Blossoms

Spring! Here's our peach tree in bloom.

Further Health Care

Even though I have to wait for two weeks to see the allergist, the office was kind enough to email me the needed paperwork to fill out ahead of time.

I watched an ad for Kaiser Permanente today, Bill, that declared how connected everything there is, and showed how patients can schedule their own appointments online. Still waiting for the rest of the health world to catch up!

Wedding Gig

Saturday was my first wedding gig of the year (only one, so far). Our string trio made the trek down to Laguna Beach and the Aliso Creek Inn. The adventure was getting there. I had reserved a Sienna from Zipcar to transport the cello, violin, viola, three musicians, and three stands and music with various other paraphernalia. I had a message from zipcar that the person who had the car just before me was running 5 minutes late. Well, after 10 minutes, we couldn't wait, so I cancelled my reservation (and Zipcar gave me a 2-hour credit) and we did a Tetris thing to get all our stuff into the violinist's Prius. The Prius needed gas, so we finally hit the freeway 1/2 hour late. Traffic was great until we hit the 133 where we crawled along, as well as along the Pac Coast Highway. We were supposed to start playing at 4:30 for 1/2 hour before the wedding, but we arrived at 4:40.

Turns out, the bridal veil was late, so the whole ceremony was put off for 1/2 hour. Whew. After we got started, everything turned out just fine, and the wedding was lovely.

Restaurant Review

Tofu Kitchen, of a past blog entry, is gone. Ali Baba is in. After a nice write-up in the Claremont Courier, we thought we should give it a try last night. The place was nearly full, but we were happy to see one table for two right in the middle of the room. In short, the food was absolutely delicious. Probably the best Mediterranean food I've had (!). However, they have serious problems in the service arena. The owner and his son (?) don't seem to have much experience with waiting on tables (read: none). When one finally came to take our order, we didn't have the menus. Then, after the order was taken, the other one came over to take our order. We had to ask for silverware.

Having waited tables for 5 years myself, I know how hard it is, but the key is organization. I think I will wait a month before returning to Ali Baba, and hopefully, they will have these problems sorted out.

Random Thoughts on Health Care

I've seen several different doctors in the past few months, trying to deal with some skin issues. Each new doctor requires that I fill out paperwork (and then some more paperwork). It seems to me in this digital era that our records could be centralized on a computer. Especially since after filling out all the information, the doctor just goes ahead and asks you the same questions. I know the possibility exists for hacking my personal data, but I am willing to take that chance.

I also want to know why communication between doctor and patient has to be so slow. I call the office (after 9 am when they open), sometimes wait on hold, then give a message to the receptionist who relays it to the doctor who tells the receptionist what to say and then I get a call back. Email, anyone? Sometimes I just want a 30-second answer to a question and don't need to make an appointment.

Ever read something that says, "In case of XXX, contact your doctor immediately."? Ha.

Out of My Skin: A Novel

On Sunday, our book group is going to discuss Out of My Skin: A Novel by John Haskell. Since I am not very good at writing book reviews, I look for what others say, and to describe this book, I found a review in the LA Times (appropriately, since the book is not only set in LA, it IS one LA).

In preparation for book club, Hal and I watched Sunset Boulevard, one of the many movies the main character talks about. Other movies discussed in the book are North by Northwest, Notorious, Roxanne, Detour, and Rosemary's Baby.

Favorite Sign in SF

Who wouldn't want to go to Joey's? You can get your sausage and ice cream, then drink an espresso while you do your laundry!

Weekend in the City by the Bay

We had a great time this weekend just up the coast - in San Francisco. Hal went to the ACS (American Chemical Society) national meeting where a number of HMC students are presenting posters today. It's still amazing to me that we can get up from our own bed in the morning and then be wandering around Chinatown looking for dim sum by lunch. Perhaps the highlights of the getaway were finding all the good places to eat. Besides dim sum, we found great Thai and Indian restaurants.

Other events included a meeting of HMC alums and current students as well as an afternoon at the SF Museum of Modern Art. Oh, yeah, I didn't need to go to the gym since we walked everywhere - up and down hills, too.

Pitzer College in the LA Times

Today's Home section of the LA Times features and article about sustainability at Pitzer College. The online version doesn't have pictures, but the print version has a few nice ones.

Play Day

On Hal's last day of spring break, we cleared our schedules and had a play day. The original plan was to spend last night in Palm Springs and then go to Joshua Tree National Park today to see wildflowers (after this winter's generous rainfall), but the flowers are not near peak yet due to the cooler weather we've also had.

We decided, instead, to tour Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in East Hollywood. The house sits atop Olive Hill, surrounded by Barnsdall Park, and we found it, though the signage is nearly non-existent. The hour-long tour was excellent and we were especially taken with the beautiful living room (seen here in a photo from the internet). This house does not look, on the outside, like prairie-style architecture, but is said to have been influenced by Mayan temples. You can see more pictures of the interior here.

