Garden Tomatoes

Finally! The tomatoes are getting ripe!

The Teaching and Learning Building

The other night we wandered over to the new building at Harvey Mudd. The Teaching and Learning Building will be ready for new classes next month, and some of the new offices have already moved in and are setting up. The students are very excited about the building, and I know that everyone is very glad to have the construction walls removed. Although it looks different than the other buildings on campus, I think the architects did a great job of making it blend right in. 

Here are some shots that I took while wandering around.

These barrel cacti are on the roof.

Sunset from the roof.

MCC Thrift Store

While out and about this weekend, we thought we'd try out the MCC Thrift Store in Rancho Cucamonga. I do like a good thrift store, and although this one is small, we found three paperbacks that we are actually willing to read! Some thrift stores have plenty of books, none of which spark my interest. Not only that, we paid $1 total for the books.

This thrift store is in a large strip mall and a little bit hard to find, but we obviously found it with a little driving through the parking lot.

I liked these various thimbles sitting on the checkout counter.

Apparently they get lots of donations. The square footage of the store is not great, so I'm sure they have to sort through their goods carefully.

Public Art at Pitzer

I am going to totally co-opt a blog post from my friend, Judy. On Friday she wrote about the signs that I have seen at Pitzer College. Like her, I noticed them and wondered what the heck they are. Unlike her, I never bothered to investigate. She gives links in her post to the artist-in-residence, Edgar Heap of Birds who installed these signs sometime earlier this year.

Squeakin' Wheels

Here is a photo of the Squeakin' Wheels last night at the Claremont Village West Plaza. Just another local band. However, this band needs to seriously have a better internet presence. Just look at this Facebook page...

Lumosity

Have you seen those tv ads about lumosity? I was curious, so I created my account and started playing several weeks ago. Each day you can play three games which require speed or accuracy or both. I think I may have played a total of 7 or 8 different kinds of games. The whole session takes less than 5 minutes a day. Some days my scores are my own highest, some they are not. I have no idea if my brain is getting any more agile, but I do like to play games, so that's why I keep returning.

The hitch is, though, that to "unlock your full access" you have to give them money. That means, I think, that you get five games each day and more personalized information. I guess. I won't know for sure since I am not that interested.

The Silver Star

After a long, dry spell, I finished my second book this week. I am a fan of Jeanette Walls' first two books, so I made sure to get on the list at library as soon as I heard she had a new novel coming out.

I have to say that I liked this book, especially at the beginning. Walls' craft as a writer who breathes life into her characters drew me in from the first page. The protagonist, a sharp 12-year-old girl believes in the goodness of her (probably) bipolar mother, but throughout the course of the novel comes to a better understanding and then acceptance of the massive faults of her mom.

The only problem I have with the novel is that it seems to be of two minds. First it is a story of this family dynamic, but halfway through, when it needs some impetus, it turns into its own version of To Kill a Mockingbird - a coming-of-age story about injustice. I think that Walls' first two books, memoir and novel based on a true story gave her the plot structure, but  that she still needs to work through creating her own. I think she will, and I will happily read her next book whenever it comes out.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Although this book came highly recommended by a friend, I found myself reading it quickly so I could get it over with. It's one of those books where I hope that the story redeems the plodding prose, and although I think that the story had possibilities, none of them were fully realized.

The characters felt two-dimensional. The descriptions of the places served no purpose but to fill up space, and not give a sense of place. I enjoy reading about other, very different countries to get a flavor for the life there, and this Burmese setting felt to me as though it could have taken place almost anywhere.

San Antonio Falls Hike

If one weekend hike is good, another is better. I have not been above Mt. Baldy Village in about 24 years (really? can it be?), and I thought that there must be a good, but not too strenuous hike up there, and I found a very, very easy walk to San Antonio Falls. It starts just above the campground about 4 miles out of Mt. Baldy Village, and it took us about 15 minutes to stroll to the falls. Elevation gain was minimal, although it was at about 6000 feet. We bought our $5 day use pass at the Baldy Visitor Center. We had heard that you could park at the ski lift for free and walk down (it's very close), but they were charging $5 to park there, too.

