Culture at the Colleges

Puck and other Fairies

We are fortunate to live at the doorstep of 5 colleges, especially at this time of year when all the performing groups are ready to strut their stuff.

Yesterday started with a noon concert at Balch Auditorium at Scripps by the Quartet Euphoria.   The small hall was filled for the performance of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 95 (the serioso quartet).  

After that delightful repose, I strolled over to Thomas-Garrett Hall at HMC for a performance by the Lady Garrett Players of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  At this science and engineering college, students love to take Professor Groves' Shakespeare course in the spring where they read a number of plays and choose one to perform in a makeshift theater - the courtyard of the building which includes two large olive trees in the center of the set.  

This being Alumni Weekend, many alums were in attendance at this performance which will be repeated this afternoon.

Things Kids Do

Yesterday at school some second graders caught a few black widow spiders and their egg sacks and brought them to the office.  Our office manager, a sane person, ended the lives of the spiders as well as the their potential progeny, saving us all from future problems.

The students were flabbergasted.  How could she?  Even the eggs?

How did the students recover?  They decided to start catching bees instead.

I am going to encourage our office manager to start a blog about things that go on at school.  She sees it all.

The Magician's Assistant

I have been a fan of Ann Patchett's writing, ever since I read Bel Canto in 2003.  After that book, I decided to read her third novel, The Magician's Assistant.  Now I've had a chance to reread it for book club tonight.

What I particularly like at Patchett's writing is her smooth prose which reads as though it took her no effort to write.  I also enjoy her characters who are full of heart. This particular story takes place in Los Angeles and the small town of Alliance, Nebraska.  As a transplant from the midwest to Southern California, and a two-time patron of the Magic Castle, I also enjoy Patchett's sense of place.

Jonathan Kozol in Claremont

Last night I was fortunate to hear Jonathan Kozol speak at Garrison Theater.  I am probably one of the few people in the Claremont USD who had not heard of him before this week.  An educator and author, Kozol speaks passionately about what's wrong with our current American public school system as someone who spent 20 years in inner city Boston schools.  Although he spoke about poor school districts, what he said also applies to the middle class.

As our elementary schools embark on standardized testing next week...well, I will be thinking about what our students really need.

Patience Pays Off

About 10 days ago I got a splinter under my fingernail.  I wavered back and forth as to whether a chunk of wood was actually lodged there, or if it had gone in and out and just injured the skin under the nail.  Well, after waiting on it to work its way up, I pulled out a pretty big hunk of wood.  It doesn't hurt nearly as much as it looks like it should.

Eureka! Burger

We just had to try out the new burger place located in the Packing House in Village West.  A Saturday night is very busy, and we were told we would have an hour wait, but they seated us in 20 minutes.  I think what they really meant was that the food would be served to us in an hour.  The waitress came by to apologize for the slow kitchen, and she was very friendly, but the burgers took about 35 minutes to make.  I think that since they are new and just figuring things out, it will hopefully get better. 

As for the burgers, I had the Fig Marmalade Burger which had "Homemade fig marmalade, melted goat cheese, crispy bacon, garnished with minced tomato, onion and arugula dolloped in a spicy  porter mustard."  I'll have to say it was delicious.  The sweet potato fries, which were drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon, were not as flavorful as I would have liked, but they were fine.   

H thought that his Pearl Street Blues burger with melted blue cheese, mushrooms, onions and chipotle ketchup was about one of the best burgers he's ever had.

I guess that means we'll be back, but probably at a less busy time.

Easter Photos

The Alleluia returns to church

The flowering cross

Menu

Dinner for four

LA Phil Field Trip

Thanks to the Foothill Philharmonic Committee for their generous donation of tickets and bus transportation, 29 of our orchestra students got to attend a concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall this morning.  We attended the final concert of this year's Toyota Symphonies for Youth performed by the LA Philharmonic titled The Hero Composer.

Before the concert, there are activities for the children, and our favorite is the drum circle.  This year the students had boomwhackers and created rhythmic patterns based on various colors of buckets.  Of course, our students have been studying music, so they were exceptionally good at it.

