Powerhouse of fun

Magnet #899 - Del Mar Powerhouse

One of the things I learned, hanging out with my stay-at-home mom friend in Del Mar, CA, was that a healthy work/life balance allows for evening time fun.

Her hub came home at 5:30, and we all headed out to the park by the beach, just down the way from this powerhouse. The Powerhouse was built back in the 1920s to house the utilities for the historic Stratford Inn a few blocks away. It's had a few lives since, and has since been rehabbed into a community center.

So, the kids had some playtime and dinner at the playground and we got to soak up the fresh air and sea breezes - a fun couple of hours. It was a completely foreign concept to me, this downtime by the beach, after the office, getting to recharge after a day at work. It was kinda nice.

But, really, my friend just figured it was the only way to get me to the beach...without actually getting me to the beach. Heh.

Where the Turf Meets the Surf!

Magnet #888 - The Magnet

I bought this magnet from the superawesome Morgan Library & Museum, because it seriously just cracked me up.

It took me a good 15 years before I finally made it to that library - even if I worked literally across the street from it. We went for the Jane Austen personal notes and letters exhibit, which was amazing, even if you aren't her biggest fan. But I loved the new addition by Renzo Piano - pretty snazzy.

Anyway, like any good magnate/robber baron, J.P. Morgan was quite the art collector. This is The Magnet, a cartoon drawn by Joseph Keppler, Jr. for Puck magazine. That's J.P. Morgan on the top left, using his dollar sign magnet (totally looks like something out of Richie Rich, by the way) to attract all of Europe's great art treasures to America.

I feel like I keep going to museums built by families who made their money the old-fashioned way - starting from poor families and managing to build up successful businesses from the ground up, and managing to collect art along the way, in the end, giving it back to the peoples. The Morgan Library & Museum, the Frick Collection, the Timken Museum here in Balboa Park in San Diego. Small collections worth millions, and worth hours of my time.

Thank you, wealthy families of America. If you've managed to reach one person here in America, it's me. Yay, for you guys.

I'm using this for today, because we went to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club race track today. So fun. I loved that we were toting around 4-year-old and an almost 2-year-old rambunctious set of boys. And who knew the track was so popular among pretty much every demographic you can think of - the cuteboys with the cuteboys, the old, the young, the rich, the skeevy, the desperate.

Bing Crosby and two buddies built the track way back in 1937, and he became a fixture at the track until his death in 1977. I love how the Del Mar race track became one of the old-school Hollywood places to be, given it's proximity to well, Hollywood. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Betty Grable, and countless others. Plus, Seabiscuit raced here, so says the pictures on the walls of fame around Del Mar track, and the historic Stratford Inn.

And to think, the only thing I knew of the Del Mar track is this grand front area in front of the paddocks, where I could have sworn one of our Loveswept authors had us use as the backdrop of Anticipation.

I had to laugh today, though, because while this magnet has to do with earned money, today on the way into the track, I heard a guard yell out to one of the oldies, Hey! I hope you get a 1099 today!