Pupusas

Last full day in So Cal. Had to eat Mexican food. Well, actually not Mexican, but Salvadoran. On Sunday we heard a spot on NPR about Salpicon in Ontario which serves pupusas. We have enjoyed, many times, the pupusas at Guaselmex in Pomona, but thought we ought to give another place a try.

The food was very good, and we will probably go back sometime - when we're back in So Cal!

Tonight we hand off the car to its new owner and tomorrow we hand off our home to new tenants. 

It's really happening!

See you later, Claremont. Have a great year!

Glamping in Switzerland

Yes, I have started a blog for our sabbatical year. I can't call it Life in Claremont if I am not living in Claremont, so I thought about it for awhile, and decided to call it Glamping in Switzerland. The first post (there are now five) explains the title.

You can read the blog here.

As I have been cleaning our house this past weekend, month, summer, I keep wondering why I don't do this more often. As L said to me today, "You can pay people to do that, you know." Yeah, I know, but I don't generally think about what lurks behind the couch until I have to.

Last time we came home from sabbatical I thought I would have a plan to thoroughly clean one room each month, and though the house would not be clean all at the same time, at least each room would have some attention paid to it.  Sounds like a good plan....

Life will be simpler in a one-bedroom flat with fewer things around.

Summer Dance Camp

Today was cleaning the living room and kitchen day - from windows to pulling things out and cleaning behind furniture and the cabinets. During a delightful break from a friend dropping by to say good bye, we were thrilled to get a text from our daughter inviting us to a small dance program at Village Dance Arts where the students who took Dance Camp this week showed off what they had learned.

There were three groups of dancers, each gave themselves a name. The oldest group called themselves the Angelina Ballerinas. (I fondly remember those books!)

The other two groups were the Sonic Pointers (I think?) and the Bunheads.

The younger girls always enjoy watching the older ones.

In addition to dancing (and making crafts) during the week, the girls learned some Taiko drumming with Miss Denise. They are working on getting a regular class of Taiko at the studio and then also getting one going for adults. Sign me up!

Specimen Days

I've had more chance to read these past weeks than I thought I would. I asked H if I should be worried that I was not concerned about having everything packed and cleaned and all the details ticked off the list. He assured me that everything is going along so smoothly that he is, in fact, getting bored.

Bags are 70% packed. Boxes and bags are mostly full waiting for last-minute items to toss in. We still need to finish cleaning, but some things cannot be cleaned until the last day or two.

So, we are reading. After the last Michael Cunningham book I read in July, I checked out his newest, The Snow Queen, but I could not finish it. It was short, but it felt to me as though he was more interested in writing beautiful prose than actually saying anything. Nevertheless, I thought I would give a previous book a go. 

I actually enjoyed Specimen Days. It's like Cunningham's The Hours in that it revolves around another classic piece of literature, this one Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The novel consists of three linked stories: one past, one present, one future. Characters continuously quote portions of Whitman's epic poetry collection. The first is a ghost story, the second a thriller, the third science fiction. A common theme is man vs. the machine and the state of humanity.

Anniversary Number 32

Eight years ago, the Claremont Village West was just starting to open and we were getting ready to head off for a sabbatical year in Chicago. We spent our anniversary going to see the movie Once at the (then) new Laemmle and then dinner at Casablanca.

Last year we spent our anniversary in Machu Picchu, the year before we were in Oregon getting ready to marry off our eldest daughter, and the year before that we were also in Oregon before we took off for Glacier National Park. 

August is a great month to have an anniversary.

This year we went to the Laemmle to see the movie Boyhood. Then we enjoyed the restaurant in our backyard where we (and by we, I mean H) cooked up parmesan and spinach chicken and twice-baked potatoes from Sprouts. 

One more week, and we are off for our Abenteuer (adventure)!

Family Movie Night for Everyone

I work with children. One of these years we will have grandchildren. So, of course, it is important to keep up with the cultural knowledge of kids. We often see the Pixar movies in the theaters, and we have Frozen on our list of should-sees. 

Last night we had the chance to watch The Lego Movie for free, along with all of our neighbors for Claremont's Summer Movies in the Park in Memorial Park. (If we'd been on the ball, we could have seen Frozen in July at Wheeler Park.) You can read more details of the set-up at my friend's blog here. 