After we got to the falls, we thought we ought to get more out of our parking fee, so we wandered toward Mt. Baldy Notch for about 45 minutes until we decided to head back down. We watched the ski lift in operation with some people riding. The cloud cover and cooler weather made for a lovely time.

The only thing that happened to me was in the car on the way down. All of a sudden I felt a stabbing pain on the left side of my forehead, and I knew pretty quick that it was probably my sinuses. We stopped for a few minutes and I drank some water and held my head. The pain abated a little bit, and we came home. I looked online and found numerous stories about people who have this pain when they are diving or are descending in an airplane. Among other things, it's called Aerosinusitis. This afternoon I have been taking steps to relieve sinus pressure and I feel much better.

Here are some photos from our walk.

The trail to the waterfall is paved. Easy.

San Antonio Falls

One of many yucca plants we saw.

The cloudy, hazy view of the valley from up high.

Twenty Feet From Stardom

We are really chipping away at our "fun summer list." Wednesday night we went to the Kogi truck, and last night we went to the Laemmle. It's been a long time since we've done either of those.

I have been unaware of any summer movies that I must see, but while chatting with Susan during dinner at Kogi, she mentioned the movie Twenty Feet from Stardom, and I vaguely remembered hearing something about this movie on NPR. The Laemmle schedule revealed that this movie would not be around after yesterday, we decided to take in the early evening matinee. ($6 per ticket with Laemmle card and free popcorn!)

I thoroughly enjoyed the music of this documentary about the backup singers whom we have all heard, but don't know. I have harbored a secret dream (maybe not so secret anymore) about being a backup singer in a band because it always looked like so much fun. And when I sing along with the radio/CD/iPod, I often sing those parts.

First Tomato of the Season

I picked our first garden tomato of the season just now. The peaches are almost finished, and the tomatoes seem behind schedule. This one may look unripe because it has so much green on it, but it is definitely ripe.

Something was eating the tomatoes while they were very green and hard, and the way they were boring into the fruit did not look like a squirrel. H looked carefully last week and saw some large green caterpillars munching away, so it was easy to pluck those things off to remove them. They were also eating away the leaves of the plants - stripping them bare.

Radiolab

My go-to listening on my iPod for working out or walking has been NPR's podcast: Most-Emailed Stories. For some reason, they have not put up a new podcast since June 26, which leads me to wonder if they are going to continue or not. If they aren't going to do this podcast anymore, I have to find other podcasts. Well, I do listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (only once a week) and the Piano Puzzler (also once a week and only 6 minutes long).

A few months ago my daughter altered me to a Radiolab episode on tempos in Beethoven's music. I decided to check out more Radiolab episodes and listened to them on Saturday during my Wilderness Trail hike. Pretty good stuff. I am now a podcast subscriber. This won't replace the news that I am looking for, but the segments are pretty interesting (the ones I listened to were about moments of true bliss, ants - which are more fascinating that you might imagine, the nature of the universe, and cicadas).

Ramiro's Mexican Food #2

A few months ago I snapped this photo of the former EZ Out Burger on Foothill and Central Ave. in Upland. Instead of Coming Soon, Ramiro's Mexican Food #2 is Now Open. It was the logical place for lunch when we decided to have our car smoged and washed next door.

Although my veggie burrito lacked in flavor, H's chile relleno burrito was full of taste. When we go back, I will try something different. This place is new enough that there does not seem to be a yelp page or any other customer reviews. I will say that the people working there are extremely friendly, and the service was super fast. There are tables so you can eat and watch the traffic, but you can also drive through.

Summer List

I come from a family of list-makers. My family of origin as well as my created family (is that what you call it?).  For the summer I created a list of things I want to do for fun. Recently I have checked a number of them off of my list, but I still have more fun just waiting for me. Perhaps next weekend I'll check off a few more? If I finish the list before school starts, I will just have to add more to it.

