Halfway to 90

My Mom and Dad sent me a picture I had never seen before in celebration of my "halfway to 90" birthday. I always feel like I've just opened up a time capsule when a new photo pops up. It got me thinking that I really need to do a "Growing Up Hawkes" book soon...get all my favorite pictures of my children as they were (are) growing up and put them into one book. By the way, can you tell by my little 5 year old grin that I was always looking for something to get into? My oldest sister Susan told me the other day that even when I was pushing over the TV onto the floor, or hammering out the window of the car, I was very nice about it and kept my smile :).

On the set of NCIS with my sisters!

Friday I flew out to LA for a fun weekend with my sisters...Dana came up from Orange, Janet from Santa Barbara and Elayne flew in from San Francisco. Because of my work with the military, I have met a lot of people in Washington D.C., including the great Americans at NCIS. Since I was already a big fan of the hit TV show and of course, the star Mark Harmon, I was excited to meet the real NCIS agents! So when Ralph Blincoe (Deputy Director of NCIS) learned that I was going to be in LA, he arranged for me and my sisters to go on location and on the set of NCIS--oh wow, what a day!! I have to say that I was so relieved, and so pleased to find that Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Sean Murray, Cote de Pablo and David McCallum (the others weren't on the set at the time) have the same chemistry off camera that they do on--they work really well together, and obviously respect and like each other. That's one of the main reasons why the show works. The other reason is Mark Harmon--what a great guy. He patiently answered all my questions...lent my sister his jacket when it was obvious she was chilled...and even showed us his cool Airstream trailer. I tell you what...Pam Dawber is a lucky gal (his wife of 22 years) and from everything he shared with us, it's obvious he feels lucky too. And the film crew is part of his fan base--they kept telling us how much they all like and respect him.

My sisters and I were intrigued by the filming in the autopsy room, and on location at a nearby construction site where a poor "dead guy" was stretched out at the murder scene. Later we lined up under the NCIS Most Wanted sign for a photo--for a bunch of gals over 40, we have no problem being "most wanted"!

SOOO excited about this weekend!

Since it's my birthday in a couple of weeks, I'm taking a weekend to go hang with my sisters in California! And another fun surprise....my good friend who is the Deputy Director of NCIS has arranged for me and my sisters to visit the set of the top-rated TV Series NCIS ( my favorite since it started), AND, we get to have lunch with Mark Harmon! My husband says he now gets to have lunch with Penelope Cruz :) Yeah, I'll see what I can do about that :). I'll definitely get pictures, and probably add it into my 2009 Family Book.

And yes, I've done my 08 book...it took me a little longer than I thought because I decided not to use the "Fastfill" feature on our software because I still wasn't sure which pictures I wanted in the book, so I just did it the "new" fashioned way and dragged and dropped the photos into the designer templates. Then adding in the text...it took me about 2 hours...and remember, that's for the WHOLE YEAR.