It was pretty fun, although at first I thought we might have to go home because I couldn't hear the movie and people around us were talking. Pretty soon the other speaker came on, the crowd hushed, the sun set and the movie was rolling along. As far as kids' movies go, I liked this one, although it could have been about 20 minutes shorter.

Lots of people out on a beautiful evening

The In-N-Out Truck was there on Yale

The Happy Crowd entertained the kids before the movie started

Coffee with Friends

Really counting down now. Tomorrow I will be able to see what the weather will be the day we get to Zürich. That means that we are saying Auf Wiedersehen to our dear Claremont friends for a year. Last coffees, dinners, lunches, hugs, e-mail info exchanges, etc. 

This morning as I was waiting for a friend at Some Crust, I noticed this adorable little shelf near the door which can hold a coffee and a pastry while you open the door. I wonder what coffee shop will become our favorite in Zürich....

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

If you love books and bookstores, you may just love this little book. I read it in two days. I'm not saying that it is fabulous literary fiction, but it has heart, some lovable characters (including the grumpy ones), and it took me in. 

The policeman in the story "believes that cops go one of two ways as they get older. They either get more judgmental or less so. Lambaise is not so rigid as when he was a young police officer. He has found that people do all sorts of things, and they usually have their reasons."

I hope that I am the kind of person who becomes less judgmental as I get older....

Dodger Stadium

We are thinking that the last time we went to Dodger Stadium was before Magic Johnson and his crew took over. Our friends have a season ticket mini plan, and when they can't go to a game, they have given us their seats. The last time they did this, there were so few people in the crowd that we walked to our car and were eating at Phillipe's in about 10 minutes after the game ended.

Last night we enjoyed, once again, tickets from our friends who were camping on the beach. They texted us after Puig's home run and said they were glad we got to see it. 

So, thoughts about the game (besides the fact that the Dodgers swept the Braves and Kershaw pitched his second complete game in a row): 1) even when camping, you can follow a game with the way technology works these days. 2) This is such an American thing, going to a baseball game. I was trying to imagine how un-Swiss this form of entertainment is. First of all, even though the game starts  on time, people arrive at all different times during the game. The joke about Dodger Stadium is that people come in the 3rd inning and leave after the 7th Inning Stretch. I was lucky to sit on an aisle seat, but that also meant that the constant traffic of people going up and down the stairs next to me blocked my view. The people in our row who kept needing to leave their seats and make us stand up to let them pass. 

Oh, well, that was really okay with me. I had fun, and we stayed through the last out.

Elvira's Grill

Gotta eat as much Mexican food as we can before we head to Zürich! Yesterday found us trying out a new (to us) restaurant in Upland called Elvira's Grill. It's on the north side of Foothill just east of Euclid. Most of the Mexican restaurants I like lack a pleasing ambiance, but I never mind that. Elvira's is quite pleasant with waitstaff very professionally dressed with good service.

I like to try mole whenever it's on the menu, and Elvira's had it with their chicken enchiladas. This is the most chocolatey flavored mole I've had - almost as sweet as a candy bar, but not quite. The chips were hot and fresh and kept coming, and the salsa had lots of flavor. Both H and C had the enchilada and chile relleno plate. We took home enough leftovers to have dinner.

The Junction

Just because we are going on sabbatical doesn't mean we can't try out new restaurants in Claremont before we go. In fact, in the weeks before our last sabbatical the new Village West was just opening up and we went to the Laemmle and Casablanca before we headed to Chicago.

Yesterday, on the advice of two different friends, we tried The Junction on Indian Hill just north of the tracks. The location is not ideal, but if you park on the east side of the parking garage, it's easy to enter through the back. 

We thought we might get take-out, but the interior was enticing, so we opted to eat in. We had the spicy pork Korean tacos, the Kimchi Quesadilla Wrap and the Potstickers. I did not try the Kimchi, but H liked it and brought half of it home. The tacos were delicious and devoured. The potstickers are unlike any I've ever had, and were fabulous. You can see pictures of the food on the yelp site.

I hope this place is still here when we get back......

Major Purge

It's one thing to go through your house and purge your own items. It seems more than doubly helpful when your spouse goes through his stuff and gets rid of things that you wanted gone and were hoping that he would think so, too. Yesterday was a big cleanse day, but today is the day we are going to actually take these items outside of the house. We are heading to our own recycle and trash bins, the recycle bin at Vista and Goodwill.