Thursday Food Truck Night at the Pomona Fairplex
Kogi BBQ
Go to a Quakes Game
Beach
Movie at the Laemmle
Hike
Have a Game of Thrones Season One Marathon
Art Museum
Write a Poem or a Song or Both
More Crayon Art

This weekend we did manage to watch the 10 episodes of Game of Thrones Season One. Well, we watched 8 of the 10 and we'll finish it up tonight. One can rent an entire tv season from Video Paradiso at one time, and if you rent it on Wednesday, you get $2 off. You get to keep the set for 7 days before the fines start, so we are in good shape.

I'm liking the HBO series, as I thought I would, although I think I liked Pillars of the Earth (book and tv miniseries) more.

Beach Day!

Today was a day for the beach! Turns out that we are more inclined towards Orange Co. beaches than LA Co., and one beach we've recently discovered is Treasure Island - a Laguna Beach City Beach. After a stop at 85C for our favorite iced sea salt coffees and some breakfast burritos from the Penguin Cafe, we took our blanket and NY Times and set up shop before the heat of the day and the crowds of people.

Before too long, however, a group of teens with several photographers came by for some kind of photo shoot, and since they planted themselves directly in front of us, I thought I would have my own little photo shoot. There seemed to be one girl who was the center of attention (and she changed clothes a few times....) and at one point they threw her up in the air.

Some of the beautiful tide pools at this beach

I thought that the colors of the ocean were particularly lovely today.

One of my many pelican photos. I love watching them fly in formation. This angle does not look like any kind of formation, but they started out in a V.

Claremont Wilderness Trail

It's been awhile since I've been to the Claremont Wilderness Park to hike the loop. I'd been reading in the Courier about the new parking lot and the expanded parking lot and the myriad of parking problems, and today I saw that first hand. I have never seen so many people and cars there. It felt like trying to get into Disneyland. We couldn't use our resident parking sticker since that lot was full, so we parked on Pomello, and there are some photos here which show the many cars that were still there when we left at 10:15 or so.

The best part of the hike for me today was that it was much easier for me than it has ever been. For the past two months at the gym, I have put myself on a little regimen of interval training, and it seems to be working well. I have also been much better about working out on a regular basis, especially since school has been out. Anyway, if you take the loop to the left (Burbank Canyon) the hardest part is from mile marker 1 to 2. Usually I have to stop a few times on that part, but this time I not only walked it straight through, but no one passed us, and we passed four people. Hooray! My usual time for the loop is 1:35, but today we made it in 1:29, even with a stop to watch some deer.

We saw the little house that used to be in the Pomona College wash. I guess they moved it here.

Here is one of the three deer we saw on the way downhill.

Parking on Pomello Dr.

Parking on Mills

Quakes

Every summer we make at least one (and usually one) pilgrimage to a Quakes game. Often we make a group outing with the chemistry summer research students. The stars aligned for these two last night. 

During the game I heard something about a Flickr page for the Quakes, so I looked it up this morning. You can see many fan photos here. 

LACMA Again

In between Canter's and book club, we had time to kill and a desire to stroll through LACMA. Although we had just been there earlier in the month, I knew there would be art to revisit and perhaps something new to see. I've read that the best way to get to know a work of art is to have multiple encounters with it, so I was ready to see some of my favorites. What I had not realized that when we were there in early June was that we had totally missed the special exhibition of Hans Richter art. Granted, I think I had heard his name, but was not familiar with his art, film or writings. This retrospective has so. much. stuff. that it was overwhelming, so I concentrated on the pieces which caught my eye. I particularly liked these works (and I checked with the guards to make sure that I was allowed to photograph). Apparently these are scrolls which he made as a model for a film: The Orchestration of Color. I found this video online.

Now that I've seen that little clip, I think that this exhibit makes a great companion to the James Turrell exhibit that is also currently at LACMA.

Canter's Deli in LA

I'll file this story under the column of "I'm Learning to Like LA".

