Mike and I had a lovely vacation last week at Catalina island. We got to snorkel off of Descanso Beach, where we saw lots of lovely fish: opaleye, garibaldi, and hundreds of smelt. No flying fish sightings on this trip but on our last day, we were lucky enough to get a very close look at a buffalo herd (with calves!) as well as a split second look at the famed Catalina hummingbird. I'm still sorting through the hundreds of pictures that we took, and I'll post them as soon as I get through them all.

I've been spending the evening painting a garibaldi among some kelp, so stop over to WetCanvas.com and check out my work-in-progress.

posted by Lorna Brown at 12:48 AM

For those of you who've been wondering, the LA Superior Court website did come back online, just in time for me to stay on the good side of the law.

I had to call in to their automated telephone service to "post bail" for myself, which is apparently the toughlove way to say "pay a fine." But it's not all bad - I can avoid going to court all together by choosing a Trial by Declaration. And best of all, I got to hear the phrase "To plead 'Not Guilty,' press One now."

posted by Lorna Brown at 8:33 PM

Some followups:

Dell finally paid me back for my returned 8500 laptop! No restocking fee, and I'm only out $40 for shipping, plus the three or four hours I spent on hold for customer support. That's with the super cheap shipping plus insurance. It could have been much worse, and now I have a gorgeous new Sony Vaio GRV680, with a beautiful 16" screen plus a keyboard that's a dream to type on.

And being the responsible citizen that I am, I waited until the last possible day to pay bail on my citation for crossing the street against an invisible red light. For this particular indiscretion, I'm out $91 for the fine alone. But, when I went to pay my bail online (you have no idea how weird it feels to type that), www.lasuperiorcourt.org was nowhere to be found. They'll probably be coming to get me soon. If I owe you money or a favor, you better collect it fast.

posted by Lorna Brown at 6:23 AM

Found at a wonderful old bookstore in Burbank:

posted by Lorna Brown at 6:06 AM

So I just got a phone call from my State Farm Insurance office. They were calling to wish me an early happy birthday.

Awwww.

It turns out, they were also calling to find out if I'd be interested in getting a free quote for a LIFE INSURANCE POLICY.

Thanks, guys. Way to make your customers feel good about getting older.

posted by Lorna Brown at 5:09 PM