Here at last is the re-designed Night Note, which we hope will accommodate lots of entries and big, beautiful photographs in the year to come.

It has been a busy Fall and holiday here on Covina Ave. Since the Global Economic Meltdown, gone is the season for being a philosopher-artist burrowing her way slowly into the heart of paint. This is a season for readiness. This is a season for keeping the tools sharp. A time to work.

And since the beginning of October, we have been working full-throttle. In the last week in November, Val and I and partner Donna Wares launched Seal Beach Daily — a hyperlocal news project. Think: an online publication — updated multiple times a day — with a mad devotion for one little corner of the world, for its lost pets and city council meetings, for its beach clean ups and Christmas tree lightings, its traffic jams and cable company woes and artists and food and sales tax revenues and what its people have to say.

It’s going great — glowing feedback, good numbers, advertisers, regular contributors, an encouraging community — but it is an all-consuming job. Want to jump into the hyperlocal game? Be ready to get your work on. Be ready to do it all: report it, write it, shoot it, code it, sell it, track it, love it into existence. And you better get yourself an exceptional partner or two, because it is not a one worker business.

So we’re working very hard to start a new business in an historic economic downturn, to be journalists during an historic meltdown of the newspaper industry, to do something satisfying for a living, when most people are just glad to have a job. But, since it has quickly become such a central thing in my life, there will be plenty of time to write about all that in the months to come.

For now, I’m so glad we managed to squeeze in the long overdue Night Note redesign. New: the “latest tweet” in the sidebar in my latest Twitter post. Foodie friends will note I post a picture of our dinner every night on Twitter. And for browsing fun, there’s a continuously updated list of suggested web reads. I’m determined to get posting here into the big blogging mix, so keep an eye on this space.

Above: An osprey photographed taking off at the Seal Beach Pier, the picture originally appeared with this post at Seal Beach Daily.

Over 23 years, we’ve done the holidays every which way. Boisterous parties, dinners for twelve, warm family gatherings, once with South Park on in the background and plates set aside for the newspaper late-shifters, once in a black velvet cocktail dress. This year we were in pajamas. Just Val and me in snuggly holiday bliss. It was a quiet and modest celebration, in keeping with the serious and sort anxious season the world — and so we — are in right now.

We spent the day cooking and playing Little Big Planet — this year’s selection for the Cohen Holiday Gaming Season — and at sunset we served up our Thanksgiving roast duck with acorn squash and figs, oyster dressing, Chinese broccoli sauteed with anchovies, sweet potato puree with labne and ginger. We broke out a bottle of the good stuff and gave great thanks for all the goodness in our lives.

NightNote readers, friends, family, wandering strangers, you are on our list! We are thankful for you and hope that your far-flung celebrations were as warm, wonderful and reassuring as our own. Happy Thanksgiving!

In the meantime, some things to be thankful for: Smart friends full of ideas; great and talented partners, smooth working relationships, and a business lithe enough to turn on a dime; a genius husband of 23 years who supports you in all you do. Happy launch day to all!

But at about 5am I woke up in a sweat and knew immediately that I had screwed up bigtime. A hangover! A big one too, 7.5 on the doof scale (where 10 is when you beg to be put out of your misery and you mean it). And that was that, I was up and paying the price and by 5:30, my host was up too — actually being cheerful and offering help.

Poor Andrew! He was expecting a guest, not a patient or a fraternity pledge. How embarrassing. But Andrew and I go a long way back now and he has pretty much seen it all. Gracious as always, he wasn’t cross with me. He set me up with house keys, a transportation map and Denver info and went off to work today saying he would meet me anytime for coffee or lunch downtown. A lovely idea, but not possible. There were aftershocks all day long.

About an hour ago, the thing started to let go of me and I got up and made the bed, took care of the ice chest, set myself up to watch the convention on msnbc.com, sat quietly in Andrew’s serene apartment. I got my nerve up and tried a little of the cut watermelon Val sent with me and I’m actually feeling half human. Tonight, I’m pretty sure I will be together enough to take Andrew out for a nice dinner.

Andrew seemed in the pink this morning, doing his workout, going to the office. I guess I was pushing it — the long drive, the altitude, the last days of being 47 — these things add up. Well, I’m paying attention now.

Tomorrow I’m 48 and I’ll be sending some news from downtown Denver. Today, a nap might be in order.

The wedding of Josh and Adrie was Sunday in Laurie’s lovely and welcoming garden. Above, we all wish them Mazel Tov as the couple keeps the tradition of breaking a glass underfoot and the ceremony comes to a close. And below — just before the glass breaking — I read my official line from the state: “By virtue of the authority vested in me as a Deputy Commissioner of Civil Marriages, I now pronounce you married under the Laws of the State of California.” Hooray! Then we enjoyed a nice brunch, featuring mimosas, bagels, lox, chicken salad, frittata and all the yummy fixin’s. Thumbs up from all. “First Class lox,” exclaimed Josh’s dad, Marvin. Click here to see a nice slideshow of pictures taken by Val — who was an all around wedding mensch, even reading a wedding blessing in Hebrew — thus fulfilling one of Adrie’s special wishes. (Ilana, you would have loved it!)

]]> http://thenitenote.com/2008/08/20/mazel-tov-josh-and-adrie/feed/ 1 http://thenitenote.com/2008/08/13/sometimes-the-long-dormant-fashionista-awakes/ http://thenitenote.com/2008/08/13/sometimes-the-long-dormant-fashionista-awakes/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:13:54 +0000 kate http://www.thenitenote.com/blog/?p=616

… and buys some crazy-assed laser-etched plexiglass eyeglasses from Italy. A new look for the old face, plus: I can see again. Oh world, full of detail! These glasses from ETE, a Florentine company with a French name, are etched with floral pattern of chardon — that’s thistles, for we who speak anglais. Somehow thistles seemed perfect for me; I know those of you in the know will agree. A good floral standard for a hermit, non? Anyway, as if to prove that they’re objets de la mode, the glasses come in a jewelry case with a matching bracelet and ring. Very girlie. Here are some pix: me in the new objets, a detail of the frame and click the “more” link below for a look at the accompanying jewelry.

Today, we rolled out the cool new literary event search features at CaliforniaAuthors. Users can now search — right from the pages of our site — for events listed in the big-and-growing BookTour event database. CSS/php master Val did a really beautiful job with the coding and I am proud and happy with the implementation. Click here to read a nice message about our partnership from BookTour.com’s Kevin Smokler. Click here to give our new search a try!

On another front, Val’s back seized up yesterday, giving his spine a disturbing “S” shape and essentially immobilizing him. So we spent the morning visiting Claudio, getting x-rays, etc. Val is icing tonight for more of the same tomorrow. So this evening we’re having comfort food: this deeply good and supremely easy mushroom soup from famously cranky TV chef Anthony Bourdain. We made ours with shiitakes.