After the tour, we treated ourselves to lunch at Senor Fish in Eagle Rock. Two fish tacos, black beans and rice. Delicious!

Threading

I've been searching for someone to cut my hair since my favorite hairdresser stopped doing it. So I found a lovely young woman who did a great job on my hair and then asked if I wanted her to thread my eyebrows. I decided to give it a try and was pleased with the results. I may have to do it on a regular basis.

Every Ten Years

As someone who uses old census information to look up ancestors, I am happy to take part in this once-a-decade event. The census form arrived in the mail on Monday, and it was filled out and ready to go on Tuesday.

A Little Shakin'

This little blue square shows the location of this morning's 4.4 earthquake - Pico Rivera. It woke me up, but I went back to sleep at 4:04 a.m. I was aware that it was a quake, but it felt so mild that it didn't rattle me at all.

Book Choices

A novel set in Hong Kong during and after the Japanese occupation, The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee caught my attention in the NY Times Book Review. I was considering choosing it for one of my book clubs, but as I started it, I realized it wasn't nearly as good as the one we were reading - Out Stealing Horses - so I chose another without reading it first. A friend highly recommended Moloka'i - historical fiction about the leper colony in Hawai'i, so we'll read that one. The Piano Teacher is fine for a first novel, but nothing that kept me turning pages too fast.

Nothing Like Long-time Friends

Our wonderful friends, Emily and Rodney, are visiting So Cal for spring break, escaping the crazy nor'easter in Massachusetts. We were lucky enough to spend a few hours with them this afternoon before they head off to camp at the beach.

Movie Recommendation

Last night we watched the recently released on DVD Up in the Air. I have to say that we really enjoyed it - from the views of midwestern cities from the airplane, to the acting and writing, to the story (which had a few surprises).

Let's see what Netflix brings us next....

Our Second Car

When we went off to Chicago for sabbatical in 2007, we gave our second car to Liesl for college graduation. Upon returning to Claremont, we decided to see if we needed a second car, and we found our solution. zipcar. When one joins zipcar through a college and pays $35/year for membership, you can rent a car for $7/hour. There are about 8 cars a 5-minute walk from our house, and while Hal was off umpiring this afternoon, I picked up a car for 1 1/2 hours to go teach a class. Perfect.

Emma Estella Enns Wiebe

This morning, my paternal grandmother, Stella Wiebe, passed on at the age of 94. Growing up, we would spend several weeks in the summers visiting Gramma and Grampa in Aberdeen, Idaho. Gramma would knit us slippers every year, make the best homemade chicken noodle soup and peppernuts as well as anything she made to eat. She and Grampa owned and ran The Villager, a clothing store with western wear, and we would receive great things from that store for Christmases and birthdays. Grampa passed on when I was 13.

Rest in peace, Gramma.

Of Squirrels and Tangerines

This year we had several hundred tangerines on our tree. We could hardly keep up, even though we gave some to friends. Well, the squirrels really helped us out on that count, and here is what our tree looks like today with 0 tangerines. I watched them jump into the tree nab an orange ball and scamper down the tree, then up another tree to eat it.

Here is what it looks like after they are finished. I wish they would clean up after themselves! I haven't seen as many squirrels running around our block in the past few days since the tangerines are gone.

Adoption Party

It was our pleasure today to attend a party celebrating with our friends the adoption of their daughter. Little Isabella came to their house at 2 days old as a foster child and, at 15 months, is now a legal member of the family. The house was full-to-bursting with adults, students and children of many ages as well as enough food to float a boat!

Plan B

Today's Plan A: Go with Hal to Sylmar while he umpired a game, come home via Pasadena and stop at Senor Fish and Vroman's.

Instead, we turn to:

Today's Plan B: Game called due to rain. Target, Costco, Barnes and Noble, work a little in the garden (between raindrops), walk to Starbucks (between raindrops), dinner at Mix Bowl, Project Runway: Season 6 on DVD. Program and set up new cell phone - same number and carrier.

Out Stealing Horses

Next Wednesday our book club will discuss Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated from Norwegian. The sparse language reminds me of the film Babette's Feast (set in Denmark). Because the narration moves freely between past and present (the narrator looks back on a pivotal summer of his youth while in his older age), it is somewhat hard to follow. However, the characters are interesting enough, the language haunting enough, for me to want to go back and reread this. I might choose it for the other book club to give me the excuse to do that.

Celebration!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Young Musician

This morning one of my cute 1st graders showed me this page of music that she wrote. I was so happy that she gave it to me that I hung it up on the wall for all to see and admire.

Mid-Winter Concert

It was a concert weekend for the Claremont Concert Orchestra at Garrison Theater. On the program: Weber's Overture to Der Freischutz, Weber's Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven's 6th Symphony. Thanks to Pat for this picture from a past concert.

In my music blog, Motifs in Music, I wrote about playing the Beethoven on Saturday night.