh was pretty sure we’d get over it. I was skeptical. He was right.

It actually was not too much of an adjustment. In the evenings, we can watch almost every show that we like on the internet, and we have also been renting series that we haven’t watched before from Netflix. So that has been fine. While I cook dinner I listen to NPR on my laptop to get my evening news. That has been wonderful, I really missed listening to NPR since I no longer have a commute, and it really is much better news than on network television. I can also watch the occasional Meet the Press interview online when I feel like it. I’m also finding that I am more likely to pick up a book than watch tv, even when shows are available on the internet. So, I’ve been reading a lot more lately which is really nice. I was a voracious reader before going to law school, and it’s really nice to get back to books that aren’t textbooks.

Overall, we’ve been living happily without tv for the last few months. But then the new season of Oprah started and it made me miss tv all over again! Oprah!! I love Oprah!! Why aren’t your shows available online, Oprah?! Someone needs to fix this problem immediately!

We will also be pretty sad when the new (and 40th!) season of Sesame Street starts in November and neither it or any of the PBS kids line-up are available online. So sad. Eleanor used to love those shows. Especially Sesame Street it was such a fun part of our day, to get to watch it together. I think I love it as much if not more than she does. Oh well…someday we’ll get cable back, or just move out of this digital signal dead zone!

Comments: 2
Categories: Maggie
Tags: David Gregory, NPR, Oprah, sesame street, tv, Valencia

Big News and Lots of It

Jul
01

Posted by: Maggie

The Keegan Gross family is about to go through some serious changes in the next month.

First of all, we’re moving! After an exhausting and exhaustive search of housing in Los Angeles we’ve found a new place. It’s not our ideal location. It is in the most suburban suburbia in all of Los Angeles, Valencia. Does everyone remember the film Edward Scissorhands? Well, Tim Burton is said to have based the suburb in the film on Valencia with the mansion on the hill where Edward lived being CalArts, the art school Burton attended, which is located at the top of a hill in Valencia. It’s not really our style. Just check out the link above, but beware, it might make you a little nauseous.

The community tends to be a little more conservative and religious than we would like, and tract housing is everywhere. But I do have to reluctantly admit that there are a lot of good things about it. Rents are low, it’s very family friendly, it has great schools, and Josh and I grew up there so we know the area really well. Most importantly our new apartment fits perfectly into the criteria I set for our search: washer and dryer in the unit, at least $200 a month less than what we are paying now, and within walking distance of a park with a playground.

Our second bit of big news is that I have found a job! I’ll give you all the details soon, but I’ll be starting in August and be working from Valencia, so no commute! Yay!

This means that Eleanor will likely be going to daycare for the first time, at least a few days a week. This has me feeling a little excited and a little nervous and very broke. Can you believe how expensive daycare is? Uggh. And there are so many. I don’t really know how to choose between them. I’ll be writing more on this soon also.

Lastly, Josh has been working on a big site redesign. We will have a new name and an all-new look. It should launch in the near future. And it will be just in time for me to have no time to blog. I think that after this week I’m going to have to limit my posting. I’m very busy searching for daycares and office spaces, and researching law practice marketing. So, unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with the daily blogging anymore, but I plan to attempt to post at least three days a week. I know, most of you are probably relieved. Thank goodness, no more filler posts and stories that go nowhere. And you’ll be right. I’ll be limiting myself to just the best photos and the best stories.

Wish us luck with all of our big changes!