Besides listening to portions of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, we were treated to brand-new compositions by student composers which we were surprised to discover were high school seniors.  They are part of the Composer Fellowship Program, a two-year program for high school students.  Imagine being 17 and having your composition played by the LA Phil!

Curb Appeal

During this very hectic week, we managed to chat with Jonescape and have them arrive the next day to build us this stone wall that we have been thinking about for a long time.  There is a matching one on the other side of the porch.  I am very pleased!

April Showers

The ample rains this winter have made the flowers in our pots go crazy.  They have taken over the front of the house!

When You Reach Me

I was talking to the librarian at Vista a while ago, and we started talking about books we liked as kids, and I mentioned that A Wrinkle in Time (by Madeline L'Engle) was one of my favorites.  She suggested that I read the 2010 Newbery Medal Winner, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  Miranda, the protagonist, also loves A Wrinkle in Time which is an important thread throughout the book.

Apparently, Vista kids aren't getting into the Stead book, and the guess is that none of them know of the L'Engle book.  Nowadays kids have many options when it comes to sci fi and fantasy reading, and when I was growing up, A Wrinkle in Time was one of the few options we had for stories out of the ordinary.

Other fantastic (in both senses of the word) books I loved  as a child included the Prydian Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander and The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.

NMR Helium Fill

      Let's see.  I hope I get this right.  Although I am interested in science, I have about zero experience in the lab.  And yet I was enlisted to help H fill the NMR with liquid helium yesterday.  Actually, it wasn't difficult to be the assistant, as long as I listened to directions and wore a big glove so my left hand would not freeze.

Here is the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Spectrometer  

Here is the liquid nitrogen.  The NMR requires a weekly fill of this, but since it had been done on Friday, we only looked at the container.

This is the liquid helium which boils at 4 degrees above absolute zero.  That is really, really, really, really cold.  At absolute zero, all molecular motion stops.  I said, "You could die." H said, "Ha! You could die well before that!"  I guess that's why we keep it in it's own home.

     The NMR needs a liquid helium fill twice a year.  It was time.  

 Once we set it up, we let it fill to 100%, about 40 liters, waiting for about 45 minutes while the room temperature got cooler.

   Better watch out, Bill.

The Right Mistake

Tomorrow night our book club will be discussing Walter Moseley's  The Right Mistake.   This is not one of his Easy Rawlins detective stories, but a novel about his character Socrates Fortlow.  While there is a plot to the story, I don't feel as though it is plot-driven.  I think that most of our discussion tomorrow will center around the sessions that Socrates leads with his multiracial, varied socio-economic band of misfits and others about their daily problems of living in South Central LA and how they might try to resolve those issues.  Of course, the LAPD can't believe that these Thursday night Thinker's Club meetings are harmless, and they seem to get in the way of Socrates and friends.

New Photos

I'm not a birder, but I like birds (especially owls).  I can't identify very many at all.  It's hard to take pictures of birds, but I try.  Yesterday I spent a little time going through my photos from the past 10 years finding bird pictures and putting them on my Flickr site.

I also added a set of shadow pictures.

Broccoli Update

In February I blogged about something eating the broccoli in our garden.  Well, whatever it was left one plant alone, and this week I harvested this great specimen.

 And I put it in vegetable lasagne.  I can't wait to have my own home-grown summer squash this summer!

Wednesday at the Laemmle

What are all these people lining up to see on a Wednesday afternoon at the Claremont Laemmle?

The new Jane Eyre movie.  Who'd have thought it would be that popular?  Personally, I am a longtime fan of the book, and I did enjoy this movie version, but I had forgotten some of the details, so I should probably treat myself to a reread this summer....

Cleaning Up Loose Ends

One thing about being on spring break - going through that to-do list.  After trying unsuccessfully to contact Anthem Blue Cross, I finally got through this morning with only 15 minutes of my time.

I had received a letter stating that my insurance had not paid a claim (that they should have), and when I actually, finally got through to the insurance company they said, "Oh, we should pay for that.  Let me resubmit it.  That should take 30 days."