Duolingo

Zwischen Verpackung und Reinigung, bin ich Deutsch üben. (Between packing and cleaning, I am practicing German.) I am using Duolingo which is free. You can download the app or do it online. I am finding it helpful, and I like the fact that I have German running in my head every day.

Moonwalking with Einstein

Upon the hearty recommendation of my dear husband, I blew through this book in a few days. The subtitle is hard to read here. It is: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. The parts on how "mental athletes" memorize large amounts of information held my attention, while Foer's more personal story of how he prepared for the US Memory Championship felt a little over-indulgent. Therefore those parts were a little easier to skim.

This section on page 203 hammered home an interesting way of thinking about memorization. "In our gross misunderstanding of the function of memory, we thought that memory was operated primarily by rote. In other words, you rammed it in until your head was stuffed with facts. What was not realized is that memory is primarily an imaginative process. In fact, learning, memory, and creativity are the same fundamental process directed with different focus," says Buzan. "The art and science of memory is about developing the capacity to quickly create images that link disparate images and to create something new and hurl it into the future so it becomes a poem, or a building, or a dance, or a novel. Creativity is, in a sense, future memory."

The question I came away with for myself is, "how can I get my music students to memorize the note names?" I have some ideas that I am going to work on....

The To-Do List

Today was a day for checking off some items from our "to do before sabbatical" list. Change addresses with credit cards. Talk with the insurance agent about changing homeowners to rental insurance as well as removing the car insurance when we sell our car. Cancel the newspaper. Change of address with the post office.

Tomorrow I should probably go back to cleaning and storing.....

Counting Down

The calendar says only 23 days until we leave for sabbatical. My heart knows it's true as we are starting to do things "one last time." On Saturday we met our friends from Carlsbad "one last time" at Capital Seafood in the Irvine Spectrum. 

Last night we had "one last book club" at our house where almost everyone showed up. We know that in a year we will be back with our friends, but it is still a little sad knowing that we will miss some great discussions and good company in our year away.

Full Disclosure?

Saw this on a telephone pole in Claremont. Thought it might be about dependence on fossil fuels, or something, but after looking for the book listed on the little tear-off tabs, I find that it is about the full disclosure of UFOs, extra-terrestrials, etc. and the cover-up....

Benefit Music

I often play recorders with the Village Pipers in the summer, but with all the packing and getting ready for sabbatical, as well as focusing on fiddle music, I have not had the time this summer. I was happy to hear that they would be performing in Larkin Park last evening, so I hopped on my bike to go hear them.

What I did not fully realize is that they were playing at a benefit for Real Connections, "a member-driven resource network offering trusted information, valued services and enriching relationships that enable individuals to live and age well in their homes and communities. I felt a little like an interloper, but I did not help myself to dinner, and I clapped for all the people who were recognized for their contributions to this endeavor, and no one asked me to leave. So it was all good.

The Pipers played a few of my favorite pieces and made me wonder if I should sneak in my soprano recorder into my luggage next month....

A Visit to Endeavour

L and C needed to meet a friend near USC to go camping, so they requested that we make the drive into LA a little more exciting by stopping by the California Science Center to see the space shuttle Endeavour. We had not yet seen it, so it was all-systems-go. 

Art upon entering the Science Center.

A photo of a photo of the Endeavor making its way down the streets of LA to get to its final home. I remember when they had to cut down many trees to get it through some of the streets. There is a cool video of the move in the space shuttle exhibit.

The massive shuttle herself.

We remember this third shuttle mission. We were driving out to Berkeley to look at grad school during spring break of 1982. We left my grandma's house in Idaho in the morning, and by the time we crossed the Nevada border the shuttle had circled the earth a few times. We listened to news reports on the car radio.

This is where you could rescue the crew, if needed.

Art seen on the way out of the museum.

Quakes

Last night all the kids (L and C, C and B) and I went out to watch the Lancaster Jethawks beat the Cucamonga Quakes. Every time I go there is something a little different from the last time I went. Here are a few shots from the game.

All fans in attendance got a pack of cards of the players. Including cards for Tremor, Aftershock and Crazy J.

Dodger Justin Turner, in a rehab stint, walked twice, got on base on error and also got a base hit.

Tremor sprayed kids with water after it cooled off

Section 8 in the Club. Not many people behind to bother us.

