Joys of Home Ownership

The photos below are not for the faint of heart….

If you are like me, and you have a dishwasher, you probably don't look at it too closely. But a few days ago, I noticed a spoon had slipped out and when I reached to get it from the bottom of the dishwasher, I noticed that the part that traps the gunk was, well, disgusting.  Since we seem to like home projects on holidays, we (read I) thought it would be a good idea to dismantle the appliance and clean it out but good before the onslaught of Thanksgiving dishes. It took longer than I thought it would, and we couldn't completely take out the bottom part, so I had to improvise on how to clean between the thingies. First I worked on it with a screwdriver, then H thought I should squirt water on what was leftover with the water pik from the bathroom. Then we ran a few short cycles with distilled vinegar.  In the end, it was 95% cleaner than before I started, so I was happy. I think I'll check on it more often now...

Before

Disgusting

Much better!

Thanksgiving

What a delightful Thanksgiving 2013! We had some of the very best Thanksgiving food ever. Not many of our traditional recipes (except for the zwiebach), but rather new versions of old favorites. I think I mentioned earlier that C had a board on Pinterest devoted to recipes to try, and this is basically what we had. 

Instead of a roasted turkey, we had a turkey breast that was rolled and filled with stuffing. The mashed potatoes had crispy shallots and some amazingly delicious mushroom gravy (B had made the stock from scratch). We found a recipe from Real Simple magazine for cheesy sweet potatoes, and the pumpkin pie had a praline topping which was, in turn, topping with fresh whipped cream (and a little brown sugar and bourbon).

It's a good thing we went to the gym this morning and then had a nice 30-minute walk through the colleges after dark. I may not need to eat tomorrow....

Raffle Winner!

On Saturday we went to Dale Brothers Brewery for a Movember fundraiser. Mostly we went to see our friends and have a pint of Pomona Queen, one of my favorite beers.

Before we left, I bought two raffle tickets and on Monday I got a call from one of the organizers of the event to tell me that I had won one of the raffles. He dropped off my little basket of goodies which includes a grunt (small growler for filling with beer), a gift certificate for filling the grunt, a glass, a bottle opener and a coaster.

Fun!

Cherry Birthday

Happy Birthday to my guy! I was looking through H's family photos today and found this one which I like for several reasons. First, I love his and his sister's intensity with the candle-blowing. Second, I like the cake pedestal that is a family heirloom that we now have in our kitchen. Third, I am reminded of the kind of cake that H always wanted back then - a white cake with whipped cream for frosting and then cherries poured over the top.

These days, H's favorite birthday treat is a cherry pie, and if he can have a piece after lunch and dinner, then he is a happy birthday boy. Last night we enjoyed dinner with C and B, and they brought over a homemade cherry pie for dessert, and today we still have some pieces left.

Goodbye Millikan!

Pomona College's Millikan building, home of the Math, Physics & Astronomy Departments, took a bit hit this week as the walls started tumbling down (on purpose). Built in 1958, it has been one of the older buildings on campus and has been in great need of updating. You can read about the project and see an artist's rendering of the new building here.

You can also see more photos at my friend's blog here.

Looks like an ancient ruin here

Quizlet

We have discovered a great way to create and use flashcards to work on our German vocabulary. The site, quizlet.com makes "simple tools to let you study anything, for free." You have a choice of creating flashcards for yourself (for any subject), or mooching off of looking at sets that others have created. For foreign language vocabulary you can have the flashcards show both languages at once (seen below), or either language hidden which flip over with a click to reveal the other side. You can star any card to create a subset of words to concentrate on. One added bonus is audio where you can listen to the pronunciation of the words.

Quizlet was started by a 15-year-old boy in Albany, CA who wanted to learn French vocabulary.

Currently I am working on the 100 most common German adjectives, 29 of which I have starred.

Interpreter of Maladies

Quite awhile ago Jhumpa Lahiri's short story collection Interpreter of Maladies was recommended to me. Considering that I have enjoyed The Namesake and The Lowland, I'm surprised that it took me so long to get around to it. I bought a copy at the church rummage sale last month, so I had no excuses, and having recently read The Lowland inspired me to put it at the top of my reading list.

It's good. Glad I got around to it!

Preschool Conversation

Preschool Art

Earlier this week before the rain started, I was out sweeping the walkway to the music room at school. I do this just about every day because if I don't, the kids will track in all kinds of stuff to the room, and then the rug is not nearly as pleasant to sit upon.