Talk about needing health care reform.

Garden Tour

Thank goodness, after our cool and cloudy weather, today was sunny and warmer (almost 70!) so that we could enjoy the garden tour - a fundraiser for CUCC.  We had the opportunity to tour five local gardens in Historic Claremont which showcased a variety of styles.  I especially enjoyed seeing the chickens. ...

Saturday Hike

I am always happy to find a new place to visit in the LA area, and this morning we made it to Malibu Creek State Park.  This park has been the location for many movie and tv shoots, the most famous of which is M*A*S*H.  A few relics from the show are still around, including this sign and a rusted out ambulance and jeep.

The 2-mile hike to the site is pretty easy - mostly flat - and quite beautiful with the Santa Monica Mountains rising up all around and Malibu Creek running along.

I would be happy to return to the park and take other trails (which are undoubtedly more strenuous), or even return to this site.  I have posted a few pictures on my Flickr site.

Secrets for Getting to the Front of the Queue

1. Know ahead of time that a book is coming out and put yourself on the waiting list at the library before it's published.  This helps if it is a book in a series, like "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency."  I just picked up the latest installment, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party.  I am already 100 pages in.

2. In your Netflix queue, you see when a movie is coming out on DVD.  Put it at the top of your list early, then return a disk the Saturday before to arrive at your "nearest Netflix facility" on Monday.  They will ship it out on Monday to arrive to you on Tuesday when it is legal to get it.

    After watching the first four seasons of Friday Night Lights on streaming Netflix, we could not wait for season 5 to stream, so we already have the first disk.  

Sweet Potato Burritos

I made these sweet potato and black bean burritos for dinner last night.   I used fresh-squeezed orange juice (oranges from my tree) for the juice, and substituted plain greek yogurt for the sour cream.

Delicious.

85C

Ever since I heard this story on NPR last June, I have been wanting a sea salt latte from the 85C Bakery in Irvine.  We took advantage of the trip to Costa Mesa to drop by this Taiwanese Bakery.  

The line was pretty long - it took about 30 minutes just to get in the door.  We were some of the few white people in line.  I chatted up the couple in front of us to find out just what one does once inside, and what was good.  They said that everything was good, and that you take a tray and fill it with pastries and when you are done, you get in line, and they take your tray and put each pastry into an individual bag.

When you pay for your pastries, you can add drinks to your order.  The sea salt lattes only come on ice, so we ordered two.  If you only want coffee, you can stand in the much shorter line that is hidden.  I guess you don't come here for just coffee.

 We were only going to get two pastries, but after standing in line so long, we thought that 8 might be better.  We ate two mini apple pies right then and saved the others for later.

Wicked

Not being early adopters or the first to jump on a bandwagon, we finally went to see Wicked at the Orange County Performing Arts Center yesterday.  We had heard many great things about this musical, but had never been in a place or time to get to it.

I had read the book a number of years ago and had enjoyed it, but heard that the musical deviated from Maguire's novel.  Having forgotten many of the details from my reading, I can't say just what was different, except, of course, all the singing and dancing.  Lots of great singing and dancing.

I won't be the first to recommend it, and maybe not the last, but we felt it was well worth our time and money.  Two thumbs up.  I just wish I had been able to see Kristin Chenoweth in the original version, but the performers here did a great job.

New Title

In about 15 months, I will become a mother-in-law.  Congratulations Liesl and Chris!!! We love you both.

Lazy Saturday Morning At Starbucks

 Last weekend we had rain and temps in the 50s.  This week we had sun and temps in the 90s.  This morning, however, decided to moderate between the extremes and give us a pleasant 70 degrees and a desire to walk downtown to Starbucks.

These two guys (father and son?) were soaking up sun and sending out good music on guitar and saxophone.  I asked the young one where he learned to play, and he said in school band, starting in 5th grade.  However, it was not in Claremont, but Upland, so I wouldn't know his teacher.

Today we tried out a decaf cocoa cappuccino, and it was pretty good.

No Foolin'

At least the Dodgers are starting out the season well.  I especially like it that they beat the Giants!