Wedding Weekend

L and C are in town this weekend because L's dear friend from Claremont got married yesterday. The reception for the wedding was at the Garner House in Memorial Park - a lovely venue which was especially good for those of us who could walk there. 

Some Crust Cakes

Lovely tables

Father-Daughter Dance in lovely lighting

G@@Gle Glass

I had the chance to try out these at HMC earlier this week. It only took me about 5 minutes to realize that as someone who wears glasses because of a high level of myopia, these don't work particularly well. I think that if I really, really wanted a pair of these, I could make it work, but I also think that trying to focus so closely for any length of time might give me a headache. 

No chance of me being an early adopter of these.

Miscellaneous Day

L and C are visiting, so we've been out and about. Here are a few shots from yesterdays doings.

Coffee at Coffee Klatch in Rancho

Bumper sticker seen while returning old modem to Time Warner

Looking at the photo from CHS class of 2003 at Patty's

The Circle

Someone at Fiddle Camp, I don't remember who, recommended Dave Eggers' The Circle to me. Maybe it was because the main character went to Carleton. This thick book is a quick read (especially since the reader can skim pages here and there), and it is certainly a plot-driven novel. After I finished it, I read the NY Times review and have to say that I agree with Ullman on the flaws of the book. 

"This potential dystopia should sound familiar. Books and tweets and blogs are already debating the issues Eggers raises: the tyranny of transparency, personhood defined as perpetual presence in social networks, our strange drive to display ourselves, the voracious information appetites of Google and Facebook, our lives under the constant surveillance of our own government.

“The Circle” adds little of substance to the debate. Eggers reframes the discussion as a fable, a tale meant to be instructive. His instructors include a Gang of 40, a Transparent Man, a shadowy figure who may be a hero or a villain, a Wise Man with a secret chamber and a smiling legion of true-believing company employees. The novel has the flavor of a comic book: light, entertaining, undemanding."

So, yes, with all its flaws, it was a fun (and scary) read, although the Carleton connection did not stand up very well for me.

Big Save

So. If you are ever in Garden Grove, enjoying a sea salt coffee at 85C, you must allow yourself some time to peruse the merchandise of Big Save. Of course, a web search brought up the "correct" spelling of Big Sav. 

You might think this is very much like a 99 Cent Store, and it sort of is. But it also has aquarium supplies and exotic fish. Who would know?  Other reasons to peruse the store for your entertainment:

First of all, how can you not be interested in a way to Save Big (or Sav Big)?

Second of all, you can get a very special parking spot.

Thirdly, you can get playing cards, kitchen supplies, hairnets, fishing supplies and sewing aids all right next to each other.

Karol Rinehart

In all the years that I have taught strings in the CUSD, I think I've had 4 or 5 different administrators, and two different acronyms - ASMP (After School Music Program) and the current EIMP (Elementary Instrumental Music Program). We are about to have a new administrator because Karol Rinehart has just retired after 30 years in the school district. She has been a great boss who helped us get things done and supporting us and our students in any way she could.

We celebrated Karol at Casa de Salsa last week with a little party which included teachers from our program providing background music (first a string duo and then a jazz combo). A bagpiper also made an appearance. We will miss Karol, but know that she will enjoy her new retired life in Colorado.

4th of July Parade

This year the 4th of July was 

1) hot (as usual)

2) on a Friday

These blankets were laid out in front of the Garner House in Memorial Park on MONDAY. You'd think there was a new iPhone coming out.....

The parade did not start with "Kids on Bikes" as usual (and which I would rename as People with Wheels and Some on Foot). Instead, the city wanted to show off some BIG machinery. It seemed to take forever as these various vehicles made it past the viewing stand.

A Home at the End of the World

No summer trip is complete without a trip to a bookstore. I had brought along Tell the Wolves I'm Home, but finished it the first day in Iowa, so I just HAD to find another book. I heard that there was a Half-Price Books nearby, and I had no problem talking G and H into going with me. I picked up Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World based on having enjoyed The Hours. 

I think Cunningham writes smartly. I didn't particularly like any of the characters - none of them seemed to develop very much, but they way the author portrays them, I felt some empathy for them. The ending was not very satisfactory for me, but I was compelled to keep reading. I will try other works by this guy.

I loved this section of classic Little Golden Books at Half Price Books. Not meant for children.