The music room is in a portable next door to the state preschool, and some of the children have taken an interest in what happens in and who comes to the music room. While I was sweeping yesterday, I had this little conversation with Charlie after he discovered that their broom had been hiding behind a little bench and he got it out to sweep with me.

Charlie: You are good at sweeping.
Me: I've had a lot of practice.
Charlie: That's because you are old.
Me: Yup.
Charlie: And then you'll die.
Me: Not for a long time.
Charlie: That's because you don't have white hair yet.
Me: Not yet.

Double-Apple and Brussels Sprout Slaw

I am anticipating Thanksgiving in a new way this year. Now that I visit Pinterest every day (mostly for music teaching ideas), I find myself following my daughter's Thanksgiving board where she has pinned ideas of what we will make next week. I was excited about this Double-Apple and Brussels Sprouts Slaw that I saw on her board, and I thought I'd give it a test run before the big day. So I made it for book club, and it was pretty good, so I think it will be a go. Even with the ginger grated into it, it's still a little bit sweet.

The recipe says that it takes 30 minutes to make, but it took me longer what with shredding the brussels sprouts as will as peeling and coring and julienning the apples. Other than that, it's pretty easy.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Although this book was recommended to me by a friend, I did not get around to reading it until it became our book club November choice.

When I started this book, I was not enamored of the story, but as I read on, it became clearer to me that this was not just a story, but a spotlight on American culture (during the Bush Administration and the Iraq War) that made me cringe, and yet, the writing kept me reading to find out what would happen. I particularly enjoyed the NY Times review of this book, and I also enjoyed the far-ranging discussion of the book at book club. It kept us going for over an hour with a variety of views and insights.

Infrastructure

Here is evidence of the City of Claremont working on infrastructure - fixing sidewalks.

Recycling Wine Corks

For a number of years I have been saving my wine corks. Every once in a while I look online to see if there is a place I can send the corks to be put to a second use. The only things I find are ways to make trivets, or other crafts, but I have so many corks and need so few crafts at my house. 

Today I was delighted to find in my email inbox a request from the church to bring corks (and other things) to be used for our annual Advent Workshop. Advent Workshop is just a name that means Christmas Craft Party with cookies and punch. Woo hoo! An easy way for me to recycle (and clutter cleanse!).

Edward S. Curtis Exhibit

From talking to someone who works at Honnold Library recently, I learned about the current exhibit of photographs by Edward S. Curtis, an ethnographer and photographer of the American West in the early 20th Century at the library. Since I had to return some books anyway, I thought I'd take a look.

This exhibit is definitely worth the time to explore. The photos show a great deal of detail and expression of the Native American people from across the country. 

I would suggest going during a non-prime study time since students study near these photos and it seems intrusive to try to look at them when you are standing just a few feet away from someone busy with their studies.

La Paloma

For 28 years we have driven by La Paloma Mexican Food on Foothill and have never gone in. Perhaps it was because of the bars on the windows, but really, I think it was because it reminds me (on the outside) of a Mexican restaurant I worked in one summer that I did not like. 

Then I talked to one of my friends and she told me how much she really, really liked the food there, and so I put it on my list to try. Last weekend after we made our massive Goodwill drop-off, we started heading towards Mauricio's in Glendora, but we passed La Paloma and decided to give it a go.

It was very dark inside, but our eyes adjusted quickly. The service was friendly and timely and I decided on the chicken mole. H chose the baja fish tacos. The portions are large and we took home half and finished it off for dinner. The mole was very good with just the right amount of beans and rice. Apparently the fish tacos, though large in portion, lacked much flavor (although H did not add the bland tartar sauce that accompanied it). 

I will remember to ask my friend what it is she enjoys so much there, and we will give it a second look.

Clutter Cleanse

After the summer I rather petered out on my "get rid of one item a day" binge, but over the weekend I think we made up for several months' worth of items. Besides donating our second tv (it was in the bedroom and we hardly watched it) we had about 6 bags worth of clothing and a some miscellaneous stuff, including two very old digital point-and-shoot cameras. 

Veteran's Day

In honor of Veteran's Day, here's a salute to a CHS grad, brother of one of our daughter's good friends and softball teammate, Phil Grouf, who serves in the Coast Guard.

The Lowland

Some day I may choose The Lowland as my book club selection. I finished it yesterday, reading the last 150 pages because I wanted to just enjoy the story and immerse myself in the book. Lahiri writes beautifully without drawing attention to her prose. You know how some writers appear to work very hard at writing beautiful droplets of phrases and metaphors which scream, "see how clever a writer I am?" She does not need this kind of self-promotion in her writing since the characters propel the story along. 

