On a Mission with Sushi

Our tradition, over the past 7 years, has been to take our daughters out for dinner the night before they return to college for a new semester. We started out going to China Star, but after it changed hands, the food got worse, so we went to various places.

Since Claire leaves for her final college semester this afternoon, she chose to have sushi last night. Now, I've had sushi, but probably not particularly good stuff. We tried Hayato Sushi and Grill on Foothill in the Supercuts strip mall. It was delicious. I especially enjoyed the Spider Roll (which has soft-shelled crab), but this Fire Roll (pictured) was also yummy.

Claire has given us the directive to try out a variety of sushi places and report back our findings!

West Coast Swing

Tonight we started our second semester of social dance. Last semester we learned the Cha Cha, the Blues, and Salsa. We're starting off with West Coast Swing, and tonight we learned the sugar push and the cross-body turn.

Deluge

Although we really need the rain that has been pouring down (there has been so much rain that the Claremont Library is closed due to flooding) on the West Coast this week, I wonder if I somehow caused it. Over winter break I planned a lesson centered around the familiar children's chant "Rain, rain, go away" for just this week with the first and second graders.

I pulled out every xylophone, metallophone, or barred instrument that I have in the music room so that every child could sit at one (alone or with a partner). For 20 minutes we tapped the bars with our fingers, played with mallets, and sang the song over and over.

At the end of one of the classes today, little Chloe looked at me and said, "You are the best music teacher!"

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

This morning I heard this story on NPR about a speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. at Bethel College in North Newton, KS. Dr. King came to Bethel, where my parents were students, on January 21, 1960. At that point my parents were married and my mom was pregnant with me when they heard this speech.

Bethel recently found a tape of this speech and had the audio restored. It would be interesting to hear it. I wonder if it will be available some way to the public.

Portrait Day

We took advantage of Claire's shutter skills yesterday. She took some portraits of us at Scripps. I put seven of the very best at my picasa site.

Board Meeting

I have been attending Orff-Schulwerk workshops for over 5 years now. Sometimes I go to the Orange County Chapter, sometimes the LA Chapter, but I am closest to and a member of the Inland Counties Chapter. This fall they asked me to be a member-at-large on the board and to put out the electronic newsletter three times a year. I said yes.

Today at the board meeting, I agreed to be the VP for membership for the next two years. The requires computer skills, keeping records of members and making sign-in sheets and nametags for the four workshops each year.

Philip Roth

The first time we attended our book club, we discussed Philip Roth's The Human Stain. I was only slightly concerned that we wouldn't be warmly welcomed to the new group since I really didn't like the book. (Of course, liking the book is no prerequisite for participating!) Now, a number of years later, we are going to discuss Roth's Indignation. While it started out okay for me, about halfway through I got progressively less interested in the protagonist and the choices he made about his life.

I scanned a variety of reviews online, and many of the male readers gave positive feedback. One review, by Ruth Franklin, came closer to what I felt about the book.

Culinary Delights

We had ourselves an adventure tonight. Last week Claire had eaten at the Kogi BBQ truck in Westwood and extolled its delicious food. She bemoaned the fact that these trucks never come to the Inland Empire. While at school, she follows the Kogi tweets to see where they'll be, even when she can't go there. Yesterday the happy news - KogiBBQ was coming to Cal Poly Pomona!

The Kogi truck would be at the corner of Temple and Valley from 7-9. We arrived at the intersection about 7, but only saw a group of about 15 people at the bus stop - no truck. Parking spot found, we ventured out in the dark with great hope and hunger. A group of about 8 people Cal Poly students wandered over to an empty spot along the road, and we followed them. Claire checked Twitter and said that the truck was on its way, and, sure enough, it finally showed up. By the time we ordered there were about 100 people in line behind us. We lucked out in being near the front.

I had three tacos, Korean tofu, Short Rib and Chicken. Hal had a spicy pork burrito, and Claire had a Korean tofu burrito.

One word - delicious.

We topped off the evening with a trip to Yogurtland. A veritable progressive dinner adventure!

Shop Claremont

Since we have all been encouraged to Shop Claremont, last night we went to dinner at The Press. I had the Taco Salad a la Press which I have to say was very good. So was the Chipotle Vegetable Soup.

Pleasant Times in the Waiting Room

While Claire is home over break, she is taking care of her achilles' tendon at the physical therapists'. Having taken her to pt several years ago, I know about the wait, so I am prepared today. Here I sit with my laptop. I knew I wanted to work on iMovie, adding another group of students to my movie of what they've been doing in class. I finished what I could there and decided to see if there was wi-fi here. There is! So I've also caught up on Facebook, email, had a chat with a friend, and now blogging. An hour has already flown by!

When I'm tired of this, I can always pull out my next book.