It's the Holidays

November was busy.  The Fix-up Show.  The Human Target Season 2 premier.  The new puppy.  Thanksgiving.

New puppy.  Did I mention the new puppy?

His name is Riley.  He turned 10 months old on Thanksgiving, making him just a few weeks older than Ginger.  He's a purebred Golden Retriever, being the dog of choice at this house, and we rehomed him from a family in Camarillo.  He's a sweetheart, but definitely a puppy in the mode of Ginger.  The two have bonded, making Dexter roll his eyes in frustration with their antics.  Dexter remains the most perfect dog who ever lived.

Drew Carey was the celebrity guest on the second installment of "The Fix-up Show."  He's a comics fan.  He came to the episode of "What's My Line" when Len was a guest (rather than a panelist) and came over to introduce himself at the end of the show.  Then he took us out for dinner.

I didn't have a camera ready that night, but I did this time.  Here are Drew and Len after the show.

Thanksgiving usually means a much bigger number than 11 at my table, but by the time we sat down, my expected 15 was down to that.  We moved the living room furniture into the front room (in the background), where it all fit quite nicely, and we pulled the dining room table out to its 14' length.  Everyone had plenty of room and Harlan Ellison missed out on a terrific meal. 

 The food I'll write about over on my food blog.

Now it is time to get ready for Christmas, although we do light a mennorah for Chanukah.  I've decorated my white, pre-lit stick tree with cobalt blue ornaments, making it a lovely Chanukah bush.  So far, the puppies are leaving it alone.  I have no idea what they will do when we get our cut tree up and loaded down with geek ornaments in a couple of weeks, but I'm hoping for the best. The puppies are doing a real number on the landscaping in the back yard.  I may have plenty of places to plant tomatoes next year by the time they finish excavating their dens out among the trees and bushes.

The Fix-up Show

A few years ago, I got involved in doing still photographs for a live, on-stage version of What's My Line, a show about which I had fond memories.  Most of them involved visits from my New York City cousins and watching the show at the Breezeway Motor Court at the edge of my home town.  But every so often, when the show was re-run on The Game Show Network, I'd catch an episode I remembered well.

The stage version was a lot of fun. My husband, Len Wein, was one of the recurring panelists, and we met a lot of fun folks through the course of the run.  When it moved to New York for a short run, my sister lent a hand to the show and even directed two or three performances when regular director Jim Newman had to leave town. 

Host J. Keith Van Straaten is back in L.A. with a new stage game show called The Fix-up Show.  He tried it out in New York for a while and now it is settled into the Acme Theatre on La Brea on Wednesday nights at 8 for the next month (excepting the night before Thanksgiving.)  I'm doing photographs again (except next week, when Len & I will be off to a party for the premier of the second season of Human Target).
The purpose of the show is to set people up on dates, but the potential daters don't get to directly interview each other.  In last week's show, a young woman was being set up with one of three potential young men.  The panelists consisted of two people well acquainted with the young woman and celebrity panelist Walter Koenig (below.)  Hilarity ensued, particularly over a question about bacon ice cream.

J. Keith has uploaded a selection of my photographs here.  This week's celebrity guest is everybody's favorite native of Cleveland, Drew Carey.  It should be a great show, and seats are available.

And think about having dinner before or after at Amalfi Restaurant, which shares the building.  I've had some really good meals there over the years.