Sacred and Profane

Last week we finished the last of all 86 episodes of The Sopranos.  The final episode caused a great deal of discussion at our house and included some web searches for the meaning of the ending.  It was great. We will miss Tony and the gang (although, by the end, there weren't so many of them left....).

To fill the void, we have now started the most popular Downton Abbey, the PBS series which has just finished its second season. I'm afraid that we are going to run through this one pretty quickly since there are only 7 episodes per season.   Those Brits.  They only had 6 episodes total (3 each season) of the fabulous Masterpiece Mystery Sherlock series.  We want more!

Multicultural Day

Here it is again, the annual Multicultural Day at Vista.  You can read more about it at my post from last year, the year before that, and 2009.  Here is one shot of many flags raised in the air and waved about while we were singing today.  This year I thought I would post some links to the songs we sing as a group.  There is a lot of power in group singing, and when we can get the whole school united in one song, it is my very favorite part of the whole school year.  This year we sang Bandera del Sol (here is a youtube video of Tish Hinojosa - the singer/songwriter - singing this song for a school), This Pretty Planet, and The World is a Rainbow (this youtube video is of the singer/songwriter).

Near Repeat Conundrum

Remember back last month when we had a little incident at Lowe's?  Grill too big to fit in the back of our Camry?

You'd think we'd have learned our lesson, but perhaps not.

Without much of a plan yesterday, Memorial Day holiday, we set off to do a few things, and while out and about thought we would stop by Lowe's to look at patio chairs.  The ones we bought at Target last year, made out of plastic, seem to crack at will.

Let's just look and see what they have, we told ourselves.

While looking at some chairs, Leila and her husband just happened to walk by and casually say, "Sorry we didn't bring the pickup today (ha, ha!)."  No problem, I replied.  We are sure to be able to fit a few chairs in the back seat of our car.

Moments later, another set of friends walk in and we told them that we were about to put these six chairs into our car.  They looked dubious and said that they had brought their truck, and they would be happy to help us out.  No worries, I said.

We wheeled the chairs out to the parking lot, and soon we thought, worries...  Better go get the O'Neills!

Since this blog post is getting way longer than it has any right to be, the short ending to the story is that although I went back in to find the O'Neills, the chairs managed to fit into the back seat of the Camry, and now they are happily sitting on our patio.

Should our next car be bigger?

Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail

Yesterday my private string students gave a recital which you can read about in Motifs in Music, my music blog.

As a celebration of my students' successes, we decided to take a bike ride and headed east out of Claremont on the Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail. The trail has an inauspicious start at the east end of 1st Street near Claremont Blvd.

Our plan of attack is to ride until we are halfway tired and then return.  This is the second time we've taken this basically flat trail, and we set off at a good pace, noticing that we were riding with the wind.  After 25 minutes we reached the bridge that crosses over Foothill past Grove Ave. in Upland.  That seemed a good enough half-way point for us, so we turned around and noticed that the wind had picked up just a little...40 minutes later we made it back to the start of the trail.

I didn't realize what a workout it was until I pedaled into our driveway and then enjoyed sitting on the couch for the rest of the evening.  I sure slept well after that!

Look carefully, and you can see the where the trail begins

The bridge crossing Foothill Blvd in Upland

The only map we saw along the way

Click on Google maps for directions, then bicycle, and the trails are highlighted

3-D

Since the Laemmle came to Claremont almost five years ago, I can't remember going back to the Edwards Theater.  With the release of Men in Black 3 in 3-D, we thought we'd treat ourselves to the fun glasses, and the Laemmle is not set up for 3-D.

So, is 3-D worth it?  Of course there are certain scenes in this action/comedy that lend themselves to the special effects, but overall, I'm not convinced that it is that much better to see the characters all rounded out.  Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are funny in any dimension.

Flamingo Palms

Ever on the lookout for ethnic eateries, we finally rambled over to Rancho Cucamonga to try out the Cuban restaurant recommended by one of my violinist friends. I think this is the one she recommended, although it's on 4th Street and not Archibald, but since the sign for  Flamingo Palms says Grand Opening, perhaps they have moved since I heard about it over two years ago...

