Keelie, Weird Al, and Fires - Oh My!

Thanks for tuning in to the Los Angeles Pellmans of Anaheim. It’s time for another photo update. Remember, you can usually click on a picture to see a bigger version.

First of all, as I write, there is a “red flag warning” again as far as the weather conditions, but the fire situation was under control the last time I checked. Where we live, we get ash, smoke, and haze, but the fires don’t ever come close to us, thankfully. But here I am grabbing Keelie just in case.

Okay... so where did we leave off? Oh yes… on the 20th of October, we went to get Keelie’s “official” four-month photo. Unfortunately, the place was busy because everyone was taking pictures for their holiday cards. We arrived in time for our appointment, and Keelie was great for the hour we ended up waiting. Then, the moment it was time to take her picture, she got very upset. It probably had to do with her adorable costume.

We ended up letting some other people go ahead of us and then we got a photo of Keelie after she fell asleep.

Saturday also happened to be the last night of the “Weird Al” Yankovic tour!!! We went to my mother's for dinner and to drop off Keelie, taking along her swing and some other stuff. It was the first time Keelie would be without either of us. My mother and Kim were happy to babysit. Kori and I took off for the Greek Theater. The Santa Ana winds were really going, and the Greek is in Griffith Park, where there had been some fires earlier this year.

The concert wasn’t sold out, and given that it was the last night of the tour, that’s understandable. Al and the band had made plenty of other southern California appearances in the preceding months. Guess who was there, though? Dave, the creative Idea Guy I once interned under. He was being a cool uncle again and taking his nephew to the concert.

Al and the band were flawless. They always put on one heck of a show. It wasn't quite the experience I was used to, though, probably because I didn't have my friends with me who are also Al fans. It’s a long story, but Kori and I were never sure we were actually going to the concert until about a minute before we walked through the door, and that lack of certain anticipation also kind of subdued me.

It was the first time I didn’t linger after the concert. So, I'm no longer a Weird Al Die-Hard Fan. I'm a WANNA-BE Weird Al Die-Hard Fan!!! All of the Close Personal Friends of Al, Al-oholics, Al-lies, and Yank-ees laugh at me and mock me for my failure.

But we had to get back to our little cutie.

Keelie had been mostly good for my family. She was asleep when we picked her up and she slept on the way home.

The next morning, we woke up to find that Malibu was on fire, and for the rest of the week the fires would be on television and radio nonstop. We could hear the strong Santa Ana winds all day and for the next few days.

For dinner that night, we went to Puma & Granddaddy Keel’s.

Okay, here are some pics of Keelie on the couch.

Looks like she is so happy to be photographed. Yes, she is on her way to becoming America's Next Top Model.

"Hmmmm, covering my eyes didn't work. Maybe covering my ears?"

I ended up working quite late at the end of my workweek, thanks to the Medfly. Then, instead of starting my weekend, I was up early the next day and off to the Palos Verdes Peninsula to do news media work.

In the evening, the entire Keel clan met for dinner in Fountain Valley to remember Kori’s Grandmommy Keel, who had passed away after a long convalescence.

It seemed like everyone had some stage of a cold, which was okay because Keelie did, too.

There she is with Auntie Kendra and Uncle Steve, and below are Auntie Kirby, Uncle Troy, and Uncle Toby.

As you can see below, Puma is completely bored with Keelie now ;-)

Granddaddy Keel got his turn to hold Keelie.

We went to Steve & Kendra’s annual Halloween party, which was a lot of fun.

We were able to make it down to see Boot Hill in Irvine, which is getting better and better every year. Keelie wasn't scared in the least.

This past Tuesday evening, we went to El Cholo for our last fix of green corn tamales until next May.

Wednesday, we went back to my old apartment complex (where I still have family) and used it as the base of our “trick or treating”. Really, what we did was dress Keelie up in her costume and went around to show some of the gang in South Pas. We even ended up getting a tour of my childhood home, which I’d been in once since it was sold, but Kori had never stepped foot inside. I was glad she got the tour. The family that bought it keeps it immaculately clean, and they’ve really done a nice job with the place. I had lived there from about the time I had my first birthday until I moved out for my freshman year of college, and my family had continued to live there for a few more years after that.

Keelie was getting fussy, so we had to stop making the rounds.

Kori, mercifully, takes care of Keelie when I sleep, and usually doesn’t have me get up to tend to her. Keelie still tends to wake up a few times overnight, and on my days off, one of us is usually holding her during the day, switching off to let the other person get something done. As a result, we feel like were getting very little done and some stuff just falls through the cracks. I also feel like an old fogie, with cutting back on activities due to time, energy, or logistics.

But gosh darnit, Keelie’s such an adorable little girl, with her laughs and her smiles and her eyes, and it is so heart-warming to see Kori mothering her.

I almost forgot – Keelie really likes her left foot, for some reason. She’ll grab it with her left hand and hold on to it.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this latest update. You can always comment here or you can e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.