H and I have been part of a co-ed book club for about eleven years now, and the couple who invited us to join have, in the past year, moved to the Mid-Wilshire District of LA so they don't have such awful commutes to Santa Monica and Downtown. That has not stopped them from attending book club in Claremont, and June seemed to be the right time for a book club field trip to LA.

We carpooled with other friends who were jonesing for a meal at Canter's Deli, and we were happy to help in their pre-book club stop at this 80-year-old landmark eatery. I loved the step-back-in-time atmosphere of the place. You get a sense of what you are in for when you see the signs outside. The food was excellent, and Kim bought some cookies to take to book club which were also yummy - melt-in-your-mouth. I'm sure there must be a Huell Howser episode about this place that I should look up and watch. We'll be back.

Bridges to Prosperity

In May, my nephew graduated with a his masters in engineering from the University of Colorado and almost immediately left the country. The travel bug is pretty darn strong in him, and this excursion took him for a month to Bolivia with a group called Bridges to Prosperity. My sister says it's kind of like an "engineers without borders".

B2P "provides isolated communities with access to essential health care, education and economic opportunities by building footbridges over impassible rivers."

I took this picture from my nephew's Facebook page and he is the handsome guy in the middle!

Baby Shower

It hardly seems possible that it was a year ago that we had a tie-dye baby shower for one of our yoga teachers. Yesterday we celebrated another one of our yoga teachers with a more traditional baby shower. We played a few fun games and enjoyed the lovely weather.

Drowsy Maggie

Drowsy Maggie, our Celtic Fiddle and Cello duo, played last night in front of the Chamber of Commerce. I think it was our best and most fun outing yet. The more we play, the better we get. We had lots of foot traffic, including this fabulous dog who would just lie down and watch us intently while we played. She was incredibly well-behaved and her owner said she loves Classical music. You can see a photo of her here with two little girls who danced to our music. The weather was perfect and we saw many of our friends who wandered by.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman's latest book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a fairy tale novella for grown-ups, is my favorite read so far this year. I enjoyed the view of the world through the gauze that is a 7-year-old's perception, the three women who reminded me of the Mrs. Who, Whatsit and Which in Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and the magical elements.

I thought that the review in the NY Times was good, as well as the NPR story.

New Twist on Potato Salad

We enjoyed yet another year of the Claremont 4th of July Parade and potluck with friends afterwards. I was to bring my favorite potato salad, but I thought I would try to find a new favorite recipe. Here is what I did.

I searched for sweet potato salad and cilantro online and came up with this recipe. It looked pretty good to me, but I altered it a little bit (adding some Trader Joe's cilantro dressing and not adding the jalapeno pepper). It was a hit! Here is my version:

Sweet Potato Salad with Cilantro

4 cups medium-diced sweet potatoes

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

½ C chopped cilantro

½ C minced red onion

Dressing

½ C non-fat Greek yogurt

¼ C Cilantro dressing from Trader Joe’s

juice of ½ lime

1 t cumin

Boil sweet potatoes in large saucepan until tender (10-15 minutes)

Drain potatoes and cool to room temperature.

Mix dressing and adjust flavors to taste. Add to sweet potatoes to coat. Add other ingredients: celery, red pepper, red onion and cilantro.

Cool in refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

Pella, Iowa

During our Iowa trip, one group of people went to the shooting range, but some of us (the sisters-in-law and me) went to Pella. Pella was founded by Dutch immigrants and retains a pervasive Dutch flavor. I saw at least four windmills, Dutch-inspired architecture and handicrafts.

This information booth sits in the town square

Dutch Delft Blue 

Dutch wooden shoes, of course

Some of the architecture

We just happened to be at the Klokkenspel when the little figures appeared with music. We watched as each character appeared and tried to figure out what it meant. This particular guy came out with his rifle while the chimes played Home on the Range. When I finally went over to the sign to find out what we had seen, I saw that he was Wyatt Earp, a Pella resident.

As we left town, I saw a Little Free Library, and a look on the internet shows that this is the one such library in Pella.