I particularly enjoy epic stories which take place over several generations. This one starts with young brothers in Calcutta and reaches back into their parents' generation a bit before moving through 70 years and new generations and into America. Character motivations are revealed little by little, and though I would not have made some of the same choices as some characters, I did learn to understand their motivations.

Return to Sycamore Canyon

We should know better than to try to find a parking spot at the Claremont Wilderness Trail, especially on the weekend, so after looking at the crowds, we drove over to the Thompson Creek Trail parking lot on Indian Hill this morning to hike Sycamore Canyon. I blogged in August that I had not really found a map online, but there is one at the parking lot. I was pretty sure I could get us to the trailhead, but was not totally sure how to get back to the car, so I asked H to bring along his GPS. Turns out the GPS wasn't totally necessary since we found the Thompson Creek Trail at the end of the hike by the Girl Scout place, but the information that the little box gave us was informative and fun.

Official Map at the parking lot

Topo map

View along the way - a little hazy today

Uploaded from the GPS, this is our route including a slight little wrong turn that lead to a dead end.

Information about our hike, including the 5 minutes of non-moving time.

On the End of Daylight Savings

Although I like the fact that California uses daylight savings (and now it's lighter in the morning, so it's easier to get up, and I like the longer evening daylight in the summers), I have come to realize that the shift of an hour one way or the other is not so simple for me anymore. I must now give myself a week to adjust to the time change. On Monday I found that by 4:30 I was starting to get hungry, and it took me a minute to realize why. Various friends have made comments about being tired, or being out of sorts, and I think it can be attributed to going off of Daylight Savings. 

So, if this is Friday, I should be about back to whatever normal is in a day or two.

Another Specialty Shop

Some days I think I'm just going to stop using Facebook because I have to wade through lots of stuff that I don't particularly need to see, but then I find out information I might not otherwise know about. Today I found out that Claremont has a new little specialty grocery store called Vom Fass.  Their website shows that there are about 15 of these stores which sell olive oils, vinegars and spirits across the country, including Fort Collins, CO and Des Moines, IA. I'm not sure I need anything there right now, but at least now I know it's there.

Student Musician

A new second grader has come to Vista, and after his first music class, he appeared in the music room after school with his mother and her friend in tow. I asked him if he left something in the room (someone is always forgetting something). Nope. He just wanted his mom to meet me.

His mom said that he loves music, picks out tunes on the piano, etc. He said he wants to learn to play violin, and I told him that he could take lessons in school in 4th grade. I said that we do lots of pre-music notation activities and she said, "J said that you did a little bit of theory, that's great!" Wow, a parent who knows to say music theory...

Sunnylands

We have arrived home, once again, from a weekend retreat with the HMC trustees in Palm Springs. Every year we have a choice of activities on Saturday afternoon when meetings are not in session, and this year we signed up to take a tour of Sunnylands in nearby Rancho Mirage. I must live in a cave, because I have never heard of this estate, the winter home of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. It turns out that the Annenbergs' grandson is an alum and trustee of HMC, and I'm sure he arranged our visit to the estate. One can get tickets to tour the house (beyond the Visitor Center and tour of the gardens), but they are extremely limited and hard to come by, although our guide gave us tips on how to best get them.

Sunnylands is known as the West Coast Camp David where world leaders have come to meet in this idyllic setting to communicate and come up with solutions to problems. I seem to remember that President Obama was out in Palm Springs this June, and this was actually where he met with China's President Xi. 

We saw many, many photographs of the dignitaries who have spent time at this place since it was built in the mid-1960s, from presidents, actors, and Queen Elizabeth. We were not allowed to photograph inside the house (you can look up photos online), but for its immense size, it also feels very comfortable.

Looking toward the house via one of the many man-made ponds

View from the Visitor Center with one of the lava rock walls

Entrance to the house

View of the mountains from the golf course

Levels of Life

The first thing about this book you should know is that it's non-fiction. Well, I think most of it is. I think maybe the middle level is fictionalized history.

Anyway, the first two sections of this slim volume peruse hot air ballooning, photography, love, and the last section, the longest, is a meditation on Barnes' experience of being a widower. I'm sure that my book club could probably explain how it all ties together, although the NPR review isn't sure that it does hang together. The third part is a very intense and could stand on its own as a brief autobiographical novella, or whatever noun might work here. I preferred Barnes' The Sense of an Ending.