Pork Asado

Cubano Sandwich

Anyway, the decor is fairly new and nice, the service was pretty good (it has mixed yelp reviews), and the food is very tasty.  I had this pulled pork dish, and H had the Cubano sandwich.  

We will go back!

38th Annual Vista Track Meet

Here are some shots from today's track meet at Vista.  You can read a little more about it from last year's post.  This year it was overcast with a little mist, but that did not deter the event.

Click on this photo for a larger view of the two boys at the head of their race.  Great expressions!

Using our new long jump sand pit for the first time

The kinders heading back to the room after a little while.  They'd had enough.

Counting Down

Two more classes at Vista next week.
One recital for private students this weekend.

Then summer is official for me!

Cold Sassy Tree

When someone in my women's book club suggested that we read Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, I remembered that it had been recommended to me by a friend about 20 years ago.  One good thing about a book that was published more than 5 years ago is that it is easy to find, and I got a nice hardcover copy from Paperback Swap.

A pleasant read in a good 'ole Southern storytelling voice, this novel portrays a small Georgia town in 1906 as it is scandalized by the quick marriage of a recent widower to a much younger Miss Love, only 3 weeks after the first wife's passing.   I enjoyed the narrator's voice, the 14-year-old grandson of the dishonorable widower.

Eclipse Photos

We were at book club yesterday evening during the solar eclipse, and here are two shots of the shadowy effects on the back wall of the house through the leaves.

How Many Friends Are Too Many?

I read a little while ago that one person can only hold about 150 friends in their circle at a time.  Perhaps that's true.  I don't know.  I have 314 "friends"on Facebook, and yes, some of them I know only slightly, but I do know all of them.  Maybe one of these days I'll pare down my list, who knows?

When you have lived in a town for a long time, raised your children there, put your heart and soul into working for the community, it turns out that you may have way more friends than you realize.

Frank D'Emilio has been learning this the hard way.  If you live in Claremont, you know about the uproar of Frank's dismissal as principal of Sumner Elementary School.  You can read one of the Courier articles here.  As a former Sycamore Elementary teacher for many years and, most recently, principal for 7 years, Frank reached many people - students and their families.  In my case, I know him as fellow parent from my daughters' summer swim team over the course of many years.

It does not surprise me at all that when a Facebook group popped up called We Stand with Frank D'Emilio last Thursday, the number of Facebook supporters swelled, and it has reached over 1,000 as of today.  This number does not even count Frank's supporters who are not on Facebook, or who don't log into their accounts very often.

I, in no way, agree with the school board's two decisions, but I am glad to live in the kind of community that has the back of one of our finest members.

Last Night's Salad

Usually a salad is not worthy for blog fodder, but last night, I think it was.  First off, when I went to the garden to pick lettuce, I noticed that one of the tomatoes looked red, so when I touched it, it fell off into my hand. I don't think I've ever harvested a tomato in mid-May!  And, it was really tasty.  This heirloom variety is called Manitoba.

Second of all, I tried this recipe for "Chicktons" (crouton-like entity made from chickpeas), and they also turned out pretty well).  I found this recipe here at Ben & Birdy, but instead of using salt, I used the Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning which has salt among other flavors.

MCC Relief Sale

I recently found out about an MCC Relief Sale happening in Upland (Arrow Highway and San Antonio) today and tomorrow.  MCC is code for Mennonite Central Committee, an organization dedicated to relief, service and peace, comprised of various Anabaptist churches.  These relief sales and thrift stores support the work of the MCC around the world.  There may be such sales and stores in an area near you.

I think that we got there a little early since some of the booths were not yet occupied, but the thrift store portion of the sale was in full swing, and we spent a goodly amount of time browsing the many books.  I suspect that more will be available tomorrow, so we may have to go back to see.... I was hoping to see some quilts and maybe peruse canned goods.

Avengers

Just so you know, the $7 Tuesday special at the Laemmle is not on anymore.  They said it might be back in January. With the Laemmle Premiere card a Tuesday night show was $5, but this week with the card it was $9.

In addition, just so you know, The Avengers was not worth the $9.  Daughter L thought we would really enjoy this movie, especially since it was done by Joss Whedon.  We are big fans of his Firefly and Dollhouse (I have yet to watch Buffy), so I was set to enjoy this flick.

I really found it tedious with moments of humor thrown in once in a while.  Perhaps I am just not a superhero comic book fan, but I found nothing new at all in this movie.  If you like a basic plot where a group of good guys battle the evil guys with massive destruction in their wake and knowing who is going to win in the end, then you may like this one.  I did not.

Curried Potato and Vegetable Soup

Our hot soup nights will soon be coming to an end for the summer, so I am trying out some new recipes to have ready to go in the fall.  Last night it was Curried Potato and Vegetable Soup with as many yellow/orange ingredients as you can think of.

I'd say it was pretty good, but I am going to try some variations next time.  I love the yukon gold potatoes, but I might replace a few with some of my favorite yams.  I would use less water which I think thins it down a bit.  The cilantro garnish is perfect.

Haiku Revisions

The Village Pipers has asked me to compose some recorder music to accompany some haiku.  So many possibilities!  The summer will allow more time for exploration, but here is a start.  The ideas in haiku can arrive quickly to mind, but playing around with words and phrasing can make the poem sparkle a little more.

Here is a first pass at one poem.

Here is a revision.  I wonder what the final version will look like.

Mother's Day

While trolling back through my blog entries for Mother's Day, I am reminded that we hold no tradition sacred for this day.  Each Mother's Day brings its own events, occasionally overlapping with commencement at the colleges.  Yesterday was one such overlap.

The day was so full that by the end I was too tired to blog.  Here is a brief recap.

• Women's Choir sang in church for the first time
• Brunch at HMC in celebration of graduation and to honor one of the trustees
• Commencement - the speaker was Bill Nye, the Science Guy 
• Chatting about Mother's Day with Lynn and Judy while waiting for commencement to commence 
• Briefly meeting Bill Nye and getting my picture taken with him
• Finding a little goodie on my front porch from Lynn
• Chatting with one daughter on the phone, one daughter in person
• Eating homemade fish tacos and enjoying a pale ale that came in the door with one daughter
• Watching the 2-hour Series Finale of Desperate Housewives

It's time to get back to real life and slow down a bit!

Homegirl Cafe

Sometimes going out for good food doesn't just mean the time spent in the eatery.  Sometimes it's an adventure.  I know this because of our multiple trips to the Kogi BBQ food truck, or driving to City of Industry for coffee from 85C.

Today's five-hour adventure involved our church social group carpooling to Pasadena to catch the Gold Line to downtown LA to have lunch at the Homegirl Cafe.   You can read about how this enterprise assists at-risk youth by training them in the restaurant business at their website.

The food is actually worth the effort (through the traffic jam on the 210 due to a 4-car accident), and I plan to return to try some of the other dishes.  On Saturdays the Homegirl serves brunch, so the menu is a little different than the weekday lunches.  The flavors are as fresh as the produce.  Someone got a sample of Angela's Green Potion (spinach-mint-limeade) which we passed around.  Sounds terrible, looks awful, tastes pretty good, if you like limeade.

I had the M'jas Con Papas with the nopales (cactus) which was quite tasty.  I had a taste of my friend's Chilaquiles which is what I will order next time.  Available for purchase are salsas and baked goods and preserves, so we all had to have cookies on our way out.

View from the Gold Line Chinatown stop

M'jas Con Papas with side salad

Modern interior decor 

Gold Line arriving to take us back

Baccalaureate

I didn't even know about Baccalaureates when I was in high school and college. Maybe we didn't have them at my schools. When my daughters graduated from Claremont High School, they alerted me to this special pre-commencement service. For CHS I preferred these celebrations to the actual graduation because this interfaith service allowed students who weren't necessarily the top of their class or the best performers, but who were selected by their classmates to present something of themselves to their community. It was also a more reverent ceremony (no air horns and raucous cheering here).

Today I went to the Claremont Colleges Baccalaureate held in Little Bridges. Not only is this an interfaith ceremony, but the only event which brings all colleges together for graduation weekend. Students from each college participated in the service by speaking about their faith and also by performing musical pieces.  The featured speaker, Gustav Niebuhr, graduated from Pomona in 1977.  He spoke on the importance of friendship.

Schiller!

So, you know that one of our Carleton classmates, Bob Daily, writes for Desperate Housewives.  I blogged about our visit to the set of the show at Universal Studios this past January.

Word has slipped that Schiller will appear on the final episode of the ABC comi-drama, airing this coming Sunday.  Most of you will ask yourselves, who the heck is Schiller, what does he have to do with Carleton, and why should I even care?

I could spend quite a few paragraphs of the details of Schiller, or you could read about the importance of the bust of this German poet at this Carlwiki page.  I will give you a brief summary here.

It is a long tradition that a small statue of Schiller is to be held in secret by some Carl (or Carls) and must be shown at very public events.  Schiller appears at homecoming games, convocations, and other local events, but he has also been known to appear with Bill Clinton at Carleton's 2000 commencement, at the end of the Colbert Report, and at a taping of A Prairie Home Companion.

Also appearing in the final episode, Bob will have a cameo appearance as Moving Man #2 (it would appear that Marc Cherry is Moving Man #1).

For us Carls, this is considered pretty extremely exciting news.  For the rest of you, I promise to return to Life in Claremont  tomorrow.

Water-Wise Garden Wednesday

Today's plant is the Thornless Blackberry.  Our friend, Eric, gave us this one when he landscaped our yard, and I don't know the exact species. It started out along the driveway where it got lots of sun, and during the summer, it was not very happy there, so we moved it to the part shade in the back.  Here it has thrived and grown taller than me.  We don't get too many berries from it, whether the #$% squirrels get to if first or birds or whatever.  However, we do enjoy the leaves, flowers and height of this plant.

ZPizza

It was time to try out one of Village West's newest eateries - ZPizza. Locations of this chain reach sixteen states and the District of Columbia - radiating north and east from it's origins in Laguna Beach.   ZPizza specializes in organic, fresh ingredients that taste great.

One orders at the counter, or you can order online for delivery.  If you want a brew or glass of wine, you'll have to mosey on over to Eureka! Burger just down the way, but ZPizza does take plastic, even though the door does not have the requisite little signage.  Service was friendly and efficient.

Now for the food. We shared a large pear and gorgonzola cheese salad and also a rustica pizza - the Mediterranean.  Both were delicious, but the Greek olives on the pizza were a little spicy for me.  Not a problem - I just gobbled up the artichoke hearts and shared the olives with H.  The crust is thin and crispy, and next time I think I'll try a pizza with whole wheat crust.

Happy Movie

Yep.  I'm happy.  My parents say I was born laughing.  I've pretty much been happy ever since.   Why?  Well, researchers are pretty sure it has something to do with your genetic make-up, but it is also believed that we create our own happiness. I have lived with money and without much money (with always enough food, shelter and books).  I've lived through the sturm and drang of jr. high and the pressure and joys of raising a family.  

Watching this new documentary (available on iTunes) called Happy, confirmed for me many things that I think I already know about happiness.  It has to do with social connections (family and friends), feeling part of something greater than yourself (a community - and giving of yourself to that community), meaningful work (not just your occupation, but also something that you lose yourself in), and feeling grateful, among other things.  

One of the researchers in the film mentioned how, a decade ago, it was thought crazy to try to measure happiness, and yet, people were spending a good deal of effort in measuring depression.  Now happiness studies are widespread, and the movie website has some links and information about what people are doing about it.

Pasta with Asparagus and Pine Nuts

The recipe is actually called Linguine with Asparagus and Pine Nuts, but I forgot to buy linguine, so I used whole wheat spaghetti instead.  The only other substitution I made was using shaved parmesan, romano and asiago cheese (from Trader Joe's).

Not only was this recipe easy and fast, it was delicious, and it stays in my growing Evernote recipe notebook.

Sycamore Leaves

Earlier this week I noticed that Sycamore Elementary School is sporting a new art piece near the office.  I have no idea who the artist is, but I find the installation very appealing!